Overcoming Postpartum Depression, Cluster Headaches, and PCOS with the Thin Adapted System

There’s nothing more inspiring than hearing real people overcome real challenges to get the results they want–especially when those are the same results you’d like to see in your own life!  That’s why in this post we’re going deep with an amazing woman named Tiffany Thompson who’s actually been there, and who’s finally seeing massive success after struggling for so long–I can’t wait for you to hear her story!

Tiffany joined our Thin Adapted System (TAS) program in 2022 at what she describes as one of the lowest points of her life. She was struggling with postpartum depression, chronic pain, and daily headaches, along with PCOS. Her doctors weren’t much help, and she was pretty desperate.

But then she found our program.

Here’s what she had to say during our interview:

Ruth: If you can remember your life before TAS, what was your life like then? What was going on? Paint the picture for us.  

Tiffany: Okay. At that point, I was miserable. I was probably at the lowest I have ever been in my whole life. I had just had my baby. He was one and I had breastfed for the whole year. Actually, I was an exclusive pumper.

I had lost some weight because of breastfeeding, but then my daughter was in an accident. She was in the hospital with tons of surgeries, so the stress was super high and I gained all that weight back. I was sick and tired all the time, I had major postpartum depression, anxiety, stomach issues, migraines. I was seriously just at the lowest point I’ve ever been.

Ruth: How did you find TAS then? 

Tiffany: I actually got one of your emails and something just compelled me to click on it.

I opened it and I was like, “Oh, what’s this?  Maybe I should try this.”  So it was just kind of a whim. 

Ruth: Was there a hesitation at all, when you were like, “Oh, I don’t know. I can’t really try anything new.” Or you were just like, “give me something.”  

Tiffany: Well, like I said, I was at my lowest point. I was desperate for something to change.

You know, I’ve been on all kinds of diets and ups and downs throughout the years. The last attempt that I had had was about three years prior to that. And it was a really strict, low calorie, like thousand calories a day, diet. And it worked. I lost weight and I think that’s how I ended up pregnant.

The backstory is that I was told I couldn’t have kids naturally. So getting pregnant was a surprise. I was trying to do that again, lose weight and get pregnant, but because of life and having the baby and all that stuff, I just couldn’t  bring myself to do such a strict diet anymore. But I was still so desperate to get this weight off and just feel better.

Then  I remember reading the email and reading some of the material you sent with it, that was like listing all the things that the program could help with… depression and anxiety and the stomach issues and the fatigue and all these things.

And I’m reading it to my husband. I was like, look at this. This is me. Like maybe this can fix me, you know? So I was like, I’m going to just try it.  

Ruth: And if your husband is anything like mine, he, my husband would have been like, “Whatever. Everybody’s just a salesperson. They’re all going to just sell you a line.”

Tiffany: Exactly. But my husband was a little bit, well, he knew how miserable I was. So he was trying to be supportive. He told me to just try it. But in the end, he actually ended up doing this with me to be supportive.

Ruth: Oh, that’s amazing. So did you try to go to the doctor with all the health issues that you were experiencing? What did your doctor say?  

So I also have polycystic ovarian syndrome  and the doctor always told me, well, you have PCOS, so this is just going to be hard. Watch your carbs and watch your sugar.

But I was diagnosed when I was 20, before I even had a computer in the house and Google wasn’t a thing. I had no information on what this was and what to do to heal it, and so it was just me managing it the best I could, which wasn’t good at all. Anytime I went to the doctor with these complaints, they’re like, well, it’s probably the PCOS.

I thought it just is what it is. Eat less, work out more. That’s what I was always told. Always the same advice.

Ruth: So what were you most concerned about going into the TAS program?  

Tiffany: I signed up for the 28 day reset and that’s how it started for me. When I got all the information, I looked at it and I saw it was low carb and instantly I thought, oh, it’s keto.

I had looked into keto a few years prior. It didn’t make sense to me. Like, how can eating bacon all the time and having all this fat be good for me? It doesn’t make any sense. And so I was a little disappointed and thought it was just another name for a keto diet. Still, I thought, “it’s only 28 days. I’ll do it. I’ll try it.”  

And so I’m glad I did, cause it wasn’t keto.

Ruth: No, we’re very proud that TAS isn’t keto. Very proud. I mean, there are aspects of it that are similar, especially in the 28 reset. I can see where you would think that. So what did you experience? What happened in those 28 days?

Tiffany: I want the carbs and the sugar all the time. That’s how I was. And so going in, I didn’t think I was going to be successful. I didn’t believe there was any way I would go more than a week without eating bread or pasta or something. But I was like, I’m gonna give it my all, I’m gonna, try to stick to it. 

I think what helped was my husband doing this with me. I wasn’t the only one eating like this, but then towards the end of the 28 days, I noticed I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t craving or missing the bread and the pasta, even after the 28 days.

And I had all the recipes to cure the sweet tooth. That satisfied me and I was good. 

Ruth: Oh yes. The TAS food is so good. So, you kept going with TAS and what happened? What kind of results did you see?  

Tiffany: I started noticing that I wasn’t getting constant headaches.

I used to get headaches every day. They called them cluster headaches, bordering on migraines every single day. And I started just not having any. I’d be like, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t have a headache today. That’s amazing.” 

Then my stomach issues subsided. I wasn’t bloated all the time. I wasn’t uncomfortable. I didn’t feel just gross all the time. 

I had had some chronic pain in my feet and my knees and my back. I think from the way I had the pregnancy and everything, but that all went away. Like I said, my baby was a year old by the time I started this. So like all that time I had been in pain.

Those were the first things I started to notice. And then obviously, losing weight.

Ruth: It sounds like your goal was to lose some weight, but it was really more of the health side of things that was really impacting your life. Did you notice differences in your depression, anxiety and that kind of stuff as well?

Tiffany: I did. It took a little longer. I mean, I’ve had depression and anxiety since I was a teenager. So I’ve been on medication. I’ve been dealing with that basically my whole life. Just the postpartum took it to a whole nother level. And then with all the stress and stuff from my daughter’s accident and everything, it was super stressful. So I think it took some time, but I was actually to the point where I was asking my doctor for new meds or an increase in the dosage because I was miserable. Like, I was crying every day.

I knew I couldn’t keep going like that and I had already started the program at that point. But, I worked through it and I think it was more like when I was in phase 2 and I was working more on gut health because by the time they got the insurance to approve the new medication and the pharmacy finally filled it, a couple of months had gone by. I was like, “You know what? I don’t think I actually want to take the higher dose. I think I’m actually feeling better to the point where I’m actually going to ask them to start decreasing it.” 

Ruth:  That makes sense. They say that as soon as you start to heal your gut, you start to see those huge differences because so much of the serotonin in our body is produced in our gut.

So if you’re having all these other issues, you know that your gut’s not healthy. But it does take a long time for all those changes to happen. Still, that’s amazing. 

Well, now you’ve been in our program for almost two years and then you went through our certification program. You became a coach and you’re amazing at it. And I think  one of the biggest reasons is because you’ve been through it, right? You’ve experienced all these health issues. You’ve experienced the transformation. So what do you say now to people who are just starting out with their own health journey? What’s your biggest piece of advice?  

Tiffany: Just do it. Just start. Don’t overthink it.  You know, don’t get so intimidated. Just suck it up and do it. When I first looked at TAS and was like, oh, it’s low carb. That’s a fad. I just needed to get over the preconceptions about what I thought this is. It’s probably not what you think it is either. 

Ruth: I think that’s such a good piece of advice because it really is true. We run into that a lot because the keto diet has such a, almost like a backlash against it.

And the reason it didn’t work for you was because you can’t do that forever. It’s really not that good for you. That’s why there’s different phases of our TAS program. Okay, so what if somebody is like, “I can’t give up carbohydrates.” What do you say?  

Tiffany: Just give it the 28 days.  

28 days. You can do anything for 28 days. That’s how I had to look at it. And go watch those mindset lessons. Over and over again.

Ruth: So much of that battle happens in your head. It really is so true. There’s a physiological component of the addiction. If you’re going through your day saying, I cannot live without pasta or sugar or bread, that is literally the definition of addiction. And we don’t really think about it because it’s food and not drugs, but it’s the same physiological response.

So, do you have any tips for how you make this work in your day to day life? You’re super busy. You have teenagers and a three year old. Like, how do you even sleep with the teenagers? 

Tiffany:  I don’t even know. I don’t sleep. I’m trying to hide the bags under my eyes today! My three year old, he’s like anti sleep right now. So it’s insane. I’ve got the teenagers and the toddler and my parents actually live with us, so I actually fix dinner for everybody and only three of us eat this way.

That’s myself, my husband and my mom. The rest of them are all the pickiest eaters I’ve ever met in my entire life. And I went through all the recipes and found some of my own, some that weren’t low carb to begin with, but I just learned how to adapt.

I didn’t want to have to get used to a whole bunch of new food, especially for the people who are not eating this way, because then they’re going to start yelling at me. I just found it easier to learn how to adapt the food that we were already eating and then throw in some new ones. Also just keep stuff on hand that is quick and easy to grab. Like beef jerky, hard boiled eggs, cheese, you know, things that if life is super hectic and I don’t have time to grab lunch because I’m running out the door, I have something I can grab. I don’t have to stop at a fast food place and make poor decisions.

Ruth: I think that prepping is so key, especially in the beginning. You don’t have to be hungry. You can eat as much as you want. You don’t have to count calories, but you do need something to grab that’s actually a good choice. Did you make a lot of snack bites and that kind of stuff at first? Do you still make them or is that an ongoing thing? Do you like to have your little sweet?

Tiffany: No, I always have something. I mean, I’ll go on little breaks, and maybe I don’t need to do all the little snack bites and stuff, but I usually have something on hand.

But yeah, in the beginning I did a lot of those chocolate peanut butter bites. Those are a big favorite. My husband loves those. I thought it was the funniest thing, him doing this with me, cause I really thought he was going to give up after a very short time. But he was like, “I can’t believe that this is good for you.”

He likes to eat this way. It’s funny.

Ruth: I’ve heard that the husband effect is severe. So did your husband lose a lot of weight too?

Tiffany: He did, he didn’t have a ton of weight to lose to begin with. But yeah, he lost probably like 20, 30 pounds, but the big thing for him was that he’s had chronic high blood pressure since he was in his twenties. And they just kept telling him it was hereditary and stress because he’s a law enforcement officer.

So he did this and he started feeling really off. And I was like, “Go to the doctor. Go see what’s going on.” And it turns out, because he was on two different blood pressure medications, while doing this his blood pressure got so low, it was making him feel nasty. So they took him off the medication because the diet just fixed his blood.

Ruth: That’s amazing. Wow.  So is there anything that you can share from a coach’s perspective that you notice about people when they first join? Is there any one thing that you would say, or what’s the most common mistake that you see happening when somebody first joins? 

Tiffany: I would say there are two. The first one is they’re trying to do everything perfectly.  Before they even start. And so they keep delaying that start date because they want to have everything ready, get all the ingredients, gather everything together.

And I say just start. You don’t have to have all the things. Yeah. I mean, I’m two years into it and there’s things on that list I still haven’t purchased.  

And then the other one is once they do start, they’re trying to do all the things all at the same time.

I think it’s that ingrained part of us that thinks you’re changing the way you’re eating, so you also need to exercise. And I’m like, if you’re not already exercising, just hold off. We’ll get there. Hold on. One thing at a time.

Ruth: Yes, that’s so true. And that’s actually why we’re making the changes that we are to the program. We’re not changing the program itself.  It’s all the same. The curriculum is still the same. But we’re changing the way we are adding it, not giving people all the information and saying go watch all the videos, go do all the stuff.

Instead, we’re breaking it up so that everything is in a checklist, go finish this checklist and then come back to us and we’ll give you the next checklist. 

Well Tiffany, thank you so much for sharing your story and for those last words of advice: Don’t overthink it. Just do it. 

Those are words to live by. 

Isn’t Tiffany’s story inspiring?  It’s amazing how changing the way you eat can literally transform every part of your life….and your health.

And if you want to find out more about how you can get started with TAS, be sure to check out our free training, which you can find at Thinlicious.com/ready.