Taking It Off Together Tuesday Has Moved

I will still have this thyroid blog, but I want to commit to bringing more thyroid news and not just weight loss news here. So I've moved my weight loss efforts to Diet Is Such A Dirty Word-my new online weight loss journal. Hopefully this will keep me honest as I want to post everyday.

Taking It Off Together Tuesday Week #19

You would think after NINETEEN weeks, I'd be further along than this. But no, here I am 'stuck' once again. After the major swelling from last week, I'm just grateful that it's gone down, and the weight is back to normal. I guess you could say that I've been sort of PMSing this week, too, which meant wanting food a lot more than normal, easily stressed, among other things. I've been feeling slightly dizzy these last couple of weeks, too. I'm not sure what is triggering that. I just know that I'm tired of it. I'm tired of being tired really. LOL Anyways, here are this week's results:

This week our contest is sponsored by Tammy! She is offering a copy of Superfoods for the prize for this week! If you’d like to sponser a prize, let me know! We are currently out of prizes!

The names of this week’s “losers” were dropped into a coffee cup and this week’s WINNER is Chris!

Congrats to Clara for being this week’s biggest loser of pounds!! Be sure to cruise over to her blog and congratulate her!

Chris - 1 LOSS
Tammy - 1.5 GAIN
Life With Hashi-Thyroid Blog - No Change
Grace - 0.4 GAIN
Leigh - No Change
Clara - 1.5 LOSS
Julie - 0.8 LOSS
Cheryl - no report
Audrey - 2.2 GAIN
Christy - 0.2 LOSS
Tina - 2.0 GAIN
Danielle - no report
Jessie - no report
Steph - no report
CYN - no report

This week’s total - 2.6 GAIN! EGAD!

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I'll be posting more thyroid related news/info soon.

Taking It Off Together Tuesday Week #18

I have no report this week. To be honest, I cannot tell if I've truly loss or gained anything. My body has been swelling up a lot this week. Of course that makes me gain weight instantly. If I were to post the weight, it would not be completely accurate. I would have to wait until the swelling goes down. Earlier in the week, and a little at the tail end of last week, I wasn't feeling very well. My throat felt sore and my body felt different. I wasn't sure if I was going to get a cold or not since both my girls had gotten one. I felt weak and tired, too. My sleep hasn't changed too much since last week which means I'm requiring naps in the daytime. I took a nap yesterday before the kids got home from school. I asked my husband to wake me up at 2:15 PM. He did, and I just couldn't get up. I was SO tired. I stayed in bed and kept on sleeping. He woke me again at about 3:00, at this point I had been napping almost two hours. I still didn't have the energy to get up. I heard my girls come home though and forced myself to get up. I was struggling for a bit.

This is how bad the swelling is this week: one, my feet feel like they're going to burst, two, as I took my girls to school this morning I slipped on my oldest daughter's flip flops quickly. She says to me, "You can't fit those. Your feet are too big. They're all puffy!" I asked, "You can tell they're swollen?" She said, "Yes." My girls have never really understood, until now i think, that my body really does swell up when I say it does. LOL This kind of swelling happens once a month, and I don't have a cycle as I had surgery to stop them, it also happens if I'm not well rested or if I get sick. Anytime I have a cold or flu, I swell up. When I had my fall down the stairs in my house earlier this year, my body swelled up. As a matter of fact, my right shin, still has a dent that looks bruised. If anyone bumps into it, it still hurts. This accident happen several months ago. Doctor said it would heal up in two months, it's probably been more like seven or so, and it's not completely healed. I tell you, I love thyroid/autoimmune disease! LOL

I'm hoping that the swelling will start to go down this week. Sometimes it will take a week, sometimes two. I want to be able to report something next week, whether it be a loss or a gain, but an accurate one.

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This week our contest is sponsored by Christy! She is offering an Earth Theraputics Foot Care set for the prize for this week! If you’d like to sponser a prize, let me know! We are currently out of prizes!

The names of this week’s “losers” were dropped into a coffee cup and this week’s WINNER is Tammy!

Congrats to Christy for being this week’s biggest loser of 3 pounds!! Be sure to cruise over to her blog and congratulate her!

Chris - 1 GAIN
Tammy - 1.0 LOSS
Life With Hashi-Thyroid Blog - No Report
Grace - 1.1 LOSS
Leigh - 0.5 LOSS
Clara - 2.0 GAIN
Dette - 0.5 GAIN
Julie - 1.4 GAIN
Cheryl - No Report
Audrey - 0.8 LOSS
Christy - 3.0 LOSS
Tina - No Report
Danielle - 2.0 LOSS
Jessie - No Report
Steph - No Report
CYN - No Change

This week’s total - 3.5 LOSS!

FYI: Thyroid Cancer

Last month was Thyroid Cancer Awareness month and would you know that I forgot write a post. Never fear. It's not too late to let you in on some interesting thyroid facts and how you can do a thyroid check at home. Here is some information I have gotten from a thyroid newsletter written by Mary Shomon at thyroid.about.com:

The American Cancer Society estimates that 37,340 new cases of thyroid cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year, most of them in women.

An estimated 1,590 people will die of thyroid cancer during 2008. Thyroid cancer is, however, considered one of the least deadly and most survivable cancers, and 5-year survival rates for thyroid cancer is almost 97%.

Thyroid cancer is more common in younger people, and nearly two-thirds of those diagnosed with thyroid cancer are between the ages of 20 and 55.

Thyroid cancer is one of the few cancers on the rise in recent years, with a growth rate of about 6% a year since 1997. Many experts believe that the increase is primarily due to greater use of thyroid ultrasound, which is better able to detect previously malignant thyroid nodules that, in the past, likely went undetected.

Here are the steps for doing a thyroid self-check: **important note: This will not rule out thyroid disease or thyroid cancer. For accurate diagnosis, please see your physician**

1. Stand in front of a mirror

2. Stretch neck back

3. Swallow water

4. Look for enlargement in neck (below the Adam's Apple, above the collar bone)

5. Feel area to confirm enlargement or bump

6. If any problem is detected, see a doctor

Taking It Off Together Tuesday Week #17

Well, I haven't gotten the official report from Leigh yet in regards to everyone's weekly weigh in, but I thought I would go ahead and post my own right now and add the rest when available.

This week I am down one pound! Do you know what this means? This means that I am finally at my mini goal of being 210! W00t! Woot! Holla! It's amazing that I lost weight without exercising, but I'm going to chalk it up to my eating habits. I really don't eat a lot of junk food anymore. Every once in awhile I do get cravings, and I'll satisfy them. I just don't go overboard.

I really need to get back into my exercise groove. I didn't do any this week with the exception of when the family and I went out for a day of bowling. Later that night my legs were killing me. That always happens if I'm doing more activity than normal. When I was a keno runner in vegas, I would go to break, sit down to have my meal, then when it was time to go back, I'd have problems getting up. My legs were both numb and sore. Never thought that could be possible, did you? My legs never did this, nor the rest of my body, until I got Hashimoto's. To this day, no matter what I do in regards to physical activity, this is how my body reacts. I'm o.k. with it now. It used to be really bad until my medications got changed. It's a lot more manageable.

One thing that's been going on lately, and probably the reason I haven't been exercising, is that I'm having trouble sleeping again. I am going to bed at around 3 AM every night. Then I'm up early to get the kids off to school. If I can get a good solid eight hours, I can usually function well through the day. If I'm sleeping like I've been, I require a nap during the day which I really hate to do. Hopefully I can get myself on a schedule of some sort. It's probably the only way to deal with this.

***Edit***This week our contest is sponsored by Julie! She is offering a copy of the Biggest Loser Cookbook as a prize this week! If you’d like to sponser a prize, let me know! We are currently out of prizes!

The names of this week’s “losers” were dropped into a coffee cup and this week’s WINNER is Grace!

Congrats to Clara for being this week’s biggest loser of 2 pounds!! Be sure to cruise over to her blog and congratulate her!

Chris - 3.5 GAIN
Tammy - 0.5 GAIN
Life With Hashi-Thyroid Blog - 1.0 LOSS
Grace - 0.2 LOSS
Leigh - 0.5 LOSS
Clara - 2.0 LOSS
Dette - 0.5 LOSS
Julie - 1.0 LOSS
Cheryl - No Change
Audrey - 0.8 GAIN
Christy - 0.6 GAIN
Tina - no report
Danielle - 1.0 LOSS
Jessie - No Change
Steph - no report
CYN - no report

This week’s total - 0.8 LOSS!

Signs of A Stroke

Every once in awhile, my husband's work sends out a health newsletter. There have been some really great tips in it. This month's issue has something that I think is important to get out there...the warning signs of a stroke.

Symptoms of Stroke:

*Sudden confusion or trouble speaking
*Numbness or weakness of the face, arms, legs, especially on one side.
*Sudden trouble seeing
*Sudden trouble walking
*Dizziness or loss of balance
* Severe headache with no known cause.

A stroke is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. If you know the signs, you can act immediately. Getting help quickly can save brain tissue and decrease long-term damage.