Dreams of a long and healthy life...starting now!

Well, keeping up with blogging is proving to be tricky with a toddler running around all of the time :-).  It also doesn't help that my trusty old laptop decided that it has had enough and, sadly, is no more.  But, I will do what I can, when I can, just like I do with everything else! Now, I know that I am supposed to be putting together ideas and weighing the pros & cons of a Fall wedding...and I will, but I need a breather from wedding planning for a minute. I do think, in fact, I am almost positive that I am going to go with a winter wedding though...we shall see! So excited :-)

For now though, I have decided that it is time to get healthy.  It is a great. lifelong dream of mine to be more comfortable in my own clothes and for that matter, my own skin. I have struggled with my weight for my entire life and I have to say the thought of starting a new routine is discouraging. Mainly because it has been my experience that it takes an enormous amount of effort to break my unhealthy habits and change the way I eat so that I can lose weight....but yet it takes no effort at all to eat what I want, when I want and end up right back to where I started, or worse!  But so it goes. I have to get healthy. And I have to get my family on board, because figuring out one dinner a night is challenging enough!

As far as family history goes, I decided that I was given a lot to work with.  Like me, my Nana had a big family to take care of and also had a healthy baby in her 40's. My mother is in her 70's and still works full time! She is still going strong except for the fact that she has smoked for most of her life which has had the expected impact on her health.  The point of all this is that I think if I start taking better care of myself, I will have many years ahead of me to enjoy with my family and to watch all of my girls grow up.

As if dieting alone isn't difficult enough, during my last pregnancy, I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism.  My doctor took immediate steps to address it because of the danger it posed to my pregnancy.  Thank God they were paying attention!  Anyway, I didn't realize what a drag it is to deal with this condition.  Literally....drag!  A lot of the time that is exactly what I am doing.  Dragging my self out of bed, dragging myself to the store, dragging....well, you get the idea. I am always feeling tired and my mind is foggy.  It has wreaked complete havoc on my memory and worst of all it makes losing weight or keeping weight off very difficult. I really thought I could just take the medicine they prescribed and start feeling better.  Not so.  Most days it feels like the medicine does nothing. In fact, the only evidence I have that the medicine actually works is that when I forget to take it, or if I take it too late in the day, I end up feeling just awful. Apparently, there are many foods that I need to avoid or that I may even be allergic to, that if eaten, exacerbate the problem and even create more problems, like stomach pains. Anyway, I have decided that the days of feeling crappy have got to go.  I am going to see an endocrinologist to make sure that I have been given the right medicine. I am going to get some B12 injections and I'm going to get some testing done so I know how and what to eat. Who knew that I would need such guidance at my age? As a matter of fact, the "what to eat" is becoming a huge dilemma.  Many things that I have read suggest that I might benefit from going gluten-free. Other articles have led me to think that maybe Paleo is the way to go.  Both of those diet/lifestyle changes intimidate me, not only because of the limits the diets impose but also because of the cost. It seems that taking better care of myself isn't gonna be cheap!  And to top it all off, when perusing gluten-free and Paleo recipes, I am seeing a lot of the things on the "hypothyroid do not eat list"! Ugh! Looks like getting started is going to be a challenge but staying with it, will take everything I've got! I will try to document my progress so that I can be accountable to someone or something if I start to lose my way....wish me luck!

Harper Grace-my littlest reason to get healthy ♥

By the way, a resource that I find very useful for questions about hypothyroidism is Hypothyroid Mom And as always, any suggestions and or feedback are always welcome!