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People always are kind in complimenting me here for keeping  my journey real….

It is real….frustrating,   fun, joyful, down in the dirt, ugly, struggling, wonderful, silly, ups and downs, height points, beating on myself, patting myself on the back, stressful, yeah…… REAL!

First off…. you have to accept that.  I did.   It took me a long time to realize that.   This wasn’t going to be some six month thing and WHAM!  You are cured! And you live happily ever after.

Well, maybe the happily ever after part… eventually, ha ha…… but it definitely is not some quick fix.  It’s not just you struggling along.  I have to work at this too, not one day, but every single day this is a battle for me.   And some days, granted, are easier and other days, I just want to chuck the whole idea, and forget it.   But, I can’t. I have come too far to do that.

Perfect example?  Yesterday!    Ughhhhhhhhhh…….. I am still obsessing about it and will be for a long time.  That’s how I am.

Read moreKeeping it real! Continued….

I get my best blogs from people who write to me.  This morning, I got an email from someone I never met, telling me she found my blog through Dr. Jack’s site.   Severely symptomatic, Hashimoto patient.  “You don’t understand, my life is hard,  my life is stressful, I can’t do this, I have kids, my lifestyle is too challenging. I have a lot going on, I have to eat on the go.  I can’t eat right, it’s too hard. You have it all pulled together. I can’t be like you.”

I laughed so hard when I read that….you don’t want to be like me! I did write her back and explain and we laughed about how I am making it seem I am alll pulled together.     Hello!!    I am still laughing, like tears running out of my eyes laughing.  Wow! I could get an Academy Award for my performance if you think I am pulled together….  sorry, had to stop and giggle some more about that.  Are you kidding?   I am as big a mess as anyone else!  Lolllllllllll… probably bigger!  You have no idea!

I get it….. did you know I have those same conversations about those topics with myself, ummmm…yeah…daily.  It’s no secret that my weight loss is a bit stagnant right now.  I get all those things you are saying to me about why you can’t do this.  You can’t make changes because it’s too hard.

Read moreKeeping it real….

No,  I didn’t win the lottery… wouldn’t that be super?  I always tell the kids in my room that the day I win the lottery, I am gutting my room.  I am going to upgrade the whole classroom with the best learning tools money can buy. Those cool desks that are better for young spines, tools to do the job that really support learning.   Endless supplies of pencils! Maybe an elevator to our third floor classroom.  Heating that doesn’t make sounds like something from a horror movie, and air conditioning so we don’t melt in June. And then we are all going to watch a Buffalo Sabres game or a Bills game from one of those boxes.  “Why, Mrs. O?”  is the usual excited question, to which I drift off and answer , “I don’t knowwwwwww…. I just always wanted to.”   ” Do you have lottery ticket, Mrs. O, ”   to which I point to the sky like a politician, ” You have no faith,” I say, “Real faith, is I have no ticket and yet I still expect to win!”   That usually brings a lot giggles and requests to tell it all again.

Read moreI am the richest person I know….

People often ask me what makes Dr. Jack different than other kinds of doctors. And the answer to that is really simple. When you go to a traditional doctor you talk about what’s wrong with you, what doesn’t feel right, what hurts, and what symptoms you have.   They diagnose what’s wrong and they come up with a treatment plan based on those symptoms.  Sometimes that’s a great thing.  Where would I be if the neurosurgeon hadn’t removed that crazy benign tumor in my spine?   Or my general practitioner who saw there was more wrong then sciatic nerve pain?   Sometimes you need that kind of help!   But the fact is sometimes you need a different kind of expert, one who asks, “Why?”  A good example of that is Hashimoto’s disease. When I was originally diagnosed, the Endocrinologist who treated me, told me that the treatment was very simple. You have Hashimoto’s disease, you just continue to take Synthroid. Sounded easy enough.

At the time I didn’t realize, and no one bothered to explain to me, that that wasn’t actually going to fix anything. All it was going to do was maybe make a few symptoms feel better. But the reality is that the symptoms didn’t go away and if anything all they did was increase in their severity.

Read moreDr. Jack, the “Why” guy….

I am one of “those” people.   I can’t seem to help myself.  I am I am what happens to attention deficit kiddos.   It’s my blog, you see….And when Dr. Jack cured my brain fog?  well….. I get bored looking at it the same way.  And then I start thinking that if I find it boring to look at, I am sure others do, too.  Since my head now fires ideas at lightning speed, I need  to have lots of things to occupy my mind.  I enjoy every minute of that compared to having to write notes to keep track of my life.  This rocks!

As far as my blog goes,  I don’t worry about what to write about. My head has a million ideas in here.  The writing part is easy.  I start a bunch of blogs and just revisit the one that suits my day.   That’s not the problem.

It’s the theme…..   I want….something…… more ..well, just MORE!   Like…..colorful….. Cute!  But not overly cute so it looks like a kid made it.  However,  I need more colors! More options!   More patterns in the background.  More sunshines! More flowers!  More! More happy!  Joyful!

Read moreOne thing that happens when you brain fog clears…

A few months ago I had no clue what a BNI group was.  I am a teacher, what do I know about what a BNI group is?  Well, anyway, you work with someone long enough you start to know their schedule.  And every Thursday morning, Dr. Jack went to this  mystery group.  Well, it was a mystery to me. Ha ha…. And I started asking him about it.  One day over the summer, Rob Ciminelli, my life coach, invited me to go with him to a group meeting, and I jumped at the chance to learn more about it, about who these people are and what they do.

BNI stands for Business Network International and it’s  an interesting organization.  Chapters can have only one of each specialty in a group.  So if you are the Chiropractor, and another chiropractor wants to join, they would have to find another chapter.   Isn’t that interesting?  The group helps each other through referrals and education that helps all of them. What a great way to build a business? I know there is tons more involved.    But what fascinates me is the dynamics of this particular chapter.

Read moreDr. Jack’s BNI group…..thanks for helping me… with everythinggggg…

Beginning side note:   Dog and house sitting this week, and my grand dog is not a fan of blog writing.   Do you see nose prints?  Lol….

I belong to a ton of Hashimoto sites. Sometimes I read the stories on there and my heart just breaks for people. People write all the time, desperately looking for help. Their stories are so sad, their  symptoms range from moderate to severe and all of them have a story.

They post because they’re at their wits end. They’re tired of all the symptoms that affect their daily lives.  They get frustrated because they talk to their doctor, and for the most part they’re just told that those are the effects of Hashimoto’s disease and they all have to learn to live with it. Sometimes they’re told that adding medication will help to alleviate those symptoms but the truth is that’s never going to happen.  Synthroid does nothing to help Hashimoto’s.

Read moreHashimoto’s… the disease that just keeps giving…

I was watching a webinar that Dr. Jack hosted last week about the use of toxic chemicals.  Dr. Jack has the best webinars!  They are filled with so much information.  I am an information junkie.  Love knowledge.  Love to learn new things.   I spend hours researching ideas.   As I was watching it, I started thinking about how much I have cleaned up my diet but also how much I cleaned up my world.

Early on when we started, he used the word toxic so much I started looking around and wondering how many toxins had entered my body affecting my thyroid that I knew nothing about.   My diet wasn’t the only place they came in.  When you really think about it, between all the preservatives we eat, the bad food, and all the chemicals we are exposed to, the list is pretty long.   Hard to avoid exposure, but you should be conscious of what’s getting in.  Most people don’t realize, and I know I never did, that toxins wreak havoc on your thyroid.

I have cleaned up my act a lot but there is still a long ways to go.   I love pretty fingernails…. that’s one of my only feminine weaknesses.  I hate shopping, I don’t wear fancy clothes, own only four pairs of shoes, no lie, but I love pretty fingers even though my nails are short.  I can’t wear even medium length nails as they interfere with computer keys or get caught on boxes I move at Walmart.  When Jamberry nails first came out I got hooked, but being a Hashimoto patient, you have to be careful because you have brittle, peeling  nails.   So in the beginning, I always used a nail strengthener under them.   But then  I started thinking that here I am trying to go a nontoxic route and the strengthener is filled with toxins.  So, now I use the jamberries without it.  I get cute, protected nails that look fun.

Read moreCleaning up my world….

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!  I typically don’t write posts during the week, no time with my two jobs.  Today I am making an exception.  It might help you to understand my everyday life.  And I hope it gives you a laugh.  People always ask me how much stress do I really have?  Well….. today is a good example that starts that way but ends in a wonderful place.

So, over the weekend, my class had this huge pancake breakfast.  It was a great fundraiser!  We had tons of people, so many parents helped us, it was amazing.  At the end there was a lot of food leftover.  Two large, full foil pans of pancakes and an equal sized tray of sausages.  And there was juice.  The plan was to keep the leftovers and serve them up this  morning to my class.  This would be the easiest party ever!

Valentine’s Day being today, and it being Tuesday, the only time I have my eighth grade homeroom is period two.   So we decided that breakfast would be perfect.  All I had to do was warm it, and we are ready to roll.

Read moreFrom stress is born a funny story…..

It’s just that I am tired of losing the same three pounds….up two down three, up one down one..up two down three…… over and over and over….

I was thinking the other day how tired I am of this cycle of losing and gaining.  I still have some weight to lose and I just want it to go now.  But the scale keeps dancing.  I have not eaten any “off plan” foods but I did incorporate a few things from a less strict plan that Dr. Jack uses. I have been at this awhile now, and I wanted to try a few things, but I think it’s best to leave trying for a bit.

Last week, I just got tired of this up down thing. It is really tiring.  You think you have done a great job and it’s not showin up.   I just want it gone now.  So one day I sat down and started asking myself, “Why?”   Why isn’t it moving and what am I doing that prevents it?  I decided to tighten things up.  Tighten up, as in take out the manual, reread it, go totally back into the beginning part and rewind, redo.  I think that’s best.   A lot of people think I am out of my mind to do that but I just smile.  In reality, it’s not much unlike my every day life.  But I think there are things I could improve. 

Read moreBack to Basics….