My Lazy Thyroid

Last winter, as it happens, we had the necessary paperwork so we decided to see if we qualified for VA benefits. As it happens, since both of us had served in the Army, both of us qualified, and since my summer job wage isn't all that impressive, and since my husband is unemployed, we qualify for 100% coverage, to include transportation to and from appointments. (We'll be testing that this winter)

Anyway, as part of our initiation, I got a blood test, and, other than being otherwise healthy, my thyroid was a mite lazy. I think they started me out on the lightest prescription, and after another blood test, they were happy with my numbers - woohoo. Now I get to take a pill for the rest of my days. That's okay - it's just a little thing, but I have to take it first thing in the morning, and then not eat or drink anything except water for half an hour - so much for my cup of coffee first thing in the morning.

However, I may have discovered my magic pill, just as I wanted. I had hopes that it would indeed be magic, that all my extra weight would melt away and I would get down to an ideal weight. Ah, but it didn't work that way. Hopes not withstanding, I knew it was doing something because I stopped gaining weight. I was 217 pounds when I weighed in for my physical, and that's where I stayed, not counting a slight monthly fluctuation. Even though I'd stopped bleeding every month long ago, my body still did it's water retention, making me tired once a month, and then I would get rid of it a few days later. I gained almost five pounds during that time, but then I was back down to 217 pounds. Well then, that was an improvement at least. Putting on a pound a week (or so) all winter long, and then being unable to get rid of all of it during the summer was getting very old. My new hope was that I might lose my summer's weight and not gain it back during the winter.

Update:

As of the third week of October - almost two months into my winter's non-working schedule, I have yet to gain a single pound - I'm thrilled. I started my summer at 217 pounds, give or take one or two pounds, and I ended the summer at 196 pounds. I need to get down to 190 before I stop snoring, but this is a good start. I'm thrilled. Best of all, I can eat again - within reason. I still eat not so much potatoes, but I can enjoy homemade bread and homemade cinnamon rolls now. I keep my indulgences to a minimum, but it's still kinda nice. Oh, and corn. I like corn, but since my husband can't eat the vegetable, I don't order it. I did, however, order some popcorn. I really like popcorn. I have missed popcorn.

Can I do the same next year? I certainly hope so. I do intend to try. It will be so nice not to start my summer feeling like a whale. Being out of shape is bad enough.

Update #2 - second year:

Went back to town for another winter and the flight thing didn't work quite as we'd been led to believe. I just love how they tell you bits of information only if you wring it out of them. My son paid for our chopper flight in, but we were able to get reimbursed for that, so, woohoo for that. What they didn't tell us was that we had to go back within 30 days to get the return flight paid for. I asked specifically about staying for several months and they said it was cool, just let them know. Ggrrrrr Even though we had more appointments just before coming out, they refused to pay for our flight back home because it had been too long. 

Anyway, as to my thyroid issue. Blood tests said my thyroid was lazy again, even with my nifty little pills so she increased the dosage. Sigh. Anyway, after taking that pill for like 3 months, I decided to quit entirely and stop taking them. My body has a bad habit. It tends to do the opposite of what medicines are supposed to do. I notice it most when I take pills that might make me drowsy. I got a pretty big buzz after taking Tylenol with Codeine when I had my wisdom teeth taken out. The thyroid controls not only weight but also energy. Supposedly, with it working properly, I should have lots of energy (which would also help me to burn off fat). However, I felt kinda tired. Nothing major - I wasn't exhausted, and I do like to sleep. Maybe I'd have noticed nothing if I was working, but thanks to this virus, I've been home. The thing that confirms my decision was that I actually felt better after I stopped. More alert. It will be something I'll talk about with my Dr. next time I see her. I tried sending a message, but I never got a reply. It is my belief that my slightly lazy thyroid is what it is, and it will refuse to be corrected. To keep trying to mess with it is to dig a danger hole I may never be able to get out of. 

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The Weight Loss Battle

Ever since coming to town, I have been searching for the magic formula to help me lose weight. It has to be something simple, because I'm doing all the right things that should result in at the very least no weight gain (well maybe with the exception of hours of aerobics). I shouldn't weight 215 pounds, having put on nearly 20 pounds since the end of my work season. 

The first thing we tried is breaking out the juicer and him teaching me how to juice. It's something I can't do at home, but it was worth a try to help me lose weight - nada. Next my son bought a NeutraBullet blender - he'd been wanting one since his old one broke. Still nada on the weight loss, but they both contributed to my decrease in desire for good old fashioned red meat. 

Most recently I've been battling heartburn - something I battle most every winter when I get over 200 pounds. It seems like everything I eat gives me heartburn, like I just ate a bowl of oats, and I think I might be ramping up to some heartburn - sucks. I'm drinking water in the hopes of heading it off. Over the last week or so, I've discovered that yogurt and bacon (baked on a rack) doesn't give me heartburn. I need to go get some more bacon. Too bad I can't get yogurt at home, except during the summer. It just doesn't keep very long.

Now that I'm in town, my son and I have been doing some experimenting and some research. We've discovered that niacin helps to clean plaque out of blood vessels, which in itself improves circulation. This might address my swollen feet when I get too heavy. That has not been a miracle cure, but the issue has improved. I'm also taking horse chestnut pills to help with my swollen feet - mind you, they don't hurt, they just look like balloons. Niacin also helps with depression (something I have no trouble with, but I have friends who do so I'm sharing). According to the YouTube thing we watched, these guys (doctors) have been successfully treating cancer and the really bad depression with mega doses of vitamin C and Niacin respectively. Both you cannot overdose on. One of their stories about niacin was this severely depressed woman who had a family with children. She took tons of medicine to address her depression, and the best she could manage was to come out of her room to sit in the corner of the living room, facing the corner. She started taking some niacin as prescribed by her doctor, but it wasn't having much of an affect. She went off the deep end and tried to take her life by overdosing on the niacin. Lo and Behold, the depression just vanished. NO OTHER ADVERSE AFFECTS WHAT SO EVER. She joined her family at the dinner table and everything. Of course she needed high doses of niacin to continue that level of interaction, but I think she went off all her other medication. I'd have to watch the show again to be sure. Look up Food Matters on YouTube and search for Drs. Abram Hoffer, Andrew W. Saul, and Harold D. Foster.

Another thing we discovered is iodine. Iodine is in salt, you say, but we learned that THAT iodine is among the poorest kind. Iodine targets the thyroid which, as we all know, does whatever it does to regulate our weight among other things. I am pretty sure my problem may well be genetic, but that doesn't mean I can't fight it. I ordered Survival Shield iodine from Amazon yesterday and will start taking it next week when it gets here, so wish me luck there. HOWEVER, in doing some of my homework, I discovered that it can also address depression. According to everything I looked up, Iodine deficiency is the fastest growing epidemic in the country, and maybe the world, because of the growing popularity of sea salt and such.

My getting iodine from my salt certainly has not helped me. I have, all my life, been a salt-aholic, frequently licking salt from the palm of my hand as well as dousing everything I eat. I love the taste of salt. Not long ago I heard about the high mineral content of Himalayan salt, so I went to the store and bought a grinder. Suddenly, I find myself actually needing to remember to salt my foods. The craving is just gone. That iodine I mentioned above comes from the same source and is the cleanest in the world. Iodine is found in kelp, but thanks to Fukushima the ocean is becoming increasingly radioactive, not to mention the rate of pollution. Iodine also comes in the form of a tincture, but what they mix it with to make it a tincture is one of the things that inhibit it's affects. I'll have to watch the YouTube things again, but I think I heard there that the fluoride and the chlorine added to our drinking water for very good reasons also messes up our thyroid. 

I came across this website - EWG's Tap Water Database - that shined a rather freaky light on what actually is in our water. Just enter your zip code or scroll down and click on your state. You'll get a list of cities where water is provided from, just click on the one closest to you. Of course, this site is there to sell you water filters, but since they suggest all brands, I don't think they're too biased, especially since they refer you to Amazon for the most part. I'm happy to say our water seems to be pretty clear. There's a little runoff affect, and in my opinion, too much chlorine, because I can smell it, but some of the other things I saw were truly shudder-worthy.

That is the sum of my experimenting and research to date. Wish me luck in finding my magic pill, or drop, or whatever. I SO want to permanently get rid of all this extra weight.

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Weight Loss

For years and years - pretty much ever since I had kids - I have battle my weight, constantly gaining a little each year over the year before. Back in July of 2011 I tried a diet that worked wonders for my best friend from high school. It worked wonders for me too, for the first go-around. I'd bought 2 go-arounds and the second one didn't take off a single ounce. I lost 50 pounds with the first round, so I was happy with that. However, I couldn't keep the pounds off. I tried many strategies - eating less, not eating this or that, avoiding that or this if possible. Keeping an eye pealed for something I could get that might work. Living out here, I am handicapped by what I can eat. I can't run to the store for fresh veggies or salad fixings and I can't keep such things here for very long - I don't have a refrigerator, but even if I did, I still can't keep fresh things here. If it isn't frozen, canned or dry, I can't keep it around.

This last winter, the lymph nodes in my face flared up for some unknown reason and it got a little scary so I went to town to see a Dr. However, by the time I got there it was all done and over, so I turned the trip into a shopping trip. I wasn't about to shell out $200 to chat with a Dr. about what might have cause them and I had no other reason to visit one. Anyway, my son juices so he was juicing things for me. Tasted good, but it didn't have the desired affect on my weight - quite the contrary.

During my shopping, one thing I needed was vitamins so I was looking for the Centrum ones I'd always had (at least for the last few years). When someone else does your shopping for you, you kinda take what they send you and these seemed pretty good so what the heck. They were one-a-day's, but I took one in the afternoon too (if I remembered to take one with me) at work. During the winter I mostly didn't take them at all. They were (hopefully) my energy source to get me through the day. Taking one also helped me remember to drink enough water throughout the day - something I'm not so good at, but I'm getting better.

Long story short, my son scoffed at the manufactured vitamins I was after and had me get instead these all natural ones. The brand name is CODE. You should seriously check them out.

The OCD in me wouldn't let me just throw out the old ones, so I religiously took them twice a day like always starting shortly before going back to work. I'd reached 200 pounds again and I was looking forward to working off a few pounds at work. My sedentary life here during the winter does me no good. I know this, but my little 1/4 mile walk to the boats and back doesn't really accomplish anything but to get me out of the house for a little while.

I know I'm strong. I believe I am stronger than most women my size and age, but carrying around 50-60 extra pounds every waking and sleeping moment of my life kinda wears on me after a while. Never call a fat person weak; depending on how much weight they're carrying around, believe me, you wouldn't want to do the same be it extra weight or a rucksack.

Work starts out with me trying to figure out what goes where and where it all is, that and catching up on all the laundry fast enough so incoming staff can have clean bedding. I swear everyone just packed up and left at the end of last year - I don't know - maybe they did. After I got the laundry-room caught up I started getting the flowerbeds tilled. I have a garden claw for this, but it's still work and my back and feet would ache after not very long. Then, to interrupt my work, the girl hired to clean the lodge wasn't doing her job. Her definition of cleaning was to clean what you can see, which might be fine most of the time, but to start of it needs to be move everything and scrub everything - there's a whole winter's worth of dust and bugs and whatever to clean up before you can get away with taking shortcuts. Anyway, she got fired and they really needed help in there so that's what I did until they got a new girl in. It set me back about a week, so baby plants weren't getting planted and weeds were having a field day, not to mention getting into cabins.

Cleaning in the lodge meant crawling around and checking under things, and cleaning under things. Going over every piece of furniture and cleaning them from one end to the other. Wiping down walls (I didn't get to all of them). You get the picture. I was mostly done with what I could do around coming and going day fishermen when the new girl arrived and then I had a week to get the gardens all done and move on to the cabins. Millions of thanks to the guys for helping me with the rocks around most of the more up front gardens. After that in was into the cabins where I wiped down the walls, crawling around, on top of, and under the bunks in search of cobwebs and dust. I even found some left over flood silt here and there (after 4 years I was surprised and disappointed by that, I can tell you). It wasn't bad though - not where it really counted. After that it was making beds. That entailed up and down a ladder for each layer if it was an upper bunk and there were 2 in most of the cabins. Thank goodness I only had five cabins to worry about at the time.

On top of all of this exercise, our 4-wheeler decided it didn't want to go anymore. That left me hauling things back and forth with a 2-wheeled cart. I had to carry barrels down to the boats in order to take some to work to be filled (they didn't have barrels to be filled with gas; their gas was pumped directly into big tanks). I also had to haul down propane tanks (thank goodness we aren't using the big tanks) and to add insult to injury, we ran out of gas here so I was hauling five gallons at a time back up to the house as needed. I was starting to feel like a mule (and wishing I had one). Groceries were supposed to come last week and I was seriously dreading the ordeal of figuring out how I was going to get it all to the house. But now the 4-wheeler works again so I'm spared most of that worry. No idea what the issue was with the darn thing, but it works - no more cart.

Long story - longer than I intended - but the gist of it all was that through it all, I didn't lose more than maybe a pound or two. Never try to tell me that exercise and eating right will melt the pounds away. Don't try to tell me that muscle weighs more than fat and I must have been building muscle as I was losing the fat. That may be true - a little - but it certainly didn't make my feet hurt less.

Finally, about 5 weeks after I started work, I ran out of my old vitamins and start those new ones my son wanted me to get. Also during that time, I was getting a little desperate so I asked my best friend if she had any of that hcg stuff that worked so well. She did so I bought it. I guess it's hard to come by these days, having gone out of style or something. Maybe it worked too well and the FDA put the pressure on them. I also ordered some diet stuff from a neighbor out here. And some tea my daughter-in-law had given me a while back but I'd used up. The tea and some of the stuff from my neighbor is cleansing and the pills do whatever they do. I just got it, but I haven't opened any of it yet.

Back to those CODE vitamins: Ever since I started taking them (I went with the one pill twice a day at first), I started losing weight SLOWLY. That was fine with me. Slow is good as long as it goes. I also recently learned that I might be suffering from a vitamin D deficiency at least during the winter. I get scaly spots on my face during the winter and I ran across an article that indicated that might be a D deficiency. Well, guess what - If I take these vitamins as recommended, I get 100% of that too. Hmmm Something to see about anyway. So I decided to take the 2 pills in the morning and 2 in the evening (when I remembered - most of the time) and see how things develop.

Yes, the weight is coming off and I have energy. My feet still hurt if I'm on them all day, but that's getting better. I have my finger crossed. Wouldn't it be a hoot if my weight problem was some kind of enzyme or probiotic shortage? Just like with hcg, my hunger and cravings have decreased, my energy level has increased, and the pounds are coming off. I don't lead a toxic life. I don't eat manufactured foods more than maybe once a year, so cleansing isn't necessary. I SO wish this keeps working. Needless to say, I've asked my son to get me more of those vitamins. I mean, seriously, if they're actually a benefit, I'm all for it. Wish me luck.

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I Really Must Laugh

I have never been one to worry about my clothes. How well they fit. Whether they match. How worn they are, or stained. Not unless I'm going to work anyway. Now that I've lost over 40 pounds, most of which is gone from my butt and from my belly, things fit - well - differently. It is only to be expected of course, but sometimes something will take me a bit by surprise and I have to laugh about it all.

Back in 2008, when I was in Fairbanks publishing my book, I bought a few clothes. One thing was a pair of pajama pants, they were hard weave (not a knit fabric) and they were comfortable enough, but a little tight for sitting. I hardly ever wore them. Recently I figured I better start wearing these clothes I'd bought way back when or I would completely un-grow them and miss my chance. It was a near thing with those pants. A couple more inches from around my middle and they would be falling off. I'm going to have to shorten the elastic in the waist. haha

Another thing which struck me today. At the same time, in Fairbanks I found a jacket, and I've worn it a lot since then. It's a very nice jacket with fake sheepskin lining and a nice brown cotton shell, with a hood too. It is my winter jacket 90% of the time. I bought it because the sleeves weren't a foot too long AND I could zip it up. Something very important to me, especially for a winter jacket. I put it on today for the first time since last winter. The waist is now very loose, though not so loose that I won't continue to wear it.

My boss gave me a summer jacket a couple years ago. They had to guess at the size and it turned out to be too small in a way. The sleeves are a bit long but the waist was like three inches short of zipping. Since it was a summer jacket I wasn't too worried about that. If it was raining, I had a poncho to wear when I drove the boat. Otherwise it worked well enough. It too was plenty warm enough for summer's chilly morning boat drives. By the time summer's rainy season started I could zip it up and now this jacket too is a bit loose around the waist. haha I'm not giving it up though. It's a great jacket and it has my name monogrammed on it.

There's another laughable thing I wear and smile about. For years I've wanted a new pistol belt. The one I have was getting too short. Even on the last hole, it was tight, and I had to wear it up around my ribs. Now, though I still wear it on the last hole, it now hangs loosely down around my hips where I like to wear it.  If it weren't for my pistol making for a lopsided weight, I'm sure I would lose it entirely. My pistol sits down on my thigh out from under my elbow; all I need is a tie-down for it to ride like any good gun-slinger's pistol should ride.

There are other things I've un-grown - things I never thought to have trouble with. Yeah, I'll surely have to go shopping when I hit town.

It is what it is

My life is what my life is, and this time of year there is nothing to it but to wait for the seasons to change. I pulled one of the two boats we had in the water today. I'll keep watch on the water level. So far, it's raining enough to maintain things, but that's got to end soon. There is one thing going in my life right now that I'm rather thrilled about. I'm losing weight for the first time in a long time and I feel great - greater by the day.

I consider my body like unto a machine. A well-cared-for machine operates well and lasts long. This 'machine' however has been overloaded for a long time, and we all know that can lead to problems. My problems were sore feet, a stiff back and poor sleep. Poor sleep can also lead to problems but to date, I'd managed to avoid them.

Now that I'm shedding all those extra pounds, my feet aren't sore anymore and I'm sleeping tons better. My back is still stiff first thing in the morning, but then I'm no spring chicken anymore either, a few aches and pains are to be expected when you reach my age. My age - well back in June I felt about 80. What did I know what 50something was supposed to feel like?  My weight gain had been gradual over the last 30 years, and over the last five or so it would fluctuate from five to ten pounds as I went from winter's quiet to summer's work and back again. That didn't mean that I still didn't end up a couple pounds heavier at the end of it all.

July 24 was the last day of my first session with the hcg drops and I had lost 30 pounds over the 40 days previous, ending at 173 pounds. No longer did I feel like I was an 80 year old grandmother badly in need of retirement. Now I felt like, heck, I say I felt ten years younger, but I'm thinking I felt better than that - younger - nearly like a kid again - haha - well almost.

There is a six week break between sessions and during that time I continued to lose the weight albeit at a slower rate. I was at 160 pounds when I started my second session ten days ago and already I've shed over five pounds. It's been a long time since there has been a 5 as the middle number of my weight.

My husband keeps saying little things like, "There's a lap between your knees and your belly." and "I can feel some ribs now." Course that's not all he says, but that's all I'm willing to put on here. hahaha No I'm not getting bony. It's just that it's been a long time since ribs and hip bones have been findable without some digging.

My goal is somewhere in the 130+ range, hopefully less than 140 pounds. It's where I was way back when. It looks like I just might get there. This old 'machine' is more than ready to unload all this extra weight. It's certainly not doing me any good.

The biggest question I get is, "How do you deal with eating only 500 calories?" I don't understand calories and I don't count them. Heck, it would take me an hour just to weigh or measure what I eat to figure it out and I am too lazy to put that much effort into what I eat, plus no one ever counts all the extra calories that are floating around in your body already - that's the fat I'm talking about - that unwanted extra weight. These drops tell you body that they count too. So what if I only consume only 500 calories or so, I've got plenty to spare. I just don't eat what the diet says I should avoid and gestimate how much I am eating. It's working so who am I to complain. The people who have been, or are on, this diet have gone to great lengths to invent recipes to satisfy all you cooks out there but I haven't tried them. They look and sound really great. You could probably feed your whole family from these dishes and you'd all eat better. After all, you don't really need oil or sugar. I'll email a list of those recipes to anyone who wants to try some. Heck, I'll send anyone the whole pdf and you can read up on the study if you like.