I know that sounds silly. But I am finally feeling normal again, regarding my own health. During the time of the baby’s death, I ate anything that everyone else ate, well mostly. I know chicken wings were involved and just stuff I stay away from. Not sweets, but we ate a lot of on the go meals. It was a crisis situation, I don’t recall if I ate, when I ate or what I ate. I know a few things were not awful, just not food I normally have. And believe me, I have paid for it. In symptoms and a bit of weight, I have paid for it. Nothing is out of control but I need to get my good habits back on track. It didn’t help that I had a lot of stress the last few months that got under my skin. Then this just added to the situation,
It took me all of about the last two short weeks to feel very Hashimoto symptomatic. I kept blaming the stress thinking how foggy I felt, why I wasn’t sweating anymore, why the dark thyroid circles were returning under my eyes, and why was my eye twitching? Each day, the symptoms felt like more were returning. My skin was getting funky, my nails brittle, my muscles achy.
I certainly learned a lot of valuable information during that time. It wouldn’t take long for every symptom to return, and I had a brief glimpse into my old life. Oh yeah….. I remember that thirty some years of the nightmare. Yeah about that…..No thank you…. I don’t think so….. not interested in ever returning to that! Everrrrrrrrr……
It has taken a little bit of work to get things back on track. I was beating on myself a bit for letting my health go to the side, I should know better. How would I ever have made it through without it! But self recrimination solves nothing. I just needed a regrouping plan. Back to basics.
First, I focused on the food issues. Back to preservative free, mostly organic, good wholesome things. Bring on the fresh vegetables. I got my supplements back on track, made sure I was getting in the water. That helped a lot and quickly. I need good food. I have learned that. I just do better with good food. Truly, you are what you eat. And for me, good preservative free, mostly organic food makes an enormous amount of difference.
I tried to get my sleep patterns back on schedule. That is going….ehhhh….. I always thought I slept so great, until I started wearing this Fitbit. That’s going to be a work in progress.
The hardest part, by far, is the mental part. Working hard to get my head back in the game. My head is in other places, but every day I get up and remind myself that I absolutely have to take care of me. I talked to Dr. Jack about it, my slight backslide, and how I feel badly about it. I didn’t keep my journal for two weeks, and I feel awful about neglecting my health. He reminded me that this was just a time of life, of something big to deal with. He also reminded me to be kind to myself, that at least I had recognized what happened and was ready to do something about it, not just chuck the whole thing and forget it.
No way would I do that! I am way to invested in a symptom free good life to just go back. The last few weeks have been a challenge. The sugar monster has called. So has his friend, the gluten monster. And the stress eater monster, the biggest opponent of them all. But day by day, sometimes hour by hour, I have tried to get my good habits back and beat them back down.
Today, I got up and looked in the mirror. My skin looks normal! My dark circles are gone, my muscles feel better. Today. is a good day. I actually feel back in control and I feel symptom free! That’s progress! I can do this! And so can you!!