Years ago, (like 13-14 years), I asked my doctor to test my thyroid. She did. She never showed me the numbers, just said, “they are normal”. I had just come off of a long bout of “low carbing” where I’d lost over 100 lbs, but, as is the case with most restrictive type diets, I began to crave what I was forcing myself to restrict. Eating even a little popcorn made my weight skyrocket. How do you know you’re restricting? Well, does taking a day off make your weight go up immediately? Yeah, every restrictive diet I’ve been on has had this effect. If I eat what I’ve told myself I can’t have… bam, weight gain. It wouldn’t be about increasing calories at first, it would just be about having carbs if I was avoiding carbs, or eating fat if I was avoiding fat… bam, weight gain.

Anyway, this is about hormones, not restrictive diets… although I do believe there is a link. I had to maintain a fairly low calorie count in order to lose or maintain weight, OR I had to eat completely “clean” (code for follow the dietary restrictions to the letter). So this is what initially made me go in and ask to be tested. She looked at me like I was looking for a scapegoat for the sudden weight gain. Move more, eat less – that’s what I got from her. You know what’s funny, this could very well be a huge factor in why I was having issues in the first place… dieting! I had other symptoms of hypothyroid besides weight gain though (some since childhood) and ironically, the same doctor would put me on anti-depressants just a year later after I finally worked up the courage to go talk to her again about my symptoms. I didn’t even bother specifically mentioning thyroid that time because I didn’t want her to blow me off again. I actually cried in her office. She asked if everything was alright at home. I wanted to punch her. YES, everything is fine at home, great in fact! I have absolutely no outside reason to feel like such a mess… which is why I’m here, lady! And I cried. I guess you can’t starve/binge and overly exercise for years and it not catch up with you eventually. At the beginning of last year, I thought my thyroid bloodwork was looking pretty good, but after doing some more research and discovering that most doctors have no idea what to actually look for when it comes to thyroid bloodwork… I’m further convinced there is an issue related to my hormones.

I have a whole slew of family members on Thyroid treatment of some kind and even more I suspect should be. I was even recently told of a family member who passed away from a thyroid condition. I’ve decided that in addition to “letting go” of diet mentality, I’m going to look more deeply into what is going on with me hormonally. I’ve waited over three years for the vegan thing to fix some of these issues. I am thrilled with cholesterol and heart related test results from dropping animal products. However, since some of these hypothyroid symptoms are still hanging around, maybe I need some additional support.

Most recently, I’ve been over at Stop The Thyroid Madness. They mention thyroid just being one part of what could be going on. So, per their recommendation, I’ve been tracking my temps for 5 days. These numbers indicate I have Adrenal fatigue and am Hypothyroid. Lovely. Double whammy. My sister is currently on several supplements because she was recently diagnosed with these two as well. She is trying to go as natural as possible. Her treatment is slowly helping her feel better, so she has inspired me to be more purposeful in how I approach my hormonal side.

I intend to continue tracking temps while trying different supplements. I want to see how those supplements affect my temps and symptoms. It seems you can’t entirely go by the blood work numbers alone anyway. So, I’ll be posting how that’s all going out here. I’m hopeful that by the end of the year I’ll have some answers… and even better, healing.