The Year of Magical Lifting

[Willie]

Is that dead lift bug contagious? I'd like to catch this one!

Seriously, good work. These 15 reps are killing me (already), but I like knowing that you're two workouts ahead of me, so I Know that I can keep improving too. Thanks for the inspiration!

[RacerBill]

Oh, man... you've got the bug. Soon it'll be a new BB... more plates... then that means you'll be deadlifting HUGE before long!

[stingo]

Originally Posted by RacerBill

Oh, man... you've got the bug. Soon it'll be a new BB... more plates... then that means you'll be deadlifting HUGE before long!

Forget HUGE - she's going for HYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOGE!

[Victoria]

Originally Posted by stingo

Forget HUGE - she's going for HYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOGE!

Nooooo.....MUST.....NOT....BUL K....!!!!

[GinnyLou]

Hi there! You are doing great with your workouts and I find your log, very motivating!

Nooooo.....MUST.....NOT....BUL K....!!!!

Water just shot out of my nose! LOL

[nutbar]

Originally Posted by Victoria

Nooooo.....MUST.....NOT....BUL K....!!!!

Size DOES matter.

[dillytl]

Originally Posted by Victoria

Nooooo.....MUST.....NOT....BUL K....!!!!

Back to the pink dumbbells for you - cuz you know if you lift heavy, you'll BULK!!!

[DanceDiva]

Originally Posted by Victoria

Nooooo.....MUST.....NOT....BUL K....!!!!

MUST.....NOT....TONE....!!!!

[UConnJulie]

Sooooo???? You promised an update ... and there's nothing in here!!!

[Victoria]

Originally Posted by GinnyLou

Hi there! You are doing great with your workouts and I find your log, very motivating!

Water just shot out of my nose! LOL

Originally Posted by nutbar

Size DOES matter.

Originally Posted by dillytl

Back to the pink dumbbells for you - cuz you know if you lift heavy, you'll BULK!!!

Originally Posted by DanceDiva

MUST.....NOT....TONE....!!!!

Hahaha...thanks, gals!

Originally Posted by UConnJulie

Sooooo???? You promised an update ... and there's nothing in here!!!

Ok...ok.....

[SpacecityPaula]

Originally Posted by nutbar

Size DOES matter.

OMG You crack me up....

[gregl515]

Just go and get the bar and weights already. You'll love it.

[UConnJulie]

I'm waiting ....

[Victoria]

I've never been one to go the doctor much...I'd have to be on my death bed to make an appointment. I wasn't even that good about routine appointments up until a few years ago. But, now that I'm getting older *cough...cough*, and with the start of this challenge, I thought it would be a great time to see where I stood. So, I decided, as a preemptive strike, to have a bunch of blood work done and get all my numbers checked. Honestly, I just assumed the doc would tell me that everything was perfectly fine and that this would create a good baseline in the event that things did start to change as time went on.

So, the results came back and I met with the doc today to discuss everything. Overall, I'm in pretty good shape. But, there are a few things that could use some tweaking.

Blood pressure is fine...106/70
Celiac disease...negative
Glucose...2 points over the max, so I'll look to my diet to bring this down a bit.
Vitamin D...a little low, so I'll up my intake.

The 3 biggies are my ferritin, cholesterol, and thyroid levels.

My ferritin is quite low. That's the iron that's stored away for future use. It is possible to have normal iron serum levels yet have low levels of ferritin. This can eventually lead to anemia (which I have a history of) and other typical hypothyroid symptoms such as fatigue, foggie headedness, depression, etc. It can also be why I completely bomb out each month around my period. So, I'll be starting an iron supplement. The doc recommended an online product which is just "iron." I checked several iron supplements at my local CVS and the ingredient list was a mile long on each of them. Just put iron in it for god's sake! I'll be ordering the online one.

I was a little freaked out and surprised about my cholesterol level being slightly high. My total cholesterol is 207. However, there are some other considerations that make this less of a concern. My LDL is a bit high, but my HDL is also rather high, which is a good thing. The standard ranges that are used for both men and women are actually based on the male population only. But, some recent studies have been showing that women may actually need higher levels of cholesterol than men which would put my number in a healthy range after all. My LDL particle size pattern is A/B which also helps to mitigate the concern. LDL patterns A and B refer to the size of LDL cholesterol particles in the blood. A=larger particles=good. B=smaller particles=bad. A/B is intermediate, so it's not entirely good, but it's not entirely bad either. I'll take it. Triglycerides are also nice and low so no pre-diabetes. One other concern is my Lp(a) level which is high. This means my blood is a bit thicker than it should be. So, I'll continue taking fish oil for this. Overall, I'm not in a "high risk" situation. And, when taking all the factors into consideration, the doc felt that with continued exercise and diet, it should be quite manageable and pose no problem. Plus, I've been eating my oatmeal every morning. That should account for something.

Lastly, my thyroid. There are two reasons for low thyroid function--age related decrease, and attack from antibodies. I fall into the latter. My thyroid peroxidase antibodies are quite high. These antibodies would normally attack and destroy the bad guys like bacteria and viruses, but they've taken to attacking my thyroid as well...stupid little things. So, this has compromised the funtion of my thyroid, hence hypothyroidism. So, it's piggy pills for me. I'm also going to try iodine as it also helps elevate thyroid function but much more subtly. As a plus, it also detoxes the breasts and thyroid so there's an anti-cancer benefit as well. I figure what the heck.

So, though I was a bit surprised to find out that things weren't perfect, they are also not horrible by any means. I'm actually excited to know what the deal is now. After much conversation with the doc, even though I went in without any major complaints of feeling crappy, she said most women feel much worse than they realize. And, I suspect this is the case with me. Change happens very slowly and we become very good at adjusting to it. So, I'm anxious to see if I begin to feel better, even though I thought I already felt pretty good, and then maybe this weight will start to move off my bod again.

[Lost Dog]

That's a lot to take in. Hopefully, the changes will really help.

[RedWifey]

That's very interesting, Tracy. I did not know we had "ferritin"...I knew about T4 and T3 blah blah, but it makes sense that we would have an iron reserve also.

Did you get a cholesterol ratio? I've heard that's the important thing.

And about women adjusting to feeling like poo, I totally can relate to that. Two summers ago my psychiatrist did blood work and the tests astounded us both...B12 was in the range of little old women in the nursing home! What?? I hadn't turned 30 yet?! How could that be??? Eventually, I am going to ask that question and get a reasonable answer, 'cause I am NOT a vegetarian and there's no way with the food I eat that it should look like that. Anyway, it's two 1000mg of B-12 daily for me now.

Hope "just iron" works out for you!