Friday, March 28, 2008

Thyroid's Going A Little Haywire


Haven't really gotten back on my exercise routine since coming back from Yosemite. It's amazing how just a couple of days of vacation can take me an entire week to recover from. I've been exhausted. I've noticed a change in my body, and I'm not quite sure if my TSH levels are going haywire again. I've been trying to take my meds at the same time everyday, but with brain fog, I'm lucky I remember at all. Not only has my need for naps come back, but I've been shedding like a long-haired dog everywhere in the house. Just this morning, I noticed that I had tons of hair on the sheets when I got out out of bed. Not only that, I had tons on my shirt earlier in the day as well. This is how I know that something in my body is not right, and I need to figure out how to get it back on track.

Hopefully, now that Stinky's moved my treadmill out to the garage, I can really get back to my exercise program. It wears me out, but I do feel better. I've also got more room in the office so I can rearrange things to have room for Pilates. And hey, I've kept the weight, that I've lost so far, off.

Monday, March 17, 2008

10,000 Steps

Remember in my effort to declutter the body, I wanted to try to get the recommended 10,000 daily steps? Well, before the fall, it actually happened. I kept getting close most days averaging between 7,000-8,000 steps. Of course I haven't hit 10,000 steps since then because my fitness routine was shot due to the injuries and my body's recovery time. The fall really got me back to that place where I was tired all the time. Everything hurt. Even things that I didn't bump or bruise in the fall.
I stepped on the scale this morning and was surprised to see my weight up. I do tend to fluctuate through the day or sometimes over a period of days. I'm also surprised at the amount of swelling my body has been going through lately. My socks actually indent my cankles. My feet look like they're just dangling from the leg with almost no ankles. What's weird is that it's more prominent in my right ankle than my left. The swelling gets bad enough that I can't wear my wedding rings most days. Most people have to drink loads of caffeine to get this kind of swelling. It just takes one soda for me. My thyroid is being a pain in my ass (and has also cause the spread of the aforementioned ass).

I'm tired of the swelling, and though I can't cut out the sodas cold turkey, I am going to start back on my routine tomorrow. It's back to keeping track of everything in this:


When I went to Barnes & Nobles, they had so many of these journals to choose from. I picked this one because it had pages for goals, food tracking, weight tracking, exercise tracking, and a few other things. I really love it.

I'm also going to put on the pedometer and try for those 10, 000 steps per day.

I haven't done my belly dancing workouts either. :( So I really need to start back, and throw pilates into the mix as well. The treadmill is having some belt issues, but I need to sort them out. Maybe I just use that as an excuse....

Friday, March 14, 2008

A Setback

It's amazing how long it has taken my body to recover from a fall that I had about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I still have a little sore spot in my left cheek, a hardened swollen area on my shin that still has no feeling to it, and I've been feeling unusually rundown.

Ever since I started the Cytomel, I had been feeling pretty decent. I was taking naps maybe only once or twice a week, sometimes not at all. But since that fall, almost everyday since, I have been so tired. It has thrown me off my whole exercise/diet routine as well. I was doing pretty well with it, but now I'm just maintaining the weight that I lost. At my heaviest, I was 223 lbs. and now I'm at 216 lbs. Who knew that I would even get over 200 lbs.? I used to have super metabolism, never went over 115 lbs. in my younger days, and when I had gotten big before, I lost the weight in 3 or 4 months just like that.

I joined up with thyroid.about.com not too long after I was diagnosed to better understand the disease and get options on how to deal with it day to day. They had a special sign up called, "4 weeks to weight loss", and I signed up for that. The patient advocate, and thyroid sufferer, Mary Shomon answered emails through this site. I was quite surprised that I had an answer. I had mentioned that I lost 1/2 lb. a week. This is when I was told that that was pretty good for those with thyroid problems. Normal people can lose about 5 lbs. a week on average. She mentioned that if I really wanted to lose weight with this disease, I would have to go down to around 1200 calories a day and eliminating all carbs, sugars, and fats.

I actually tried to go down to 1200 calories very slowly. First, 1800. Then 1600. I figured if I could do 1600 calories then surely I could do around 1300 next. I ended up getting very light- headed and had to eat the extra calories to feel better.

Before the fall, I had been very diligent at recording everything I ate in my weight-loss journal. But now, I'm back to square one. Hopefully, I can get back on track soon.

Apture