Thyroid and Body Weight

We've all heard it or we've said it, 'That person's weight problem is a glandular problem.' Or its said that, 'It's a thyroid problem.'

Well, in my case its the latter. I haven't ballooned to a massive 300lbs as predicted by the woman I shared a hospital room with but I have gained a few pounds since having my thyroid removed. I'm still able to fit the majority of my clothes but its my favourite Guess jeans I just can't get to agree with the extra inch or so around my hips. There is a Harley Davidson I'm wanting to be on next weekend and I have an outfit in mind to start off the riding season and my Guess jeans are part of it along with my 18 year old beat up leather jacket and of course my precious Harley helmet that is absolutely perfect!

I know I look okay considering. I'm up and out of bed each day now which amazes me after being stuck, physically stuck in bed for so many months on end. I'm happy to get up, stand up and stay up! However, now that I'm up I want my body back!

Weightloss is a ka-billion dollar industry. There are supplements by the truck load, volumes written about a vast variety of diets that work by the way! (insert sarcasm). There are exercise equipment gimics that we usually see advertised on late night informercials that of course cost a fortune. There are also many books, dvd's, TV shows all promoting the perfect fitness class. What to do? What to do? What not to do? What does everyone think I should do? What do I think I should do? What is the best thing to do? Who knows!!

Right now I walk on the treadmill and have been increasing to walking/running intervals (walking way more than running but its a start). I go swimming about once a week for variety. I'd like to go more but the chlorine is hard on me. I've just started using weights and I stretch and do go to the occasional yoga class but there aren't too many Kundalini Yoga classes. My soul is really homesick for a good Kundalini Yoga class!! There are Yin Yoga, Moksha Yoga, Hatha Yoga and others but I'm a Kundalini girl. No changing that!

I like the gym I go to as its very relaxed and comfortable for someone like me who isn't one of those fake tanned hardbodies who have a full face of caked on make-up when working out. I look just as I should, like a 40+ woman who just crawled out of bed and threw on some sweats, pulled her bedhead hair into a ponytail and showed up at the gym. I've been to gyms before where I feel so intimidated that I don't go back but this one here in Sherwood Forest I like. (It's Sherwood Park but I like the visual Sherwood Forest conjures up.)

I've also been very diligent with my diet. Sugar and carbs are my enemies but they like to convince me they are my best friends late at night or when I'm feeling tired. Trying to eat enough vegetables takes work. It's hard to eat steamed broccoli on the run! Hmmm... maybe the idea is to slow down. Now there's a thought!

According to Dr. Sat Dharam, ND, author of The Natural Medicine Guide to Breast Cancer and The Natural Medicine Guide to Women's Health she says to eat 50-80% raw veggies and definitely vegetables from the Brassica family which are cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, turnip, rutabaga, garden sorrel, radish, watercress and collards. I like almost all vegetables but getting them in me raw is a challenge especially living in the north. I could eat them all the time if I lived in a daily climate of 30c but here where we are struggling to reach +10c at the end of April is hard. I want my comfort foods! I have adapted though like rather than mashed potatoes I now steam cauliflower and mash it. It has totally become my guilt free mashed potatoes and its so good!

Dr. Sat Dharam has a great website www.mammalive.net and there are healthy tips and recipes there. I just had a thought that I'll start posting regular dietary tips here on my blog. I have many! So, today to start its Mashed Cauliflower. Simple, steam a cauliflower, mash it, add fresh ground pepper and a dash of salt - Himalayan salt is the best and serve.

Did you know that Himalayan salt is contains all of the 84 elements found in your body, the benefits of natural Himalayan salt include:

• Regulates the water content throughout your body.
• Promotes a healthy pH balance in your cells, particularly your brain cells.
• Promotes blood sugar health and helping to reduce the signs of aging.
• Assists in the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells in your body.
• Assists in the absorption of food particles through your intestinal tract.
• Supports respiratory health.
• Promotes sinus health.
• Prevents muscle cramps.
• Promotes bone strength.
• Regulates your sleep -- it naturally promotes sleep.
• Supportes your libido.
• Promotes vascular health.
• In conjunction with water it is actually essential for the regulation of your blood pressure.

That's quite a bit in a dash!!

So, far I've lost half of what I gained. I think part of that is due to the increase in the dosage of Synthroid but the rest is my hard work. I have found that my weightloss has alot to do with my iron levels as well. As soon as the iron levels drop my body goes into a stubborn stance and will not release an ounce of weight. I'm doing my best to take as much iron as I can but its a tough one because if you know anything about iron supplements you know they are extremely constipating. Taking the iron, I like Hemoplex the best with lots of Vitamin C to help the iron absorption seems to work best.

So, I'm committed to not only losing the weight but gaining more health as well. No point in being a skinny, sick chick!

Happy Easter everyone and remember moderation on the chocolate eggs and bunnies!! (I love Cadbury Cream Eggs and those little Mini Eggs! And of course those little chocolate eggs that are wrapped in coloured foil!)


PS ~ Happy Birthday to Siri Ved Singh Khalsa ~ may God, Guru and the Goddess bless you with ease and effortlessness and all the assistance and sevadars you require to live comfortable and princely as you deserve! Sat Nam!~~

We Are All The Same...

 I watched this video this morning and it has left me inspired to step even further outside the box. Have a fabulous April 11, 2011. And remember we are all the same, we are all ONE!

Bag of Cookies

This brought tears to my eyes maybe it will stir some emotion in you as well.

Maybe it wasn't a bag of cookies, maybe it was something larger or smaller but can you remember feeling just like this woman at some point in your life? I know I have and shame is what I too felt once I realized what I had done. Share. Share. Share. The word of the day is SHARE!!~~

Who Are You?

Thank you all for your support in reading my blog. If you would like to get notice when a new blog entry has been made just look to your right and enter your email address and you will get notice in your email. Don't worry you won't be flooded with junk emails, just a note saying that I've wrote something new. Thank you again to all of you all over the globe for your support!!!

I haven't felt like writing for the past few weeks. Winter here in the north has just gone on for too long and I wasn't really feeling depressed but more uninspired about most everything. The weather is warming but only to a great high of 8 celcius today. For me the sunny sky and 8 degrees was enough to get me out for a long walk this evening. I had wanted to go swimming but I decided it would be better to take advantage of the reprieve from the cold and get outside. I've definitely had a case of cabin fever this past month so a long walk was exactly what I needed today!

Walking this evening I chose to bring Eckhart Tolle along with me. Sometimes I listen to music when I'm walking outside or on the treadmill but most of the time I prefer to listen to books either fiction or non-fiction I find it gives my busy mind something to attach to and keeps helps me relax as I walk. As I was walking and listening my mind did wander and went back to an inspiring marathon phone conversation I had today with my friend Patti. My friendship with Patti spans 29 years! There isn't much we don't know about each other and there isn't much we don't share.

Today we moaned over a few grievances we are experiencing. Some might call it bitch and moan but today we only moaned. Then we moved on to discussing our aging parents and the challenges and emotions surrounding this. We spent a few minutes discussing boys because girls at any age must discuss boys its just a fact and something we all do whether we admit it or not but then our conversation turned to something of great sustenance for us both. When there is enough skimming off the top of the overflowing pot of daily crap that gets built up over time and just needs to be talked about and cleared then and only then can you get to the good stuff, the sweet, meaty, juiciness of true heartfelt conversation.

Our conversation turned in this direction when Patti asked me, 'If the Creator (God, Goddess, Universal Energy, whatever you are comfortable calling it) showed up right now and asked you, 'Who are you?' What would you say?'

Immediately the westernized North American in me when asked that question of 'who are you', 'what do you do' wanted to respond with my job title. I'm a Massage Therapist, I'm a Teacher, I'm .... I'm.... my mind then began to race like ants on an anthill, scurrying in a thousand different directions 'What am I? Panic... panic... what am I?

I'm a daughter, I'm a sister, I'm a friend, I'm a girlfriend. I'm a Survivor of Suicide (meaning a close relative died by suicide). I'm a Cancer Survivor.

My human Self neutrally stated, 'I am Human.' Very simply stated. I am, I am!

I could see me climbing onto my soapbox and beating my puffed out chest like a female version of King Kong, 'I am Woman.'

My Goddess Self breezed forward with sweet seductiveness 'I am the Goddess.'

The spiritual holier than thou Self came forward and said I am, 'DevAtma, the Divine Soul.' (DevAtma Kaur is my spiritual name given to me by my spiritual teacher Yogi Bhajan, the Master of Kundalini Yoga 15 years ago last month and it does mean Divine Soul).

I cannot answer what most women my age answer and that is 'I'm a mother' because I am not. I'm sorry but I have to sidebar on this one....

Being a woman in my late 40's means that I won't have children. I've just simply ran out of time. It's probably the most painful, empty place in my heart when I allow myself to go there which isn't often. It isn't that I couldn't have children. It just didn't happen only because I didn't meet a man to have a child with. I never ever wanted to be a single parent and although I am saddened that I don't have children I wouldn't have wanted to do it on my own. I know lots of you have and bravo I know how hard its been for you but it wasn't for me.

There is something that many of you who are mothers are unaware of and that is that there are many of us who are childless who live as invisible women. There is no special holiday for us, no parties where we are celebrated and showered with gifts. When I say that I don't have children especially living here in the land of the nuclear family where almost everyone has children I am looked upon as a foreign object, inhuman and untouchable. I have had people, women turn their back to me when I say I don't have children. The conversation ceases and its as if I've spoken the unspeakable language.

Please don't assume that I don't have children because there is something wrong with me and my body. Please don't assume that I don't have children because I don't like them because I do. Just assume that maybe there was choice involved. I could have gotten pregnant a number of times as I'm not the Virgin Mary but I chose, using my God given intelligence to make different choices than you.

I want all women to know that women of my age are expected to go through the emotions of empty nest but we who are childless carry a gentle ache of emptiness in our pelvis daily where new life was expected to form and be born. Please don't ask for much sympathy of the grief you may feel as your kids go off to college especially if you were unfeeling towards any women who do not have children because of choice or no choice. The pain we feel is deep and real and society has deemed us invisible.

I met a wonderful group of women here in Edmonton called Babes Without Babes and maybe I'll randomly pick a day on the calendar and name it Babes Without Babes Day and all you mothers, fathers, husbands, boyfriends, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and friends will be expected to bring us flowers and celebrate us because we too do a lot and contribute a lot. Afterall, just because we don't have children does not make us less, we are still feminine and we are still pure, whole and so grateful to be women!

Thank you for letting me rant, now let's go back. If the Creator was to show up today and ask, 'Who are you?' What would I say? I think I would open my arms wide, let my heart expand and with a huge smile on my face I would say,  'I AM LIFE! I AM LOVE!'

If the Creator came to you and asked, 'Who are you?' what would you say? Let me know via this blog or email me at laaradelain@yahoo.ca. I'll post your answers so we can all be inspired.

PS ~ Patti, thank you for your friendship and for our conversation today. I hope I was able to offer as much to you as you gave to me. Bless you!! I really needed this today!