Noticing the Sugar Hooks

I've been at this point soooooo many times in the last few years. I'll quit sugar and do well for a few weeks, maybe even a few months. And then... oh so slowly... it will sneak back into my life. A beer here (alcohol converts to sugar), a chocolate brownie there (pure sugar), a little treat everywhere. And then... just like that, I'm back on the sugar train... craving snacks and treats and indulging in junk food binges.

I am so tired of this roller coaster. And I KNOW that sugar is bad for Hashimoto's. The whole sugar/insulin thing... it attacks the thyroid gland. Sugar tanks my mood. It makes my joints ache. I can't think straight. I'm overwhelmed. All linked to Hashimoto's and sugar. It's just, as another Hashimoto sufferer said, one big clusterf*ck!

We're heading into Christmas Season... or should we say Chocolate Season. The holidays are a time to indulge in so many yummy things... chocolate, sweets, delectable feasts. But they all have a cost.

I bought a bunch of chocolates in late November, for Christmas. But now... I'm thinking about the box of Toffifee and the Lindt chocolate balls and... I feel a tad ill. I can't keep doing this. I need to take charge of my health. I am the only one who can do it. I know the consequences too.

And... I've been here so many times. In 2009 I quit Coke (sugar!!). And then started drinking hot chocolates at Starbucks. In 2019 I quit hot chocolates (sugar!!). And promptly started indulging in double chocolate fudge brownies at Starbucks. A few years ago, I ditched the brownies and started eating 85% dark chocolate squares (but too many). It is now 2025. Do I really want to wait till 2029? Probably not.

I see the pattern too... I get myself organized, I find my rhythm and balance and I'm going through life, so proud of myself and then... something happens. Stress at work. A death in the family. A pandemic. And I crave the comfort, the energy, the je ne sais pas that sugar brings. And it’s harder to bounce back than it used to be.

I've done it before. I've gone several weeks without chocolate or sugar and... then... as noted earlier... I crack the door a tiny bit to let in a birthday cupcake or a celebratory hot chocolate and... very quickly... the floodgates open.

I don't want to accept the fact that I need to go cold turkey. For life. Or at least to the point where I don't crave the stuff. And could I have a piece of birthday cake in the future? I really don't know. Maybe I should be joining an SA group (Sugarholics Anonymous). (OMG... there actually is such a group! I thought I made that up.)

I thought that I could be one of those people who can eat chocolate and sugar in moderation. Perhaps not. Genetically... some people can have one piece of chocolate and leave the rest for another day. Genetically, some people can't.

And I know that part of it is environmental as well. That is why I don't keep chocolate in the house. Going down to the store to buy it is an entropy hurdle that works for me. But if it comes in the house... I am hooped.

For now, noticing that feels like enough.

Another Sugar Detox... Amongst Other Things

Tofu

I know. I've been here before. At least 3 times in the last year. And I'm back at it again. This time with more insight and motivation. Hopefully that will lead to success.

Those who follow the ramblings of this blog will know that I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's - an auto-immune thyroid condition that leads to hypothyroidism - not enough thyroid hormone. It means I need to take a synthetic thyroid hormone to keep my thyroid levels within range. But it's been a bit of a roller coaster trying to keep the numbers within range. Which is frustrating and annoying.

Right now, I'm struggling again with low energy levels, sluggishness, achy joints and anxiety. Fun, eh? Not. I've been doing a lot of reading and researching and... I've learned that these sorts of things often start in your gut. There are some foods that are just not good for auto-immune conditions, but it's hard to pin down because it differs from one person to another. One person might be good with eggs but for the other person, it sends them into a Hashi flare.

Some practitioners recommend something called the Auto-Immune Protocol which, among other things, recommends that you avoid "suspect" foods and focus on "good" foods. So... cutting out things like gluten, soy, legumes, nuts, eggs, dairy, nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant), sugar, high-glycemic fruits. It leave a lot of greens and meat to eat. It's a bit extreme... but maybe it's time to bite the bullet.

But then... in reading the list of foods to avoid... I had a bit of an epiphany. I went back to my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) lab results and discovered something intriguing. Just to clarify, the TSH is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland when thyroid levels are too low. So when the TSH goes up... it means there isn't enough thyroid horomone. Kind of counter-intuitive.

TSH Labs

Let's take a look at my TSH labs - going from 2014 to 2023. I had always put my thyroid issue down to the stress of taking care of my Dad towards the end of his life - 2016-2019. But those labs are all happily within range. There's a bit of up and down, but it's all relatively good.

Where things start to take off is in January 2020 when my partner and I decided to get rid of meat, dairy, and eggs from our diet. We were going whole foods and plant-based. We introduced a lot more legumes into our diet as well as tofu and tempeh (both soy products).

And then... in March 2021, we both went to see a naturopath. I was actually feeling pretty good, but given our vegan diet, she decided to put me on a heavy course of Vitamin D (like 10,000 IU/day - recommended is 600-800 IU) because she thought I might be low in Vitamin D given the vegan diet. She also recommended fish oil (liquid stuff). She told me to avoid gluten but said sourdough bread was fine. 

I pigged out on sourdough bread from Cobs Bakery and... well... you see what my TSH did. Turns out Cobs Bakery doesn't do the "right" type of sourdough bread! With increasing doses of synthroid, however, my numbers came back down but then there are these weird blips where it goes up again. That was usually because I slid backwards and thought... I can have "some" gluten! And we continued on our vegan diet.

I eventually ditched the naturopath because I developed other issues - things like oral lichen planus (raw spots inside my mouth). The naturopath thought that was weird and told me to stop taking all of the supplements she had put me on. She said that when I came to her, I was basically healthy and she wondered about all the stuff she had put me on. Brilliant. Paid $$ to get put on supplements and then paid more $$ to be told to get off of them. No more naturopaths.

Personally... I thought it was the fish oil... so I stopped taking that and added salmon into my diet. And my mouth cleared up. Interesting.

Taking Charge

So here we are... my thyroid is screwed up and when I look back at the history of this... I am faced with the dietary change from a regular diet to a vegan diet. Got rid of meat and fish and added soy and legumes and lots of whole grains (most were wheat based - things like farro). If you recall from above, soy and legumes are two of the things on the "avoid" list, along with gluten. Is soy the issue? Is it just the gluten?

I don't know but I've started an experiment. We have agreed to add meat back into our diet - ethically sourced, local chickens and bison. We're already eating eggs and salmon, so we'll continue with that. We are eliminating tofu and tempeh from our diet. And sugar. Sigh. And I'm getting rigid on the gluten. No more chocolate brownies. No more Timmies bagels. Nope. Done. For 3 months. I'm writing this on June 17, so we're looking at end of September.

What will my TSH do? How will my energy levels do? I don't know but it's worth it. Right now, I'm on 100 mcg of Synthroid right now. I'm at the point where I'm tempted to increase the dosage just to feel better but... maybe these dietary changes will do the trick.

I've read enough stories about people taking charge of their dietary eating plans and seeing a reversal in their thyroid labs to know... this is possible. Will it work for me... we shall see. Small steps.

So, every time I go into Starbucks, I think... no brownie (despite it's siren call). It's not worth the rest of it. Just. Not. Worth. It. Period.

Hashimoto's Fatigue after a Gluten/Sugar Binge

I'm writing this on a Monday morning and I'm dragging my butt around. I have this yucky fatigue that came on me yesterday. All my zip and energy that had been coming back in the week since I gave up sugar... vanished. I was doing so well! What the heck happened?

Well... I think I got glutened.

I know... gluten isn't a verb... but out in the Hashimoto and Celiac Disease world... it is. It describes the fatigue and brain fog that happens when you eat gluten.

And it's a direct correlation to what I ate and drank on Saturday... the day before the fatigue hit me like a brick wall. I had a beer around the campfire as we roasted some sausages at lunch time. And then I went out with a group of colleagues for an appy dinner and... I threw caution to the winds and had another beer (gluten) and then munched on several appies... all of which apparently had gluten.

The lady next to me was only eating the salad and when I asked why... she has Celiac Disease. But can't she eat the yam fries? Nope... because they are all fried in the same oil as the gluten appies... Great. But I thought to myself.. "Ah, it's just a bit of gluten"... and now I am apparently paying the price for this.

I keep bumping up against this and I keep thinking I can have a bit of gluten and be fine. But I don't think so. Every time I do this... I pay the price. My TSH was fine in October 2022, but by January 2023, it was out of range again. Why? Because we went on vacation to Mexico for 2 weeks over Christmas and I ate whatever I wanted... all sorts of things with gluten in them... lots of beer... lots of baked treats. It's a direct cause & effect.

I don't want to face this though! I really don't! It's just too hard right now to admit that I should be eliminating all of these things from my diet:

• sugar
• refined foods
• gluten - wheat, barley, rye and maybe oats (they get contaminated)
• beer and probably all alcohol (converts to sugar)
• soy
• dairy
• eggs
• legumes

And those are just the worst offenders. If I cut out the first 4 though... I'd probably see a marked improvement. But I'm really struggling with all of them. The thought of no sugar (ever), no junk food or sausages or bacon (ever), no cake (ever), no beer (ever)... just crushes me.

And I see the impact of all of those foods on me... when I let things slide, I pay the price. I can't keep ignoring that. But it's too hard on my body.

So, it's time to pull up my Big Girl Panties and grab the steering of wheel of my life away from my cravings. I can't keep giving in to them. The cost is too high. The benefits too low.

Getting Back on Track after Life Derails

Well, that was fun. Not.

I dropped this blog in July 2021 without even a by-your-leave. No explanation. No nothing. Truth be told - life got in the way. I got a crash course in thyroid hormones! And a disease called Hashimoto's Syndrome.

There I was, merrily picking up the threads of my life after my Dad passed away in early 2019. Got a book published in May 2019. Travelled to England that same month and generally had a good time. Although... I did notice that I was feeling quite tired and... blah... for lack of a better word. Chalked it all up to grief after Dad's passing. Until it wasn't.

Crash Course in Thyroid Hormones

The short answer is my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) had been going steadily up since early 2018. But it was always "within range" so my family doctor just waved it away. Despite me pointing out that my Mom and two maternal cousins both had thyroid diseases. And then, in March 2021, my TSH crept over the "within range" marker and... boom... now there was concern.

Fighting the Sugar Demon

Coke

Sugar... such an innocuous word. But sooo dangerous.

I've known for a while that sugar is my kryptonite, my nemesis... the thing that is, for me, the hardest to kick to the curb. And whenever I think I've vanquished sugar, it simply shape shifts and morphs into some other form that sneaks in under the radar. Kind of like whack-a-mole.

For years, I drank quite a bit of Coke. I started in university (back in the 80s) and only really overcame that addiction on 7 July 2009, when I drank my last can. Twenty-five years of addiction done! Hooray!!!

Wait... not so fast. Because sugar wasn't done with me yet... my new friend was now Starbucks hot chocolate. I mean... if you're going to go to Starbucks and sit there and use their wifi for hours, you need to buy something, right? And for me, it was hot chocolate... 

Starbucks hot chocolate

That started in the fall of 2009 and continued until the spring of 2019 when I drank my last hot chocolate (from Starbucks or anywhere). Hooray!!

I've now been hot chocolate free for over 850 days. Not that anyone's counting... And the trick, for me, in ending my hot chocolate addiction was to make an agreement with my partner that... if I had a hot chocolate, I would have to pay a $10 penalty to her! Right then... done with hot chocolate!

Wait... not so fast. Last summer, with the pandemic raging and Starbucks closed to visitors... I developed the habit of going for a hike on Saturdays and Sundays (a good thing) and then grabbing a Starbucks Double Fudge Chocolate Brownie to go (warmed up too, please). I'd take it to the park, sit by the pond, and eat it off of my camping plate (and camping fork), which I carried around in my day pack for just such an occasion. It started out as one brownie per weekend and then morphed into two brownies per weekend. And over the winter... it continued... even though I was no longer hiking! My new sugar addiction was born.

Starbucks brownie

On top of that... as this long gloomy winter of pandemic restrictions dragged on, my partner and I went down Junk Food Alley and started consuming copious amounts of chips and chocolate... with the occasional bag of Cheezies thrown in. My weight began to rise and I knew it was not a good idea... but when sugar has its teeth and claws into you... it's a bit of a beast.

Enter my new diagnosis of hypothyroidism... due to Hashimoto's thyroiditis... which is an auto-immune condition that attacks the thyroid. Charming. The auto-immune bit is the tricky part... trying to get a handle on that. There are a whole host of things that contribute to it... let's start with alcohol, caffeine, sugar and gluten. Just to name the Big 4.

Sigh... that includes beer... coffee... (and hot chocolate)... all yummy sugary treats and... things like bread, pizza dough, and... da-da-daaaaa... brownies. Actually... chocolate brownies tick three of those boxes. All I'd need was to add some rum extract to the brownie and it would hit all four.

Starbucks Gold Card

Sooo... caffeine is easy... don't drink coffee. Not really a tea drinker either so... check that one off the list. Done!

Alcohol... I do like a beer on the weekends... but I stopped three weekends ago and haven't looked back. Done!

Sugar... bugger. It's one thing to know, intellectually that sugar causes inflammation in the body and is NOT good for Hashimoto's sufferers... but putting that into practice has been a bit of a problem.

Here's what I've come up with, my latest Go Big or Go Home strategy... I've removed the Starbucks app from my phone so I can't use it to pay for brownies. And... I've given my partner my Starbucks rewards card so I can't get any rewards (or use them) if I pass by a Starbucks. It's kind of a variation on the "put your credit card in ice if you're dealing with credit card debt". Cause the thing is... you get rewards for buying things at Starbucks and I'm such a cheapskate that I won't stop there if I can't use the app or my card. Sooo... we'll see how this goes. So far, so good... as of this writing, I am two days brownie free. Sigh... a long road ahead but I'm hoping that eliminating this form of sugar... and being wary of all other forms... will help me get a handle on this auto immune nightmare.

Wish me luck!

When the Option of Eating a Healthy Diet becomes a Necessity

Thyroid - Mayo Clinic

Well, it's official. Getting old sucks! Sigh.

I went to get some routine lab work done in March and my TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) levels were a bit high but my T3 and T4 levels were still good. Some follow-up tests revealed that my Thyroperoxidase Ab levels are elevated. All of that basically means that I am likely heading for hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) due to an auto-immune disorder called Hashimoto's Disease. 

Bugger.

This is not all that surprising. My mother has Grave's Disease (an auto immune disorder that leads to hyperthyroidism - an overactive thyroid). I have two first cousins who have Hashimoto's Disease (both on my maternal side). My grandmother and one of her sisters also had thyroid issues. So, I've been getting my TSH levels checked regularly for several years and they've always been good. But no more.

Hypothyroidism symptoms can include: loss of appetite, lack of concentration, difficulty sleeping, reduced motivation, mood swings, a short temper, depression and excessive stress. And yes, I'm ticking a bunch of those boxes already. I was putting it down to the pandemic but... perhaps there is more going on than just the pandemic blues and blahs.

My doctor wanted to put me on synthetic thyroid meds but I wanted to hold off and see a naturopath first. She's already got me eating two Brazil nuts a day (Selenium), making sure I get enough iodine (iodized table salt or seaweed nibbles), Omega 3 oils (algae oil) and a few other things. I'm sure that there's more that the naturopath is going to recommend, now that we've got the Thyroperoxidase Ab results...

In the meantime, I'm going to be picking the brains of my cousins as to what I can do to slow the progression. And... doing a tonne of research on the internet.

As it turns out, diet plays a huge role in controlling Hashimoto flare-ups. Things like gluten, sugar, dairy and processed/refined foods should be eliminated. That includes chocolate.

***crickets chirping***

Noooo... not chocolate! Yup, chocolate... sigh. I know that my cousins are on a pretty strict diet - no gluten and no dairy. But I missed the memo on sugar. And processed/refined foods.

Luckily, our mostly whole food, plant based diet aligns quite nicely with what dietitians recommend for Hashimoto sufferers... Still... some people go for a gluten free diet (no wheat, rye, barley). Others go for a grain free diet (no oats or buckwheat or amaranth or millet). Some go dairy free. Some go sugar free. Some go Paleo.

Others opt instead to focus on eating as healthy and nutrient dense of a diet as possible:

• leafy greens, such as kale and spinach
• fatty fish, including salmon
• a variety of coloured vegetables, such as brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots, beets, and red, yellow, and orange peppers
• fruits, including berries, apples, and bananas
• healthful fats, including avocado and walnuts
• lean proteins, including tofu, eggs, nuts, beans, and fish
• fibrous foods, including beans and legumes
  

Healthy vegetables
(Image by congerdesign from Pixabay)

We're holding to that pretty closely, except for the fish and eggs. We also eat a variety of whole grains sooo.. .time will tell if I get to keep those in my diet or not. Right now, I'm more concerned about the sugar. We've been on a bit of a junk food kick lately (chocolate and chips and cookies) which (a) has not done much for my waistline reduction project and (b) does not adhere to our "whole foods" plan. But maybe this thyroid stuff is just the sort of thing that will encourage me to kick refined sugars and processed foods to the curb for good.