Woke up feeling sluggish this morning; turned over and slept in. Now I don't want to go to the pool at my regular time. Fighting with myself: do I go anyway? Do I finish the laundry first? Do I make excuses?
Had eggs for breakfast and am on second cup of coffee; that should get the blood moving and kick me out of park and into drive.
Had my FIRST comment EVER on my blog! It actually happened 11/30, but I did not see it until last night. Made me happy.
Will finish my Christmas shopping this weekend. Will be nice to have THAT off my plate. Need to find a gift for my son's birthday. He has everything, and nothing means much to him, so I may go the old gift card route... kind of a cop out, but nothing else comes to mind.
I did not get on the scale this morning. I made the mistake of doing that last night....after my great workout yesterday, the scale showed a gain of over three pounds. Crap! I saw the dreaded number again. Discouraging.
Hiya, Digger, how ya doing? Hopefully, the answer is: better! :)
ReplyDeleteI wanted to comment cause we have some things in common: I'm fat (down 58 pounds, but still a lot to go). I'm menopausal (fifty years old). I've got hypothyroidism as well. I have chronic allergies/asthma and HBP, so I take lots of meds. Losing the weight will help with sugar issues and HBP, but it's not gonna cure my asthma/allergies/chemical sensitivities,a s I had those since I was born. So, I know how frustrating it is to have your body work against you and have to take meds. Also have depression issues since I was 9 years old, but refuse to take meds for it due to fear of side effects. Thyroid and depression is linked, so that's often a problem with thyroid patients, the mood issues. Emotional eating--been there, done that.
So, just to say that I think you need a learning curve about foods/calories/macronutrients/micronutrients to get an idea of what works best for you. No one but you can figure that out. No other expert can tell you. I was losing on lower carb, but a DNA test I took now tells me I should do lowfat? So, Yes, I'm confused and experimenting, but I did the lower carb due to the insulin resistance (I have Metabolic Syndrome) and central adiposity (I carry weight mostly in the middle, belly, the dangerous fat.)
The most important thing for a thyroid patient is to be euthyroid (in the optimal range). Some doctors are really stubborn, but the truth is that only you know what is your best range. I do best UNDER 1, but more than .6. It's a very narrow range where I feel GREAT. Over 2, I get bad symptoms. The labs will say I'm normal, but I'm not. Don't just go by labs. Go by energy level, sleep quality, mood, is hair falling out, etc. So, priority 1: a euthyroid state. It is sometimes tricky when losing weight, cause dosages will need to be adjusted, but you can do it.
The next: While they'll say don't eat this don't eat that, in moderation, most things will be fine, though I think cutting out sugar and the refined carbs is always good. If you can do that 90% of the time, that's great. But as long as you cook the broccoli and cabbage and cauliflower, and dont' have it daily, go for it.
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Soy: this is more of a concern. I do sometimes eat soy products, which I probably shouldn't, but I'm not perfect. Try to avoid eating large quantities, avoid daily usage, and if you can avoid soymilk and tofu altogether, prolly best. Tempeh and miso are fine,as they are fermented.
ReplyDeleteI strongly, strongly, strongly, STRONGLY recommend that you join SparkPeople.com today. It's free. It's got huge resources. But mostly cause you need to start tracking what you eat. You need to commit to do it daily, every single bite. It's a pain in the butt, but if you do it, I promise it will open your eyes. It will show you not just how many carbs/fat/protein grams you're eating, but it will train you to understand calories. And, important for us who are sickly types, it will show you where you are DEFICIENT.
I learned by tracking for weeks and months, that I am chronically deficient in ZINC (important as heck for thyroid people), folate, B12, magnesium, and potassium. This is in part cause I do not eat organ meats, rarely eat nuts, and can't eat any seafood. So, I supplement now where I lack. Tracking on SparkPeople means that I know where I am lacking and can target supplementation.
Adding adequate Zinc to my diet has made me be able to stay euthyroid more easily. There are studies out about it, you can google if you wish.
I also do take Cinnamon. I add it to my protein hotcakes. I sometimes add it to smoothies. I also use Cinnergen (a liquid cinnamon supplement) which takes great and is easy to use before a carb-heavy meal. It got my sugar down when I was becoming diabetic. Just the cinnamon. I swear by it. But it's less about weight loss than improving the glucose mechanism in those of us who are insulin resistant.
Whatever meal profile you choose, please begin tracking TODAY. Learn the caloric equivalents. Watch how they add up in the macronutrients. See the report (bottom of the nutrition tracker as the day goe son and then the big report after your'e done tracking for the day) to see where you went over, under or met goals for nutrition. (Goals can be tweaked as you decide what your macronutrient and vitamin/mineral levels should be.)
Join Allan's challenge. But I recommend you join it at a bit under goal-weight caloric level, maybe not the 1200, just to see how that goes first.
And another important thing: Get tons of water. Drink 4 to 6 glasses BEFORE eating. Drink another 2to 4 after eating. Get a bunch of water a day and you'll notice a difference, too.
HOpe this helps.
If you need to ask anything, just drop a comment on my blog -- http://happyweightafter.blogspot.com --and it goes to my mailbox at gmail.