B&A with pics, female 5'8"

Do you mind sharing a little more information? What kind of things worked for you... what didn't. Would appreciate it!

what did not work for me was trying to lose weight. the more i focused on the scale, the more frequently i failed. it wasn't until i was in the emergency room in july for the 2nd time this year with docs telling me they couldn't believe i was still alive. my bp each time i went to the hospital was over 200. so in july, i decided to make a lifestyle change. it wasn't about vanity, but about not dying. the scale was no longer my motivator, the blood pressure monitor i used every day at home was.

first i cut out gluten, which as a hypoT i shouldn't have been eating anyway because gluten closely resembles the thyroid protein, so when you develop an intolerance for gluten, your body attacks and the thyroid becomes an innocent bystander. then i cut out all processed foods due to the sodium and hidden gluten, and that basically eliminated white sugars by default. i then cut out meats and dairy due to my cholesterol being 356, a common side effect of hypoT. i know fanatics will blow a gasket here and say the body adjusts its production of cholesterol and it's unnecessary to limit, but i reiterate my body has become defective. it does not adjust. it churns it out at 100% all day long and any that i eat goes on top of the stack. 356 is not a slightly elevated number. it's off the charts.

at this point, i realize i'm basically a vegan. and not just a regular vegan, but i'm avoiding so much stuff because i'm afraid there's gluten hidden in it that i'm doing all of my grocery shopping from the produce department. the transition happened so quickly, i didn't know any good recipes (nor had i found mfp yet) so i was slicing and dicing and eating everything raw with lemon juice as a seasoning. after maybe a 10 days, i felt better than i had ever felt in my life. i was excited about the day. forget bars and restaurants, i was driving around hitting up every produce department in every grocery store i could find having a blast exploring foods i'd never tried before. eating as a raw vegan was so much fun!

i'm a big nerd and a recluse, so i truly don't expect anyone to understand this level of geekiness.

at the same time, i started walking. just walking. 2-5 miles a day depending on the path i took through my winding neighborhood. i weighed myself daily out of sheer curiosity. logged it monthly. but it was that blood pressure monitor that kept me going. knowing if i followed docs orders and lost the weight, maybe, just maybe, i wouldn't have a stroke in front of my children and change their lives forever with that last memory of me. but the scale was not the boss of me, the bp monitor was. walking daily is a given. exploring the world of produce is fun. dodging a lethal gluten bullet is a must. but above all, keeping that top number below 140 is my only real concern. losing weight became a byproduct of lessor importance.

**NOTE - NOTHING i said is meant to be advice for anyone else. this is my personal medical and health journey and what i had to do to stay alive.