On and on and on

I don't want to begin this blog with "it's been a while" again so I am just going to begin...

James and I decided to resign our lease for another year here. They offered us the same price we're paying now and a $100 visa gift card. Can't be that. We'll be paying the same but it will feel like so much less monthly because when we first moved in, we took all our discounts off the front end and did not pay rent for 2 and a half months. Our hope is to save a lot and be in a house by the end of April 2010. :-)

I had a doctors appointment a couple of weeks ago, another post-op check up. I am blessed to tell you that everything came back NEGATIVE! This is fabulous news. I don't have another appointment till June to, hopefully, find the same results.

Last April, I had a physical at my family doctor. Everything came back great except my thyroid results. He ordered more test done and decided that we would just watch it to see if there were any changes in 6 months. Well, 6 months went by and I hadn't gone in. Lately I have been so tired. Usually, I just think, oh well... I work with 5 year olds, of course I am tired. But even on the weekends or extended breaks, I have still been tired. I get rest. I work out. I am not a perfect healthy eater but I am definitely a healthier eater. The only fried food we ever eat is Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets, no fries. We buy low carb, low cal, low fat, fat free, organic.... you name it. I work out. I do Yoga around 3 times a week and cardio other days in the morning... not to mention I am up and down ALL day long at work. I usually get 6-8 hours of sleep a night. That varies depending on what day of the week it is. On the weekends I get even more. I have dark circles under my eyes for the first time in my life. I know I am getting older but it shouldn't happen when I am getting rest. I have dry skin, water retention, among other signs I don't feel like mentioning to everyone. :-) The last one that bothers me just about as much as feeling tired all the time is that if I skip working out like 2 days in a row, I can physically see a difference in my body. It grows. I should not see something like that in just 2 days. It's frustrating. So anyway, I went yesterday and talk to the doctor and had more blood taken. The Nurse practitioner looked at my blood work done a year ago and went ahead and put me on hypothyroid meds. The prescription insert says that it will take a few weeks to feel any results. I hope and pray this answers some questions. The doc said I will definitely feel better. I sure hope so. One thing I did today was look up hypothyroidism and food. I want to help this as much as I can. In the past couple of years, I have worked hard to make changes in my diet and I have a few more to make now that I have looked into this. One of my favorite foods is pasta... for the past year or more, I have switched to wheat pasta, now I need to cutback completely as well as some other great things the Lord has blessed us with. :-/ I have to train my brain (and taste buds) to not like or care for foods that can reverse the effects of my medicine. I also have to eat 5-6 times a day instead of 3. Each meal should be around 300 calories. Here are some things I have to begin eating or eat more of:
Foods with Iodine:

• Cow's milk (does this mean skim milk because that's what we drink)
  
• Eggs (not often, but we can add more)
  
• Salmon (I am going to have to find ways to cook this and like... bleh)
  
• Seaweed (sushi!)
  
• Strawberries (no problem in the summer, I have a strawberry-banana smoothie almost everyday!)
  
• Tuna (can I put mayo in it???!!!???)
  
• Yogurt (I burned myself out on this... maybe by summer)
  

Foods with Selenium:

• Brazil nuts (new to me. I hope they are good.)
  
• Cod (it just sounds gross)
  
• Crimini mushrooms (in almost every meal I can put them in)
  
• Egg
  
• Garlic (again, in almost every meal I can... fresh, not powder)
  
• Halibut (have to learn some recipes... I'm not a big fish person, this is going to be hard)
  
• Salmon
• Shrimp (now this is a seafood I'll eat any day!)
  
• Snapper (??)
  
• Sunflower seeds (no salt please)
  
• Tuna
• Turkey (we use turkey instead of beef!)

Foods with High Polyphenols (Acts as an anti-fungal):

• Apples (yum and I have a slicer)
  
• Blackberries (eeeh)
  
• Blueberries (eeeh)
  
• Broccoli (Goitrogenic Food - Limit consumption to 1 or 2 servings a week) (YUM)
  
• Cabbage (Goitrogenic Food - Limit consumption to 1 or 2 servings a week) (yuck)
  
• Cantaloupe (all summer long!)
  
• Celery (gross- this is a texture thing)
  
• Cherries (dipped in sugar? lol- jk)
  
• Cranberries (eeeh)
  
• Eggplant (no thank you)
  
• Extra virgin olive oil (Rachel Ray uses it in everything)
  
• Grapes (does the color matter... I eat both!)
  
• Green tea (I put a mix in my water!)
  
• Legumes (what?)
  
• Onion (I cook with it but I don't eat it, the texture makes me gag)
  
• Parsley (in my cooking)
  
• Pears (I can do this)
  
• Plums (not to fond of this one)
  
• Raspberries (in my green tea mix)
  
• Strawberries

Foods with Niacin (Is required for normal manufacture of thyroid hormone):

• Chicken
• Lamb
• Pomegranates
• Rice, brown
• Tuna
• Turkey
• Wheat

Foods with Riboflavin (Vitamin b2) (Is essential for normal manufacture of thyroid hormone):

• Avocados
• Clams
• Duck
• Lamb
• Milk
• Mushrooms
• Pork, fresh
• Yogurt

Foods with Selenium (Helps to convert T-4 to T-3):

• Brazil nuts
• Cod
• Crimini mushrooms
• Egg
• Garlic
• Halibut
• Salmon
• Shrimp
• Snapper
• Sunflower seeds
• Tuna
• Turkey

Foods with Vitamin B6 (Is required for normal manufacture of thyroid hormone):

• Avocados
• Bananas
• Barley
• Bok Choy
• Chicken
• Chickpeas
• Mangoes
• Pork, fresh
• Potatoes
• Rice, brown
• Salmon
• Sunflower seeds
• Sweet potatoes
• Tuna
• Turkey

Foods with Vitamin C (Boosts thyroid gland function):

• Cabbage, red (Goitrogenic Food - Limit consumption to 1 or 2 servings a week)
• Kiwi fruit
• Oranges
• Peppers, bell,red
• Pineapples
• Potatoes
• Strawberries
• Tangerines and other mandarins

Food with Vitamin E (Works with zinc and vitamin A to produce thyroid hormone):

• Almonds
• Avocados
• Brazil nuts
• Broccoli (Goitrogenic Food - Limit consumption to 1 or 2 servings a week)
• Mangoes
• Peanuts
• Sunflower seeds

Foods with Zinc (Boosts thyroid function):

• Barley
• Beef
• Chicken
• Crab
• Lamb
• Oysters
• Turkey
• Wheat

So there is some of the information I have found. I quit making comments next to them all because they start to repeat themselves. :-)

Other news, not related to my physical health, James has been put on a project in Houston for at least 2 weeks and could be as long as 2 months. He was told Friday before lunch and he has to be there Monday morning, totally NOT cool for so many different reasons.
1. They gave him NO notice to prepare. Not mentally - away from me, our home, church, friends, ect.
2. They did not ask him. He picked this company for many reason, one being that travel was not required. They believe in networking where you LIVE!
3. There's more but I just can't think of them right now. Besides the above is enough.
Here is an example of our week:
Sunday- Church & usually dinner with friends
Monday- a night to us
Tuesday Morning- Men's Bible study
Tuesday Night- I have girls bible study so he goes to meet with some of the husbands for accountability.
Wednesday Morning- Meet with a close friend.
Wednesday Night- We have home group.
Thursday- counseling (we have it every other week)
Friday- whatever we plan or do not plan
Saturday- laundry and laziness
His whole personal life is shot for at least 2 weeks. Please pray for him and fellas, check up on him! Call him, text him, whatever.
He got Twitter so that we could chat throughout the day... or at the very least, we will know what each other is doing- like we're there but not really.
We will get through this. We will have to rely on the strength of the Lord. It is going to be hard. Dinner alone, shower alone, sleep alone, workout alone... no fun. I pray we get to spend a lot of personal time in conversation with the Lord.

There's my update. I am sorry it is so long. :-)
God Bless!!!!!!!!!

PS- I have some really cool news I am not allowed to share yet but I had to say something. :-P