A Much Needed Break!!

This past weekend Mike and I took a much needed break! Since Valentines is on a weeknight this year we decided to celebrate a little early because weeknights are hard to do anything. So a little while ago we decided to book a hotel up in Salt Lake and spend the night up there. January was a really hard month for me and I needed to get  away.  Just before Christmas they finally think they figured out what is wrong with my health. After tons of blood tests and visits to the specialist, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's.  Never heard of it? Yeah, I hadn't either but it is an auto immune disease where my body attacks my thyroid which in turn inflames my thyroid. This is a huge problem because your thyroid is like a shield for your body. This book I read explains it best. Your thyroid sets the speed limit for your body. If you are cold it steps on the gas to create more heat. If you have a virus it revs up the engine of  your immune system. If you are over stressed it hits the brakes so you don't blow a gasket. It controls so much of our bodies functions and when it is not functioning properly it can cause a lot of problems. So for the past few years I haven't felt great but things have gotten worse the past year. I maybe have one or two good days a month and by good days I mean I don't feel like I could fall asleep any second, my head didn't hurt my stomach wasn't upset and my heart wasn't pounding and I wasn't constantly cold. It sucks. I pretty much feel like crap all the time. Luckily I have started to feel a little better the past few days so hopefully things keep getting better from here!!

Anyway, they don't know what causes Hashimoto's but the most common trigger that they think causes it is something that you eat most commonly gluten.  So the beginning of the month I had to clean everything out of my body by not eating anything and only drinking this disgusting mixture of water, lemon and pure grade B maple syrup. It was horrible.  I was suppose to do it for 3-5 days but I could only do it for 2. After that I couldn't eat gluten, dairy, corn, nuts anything that could cause a reaction. After a couple weeks I could introduce one new food every 72 hours and I have to see how my body reacts to the different foods. It has been so hard! I have slowly introduced dairy back into my diet but I still have not introduced gluten. I think I am going to wait until I go to the doctor again and see if my levels have dropped at all! It has been hard but luckily Mike has been so supportive and helpful and so has my family! My sister even made me gluten free cookies at our last birthday celebration! Anyway, so I haven't been in the best mood lately and just needed a break. Luckily the past few days I have had some good days which has been so nice! Hopefully this crappy diet will pay off. One good thing is I have lost quite a bit of weight (which is weird because most people with the disease gain weight and can't lose it). So that has been good but sometimes I just crave a donut and I can't eat one :) 

So....Saturday after we were done with a few things around the house and got ready we headed up to Park City to walk around and see if they had anything cute. When we were done shopping we had a few errands to run in Salt Lake and then we headed over to the hotel! After we checked in we were both pretty hungry so we went to dinner at PF Changs! They have a gluten free menu which makes it much easier when we go out to eat :) After dinner we headed back to our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott which is next to the Galivan center. Since it is the 10 year anniversary of the olympics they had some fun events going on so we walked around for awhile then it starting getting really cold so we went back in and sat in the hot tub for awhile. It was so nice just to relax. We then watched the fireworks which was cool! 

Then this morning after breakfast we packed back up and headed home! Although it was just for one night it was so nice to get away and not have to worry about anything! It was exactly what we both needed. I think we need to do it more often!! Happy Valentines Day!!!