bOOKs
beautiful inside and out work of rebuilding a lagging sex life. In the first part of Beautiful Inside & Out, Gena offers an intimate portrait of her early years growing up in Duluth, Minnesota with just her mother and older brother and sister. She discusses her early entrance into modeling and acting, her first marriage, the birth of her first child—all while suffering from undiagnosed and utterly debilitating thyroid disease. She also recounts the joy of finding her soul mate in her second husband, hockey player Cale Hulse. (A perfect match, she says, as he didn’t care about television and
Gina Lee Nolan Pens Book about her Battle With Thyroid Disease By GiNa lee NolaN, Mary sHoMoN aND atria BooKs.
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You might remember actress Gina Lee Nolan from her days as a Baywatch lifeguard—running across a beach in that iconic red swimsuit, the beaming picture of health and Hollywood glamour. But the truth is, while Lee Nolan looked amazing, she felt awful. She found herself working out twice as hard as her cast-mates, but still gaining weight. She was tired, experiencing brain fog and joint pain. Her doctors mistakenly diagnosed her symptoms as depression, but the antidepressants did nothing to relieve her symptoms. Finally, decades later, Lee Nolan was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, the autoimmune condition where your immune system attacks a body part—in Lee Nolan’s case, the thyroid. After working closely with doctors to stabilize her condition, Lee Nolan found herself eager to share her experiences, both as a way to raise thyroid awareness and in order to encourage other sufferers to be empowered and informed. The result is Beautiful Inside & Out: Conquering Thyroid Disease With A Healthy, Happy, “Thyroid Sexy” Life, due out in October. The book, which was co-authored with Mary Shomon, a thyroid advocate and New York Times best-selling author of The Thyroid Diet Revolution: Manage Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss, discusses diagnosing and treatment of thyroid disease. The following preview is courtesy of Atria Books. Public perception is that thyroid disease is associated with middleaged women, weight gain, fatigue, hair loss, depression, and low sex drive—but Gena and Mary are creating a new openness about the thyroid. Together, in Beautiful Inside & Out, they are validating the importance of being a squeaky wheel when it comes to your health, and that it’s not only acceptable to go public with your own stories of being dismissed or ignored by conventional medicine, but it just might be your sacred duty. Reading Beautiful Inside & Out feels like you’re out with your best girlfriends for a glass of wine or mug of hot, soothing tea. We all know the glorious feeling of being with our wiser girlfriends who have been through a challenging experience and are happy to shepherd us through it—to share their knowledge so we don’t have to go through it alone. Gena and Mary will tell you honestly about the twists and turns, the shortcuts and the heartaches, the tips about everything from finding a great doctor to dealing with sparse eyebrows, about going gluten-free, and the challenging
she didn’t care about hockey!) In a frank, refreshing, no-holds-barred manner, she details what it was like to feel exhausted and bloated all the time, and how her friends, family, and doctors thought she was a hypochondriac. Her girlfriends and family begged her not to talk endlessly about her symptoms during “Girls’ Night Out” or at family functions. It was only after the birth of her third child, daughter Stella, that Gena finally got the diagnosis that she has thyroid disease, and began the long road toward regaining her health and positive attitude—and ultimately became an advocate and “face” for a disease that affects millions of people worldwide. In the remaining sections of Beautiful Inside & Out, Gena and Mary go over innumerable topics and issues, including the different types of thyroid conditions and symptoms, the risk factors to look for, and the tests you need to ask for, even if your doctor doesn’t think they’re necessary. They talk about various medication options as well as the supplements and diets that may be helpful. They illustrate the importance of getting good quality sleep, and managing thyroid disease during pregnancy. They tell you what you should and shouldn’t do when dealing with your doctor, and offer tips on mindful eating, getting fit, and how to obtain a better sex drive. They also include a “Lazy Girl’s Guide to Beauty” in which they give advice on everything from taking care of puff y eyes, sparse eyelashes, brittle hair, to making sure you take time for yourself to beautify and rejuvenate. Also included in Beautiful Inside & Out are invaluable sidebars, resources, and fi rst-person stories and quotes from experts and fellow thyroid patients.
reading
beautifuL insiDe & out feels like you’re out With your best girlfriends
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