Stefanie Smit’s Lyme Hack:

“Hey guys, this is Stephanie and I was asked by Tick Boot Camp to jump on here and just share with you all a few things that have helped me in my own recovery from Lyme disease. I am a functional medicine, certified health and wellness coach. And so I often think of things from a very holistic standpoint and like to approach things kind of going back to the basics, so I was going to bring up with you all a few things that I have found to be helpful and give you some tips in those areas. For the physical area, I have found that just really prioritizing sleep is so important for my body. That’s when our bodies do the most detoxifying and rejuvenating, and we need that energy for the next day. So some things I found helpful are adaptogens, magnesium, what else melatonin, Melatonin is a great one too. So I try to do that and limit my screen time in the evening. Another one in the physical realm is exercise. I know this is a hard thing for many of you. Especially when you’re at your worst. I remember when I was bed bound, it was hard just to get up and take a shower. That was, for me an accomplishment. And so if you are in that space right now, I don’t want you to feel guilty. I want you to be proud of whatever it is that you can do. And to celebrate that and know that you won’t be there forever and that you will be to a place where you can incorporate more physical activity. But if the least you can do is just to move your arms and legs just lift them a couple of times, up and down. Stretching, stretching is a wonderful thing. If you can’t do anything else just to lay in bed and stretch your body. And just to get to a place where you can move your lymphs in your body. That’s very helpful for also detoxifying. The nutritional aspect is so important. We need to be feeding our bodies everything it needs just feeding it the rainbow, I eat a Lyme-friendly diet. So a diet that’s gluten free, dairy free and sugar free. Find your unique food sensitivities and triggers. The longer you’re sick, the more you will have sensitivities. Figure out what those are with a food journal. Food journals are very helpful in this situation. For some it’s oxalates, others it’s histamines, mold, nuts, you name it. There are so many sensitivities, so just be on the lookout for that. Sometimes food can be very overwhelming when you have Lyme disease and you have all of your sensitivities and restrictions. If it is overwhelming my tip for you is to go back to the basics. Look at your plate and think of it as a source of energy and healing. Find a source, a good source of protein, a good source of healthy fat, a good complex carbohydrate and then load up on as many vegetables as you can incorporating the rainbow. Just keep it simple and fill your plate up with those things. And if you can do that you’ve done a good job if you’re feeling extra creative one day look online, find out some good blogs there’s plenty of them online, Instagram is full of them with Lyme friendly meals. One Instagram account that I love to follow is eat.heal, she’s got a beautiful page with beautiful content and it’s very inspirational so that can help to. Another tip for the nutritional aspect is cistus tea. I love cistus tea it has been very helpful for me it boosts my immune system and it breaks down biofilm. Dr. Klingheart has some wonderful resources on this you can go online and learn more about that. Emotional and social sphere ofe healing is very important. And I lumped these together because I think the one needs to go along with the other. So when you’re fighting Lyme, it is one of the hardest battles of your life. It really is. And it takes extreme courage, and just resilience and bravery to fight this disease. And most people, to be honest, just won’t get it. And if I’m completely honest, I don’t want them to and you don’t want them to either. This is a hard battle, and you wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy. And so it’s hard to imagine, but people just won’t understand. And so it’s really important to find a support system and find people that they may not get it, but they can support you and they can encourage you through it. That may be a spouse, a friend, a co-worker, it may be an online community, and that would be one of my tips is to reach out and create a support system if you don’t already have one in place. Social media is a great place for that- to connect with other Lyme patients. And, you know, blogs, doing it that way. Another tip that I would have in this area is to ask for help get comfortable asking for help. That is not a bad thing. That is not a weak thing. If there’s any time in your life you need help, it’s now. And so get comfortable telling people what you need and when you need it and get specific, this can be hard, I get this. I struggle with this myself. Sometimes it’s just saying, Hey, can you just come hang out with me this week? I would love to see you. Other times it’s saying I just need to vent or I just need to cry. I just need to let out all of the internal emotions out. I’ve just been holding so much in and there’s so much pain and the pain affects us emotionally. Or it’s just saying sometimes when people ask how’re you doing and just saying, you know, I just don’t really want to talk about my health today. I’ll update you on that later on. Today it’s a, it’s a day I just don’t want to focus on that and setting boundaries because so many people will be asking you about your health and it’s okay to kindly and respectfully tell them that you don’t want to talk about your health that day. The spiritual realm, this is an important one, it’s one that is often overlooked and neglected. If there’s ever time in your life, I’ve said this several times before, when you stop and you really contemplate the meaning of life, while you’re here, why why is there pain and why is there suffering in the world? And what what can I cling to when when life crumbles and falls apart? For many of us that go through this, it’s now it’s you’ll experience that now. We are very much body, mind and spirit and don’t neglect the spiritual aspect of your life. That’s very important, it really is the foundation. And it upholds all the rest of our life. And it affects how we perceive things, how we respond to things and our outlook on everything. So I am very much a spiritual person. I am a believer and so just incorporating daily meditation and scripture readings. My tip in this area would be to pick up a Bible and talk to somebody that you know that you respect to help you, to pray for you, and to guide you along and support you in this journey. Gratitude. Gratitude is huge. And I would really encourage you if you have not already to start a gratitude journal and write down. It could be the most mundane and small things. Write it down, and then be specific about what it is that you’re thankful for. And oh, create joy in you, regardless of your circumstances, that’s very important. Watch online sermons. That’s a great way to hear the word, books, I got a great list of books, I’ll actually mention them at the very end, a couple of really good books, but that’s another way to encourage yourself. And then lastly, and environmentally. This is something that so many people neglect. This is something that holds so many Lyme patients back from fully healing is not addressing the environmental aspect of their disease. Lyme makes you extremely sensitive to your environment. And so it’s really important to check your environment and make sure that there is no VOCs, no toxins, mold, big cell towers around you that would really keep your body from achieving full health and wellness and healing. If you have not checked your environment for mold already I would highly encourage you to do that. It’s very important. You can go to envirobionics.com and you can order an Ermi, E-R-M-I, or HRTSMI H-R-T-S-M-I test. And you can simply test your home for mold to see if it is within the acceptable limits or if it’s elevated and you need to address that. So keep the humidity down in your home, keep air purifiers on and make sure that you are purifying your air for the square footage of your home. Don’t skimp on that it’s very important. Two books I have found to be very helpful: A book of comfort for those in Sickness. If you can see that, by PV power. This is a very, very encouraging book. Sometimes I’m too tired to read and sometimes I ask my husband to read to me and he likes to read this one and this always encourages me. Another one I cannot highly recommend this enough is Living Beyond Lyme by Joseph J. Trunzo PhD. This is a must read in my opinion for every Lyme patient and it really addresses the emotional aspect of this disease of what it is that you are going through. So, anyway, that’s my tips. I hope that’s helpful and I wish you all the best in your healing.”