#17 Tiffany Marr – Thyroid Cancer Survivor

Find her on Instagram, @fitncurvy, Tiffany Marr is a superhero of sorts.

Tiffany Marr was diagnosed with thyroid disease right after high school. Nine years later she was struck with thyroid cancer. After treatment, Tiffany was told there was a high probability that it would come back someday.

Due to the disease, Tiffany gained weight, felt sluggish, and the doctor said this is how her life would be from now on.

The fighter in her, refused to settle for the outcomes and went on keto. Once considered high risk, she is now low risk.

To contact Tiffany, please go to Instagram @fitncurvey where she is a real rockstar and inspires women to change their life with KETO!

SHOW NOTES

• A lot of people on Instagram specifically know her because of her thyroid story
• Diagnosed with thyroid disease and grave’s disease when at 18
• Diagnosed last year with thyroid cancer
• Thyroid removed
• Started Ketogenic diet on April
• Keto helped her with her Thyroid
• Grave’s disease is hyperthyroid.
• I have a giant goiter on your neck
• I was over producing thyroid hormone

• Goiter is attached to your neck that attacks the thyroid
• Looking back, I might have symptoms. But in high school when you’re constantly high active, you don’t even think about why am I having heart palpitation, or why do I have crazy amounts of energy at 4:00 in the morning
• I was a active kid in high school

• I got diagnosed with grave’s disease the summer right after high school before I went to college
• My doctor told me to get an ultrasound and biopsy then they officially diagnosed me with grave’s disease.
• And then I went to a endocrinologist and typically most endocrinologist will go ahead and will do radioactive iodine which is basically the destruction of your thyroid tissue
• After the radioactive iodine treatment that makes you hypothyroid
• I still had my thyroid, it was still low functioning but it was not enough sustaining me without medication. So, people who get that treatment also go on thyroid supplement.
• So I was on that when I was 18 until last year when I got diagnosed with cancer. Probably about 9 years
• Last May, I had my surgery.
  They took out my entire thyroid, lymph nodes and the muscle of my neck where the cancer was spread
• Now they put me on a different supplement because once you’ve had cancer they put you on “Synthroid”
• They did not make any suggestion to change my diet
• A couple times I’ve gone to the doctor and the place that I would go to for my endocrinologist is a teaching hospital so a lot of times I get residents and I’ve had a couple of them be like, “you know you’re really over weight.”
• Then I discovered Keto.

• I was a lot smaller back then and once I became hypothyroid I have gained a pretty decent a lot of weight
• A lot of people don’t realize that if you have any mental disorders, you might want to look at your thyroid because that might be affecting
• November of 2015, I was going in my yearly check-up.
  I felt very off and I felt like there was something wrong. But at that time I was not very much in the right state of mind to deal with whatever is happening
• When I went in my endocrinologist asked me how am I doing and I said I don’t know, and then she said that it’s not normal what’s wrong and I was listing all these symptoms that I was having and she said that there is something wrong.
• She did an ultrasound that day and called me a few days later and told me there is something in there
• I was not ready to deal with that, and so I’ve waited
• March 2016, I went in and have a biopsy and they found the cancer
• After my 27^th birthday, I’ve got my thyroid removed
• In the beginning of September they did the radioactive iodine treatment.

This time around, it was more extensive. They had to put me on a very strict diet so that way it forces your body to crash.

So when the radioactive iodine is in your body, when it takes it up, it has a better chance of attacking any thyroid tissue that is left.

• So I have to be in a low iodine diet, which is really hard.
  Because I have to make everything and be very conscious of what kind of thing I was putting into it
• A week before the treatment I went to the doctor’s because they wanted to see where my levels at and the doctor was like, “Honestly, I would not put you on a diet because your body is pretty much so screwed up you probably could not do the treatment but I would have to legally make you do it for 2 weeks
• I was not eating crazy at that time anyway because I was trying to eat better at that time
• I told my doctors during fall that I am tired all the time, I’m depressed, my anxiety is awful and I’m tired of being over weight and asked them what can I do
• My doctors told me that I was always going to be this way. That I’m always going to be over weight and depressed
• At first I accepted it, and I just got to the point where I refuse to accept this.
• So in January this year, I have a friend from high school who was talking about Keto
• I never heard of it. So I researched it for a couple of months
• So at the end of April I committed.
  From April until the present day that I’ve been on Keto

WHAT RESULTS HAVE YOU HAD?

• Keto saved my life
• I’ve lost about almost 30 pounds which they told me I would never be able to do
• I have a better mental clarity which is fantastic especially with my job
• I am more focused at work, I can remember things and my memory loss is pretty much gone
• I feel better
• Have less body aches, my depression and anxiety has gotten better
• I have my good and bad days like everybody does, but it got better since I’ve started Keto.
• Recently, I found out that I went from moderate risk from the cancer coming back to a low risk and I cried that day when I found out
• The only thing that’s been change is the fact that I’m on Keto
• And Keto has been the only thing that is different about what I have been doing. So if that is not at least some type of evidence that it works, I don’t what would be

WHAT DOES YOUR KETO LOOK LIKE?

• I simplify things. I don’t really have a favorite recipe or anything like that.
• I try to keep it simple because I have a history of binge eating disorder. So, I don’t want to overwhelm myself
• Most of the time I stick to meats, fats and veggies for my carbs
• A lot of people talks about carb up and protein up, I do those but not a lot and all the time because I feel better without those things
• Most of my carbs comes from vegetables
• I am slowly taking out vegetables and just do meats and fats and I’ve noticed that it is giving me more energy
• Yes, I do fasting and that is something I want to talk about because I know some people are against it
• I must say, by doing fasting and having no thyroid, it does works for me
• I always set the intention to do 16 hours of fasting because that seems to work for me.
  I feel like my body resets itself. I have a lot of energy, I feel good and I don’t have that “hangry” feeling every time I have my first meal of the day
• I use an app called VORA to keep track on my fasting
• 16 hours is usually my goal, my longest is 23. Some days I dot, some days I don’t.
• Some days I wake up hungry and I eat
• Most of the time, I try not to eat breakfast because I’ve noticed it kind of makes me lethargic versus when I fast
• Sometimes I do have coffee, sometime I don’t.
  If I do, I will do a fatty coffee.
  It usually has coffee, a little bit of coconut oil and MCT.
  Sometime, I put heavy cream depending on my mood but I don’t put a whole lot in there
• My favorite fats sources is coconut oil, olive oil or avocado oil
• For me, I always focus on the meat and add the fat in to kind of make sure I am getting that.
• I guess carbs is always the limit and your proteins are bowl and fat is everything else
• I’m so simple and I know it is very boring for some people on Instagram but it is just what works for me

WHAT TIPS DO YOU RECOMMEND?

• Be easy on yourself. Especially if you come from a standard American diet where you are eating carbs, sugar and processed foods, it can be a overwhelming when you start
• The first thing that I would recommend to everyone is to cut out the garbage
• It was not easy for me to cut out carbs but it is easy for me now
• Just ease yourself into it
• Everybody’s Keto is different
• You can always be inspired by people but don’t think that you have to do it exactly their way
• I’m a big gym person. I love watching your gym videos
• Before Keto I was doing 30 to 45 minutes beach body home workout and I lifted before the beach body workout
• So now, that’s what I do. I go to the gym and lift. I do some cardio, but very minimally
• I love heavy lifting. I love that feeling of empowerment because it makes me feel strong
• Everyone needs to be moving because and if you aren’t, you’re going to have health problems
• I lift like 4 days a week

DID YOU HIT ANY TOUGH SPOTS?

• I feel like because of Keto, it really helps with certain things like my anxiety and my depression
• Sometime I do get overwhelmed by the stresses of life
• But I guess since the tough spots, I’ve learned that it is okay not to be okay
• It’s just a bad day, it’s not a bad life

WHAT IS NEXT FOR YOU?

• I definitely want more gains at the gym because I am getting stronger and my body is changing
• Because I have lost 30 pounds that is enough in my mind.
  I feel like I’ve done a lot of work but my body are changing.
• So my biggest thing is up my muscles and lower my body fat
• I’m not going to stress out about it. I’ll take it one day at a time
• I am going to start seeing some holistic nutritionist in the coming year
• I would like to move away from my current medication and kind of toy around with other options for my thyroid
• Because I have been doing Keto for a good amount of time now, I feel like I have a good foundation, so now I can start experimenting and do a lot of things
• That’s the biggest thing for my 2018 is that I want to start claying around with thyroid supplement which is kind of scary because I am so used to this, but change happens outside of your comfort zone

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE QUOTES/BOOKS/MOVIES

• I can be change by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it
• My favorite book is Paleo Thyroid Solution by Elle Russ.
  I called this book my mini bible

HOW CAN PEOPLE FIND YOU?

• Instagram: @fitncurvey
• I tried to do a blog, but I can’t commit to that.
  But that’s my goal for 2018 – to do blog

WORDS OF WISDOM

• That scale is not going to tell you how hard you work everyday
• And it is fine if it is not the number that you have in mind for now
• It is going to take time for you to get to where you want to be and that’s okay
• You have to enjoy and love the process more than you want that end result
• Remind yourself everyday that you are doing the best you can and sometimes that is enough

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