The Next 6

I know, I know. In the last post I said I had lots to tell you about and I've still not told you about it all (or made any progress in that direction either).
What I have been doing is thinking. I mentioned that near the beginning of this month I turned 30. If you'd told me at 20 that I would still not have any children, I would have laughed in your face.

My plan was to be done having babies by 30. It looks like I may be starting to have babies at 30.
No. I'm not pregnant. :-( Not yet at least.
The Italian has been willing to start thinking in that direction recently, especially since he's started working again.
I have it stuck in my head that we'll start trying for babies in March. In order for that to happen, a few things need to happen first:

1. I need to get be euthyroid. In other words, my thyroid is functioning normally.
2. I need to shed as much of the excess weight that I'm carrying as I can.
3. I need to get into better physical shape.

I have an appointment with my favorite endo, Dr. Mini-Giant in November to do bloodwork and see where I am. Right now, I'm feeling good with the level of thyroid replacement hormone that I'm on. I'm feeling like me again. Or closer than I have been in the past couple years. I think, at least for the moment, I'm on the right level of medication. Now it could change tomorrow, it could change next year. I don't know.

2 and 3 sort of go together. I don't simply want to lose the excess weight, but I also want to be as healthy, strong and fit as I possibly can be. When I go back to see Dr. Mini-Giant or even when I go see my gyno, next month, I am seriously considering asking one of them for a referral to a nutritionist or registered dietitian.
I've been playing with my diet and eating methods for quite a while now. I felt my best the short time I was eating paleo, but the eating meat so often was quite overwhelming. I didn't grow up vegetarian, but we didn't eat a whole lot of meat either.
In talking to mom a while back, I came to the conclusion that it was really the absence of grains that made the difference! So while I may end up eating primal/paleo again, I'm taking my time with it this time around.
The first step in that is cutting out gluten. It's only been a week and half, but I'm pretty happy with the way things are going.
Eventually I plan on cutting out all grains, but I think I do want to talk to someone who knows what they're talking about!

3 also stands on its own. I'm working on a work-out plan that will be real lifeable. I already swim twice a week (Wednesdays and Saturdays) but I'd like to incorporate some weight training and maybe even defeat the C25k monster that's been mocking me.

So that's my next 6 months. Maybe this time next year, I'll be discussing how close I am to a little one joining us! (here's hoping)

The Mental Shift

I've been thinking since this weekend (and my subsequent binge, which I'll talk about in a minute) about this whole paleo adventure I'm on.

Plain and simple, I know I'm on the right track. Physically, my body still thinks I've lost my ever lovin' mind and my mind is trying to figure out what the hell is going on with my body, but I do know I'm on the right track. How do I know when I still feel so wacked out?

Well, my mom forwarded an e-mail she received from my aunt to me about someone in my aunt's church who has a thyroid disorder who's also on synthroid and was doing research and found the gluten aggrevates the thyroid. She went gluten free and is doing far better and is only on synthroid.

Prior to finding the out about the paleo way of eating (I'm tired of calling it the paleo diet.) I was toying with the idea of going gluten free, and was considering getting tested for gluten intolerance. I had read of a lot of people (who also listed a LOT of other things wrong with them that I frankly don't have) deciding to go gluten free. I weeble-wobbled back and forth on the issue. (As I am want to do on most everything. If you haven't figured that out yet.)

When I go to the endo, I'll have him check that, but gluten is out.

I know, I know. Gluten is out anyway on if I'm eating paleo. That's what I'm striving for, but I also have to take it steps at a time while I'm in the midst of it.

I'm still fighting with sugar. Talking with Mom, my plan of attack with that is to have an orange or piece of fruit with breakfast in the morning and that's it for the rest of the day.

Carl's Ice Cream on Saturday was incredible! Since Wednesday or Thursday of last week I began craving something smooth and creamy. Carl's totally hit the spot. I got a chocolate ice cream waffle cone and it was incredible. Better than I remembered. So incredibly yummy! And it was made even better because I went with Mom and my future sister-in-law, K. After Carl's K mentioned she hadn't eaten and wanted a burger. So we went to Sammy T's,

a cute little restaurant in downtown Fredericksburg. I had a bbq sandwich, which was really good. Sweet with just the hint of heat. Very nice.

Monday, was a sugar binge to end all sugar binges. I fell off the wagon feet first and just kept running. How do I feel today? Strangely? Not hungover like people talk about? Though getting up was brutal. I credit that more to going to bed at 11 two nights in a row.

(Going to bed THAT late last night had to do with coming home to my poor husband on the floor after rolling out of his wheelchair 5 hours prior. *sigh* I live in a crazy world. But sssshhhh . . . I wasn't supposed to mention that. )

Now about my title (I actually have a thought out title for once! I know! Go ahead . . . go get your smelling salts. I'll wait.). Since I've started on this paleo adventure I've continued reading the same blogs that I've always been reading. A lot of them vegetarian food blogs that I used as "reasearch" (if you will) when I was considering a more plant based diet (not necessarily vegetarian). As I'm moving away from that I'm finding while I still enjoy reading about their lives, I'm having a harder time connecting with them and reading about what they're eating is actually a distraction! :-( I hate that!

I feel invested in their lives (how crazy is it that these people I've never met, may never meet, but I've spent hours reading and I feel invested in their lives? What??) and I feel guilty unsubscribing to their blogs. But at the same time, I need to look out for my best interests and find blogs that are showcasing recipes or foods that I want to be eating now.

This is the mental shift I'm making. Moving from toying with the paleo diet (I know, I've said this before, but I think maybe I actually might mean it this time? Or I'm getting closer to meaning it?) to actually doing it. My husband is coming around and really supporting me in this which really helps too. He's eating all of the carbs in the house! (ha ha ha!)

No, that's not the mental shift I'm making either. Via blogs I mean. *sigh* The newness of paleo is wearing off. It's not so shiny and new and sparkly anymore (yes, my attention span is that short.), but it still feels right. I think its something I can stick to, something I can raise my children on (though my Italian and I may fight over that point) and something that I can eventually convert my Italian too (?) (ha ha ha ha ha!!!!).

Part of the change I've noticed is realizing I need stuff for me for all meals. Not just dinner. When we went grocery shopping this week, I picked up stuff for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and my Italian didn't say anything. He even found free range eggs for me! (At least I think they're free range . . . I hope so.) I'm trying to be economical with what I buy, but clean food at the same time. (Though my Italian still doesn't care. "I don't want to live forever" he said at the grocery store while we were discussing meat and what the meat he was looking at ate before it was butchered versus the meat I was picking out for him ate. I think it's time to rent Food, Inc. but I don't think it'll have an effect on him. We'll see.)

So their is a mental shift happening with both of us. Slowly. Slower than I like, but his is following mine.

We're progressing!

Do I need to detox?

Okay, so I had a bag of popcorn and some cookies today. I actually felt better after eating that then I have in a while. Which makes me wonder . . .  ? Am I missing something when I'm eating paleo that I need to be adding in? Salt maybe? Though I woke up with the craving for something soft and smooth, like yogurt. Maybe I should have made a smoothie.


But the fact that I felt back to my old self has me wondering for this to really be successful, do I need to totally detox my system first? Is there a paleo way of doing that?

I'm with in the first few days of this and with the exception of Sunday, I've felt like crap. Saturday was not because of this though. I REALLY want this to work.

It is a lot harder than the transition to mostly fruits and vegetables for me though, because I grew up not eating a whole lot of meat. Maybe I need to go back and ease into it again? Concentrate more on getting my veggies in and slowly increasing the amount of meat I eat?

I've eaten pretty crappy today, but I feel more normal than I have in a while.

My body is used to crappy food and doesn't know what to do with the good whole foods I've been feeding it recently?

I will say the biggest difference has been when I was eating mostly fruits and veggies I would come home from work begging my Italian to order a big greasy pan pizza dripping with cheese and pepperoni. My body was craving the fat that it wasn't getting.

I'm not getting those cravings now, but I don't have any specific cravings. It could be more related to my thyroid than my diet. Eh . . . I don't know.

Paleo Diet

I'm committing.

I'm going to do it.

I'm scared shitless . . . but I'm going to do it. I'm going to transition my diet to a paleo diet. After reading on Dear Thyroid an article by David Csonka and reading the comments of how eating paleo has helped others who also have thyroid disease. 


I wrote this down, and wish I'd made a note of where I found it, because it defines the paleo diet ingeniously! 

Paleo = "meat, veggies, fruits, nuts & seeds, little starch, no sugar"

Simple! Em likes simple! So does her Italian (maybe that's why he married her? Ha ha ha! Kidding!) 

The paleo diet will be good for the both of us too. It's a diet we can both do and will be something that is sustainable. It's a far cry from what I was looking at. Which was a primarily plant based diet. 

I'm excited about this . . . nervous . . . terrified . . . but excited. Glad I've finally made a decision and one that both my husband and I can do together. (It'll help keep us stuck to it!)