Now that I know I can blog from work, this might get vewy scary on my bored days...lol. It seems like when I'm at work is the only time anymore that I really get bored. With so much going on for us right now, I'm really suprised the life I'm living is actually mine. To think that not more then a few months ago, I was a loaf of a housewife who spent most of the days sleeping. Amazing how quickly things change.
It wasn't that long ago that when people would ask me, "so, what have you been up to?" I would just kinda stare at them and say pathetically, "not much, just same ole same ole." I didn't have anything to say! There was nothing new going on. Was I really going to tell them about how the cats shit smelled better now that we changed his food, or how I read that you lose more weight sleeping then watching tv, and that I actually felt like I was proof of it's truth? I mean, seriously, I had nothing to say. No exciting news. Wasn't doing squat. And for the most part, I was pretty depressed most days because of it.
All thats changing.
About a month ago, the second job the hubby was working had someone quit, and they needed someone to take her spot. I haven't really worked in about 7 years outside of a couple of little temp data entry jobs, none of with lasted more then a week. I've been wanting to get a job, but to be perfectly honest, the whole idea of going through the interview scared the living hell out of me. So much so, that I never really ended up applying anywhere.
With this new position open at the liquor store practically being placed in my lap without any sort of interview (and barely any training, no need to worry about them bosses hanging over my shoulder...lol), it was perfect, so I hopped on it. It's working out great, and I'm really enjoying the customers. You'd be hard-pressed to find many pissed off customers in a liquor store. I'm the queen checkin em out so they can get their drink on! I still can't believe how much of a hermit I was just a month and a half ago, and now I'm chatting it up with everyone that comes in.
Well I guess these things just kinda snowball, cause shortly after getting the job, we decided to incorp the hubby's computer business. He'd been working jobs fixing pc's for people outside of his day job as a systems admin for quite a while now, but business seemed to be picking up enough that we could justify actually getting a small corporation going. So here we are, doing it all ourselves (no accountant or lawyer, prob not smart but def. cheaper! haha).
I've been working my tail off getting the website going (which is packed full of information), and we even decided to offer my website skillz on there along with hosting packages. We could make great money off hosting sites, but I have to admit I'm a bit scared about getting a lot of clients and a lot of different websites to maintain. That's business as a soccer mom I suppose...lol (yes, I'm literally a soccer mom, lil girly loves it).
On top of that, I go tomorrow to have an interview (yes, a dreaded interview, but this shouldn't be bad, just a formality) so I can watch my nephews (not on a set basis, just from time to time when my sis needs some away-time), and this organization will pay me for it. I'm not going to get into the details of it, but needless to say, it's great to get paid for something I do anyways for free!
Along with all the work stuff, we've got our garden going again this spring. We were planning on doubling it's size, but with everything happening, I think we've decided to hold that off until next year. We have quite a bit of stuff pre-growing in a bedroom upstairs under a big plant light. Tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, zuccinni, butternut squash (which says it doesn't transplant well, but we wanted to test it...hehe), and a few different types of flowers for pest control and to make the borders look pretty. Hopefully with everything going on we'll get a weekend at the beginning of May to dig in the dirt and get stuff in the ground.
I won't go saying that my life is somehow cured of all it's ills, but I'm pretty happy being busy right now.
I just hope I can squeeze some time to check out the awesome telescope from the library that got trained on last week to use (have to get the training to be able to check it out).
And housework? What's that?
:)
Monday, April 6, 2009
Bloggin from work, weee!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
My Journey
I haven't written anything in a while because things have been overwhelming for me lately. Actually, I'm making this a dual post because I just don't have the energy to do this twice. A lot of this is probably a repeat of my last post. I might just end up deleting that one. Anyway, brace yourself because this might be a long one.
This last month has been really crappy. My grandpa died and while I wasn't as close to him as I would've liked to have been, it was still upsetting and stressful and I'm glad all that drama is over. Then there's all the stress of being broke as hell and on the verge of getting behind on bills because of all the unpaid days off Keith's had and now Keith will probably be laid off by the end of the month. I'm so sick of crunching numbers and doing calculations trying to figure out how to stay afloat.
In the midst of all that, I've been trying to improve my health and I thought I was doing okay for a while until the weight just stopped coming off. The stress probably didn't help, but I persevered and when I got nowhere after four weeks even after decreasing my calorie intake, I went to the doctor. I remember a thyroid test I'd had done over a year ago that showed I was borderline high so I figured I'd get it checked again.
Before I left, the doctor made mention of my blood pressure reading, which I believe was 150/100 or something and so I was put on blood pressure pills. I'd had it checked several times before and it was like in the 140/100 range so it had been high for a little while. But I really hate going to the doctor for one problem and walking out feeling totally unsatisfied, like they didn't listen to me at all, with a diagnosis of something completely unrelated. This is one major reason I don't like doctors very much. The blood pressure meds actually pissed me off a little bit because I feel like if the diet and exercise had been working like it's supposed to and I could lose a few pounds, I wouldn't need the pills to begin with.
I kind of expected to get blown off again because that's what happened last time. The doctor last time determined that my TSH level of 4.65 was in his "normal range" of anything less than 4.78. But after some research, I realized that the AACE's guidelines for diagnosing hypothyroidism changed way back in 2002 to anything above 3.0, which puts me clearly above the mark. So I decided to press the issue this time and basically got told "we'll see what your tests say, but if they're normal, it's up to the endocrinologist" whether or not I should be treated.
Luckily, she ran a more comprehensive batch of tests this time (although not comprehensive enough I know now) and found that my free T4 was low and I'm still very anemic. So I was referred to a hematologist for the anemia and put on levothyroxine and told to come back in two months to have my levels checked again. I thought great, maybe now I'll get somewhere!
I'm not usually one of those "jump to conclusions" kind of people. I prefer to get the facts and do the research and base a decision on that rather than incredibly unreliable feelings and instinct. But the more I read about hypothyroidism, the more light bulbs are going off in my head like wow, could that have been the problem? Perhaps I'm oversimplifying things and this is just the easier answer to all those questions at this particular moment, but for now, I'm going with it.
I have epilepsy as well and have been taking Tegretol for about 17 years. In my digging, I realized that Tegretol is a thyroid suppressor. I'm not clear yet on exactly how it screws up your thyroid or if not taking the Tegretol would reverse its effects, but it is certainly a contributing factor. Along with all the other reasons Tegretol is a bad idea, i.e. it's probably causing my anemia (or at least contributing to it), I'm probably going to get osteoporosis by the time I'm 40 because it prevents calcium absorption, and as long as I've been on it, it will probably destroy my liver, among other things, I probably shouldn't be taking it at all. But I've tried switching to something else and it was a nightmare I don't wish to repeat.
And apparently I'm just a walking drug interaction. Tegretol decreases the effectiveness of the levothyroxine (as well as a whole host of other things like acetaminophen, which explains why Tylenol never does anything for me) and the levothyroxine decreases the effectiveness of the metoprolol (blood pressure pill I'm taking). The levothyroxine is a giant pain in the ass anyway because you can't take it anywhere near certain vitamin supplements like calcium or iron or food of any kind because it binds to it and prevents absorption. So as if I wasn't having a hard enough time getting enough iron and calcium, it's now probably worse.
Anyway, I'm going off on a rant here and I didn't want to turn this into "My Journey", The Novel. There's a whole ton more information I have come across that I'm sure I'm skipping over but I feel like I have to mention something about the boys and how this all could be related to their autism. Now before you close the browser and determine "Oh my God, she's lost it", hear me out. Obviously I'm not a doctor and I don't have any proof, just those unreliable gut feelings, but I've read too many hypotheses now about the link between hypothyroidism in pregnancy and autism or developmental delays. Clearly, this information is in its infancy so it obviously couldn't have benefited me at the time I was pregnant, but it deeply saddens me to think that if this contributed in any way, it could have been prevented so easily.
For years, doctors have known about the proven link between uncontrolled or undiagnosed, even subclinical (meaning not bad enough to need treatment), thyroid problems in a pregnant woman and problems with fetal brain development and cognitive functioning, among other things. Basically, they knew it could cause mental retardation. It wasn't until the recent autism "epidemic" that someone finally zeroed in on the drastic rise in hypothyroidism as well and wondered if they could be linked somehow. To quote an article I found at Developmental Delay Resources (DDR): They are only now recognizing, however, that mild to moderate impairment of thyroid function in a pregnant mother may adversely affect brain development, as well as cause subtle to severe intellectual and behavioral abnormalities, such as learning disabilities, attention deficits and possibly certain pervasive developmental disorders such as autism.
Being that I have two children with autism, could this have been a contributing reason, not just bad luck or bad genes? I'm sure there were many factors involved, but I firmly believe looking back now that this could have been one of them. If I could convince my doctor to do some additional tests on me (or find a doctor who will), I think I could nail this answer down, at least in my mind. If it turns out I have thyroid antibodies, that indicates Hashimoto's Disease, which is an autoimmune disease that I probably had years ago and it's just now getting bad enough to cause more symptoms. Hashimoto's also more commonly runs in families and I just found out my mother is on thyroid medicine too, which I didn't even know (she never tells me anything). That doesn't necessarily mean that's what she has but it's enough for me to want to have more tests done.
A great source of information I've found was actually given to me by my sister Lindsey. She helps run The People Speak Radio and they recently had a show with patient advocate Mary Shomon all about hypothyroidism. After listening, I immediately went out and bought one of her books, Living with Hypothyroidism, which is fabulous and a great source of information especially for the newly diagnosed, and have been thoroughly reading her site at Thyroid-Info.com and a site she contributes to on About.com. I also found a teleconference she did about your thyroid and weight loss. Those sites have a wealth of information in them and I highly recommend them.
Needless to say, all of this information is overwhelming and honestly quite depressing. It seems the more I search, the more I find wrong with me. I just want to feel okay again and not have constant heart palpitations and dry skin and swollen feet. I just want to be able to sleep and not be tired all the time. For the longest time, I just thought that was due to the anemia or being fat, but now I'm not so sure.
There's so much information here I'm skipping, but I'm tired of typing and thinking about all of this so I'll have to elaborate on that later. I just want a doctor to listen to me and figure out how to make it all better, but that's probably expecting too much.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Hit A Wall
I haven't posted much lately because everything has just been going wrong. I won't bore you with all the drama going on in my life, but with regard to this diet and weight loss, I've hit a wall. I'm on my fourth week now with nothing to show for my efforts. I was stuck at 321 pounds but this week, I've gained two pounds. I've been sticking to the diet and working my ass off for nothing.
So I went to the doctor last week because I remembered the thyroid test I'd had done probably a year and a half ago that showed that my TSH level was 4.65 which I thought was awfully close to the doctor's high normal range. I found out later that the standards have actually been changed to anything over 3.0 but my doctor is apparently behind the times. So I figured this was going to be a battle of getting the doctor to hear me out but luckily, I didn't have to do anything because this time, my free T4 was low, which was good enough for her to start me on the thyroid medicine levothyroxine.
So I walked out of there feeling pretty good, thinking that this was going to be the answer to my problems. I'm constantly tired, my feet are always swelling and now this problem losing weight was my last straw. I started taking the new medicine on Wednesday and I've felt awful ever since. I'm more tired than I was before. I can barely stay awake during the day now. I've had a constant headache and everything on me hurts like I exercised for eight hours straight. Even the knuckle joints on my hands are hurting, which makes it awfully hard to type.
I did some research and realized that these are all classic hypothyroid symptoms but why would I start having them AFTER starting the medicine? Shouldn't I be feeling better, not worse? I know it's supposed to take a few weeks to get my level stabilized, but I don't know if I can do this for that long.
To make things more complicated, the doctor also started me on blood pressure pills (metoprolol succinate) a few days before that so I have to decipher which pill is really causing me the problems. The headache part pretty much started last week, but I don't know if it's because of the pills or just the stress of what's going on in my life, or a combination of the two.
To add in more complication, Keith wants me to go see my neurologist (who I couldn't even get an appointment with until April) to discuss getting off the Tegretol and onto something else. Starting three new medicines one right after the other just seems like a bad idea to me. If I start having side effects, I'll have no idea which medicine is causing the problem. But he thinks the Tegretol is causing, or at least contributing to, the thyroid problem and that I might not need the thyroid medicine if I'm not taking the Tegretol.
So the two pounds I've gained in the last week is probably because I've been blowing off the exercise partly because I'm so incredibly frustrated and partly because of everything that's been going on. If I start gaining a bunch of weight on these medicines, I think I'm going to freak out. I just want to start feeling better and I don't know where to start.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Getting Stronger
So I've been exercising everyday pretty faithfully for the last month or so and at first, I could barely do 15 minutes on the exercise bike. The bike we have is a NordicTrack so it takes those ifit cards. Well, I was so horribly out of shape that I couldn't use them because all the workouts on there are 30 minutes long, so I started out just picking a good speed and eventually increased the resistance as well.
A week or so ago, I started using a couple of the built-in workouts on the machine (not the ifit cards). That was going pretty good, but there's only six on there to choose from. So I thought I'd get out my ifit cards and give them a go. I have three different levels and naturally, I started with Level 1.
Well, lo and behold, Level 1 is just too darn easy for me now. The workouts never go higher than resistance 3 and I've been going up to resistance 6 on the built-in workouts. So I had to get out the Level 2 card, which has never been used and was sitting on a shelf collecting dust. Imagine that!
I can't really tell that I'm any stronger but I must be if Level 1 is obsolete now and just a month ago, I couldn't use it because it was too hard. Woo hoo! Now if only I could see such results on the scale....
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Mercury Tainted HFCS
As if there weren't already enough reasons to avoid high fructose corn syrup, here is another much more scary IMO reason: two studies were published this week that found mercury in products containing HFCS. I originally found this posted over at IAteAPie.net and you can read the full article here. Here's an excerpt below: According to a new article published this week in the journal, Environmental Health, mercury was found in nearly 50 per cent of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
And a separate study by the US Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) claims mercury was detected in nearly one-third of 55 brand name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labeled ingredient, including, it claims, products by Quaker, Hershey’s, Kraft and Smucker’s.
IATP’s Dr David Wallinga, MD and co-author of both studies, said that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and food and beverage manufacturers must act now to eliminate what he claims is avoidable mercury contamination of food and drink products.
“Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered,” he added.
As a mother of two autistic children, this is very disturbing to me. In my case, I'm not completely convinced that toxins such as mercury were the cause of their autism (I feel it was more genetic than anything else), but a lot of research has pointed in that direction in some instances and as the article above states, children eat so much HFCS in products that it definitely could be a contributing factor in the huge increase in autism cases. I certainly hope this is looked into further.
I have already been attempting to stay away from HFCS, but since it is in nearly everything, that is extremely hard to do. I am very glad that there is a trend towards eliminating its use though.
New Food Review
I just had to post real quick about this awesome product I found yesterday at Cub Foods. It's EatWellStayHealthy Kids Chicken Nuggets by Pilgrim's Pride. Keith found these actually by accident and since we have been trying to incorporate healthier versions of the boys' favorite foods into their diet, we figured we'd give these a shot. They are baked instead of fried and have less than half the calories and like 80% less fat than the Tyson chicken nuggets we usually buy. One serving of 4 nuggets has 120 calories and 2 grams of fat (versus 280 calories and 18 grams of fat for our old brand).
What's really great is they're made of real chicken breast pieces, not that pressed chicken who-knows-what-parts-these-are crap. And you can microwave them and they're not mushy like the Tyson nuggets always are. If you're hankering for a breaded chicken nugget, I HIGHLY recommend these. They are very good. Now if only I could convince my children of that, but I'm hoping they'll come around. Apparently, they had grown fond of the mushy pressed chicken nuggets and don't know what good food tastes like!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Feeling Defeated
Okay, it's weekly weigh-in time again and I only lost two pounds this week! Two measly pounds! I felt like I had a pretty decent week considering I screwed up my knee, but I exercised even despite that. I think I've been doing really well with the exercising aspect of it - upwards of 45 minutes to an hour a day. That part I've been handling okay.
It's being hungry all the time that I can't seem to get used to. I don't understand how people can go on those crazy diets and only eat 1,200 calories a day. I feel like I'm starving at 2,000 calories a day. The habit I'm used to being in is eating like two large meals a day, but those meals kept me full for hours and hours. Eating a 300 calorie Lean Cuisine does not even remotely have the same effect. I'm hungry an hour later it seems like.
And to make things more complicated, I got on The Daily Plate this morning to adjust my "recommended calories" to see what I should be eating if I wanted to lose more than two pounds a week. I was kind of hoping for five pounds a week or something, so I put that in and based on my weight and all that, it tells me I need to eat under 893 calories a day! Are they serious??? On what planet could somebody live on that?
Perhaps I'm being unrealistic in my expectations. It's just been frustrating sometimes and I feel like I've been working my ass off and I'm getting no more results than I have on previous diets with no exercise.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Battle Scars Revisited
Okay, whatever complaining I was doing before, you can ignore that because this is way worse. My knee is killing me! It was hurting yesterday too and acting like it wanted to pop out of place but today I can barely walk and I can feel that it's swollen on the right side of my left knee. I've been trying to push it on the bike the last few days with higher resistance and faster speeds, but it's caught up with me now. Obviously, that was a big fat no-no.
I don't know what I'm supposed to do for exercise now. I didn't get on the treadmill this morning because I can barely straighten my leg and I think the bike is the source of the problem so I wasn't sure if that was a good idea either. I tried doing some leg lifts and things this morning that I found online that are supposed to strengthen the muscles around my knee, but I question if even that's a good idea when I'm in pain. I feel like I need a knee brace or something just to keep my knee from moving around.
I'll probably try to get back on the bike later tonight but obviously I won't be going very fast. Tomorrow is the weigh-in day and I've been doing good this week - I don't want to screw it up now!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Free Samples
Quaker is having an offer right now to get a free sample of their rice cakes. I've tried the Mini Delights and they taste really good (the chocolate mint is my favorite because they taste like Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies). My complaint though is that for 90 calories, they're not very filling (the bag is mostly air) so they don't make a very good snack. But it won't cost you anything to try them!
Also, Dr. Pepper is giving away coupons for a free 2 liter bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper. Hurry, offer only good to the first 2 million people.
More Favorite Food Finds
Since I didn't post very many the last time I did this, I figured I'd do another post and I might spread this out over several posts since I don't feel like being on the computer all night.
I figured I'd start with what I had for dinner tonight, Honeysuckle White Turkey Breast Cutlets. These things have been my lifesaver when I just don't feel like cooking (which is often). You throw them on the grill or in the frying pan for a few minutes and voila, they're done. Heat up a can of veggies or throw together a salad, toss on some salt and ketchup and you've got dinner in just a few minutes. They kind of taste like pork chops but they're better for you.
Another I'm-being-lazy-for-dinner products I've latched on to are the Stouffer's Easy Express Skillet meals. My favorite flavor is Chicken & Pasta, which is chicken, egg noodles, green beans, carrots and peas in a chicken gravy type sauce. You don't even have to add water to it - just throw the bag in a pan and heat it up. It's only 340 calories & 7 grams of fat per serving. Each bag has two servings, so I can eat the whole bag for 680 calories if I'm feeling really lazy or pair it with something else and save a few calories if I'm feeling ambitious. There's other flavors too, but some are a little higher on the calories, like the Chicken Alfredo is 410 calories per serving, which still isn't that bad.
If you're dying for chocolate cake or muffins or even brownies, you have to give Vitatops a try. They're only 100 calories each, 1.5 grams of fat and 5-6 grams of fiber. I've heard some people say they're a tad dry, but I think they taste great. The only flavor I've tried that I wasn't totally fond of (but I would eat it anyway) was Banana Fudge, probably because I'm not a banana split kind of girl. They're really good with a handful of almonds or walnuts to give them a little crunch. One of these days I'll get around to trying them with a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of Cool Whip. Yum!
