OH HEY PALEO. IT'S NICE TO MEET YOU.

I'm not one to get stressed out often, but I will tell you what, on days like yesterday I am so grateful for my mom. School I'm good with. Work I'm good with. Interning I'm good with. Major diet changes...those I'm not so good with. Ever since I got back from the Philippines I've been trying to eat a little healthier. I switched to whole grain bread. I didn't buy anything that had high amounts of sugar in them. As a matter of fact the only thing I did buy that had some sugar in it was granola bars. Granted, I'd let myself slide when I was out with friends or things like that, but compared to pre-Philippines I was doing a million times better. Then this happened.

One day. That was about how much I was losing in one day. It got to the point where I was afraid to wash my hair because that is when I would loose the most. I would wear my hair up in an extremely loose side pony so that I wouldn't have to worry about it falling out throughout the day. I had already cut back on blow drying and straightening my hair, but at that point I just quit all together. Nothing helped. 

I told a few people that I am close to. Usually their first reaction was stress. My schedule was crazy busy, but I really liked it that way. School wasn't getting to me. Work wasn't getting to me. My internship wasn't getting to me. In fact I loved it all; classes, my patients, the people in the office I intern with. Other than the fact that I was terrified of being bald in two months, I could only think of one thing that stressed me out. Even that I was only having to deal with a couple times a week. The only other thing I could think of was that it was a delayed reaction from dengue. The more I looked into it the lease likely it seemed that dengue was the problem.

At that point I decided to go in to the doctor to get my blood tested. When the test came back it showed that I had hypothyroidism. I got put on a thyroid medication and all I knew was that I would have to go back in six weeks. Naturally the first thing I did was jump online to figure out what it was. The symptoms made sense, but the causes didn't sense at all. 

I still don't know what caused it, but I do know that there is something in all sorts of foods that makes it worse. Goitrogens. I won't bore you with the list, but I knew that if I wanted to stay on top of it I was going to have to completely revamp my pantry. Paleo websites became my new best friend. Looking at the recipes I was going to have to modify them somewhat, but I found quite a few that looked good. I even found some cupcakes :) So yesterday after looking up enough recipes to get me through the next couple days my ever-so-patient mother went with me to restock my pantry. Overwhelmed is the only word that comes to mind when I think of how that experience was. My mom definitely made it a million times better though. 

So here's to a new lifestyle. It's not going to be easy, but if this past year has taught me anything it is that these are the times when I really get to learn, and I am so grateful that a loving Heavenly Father that knows what I am capable of. I'm still the same me. I'm still loving school. I'm still loving work. I'm still loving my internship. I have great friends, and and incredible family. What more could I possibly ask for? :)

PS. I apologize in advance if this blog all of a sudden has a million recipes on it.