Bloated, Down-shifted, and Cold? Oh, thyroid, where are thou?..."DIG FOR VICTORY" a good message then; a good message now (with pics)...and yeah, I like metaphors, always...Hanging upside down in Pilates-style (with pic)...Plus, a fellow fatfighting blogger's book will be given away by me in a different sort of "giveaway", so you can TRANSFORM, too--read about it here.

Anyway, not feeling like my usual vim and chipper self..physically. And that affects me...emotionally. But I refuse to cave to the vagaries of hormones and am fighting to keep that fighting spirit.

I've been taking my morning temps. Last summer, they were running in the low 98s.

This past week, they've been running from 97.0 to 97.5. Today, 97.3.

This just convinces me further the thyroid is not doing its job. This also might explain the stall/plateau/sort of standing still. Maybe even the salt and sushi cravings (a desire for iodine, to which I'm sensitive?)

Whatever. I have to wait until Feb 3, and my experience with endocrinologists are all over the map--from horrid-horrid-beyond-horrid to pretty darn good. It's depressing to have to do your own damn medical research and take in print-outs to get them to listen sometimes (I won't even go into the beyond-horrid one, who should have been made to retire, quite frankly). Doctors are so cued into numbers, the labs, that they overlook other factors. We thyroid gals know that when symptoms persist, despite labs, it's time to look DEEPER. For me, being in range is very narrow.

VERY NARROW...I feel symptomatic where other folks feel fine. I feel fine and normal when others might be hyper in range.

And I suspect I'm not a good converter of T4, cause I felt so much radically better when Cytomel was added into the therapeutic mix. OMG, like a whole galaxy's span better. Depression totally lifted and hasn't come back yet. Amazing. So..yeah, don't go by just those numbers (which get changed and refined with years.) Listen to what your symptoms and body tell you, research, and discuss. And if the doc ain't a good listener, move on to another.

Seriously. Docs aren't always on top of this.
~~~

Okay, so, what's that "DIG FOR VICTORY" thing in my blog post title? It's a slogan from WWII.  Britain needed to feed itself, so victory gardens--digging like mad--was needed. There was a ditty, too:

Dig! Dig! Dig! And your muscles will grow big
Keep on pushing the spade
Don’t mind the worms
Just ignore their squirms
And when your back aches laugh with glee
And keep on diggin’
Till we give our foes a Wiggin’
Dig! Dig! Dig! to Victory"

I don't think it's a stretch at all to see we fatfighters are in a war, and we've got to have strategies, weapons, resilience, endurance, fitness for the battles, contingency plans for suprise attacks, and an ultimate inspiring vision of victory. And day to day, we gotta work on it. And day to dig, we gotta dig...dig..dig. For the reasons we overeat. For the motivation to go on. For the strength to just get through each day.

But it's not just metaphorical. It's FOR REAL. We dieters need to learn to love that stuff that gets grown in dug-up soils. Veggies. Fruits. Nature's supplements. Nature's dessert. Colors and vitamins and minerals and fiber and water...all bound together. With fewish calories. Yep. That's reality...learn to love veggies. (Doesn't everyone already like or love fruit? Probably. But most folks I know don't eat a whole lotta veggies. That's crazy!)

Here, my stovetop with my organic goodies and my dining room table, on which we don't eat, but I use to hold my freggies... in snapshots I took last week, but I forgot to upload:

organic haul including kale, celery, daikon radish,
persimmons, and crimson gold apples

my dining room table, which I use to hold produce,
such as my citrus goodies, a squash, and some grape tomatoes.
You might spy the top of an unsweetened cocoa cannister
and some brown rice pasta (Tinkyada, no gluten)

I have a little reminder--courtesy of Beth from OBESITY STRIKE blog, thanks, babe, and I hope you are doing well, really! A small bit of china with weight. History. Metaphor. War. All in one little green cup that holds, fittingly,  my organic decaf green tea, as shown in these pics of my brekkie today:

Breakfast today: a Cara Cara navel orange
(organic and beyond yumsy)
A multi-veggie-ham-pastrami-feta omelette on a bed
of organic wilted spinach. Fresh coffee. Fresh green tea.
Water, supplements. (The little bottle is my EZ Sweetz,
the sweetener I use in my coffee. Sucralose.)

DIGging in FOR VICTORY, baby!!!!
My sluggish metabolism ought to benefit from the green tea.
Good stuff to get used to drinking, I figure. :D

 So, that was food stuff.

Exercise:

Yesterday, I did my hour long Pilates session, which culminated in some inverted stuff (which will explain clearly why I don't have solid food prior to Pilates, and just have about 150 to 200 cals of whey protein in water or almond milk and some tea and water to stay hydrated). Here be I, heels over head:

Just hanging around...

That actually feels pretty good, stretches out the stiff old hips of mine.

Then I went for my 30 minute brisk walk.

I'm trying not to let the vim-lessness overwhelm me. :D

Okay, so lastly, but not leastly, BOOK GIVEAWAY (well, as long as it stays Prime-eligible, cause that's what I us).  I'm gonna be putting up my review of TRANSFORMATION ROAD in the next couple days--honestly, I'm so lazy about writing it already, but it's the lethargy. I can seem to spit out my thoughts easily enough here, but to focus for a decent review seems harder.

Some of you already know Sean from his astounding journey as documented on THE DAILY DIARY OF A WINNING LOSER, his weight loss blog. He's lost an immense amount of weight and turned into a total cutiepie. Yes, feel free to go over to his blog, gaze upon his cutiepieness, and drool. Sean has written a book--TRANSFORMATION ROAD--that is a way honest detailing of his journey. A memoir of change from crazy butt obese to not obese hottie. And more than a body changes, I can tell you. (Y'all know this, right, when you start to change the outside, inside gets overhauled, too, sometimes a bit, sometimes A LOT.)

It's available on Amazon, and the winner of my giveaway gets it via Amazon, so you need to be 1. in an Amazon Prime area, meaning probably the continental US and 2. willing to cough up your snail mail addy to me to send it to you if you win. Sorry to the folks who aren't eligible. I simply am not willing to pay additional postage. I gots Prime. I use it. It's not available for Kindle (why? why?) or I'd offer it to anyone willing to read it in e-format (Kindle, Kindle Fire, Kindle Cloud). But, oh, well, sorry.

If you'd like a chance to win the book, leave a comment UNDER THE POST WITH THE REVIEW THAT IS TO COME. NOT THIS POST. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE REVIEW. POST YOUR GIVEAWAY REQUEST THEN, on THAT POST, not this one. Is that clear?

Posts for the book offer under this post will be utterly disregarded. :D

You will need to tell me in that comment why you need to read a "transformation' memoir (ie, why or how it will help you)...and also leave me your blog url (if your blog comments go to your email, that way I can reach you) or your email proper.  (I recommend you disguise your email like "JaneDo atsy gmail dotsy com" or somesuch.)

Got it? Gotta be Prime Eligible zone. Gotta leave a comment with a why. Gotta leave a way for me to reach you.

This won't be a random giveaway. This will be a, "I liked your comment as to the why you need the book, so here you go." Person who I figure will benefit most, that person gets the book. :D  (Only if there is a tie between 2 or more persons in my mind, only then will I hit the random generator doohickey.)

I'm letting you know about it here so you have time to go check out Sean's blog, his book on Amazon, and see if it will, indeed, help you. :D  We clear?

Good.

Now, go and transform a little today. And...be well.