The Quiet

The last few days, I have felt strangely quiet, both at work and at home.

Thanks to everybody for the encouraging comments and well wishes I have received the last few days, both on my previous post and via e-mail/IM.

It feels better to know there is something concrete causing my symptoms (low hormone levels), but in the end there may not be a definitive explanation as to what causes this drop. My doctor had mentioned that more and more they see cases like mine and it could be related to our diet, environmental conditions, etc.

I do not know the results of my ultrasound yet. Yesterday I met with a dietician. I had requested a referral from my doctor because I needed a human being to advise and coach me through these changes we need to make. It is not easy. It will require effort and to learn again what is right versus what we do.

The dietician was smart and suggested we start small, with only three major goals. She left me to choose two of them and she suggested the third one.

First, I picked "having breakfast every day." She stressed the importance of having breakfast. This is something I have heard before, but it is something I have never been able to consistently do. My goal now is to ensure I have breakfast every day. I am also supposed to have snacks during the day. This should eliminate some of the compulsive nibbling I do at night, which according to the dietician is my body's way of preparing for starvation in the morning.

The second goal is to learn what are proper portion sizes, and adjust my eating to fit this. Living in Texas, the land where everything is ginormous, it can be quite an eye opener when you realize what a normal portion size should be. She gave me some great suggestions about keeping shelfs in the fridge and cupboards with snacks in the right portion sizes, something we can all reach for easily.

Last, she wants me (and Gabe) to keep a diary of what we eat. This may be the hardest one. I have tried doing this in the past, with certain online tools. I have never been able to stick with it, partly because they were all about calorie counting. The dietician said not to focus on calories, or on how foods are cooked. My focus should be in my major goals and nothing else.

I am cautiously optimistic. This is not the first time I have attempted to change my eating habits. Wish me luck, my friends.