Wednesday, April 9, 2008

4/4/06 What is going on in my life

EDIT as I compile these for the new blog: A Live Journal post that I made after getting the first glimmers that nutrition may play a very large part in my healing. Here I started to really turn the corner and was well on my healing journey.

April 4, 2006 What is going on in my life....

Well, it has been a while since I've posted anything of substance. I've been reading and researching tons on my current health issues and I think I'm finally on a path towards healing. I've discovered several imbalances with my hormones and metabolism. (I'm insulin resistant and my adrenal glands are extremely worn out). It is possible that all my hypothyroid symptoms are caused by these imbalances. My bloodwork appears normal because there isn't anything wrong with my actual thyroid gland or the hormones that it is producing. The problem lies in my body's inability to use and convert this at the cellular level. This results in very real low thyroid symptoms because my cells are not properly getting the thyroid hormone my body is producing. The key here, lies in what is causing those symptoms. If it isn't my thyroid gland causing this, it means that I *may* not need medication for the rest of my life. I just need to work to bring my hormones and my metabolism back into balance. It is going to be a long road back to healing though and will probably take the next year or so....

So my current plan lies with a program detailed by an endocrinologist named Diana Schwarzbein in California who wrote a book called the Schwarzbein Principle. She treats diabetes, thyroid problems, etc etc. If any of my friends out there in LJ land (and I probably mean all of you, since I think the majority of americans have screwed up metabolism/hormones) have any issues with weight, or infertility, or depression, or sugar addiction, or caffeine addiction, or nicotine addiction, or chronic fatigue syndrome, or fibromyalgia, or diabetes, or insulin resistance, or any other metabolism issues: I highly suggest you read her books. This is a smart doc with the education and clinical experience to back up her ideas.

So anyway, here is my plan......
Eating balanced meals (protein, carbs, healthy fats, and non-starchy vegetables) and eating 5 times a day (3 meals and 2 snacks). (my habits here were very bad. I'm a hard core breakfast skipper, a meager lunch eater, and a dinner pig. Although what I was eating was healthy, I wasn't eating enough of the right stuff at all, was under-eating all day, and over-eating at dinner. All things that wreak havoc with metabolism)

Continue to drink some caffeine in the form of green tea or black tea to help ease withdrawal symptoms from my body's bad hormone habits (Schwarzbein calls this self-medicating to get through the healing phase).

I've actually managed to completely quit refined sugars already. I've been tapering off over the past year or so and I just finally quit. The most sugar I have these days is a little honey. I don't even have sugar cravings anymore. It isn't willpower, just total non-interest in sugary stuff. Thom and Tammy had icecream last night and I wasn't even interested. I had one bite out of morbid curiosity and that was enough. Usually I would have pigged out on the stuff after getting one taste, LOL.

Get enough sleep at night. (this one is gonna be hard)

Learn to manage stress better (this too is gonna be very hard)

Start doing yoga and then add in some resistance training like pilates and free weights.

So that is it. That is my plan. The hard part is that during healing, I'm going to feel tired, possibly gain a little more weight, be irritable, maybe depressed, etc etc. This is because my body is addicted to its maladaptive habits and I'll basically go through withdrawal. My body has to heal and it won't happen overnight. But once things balance out, I should feel better than I have in a long damn time and should lose all of my weight and get back down to the real me again. :-)

The next year is going to be hard....but I do feel a little better already. I'm tired but it is a different type of tired. I feel like my body is doing hard work. It is healing. I am able to do things again, like cook meals all day. I have motivation despite the fatigue which is a new thing for me.

No comments: