PWE14: Transitioning to Naturally Managing Endo Aubree: Welcome to the Peace With Endo Podcast. My name s Aubree Deimler. I am an author, speaker and integrative wellness coach who helps women with endometriosis to naturally manage pain, increase energy and find Peace with Endo. This is episode number 14 and on the show today we have fellow endo sister, Mary Tice from Simply Endo Life. Hi, Mary. Thanks for being here today. Mary: Thank you for having me. I m really happy to be here. Aubree: So, tell us a little bit about yourself. Mary: Well I m from Wilmington, North Carolina. So, anybody who s ever seen Dawson s Creek or One Tree Hill or Iron Man Three, you know where I live, and I m 33, married and I have been living with endometriosis since I was 14, and I pretty much spend my days working at the beach at a real estate firm and my nights talking to women like you about, you know, natural healing with endo. Aubree: Awesome. So tell us a little bit about your journey with endo. Mary: Well I got my period back when I was 13 years old, and within the year I started, you know, having really bad periods. It was right away, and I just thought it was normal, and when I was 14 I ended up in the hospital cause I had a cyst that ruptured, and wasn t really treated for having a cyst ruptured. They thought, I had, you know, been out drinking or something the night before, and kind of sent me home, and went to the doctor, had an ultrasound done. He sent me to the gynecologist, and you know, they determined that I had endometriosis based off of my symptoms, put me on birth control pills at the age of 14 and I took them for a year and then I didn t want to go back because I didn t like having to go to the gynecologist, because who does? Mary: And tried to do a little bit of natural healing at that point. My mom, you know, did some reading, and we found out that evening primrose oil worked and St. John s Wort and a few other things. I took those off and on for a few years but then I realized that I needed to go back to the gynecologist. So, I did, and he put me on birth control pills and I stayed on them until I was, you know, 28 years old. So, I was on them for a decade, and then I started having a lot of negative reactions I started realizing I had horrible mood swings. I had been diagnosed with depression, PMDD.
I had anxiety, all these things, and so I talked with my doctor when I started experiencing hot flashes and a lot of dryness and she as like, Oh it sounds like you re going through menopause. Let s take you off birth control pills, and I haven t looked back. You know, I ve had some issues with my endo since then, but, you know, from where I was at 28 to where I am now at 33, I would never want to go back on hormonal therapy of any kind. Aubree: Absolutely and I, you know, had a similar experience with them as well being on them for so long. When did you know? Did you wait was it really when the doctor asked you that or did you kind of know that something was off while you were taking them? Mary: I knew something was off with my mood a lot. You know I would sit there and I remember just crying my eyes out, screaming at my boyfriend at the time and going I know I m being a horrible person, but I can t help it, and so I knew there was something wrong on that level and they put me on anti- depressants, which turned me into a zombie, and we tweaked that a little bit, but even still I felt, you know, like I was stoned out of my mind constantly. People constantly accused me of being a huge stoner because I couldn t focus on anything, because of the antidepressants. So, when I started to experience the hot flashes and the dryness that s when I went to the doctor. I was like all right we ve got to figure out something because something is not right in my body. I cannot constantly be like this. So, what was your experience getting off of the pill, you know, after being on it for so long. Mary: Oh gosh. That first year it was unbelievable. You know, I had a sex drive for the first time in forever. My, I had been taking Yazmin and I took two packs back to back so I skipped a period every month basically and so getting back to a normal cycle wasn t really that difficult my body kind of fell into it a natural 24- day cycle, almost instantly, and it wasn t heavy. You know, I could use tampons for the first time ever. It was great that first year but then, unfortunately I did, because I wasn t doing anything to treat the endometriosis, because I kind of forgot I had it. I started experiencing problems, and everything from, you know, the stomach issues that a lot of women have surrounding their period, to extremely heavy long periods, you know, nine day period was very normal for me, and I would be bleeding heavy the entire time. So, then I started looking into other hormonal options, well I say hormonal, natural hormones, you know, herbs and things like that. I worked on that for a little bit but it didn t seem to work too well, because I didn t know what I was treating. I would do web research and I would see endometriosis pop up from time to time. I read about estrogen dominance and taking progesterone, and using the cream and
things like that, but it wasn t sinking into my head what I was trying to do. It was more of a just try all of these things and see what works. I can definitely relate to that. I think most ladies that do that, you know, there s so many different things you can try, and it s easy to fall down into that rabbit hole, for sure. Mary: And if you don t know what you re dealing with, you know, you don t know what to treat and I would tell people I m getting a flare up and, you know, some people picked up that it was around my period and I remember getting questions like, Oh you re just on your period, right? And it s like yes, but it s so much more than that, and I couldn t ever properly explain it, you know? Mary: During all this time I got married, and you know, my husband understood what I was going through because he could see it, you know, and I would sit there and be like I m swelling up and it hurts and he could see it, I look nine months pregnant. He d be like, Oh my gosh, how are you even functioning? And I just wouldn t even know how I was functioning. Mary: Then last year we had a miscarriage and during that time I found out I had a very large cyst on my ovary. It was a 10.3- centimeter cyst. Went in for cramping, found out I was having the miscarriage, found out about the cyst, and I was told cancer. You know, we need to get you into the hospital right away, you know, we think you re, you know, have to have this removed. So, I saw a specialist she removed it. She s like it s not cancer, it s benign, but it is a very large endometriosis cyst, and that was the first time in years that I had really thought about, you know, should I even treat endometriosis, because I didn t think you could outside of birth control. That s what you re told, right? Mary: Exactly. I even asked her. I said is there anything I can do other than take birth control and she was like you know the equipment works you can get pregnant, and I was like, well you know we weren t planning on getting pregnant but I don t want that to be the reason I get pregnant again, you know, to treat a condition, because, you know, what happens after I have the baby. Mary: And so that was last summer and that s when I found you and I found others and all these other women who said there s a better way, and you know I ve since gone on a gluten free diet. I already am lactose intolerant so I eat very little dairy to
begin with and most days I go dairy free. I m getting rid of soy, refined sugars, caffeine, all that stuff and oh my gosh, Aubree, in the first month of changing how I ate the changes in my body it happened like over night. It was like that first month being off of birth control pills all over again, but better. Aubree: Awesome. Mary: And I mean now when I get a flare up it would last days, weeks, and it would be intense and painful, and most days I walked around with a level eight or higher pain and I don t know how I functioned, but now I have maybe one day right around my period that it s maybe level seven pain and it s for one day. Aubree: Nice. And so you ve experienced all of this with the diet or have you made any other changes? Mary: I have the diet. I do light exercise when I can, but I don t punish myself if I can t, you know because there s just some days you can t but I take multivitamins and supplements to make sure that I m getting all of the nutrients that my body needs. I make sure that I get plenty of sleep now. I don t feel bad if I say, you know, I need a nap in the afternoon or I need to go to bed early or sleep in or something. I let my body tell me what it needs. All of that combined, you know, has really made a difference in my life. I try to take everything with a grain of salt. I try to be very positive because as you know this disease can break you. You know, it s so hard to go and hear doctors tell you it s all in your head or to have partners leave you because you can t explain how painful it is and why you can t go out and do certain things, or family members who, you know, make fun of you, but you know, to be able to live again because I found a group like you, or with you and having people say there s a better way and actually now living and realizing there s a better way. It s all worth it. Some days yes I would love a hamburger or a slice of pizza that had, you know, the fluffy white bread or the crust, but it s like at what cost? I even make my husband be the bad person sometimes. If I go to reach for some thing, he s like you know that s going to make you sick, and I m like, Ok I won t do it, because yeah, I know it s going to make me sick. Aubree: That s great. That s great that he s watching out. It helps to have that motivation. Mary: It helps a lot to have people in your court, you know? Whether they re online or in person, having that accountability buddy basically, it makes all the difference in the world, because you know I know even when I was younger and I would go out with my friends and we d be drinking. I might not think to myself that I m drinking too much, but I d be like hey you re drinking too much, you need to slow down and my friends would do the same to me. You know, like we would look out for each other that way because sometimes you can t look out for yourself. You have to have someone else look out for you, and sometimes you need to look out for somebody
else. So, it, you know, having him be there it s just amazing and having the online community that you ve created is amazing. Aubree: Awesome, and I m so glad that you re a part of it and we ve connected in this way. So, what inspired you to, because I see that you have Simply Endo Life, right, your own site now. What inspired you to start that? Mary: Honestly meeting all these women online. I used to have Simply Tice Life. You know, my last name s Tice, and I just talked about what I was doing in my life, but then with meeting all of you guys online and seeing all these women on Instagram post their photos and their stories and on Twitter and every thing. I started changing my focus to wanting to share my own message with everybody of, you know, there is that better way and let s connect, let s talk, and so it went from Simply Tice Life to Simply Endo Life and it s been shaping more and more, and you know, I try to share things like budget friendly recipes, because I talk to so many people who say, oh I can t eat, I can t change the way I m eating to help heal my body because it s too expensive. It s like it s only expensive if you let it be expensive. So, I try to share, you know, recipes that aren t expensive to make that maybe cost a couple of dollars per serving at most or you know, I mean, I have plenty of meals that are five dollars for two people. You can t beat that. Aubree: That s great. Mary: And so I want to tell people hey it doesn t matter what your station in life is. You can still work to heal your body through natural means, and you know I don t do things to an extreme that s why I say simply in my name, because in my mind, the simpler it is, the easier it is, and it s very simple for me to say that no I can t eat these foods. I can eat these foods, but it s not so much what I can t eat, but let me focus on the cans and what I can have, because it s easier. Mary: It s just simpler to focus on the can, you know? That s good advice. Mary: It makes a huge difference of when you go to the store, you know, you see these endless options. At this point in time I don t even see those endless options anymore. I see the things highlighted of that I can have in my mind, you know, it s just like Oh that s the aisle I need to go down. I go, I grab what I need and I don t even look at the other stuff you know it makes it simpler. Aubree: So do you have any advice for ladies that may be struggling with that part of things, that are still, you know, missing those foods that make up the American diet at least. It s hard. Do you have any advice for ladies that are kind of new to it?
Mary: What I ve done to make things easier on my budget, is I don t go for things, like when I first went gluten- free the instinct is to buy everything marketed gluten- free, because you know it s safe. Instead what I did was I saved a list of different names that gluten goes by and meat goes by on my phone and I would go the store and pick up products that I was interested in and compare the ingredients. I m not as concerned about making sure that everything s out of a gluten- free facility. I just make sure that it s not listed in the ingredients list, and so if it s not, and it s essentially accidentally gluten- free, it s going to be cheaper than another product that they maybe add a whole bunch of crap to, to make it gluten- free. That s really kind of my biggest thing is, you know, just read the ingredients list and when in doubt, you know, go with things like your fruits and your vegetables. You know you re always going to be safe with those. You re going to be good with things like rice, potatoes, those are safe. Certain meats obviously you need to read the ingredients because in that case it s what s the animal s fed, and as we all know you are what you eat. Read your labels and know what s going into it. If you re lucky enough to be near farmers that you can go and meet and learn about their practices, I highly recommend that because I love my farmer s market because I know that I can talk to the farmer directly. They might not have an organic certification on their produce but maybe they farm organically, and you learn that, or you know if you want to get your meat from the farmer you can talk about how they raise their animals and you know how they keep their chickens if you re getting eggs, and things like that, because that really does make a huge difference in the quality of your food, and it s always good to support local too. So, that s an added bonus. Aubree: Absolutely and that s a great way to save money too if you can find like a CSA, like a crop share, especially in the spring and summer months with your local farmers and then you get fresh produce directly from the farm. Mary: Oh yes. I highly recommend CSA s. I mean I know several farmers in my local area and they run them and they ve been, we ll sometimes get together and it ll be a couple of different farmers from different farms that all have specialties and they ll do it and that s even great too, because you know. One farmer might only breed pork and cattle, while you have another that s a vegetable gardener and so you know they get together and you get the benefits of both. Aubree: Excellent. Have you, have you experimented with growing any of your own? Mary: I do. Actually I always try to make sure I have a container garden of some kind in the spring and summer and fall. I love growing fresh herbs. One of the best things you can grow is holy basil and it is not only delicious to eat, in fact you ve probably eaten it a dozen times and not even noticed it, but it has so many medicinal qualities and anti- inflammatory qualities that it s great for our bodies. Whether you have endometriosis or any type of chronic pain or chronic inflammation, you know,
condition It s helpful with that. It s actually even considered kind of like medical marijuana, but without any THC or high or anything like that. You know it s perfectly legal and you can literally grow it in a pot in your kitchen or outside. But I ll grow tomatoes. I grow bell peppers. Sometimes I ll grow lettuce it just kind of depends on what I m feeling that year, but I always have a herb garden of some kind. Aubree: Nice. So, with the holy basil how do you, how do you use that? Do you just season your foods or tea or what s your? Mary: I ve made tea with it, you know, kind of steep the leaves. I will put it in all my foods and sometimes I ll just eat the leaves. It s one of those fun meals that you can grow in a container, like I said, on your front porch or you know in your kitchen, and most of your ingredients you grew yourself so it cost you nothing. So that s awesome that you re growing your own food, that s incredible. You re getting the freshest, you know, and I think there is that energy exchange when you re growing it yourself. Mary: There really is, and you know, there s something about putting your hands in the dirt. You know, I m sure you ve heard of earthing or grounding where you can get reconnected with nature when you touch soil and plants and everything, and when you re growing your own food you re getting that naturally. You know, you re out there and you re tending to your plants every single day, you re watering them, you re checking to see new growth and what s ready to be harvested or what needs a little more time. So you re just naturally connecting with it, and then when you eat it. There s just something almost magical about eating something that you ve grown yourself. It s always just bursting with flavor that you don t get at the store and it s just great all the way around, and even if you don t have the greatest of green thumbs when you grow that first little thing it s just oh it captures you. Aubree: Awesome. That s been on my list to try for years, so hopefully you ve inspired me to start again this spring. Mary: Good. Aubree: And get something started, at least something simple. Mary: Basil s one of the easiest things. I always recommend starting there, because it s so easy to grow. Aubree: Right and you re just growing it in a pot? Mary: Mmhmm. Yep and you put it in a sunny windowsill in your house so you see it every day. If the weather doesn t really permit it for you or I always recommend pots anyways, because you can always bring them inside.
Aubree: And I know that, you know, the soil is a big part of that, right? When it comes to growing your own food that s where the food gets its nutrients from. Mary: Mmhmm. Aubree: Do you have any advice as far as that goes? Finding the right soil? Mary: If you can buy organic, buy organic because you know, that s, it gives your plants the best base. If you can get the organic seeds or seedlings and that s great. If not don t worry about it, just, you know, I highly recommend Miracle Grow, because my plants have never gone wrong with Miracle Grow potting soil. Not once. Make sure you feel comfortable with whatever potting soil you get, whatever they ve used on it, because you are going to be eating it. Don t build a container out of treated wood that s you know been treated with pesticides and things like that, because it s going to leech into the soil, and that s very unhealthy. So, you know, just don t do that. Go with pots that you buy at the store or if you want to make something make sure you have wood that can actually be used for the garden that you re going to eat from. Aubree: Well great. I appreciate you sharing some tips with us today, Mary. How can ladies get in touch with your further? Mary: I am online on Twitter and Instagram @simplyendolife and also online with my blog at simplyendolife.com. Aubree: Awesome. Well I appreciate you for coming on today and sharing with us. Mary: No problem. I enjoyed it. Aubree: If you enjoyed this episode I invite you to subscribe to continue on the journey. If you want to connect with me further you can find me at peacewithendo.com or on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @peacewithendo. I hope that you find some peace in your day today. Sending you so much love. Bye for now.
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