New Project - Getting Fit and Healthy

I seem to have done all I can on the decluttering front.  That’s not to say my apartment is perfect, but I think the real problem now is that I live in an apartment designed for two people, but we are now three people.

I’ve been tossing up whether or not to make getting fit and healthy my new blog project.  I feel in part that I am setting myself up for failure.  Firstly, there are so many get fit / lose weight blogs that peter out.  Secondly, there are so many really good blogs that will remain fair better reading (eg A Neurotic Glamour Girl's Weight Watches Experience and Fitness Adventures and Being Primal), but in the end I thought, “well, if nothing else, it might keep my honest”.

My main goal is to keep my thyroid (hence the “and healthy”).  I have been on medication for about a year and my thyroid hormones have just gone back into the normal range.  If I can be weaned off the medication by the end of the year and keep in the normal range then I should be set.

My secondary goal is to get down to 60 kg, because there has to be a fun pay off to all the self discipline required.

I’m basing my strategy on the guidelines on paleo diet principles from Mark's Daily Apple, here it is:

• I will base my diet on fruit and vegetables, animal protein, raw nuts 
• 50 - 100g carbohydrates a day
• 44g of protein a day
• 3 treats a week, each no more than 70g carbohydrates (actually this is from Being Primal: how-to-cheat-and-still-lose-weight-part-2)
• walk to work every morning (unless I have to go in early)
• 2 “Lift Heavy Things” sessions a week (this is five exercises in the Primal Blueprint Fitness E-Book, which you get when you subscribe to Mark's Daily Apple)
• Sprint session on Sundays (also from Primal Blueprint Fitness E-Book)
• Lights out at 10:30 pm unless I'm out (I'm never out, I have a toddler)
• I will track my eating on www.myfitnesspal.com

All starting tomorrow 25 July 2011 – so I will post my starting stats then.

Well and truly in the thick of it

Now I have everything off the floor (more or less), the plan is to move the four bookcases out into the living area and set up the cot in the left corner of the room as seen in (or rather, cut off of) this photo below. The black plastic that you can see behind the red ladder is covering the dismantled cot.

I was also rather pleased to realise the other day that I have the whole of the top of the wardrobe cleared out and have started putting the things to go into it in 30 litre boxes with lables. They are a good size but not too large and heavy, so you can pull them out without having to be an olympic weight lifter. I was thinking, that the right side of the wardrobe is also finished, but then I realised that the red ladder in the photo above is supposed to be going in there so I will need to do a bit more rejigging.

Today, being a Saturday, I had planned to get stuck into things.  Unfortunately, I got the results of a blood test yesterday, which showed that my thyroid gland is overactive.  In the past, it has been just slightly out of whack, but now its gone the full monty. My doctor has told me to do nothing for a week to try to calm it down (and she means nothing, to the point where she has given me a certificate so my husband can have a week off work to look after me and our baby). I hope it works because pretty much the only cure if it doesn't get better is to cut out the nodules causing the problems and then take tablets for the rest of my life.  

I really don't want to be on medication for the rest of my life, so I have spent much of the day in bed and the rest on the couch. Yesterday, I was thinking that an overactive thyroid is not so bad - I have almost got down to a weight I am happy with, I can eat as much as I want and I never get cold anymore.  However, doing nothing all day has made me realise I really don't feel well.  I have the jitters like I have drunk 10 cups of expresso, but I'm still tired and wish I could just fall asleep. 

The decluttering continues, however, with my wonderful husband in the process of moving the two bookcases into the dining area and setting up the cot.