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Sugarsavedme

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I have never really kept a good record of what I'm doing for want of a sympathetic place to put it and I think there could be some benefit to recording my diet, supplements, temps, pulse etc all in one place (I have several different apps where I store this stuff at the moment).

A little background - I used to be hugely overweight. I am tall, muscular and lay down fat evenly (and easily) over my body. I had a thyroid panel done after my first pregnancy which showed high TSH of 4.91 but normal T4 (18) my T3 wasn't tested and I wasn't even aware until later that the test had been done or what the results were. My GP at the time never followed up.
Fast forward 4 years and I had finished breast feeding my youngest, was still overweight but had managed to lose about 10kg. I kept on with a low calorie diet (weight watchers) and lost another 20kg over the course of a year. That's when things began to go south, my hair was thinning, my energy was crashing, my skin was dry and my eczema, which had been in remission for quite a few years, had come back with a vengeance. I went back to my GP and they looked at my records and noticed that 5 year old thyroid test and decided to do another one. My TSH was even higher this time at 6.87, T4 was 15 (ref range 9-20) and T3 was 3.7 (ref range 3.5-6.5). My GP is all her wisdom told me that since my T4 was fine, thyroxine would do me no good so there was nothing to be done.

Not willing to take her word for it I started researching and reading everything I could. I managed to find a better doctor who treated me based on symptoms, not just blood tests. He prescribed desiccated porcine thyroid and I saw some improvements, however at this time I was eating a Paleo diet which was very low carb which I now know is not ideal for the thyroid.

Anyway to try and cut a long story shorter, I came to Ray Peat's work through a circuitous route via Danny Roddy at the end of 2011. I've been incorporating many of Peat's recommendations for just on a year now and I've seen many improvements. My temps, energy, sleep and skin are much improved. I still have problems with a low pulse, although it is better than it used to be; in my pre-thyroid, low-carb days my resting pulse could be as low as 45bpm. It sits now around 60. My weight is still an issue as I gained around 15kg in the first 6 months of Peat-eating and I'd really like to lose that. I'm officially about 22kg overweight but I was happy 15kg ago and I don't have any illusions about being lean at my age.

Anyway, I will aim to keep this up daily. It'll be interesting to keep all my data in one place. :D
 

charlie

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Sugarsavedme, thats great to hear about the results you have gotten from Peating! My pulse is taking a long time to increase to.

I look forward to following your progress.
 

Ray-Z

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Look forward to hearing more about your experiences, Sugarsavedme. Best of luck to you.
 

Birdie

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Hi Sugar,
I came onto Peat around the same time as you.

Glad you're here and look forward to your comments.
:) Birdie
 
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Sugarsavedme

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Thanks folks. :D

Monday 25/11/12

0500: wake up with alarm, am exhausted a only got about 5 hours sleep due to late sleep in the day before and not being able to sleep last night. Temp: 36.9 pulse 55
Large skim caffe latte with 3 t sugar. 2 aspirin, P5P, B-complex, vit A, D, E & K
1 HB egg and 250ml OJ, 1 grain Thiroyd.

0800: small skim caffe latte with 2 T gelatin and 2t sugar, 1.5mg nicotine lozenge

1000: pulse 88 temps: 36.7
50g jarlsberg cheese, 1 HB egg, 5 fresh dates, small skim caffe latte with 2 T gelatin and 2 t sugars

1400: large serve of bottled cherries and 150g skim ricotta, small 1% caffe latte with 2 t sugars

1600: 20g aged Gouda, handful of green grapes, small 1% caffe latte with 2t sugar

2100: large cup of hot skim milk with salt and maple syrup and bed.

I had a sore back, cramps from my period and and a headache yesterday but overall I had great energy (11 hour shift, standing most of the day). It was a good experiment to track my pulse when I was working and moving around, it was higher than I thought it would be.
 

charlie

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Your temp was lower at 10:00 then what it was when you awoke. Usually a sign of stress which makes sense because you did not get a good nights sleep.
 
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Sugarsavedme

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Charlie said:
Your temp was lower at 10:00 then what it was when you awoke. Usually a sign of stress which makes sense because you did not get a good nights sleep.
.

Absolutely. :)

Tuesday 27/11/12

0500: wake up with alarm, had a better sleep but still only 7 1/2 hours. Temp 36.5 Pulse 59. 1 grain Thiroyd
skim cafe latte with 3 sugars, aspirin, vit E & K, rhodiola, b-complex, P5P, oxytocin spray, 1.5mg nicotine lozenge.

0700: 2 eggs scrambled with skim milk, skim caffe latte with 2 sugars

1130: large serve bottled cherries with cottage cheese and honey, 1% caffe latte with 2 sugars.

1430: 50g jarlsberg, 20g aged Gouda, small bunch grapes, 200ml OJ

1630: skim caffe latte with 2 sugars, 5 dates

1900: 2 apple ciders.

I forgot to take my pulse and temps again later in the day. I was really busy at work. I had a couple of occasions where I had very cold hands though, so I know I was hypothyroid then. I have realised that because I'm trying low-fat/high-carb right now that most of my meals are fruit based and consequently my salt intake has dropped off. I think it may have a lot to do with why I have been getting cold occasionally. I must try to increase my salt back to previous levels.
 
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Sugarsavedme

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Wednesday 28/11/12

0500: slept around 7 1/2 hours but it was broken as there was a storm overnight. Felt ok though. Temp 36.5 pulse 55
Large skim coffee with 3 sugars, aspirin, vit E & K, b-complex, P5P.

0700: 50g jarlsberg, 6 dates, 1 grain Thiroyd, 1.5mg nicotine lozenge.

0800: 1% caffe latte with 2 sugars

1100: 1% caffe latte with 2 sugars, small serve green grapes. Temp 36.5 pulse 78

1430: 2 eggs scrambled with skim milk, skim milk cottage cheese, large serve green grapes, 500ml OJ, 1% coffee with 2 sugars (got stuck in a case at work and was starving by this time, consequently I ate too much at once and felt too full :eek: )

1800: 1 grain Thiroyd. Temps 37.3 pulse 68

2000: double shot of mescal with raspberry lemonade. 70g cheddar cheese and a tin of smoked oysters on rice crackers.

I was exhausted and fell asleep on the couch around 2100, went to bed shortly after. Salt was low again, I must work on this!!!! :x
 

charlie

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Did you jump from 1 grain to 2 grains really fast?
 
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Sugarsavedme

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Just a quick thought. When I first started Peating I used my capsule maker to make salt pills so that I could take them anytime I felt the need. I think I'll do that again today and keep a few in my pockets at all times. I really need to eat more salt.
 
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Sugarsavedme

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Charlie said:
Did you jump from 1 grains to 2 grains really fast?

My Thiroyd dose is very dependant on how I feel, sometimes I take 1 grain, sometimes 2. Back when I first started this my doc had me on 4 1/2 grains daily so 1 or 2 is really a reduced dose for me.
 

charlie

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Ok, so you are a thyroid supplement pro! :lol:

Was just hoping you weren't heading down the same road I went, thyroid overload! :shock:
 
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Sugarsavedme

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Charlie said:
Ok, so you are a thyroid supplement pro! :lol:

Was just hoping you weren't heading down the same road I went, thyroid overload! :shock:

:lol:

I am actually a very slow or non-responder to many things, I have taken up to 100mcg of Cytomel at one point and really felt nothing from it. I take many 100s of milligrams of caffeine and I use nicotine as a nootropic and it has very little effect on me (it has some though, which is why I still do it). It kind of makes it hard to figure out what to do or not to do sometimes. :?:
 
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Sugarsavedme

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Mmmmm, I'm nothing if not consistent in my inconsistency. :oops:

I have had a busy week with work, being on call and several Christmas functions involving too much alcohol and less than optimal food choices, however I am feeling well and recovering quickly from my excesses. ;)

I have been keeping track of my temps and pulse and sleep cycles with various iPhone apps and things are progressing ok. I'm able to keep my temps up using sugar and salt judiciously, my pulse is still low by RP recommendations of 80+ but it is still higher than it used to be.

However I am becoming increasingly aware that my sleep is not as good as it could be. I fall asleep and stay asleep relatively easily but I am not sleeping enough, it is hard to manage during the week as I work 10-12 hour shifts and have an hour commute on either end of my work day, that means that in order to get 8 solid hours, I need to walk in my front door and go straight to bed. This is neither possible (I need to eat and feed my family) or desirable from a lifestyle point of view (I like to actually spend time with my family). However a consistent pattern of 6-7 hours sleep a night is preventing me from making real progress toward healing.

Add to this a desire to insert some exercise into my routine and I am rapidly running out of hours in the day. Sigh....

One last thought - Coke is the best hangover cure ever! :lol:
 
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Sugarsavedme

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Ugh... Another terrible night's sleep! I even went to bed on time! It was my own silly fault, my weekend of over-indulgence has caused my acid reflux to flare up again which kept me awake. It was also the first really hot night of the year and I was baking! I ended up turning on the AC and having some baking soda at about 2am which helped but I was still restless. :(

I've just been reading an article from FPS called 10 tips for better sleep which was fortuitously posted on their Facebook page this morning and I will try implementing them from tonight. I recognise a couple of things on there that I have been doing which may be contributing to my problems.

Anyway, temp this morning was 36.8 - I hope it manages to stay up but I expect it will lower later due to the stress effects of insufficient sleep. Lots of salt and sugar for me today!
 

charlie

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Ssm, no worries you will get it in check. I have been dealing with the same thing, sleep issues, lately from this antibiotic course I did.

That article from FPS is really good I need to get a link up to it so other people can read it.
 

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