...on track and online. What a hell year it's been and it ain't over yet. With moving back to Asia, the death of a dear friend, the return of the Hashi monster, long hours at work (hey, I do this job cos you generally don't have to work every bloody hour under the sun), money struggles, apartment woes (more on this later) and now job insecurity, I think I'll write this year off as a whole lot of nothing but pain.
Things are starting to look up though. After battling the return of full on Hashi symptoms (BTW, I think I'm an Ord's, not a Hashi - same same but different) since last November, I am finally winning again. In the past month, I have lost about 5 of the 8 kgs I had put on, and while everyone at work is catching the flu bug that's going around the teachers' room, I'm actually bouncing around.
As I've noticed in the past, it seems that I battle on and on and nothing changes, then suddenly I wake up one morning and a switch has been flipped. I have energy: I immediately fall into a more active routine, I don't need coffee and I can tolerate being hungry, which of course means I can get back onto calorie restriction.
The question is whether there is an accumulation of efforts that finally start to pay off, a daily falling of another domino in a very long line to reach a final goal, or is there a trigger, something that tips the balance in my favour. Being the tipping point theory kind of gal that I am, I'm going with the second theory (I'm fairly sure that most of our doctors think along the lines of the first option - even the good ones). Anyone who has experienced this 'flipping of the switch,' knows that this works both ways, i.e. on AND off. And once we've had that 'ON' experience, we want to find the trigger, aka "THE MAGIC BULLET."
Magic bullets don't exist, and we know that, but we still look for them. I think we do that because we innately know that we need to add something to the mix of good things that we are already doing in order to tip the balance in our favour. Once this happens, it's like pushing over that first domino. In my case, that first domino had been firmly glued to the floor until 4 weeks ago.
So what's my tipping point? I'm beginning to think that it's cholesterol. Occasionally I've just gotta eat cholesterol laden food. This is not only contrary to everything I think I know about what is healthy to eat, but also contrary to the kinds of foods and flavours that I like to eat. Most of my life I've eaten very low fat, very fresh and 'zingy' kinds of foods. I do like some sweet stuff, but it is not the stuff of my life and I can happily go without it when I'm on track.
I'm beginning to put together a picture of how this craving works. Thyroid, pancreas, adrenal glands; the trinity of health & well being. If you have issues with one of these three, odds on another one will be playing some kind of role, either obviously or subtly. I have blood sugar issues in that my blood sugar can suddenly plummet and I lose conciousness. I have been repeated tested for diabetes and not only do I not have it, all indicators apart from weight show I'm really not likely to develop it. I did experience a noticeable jump in cholesterol level when the OFF switch was triggered in November, but it only went from lower than low to high-normal, which the doctor thought was fine. I didn't. I usually have very low cholesterol. There's a clue in there somewhere. I control my blood sugar by spreading out my daily protein requirements over breakfast, lunch and dinner. My protein of choice is any high-quality, low fat animal flesh. So there's a corner of the triangle.
Another corner of the triangle is the one that I'm just beginning to get an idea about. I've read a lot about the adrenal glands over the years and a couple of small details keep coming back to me. The adrenals need a little bit of cholesterol to get them going and to keep them going. This is one of things that goes badly wrong in babies who are put on extreme diets by misguided parents. Recently I read that when your body is not getting enough thyroid hormone, the adrenals work harder to compensate. I had been experiencing little bursts of adrenaline over very small incidents that mentally barely registered but to which I had this physical overreaction. They really were WTF? moments: Another clue. Five weeks ago I went to Vietnam for a few days and while there experienced severe cravings for cholesterol laden BBQ ribs. The Vietnamese do the best ribs ever so I 'indulged,' accompanied by much self recrimination. Three days later, the switch went ON.
In hindsight, this pattern has repeated itself a number of times in my life. But, it only works in one direction i.e. low fat, low cholesterol diet that needs the occasional boost of cholesterol. My Nana swore by the intake of cholesterol, claiming that it "oiled the insides," while I poo-pooed her idea. Perhaps if she had said it "oiled the adrenal glands" I might have taken more notice. Apart from arthritis & finally dementia, she enjoyed good health for most of her 93 or 94 years, so maybe I should just have taken more notice full stop. Oh, yes I almost forgot. She had Hashimoto's too.
No comments:
Post a Comment