After years of being hypothyroid, totally frustrated with my weight, I, like nearly everyone else with thyroid disorders, blamed it on being hypo. I understood my metabolic rate was less because of hypothyroidism and that was the reason I gained.

But I've changed my mind. I'm feeling so empowered right now. It's like having a new lease on life.

I watched the special September 12th with Dr. Phil and Katie. Oh my! What they said just hit me right between the eyes. The simplicity, the logic.

He challenged America to change their point of view about food. To stop looking at it as we do now and to start looking at it for what it truly is: Fuel for our bodies.

I'd like to expand on that concept. Hold it up to the light and understand it completely, to relate it to a hypo metabolism.

I suddenly see the answer to why it is so difficult to lose weight when we become hypothyroid: We continue to eat food as we have all of our lives. But we can't do that anymore. We have to eat food as fuel, eating the amount that our bodies need to function and thrive - then stop. If we can click that switch in our brains to understand that eating more causes us to gain weight, or fail to lose weight - we will have won the first battle in regaining a healthy weight and participating in life rather than sit on the side lines watching everyone else live.

Join us, open your mind, set aside all you have learned about diets, calories, scales and points. Join us as we explore the concept of feeding our bodies to health based on the knowledge that our metabolic rates are now less than they were before thyroid disorder hit us.

Let's learn how to determine our fuel requirements, how frugally our engines run, the correct amount of food to keep us running smoothly and allow our bodies to naturally adjust to the weight that is healthy for us.

(for general thyroid info check out our main group: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Thyroid_Support_Group/ )