Salt and Spinach

After a wonderful vacation but still feeling exhausted, I tried something new this week.  Over the past month I have been adding more sea salt to my diet.  I have never been a big salt person in terms of adding in to food, and often would leave it out of recipes.  Through some research and thinking about my diet, I realized it is likely I was deficient in sodium because after removing grains (which are loaded with it), I had virtually none left.  So I put it on my eggs, salad, and cooked vegetables now, along with on potatoes.  Part of my research was into adrenal issues - adrenal fatigue and addison's disease.  It is quite possible that I am somewhere on this specturm - trouble losing weight, hair falling out, skin darkening, joint/muscle pain and weakness, low blood pressure, headaches, and the dizziness and extreme exhaustion. 
I have also made an effort to increase my carb load by being sure to have a starchy vegetable (potatoes) at least once a day.  Generally I've been having this at dinner.  I'm not sure if this is impacting me or not, but I wanted to try it.
And the final thing I did was add spinach.  One morning this week I didn't have spinach for breakfast and I was noticeably more tired before lunch.  Perhaps I need the vitamin A or C in there on top of my vitamin supplements?  Not sure, but if that's what it takes to have energy again, I'm certainly willing to do it.  I might even try making some smoothies for breakfast to change up how I'm eating it.  I've heard spinach with some berries can be really good.
So, yesterday I didn't nap because I was working.  We were also having a garage sale, so I did some lifting and moving around more.  I weeded the garden (what I think are weeds) and we went for our normal walk.  I didn't have my 5pm energy plummet and it didn't happen at 7pm either.  The walk wasn't completely draining and at 9:30 I decided to go to bed because it was late, not because I was struggling to keep my eyes open.  What an incredible difference!
I haven't lost any weight in the past month, but I have maintained and according to my scale lost body fat.  Considering I didn't work out at all, this is interesting.  Although I certainly did a lot of carrying and catching of 26-33lb children while on vacation (catch me Mommy!)  I'm thinking my body was doing some type of repair work though, hence the extreme exhaustion.  It will be interesting to see if I start to lose again from here.  I still fit into my old jeans too, this time on the first day of my cycle, which normally would not happen.  And on top of that, I haven't had ANY cramps!  How can that be, a person who used to need 500mg naprosyn in order to function normally?  Clearly my body is doing some type of restoring and on this end of the journey I'm all for it.

Adrenal Fatigue?

After a day with much researching, I think this may be my issue.  With our vacation coming up, there's not much that can be done right now.  But I happen to have magnesium and some other vitamins in the house that I see mentioned on many of the sites.  I also remember the cocktail of vitamins that Dr Hain had me try 3 years ago working at least a little for the dizziness.  I dismissed it at the time, but perhaps taking it for 2 months was just what my body needed at the time.  And then of course I got pregnant again and life took off.  So starting tonight I'm taking magnesium before bed as it's supposed to help with sleep, and everything else will be in the morning.  I'm also going to stop trying to do any sort of fasting and go back to eating snacks throughout the day.  Part of adrenal fatigue is the body's trouble with regulating blood glucose.  I also think that I may be eating too low carb.  So once we return from vacation I'm going to be sure to add in more safe starches to get closer to 100g/day, since I'm closer to 50g, if that, right now.  It feels good to have some idea of what direction to head in.  Hopefully by July I'll be feeling a little better.  For now I'm going to just sleep when I get tired and with my work slowing down that will be easier.

Here's to hoping that this works, because being this tired really sucks!

SO TIRED

I am so tired I almost want to cry.  But that would take way too much energy.  Seriously, for the last 2 weeks I can barely keep my eyes open.  When I wake up in the morning my eyelids are super heavy.  Yet I wake up at night for seemingly on reason and have a lot of trouble getting back to sleep.  If I can resist napping in the afternoon, I am completely drained by 5.  If I give in and nap I'm done by 7.  I can't go on anymore like this, but I have no idea what to do.  Jon wants me to go back to the doctor.  But they couldn't find anything wrong last time, so why would now be any different?  I just want to live a normal existence without fighting my body every step of the way.  It's a good thing I don't have soccer tonight, because I doubt I could stay awake long enough to drive to the field.  I've been yawning while getting James ready for his nap, at 12:30!  I tried eating more food and carbs today, thinking maybe that was the issue.  Instead I just find myself full and exhausted.  The dizziness is horrible too, I can't take it anymore!  Has anyone else ever experienced this?  Thank God Jon is home right now, I don't know how I'd function without his help.

We're going on vacation Sunday and to the Sox game Saturday.  I am praying that I will have the energy to get through the game and then play with the kids at the beach and waterpark.  I've been looking forward to this vacation for several weeks, but now I'm afraid I won't enjoy it because I'll be so tired.

I have to find out what is going on!

Almost ready to show!

I've spent the past 2 weeks cleaning out the house.  We got rid of a lot of the junk that has accumulated since James was born.  I discovered we have TONS of toys.  But mostly everything is under control now.  I will be spending this next week cleaning what remains.  We're getting the deck done and the driveway resealed.  Hopefully we'll be able to sell for a doable price fairly quickly.  We're still praying that Jon can get the job at Fenwick.  It really could just be an amazing life for us.  We figure that if they can come in at $50k, we can make it work.  And that's not too crazy with his 5 years of experience, master's and lcsw.  Oh, how much simpler life could be.  There's some houses over there that we can look into once we get a savings built back up as well.  I just want to be able to walk places!

Life feels a little less stressful now that the house is cleaner.  The kids are enjoying having lots of space to run around in, especially as it's over 90 outside today.  What's amazing though is that we haven't had to turn the a/c on yet.  It is still under 80 in the house since we closed it up early this morning.  Tomorrow might be rough though since we won't get a good cool-off tonight.  But it's supposed to be 60 by Thursday, how crazy.

I'm interested to see where life will be by August.  We have a lot planned for June, but plan to relax in July.  We would love to get the house sold quickly and then start planning where we'll go.  Hopefully we'll know where we want to be headed in the next 2-3 weeks.  Ideally Jon can have an interview next week, then we go on vacation and sell the house.  We've been waiting for a break, maybe this will be it?  Certainly would be amazing, but it's all in God's hands at this point.

Another pound makes 12

I'm down 12lbs since I started this in January.  Not rapid weight loss, but slow and fairly steady hopefully means it'll stay off.  I don't feel deprived either, which I think is key.  This past week I've been indulging in dark chocolate a lot more frequently.  What's awesome is that just 1 square hits the spot whereas I ued to want 1/2-1 whole bar of milk chocolate - how crazy is that?  I think Jon is coming around a little more as well, enjoying eating more meat in place of the pasta.  Looking forward to this week's meals too as I thought about them: whole baked chicken (fries and fresh brocolli), meatloaf (mashed potato and frozen veg), steak (watermelon and veg), and sausage and peppers.  I've found that by eating a fairly high carb dinner I feel better overall, so I'll keep doing that.  I'm enjoying exercising more now as well since it's not so forced.  Looking forward to my body weight workout in an hour or so.  Can't wait until I can actually do a pull-up!  Losing weight will obviously make this easier too.

Lots of changes going on around here lately.  This biggest is that we've decided to officially try our house on the market.  I spent last week getting started on the house and have 2 more weeks to finish up.  So my goal is to have the house completely decluttered by Memorial Day so I can spend that week really cleaning everything.  The first floor is almost done, so I don't think it should be too hard.

Jon also has an interview on Tuesday.  It's a middle school, but would mean ~$5k raise, cheaper insurance, and if we can sell, cheaper rent closer to there.  It could be a pretty awesome set-up.  Looking like we have a few choices that could lighten financial stress if he can get out of Zion and we can sell.  We'll have to see what God has in store for us.  Surely something will work out!

Busy Busy

It's been a while since I wrote because life seems to have gotten very busy.  We had Carolyn's birthday, then last weekend functions to attend, and this weekend Carolyn has been battling an ear infection.  If she gets some good sleep tonight I think she'll have it beat in the morning.  But she wakes up and thinks she's better, then is sapped for energy until she gets to sleep again.  So tomorrow will be another day of snuggles, reading books, doing puzzles, and maybe even an art project.  Anything really to help get her to sit still.  She was running around in the basement this afternoon, but too tired to even sit on the couch by herself an hour later.  So hard to figure out a 4 year old.  Jon isn't feeling well either now, so not sure what's up.

My promotion has been going well and I am definitely much busier and billing many more hours.  I think I will average about 11 hours a week for April once the day ends tomorrow.  It's nice to earn a bunch for a cushion right now to put towards the car to pay it off early.  But I don't feel too overburdened with the work, so it's good so far.

Haven't done any new recipes lately.  With nicer weather we've been grilling some, which is a nice change and easy to cook up a few nights at once.  Tonight we did pizza.  The crust came out so much better using freshly shredded cheese it was really amazing.  Definitely plan to do it again with freshly shredded cheese.  Tomorrow I'll do meatloaf again, making a full 2lbs of meat so we'll have plenty for leftovers for lunch or another dinner.  Then we'll grill Tuesday and do sausage and peppers on Wednesday.  Then Thursday and Friday we'll have leftovers.  We went to Sam's club yesterday and stocked up on some grilling foods, got some big blocks of cheese, a box of eggs, and a big bag of almonds.  So now our weekly trips should be a bit cheaper for a few weeks.  We might go back for the next free preview, but it's not worth the membership at this point.

In other exciting news, I've hit my first 10lb milestone.  Weighing myself yesterday I am down a full 11lbs since starting all of this in January.  I can fit into my old pair of jeans, which is extremely exciting.  For the first time in my life I'm losing weight without being hungry all the time!  It did take me 3 months to lose the 11lbs, but slower weight loss is what generally tends to stay.  So I'll take it.  I have definitely discovered that I do better with a slightly higher intake of carbs.  I am in a better mood and I lose weight more effectively.  I'm probably up around 75g carbs/day, going most of the day very low because breakfast and lunch and each under 10g most days and then for dinner I'll have some sort of starchy vegetable.  Seems to be working!  I love that I don't have to give up all the foods I like and can have treats on special occassions without completely derailing my weight loss efforts.  I only wish I had come upon this earlier.  It will be interesting to see what weight my body settles into after a year or so.  If I can get down below 178lbs by the time I go in for my next doctor's appointment, I'll be thrilled.  That's where I was when I got pregnant with Carolyn nearly 5 years ago.  5lbs in 2.5lbs I think will be very doable as well.

Well, off to get some rest so that I don't catch what seems to be going through the house!

All Is Well

Today was a wonderful day.  We took Carolyn to the pediatrician and got a chance to talk about our concerns.  Her moods have really stabilized lately, so we didn't discuss that.  We did talk about the bloody noses - suggested that is allergies.  So will keep an eye on it but not treat it unless it gets worse or is actually bothering Carolyn.  Talked about the bed wetting - found out that 15% of 5 year olds still wet the bed nightly.  Won't need to even think about anything unless she's 6 and having problems.  So for now we'll just keep doing diapers until she starts waking up dry.  And we discussed the night waking.  Since she doesn't resist going back to bed, she said there isn't much to truly worry about.  Perhaps the pedi telling Carolyn she needs to let us sleep will help.  My fears of hearing about her being underweight did not come true as though she's only 32.4lbs, she's also only 39", putting her at exactly 25% for both!

We came home and played around the house, had lunch, and both kids took wonderful naps.  I took a 20 minute powernap before working because I was SO exhausted.  Was still able to get everything done so I can relax tonight.  Had a snack, then played outside until I had to work.  Carolyn is already super fast on her new bike!  By the end of the summer I'm thinking she'll be going up the hills with no problem.  I tutored this afternoon, then we played in the basement while dinner finished cooking.  Now James is asleep and Carolyn is working on getting to bed.  What a terrific day.