Newb mama with Hashimoto's and lots of weight to lose on this journey for health!

Super excited to be here! I wish I knew about this program before I further damaged my metabolism (low cal dieting then low carb dieting via paleo/primal). Here's a little background...

I'm a little less then a month away from turning 35 and I am the heaviest I've ever been. I lost 75 pounds the hard way with Weight Watchers about 8 years back. Then got pregnant and gained 50 pounds. It's no wonder, my body was probably starving and I'm SURE it damaged my metabolism. I tried very hard not to go hungry on WW and did a pretty good job eating mostly whole foods, I avoided the processed stuff but did eat frozen meals, soy products, low fat cheeses and even that nasty "butter" like stuff! YUCK. The one thing I really miss about WW though, is the meetings. They were very supportive and helpful for keeping me accountable. They didn't stress a huge loss every week and when you did have one, it was celebrated! I was taught to eat to LIVE not LIVE to eat. So it wasn't all bad.

A year postpartum with my first daughter I found that NOPE I couldn't lose this baby weight from breastfeeding (I have now nursed both girls for about 5 years and counting!). I was so tired, run down and frustrated. The brain fog was insane. I was worried to drive some days! It was especially hard because I KNEW how to lose weight (via Weight Watchers ha!) and didn't understand why at 1500/30 points a day and working out almost every day (with a toddler who didn't sleep either!) wouldn't be enough. I kept saying in my head that "OMG I should be rail thin doing all this stuff!" and it just didn't work. So I stopped for a time and after reading about my condition, I found Mark's Daily Apple. It blew my mind in terms of eating for health so I went gluten free and began phasing out the crap.

I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's and hypothyroid with a TSH at 6.8 and the Ts all being low. The docs wouldn't put me on meds because I was "fine" and should wait till I had symptoms (I had them ALL!) but I didn't push it. I though eating better was my answer. It wasn't.

I saw an ND a few years later, and he prescribed me natural thyroid meds (Nature-Throid) at a very low dose. Well, it turns out I was pregnant at the same time but continued the vitamin D supplementation, vitamin b shots, upping my magnesium and eating clean. I was SO sick so I did mostly higher carbs like potatoes, rice, lots of fruit and greek yogurt. Turns out my body knew what to do and I just went with it. I firmly believe my eating higher carbs (starches!) really helped, because she came 5 weeks early and was a tiny 4.5lbs! However, she had ZERO issues. No glucose problems, lungs at 99% oxygenation and never had to be sent to the NICU. She latched on perfectly too! It was and amazing but super stressful time. Luckily, starting my pregnancy overweight, I didn't gain anything much, maybe 10 pounds total. I immediately lost that and even fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes before the mysterious weight gain of 20! pounds at 4-5 months postpartum.

At a crazy weight of 256 pounds, I decided something had to be done and I upped my thyroid meds over the last 6 months by taking another 1/2 grain tablet for two weeks until I got to around 3 grain. I felt great! I did this based on what I read from the Stop the Thyroid Madness site and really. I couldn't find a doc who even knew what Nature-Throid was, it wasn't consistently taken and I've had to really fight to get it. Then I started having bad hyPER symptoms over the last few weeks, and decided to drop my dose back to 1-1.5 grain. I will be seeing an endo who will hopefully help. I'm also taking a ton of supplements including rolling on a essential oil meant to help with thyroid issues. (EndoFlex).

Fast forward to now, did another Primal challenge that ended last week. I found I lost some weight (5 pounds) and my pants fit better (I'm doing T-Tapp and I'm thinking was responsible for that) but man, I am just TIRED. I felt like total crap, was nauseated and had some bad days of cravings (I fantasized about potatoes, people, no JOKE!) and even considered going on a crazy "potato diet" where you eat mostly potatoes all day (cooked then cooled for the resistant starch). Yeah not smart while nursing... I don't know how, but I found Matt Stone. I immediately downloaded his ebook. He made sense, I already knew of Ray Peat who did NOT make much sense LOL so then I got here.

I am temping around the low to mid 97s. I wanted to do RRARF for at least a month but I worry about how much I should be eating and how to track. I also want to continue T-Tapping and yoga once a week. I'm too tired right now to do weight lifting but am interested to learn about doing it in the new few weeks because I really would like to curb any major weight gain. I will be patient and let my body figure it out. I wont be cutting out foods anymore (except gluten and soy as it's said to aggravate my thyroid condition). I wont be cutting calories until I see how my body does in atleast 8 weeks and plan to take the reset for as long as it takes.

I'm so happy to be here!