Tag Archives: energy

Whole 30 And Thyroid Health

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When you’re diagnosed with a thyroid problem, there aren’t many reputable resources to explain exactly how to eat to support this ailing gland.

I have read a lot about what you can’t eat and that tends to be discouraging. Gluten and sugar are not your friend with hypothyroidism and there are lots of inflammatory foods to be avoided as well.

Unfortunately, the American diet is built around gluten and sugar.

I discovered something called the Whole 30 several years ago and decided to revisit this eating plan as it aligns well with thyroid needs. Essentially, it’s a 30 day eating plan that eliminates foods that are traditionally inflammatory and many that commonly cause digestive issues.

That means you can’t have any kind of grains, dairy or sweeteners so there’s no rice, quinoa, corn, yogurt or most processed foods. Fast food is almost completely off the table as is the Diet Coke that I so often turn to in times of exhaustion.

You’re meant to eat meals of vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats. There’s no measuring or counting calories. No one cares how many carbs are in a banana. You just eat whole foods and you eat till you’re full. If you’re hungry on the Whole 30 you’re doing it wrong.

I actually finished day 30 earlier this week and intend to keep going for a while longer.

So, how did it go?

I feel amazing.

The first couple of weeks were rough but life suddenly became wonderful when I hit my stride.

For the first time in a couple of years I have zero pain in my body. My joints and muscles feel great. Getting out of bed is no longer a crisis. The fluid in my ears is gone. The weight gain has stalled and the brain fog is still there but not nearly so bad.

Since last Friday, I have accomplished a bunch of yard work, some stuff inside, run errands, hiked and have been busy at work. A year ago, I wouldn’t have been able to do even a fraction of this stuff.

It feels like a miracle.

I know that nutrition is important to the human body but my entire life feels transformed. After thirty days, you’re supposed to start reintroducing foods to see how your body responds but I don’t feel ready. So I’m going on for a couple more weeks before deciding what happens next.

There’s some soul searching to do.

Truth is, eating Whole 30 at home is easy if you know how to cook. Eating in public is hard. Try going to a family reunion, a work lunch or a fast food restaurant and find food that meets the rules. I have made a meal out of deviled eggs with the filling scraped out and plain veggies without dip. The only fast food option has been a Wendy’s baked potato and a plain salad. Even sit down restaurants are hard to navigate.

So I pack food as much as possible but trouble begins when that’s not an option. Luckily, going hungry for a day seems like a fair swap for a life without muscle pain.

So, the question on the table is what am I willing to live with? What can I live without? Is dessert worth the foot pain tomorrow morning?

I am inclined to say that I’ll continue with Whole 30 at home. In public, I can just do my best. At lunch with coworkers I can have the cauliflower crust pizza but not worry about the sugar in the pizza sauce. All those great mom and pop diners are still within reach if I know the fish and chips are a treat but that I’ll be back to baked fish and steamed veggies tomorrow.

Food can be medicine or it can be poison. Some foods will help support my thyroid and move me forward while others will send me backward. I need to think of foods in this way. How do I want to feel tomorrow?

That’s the question.

January Goal List

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Each month I sit down and make a list of goals for the next thirty days. It’s usually seven to ten things ranging from easy to nearly unattainable and a few are even fun.

For example, January’s list included my reading goal (fun), packing up the Christmas decorations from the back porch (easy) and taming my craft room into something both presentable and functional (not in a million years).

I unearthed the January list on February 7, while cleaning out my work bag. That was the same day I realized that I hadn’t accomplished a darn thing out of the ten goals except my reading goal. I would like to say that I don’t know how I spent my time in January but it clearly involved books.

What’s worse is that I didn’t even try. I didn’t even look at the list or know where it was.

I also realized I was a week into a new month and hadn’t even thought to set new goals.

Some of that stuff got transferred to the February list. My current goal is to pack up the porch Christmas and put it away by Saturday. Note that it’s now Friday and still not done. Never fear, there’s time.

There was a time I was organized, energetic and motivated. I had lists to keep track of all my lists and getting things done wasn’t really a problem. The last few years have more or less beaten that out of me. My thyroid has left me tired, my brain in a fog and my attention span short. Whatever energy exists within me gets allocated to my workday right now. I mostly keep with with this blog, look after the cat and try to do whatever else I can.

For the last few nights I have been playing beat the clock. Last night I set a timer for fifteen minutes and did a quick clean of the kitchen. When it went off, I hit repeat and kept going. Once I was satisfied with that room, I repeated the process in my craft room and actually made some progress.

You can do anything for fifteen minutes. The trick is continuing when the alarm buzzes. The vitamin commercial tells us that a body in motion stays in motion and that is absolutely true. Getting started is the hard part but, once you do, it’s relatively easy to keep going.

If you don’t like the idea of alarms, try saying you have to stay busy during a podcast or a favorite album. Just set some parameters to signal that your job isn’t done until there’s an alarm or the end of an episode.

Tonight’s plan is to not sit down after work. Instead, I would like to tackle some of those goals and maybe a little regular cleaning – working in fifteen minute intervals, of course!