Thursday Feb. 28

Hi Everyone.  I know I've been missing for awhile.  It's hard to explain.  I'm just so sick of trying to figure out my health and weight loss, you know?  When I first started Jorge's BFC it was so great, and I was losing just about every week and I liked what I was eating.   It was almost a game to come up with great BFC options that I liked and was helping me to lose weight.  I dropped about 25 lbs fairly quickly and then about five months after I started, things slowed down, way down.  Months would go by without a loss.  I would change things up and try new stuff and still either no loss or a VERY slow loss.  It took me another year to lose another 10 lbs.  When my Mom got sick this past summer and then died, I still truly thought I was sticking to my version of the BFC, although I wasn't weighing myself and I was drinking more than usual.  Around November I finally got on the scale and was shocked to find that I had gained back weight -6-7 lbs worth.  I got drastic and tried scaling back even more; I gave up snacks, then grains, then my heavy cream in my coffee.  I tried Maria's supplements and protein and fat week.  Guess what?  I went down a pound and then right back up to the new weight.  It's all so frustrating.  I started reading about Atkins and looked at what people were saying on the Atkins bulletin board and it got me even more depressed.  People are talking about barely any carbs, and monitoring carbs, fats, proteins, and calories!  That is SO much to try to keep track of!  I'm turning 52 in a few weeks and I don't feel like doing all that, it's why I started the BFC to begin with. Next I sent away for a home Thyroid tests from ZRT labs and also signed my husband and I up for the 50,000 mile check up at a hospital in Baltimore, all along severely limiting my carbs, dairy, grains, and making no more "healthy" snacks.  I drink 1/2 my weight in oz of water EVERYDAY!    Our test results came back this week and here are the results that showed as abnormal:

From ZRT Labs:

My TSH was high 4.7 (.5-3.0 is normal range)

My cortisol level was high in the morning but normal at noon, evening and night

My Vitamin D, 25-OH D3 was low at 24 (32-100 is normal)

My Vitamin D, 25-OH total was low at 24 (32-100 is normal)

From Hospital Screening:

CBC:

My RBC, HGB, HCT are slightly elevated but the notes said this can occur in post menopausal women

Hemoglobin A1C (this is the blood glucose one) - 6.1% (4.2-5.6% normal range)  What!!!

Cholesterol: (did not do fasting blood test)    

     Total:  272 (120-200 normal range)          Yikes!!! 

       HDL:   78 (40-59 normal range)

      Ratio:  3.48 (should be <5.1)     

      TSH:  1.84 (.400-4.0 normal range) - Normal here but not on the ZRT Lab - weird!

Plus my blood pressure was high.

So how is that for depressing?  I've been low carb for almost two years and my Hemoglobin A1C test comes back as pre-diabetic!  How can that be?   

Plus my Cholesterol is so high! I guess the good thing is my good cholesterol HDL is also very high which balances it out a little.   I'll now have to get a fasting blood test done because I have no idea what my bad cholesterol or Triglycerides counts are, and that's important.

My husband’s report was just as bad, except his total cholesterol was 290 and his HDL was only 61. His Hemoglobin A1C was slightly higher than mine.   Also his liver enzymes were high, suggesting a fatty liver.  

All this time we've been eating what we thought was low carb and healthy.   Maybe our results would have been even worse had we not been eating this way.  Who knows?   What I do know is that I'm now at least 20 pounds overweight and my numbers were not optimal. I'm happy for those of you that can gain 5 lbs and then be a tiny bit more diligent and the 5 lbs is gone three days later. That just does not happen for me.  I also know what I'm doing is not working anymore. It used to work, but not anymore.  I know that writing down the nutritional amounts of everything I put in my mouth is not something I want to do. I know that I can walk around the field behind my house and I can do a small kettle bell routine in the morning but I am not willing to put hours into a gym workout. This all might just be harder post menopause for some reason.   Somehow I have to figure out what is going on and why all of this has to be so difficult.  I will continue to eat this way for now and think my next step will be to make an appointment for a real physical and maybe seek nutrition advice with someone I can actually go in and talk to.  I know a lot of you have found what works for you and I am so happy that you did.  It gives me hope that eventually I can figure out what will work for me that I am willing to live with.