Chris Nordlinger has only one thing on his mind: Football. “My team didn’t make it to the Super Bowl, but there are a lot of teams now with really good players,” says Chris. The 51-year-old artificial intelligence contractor and former U.S. Special Forces just finished his second week of bio-identical hormone therapy. “I feel fantastic,” he says, despite his busy schedule, Chris still finds time to stay in shape for the demands of his job in front of a computer.
“Even if you are in a remote area and don’t have access to a gym, get creative,” he says, “find a park nearby, go for a jog or use your hotel room.” He loves to be physically active every day. This doesn’t mean going to the gym for two hours, seven days a week. Stretch, do yoga, or hike in nature.
Chris spent eight years in the military. He started as a hazardous materials specialist and tried out for the Delta Force, but at first, he didn’t make it. After a year of rigorous training, he joined the quick action U.S. Special Forces. In addition to his training, he specialized in Military Intelligence. Chris finally got deployed to war in Iraq where he was active for six and half years, till the encounter.
“The explosion took out my left ear and part of my limbs,” Chris recalls, “I can only hear 5% in my left ear and am disabled, though if you look at me you couldn’t tell.” Chris loved his time serving our country and was released with an honorable discharge.
During the pandemic, Chris felt his senses were becoming muffled and he was feeling a lack of energy and gaining weight. He saw a Thrivelab ad on social media. “At first I used to wonder if this was legit, now I know it is world class,” he says about his journey back to normal through an attentive Nurse Practitioner who tailored his treatment. “I did the self-assessment and the empathetic nurse practitioner helped me in so many ways. She listened, she worked with me on thyroid bio-identical hormones, and then continued to monitor me with self-assessments plus conversations. Thrivelab is not reactionary, but proactive. They don’t just have a financial motive, but tailor what’s right for your journey.”
Chris wants people to be patient toward all that is unsolved and try to love the questions themselves. “Live the questions now,” he says, “perhaps you will gradually, without noticing, find the answers that will take you into a distant day.” Chris wants those coping with trauma traumatized people to learn and integrate ordinary sensory experiences so they can live with the natural flow of feeling secure and complete in their bodies.
The human body is a self-sensing system, except for the hormones. People can’t tell if they are deficient until they get tested. Chris quickly became involved in his hormone therapy. “In two weeks, I was back,” he says. “Started with my energy levels, then I lost weight and my metabolism was heating up. Only my stubborn belly fat took time to shed.”
Chris also noticed a reduction of fat around his arms and his self-confidence also got a huge boost. “My self-confidence increased not because of my peers, but self-confidence looking in the mirror and liking what I see,” he says with a laugh. “Now my goal is to get rid of all my belly fat.”
Knowing where you stand on your hormone health, knowing you have the ability to shape your circumstances, and knowing that you have a say in what happens to you–matters. “I am back to being a very energetic person. I wake up at 4 am every morning,” Chris shares, “the price of ignoring or distorting the body’s messages is truly very dangerous and harmful. I urge everyone to have self-regulation–to have a friendly relationship with your body.”
Chris is a huge believer that our gut feelings signal what is safe, life sustaining, or threatening, even when we cannot explain why we feel a particular way. In the future, Chris wants to continue his discipline of self-regulation to truly be present and happy in his life.
