Samantha K.
Holistic Coaching Portal · Nervous System First · Weight Loss as Outcome
Phase Foundation — Active
Protocol Walk · Regulate · Rebuild
Condition Early Hashimoto's
"The goal right now isn't to lose weight. It's to become someone whose body feels safe enough to let it go."
Mon
Short Walk
Tue
Flow of Choice
Wed
Longer Walk
Thu
Rest / Breathe
Fri
Short Walk
Sat
Flow + Walk
Sun
Full Rest

Why This Approach

The Real Problem

Cortisol Is Holding the Weight

With early Hashimoto's and chronic stress, your body is running on cortisol. High cortisol suppresses T4→T3 thyroid conversion, increases fat storage, and signals famine. Aggressive exercise makes this worse. Walking and regulation are not the consolation prize — they are the correct prescription.

The Strategy

Regulate → Rebuild → Recompose

Phase 1 (now): Consistent walking + mobility + nervous system work + tracking one week of food. Phase 2 (weeks 5–8): Progressive walk intensity + core/pelvic floor strength. Phase 3 (weeks 9+): Structured resistance training. The phases are there. You don't need to rush to them.

Hashimoto's Specific

What Helps vs. Hurts

Overtraining, undereating, and chronic stress all worsen autoimmune activity. Anti-inflammatory food, consistent movement, adequate carbs, sleep, and Vitamin D are not lifestyle suggestions — they're immune system medicine. Your body is responding to stress signals. We reduce them.

Right Now

One Week of Tracking

You've been consistent and you hit a plateau. That's normal and it's information. This week we log food — not to judge, just to see where you actually are so we can adjust with precision. One week. Then we have data.

Walk Protocol

Progressive · 12 Weeks

Walking is your primary fat-loss tool right now — not because it burns huge calories, but because it's the specific stimulus that lowers cortisol, improves thyroid function, and builds aerobic base without triggering a stress response. Consistency beats intensity at every phase.

Phase 1 — Weeks 1–3: Build the Habit
Weeks 1–3 · Active Now

Flat, Easy, Consistent

This phase is only about showing up. Conversational pace — you should be able to speak full sentences. The goal is making walking a non-negotiable part of your nervous system's daily rhythm.

2 short walks × 10–15 min 2 longer walks × 20–25 min Conversational pace No added weight yet 4 walks/week minimum
Phase 2 — Weeks 4–6
Weeks 4–6

Longer Walks + Ankle Weights

Ankle weights 1–2 lb on 2 of 4 walks. Increases metabolic demand without raising cortisol the way jogging does. Longer walks begin.

Phase 3 — Weeks 7–9
Weeks 7–9

Weighted Vest Introduction

The game changer. Vest at 5–10% bodyweight. Targets visceral fat pattern from cortisol/thyroid dysfunction specifically.

Phase 4 — Weeks 10–12
Weeks 10–12

Hills, Intervals, Full Vest

By now your body trusts the movement. Incline, interval bursts, fuller vest weight. The metabolism meaningfully accelerates.

Movement & Flow

Choose Your Flow Daily

You have four flows below — pick whichever matches what your body needs that day. Some days you'll want the full Root & Rise. Some days you need 5 minutes of release. All of them count. None of them are wrong.

Flow 1 — Root & Rise

15 min3–4x / weekMorning or evening
  1. Cat–Cow × 5 — Slow. Match exhale to round, inhale to extend. This is your nervous system warm-up.
  2. Child's Pose → Thread the Needle × 3/side — From child's pose, thread one arm under. Hold the rotation, breathe into it. Releases tight mid-back and shoulder blades.
  3. Low Lunge → Half Split × 3/side — Step into low lunge, shift back to straighten front leg. Breathe and melt. Opens psoas and hip flexors which compress your lower back when tight.
  4. Glute Bridge × 5 slow — Lift from glutes, not back. 2 second hold at top. Activates glutes to take load off lower back.
  5. Supine Spinal Twist × 60s/side — Knees together, lower both to one side. Arms out. Just gravity and breath. Activates vagal nerve — directly calms nervous system.
  6. Legs Up the Wall × 2–3 min — Hands on ribs. 4 count inhale, 6 count exhale. Do not skip this. It measurably lowers cortisol. You are safe. You can rest.

Flow 2 — Gentle Morning Wake-Up

8 minAny morningStay in bed if needed
  1. Supine Breathing × 1 min — Flat on back. Hands on belly. Feel it rise on inhale, fall on exhale. Just notice. No agenda.
  2. Knee-to-Chest × 5/side — Pull one knee in, hold 10 seconds. Gentle lower back release before you even get up.
  3. Supine Spinal Twist × 45s/side — Slow. Don't force rotation. Just gravity.
  4. Cat–Cow × 5 — Move slowly. Set the tone for the day with breath.
  5. Seated Hip Circles × 5 each direction — On the edge of the bed or floor. Loosen the hips before standing.
  6. Standing Forward Fold × 30s — Soft knees, hang heavy. Let your head go. Decompress everything before the day begins.

Flow 3 — End of Day Unwind

12 minAfter work or before bedFor stress days especially
  1. 4-7-8 Breathing × 4 rounds — Inhale 4, hold 7, exhale 8. This is your nervous system switch from sympathetic to parasympathetic. Do it before anything else.
  2. Seated Forward Fold × 90s — Legs straight, fold forward. Don't reach — just drape. Breathe into the back of your body.
  3. Figure-4 Stretch × 60s/side — On back, cross ankle over knee. Pull the figure-4 toward chest. Deep glute and hip release — where you hold stress physically.
  4. Reclined Butterfly × 60s — Soles of feet together, knees drop open. Hands on belly. Breathe wide into the hips.
  5. Supine Spinal Twist × 60s/side — The full release. Slow.
  6. Legs Up the Wall × 3 min — This is your transition between work-self and rest-self. Let the day drain down.
  7. Savasana × 2 min — Just lie flat. Arms open. Nothing to do. You are allowed to stop.

Flow 4 — 5-Minute Reset (When Everything is Too Much)

5 minAny timeThis counts as your movement for the day
  1. Sit or lie down. No phone. 60 seconds just noticing breath. You don't have to fix anything right now.
  2. 4-7-8 breathing × 4 rounds. Exhale longer than inhale. This is physiologically changing your state.
  3. Legs up wall × 3 min. Eyes closed. That's it. That's the whole thing.

Tabata Option

When you have energy to burn

Bodyweight Tabata — 20 min Total

20 min1–2x week maxOnly on good energy days

4 rounds of: 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest × 8 exercises. Keep it simple. The goal is movement, not exhaustion. Stop if your heart rate stays elevated 10+ minutes after — that's a cortisol signal.

  1. Squat × 20s
  2. Glute bridge hold × 20s
  3. Standing march in place × 20s
  4. Side lunge alternating × 20s
  5. Bird-dog hold × 20s/side
  6. Modified push-up × 20s
  7. Hip hinge (no weight) × 20s
  8. Slow mountain climber × 20s

Core & Pelvic Floor

Foundation · Daily Option

The pelvic floor and deep core are the same system. For women, especially those who have been in chronic stress, experienced pregnancy, or carry stress physically in the lower belly and hips — this work is foundational. It's not about aesthetics. It's about structural support, hormone regulation, and building the internal stability everything else sits on top of.

Before You Start — What Is Your Pelvic Floor?

  • A hammock of muscles spanning the base of your pelvis. Holds your organs up. Supports your spine.
  • Connects to your diaphragm — every breath you take moves your pelvic floor.
  • Chronic stress chronically tightens it. A tight pelvic floor is often as dysfunctional as a weak one.
  • Symptoms of dysfunction: lower back pain, radiating hip pain, pelvic pressure, urinary urgency, difficulty fully exhaling.
  • These are things you've described. This work is for you.
Foundation Sequence — Do This First, Always

Diaphragmatic Breath + Pelvic Floor Connection

3–5 min · Daily · The most important thing here

Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat. One hand on chest, one on belly. Inhale through the nose — let the belly rise, let the pelvic floor soften and descend. Exhale through the mouth — feel the pelvic floor gently lift as the belly falls. This is the natural movement. You may have been bracing and holding without knowing it for years.

Do 10 slow cycles. Notice if you hold your breath. Notice if your pelvic floor lifts on the inhale instead of the exhale — that's reversed breathing, very common with chronic stress. Just notice. The noticing is the work at first.

Kegel — But Done Correctly

2–3 min · Daily

Most people do kegels by squeezing everything and holding. That's not it. A real kegel is: exhale, gently lift the pelvic floor up and in (imagine picking up a blueberry with it — not a death grip). Hold 5 seconds. Inhale and fully release. The release is as important as the lift.

  1. Exhale → gentle lift and squeeze, hold 5 seconds
  2. Inhale → full release and soften. Feel it let go completely.
  3. Repeat × 10. Rest. Repeat × 10.
  4. Quick flicks: fast contract/release × 10 at the end

Dead Bug — Deep Core Activation

3 sets × 8/side · 3–4x week

Lie on back. Arms reach straight up, knees at 90° (tabletop). Press your lower back gently into the floor. Exhale fully as you slowly lower the opposite arm and leg toward the floor — do not let your back arch. Inhale to return. The back staying flat is the whole point. This is your deep core, not your superficial abs.

  1. Start by just lowering one heel at a time — same position, just the leg.
  2. Progress to arm + opposite leg together when lower back stays flat.
  3. Move slowly. 3 seconds down, 1 hold, 3 seconds up.
  4. Exhale on the descent — this naturally activates the deep core and pelvic floor simultaneously.

Glute Bridge with Pelvic Floor Intent

3 sets × 10 · 3–4x week

This is the same bridge from your flow — but now with intention. As you exhale and lift, actively engage the pelvic floor on the way up. At the top: neutral spine, squeeze glutes, pelvic floor engaged. Inhale and lower slowly — pelvic floor softens on the way down. The coordination of breath + floor + glutes is what we're building.

  1. Lie on back, feet hip-width, knees bent.
  2. Exhale + pelvic floor lift → press through heels → rise to bridge.
  3. Hold 3 seconds at top. Don't hyperextend lower back.
  4. Inhale → pelvic floor releases → lower slowly for 3 counts.

90/90 Hip Release + Pelvic Reset

5 min · Use on tight days

Sit on the floor, both legs at 90-degree angles — one in front, one to the side. Hold for 60–90 seconds each side. This position mechanically releases the pelvic floor through the hip rotators. You may feel things release you didn't know were tight. Breathe into the hip, not the chest. This is also a nervous system reset — the body holds emotional stress in the hips. Letting them open is not just physical.

A Note

If you experience pain, heaviness, or leaking with any of this work — that's information, not failure. It means the system is dysregulated and could benefit from a pelvic floor physical therapist. This is a real specialty and it's worth asking your doctor for a referral. It's one of the most underutilized tools for women managing chronic stress, autoimmune conditions, and hormonal changes.

Neural Rewiring

Thais Gibson Method — Building New Pathways

We are at the beginning phase of this work — becoming aware of the core wounds. That awareness is not small. Most people never get here. Now we start the next step: finding the counter-evidence your nervous system needs to begin building new neural pathways.

Step 01 · Where We Are

Identifying the Core Wound

Your core wound — identified in session — is the belief: "If I don't do it, everything falls apart." This belief was built from real experience. It kept you safe. It made you capable. It also costs you your nervous system every single day.

The fear underneath it: if you stop holding everything, you will be abandoned, everything will crumble, and you will not be okay. That fear lives in the body as chronic vigilance. That vigilance is what's keeping the weight on, disrupting your thyroid, and making rest feel impossible.

Step 02 · The Method

Memory Reconsolidation — Finding the Counter-Evidence

The brain rewires through emotional experience, not through logic. Telling yourself "I don't have to do everything" doesn't work because the nervous system doesn't believe it — it has decades of evidence for the old belief. What does work is finding real memories where the opposite was true. Moments where you let go, or were held, or things worked out without you controlling them. And then going back into those memories with full sensory detail.

The question we're working with: When have you felt safe without having to hold everything together? What did that feel like in your body? What did you see, hear, smell, feel in that moment?
Step 03 · The Practice

Anchoring the Opposite Experience

When you find a memory where the opposite was true — sit in it. Close your eyes. Rebuild it fully:

  1. What were you wearing? What was around you?
  2. What did the air feel like? Was there a smell?
  3. What did your body feel like in that moment — chest, shoulders, stomach?
  4. What did you feel emotionally? Name it precisely — safe, held, light, free?
  5. Stay in it for 2–3 minutes. Let your nervous system absorb it as real.

This is not visualization as positive thinking. This is memory reconsolidation — you are literally updating the neural network that stores the old belief by introducing new emotional data at the same level of activation. It works. It takes repetition.

Step 04 · This Week

Your Assignment

Find one memory — just one — where you felt held, safe, not responsible for everything. It doesn't have to be big. It could be a moment with someone, or alone, or even a brief feeling. Write down every sensory detail you can remember. Bring it to session.

Daily Regulation Tools

🌬️
Regulation Before Reaction
When you feel the pull toward automatic caretaking, overwhelm, or the spiral: pause. Hand on chest or belly. One full breath before responding to anything. You are physically creating a gap between the trigger and the response. That gap is the new neural pathway being built in real time.
🌿
Weekly Anchors
One sensory moment per day that is just for you. Cooking, eating slowly, the walk, legs up the wall, a hot drink in quiet. Your nervous system learns safety through repetition of safe moments — not through one big breakthrough. The soup you made during Adam's crisis week was this. You already know how to do it.
🪨
One Boundary This Week
Something small. Not life-changing. Just one thing you didn't carry because it wasn't yours. Notice what happens in your body when you don't take it on. That body feeling is data — evidence for the new belief.

Nutrition

One Week of Tracking · Then Adjust

This Week's Focus

  • Log everything for 7 days — not to judge, just to see where you actually are after the plateau.
  • No changes yet. Just observe. Data first.
  • After 7 days we'll look at where calories, protein, and carbs actually landed and adjust from there.
  • Target to compare against: 1850–1950 kcal · 140g protein · 175–190g carbs · 60–65g fat

Hashimoto's + Anti-Inflammatory Recipes

Vitamin D · Selenium · Omega-3 Focus

Salmon + Sweet Potato + Wilted Greens

Hashimoto's Vitamin D Anti-Inflammatory
6oz salmon · 1 medium sweet potato · 2 cups spinach or kale · 1 tbsp olive oil · garlic · lemon · sea salt · turmeric pinch
Roast sweet potato at 400° for 35 min. Season salmon with salt, turmeric, lemon zest — sear in olive oil 4 min/side. In the same pan, wilt greens with garlic 2 min. Plate together. Squeeze lemon over everything.

Why it works: Salmon = omega-3s + Vitamin D. Sweet potato = calm carbs that lower cortisol + potassium. Greens = magnesium + folate. Turmeric = direct thyroid antibody reduction. One pan. 40 minutes including the potato.

Brazil Nut + Berry Overnight Oats

Hashimoto's Selenium
½ cup rolled oats · 1 cup unsweetened almond milk · ½ cup mixed berries · 2 Brazil nuts (chopped) · 1 tbsp chia seeds · 1 tsp honey · cinnamon
Combine oats and milk. Add chia, cinnamon, honey. Refrigerate overnight. Top with berries and chopped Brazil nuts in the morning.

Why it works: 2 Brazil nuts = daily selenium requirement, which directly reduces thyroid peroxidase antibodies (the marker that goes up with Hashimoto's). Berries = polyphenols + blood sugar control. Oats = prebiotic + cortisol stabilization. Zero effort the night before.

Golden Bone Broth Soup

Hashimoto's Anti-Inflammatory Gut Health
2 cups bone broth · ½ cup cooked white rice or rice noodles · 1 cup spinach · 2 soft-boiled eggs · 1 tsp turmeric · ½ tsp ginger · garlic · sea salt · black pepper (activates turmeric)
Heat broth with turmeric, ginger, garlic. Add rice or noodles. Stir in spinach last 1 minute. Top with halved soft-boiled eggs. Season.

Why it works: Bone broth = collagen + gut lining repair (leaky gut drives autoimmune flares). Eggs = Vitamin D + protein. Turmeric + black pepper = bioavailability of curcumin multiplied 20x. This is the soup you made during the hard week. Now it has intention behind it.

Anti-Inflammatory Power Shake

Hashimoto's Vitamin D Anti-Inflammatory
1 cup unsweetened almond or coconut milk · 1 scoop grass-fed whey or plant protein · ½ frozen banana · ½ cup frozen mango or pineapple · 1 tbsp ground flax · 1 tsp turmeric · pinch ginger · pinch black pepper · mineral pinch of sea salt
Blend everything. Drink within 30 min of making.

Why it works: Flax = omega-3s + estrogen balance (important for the heavy periods + hormone picture). Mango/pineapple = anti-inflammatory bromelain + fructose for liver glycogen. Turmeric + pepper again. Banana = potassium + calm carb. This is breakfast when you have nothing. Make it the night before if needed.

Sardine + White Bean Toast

Vitamin D Omega-3s Hashimoto's
2 slices sourdough or gluten-free bread · 1 tin sardines in olive oil · ¼ cup white beans (canned, rinsed) · lemon · capers or red onion if tolerated · arugula or spinach · olive oil drizzle
Toast bread. Mash white beans lightly with lemon and olive oil — spread on toast. Top with sardines, greens, capers. Drizzle with olive oil.

Why it works: Sardines are one of the highest Vitamin D foods available and loaded with omega-3s. White beans = slow-burn carb + fiber. Sourdough = lower glycemic than regular bread, easier on gut. 5 minutes total. High effort/reward ratio.

Daily Non-Negotiables for Hashimoto's

Vitamin D

Supplement + Food Sources

Vitamin D deficiency is nearly universal with Hashimoto's and directly worsens autoimmune activity. Ask your doctor for your level — optimal is 60–80 ng/mL, not just "normal." Food: salmon, sardines, eggs, mushrooms (UV-exposed). Supplement if your doctor recommends.

Selenium

2 Brazil Nuts Daily — Not More

Selenium is one of the most evidence-backed interventions for reducing TPO antibodies in Hashimoto's. 2 Brazil nuts hits the daily requirement exactly. More than 4–5 is toxic. Two. That's it. Every day.

Omega-3s

Salmon, Sardines, Flax, Walnuts

Direct neuroinflammation reduction. Supports T3 conversion. Aim for fatty fish 3x/week or ground flax daily. This is more bioavailable than fish oil supplements for most people.

Hydration

80–100oz Water Daily

Thyroid hormones require adequate hydration to transport. Dehydration worsens joint pain (which you have) and slows lymphatic drainage. Add a pinch of sea salt to your first glass of the day for electrolyte support.

My Weekly Log

Walks · Sleep · Regulation · Food

This is your data. Not your report card. Fill in what you can, when you can. The patterns over time matter more than any single day.

Week 1

Tap to expand
Walk (min + how felt)
Sleep quality 1–10
Regulation moment / note
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Weekly reflection

Week 2

Tap to expand
Walk (min + how felt)
Sleep quality 1–10
Regulation moment / note
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Weekly reflection

Week 3

Tap to expand
Walk (min + how felt)
Sleep quality 1–10
Regulation moment / note
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Weekly reflection

Journal Prompts

01

"What did my body actually need this morning — fuel, rest, or peace?"

02

"Where did I make something harder than it needed to be today?"

03

"What old rule or fear tried to creep in — and did I listen to it?"

04

"Where did I let something or someone care for me — even for a second?"

05

"What moment today felt safe enough to breathe?"

06

"What's one way I could make tomorrow easier on myself?"

07

"When today did I feel the opposite of the fear? What did that feel like in my body?"