Hashimoto's Thyroiditis

This week, and by week I mean yesterday, I got diagnosed with Hashimoto's Disease/Thyroiditis.  Being new to this disease I'm FAR from the expert but at least I have some answers about why I'm dealing with pretty much everything I've been experiencing from depression to extreme fatigue to the fact that my hair is still coming out by the handful when I shower. (I was still attributing the hair loss to post pregnancy stuff.)

The bare bones of it is that it's an autoimmune disorder where my body is attacking my thyroid gland.  When my primary care doctor got my thyroid labs back his quote was, "Your thyroid levels are off the chain."  Where it gets confusing is that it's not ACTUALLY my thyroid that's the problem, while the levels are off what needs to be treated is my immune system, not my thyroid.  First course of action is to go on a gluten free diet.  Yippy.  I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not giving up beer, warm crusty bread, thick tasty gravy, and PASTA but that I am getting to keep my thyroid gland and hopefully stop damaging it and preserving any function is has left.

All this information is a lot to take in.  I have a plethora of books to read and much research to be done but at least I have some answers and somewhere to go from here.

100 Miles

I really need to get back to blogging more often, I know you're all dying to hear my fantastically interesting life adventures and laugh outright at my little quips.  It has been a busy and complicated 6 weeks.  There has been a lot going on and not enough time to get things accomplished (per usual).  Smallest of All is super mobile now and I need to rearrange the house and put up her corral.  No baby gates for this kid, she gets a whole stinkin' fence.  When she's not crawling around with a ball she's attempting to ride the dog or eat the other kids shoes, both are habits I discourage.

ANYWAY, as the eternal procrastinator I was searching for something easy and free to help keep me motivated and accountable as I continue to work towards my weight loss and fitness goals.  As I don't really want to pay for a gym membership, personal trainer, Pilates reformer, or 6 months at a health spa at the moment so I started googling.  It went something like this.

Step one: Find a challenge.
Step two: Con a friend and fellow procrastinator to do it with me because it's more fun that way.

I was stoked to find this little gem.

100 Mile Fitness

It was pretty easy to sucker a friend to join me, and we're not just going for 100 miles, we're shooting for 128!  Our first miles will be running that 5 K together on SATURDAY!!! YIKES!!!  I actually can't wait, I'm starting to get excited for it.

Anyone else out there want to join us??

Duh

Wow, I just figured out how to add pages.  It's amazing what one can do once there isn't anyone awake needing to go potty to running full tilt into the fridge.

Me? Procrastinate?

If there were one thing I could get a PhD in it would be "How to Procrastinate."  I'm notorious for putting things off until the last minute and somehow I assume I'll accomplish a miracle and get whatever task is before me done.  I'm so good at procrastinating that even my babies all arrived late.  I've been putting off blogging because I wanted to try and figure out how to add page tabs to my blog, presumably is CAN be done but I don't possess the technical skills to figure it out.  Some blog hosts (I think that's the correct term) have templates that allow or have pages but I wasn't keen on starting over.  I wanted some way to organize my ramblings, have different pages for kids, weight loss, homeschooling, parenting (You know, because I have ALL the answers.) gardening, Navy spousedom, etc...  Then the solution, an oh so simple solution, came to me.  Labels.  I have a standard set of labels for what I talk about regularly and then, using a widget, create a label "cloud" and it's as good as having a tabbed page.  Ta da!!!

That being said, I'm going to go procrastinate about creating a schedule and routine for my life to get things like my exercise and eating back where it needs to be.  I also need to get militant with the tiny humans, they thrive on routine and I'm not providing it well enough right now.  One thing this Professional Procrastinator needs is accountability, I'm self aware enough that I know I'll have a close to impossible time reaching my goals without it.  Ah, more to figure out, I'm gonna go watch TV now...

Home Again

Well, we're home after an amazing 9 days with my in-laws in Augusta, GA.  I'm sitting here enjoying my first green drink in over a week and it's OH SO GOOD!!  Nothing like starting the day with coffee and what amounts to an entire bag of fresh spinach and a variety of fruits.  Yum!

It was great to do some running with my husband.  He was very encouraging and knew how to push me past what I thought I could do.  There were a couple of fantastic spots we enjoyed while we were in Augusta.  The Greeneway Trail (as seen in the picture) in North Augusta was really nice.  Even with the heat the trail is through a tunnel of trees and the shade was very pleasant to run through.  We also had a fun family run/bike ride at the trail between the Augusta Canal and the Savannah River.  Lots of wildlife and beautiful scenery, it was a good break not running on pavement for once too.

One of the best parts was getting to go out without the kiddos for dinners in which I didn't have to feed a baby, answer a million questions, and cut up and or share my food with a small child.  We went out more in 9 days then in the past year and it was fun to sample some new places in Augusta and go back to some of our favorites.  I really loved the Rooster's Beak.  The gourmet tacos were delicious and the unique flavors made for a memorable dining experience.

My weight loss journey is still having ups and downs.  Last weigh in I was down to 212, that's 24 lbs lost!!!  The goal for the week is to finally set a solid routine and get back to my more careful eating plan.  Gotta register for that 5 K, less than a month to go!

Okay, I need to go chase down Smallest of All.  Having a mobile baby makes life ever so much more interesting than it was before! (Like I need more excitement!)