Health and Fitness, April 2014

[OKay]

RE: Dietitian and/or nutritionist.

I continue to look at options as I wait for appt with family doc. I am trying to find something that will be helpful as well as honor my commitment to make a change.

I have researched & ruled out a slew of possibilities (most were suggestions made by FB friends).

There are three options that I am considering -
** Keep July appointment with local dietitition that family doc recommended. I am 99% sure I will cancel this - but I want to visit with our family doctor before I do.
** Get a referral from family doctor to nutritional consultation and fitness trainer. I like the information presented on their website and fits in with what I want to do. The down side of this option is the travel. It will be 3 hours of travel (1.5 hours each way) for each appointment. Besides the extra time commitment it would also add about $50 of gas to cost of each appointment.
** This third option feels a bit "out there". Not even sure I should consider it.....however I'm intrigued enough to check it out. An online 40 week Nutrition School.

Meanwhile I continue to track food and steps.Yesterday -
** 1515 calories (732 of those calories was pizza I bought for impromptu picnic with DGS16 & LO)
** 8316 steps
** 1/2 lb down on the scales

[Cowinkie]

I put in 2 miles on my gazelle yesterday and another when walking the doggies.
Already did my two miles on my gazelle this morning.

Harriet..

Dr. Oz posted information concerning the use of Magnesium Citrate to help with the prevention of migraines. He said those who experience them are usually don't get enough magnesium in their daily diet. This is not the first time I have read about the correlation between the two.

In the same article Oz also said that many who have difficulties losing weight do so because most people don't have daily bowel movements. He explains that processed foods tend to keep us bound up and many are carrying extra pounds of fecal matter in our systems.

For the past three weeks I have added 500 mg of Magnesium Citrate to my diet .(Oz suggests 600 mg, but I can''t find that dosage) MC is what is given to you when you prepare for a colonoscopy, but in a much larger dosage. I have also added a high quality probiotic.

So far I have experienced only one migraine/headache though I am in throughs of my most potential headache cycle. I am also experiencing better consistent daily bowel movements. (sorry if the is tmi). However I am not bloated, have far less gas and intestinal cramps, and am losing weight. I haven't changed my eating plan, but then again have eliminated all the Oz calls body glue..sugar, flour and starches. Over the weekend I did eat a small piece of cranberry bread and french fries and my system immediately responded to it.

Of course this could all be a sheer coincidence, but I'd like to think there is some merit to it. Being headache free for this long regardless of what is causing the effect is enough to keep me taking my MC.

[Harmony]

Cowinkie, I've also read about the magnesium / headache thing. I've read that one tells if you're getting too much mag. if your bowels become too loose. I've also read that most of us are deficient. I agree about the backup of bulk. The weight I put back on is back off now, probably due to that and fluid.

Kathryn, you might feel as though you aren't making progress, but if you weren't being mindful of everything where would you be? I can testify that just not bothering to try or think about diet/exercise and not getting on the scales does not work. I put on 10 lbs that way. So I applaud your effort.

Yesterday I discovered that if I don't get on that darn elliptical before I go out on errands, it might not happen once I come home all physically and mentally stressed and just wanting to chill. When I go out and get a bunch of stuff done, I tend to think "ok, I'm done now" and quit any forward progress once I get home. Will try not to make that mistake again.

OKay, I vote for you to take the course. Wow what stuff you would learn! But only if you come back here and post all your notes!

Harriet I read your post with much interest, going back to reread a couple times. Stress was my enemy with the recent challenge with DH. I started out well, but as the days went by I had to sleep longer and longer in the morning. Once he came home I couldn't stay awake if I sat down and I had NO energy at all. It was an awful feeling and I didn't know if it was depression, illness, I suspected my thyroid just like you did... but I seem to have climbed out of that valley and this past week I've been getting lots done around here once again. It was validating to me to read what your dr. said.

I take 2500 mcg subl. B12 every day. My B12 was way down when first tested and I got a shot. Couldn't tell if it helped much because we were fussing with the thyroid thing. Dr. told me to take 2000 mcg every day but I can't find that dose. My labs have since been ok. But it was interesting to me what your dr. said about B12 benefit not corresponding to labs when one is stressed. And I have no idea what mine actually was when I was so stressed.

OKay, wondering why you no longer take calcium? I've been having trouble getting mine in between other supplements. Have read it binds things and causes one not to get their benefit... so have not figures this one out yet.

[OKay]

OKay, wondering why you no longer take calcium?

There have been studies & many articles the last couple of years about relation between women who take calcium supplements and heart attacks. After tracking my food for awhile I discovered that I was getting enough calcium from the food I eat without taking supplements. I've had two bone density test in the past 10 years and both tests showed normal. Since I'm not having bone density problems I made the decision to stop the supplements. At least for now.... I haven't told my family doctor about this decision.

Waiting for Integrative Nutrition Webinar to start.

[Twins' Mom]

Lots of Health and Fitness advice and positive thinking going on here in the village. It took until past two p.m. to get mailing ready at temple - on the way home I stopped at a local park and walked and am now over 10K steps. I've eaten well today - two eggs, banana and the small sandwich type bun for breakfast, 1/3 a foot-long Subway sandwich w/o mayo for lunch, and just now a wrap with hummus, roasted red peppers, olives and artichokes for a heavy snack.

So far so good! It was lovely to walk today - nice weather and scenery. I love my dogs but it's nice to walk w/o them, too.

[Harriet]

Cowinkie, I sure hope this is an answer for you. Yay, that you seem to be dodging the pain well right now!

I checked my record of migraines as best I could over the past few years
Aug 6 2011
Nov 11 2011
Dec 2011
May 2012
Aug 2012
January 2013 (wrote down, "Ice storm brightness?")
April 5 2014
Hard to believe some of these gaps, especially the most recent, so I wonder if I've recorded carefully. However, I think there's a definite slowing to the rate, so I have to conclude there's a hormonal relationship. Sometimes I have nagging headaches that don't turn into migraines - wonder if this is the same mechanism, however.

Getting calcium or several other components of multi...... one thing I worry about a lot is that I often forget my multivitamin (which would have calcium) because I'm supposed to put 4 hours after the thyroid pill before the multi. Problem is, that except for mornings, Harriet just can't be counted on to get pills taken. (Like Harmony with the elliptical) I never seem to have two days the same, am sometimes away from home, etc. My multivitamin is several capsules and I really like to take it at two meals. That complicates further whether I really get the dosage I set out to get. I've thought about going back to the liquid, if I thought my stomach could take it.

Btw, that "perfect" thyroid number the dr mentioned, turns out to be TSH .80 (in other words, less than one), which seems low to me. But I'm sure there's a lot of relief that I'm not way up there like I used to be. It does not "flag" as low from the lab, since their reference range begins at .45.

Thanks for the info about your B-12 dosage, Harmony. How long did you feel, again, that it took to notice any difference? I know you were experiencing that at the same time as the thyroid dosage tweaking.

OKay, at first I was extremely skeptical of the nutrition school, because I was wondering whether you might get into the course and just hear a lot of things you would question, such as "old school" thought that has been disproven, etc. But after noting some of the presenters, etc., I can see why you are intrigued, and I can't see how it could be a negative experience. Thanks for bringing it to the boards, because that's interesting. If I had time, I would like to learn more, too. Time is the only negative I see for you in it.

[Harmony]

I can't tell for sure how the B12 makes me feel. When I first got the shot I felt better. But I don't know if I felt better because there was relief that I finally found out what was wrong with me or the B12 helped. I believe at the time I thought it helped. Still, I have times that I feel like the bottom "drops out" and I have no energy at all. I don't think since I've gone down this thyroid path that I've ever felt 100%.

And about the calcium - I do have osteoporosis so that complicates things a bit. I just haven't been getting it in with the 4-hour thing before and after any meds, etc. A medicine I was on (and one I'm perhaps now on) keeps calcium from being absorbed well. And now with me watching my cholesterol numbers, my dairy is way down. Seems like I can't win any way I turn.

[Nancy]

I have done 30 min. On the gazelle and a half mi. Stroll at sunset that was lovely.

[Twins' Mom]

OKay, you are really thinking out the options and possibilities. I found that working with a trainer gave me the motivation to get there and work out, and the monitoring also. I should try that route again but don't know trainers....

Yesterday I ended up with 13,400 steps, but I ate a lot of carp in the early evening. Then dh came and asked if I wanted to go out to eat! We stayed in, thankfully, and ate chili for supper.

Started the day with egg salad and sandwich thin bun with tomato.

[Nancy]

I have been sitting picking wool not much activity that will be later on.
re vits. : I ran out of calicum chews and my inbards have been better. I feel better not enough mag. In them I suspect.