Quote:
Originally Posted by cinnamonsun
@ SprinkL3. You should write a book about this, you sound very educated on this subject and I bet it would help people. I learned a lot from reading that.  And I knew some of it from my background in sociology.
Because of my disease, I am very skinny. But there was a time I was close to obesity. I spent years exercising, counting calories, doing weight loss programs, and trying different diets. The thyroid can actually cause weight gain and no matter what you do, you won't be able to lose all of it because the gain is connected to your thyroid. It tells your body to put on weight not to lose it. People are treated like it's their fault but goodness, I can't imagine anyone overweight sitting around and telling their thyroid they want to gain more weight. I dislike this culture of blaming the individual for medical problems they have. Yes, diet is important, and eating healthy is important. After developing my disease, I was dropping weight without trying. And realized I could eat whatever I wanted and didn't have to count calories for the first time in years. I cried. A whole entire part of my mind was freed because I wasn't so focused on weight loss and trying to make my body be what society says it should be. I ate cheeseburgers and french fries. I ate cookies and cake. I ate all the things I had denied to myself for years and realized how toxic it was to live that way. I feel it's abusive to the self. Don't lose weight to love yourself and convince others to love you; love yourself already, and choose to lose weight as an act of self-love. But also understand you are attractive/beautiful and lovable just as you are.
Let's agree to both learn! I have so many questions and there is so much I'd love to know. I don't care so much about having a longer life span, I feel I have no control over that. But more that I want to be happy and healthy while I am here. We deserve healing, health, and happiness. I am ready to upgrade my experience. |
Thank you, Cinnamonsun!
That's cool you studied sociology. I forgot all the classes I took as an undergrad, but every now and then, I'll have a flashbulb memory.
I will venture to bet it's my thyroid causing my weight gain. I went from 115 pounds (aged 40 or 41 at the time and an undergrad, too) to about 165 in ONLY 2 months. The docs all thought it was college, or my eating habits. But they failed to look at my thyroid. I felt cold all the time, had a calf that kept swelling on me, had low potassium levels at times, had low blood pressure at that time (I'm now struggling with moderately high blood pressure - but not enough to be hypertension or high blood pressure diagnosis), and dealt with swollen neck all the time - still do. But because I'm fat, the docs just think my neck is fat.
When my neck swelled even larger, I went to the VA's ER and they found the thyroid nodule (3mm), but still normal thyroid blood tests (just the two, not the four T tests). Sadly, I moved before I got the referral they gave me for an endocrinologist. The VA here won't assign me to one. It sucks. I might have preventable thyroid problems, and they would rather wait for it to turn into untreatable thyroid cancer before they help me. And even then, they might still ignore me and let me die because Covid-19 patients are the most important right now. I'm really upset. And to blame me for my thyroid, my weight gain, and all, it's a slap in the face.
But yes, my appetite increased. I felt hungry and thirsty all the time. I had no idea what was wrong with me for years. Now that I'm almost 50 and caught in this pandemic, I'm freaking out.
My weight went up to about 185 to 195 by the time I reached 47, which is my age now. I've tried desperately to lose it, but I couldn't. I could starve, but then I'd just gain the weight back.
So, I will try a different healthy lifestyle combining four books - "The Obesity Code Cookbook," "The Diabetes Code Cookbook," Dr. Gourmet's cookbook for GERD, and the FODMAP diet. Whatever is allowed on all four (must be all four only), that's what I'll start eating come December or January. I say those two months because I honestly have to try to eat some of the food I bought, such as canned veggies, frozen veggies, etc. I can give away the starches and stuff like that though. I will keep my wine, and only drink that in moderation or gift wine bottles to local people. I have enough wine to gift a few friends for Christmas.
Besides, that's really what I bought wine for - was to eventually be able to celebrate in person with trusted local friends. Unfortunately, our state is still in crisis standards, and our numbers are still high. I'm so tired of all of this. And they still cry "freedom" in this extremist red state of Idaho, when they don't realize that they are the most free in all 50 states, and their unvaccinated dying party members in the ICUs and ERs are proof of that!
I just want to find ways to cure myself with holistic means, if the docs refuse to treat me with conventional ones.