How I Developed My MTHFR Lifestyle

My MTHFR Lifestyle is based on many healthy habits I’ve learned and implemented over the past three years. Read more to learn how I developed My MTHFR Lifestyle.

Three years ago almost exactly, I went on a weekend trip with a friend. I returned home a different person. Two days of shopping and exploring a new city turned into a fight to stay on my feet and keep anything in my stomach. It’s a bug, I thought. An unfortunately timed, extremely painful stomach bug.

The next two years proved me wrong. As more and more of my body went haywire, I spent increasing time in and out of doctors offices and hospitals. I became so familiar with the sharp end of an IV needle what once made me squeamish became a signal for relief. Despite the tests, panels, and procedures, no answers came, my body continued to waste away, and every day blurred together in a blend of pain, depression, and listlessness. Meanwhile, the medical bills rolled in.

During this time, I did what I could: I exercised, stopped eating gluten, quit vaping, and drank more water. I tried papaya enzymes, baobab fruit, ginger, turmeric, and pro- and prebiotics. I did therapy, started supplements, and began reading labels.

It wasn’t until I found MTHFR that the things I was experiencing clicked into place. Once it did, I consumed every piece of knowledge I could get my hands on, from books and podcasts to interviews with experts and research papers. I started to change my lifestyle and low and behold — it worked.

My MTHFR Lifestyle was born out of what I learned, and the habits I developed to turn around a prospective autoimmune disease, lifelong major depression and PTSD, and a life of chronic pain.

5 Healthful Habits: My MTHFR Lifestyle

In the beginning, a rudimentary understanding mostly gleaned from high school health and fitness classes plus a touch of YouTube education brought my focus to four major healthy habits: diet, exercise, stress management, and hydration. 

The first step was to get honest about my current efforts, which were bleak if not nonexistent. One gluten-free meal, gym partner, happy-mushroom-shaped stress ball, and emotional support water bottle later, I wasn’t healed but I did have direction and that felt good.

Experimentation, consistency, study, and time taught me to revise and reframe my healthy habits. Together they’ve become the pillars of what I call My MTHFR Lifestyle, the inspiration for this blog, and the habits that keep me healthy, happy, and living in harmony with my homozygous MTHFR mutation.

1. Nutrition

The first rule of living like a MTHFR? We don’t say the word diet.

…At least not how most people say it. You don’t diet, you have a diet. A person’s diet is simply what they eat; it’s a noun, not a verb. Healthy eating is about meeting the body’s nutritional needs by supplying it with the essential nutrients it needs to run. My approach to eating changed forever when I realized this: food is the delivery system for my cells’ energy and support. Reckoning with and internalizing this way of thinking enables me to remove emotion attached to eating and make lasting changes to my diet.

The second rule of MTHFR life: accept that nothing is forever. When I realized my nutrition habits needed to change, I grieved and fought for a long time. Finally, I found an effective system for change: 90 days. Making one small change at a time with a hard deadline allows me the opportunity to develop a habit while still seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Often the change just becomes my new normal, but I always begin with a manageable time frame. 90 days. You can do anything for 90 days.

The final rule of MTHFR nutrition: learn to consider the timing and quantity of meals. By tapping in and learning to listen to when and how much food my body needs, I began to build respect and trust with my body at the same time as developing discipline.

My MTHFR nutrition habit is about prioritizing my individual nutritional needs, setting goals and making one change at a time, and listening to my body’s true needs.

[Wanna learn more about my MTHFR diet? Read more here: Folate Foods: A Guide to a MTHFR Diet]

Benefits of a Nutrient-Dense Diet

Since improving my diet, I’ve noticed:

• better overall mood
• better sleep
• clearer skin
• healthier nails and hair
• happy nose and mouth bacteria
• more regular bowel movements
• a stronger, more resilient gut
• easier menstrual cycles

2. Movement

There’s a stigma attached to exercise: it’s a whole lot of pain and work all for the sole purpose of becoming more attractive. For me, (and most of us,) that was never a good enough why. Now that I do it regularly, I realize how harmful that mindset is, how it cheapens the work and keeps me in a constant state of self-loathing.

By developing a habit of movement, I’ve found my why for exercising. It’s not about the fun, new muscles I find in the mirror or even the love that comes from spending time caring for my body. It’s all the other amazing benefits: physical health, mental fortitude, mood stability, strength, confidence, agility, stress relief, immune support, and a healthy willingness to try new things. All of these are infinitely more life-changing than being skinny or muscular will ever be. 

Benefits of Consistent Movement

Since implementing consistent movement into my life, I’ve noticed:

• improved sleep
• less muscular tightness and soreness
• increased flexibility
• improved mental resilience
• increased natural inclination toward other physical activities
• fewer joint pops and locks
• self confidence
• mental toughness
• and very lastly…fun new muscles 🙂

3. Detox

Yeah, I know you may be sick of all the talk about phthalates, parabens, microplastics, pesticides, and mold. Tough. It’s important. As advanced as we’ve become, the U.S. is still living in the dark ages when it comes to our daily contact with toxins.

Several organs are in charge of breaking down toxins including the liver, kidneys, skin, nose, and uterus. When you sweat, use the restroom, blow your nose, or menstruate, you’re detoxing. But with everything our world has to offer on its smelly, grimy buffet of toxicity, these day-to-day functions don’t always cut it. Especially when we’re actively overpowering them with dirty air, water, food, and products.

When I began my hunt for better health, on top of the nausea, fatigue, and truly concerning bowel movements, I had severe allergy symptoms: sneezing, itchy eyes, congestion, runny nose, and general itchiness. I even started side-eyeing my cats as the source. Once I started tending to my detoxification pathways, these symptoms cleared up completely – and Boo and Cit’s names have been cleared.

Benefits of Supporting Detoxification

Since choosing to support my detoxification pathways, I’ve noticed:

• restored balance to natural skin oils
• stronger nails and hair
• improved immune function
• better breath quality
• alleviated allergy symptoms
• fewer headaches
• less menstrual cramping
• better sleep

4. Stress Relief

What’s your least healthy, borderline self-harmful stress behavior? I have a list: picking my nails and cuticles, pulling on my hair, picking at my skin, grinding my teeth, clenching my jaw — I could go on. As a kid, I even had frequent middle-of-the-night asthma attacks after bad dreams. As an adult, they morphed into full-blown panic attacks and sweaty night terrors.

If you’re a MTHFR, you can probably relate. Finding ways to manage stress is paramount for those of us who are highly sensitive to stress hormones. Learning how to relieve stress tension has benefitted my life in many facets and taught me this simple truth: either you manage your stress or it manages you. I spent a long time letting stress boss me around. Developing methods of alleviation has allowed me to have a say in whether it gets to step in and help a situation or get the hell outta my way.

Benefits of Practicing Stress Relief

Finding ways to manage my stress has led to enormous benefits:

• increased trust in myself
• better communication skills
• better sex
• less pain and tension throughout my body
• a clearer, calmer mind
• more creativity
• more perspective in difficult times
• the ability to emote and move on

5. Relationships

In my experience relationships, with self and others, are both our biggest blessings and greatest trials. Historically, I haven’t been the person to walk into a room and automatically attract others. At certain points in my life I believe I was pretty damn repellent. 

When you walk around with your walls up and scopes trained on anyone who enters your sphere, you don’t make many friends – I know. For a long time I took in only people who ignored my defenses. Shockingly enough, they often didn’t respect me in other ways. By ignoring my instincts, I unwittingly debased any trust I had with myself and fell into harmful patterns fueled by self-loathing and a concrete belief that I was not worth caring for.

Taking responsibility for my relationship with myself was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Extending myself mercy, empathy, and grace grated against my innermost beliefs. It’s still hard some days. It’s also been absolutely necessary to stop torturing and hating myself, and begin healing the limiting beliefs keeping me from taking good care of my mind and body.

Benefits of Developing Healthy Relationships

Developing in my relationships with myself and others has allowed me to find peace in many ways:

• greater trust in what I say I’ll do
• greater self respect and esteem
• patience and humility for my mistakes
• increased ability to connect honestly with others
• a desire to care for myself through diet, exercise, detoxing, and stress relief, etc.
• a budding belief that my capabilities are limitless (even including starting a blog called My MTHFR Lifestyle to try to connect and help other MTHFRs!)

The Bottom Line

Nutrition, movement, detoxification, stress relief, and relationships: these are the habits that built My MTHFR Lifestyle. Fitting my actions within them allow me to feel my way toward what is healthy and right for my mind, body, and spirit.

From one MTHFR to another, I’d love to hear how they work for you.

Stay tuned…

Next up, I break down each of my 5 healthy habits into implementable actions and explain the exact steps I’ve taken over the past three years to develop within them.

Disclaimer

I am not a healthcare professional. None of the content on this blog is meant to replace or substitute the advice of your doctor, nor should it be seen as health advice. Use your own good judgement and research to take what you will.