About This Blog

About This Blog

This blog is basically about having thyroid problems and not knowing it, and how to lose weight after discovering that you have thyroid issues.
As I have said in recent post of all the possible symptoms you could have associated with a thyroid problem, one of the most important thing is to request a blood test for thyroid. Now they're are a couple different blood tests doctors can take. the TSH blood work that is the over all levels of the thyroid. Then you have the T3 and T4 levels which are more accurate. But the feeling of always feeling sick can really get to you. And depending on which thyroid problem you have it is important to know. "Examples are if you have hyper thyroid and yes losing weight is great with this but the feeling of always being sick isn't a great feeling, not to mention if hyper thyroid is too much out of control you could have a heart attack or stroke. And for hypo thyroids out of control levels, you could not only put on a lot of weight you also will be unable to take it off. You also will become extremely tired and possible could go into a comma, also have really high cholesterol levels.

What a lot of people don't understand is that your thyroid controls a lot of things in your body, one of the things it also controls besides your nervous system is "if not under control it will eat at your calcium" which means for weak bones.

So this blog is written basically to inform and help people understand that what they are going threw is normal, and until they regulate your thyroid you will not feel good. But when everything is under control again, you should feel 100% better and you will then begin to lose weight.

So please! know your body and your symptoms, and don't let things get so out of control that it will take you a  long road to recover. Make your doctors listen to your symptoms and request the thyroid test yourself. 

How to lose weight with thyroid problems

Here is my story. Right after I delivered my daughter in 1988 I had developed Hyper thyroid, It took doctors several months before they actually tested me for thyroid issues. What I had was called Graves Disease, and no one knows why it happens but a lot suspect that when your bodies under some kind of trauma a thyroid can develop. My only symptom was I was extremely dizzy all the time but I was also exhausted and my body kept running and running.

This was a crazy time, I was at the doctors every week it seemed like. As the weeks went on they finally decided to do blood work for thyroid and low and behold it came back very high. Hurray! they found out what was wrong with me, and I needed a  Endocrinologist to get cured sounds ease doesn't it. "NOT"

I was told by the  Endocrinologist to take a medicine for a year " I forget the name of it sorry" But anyways take it for a year and see if it goes away. So I had to have blood work every 3 months to make sure this medicine was working and it was, but right before the year was up I was told OK you can go off medicine and should be OK " I stress should be" because it could come back, and then you would need to take Radio active Iodine to kill the thyroid.

"I said WHAT?" (Glow worm here I come!). Well I was in remission with my hyper thyroid for 10 years yaaaaa! And I had not gained any weight for 10 years, this was great!. Until the thyroid came back. (Bummer) I had recently lost my job and the stress from losing my job brought it back. "Yes this is possible any trauma you may have may bring back a thyroid issue". So now what was I going to do? The thought of Radio Active Iodine scared me half to death, and I didn't know anything about it at the time.

But every week I was at the doctors office thinking I was sick. ( my throat was closing, I felt sick, I was dizzy and tired) And the doctor said to me." When you are sick and tired of being sick come see me to have your thyroid out) I thought OK there is an answer, but I was afraid of that, so I looked into getting another thyroid specialist again another Endocrinologist. Wow that's a long word, but my endoc. we will call her helped me out a lot. Her advice was Radio Active Iodine instead of Surgery, she said the down time was only 3 days verses 7 for an operation to have it out and lest evasive. Little did I know the site effects that would occur with the Radio Active Iodine.

This made my thyroid now Hypo thyroid and there are 2 organs in the body that do not recognize when your thyroid is under control one is your eye's and the second is your knee joints. And my Endoc. advised me to beware of my eyes, and I didn't know what she was talking about at the time but I do know. For a year I had developed double vision. OOO MY God. for anyone who see's double I am so sorry this is such a horrible feeling, I couldn't drive, I couldn't function, I even went out and bought an eye patch to block one eye and this worked OK! But I wasn't going to work like this.

So I sought out a specialist and was given prism's for my glasses this worked fantastic only I had to wear glasses all the time or revert to the eye patch.
 Now the double vision only lasted a year for me, but I was unaware of the kind of side effects my doctor was talking about when she said " you may have problems with your eyes" Duh! did I think she meant double vision " NO" my eye's were already messed up from waiting to long to get the radio active iodine , I had developed eye thyroid.

Which I do advise people if you don't want your eyes to appear bulged out all the time, you will seek help right away for thyroid diseases. "for it has destroyed the way my eyes look, and they will always look bulged for the rest of my life because I waited so long.

So they killed my hyper thyroid, and In a month I would go back and start my therapy of levethyroxin for the rest of my life" yes people you will be on meds the rest of your life once they kill your thyroid". Now after being quarantined for 3 days, away from my family and animals you can finally go back to your normal life.

But not without washing every single thing you touched during the radio active time. I'm talking wash all your sheets in hot water, sterilize all utensils and plates that you touch ."This is very important because your family could actually have their thyroid effected if you don't from any residue left over from the Iodine".

Then comes the point during the 3 days in a room quarantined you are coming down from a high, your thyroid is coming down. This is "NOT" fun at all , and all you want to do is sleep.
And after it's over before you see your doctor, your whole body feels heavy and you are extremely tired . I had a terrible time trying to walk down my street as my legs felt so heavy and were in pain.

But I want you people to know exactly what you will go threw if you are about to have the Radio Active Iodine, because I was miss informed about it and very scared to take it.The Iodine it self is fine and you will have no reaction to it, as it is pretty safe (just be prepared if someone brings you to appointment you will have to sit in the back seat, for they will be at risk of their thyroid being thrown off).

Now a year has passed since I developed double vision and low and behold eventually it just went away. I was amazed and very grateful no more prisms and no more wearing glasses all the time. It was great. But when they kill your thyroid guess what happens you gain weight..OOOO my this I knew but didn't suspect it would be uncontrollable.

So now I went from eating big macs and large fries, to watching everything I ate and still gained weight.UGH! This stunk in big letters. And no matter what diet I went on at the time I gained weight I was getting really frustrated to say the least.

Then after several months of blood work and more medicine they finally got my thyroid under control again as hypo thyroid this time, ( for anyone that doesn't know this hypo thyroid makes you gain weight) so now I could begin to lose weight, so I sought out the best possible diet there is.

Well when searching on web I found Mary Shoman the thyroid diet. What a wonderful diet this is and it really worked. The only thing was you really need to exercise, because people with thyroid problems will not lose weight without exercise.

So I got an easy glider great machine by the way it works all your muscles and you don't feel like your exercising, and I lost weight. You just have to stick to diet.(laughing) I'm not good at that.

As the years past, my weight went up and down and why? Because I would go off diets and stop exercising no ones fault but my own. When you have hypo thyroid you need to be on a constant diet and exercise program to keep weight off, or at least maintain your weight  but this is so hard to do all the time.

So I have been yo yo diets all the time with my weight, another program that really works great is weight watchers and exercise. I managed to lose 30 lbs on weight watchers with exercise, it was the far most easiest diet I have ever been on ."eat what you want just calculate points fantastic".


But now after years have gone by I have decided to quit smoking, and yes you guessed it I have gained all the weight back again, from what I lost on weight watchers. So now it is back to a diet plan and getting back into exercising.

But it can be done people! Just stick with it. No matter what diet plan you choose, the most important part for thyroid people is exercise. And make sure that your thyroid medicine is the right for you by having your blood work.monitored.

I really hope this helps out a lot of people, I wanted to share my story for people to be aware of what they may go threw with Radio Active Iodine , and the roller coaster ride their life will be on for a while. But it will all get better once their medicine has been adjusted for them, so hang in there.
You will start getting your life's back again.

Note:  Thyroid conditions Hyper or Hypo seem to be hereditary , several years later my daughter developed hypo thyroid at age 22, which is the same age I was when I had Graves disease ( hyper thyroid)..

Here is a list of possible symptoms for a thyroid
Fatigue - both hyper and hypo will have exhaustion.
Weight Loss ( hyper thyroid)   Weight gain ( hypo thyroid)
Depression  ( hypothyroid)    Anxiety  ( hyperthyroid)
Cholesterol high ( hypo thyroid) Cholesterol low ( hyper thyroid)
Family History.- Both thyroids
Menstrual cycle - irregular,heavier,more  painful,more frequent ( hypo thyroid)
Menstrual cycle - shorter, lighter,or irregular ( hyper thyroid)
Bowel Problems - constipation,diarrhea,IBS ( irritable bowel syndrome) Both hyper and hypo thyroid
Hair loss and skin changes - Both hyper and hypo thyroid. coarse,brittle,dry,scaly and also hair loss around outer edge of eye brows.
Neck pain - feeling like you have cotton in the back of your throat, or sore throat, changes in voice or enlarged thyroid gland. " Women don't usually have Adam's apples"
Muscle and joint pain - aches and pains in arms and legs, carpal tunnel in hands and fingers, and tarsal tunnel in legs.
And one of my major symptoms was dizziness all the time. Not light headed I'm talking full out room spinning all the time. That was with hyper I am not sure with hypo although my daughter was dizzy all the time to.

Now I'm not saying you will have all these symptoms, but if you have a few please have your doctor run a blood test for thyroid. " Most doctors never think it's your thyroid" so they won't run the test unless last resort and if it comes back you have a thyroid problem there is all that time wasted not getting the right treatment and unnecessary illness.


Coming in January.... Starting January 1st, I will be starting all over again on my weight loss journey and will be posting on a monthly basis as to how it is going. I have decided to go back with Weight Watchers points plus program because that is by far the easiest program to go by. So stay tuned for the process, and feel free to make comments or let me know how you are doing on the weight loss. Happy holidays to all and enjoy!


JANUARY 2012

WOW ! is it January already? 

Well I started on Weight Watchers again on Monday, and let me tell you after eating what ever I wanted for so many months it has been difficult to start back on it.  


Monday January 2, 2012

My eating habit has gotten so out of control that those 26/29 points were very hard to accomplish.
And I ended up going over into the flex points a little. 
Same thing happened on Tuesday,  by Wednesday which is today I am hoping the curbing will end.
I really like saving my flex points for the weekend. And the glass of wine at night which has gone down in points, (YA!!!) it went from 5 points down to 3 points, I guess they found out all the benefits to red wine. 


I haven't yet started an exercise regime and I know with hypo thyroid (now) I really need to. But the motivation still hasn't hit me yet. " I do know I need to exercise lose weight though."

I will post back on Monday January 9th with details on how the rest of the week went and if there was any weight loss.

Well first week on Weight Watchers went very well and I managed to lose 5 lbs (YA!) I am on my way again. I have started walking , not every day but a few days a week about a mile to a mile and a half.
I make walking for as a reward, ( laugh) as I walk to the nearest Dunkin Donuts to get my Hot Cinnamon Lata with 1 splendia and skim milk , "the weight watcher point plus is a large lite lata is 4 points and a shot of cinnamon is 0". I know it seems like a lot of points but I reward myself with one when I walk.


Stay tuned for week 2 results starting on January 16th. 
Here is the input from the week on January 16th, 2012, It has been a rough week and the out come was less then a pound :( I was not able to walk that much because of the cold weather, which I explained in recent paragraphs when you have thyroid issues of weight the only way to jump start your process is by exercise.
This coming week is warmer and I have started walking again, I also switched up my dates for the flex plan. Now I start a new week on Sunday instead of Monday this means that my flex points run out on Saturday night. And I can eat basically what ever flex points I have left so I can enjoy my Saturday. 

Hopefully next week will be a better week with my weight loss input, If you are having struggles with your weight loss I would like to hear about them , or if you have anything that you have found helpful in your weight loss journey let us know.    


OK here it is January 30th and I have done a lot of walking this week, it totals to 12 miles so that part is good. But on the down side I have not lost any more weight yet, and I am getting a little frustrate especially since I did all that walking.

This past week-end I joined the Dr. Oz. transformation were you go to a weight watchers near you and get weighed in before February 26th, and then go back to weight watchers to get final weight in in April this is all for a 1 million dollar prize. The weigh in's are free and they will give you a paper filled out for the Dr. Oz site you need to complete the rest to qualify. But at this rate my weight isn't going anywhere, and I have no idea why.

I am still waiting for the test results to come back from my thyroid test I had taken last week. Hopefully my thyroid is working properly if not that means different medicine strength and could be the reason why the weights not coming off. Well that is it until next weeks progress, everyone have a great week and I will post next week on any progress.