A response to my critics

Calories eaten yesterday: 1344
Fat: 26g (18%)
Carbs: 94g (28%)
Protein: 179g (54%)
Weight this morning: 130.2 (One week ago: 129)
Calories burned in exercise today: 40

Dear Critics,

I feel I need to respond to you today, especially a critic who finally identified herself as "Melissa." I know it won't do any good since your minds are made up, but maybe it will clear things up for other people.

This is my blog, my home. Please treat me like you would if you were face to face with me in my own home. If you don't like what you read here, no one is forcing you to read. Moreover, why do you even care?

My Dad does not support me; neither does Brad. Brad has an ex-wife and son to support; he can not support me, nor would I ask him to. Dad helps me out due to my being on medication and not having health insurance. I have "health assistance," but I still have to pay a great deal of medical bills out of pocket and then wait for partial reimbursement.

Dad gives me $200 a month, which doesn't go far in this area. He also helps out my sister, who's married with a child. He helped her buy a condo, which she now rents out and makes money from. She and her husband both work full time, but I guess she's also a "whiny brat" because she accepts the gifts. I own a piece of property which was gifted to me and receive about $200 a month from that. Dear critics, do you turn down gifts offered to you? If not, then please shut up.

I work full time at a radio network. Full time, as in 40 hours a week. No one supports me. I pay my own rent and buy my own food. I pay for my cats' vet bills and kibble. Brad helped me out once to buy basic groceries and it wasn't because I was broke from buying diet pills, lol. That kind of thinking is downright insane. Food and rent always take precedence over pills (unless it's my medication!).

Brad doesn't have to go out of his way for me. We work the same job in the same department at the same desk. He works mornings and I work evenings. He is a member of the same church I go to. It's no extra gas to take me with him to church, especially since he usually crashes out at my apartment the night before. I am his best friend and hiking partner. Not too many women love taking long walks/hikes, but I do. We do a lot of things together.

Weekend plans with Brad:
Doctor appointment Friday morning. We both want coffee so we'll hit Starbucks. I also want to grab a breakfast sandwich there. Afterward Brad will drop me off at the Red Cross and head back to work. I'll take the bus home and after he gets off we'll go walking, probably at Chabot since he seems to like it there and I like the change of scenery from our usual. After giving blood I am usually a bit weak, so it will have to be a shorter walk of about an hour instead of the two hours we both like to do.

Friday night Brad will probably spend the night since it's just easier for him and I don't mind since he doesn't really snore. ;) Saturday morning I am cooking breakfast for us (all from food I bought with my money, dear critics). I think I'll make french toast this week since I can make it low-carb (low-carb bread, egg whites, sugar-free soy milk, sugar-free syrup). I love the way Brad cooks grits (I also paid for the grits, dear critics), but I just can't have the carbs right now.

Saturday we'll go to church and after that I don't know. I'm hoping for an afternoon walk and a nice relaxing evening at home; I bet Brad wants to same. He'll probably spend the night and if he does I'll feed him breakfast (once again with food I paid for, dear critics) and get a ride to the gym.

Hmmm...seems to me that I pay for an awful lot of the food he eats, yet it's wrong for him to buy a few groceries for me once? How do you figure that? It seems like a give and take relationship to me, not just me taking taking taking. How does sharing food expenses (food that we both eat) translate to him supporting me? Can you please explain that?

I do not feel that asking him to replace a jacket that he lost is "nickel and diming." Maybe to you it is, but neither of us is rich. Asking him to pay me back for drinking one of my beers ($1-$2) would be nickel and diming. A $30 jacket is not, and he feels the same way. He acknowledges that he lost it while it was in his possession and that he should replace it. If I lost something of his I would feel responsible for replacing it. He read my blog entry and doesn't feel I "lambasted" him. I think he would be the better judge of "lambasting" than some stranger who doesn't know either of us. Hmmm?

What I find creepy is people who think they know enough about our relationship to comment on it simply from reading a few blog entries. You think you are enough of an expert to call me names (claiming I am a "whiny brat" and "paranoid" count as name calling) and claim that Brad is "catering to your (my) every whim." By the way, dear critics, when I told him that he outright laughed. It's so far from the truth that he found it funny.

Sincerely,
The "paranoid, whiny brat"

Okay, enough about that. Critics don't deserve the space I just gave them.

No exercise today other than the 30 minute round trip walk to/from the laundromat. I decided to be lazy and take the bus to work from the train station, stopping for the basic groceries I need for next week - cottage cheese, salad, and veggies. The zucchini wasn't on sale anymore, so I got the bagged broccoli and cauliflower.

Now that my test results are back I'm hoping the doctor can give me a prescription for thyroid medication. It's very clear there is a problem. In fact, I found my TSH numbers from a very basic thyroid test another doctor ran on me a few years ago. It was 3.87 then. She said it was fine (as did another doctor who looked over the test) but now that I know more I know I should have been treated then. I am 4.07 now so the problem has only gotten worse.

I'm also going to discuss the ferritin issue with the doc. I've read that I can buy iron pills over the counter and that they are cheap. The thyroid forums says levels should be in the 70-90 range, but I pulled out Drs. Michael and Mary Eades' book last night and that says that 50 is good. Considering that I am at 23 and feeling tired all the time, a supplement is probably a good idea, especially since I give blood every two months.

A little more on my glucose tolerance test. I had a two hour test done a couple of years ago. They took my fasting level (which was about 68 or 69), gave me 75g of dextrose, and tested me two hours later. Two hours later I was somewhere around 88 if I recall. So I don't know why I went hypo on this test. The main difference is that this test was 100g and the last was 75g. I'd had a glass of wine 11 hours before. Could that effect it even 11 hours later? I'm still waiting on the insulin levels for this most recent test. Hopefully the doctor will have them when I see him tomorrow. As soon as I have the insulin levels I'll post a follow-up video on YouTube with all the readings.

Ok, I'll be back on Sunday with my weigh-in!

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