Hypothyroid Prisoner: The Rant Many People Think

If you are like any of the 12% of Americans living with a form of thyroid disease then you are very well aware of your daily struggles just to get out of bed in the morning. You understand not knowing when to take your Armor, Nature or various forms of synthroid (levo), antithyroids. Unfortunately for my hyperthyroid friends this will more be about us slow thyroid people (hypothyroid). We are referred to as fat and lazy most days.

Little do people know the thyroid is basically your control center or hub for many things. Your sex drive, your ability to sleep and wake refreshed, your metabolism, also memory. See photo above on what it effects.

Sad like many of us it takes gaining an excess of 50 lbs with no rhyme or reason before your doctor tests for this. The moment you feel like your body is off always have in the back of your mind that it could be this. If you're always tired and you get an accurate amount of sleep. Your blood pressure is very low. You're always cold and possibly have Reynauds disease.

Everyone's story is different on the moment they learned they became one of the 12%. Mine personally was very scary since I had no idea what it meant. It wasn't until I had headaches every day for two months straight. I gained some weight but was very very active. I didn't understand why I was gaining when I was working out daily and running twice a day. People always tell us to get up and move more and we will lose weight. Not sure about you all but hearing that all the time made me feel even worse about myself. Going from an athletic build weighing 145 to 190 in less than a year span and not changing anything from what I did before made me feel defeated.

My absolute highest weight since diagnosis was 195. That was when I decided I had ENOUGH! I was trying every plan out there. Keto, but I have fibromyalgia and my trigger is red meat, Mediterranean, which my family is not fish lovers, fitgirls, MyFitnessPal to now Noom. I have tried so many things and none until now have been working. I will not put all credit towards Noom though since most of what they cover was all things I knew. I give credit to myself to finally pushing myself ultimately hard. It's not easy getting up in the morning and I want to nap with everyone else. You have to dig down deep. It is going to suck for the first month and the second month and the third. It's going to suck all the time, but how you feel after is what is amazing. I am nowhere near where I want to be or my goal, but every single day where I am not back at start is a great thing.

My tips for you my fellow hypo people.

• Never give up. It is hard and you are not alone. Those normal thyroid people will never understand and that is okay. We are stronger than them since we battle harder everyday. You may feel tired and weak but let me tell you. You pushed to roll out of bed. Your good days would be equivalent to a normals bad day. Your mind is stronger even if you feel like giving up.
• Try to do one extra thing everyday. Park farther away from the store enterance. You may hate it later because you're so tired, but that is one extra step in the right direction.
• Stay away from the fog eating. Are you actually hungry or just bored?
• Read labels! Sugar is bad for us. Our hypo bodies love to hold on to sugars, and add it to our mounting waistline. Eat fruit for natural sugars. I know not as good as the hostess cupcake or like the poptart I just had to have. Yes, we all slip, but it's up to you where you draw that line.
• Do not be afraid to talk to your doctor. Sadly doctors do not know a lot about us yet. Have them refer you to a dietician who can work with you to add the right things back into your life.
• Join an online support group. There are many! Facebook has more than you can think of. You are not alone.

I do not have some mystery and secret potion to help us lose weight. Sadly it does come all from you. Sorry to tell you this but you have to dig down deep. I would have told you to fly a kite this time last month.

Hypothyroidism is not curable. Do not let the latest fad from a supposed wellness coach fool you. They will trick you into believing it's possible to have you buy in.

You will however feel better once you make up your mind. I am tired just by writing this, but I will be pushing on to do an easy yoga workout.

Learn to love yourselves again. I know you have stopped since well I did too. You are STRONG, CAPABLE, and WORTHY.

I will be writing more about this phase of my disease. The two years after diagnosis on world Thyroid day.