Aging Healthfully

I have not been feeling well for a couple of days.  I have mainly felt worn out and agitated or anxious, having trouble staying asleep at night and I have gained a few pounds over the past couple of weeks.  I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in January and have been taking a synthetic hormone to replace what my thyroid isn't producing.  With how I had been feeling I made a call to my doctor and I was able to get in within 30 minutes of my phone call.

We live in a small town and this doctor has a small practice which I appreciate more and more from the standpoint that he is easy to get an appointment to see, his office is a mere 4 blocks from our house, he has a great repoire or bedside manner and he goes to our church.  Also, he asks a lot of questions when I am in to see him.  Yesterday he took a vial of blood for the lab to test to check my thyroid hormone levels.  Perhaps I need my medication adjusted which is what I had thought.  But then after asking questions I told him that I had not had a menstrual cycle for 6 weeks and was feeling as if I might be entering pre-menopause.  I was worried about the weight gain and not being able to sleep through the night. 

We talked about my diet, exercise and sleep patterns.  He is a bike enthusiast and I have been biking a lot lately.  While I may be entering menopause, that alone does not explain entirely how I have felt.  After talking with him I am going to change my exercise time to early afternoon instead of late afternoon and when I feel really tired or sleepy, instead of drinking another cup of coffee, I will take a cat nap. I need to keep my exercise time away from the evening hours as this will hamper my sleep. Then before bedtime he recommended that I take one tablet of Melatonin which would help me sleep better and would most probably take care of my Restless Leg Syndrome.

He will contact me on Monday with the lab work and to see if the Melatonin is helping with sleep.  Here is what I have learned about myself, getting enough sleep is important.  When I worked I would get about 5 hours of sleep each night and had done that for years.  Since I have been home I have tried to get more sleep per night but it has been interrupted sleep which can happen as you age and approach menopause. 

Also, I didn't gain the weight that I thought I had gained.  When he weighed me I weighed only 1/4 lb. more than I had when I was in for my last visit in April.  So, my scale must be off.  I'm not sure if it is or not but I am definitely a little O.C.D. about my weight.  Gaining weight has been my biggest worry as I age and that is why I am so conscientious about exercising.  As a side note, I hate to exercise and I am constantly looking for forms of exercise that I enjoy, hence biking. 

I have been very conscious over the past months of getting more and more fresh fruits and vegetables into our diets.  I am the primary consumer of fresh foods in our household, my husband would be second and my son is a distant last.  It is frustrating to get my son to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and the best I can do is to buy them, make fresh fruit and vegetable salads at mealtimes and encourage him to eat them. 

As for approaching menopause, I am not worried about it.  I just want to make sure that I am taking care of myself as I age by eating healthy foods (no more bologna sandwiches that I had been craving), getting plenty of sleep and exercising.  I have no idea if  I will breeze through menopause or not, but I want to be a healthy "prime time" adult so I will take care of myself and when I am not feeling well, I will call my doctor. 

I slept great last night and I didn't wake up much.  Today I had planned on being outside working on projects but it has been raining and is very overcast and cloudy.  Looks to rain more later on.  My husband is outside right now building the base for his new shed.  I in turn plan to stay inside doing housework and working on a home office for myself.  Every homemaker needs their own office in my opinion and I have got to find one place to call my own.