Elk, every little change is going to feel odd at first, maybe even make you feel sore for a few days too. You need to change only ONE small thing at a time to avoid total confusion.
Putting on new shaped bars, adding gel pads under them, then changing their tilt AND pushing your saddle forward all at once is not good- it will only confuse the situation and make it really hard for you to figure out why you are not comfortable now and how to fix it.
General biking rule is to make one tiny adjustment and then ride for a few days on it. Then maybe try another small adjustment and again ride for a few days.
When you make 3 or 4 changes at once all hell breaks loose and it's hard to find your way back.

My advice at this point: (putting aside the radical idea of putting your old bars back on and just installing the shims) would be to undo the last two changes...tilt the tops of the bars level again and put your saddle BACK where it was comfortable for you before, and ride a few days to give your body time to adjust to the new bars.
Leave your saddle alone, where it was comfortable before you changed the bars. By moving the saddle forward you throw your center of gravity forward more over the crank, and if anything this will put more weight on your hands.

Now that you have taped the bars you can't change the hood position unless you take the tape and gel padding off....(which actually might be a good idea anyway).
I put that gel on my Riv bars and truthfully I wouldn't do it again- they did nothing except make the bars FAT so that I had to buy extra tape. It looks kind of ugly to me now, like a big nightcrawler worm.

All the above is just my own opinion based on my having gone through all these very same issues myself and learning the hard way.