I have REALLY neglected this blog.  Big happenings in our little lives since I last posted...
We were blessed with a sweet baby last August after a year of lazily trying to get pregnant.  Alexander James brightens our days and makes us laugh.  We are so happy & can't wait to see the person he becomes.  I can't believe he will be a year old at the end of this month.   I could gush all day about what a better person I've become since he's been born.

Anyway, I have done fairly well, autoimmune wise since he was born.  I lost a lot of hair when I quit nursing, but it's growing in nicely.
I plan on blogging more here, as I have really let my weight loss go as well as fitness and have suffered a resurgence of depression & fatigue lately.  Please follow my continuing journey.

Paleo?

I've been toying around with a paleo/primal diet for a while now.  I was following the Weight Watchers Points Plus program during the spring, but found it very restrictive with my allergies.  In addition to gluten intolerance, I found that while following Weight Watchers, I seemed to suffer from ear infections and sinus issues, possibly due to my consumption of dairy & non-gluten grains, which WW emphasizes.  I read The Paleo Solution  recently, and Robb Wolf makes so much sense writing about our diet & connection to disease. 
So, yesterday I started the diet recommended by Robb.  I have cut out dairy (I believe it causes headaches for me), soda, all high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and processed foods.  I am eating some canned food, just because I have it to use up and we waste enough food around here as it is.  I know it is time intensive, but again, I have to invest time in myself.  I was "glutened" last week, because I didn't take my food with me to work.  Relying on others to prepare my food is relying on disaster for me.  I have to work 6 of the next 7 days & don't have time for stomach issues. 
I plan on following this way of eating for the next 30 days.  Recently, I suffered from a headache (constantly) for 58 days in a row.  Ibuprofen and aspirin are not the answers to a headache.  I have to find the source. 

Life's A Beach... Sometimes

So, I'm on vacation this week at the beach.  I'm not staying on the ocean, but that's okay.  Just getting away is good for the soul.  I've found on this autoimmune journey that I have to take time out for me.  I have learned to say no.  I have to accept that I probably will not ever be able to go like I did when I was 25 or even 30.  Some people may ask, "why do you have to accept that?"  To those people, I say, I don't want or need to go like that.  I was working 2 jobs, smoking a pack or pack and a half of cigarettes a day, and going out on the 1 or 2 nights a week I was not working.  I weighed over 300 pounds.  I now crave a night at home in my snuggie, with my hubby, and watching a movie while enjoying a glass of wine with some crab dip.  Living that old life helped drive me to some of the lows I had with my Hashimoto's disease.  It also helped create some anger issues that I had to seek therapy for when I was at my lowest point. 
I'm on vacation this week.  I've napped 3 or 4 times already and it's only Wednesday.
Peace.

Oops... I forgot

I had forgotten to post here lately.  Life has been going pretty good.  Hubby lost his job, but God has blessed us with another opportunity that we believe will be so much better than his old job.  We hope he starts next week.  We have started a few projects on our home that we have wanted to do for a while now.  We painted the outside of the house & have had a new heating and air unit installed.  Now, we are going to paint the inside of the house and eventually get new flooring throughout the house!!  I can't wait.  I'm so excited.
I started a new job in March.   I am so happy I switched jobs.  Driving over an hour to & from work everyday was getting old.  I love my 10 minute commute.  I enjoy my co-workers & feel really appreciated.
I had a little blip in my hormones in the last 6 weeks or so.  I think I'm back to being adjusted now, so hopefully I can pick up my weight loss journey again.  I'm hoping to start more exercise soon. 

It All Started Almost 3 Years Ago... Part 2

So after several more months of worsening fatigue, weight gain, and depression, I finally had researched enough to know there was something more than regular standard hypothyroidism going on.  I found a WONDERFUL Nurse Practitioner about 100 miles from home that specialized in women's health and endocrine disorders.  In March 2009 I had my initial appointment with her.  She did TONS of testing and suggested several changes to my diet, prescribed Armour Thyroid (T3 & T4 replacement & totally old school, so not a big profit maker for the drug companies), and just gave me words of encouragement.  I started implementing the changes she suggested, and although the changes didn't happen overnight, I started to feel better.  I had a thyroid ultrasound that showed multiple nodules on my thyroid as well as received all of the results from the many tests my NP ran.  All of those results coupled with my symptoms confirmed my suspicions that I suffer from Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (or Disease), an autoimmune disease that causes my body to recognize my thyroid gland as foreign and sends antibodies to destroy my thyroid.  I also don't convert T4 to T3 in my body, the reason the levothyroxine (T4 only hormone) didn't do diddly for my symptoms.  I also have low vitamin D & Vitamin B12. 
I cut gluten from my diet (there is a strong correlation between Hashi's and gluten).  I tried to eat as much organic produce as I could find and afford. 
I saw a surgeon for the nodules on my thyroid.  After watching the nodules via ultrasound for six months, I had a fine needle biopsy of my thyroid, which was inconclusive, suggestive of papillary thyroid cancer.  The surgeon suggested surgery & I agreed, because this surgeon was convinced it was just Hashimoto's, and just needed watching.  I had my left thyroid lobe taken out and have felt soooo much better ever since!  It was as if my thyroid was so poisoned that it was effecting my whole being.  (I must say there are many people that have not had as much success as I have after a thyroidectomy... I feel for those people, because I DO know that helpless feeling)
Since my thyroidectomy, I've slowly lost 30 pounds.  I have recently started Weight Watchers, and have lost 5 pounds so far.  I know I will lose slowly, as I have no thyroid, so my metabolism is naturally slow.  I will win this fight. 

It all started almost 3 years ago... Part One

I was married in late spring 2008.  I was soooo happy to have found my prince at 32 years old and to have a fairy tale wedding.  About 2 weeks after we got back from our honeymoon, I began having weird pain in my right upper abdomen, feeling exhausted all the time, wild mood swings from happy, to angry, to suicidal depression, and weight gain.  The symptoms persisted for the rest of the summer and come fall, I knew I was physically sick.  I asked my GYN to run some thyroid testing during my annual exam.  She did and my TSH (the only test she ran) was 13.1 (normal is 0.35-5.5, although many don't feel optimal when it's above 3.5).  She gave me the standard levothyroxine (T4 only replacement) and sent me on my merry way.  Six weeks later, I felt worse and my TSH had climbed to 13.5.  My GYN accused me of not taking my medicine, but upped the dose of levothyroxine and I continued taking it with no results.  In November 2008, my TSH was still greater than 10, and I was to the point where the only reason I was getting out of bed was to work.  Scary stuff for a newlywed!!!

DH & I on our honeymoon in Dominica