September 28th will be my 1 year anniversary living with Graves' Disease. When I was first diagnosed, I had no idea what Graves' was or the role my thyroid played. I have done so much research in the past year, I should have a degree in research! Graves' is such a weird disease. Before I was diagnosed, I had a few heart palpitations, I was hot alllll the time, I would just bust out sweating for no reason and I had some serious brain fog. When the Dr. told me I had Graves' and explained it, it all made sense but I asked myself, "now what?" I had three options, radioactive iodine, medication, or a total thyroidectomy (surgery) All of those scared me but the meds seemed like the route to go. Taking the iodine would mean total isolation for 3 or 4 days and no guarantee that it would actually "kill" my thyroid. So I started out on 10mg of tapazole twice a day and would meet with my Dr. in three months for labs and to see what my levels were. First visit back was good, my levels were in the normal range and I was feeling pretty good. I have read other people's journey with Graves' and I felt extemley blessed because some of them had experienced "Thyroid Storm" where they had to be rushed to the hospital because their thyroid was going bizerk causing the rest of their body to shut down. I prayed and prayed that didn't happen to me. I got back in the gym and started eating a healthier diet. Of course, I was selfish and indulged more than I should. I love CARBS and SUGAR and couldn't give up my coffee or bread. I've always been a thin person with high metabolism, I'm thankful I've never had to diet or really watch what I eat but as I get older I am more conscious of what I put in my mouth. Especially having an auto immune disease. I added more veggies, more fruit, more protein but still couldn't MAKE myself give up the tablespoon (is that bad?) of sugar in my coffee or my bread! I purchased several books about Graves' and read in one of them that Celiac Disease, an auto immune disease of the small intestine, means eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye, can cause intestine damage and cause other auto immune diseases. I don't remember being tested for Celiac.
So...
I found this Whole30 book about completely changing your diet and 1. feeling amazing and 2. a cleaner diet helping with lower blood sugar for diabetics, allergies, AUTO IMMUNE DISEASES and a wide variety of other things. So I was interested and bought it on my Ipad. When I got through the first 3 or 4 pages, I was asking myself, WHY AM I NOT EATING A CLEANER DIET!??! I though about all the food I consumed in a day and realized how much of that was processed and contained so much added sugar. I had posted on Facbook that I needed recipes and had a friend message me. She asked why I was needing recipes, that I was already thin and didn't need to lose weight. I told her I wasn't doing it to lose weight, I wanted to rid my body of added sugar and anything processed. I have been working my booty off in the gym and can tell but changing to a cleaner diet I will be able to see more changes and hopefully make an improvement in my auto immune disease and eventually be off medication and not have to worry about having my thyroid removed.
http://whole9life.com/2011/06/whole-30-v4/
I'll be trying to keep up with my progress here. I am trying my hardest to follow this as best as I can and not have any cheat days!
Here's what I had for breakfast:
September 16th
Scrambled eggs, with spinach, smoked salmon and bananas. Naked juice instead of coffee!
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