Weight loss

I've had a weight problem all of my life.When I say,"all my life" I mean that literally! I was overweight as a kid,as a teen and into my adult years it has just gotten worse. I won't say that I eat really healthy b/c I don't. I don't eat out much,I don't eat very many sweets,I don't OVER EAT.My 7 year old son eats more than I do.About 2 years ago I found out that I have Hypothyroidism. Dr.R put me on meds for it and I was to go in every 3 months for a blood test so that he could adjust my meds.He told me that in most cases it normally takes a year or so to get the right dosage.He started me out at 24 mcg(micro-gram) and when,Brady,deployed I was at 125 mcg and was still not fully adjusted. After,Brady,left I just let my drs appts go.I didn't see dr.R for about 9 months (for myself) I went in back in oct to get back on my meds because my sister in law and mother in law,both of which who are RN's,told me that my thyroid could shut my whole body down and that it was VERY serious.That scared me. When I got in the office with Dr.R he gave me a lecture like never before! He ALWAYS gives it to me straight and thats one reason we continue to use him.Anyhow,he had to started me off at 75 mcg and I am now up to 88 mcg.I go in on Wednesday for another blood test and I'm positive that he will be adjusting the dosage again.When I was on my meds the first time I lost about 35 lbs in that year that I took them.I gained it all back whenever I stopped (over that 9 month period).I have no lost about 11 lbs since I started back. Basically,what happens is when I take my medication DAILY it helps with my metabolism.Whenever I am not on the medication my metabolism is pretty much SUPER SLOW,therefore I don't burn near the calories that the normal person would.

I have seen blogs lately about everyone wanting to loose weight or tone etc and while that is all great I can't help but be so jealous of those girls that have 20 lbs to loose.I only WISH thats how much I needed to loose.I am super proud of you all who are really taking it to the next level to get the weight off! So my goal,not for this year but for LIFE is to get my thyroid under control and exercise more.Those are the only things thats going to help get this disease under control.I will not let it beat me.

Here are a few facts about,Hypothyroidism.

Hypothyroidism is a condition in which the body lacks sufficient thyroid hormone. Since the main purpose of thyroid hormone is to "run the body's metabolism", it is understandable that people with this condition will have symptoms associated with a slow metabolism. Over five million Americans have this common medical condition. In fact, as many as ten percent of women may have some degree of thyroid hormone deficiency. Hypothyroidism is more common than you would believe...and, millions of people are currently hypothyroid and don't know it! [For an overview of how thyroid hormone is produced and how its production is regulated check out our thyroid hormone production page.]

There are two fairly common causes of hypothyroidism. The first is a result of previous(or currently ongoing) inflammation of the thyroid gland which leaves a large percentage of the cells of the thyroid damaged (or dead) and incapable of producing sufficient hormone. The most common cause of thyroid gland failure is called autoimmune thyroiditis (also called Hashimoto's thyroiditis), a form of thyroid inflammation caused by the patient's own immune system. The second major cause is the broad category of "medical treatments". As noted on a number of our other pages, the treatment of many thyroid conditions warrants surgical removal of a portion or all of the thyroid gland. If the total mass of thyroid producing cells left within the body are not enough to meet the needs of the body, the patient will develop hypothyroidism. Remember, this is often the goal of the surgery as seen in surgery for thyroid cancer. But at other times, the surgery will be to remove a worrisome nodule, leaving half of the thyroid in the neck undisturbed. Sometimes (often), this remaining thyroid lobe and isthmus will produce enough hormone to meet the demands of the body. For other patients, however, it may become apparent years later that the remaining thyroid just can't quite keep up with demand. Similarly, goiters and some other thyroid conditions can be treated with radioactive iodine therapy. The aim of the radioactive iodine therapy (for benign conditions) is to kill a portion of the thyroid to [1] prevent goiters from growing larger, or [2] producing too much hormone (hyperthyroidism). Occasionally, (often?) the result of radioactive iodine treatment will be that too many cells are damaged so the patient often becomes hypothyroid a year or two later. This is O.K. and usually greatly preferred over the original problem. There are several other rare causes of hypothyroidism, one of them being a completely "normal" thyroid gland which is not making enough hormone because of a problem in the pituitary gland. If the pituitary does not produce enough Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) then the thyroid simply does not have the "signal" to make hormone, so it doesn't.

Symptoms of Hypothyroidism
Fatigue *
Weakness *
Weight gain or increased difficulty losing weight *
Coarse, dry hair
Dry, rough pale skin *
Hair loss *
Cold intolerance (can't tolerate the cold like those around you)
Muscle cramps and frequent muscle aches *
Constipation *
Depression *
Irritability *
Memory loss
Abnormal menstrual cycles
Decreased libido

All of the ones that I am affected by are marked with *. I can beat this though.It's treated with a simple pill daily all I have to do is REMEMEBR to take it! I have never been good at that! I have an alarm set on my phone to remind me everyday.

I'm really ready to get this weight off.I'm tired of the looks,the snickers,the laughs.Unless you are fat you don't understand. I hate when I go out to eat or go to eat something sweet and someone looks at me like,Do you need to be eating that? I shoudn't have to take away everything that I love to eat b/c the world sees me as fat and all fat ppl must have gotten that way by eating too much.WRONG Don't be ignorant about overweight people. The issues that I have are very real.

Anyway,I just needed to get this out.I talk to my husband about it all the time but for some reason tonight it just wasn't enough!