Long battle back from Grave's disease...

Good afternoon!

Hope you're all doing well today! As I mentioned before, I've been battling Grave's disease and the insanity that goes with it. It took several months to figure out what was wrong. Once diagnosed, it was a six month long trial and error to get my numbers back under control. Good news is, I don't have a huge lump in my throat anymore! Bad news is, the medicine caused me to gain back all of the weight I had lost to hyperthyroidism, plus 30 pounds! I am now the Poofy chick. ;)

Here's a photo of the huge "hot nodule" in my throat before treatment:

A year later. Not gone, but better. :)

Boy has that been a battle! When you gain weight from medication or illness, it's nearly impossible to get it off again. When you're used to weighing 105 pounds and suddenly you weigh 135 pounds? It can be quite depressing! I refused numerous attempts by my doctor to force me to have radiation therapy. I told her each time that I don't want to be obese in my elder years of life. First off, I can't afford to buy new clothes and it's unhealthy to be 50+ pounds overweight in your 50s and 60s! Seriously?! She's a doctor, she should know better! She kept trying to insist weight gain wasn't a side affect. I said: "When I came in here? I weighed 89 pounds! After treatment just with medication to reverse things, I'm 135 pounds! My normal weight is 105 pounds! I am NOT going to kill my thyroid and be a slave to medication the rest of my life!" She's not happy with me.  Too bad! She's not the one dieting and working out and seeing zero results! (I am finding some cute clothes at Goodwill, to get me through until I'm back to normal!) :)

I haven't been on medication for over a year now. My Grave's disease is in remission. So why am I still 30 pounds heavier??? I have searched high and low for a solution. So far, what seems to be working is eating vegetarian (no meat, but some cheese, eggs and dairy, still.) I'm also limiting my calorie intake, gave up late night snacks for Lent and started nothing but the treadmill at the gym. I figure if someone like Kevin Smith can lose hundreds of pounds walking 5 miles a day? Why can't I lose 30 pounds? I'm tracking everything I eat and drink and my exercise on a neat little app called: Nutritionix. You can also track it online and make your own recipes so it's just one entry to make instead of 5 or six for one meal: www.nutritionix.com

A few days ago, I remembered that when losing weight, you're supposed to "lose" and then "build". So I changed my strategy to nothing but walking on the treadmill every day. I'm up to 3 miles now and I'm increasing it a half a mile a day until I get up to 5 miles each day. I also remembered, that I'm not supposed to walk any faster than I can walk and talk at the same time. To my surprise? I lost 3 pounds last week. So...onto the 5 mile mark!

I'm learning French while walking too. I keep my iPod charged and sit it up on the treadmill so I can listen and watch the videos while I walk, hands free. This guy is really good and has a LOT of videos. You could even learn French while sleeping. :)  Learn French While Walking

The "poofy chick" will keep you posted! :)