HAPPY HALLOWEENIE! I hope everyone has a great one!

I don’t have much to talk about, really. I’ve done well with limiting my carb intake to a much lower range, but I made a foolish mistake of eating dairy last Saturday evening and some on Sunday. No, no, no. Totally messed with my digestion, so still trying to recover from that. Also, finding out what supplements make me feel better/worse – all that trial and error mess.

What else? Just college work, keeping up with Katie’s school work, and trying to balance everything.

I’m totally boring, lol. HAPPY BOO-DAY TO YOU!!!

And I am back for another highlight and recap of my last week or so!

– Last Saturday I cleaned house then we went out for pet stuff and a few groceries
– Sunday was church, plus coming home to get more stuff done, then had church people come over & I went to Mom’s for usual card playing
– Katie has been coming home early this week because of conference week! home at 1pm, instead of 3pm.
– Tuesday was very very busy! I went to my Naturopath appointment, where I got papers for new thyroid labs to be done then we went to browse around Kroger & came back home before it was time to go to Katie’s school for our parent/teacher conference. My Mom/Aunt picked Katie up from the bus. We got Katie’s report card and she is so smart!!! They are graded 1-3, 3 being the highest and she got mostly 3’s and no 1’s!!! Her only problem is being distracted by the other kids at her table, so the teacher suggested that she may move her to a table by herself to help her refocus and so far that has worked! We left and went to get my blood drawn for my thyroid labs… drove all the way out there and they said we owed money from 2011?! What in the??? Well, we drove back home – dealt with that then drove back and I got the blood drawn. Gah.
– Yesterday I was starting to get some stuff for church done then the church missionaries wanted me to go with them at 4:30pm, but I didn’t have a ride at first, so I was on edge about that all day and that didn’t help me health-wise. In the end, however, a brother from church came with the missionary and picked me up. I’m so happy I got to go out and talk to someone about The Gospel. However, I ended up waiting too long to eat then having to rush home to a million things before Katie’s bath/bed time so that realllllly threw me off.

TODAY IS MY DOWN DAY, for sure. I have a little college to finish, need to wash my hair, and continue writing church letters. Also, my Naturopath emailed me about the thyroid test results and my numbers (both T4 and T3) are going up! Good news, except I still feel like poo. I’m taking thyroid meds, taking supplements to help with my low cortisol, yet I still am having symptoms and complications. The only other option is to change my food intake. Yea… I know I need to because I eat way too many carbs. The problem IS my food intake. It’s so hard tho to wean away from carbs/sugar because I just feel so terrible when I attempt, but it’s my onlllllly option if I want to fully heal and be able to reach fitness/weight loss/etc goals. I’ve only fully had success with getting away from the carbs/fruit/sugar ONE TIME in the last few years because I just fought through the fatigue/cravings/irritability that comes with getting rid of the carbs and sugar. I felt terrible for two weeks then felt wonderful, until I gave into carbs again. My gut is in such a mess and I want to feel energetic again. I usually have wonderful motivation and willpower, but when it comes to feeling like THIS when trying to cut down then rid of carbs/sugar? It is literally TORTURE because I feel all sorts of bad symptoms and just don’t know what to do with myself when I feel that way! I’ll get through it, but this time there will be NO going back because I’m determined more than ever. I’m tired of staying in this cycle of lower energy, gut problems, etc etc. This is not where I am meant to be!!! I wanna be able to do soooooo much more than I can right now energy wise. I thought oh, well maybe if the thyroid levels were more balanced that would fix my problem? Thyroid levels are better… nope, still not feeling the way I should! Oh, maybe it’s the low cortisol, but I’ve been taking stuff for that too, so it is my food choices.

I’ve made a list and will start to wean down from the carbs/sugar then hold on for the ride. I may just want to stay in a corner for two weeks, but I will put one foot in front of the other and make it. Anyway, it got COLD TOO. BRRR.

Hope everyone has an excellent Halloween! Brad is helping my neighbor move this weekend so that should be interesting. I’m gonna try to take it easy and rest up. I’ll post progress about my health and food situation.

BOO! How has everyone’s week been??! Let’s back up. This last weekend on Saturday Katie helped Daddy out with our pumpkin! Here is the scaaaary end result:

If you look closely you can see “something” in the pumpkin’s other eye – it’s a heart! Guess who’s idea that was to carve in? Heh. Brad chose the overall face tho. Mr. Pumpkin is sitting on our front porch!

The last month or two I have had a new co-teacher at church and she asked to be released, so I’m awaiting a new partner. We were short on time for my lesson, but I’m great at just winging it and trying to summarize what I had already planned to teach. I know I owe this learning and growing in teaching from just going with the flow and listening to the Holy Ghost. It’s incredible, but I do admit that I enjoy teaching adults more than children. However, there is always something to learn from teaching, whether young or adults. I’m thankful for the opportunities to teach The Gospel. After church, I actually felt like I wanted to do something, so I decided to get mine and Katie’s bikes and take them out. When Brad saw that I was going to take the bikes out – he said he would join too! I’m happy he did. Katie is getting better with learning to pedal, but she still needs lots of practice! It was actually pretty hot and I pushed myself too hard, but I wanted to get out there and let her practice. I ended up telling Brad to take over and help, while I sat on the pavement. It sucks to want to do so much physically and my body is just like – NOPE! I still have a ways to go with healing, and it seems I get a little bit of energy and end up going backwards because I do too much. Arrrgh. Anyway, we spent about an hour outside then Brad said, “Welp, that’s enough for now!” We gathered bikes and went back in.

On Monday my Aunt came over to talk, watch music videos, and the 1st episode of Surviving Evil (Charisma Carpenter’s story). It was awesome, but then she went to smoke outside and we talked out there. I was not careful and ended up coming back in to eat my lunch an HOUR out of my usual time frame. NOT GOOD. It always take a toll If I DO NOT eat within a certain amount of time. Needless to say, from doing too much Sunday and not eating on time Monday – I used Tuesday as my do-as-little-as-possible day and mostly laid around. It really helped! I felt better yesterday, but I’ve noticed I have felt “off”, so I stopped taking the liquid adrenal support because It seems from previous trial and errors I’ve done that If I take too much then I start to feel a certain way, so we’ll see how it goes. I’m excited for my next appointment with my Naturopath this coming Tuesday! I am def gonna order a new thyroid lab to see where my levels are and go from there. I am 100% certain that If I get my thyroid levels balanced that I will see a big improvement, since I’ve also now been supporting my adrenals.

Katie has been very talkative at school this week and has gotten yellow every day so far, even with trying to talk to her and put her to bed a little earlier than usual. I think she might be coming down with a cold, so that might be a little part of it, but still she knows better. Hopefully today she will come home with a good “green”!!!

EWWW, it’s such a rainy, dreary day. I really dislike winter, to be honest. The beautiful, sunny, mild fall days are awesome and welcomed. I looked at the 10 day forecast and it looks like it will jump from 70 during the day to the 50’s towards the end of October, with 30’s at night. BRRRR. Have an awesome weekend!!! Peace, love, and light to you guys. <3

Saturday we went to Brad’s work company picnic! We had a blast and it was a sunny (and quite hot!) day. Katie got to play a few games (and got prizes), get her face painted, Brad got to play laser shooting, and we got to watch two different dog shows!

We didn’t have usual church services Sunday because of our General Conference, so I watched the talks Saturday and Sunday. There were so many wonderful, brilliant, inspiring messages in them. I loved it! I watched all of them, except two that weren’t online yet when I last checked. Still need to go back and watch those. I loved the talks on mental illness, the story of the old man that was blind and deaf, yet still reached out for a priesthood blessing then died a few days later. I love The Gospel so much and the talks help me realize how wonderful this life is and can be when we live righteously. <3 “Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith” -President Uchtdorf.

I finished my Personal Wellness college class and moved onto Cultural Diversity in Health and Illness, which should be interesting. We’ve already talked about how it can be difficult and cause barriers when patients do not speak English and what to do to be sure that the patient gets the proper treatment and understanding. Soaking it all up! I love learning about health so much.

The sublingual liquid I’ve been taking for my adrenals seems to be “helping” a bit, but not as much as it was when I first started taking it. I decided to order another adrenal booster called Isocort, that has excellent reviews to help people with low cortisol…. AKA ME!!!! The supplements are arriving in the mail this afternoon, so I’m super excited! It’s so bad because the low cortisol has caused low blood pressure, low blood sugar, low hormones, low low low low low the last few years – which is why enough cortisol is SUPER IMPORTANT. That’s why my thyroid function went wonky because the cortisol was too high years ago then that stress was not relieved and the cortisol fell. Well, once it falls for so long then it can mess with the thyroid function too. It’s so frustrating because wonky thyroid and adrenals = higher weight and body fat, even though I eat clean and try to get some movement in, but another drawback is that anything above walking (or even really long walks!!!!) only seems to suppress that cortisol, which makes me feel WORSE. Exercise intolerance sucks for someone who LOOOOOOOOVES to exercise, which is another reason why I ended up with such low cortisol because when I first got sick I just kept pushing-pushing-pushing the exercise, even tho my body was like W-T-F, NoOOoOO. Hah. Yea, live & learn and all that. I certainly have.

Brad and I watched the movie World War Z last night, which turned out to be a pretty good one. Super speedy zombies! Speaking of, The Walking Dead starts again Sunday!!! I love my life and I am determined to revive my adrenals, which will boost my thyroid, which will mean I can finally be on my way to leaning down and building that muscle I WANT AND WILL HAVE! =) I think about running every day and how much I miss that feeling. I miss being sore from exercise, but I know it’s MUCH WISER to listen to your body, rather than what your mind wants. So, I’ll keep healing, keep mending, and then when my BODY is ready I will be the runner, the athlete that I know I am. I will say that I would not be the person I am today if it were not for my Heavenly Father and everything I’ve learned through The Gospel. I’m so thankful, grateful, and blessed. Always.

There is ALWAYS something to be thankful for!!! I’m thankful for my health struggles, thankful for my handsome husband, thankful for our beautiful daughter, thankful for LOVE, thankful for everything we have that Heavenly Father has gifted us with, and thankful for the beauty outside my door that HE created. Nothing will stand in my way of being at peace because I find it in Him. <3 Sending out positive vibes to everyone today. Know that I pray for this world and my brothers and sisters!

Kids get a fall break now?! Katie doesn’t have school today, tomorrow, Monday, or Tuesday! Lucky kids get a break in October, November, and December! She’s currently watching a cartoon with animals about phonics.

So, rewind. Last time I posted about doing exercise on my exercise bike. I did 20 minutes at a pretty fast pace last Thursday. Bad idea. I’m learning that with low cortisol and every other imbalance I have that getting my heart rate up too high only makes me worse. I felt terrible that evening. I tried to rest on Friday then the weekend was packed! Brad went out for errands Saturday while I cleaned house then in the afternoon we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and my thyroid meds. I came home to do a million other things, so any time I am crazy busy like that it also takes a toll on me. Sunday was busy too with church then cooking chicken/fish for the week then went to visit with Mom, as I usually do. The week has been decent so far and I got 100% on one of my college assignments, woot! It was on the link between physical activity and chronic illness. I felt “off” health-wise day before yesterday and my weight/body fat had stalled, so I know from past trial and error that-that means I’m taking too much supplement/vitamin wise. It always happens! I was taking extra vitamins that my Naturopath gave me, but I seem to do better with keeping the vitamin intake where it was prior to taking the new ones.

I watched the first episode of Surviving Evil online last night before bed. I had no idea that Charisma Carpenter was attacked like that in the 90’s. I loved her in Buffy and Angel. Excited to watch new Revolution tonight!!! It won’t be long and The Biggest Loser and The Walking Dead will be back… yay!

Umm, well I have run out of things to say. It has been gorgeous lately and we haven’t had to run our air conditioner in the last week or so, which is nice. Alright, off to get some chores done then one of my college discussions! Wishing everyone an awesome weekend.