Chubby Blood

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Earlier this year, as any regular reader of this blog knows, I become diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Commonly referred to as hypothyroidism, this is a disease in which the immune system suddenly attacks the thyroid gland as if it were a foreign body. My body’s T-cells have decided that I don’t need my thyroid gland but I do.

Your body’s thyroid gland is responsible for managing your metabolism and secretes two hormones for this process. One hormone triggers metabolic processes and the other tells the pituitary gland to start/stop producing the first hormone. My doctor all said I have high cholesterol (high sugar in my blood) or as my friend calls it, “Chubby Blood”.

I found all this out because of a blood test several months ago. I’ve now been on medication for almost 3 months and tomorrow have another blood test to see if the medication is working or if adjustments to the dosage need to be made.

Along with beginning this medication I began tracking my food intake on LiveStrong.com and trying to keep under 1,900 calories a day which was really hard at first but i’ve grown accustomed to it now. Part of the plan also included cutting out my beer/alcohol consumption dramatically. While I don’t consider myself a heavy drinker by any stretch, I would have about 6-8 beers on a friday or saturday night which really isn’t healthy anyway. I would usually have a few during the rest of the week as well. I’ve been able to cut that down to 2 or 3 on a weekend and I think that’s contributed to my weight loss so far.

I don’t have a scale so I don’t check my progress solely by weight. When I weigh in at the doctors office, I consider that official weight. After that i’ll also check my measurements again. Keeping track of where you are losing weight can tell you a lot about whether or not what you are doing is successful. Fat loss and muscle loss are very different and you want to make sure you are losing fat, not muscle. Muscle loss can be very counterproductive and can actually lead to weight gain since your body doesn’t have an efficient way of burning fat without large muscles.

So, once I find out where I am, I can then adjust my caloric intake and exercise regime to figure out my next step. It takes about a day for the lipid panel test to come back and then i have to meet with the doctor to discuss my progress. I’ll fill you in with all the details once I know. For now, I have to begin my 12 hour fast for the test tomorrow.

If you are struggling with weight loss, you might consider Acai Berry Blast. It’s been proven to contribute to rapid, healthy weight loss without drastic changes to your existing diet and exercise program. It’s recommended you get at least an hour a day but even 30 minutes of walking is enough to keep your metabolism revving high.

How are your efforts going? I’d like to hear your comments and your successes or failures, so join in on the conversation and comment on this post.

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Live Strong and Healthy

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A month ago, nearly to the day I wrote here about how this year I was really going to focus on my health in a number of ways. The main thing I have changed is my diet and by that I don’t mean I am “dieting” because that simply does not work. What I have chosen to do is change my lifestyle.

This actually started 3 years ago when I first joined Weight Watchers at a weight of 234 lbs or ~106 kg for you Europeans out there using the metric system. For 2 years I followed the healthy guidelines (mostly) Weight Watchers sets forth and was very successful in losing 20 lbs. Since then my weight loss has remained pretty stagnant. Earlier this year I found out it was because of a hormone deficiency. Specifically, I’ve been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis which is a condition (technically a disease) whereby your immune system (T Cells – white blood cells) attacks your thyroid gland because it thinks it is a foreign body. The root cause of this is unknown but the treatment is life long.

I now take a small orange/pink pill each morning before breakfast which replaces the hormone my body is missing.

Why does any of this matter? The thyroid gland produces two hormones. One is responsible for managing the body’s metabolic system and the other tells the Pituitary gland to start or stop producing the first hormone. In my case, the T-cells in my body were interrupting this process and destroying the hormone responsible for metabolism so losing weight becomes extremely difficult since I can’t metabolize my food properly.

Now, hopefully that is behind me.

To really help out in this process I am tracking all my food using the Livestrong.com trackers which are free and really, really easy to use. The whole database is user submitted and food is verified by Livestrong staff whenever possible. This means you can type name brands into the search engine and they are likely to be there with the nutritional content. Simply add the item and number of servings you consumed and bam! you are now accountable.

This is a really great tool for me because it helps me keep tabs on what I’m eating and really makes me consider if I want that double bacon cheeseburger with special sauce. You can see my progress on the Livestrong.com site. I haven’t logged my weight since I started because I don’t own a scale. I’ll get my weight next time I go to the doctor but what is more important is staying within my caloric goal range and taking accurate measurements.

All that being said, things are going well and if you are struggling with weight loss I highly recommend using the site as well as some of the following products to supplement your efforts. Keep in mind that I am not a dietician nor do I have any medical degree of any kind, I am simply telling you what is working for me. You should always seek medical/professional advice before starting any weight loss program. Your results may vary.

Recommended Products:

I wish you the same good fortune in your efforts to become healthy this year. I’d like to hear about your efforts so comment here and let me know how it’s going!

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