Homework Time | The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans LLC

0

Homework time is usually a time reserved for kids in school or college students tackling a lesson for school, but today I am going to talk about a homework assignment I’ve been tackling over the past few months that will help my health, hopefully for the rest of my life! Before you decide that this is not a post for you, please continue reading and see if you can learn from some of my research.

I have been diagnosed with low thyroid and have been on thyroid medicine for several years. I have also been diagnosed with arthritis in my right hip! These are just two of my health issues that I have been tackling this calendar year (and beyond). The difference this year is that I have decided I don’t want to suffer from the discomfort and pain of both of these issues. I have been doing research (homework) and I have discovered a few books I would like to recommend. I’m also at an age where women start going through lovely hellish menopause symptoms! Yep, I’m a mess!! Soooo…I’ve been going to doctors and getting lab work done all year long and I “think” I have been given the right level of medication to help some of the stuff that is going on in my wonky body.

Here are a few things I have researched and discovered. Hopefully, all my trial and error will help someone else not have to spend a year getting adjusted.

  • Gluten is EVIL if you have any kind of auto-immune health issue. Arthritis, low thyroid (Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis), Celiac Disease, Grave’s Disease, Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis are all adversely affected by gluten. Because of this, I have forced myself to stay away from gluten for the past three weeks. It’s making a huge difference in how I feel already!
  • Sugar is also EVIL for auto-immune issues. I MUST cut sugar again! I felt a lot better when I cut sugar from my diet in April. And I lost weight….which is just another bonus! Lose weight and feel better; Yes, please!
  • I had been going to a general practice doctor for my thyroid issues. He was highly recommended to me by a friend and I really liked him as a person and as a doctor but his response to every problem was to throw prescriptions at it. I really didn’t like the way I felt taking all the prescriptions and they didn’t seem to be working to solve the hot flashes, thyroid issues and weight gain. I also had several other things that seemed to not get better during this time. Instead of saying, “lets look at some things in your lifestyle”, he just gave me another prescription. I REALLY didn’t like that, so I found another doctor. In the age, of modern medicine there are doctors out there that WON’T listen to the patient and there are doctors that WILL! I suggest finding one that will listen to you and your concerns. Find a doctor that will help you with medicine but will help you find ways to cut back on the medicine, as well, with the goal of making you feel like yourself again! My current doctor is that kind of doctor and I’m making huge strides, after being on a new regime of medication, at lower levels with some of it, and higher on others. He’s also listening to me, when I tell him of things I am doing to help eliminate some of the medicines and is supportive of that decision. It’s amazing what finding the RIGHT doctor will do for your health.
  • Eating the right foods for your body is one of the biggest things you can do to create a healthy you!

Here are just a few of the books I have been skimming and reading bits and pieces of to help me become a healthier me!

  • The Immune System Recovery Plan by Susan Blum, M.D., M.P.H.    This book has been a HUGE key in me getting some control over my health issues. I highly recommend it if you have any kind of autoimmune issue.
  • The Gluten Connection by Shari Lieberman, PhD, CNS, FACN    This book will have you looking at gluten in a completely new way.
  • The Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD  Another book to make you look at how gluten and wheat affect your health.
  • The Thyroid Solution by Ridha Arem, MD   I haven’t actually read any of this book yet, because I just picked it up at Half Priced Books but the reviews on it were really good and addressed issues that are affecting me.
  • The Wisdom of Menopause by Christiane Northrup, MD   Said to be the bible of menopause, this book came highly recommended to me by women who are just a tad bit older than myself, who have said it’s the best book available for women going through this change of life. I’m looking forward to reading more than just the front and back cover of it over the next few months.

I’ve also done a lot of research on the evils of sugar in my diet. Sugar is like a drug and it affects the body in similar ways, so I know that sugar must go from my normal life. When I was sugar free for 6 weeks I could tell a huge difference in how well I felt. The problem with sugar is “you can’t stop once you have it”, which just shows me how much it needs to be gone!! We’ve written several posts on the effects of sugar in our life, so you can easily see those dangers! Here are a few of them: Not All Sugar is Created Equally,  30 Days Sugar Free, Throwing Down the Gauntlet on Sugar, 2 Weeks in, Sugar Free.

As you can see I have been doing my research over the past 8 months and I’ve made some changes to my lifestyle but I have more to make as I work on my health. I would love to hear about any health issues you have fixed or improved by changing your diet and lifestyle! Please share them in the comments below.

xoxoxo,

Ann

(Visited 3 times, 1 visits today)