I have slowly been losing weight. Now if you know anything about thyroid disease, that's a feat in itself. But when I mean slowly, I mean roughly about 15 pounds in a year and half. I will be honest, I tried a lot of things, and when I was working, I was constantly on the move for 7 hours (hr for break time). I'm discovering things along the way.
Here's what I'm discovering:
- Had it not been for my asking to be put on T3 meds, I would probably still be taking 3-4 hour naps just to get through the day.
- Now that I'm on the T3 meds, I am functioning a lot better and my labs have been good for almost 2 yrs now.
- I've been finally able to lose some kind of weight. I never could in the first ten years. I either kept from gaining, or when my meds weren't right, I would just gain & gain.
- There are certain things that I know will trigger swelling if I eat or drink them.
- I need to find more will power to stay away from those triggers.
- Soda is probably my biggest downfall despite the fact that I have been slowly tapering off.
- Extreme heat/sun makes me swell and feel bad.
- Soda makes me swell BIG time.
- I have to exercise at least 5x a week for 30 minutes without fail. The minute I cut down to two or three times a week, I start gaining again. It's unfair really.
- If I forget to take my Cytomel just once during the day, I'm feeling it the next day.
Knowing all these things, I still do them. It's time for me to break out of this habit and start kicking butt.
Time for another pic. I decided I would put up another photo each time I lost TEN pounds. Remember this photo from Yosemite? If you 'click to biggefy', you can see my stomach shape. Ewww. LOL
Here I am about ten pounds lighter. Why is it when women lose weight it always shows right around the waist first, but nowhere else? I lost about 2-3 inches in waist size, but only one in the hips, arms, and not-so-sure about the thighs. All I know is that since I've made more of an effort with exercise the last two weeks, and it's paying off a little. I also truly believe that starting the Cytomel helped me in the weight loss effort. With just the Levothroid alone, I wasn't able to lose and was needing three hour naps!
Crikey! I'm a bit lumpy. LOL
This week has been one of ups and downs, both weight wise and emotionally. I fluctuated a LOT. I was anywhere between 214 and 218 during the week. I had a lot of myxedema ('swelling' which I mentioned in Thyroid Story part 1, and it's something I'll get into more later). It looks like we are doing great ladies. Even if we gain, we know how much we can fluctuate in the weight loss journey. A lot of things affect our weigh-ins, too, such as weighing in after eating, later in the day, drinking too much caffeine (which can cause swelling). It's a roller coaster with many twist and turns, but at the end, you get off feeling good, right??
Now I'm off to visit everyone. :)
Chris - 1.0 loss!
Tammy - 5.0 loss!
Ciara-Life With Hashi-Thyroid Blog -1.0 loss!
Grace - (out of town...I will update when she gets back)Update: .8 loss!
Leigh - 3.0 GAIN! ARG!
Clara - 5.0 loss!
Dette- 0.5 gain
Julie - 0 (first week! Welcome aboard!)
I've been really slacking in the exercise department. I haven't done any since Saturday when I went to my Dance 4 Fitness class. I've been weighing in for a couple of weeks TRYING my damnedest to go from 216 to 215. There was no sense in posting the weigh in if it hadn't changed. But today is different.
I don't know exactly how I'm managing to go down in weight without exercising everyday, eating some things I shouldn't have, and being on corticosteroid inhaler. Today's weigh in is at 215 so I'm going to knock on wood, not complain, and try to do better. I still have my first goal of getting down to 210. I think I'm finally on my way. :)
As I mentioned in my last post I would have tips or things of interest in regards to diet. I know with as busy as our home lives are, we tend to do the fast food thing. We often don't make the right choices in regards to the food we eat when we are out. Being informed is key, and that's why I'm totally loving the nutrition sections you can find on all your favorite fast food sites (Taco Bell, Wendys, Arbys, McDonald's, etc.). Most of them have a 'customize' your selection. Here you can see all the nutritional information...don't want cheese? Just remove the cheese from your selection and the new totals appear.
Burger King has the 3-1-1 on food. Here you can find tips on carbs, fat, etc., to help you make the right choices when eating at there. McDonald's has meal selections. This could be a combination of an egg mcmuffin with orange juice for breakfast. It, too, has the low down on the carbs, fat, etc.
I know that I had been ordering a Toasted Classic Italian Sub from Arby's with everything that came on it. The calorie of that baby was more than half of my caloric intake for the day! When I checked to see the values after I had started ordering it without the ham, garlic mayo, and italian dressing, it cut the calories down by over 200! Just taking out the mayo cut twenty, yes TWENTY grams of fat out of the meal, and 183 calories!
Sometimes I can't help but order things with everything on it, but, here's where another tip comes in, you have to burn 3500 calories just to lose 1 pound of fat. I have to ask myself is something worth it to have to work twice as hard to get it off? Most times it's no. I know you're thinking 'It should be all the time', but I don't think people necessarily have to deprive themselves. Treat yourselves once in awhile...the key is MODERATION.
