PCOS/Insulin Resistance SupportSupport for us with any of the following: Insulin Resistance, Syndrome X, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, or other endocrine disorders.
Carbs! I know, I really try to keep those down but I have such a hard time with it. Although I don't eat any refined carbs, I know I should cut down on grains too. I will continue to try.
I am so feeling the support on this thread! Seeing waist sizes here just like mine (I started at 54, now at 49).
Keekles, thanks for sharing your pics with us. I am in awe of what you have accomplished.
I have the same problem. A year or so ago there were a couple of girls in my office that were expecting and we had a visitor from another company come up and turns to me and goes "Wow everyone here is pregnant! When are you do? Your bump is cute!" and I said I am not and walked off and her look from being embarrass made up for it lol it happens all the time but I am now working out and trying to not have that question asked anymore... hopefully haha
I've got the same issue along with being diabetic (hand in hand of course). I'm going to try the 6 week body makeover. I found that Wii Sports hula hooping helped me a lot. It's all back again but that's my fault :\
Oh my, I posted a long, long reply, and it was all deleted. Sigh.
Suffice it to say, I am there with you. I was searching the web for weight loss for PCOS/IR, and came across your post. Wow did it hit home. I have most recently been forced to wear maternity pants because that's the only thing that fits my huge belly but relatively thin legs.
I have been asked "You must be due any day now! When's the lucky day?" a few times. It is so mortifying, and depressing.
I am now at 220 pounds, at a 5'2" frame. This is the biggest I have ever been.
I have a very hard time with eating in general due to a whole long list of medical problems. I am very sensitive to smells, and I can't even cook anymore due to vomiting when I smell meats, and cooking smells. My doctor is so unhelpful. He took over for my NP, who was wonderful.I went in for refills, and this doc didn't even know what PCOS was, even though he is a internist. He didn't want to give me the met and spiro, though I 've been on it for a long time. He said "Oh, you're young, you don't need those things!". Idiots. I tried to give him some medical information, but he refused. I really hate medical providers who are ignorant and wish to stay that way. He may well have many more women with PCOS in his practice, who are being mismanaged or worse, left in the dark with what their problems really are. It makes me angry.
I have such a hard time with eating and food. I usually stick to eating one or two different foods for weeks at a time, until I crave something else and then switch to that food. It is difficult to eat foods that I know are healthy without becoming nauseated or outright vomiting due to the smells. My body is getting more and more unhealthy, and I feel so helpless to fix it at times.
Add to that I have chronic pain issues with my back. It's a long story, but it leaves me having severe pain 24/7, and especially when I do any type of exercise. Even walking or simple things. Yet my pain is exacerbated by my belly weight. It is a cruel catch-22.
I just had to register and reply to this post, as it really hit home with me. I would love to talk more to anyone who is getting back on the bandwagon to lose weight and get healthy. I have to get healthier. I am miserable the way I am now, and I am always sick. I know I will die an early death if I do not turn my health around, and that scares me as I am a single mother. My kids have no one else to go to if I was not around, so that scares me. I want to be around for grandkids someday, and for weddings and happy times with my kids. I know I can't keep going on drinking soda (which I have been drinking since birth, since my parents gave it to me in a bottle) and eating poorly. My kids are starting to pick up some of my bad habits, and that saddens me that I've been such a poor role model.
I apologize for the length of this post, but reading this thread really hit home.
Welcome Liberty RN. Sounds like you are really frustrated right now so I'm glad you've joined this site to get support.
You really are on the right track, and your love for your children and wanting to set a good example for them will motivate you.
I'm only 5 ft. tall and my belly has been not that much smaller in inches than my height! This makes some exercises really hard for me, but I don't have any back pain so I feel for your added barrier. There are options still though. Yoga is great for back pain! As a fellow big belly girl I would suggest buying a yoga video for pregnant women because the moves will be easier.
Yoga will not only help with back pain (check with your doctor) but also with flexibility, toning, and stress relief. Over time maybe you can then try to incorporate walking again?
For your eating issues, have you tried finding a cookbook for people who may have similar issues with smells and such? There's a cookbook for every ailment, allergy and what have you, out there.
I am talking 59" hips! 3 rolls of fat! Now my hips are 38" with a 30" waist!
I held 70% of the 150lbs I've lost ...probably in my mid-section! Easy!
Very Scary to think my belly was that big.
Even after all this loss...I pinch my belly and besides the thick and loose skin that remains..I still feel the fat inside and roll it between my fingers. I know it sounds odd but in a way I'm tracking my progression of loss in my belly through measuring and feel.
Through Portion control, healthy foods and exercise (with an always mindful consideration to some mild insulin resistance and an aweful right ovary) I managed to lose my weight in a steady pace and in about 2yrs!
Right now to keep knocking away at the belly fat that remains, it's all about keeping up with cardio to melt it, hit up Pilates for core training, more core strengthing with sit-ups and pushups and pull ups and just keep plugging away at it!
Last edited by twinmommaplusone; 08-10-2011 at 01:05 AM.
I am all belly! Well, I'm fat everywhere else too, but I'm far from proportional! My belly is 45.5 inches right now, down from 55. My hips, butt, and legs are much slimmer than my waist, so finding jeans that fit right is a nightmare... Even the "Right Fit" yellow label ones are baggy below the stomach. Sigh.
I'm just happy that is has gone down some with weight loss and hopefully it will keep getting smaller.
It's good to know that the belly has a shot at disappearing.. I've been "congratulated" several times.. and I can't even get pregnant! It's such a heartbreaker all around.. and while I know people are just trying to be nice, sometimes I wish they'd think before they speak I feel like a Willendorf doll..
Hi, everyone! This thread totally just motivated me to quit lurking on the site and join in.
Specifically, libertyRN, I wanted to address your post, b/c I can relate to a lot of what you're going through, and hopefully some of what I'm doing can be of help to you or someone else. I can relate to...
Wearing maternity pants to fit my belly.
Yep. They're not exactly fashion fwd (tho Target has some ok ones). Aaand especially embarrassing to have in my possession b/c I've never even been pregnant! I prefer to wear skinny plus-size stretch jeans (Macy's), despite the fashion no-no of it all (for my particular shape). But if I don't wear something slim-fitting on my bottom half, I think I look blob-like from head to toe. And my legs aren't exactly shapely and nice, like some of you lovely laydeez.
OMG When are you dueeeee?!?!!! comments from people.
To the question of whether or not I'm pregnant, I just say no, and let the chips fall, but once I lied and said yes. I was in an elevator with a bunch of strangers, and for the whole long slooow trip, this one woman went into a protracted monologue about 'how wonderful, babies being born in springtime' -- so mortifying. That's also when i stopped wearing those empire-waist tops.
I could be your doppelganger in terms of your size.
Like you, I'm 5'2", and 220 was about the biggest I've been, as well. I've since dropped 20, but i tend to yo-yo around +/- 15 lbs without making any purposeful changes in my life. For me, weight gain is very much stress-related and doesn't have as much to do with what I eat (in fact, the less I eat, the bigger I get). Anyway, just wanted to let you know that size-wise, you're not alone.
OK, hello, huge list of medical challenges, here, too.
It definitely makes things complicated across the board, so I get where you're coming from. And I have rather significant back problems, too, such that I often feel like i'm 88 years old, when I'm 36. Straightening up after I've been sitting or sleeping is virtually impossible sometimes, dang painful, and when I'm having a flare-up I look like an old crone all bent over. I have auto-immune probs, and we're looking into whether this might be ankylosing spondylitis. But, from experience I say this: you can feel better than you feel now, no matter what problems you are facing. Incremental improvement is always possible. And that keeps me going when it hurts like hellz.
BTW, I, too, have had crappy clueless doctors, who make matters worse not better (and why are these doctors the rule, rather than the exception?), but fire your doc. They work for you, so, if you can, find someone else, and get your file transferred ASAP. Rate MDs dot com is helpful. It's never worth sticking it out when you can't see eye-to-eye from the get-go, even if you've got an HMO, b/c it's your life on the line.
But here's where I really related to your post the most...
Quote:
Originally Posted by libertyRN
I have a very hard time with eating in general due to a whole long list of medical problems. I am very sensitive to smells, and I can't even cook anymore due to vomiting when I smell meats, and cooking smells.
I'm a vegetarian, so I don't have exposure to meat odors much, b/c aside for feeding our animal crew, we don't have meat in the house. However, two years ago I vomited every morning whether food was around me or not (not pregnant!), ALL food smells made me gag or vomit all day long, and I was having a real struggle daily to eat anything at all.
After a lot of trial and error, here's what helped:
1) Getting ACUPUNCTURE and herbs from a good clinic.
I know if you're like me, money is extraordinarily tight. But go to a local acu school if you have to, in order to get cheap clinic prices. No, it's not ideal, but it'll do. And it goes a long way toward balancing your organ system and addressing pain; plenty of double-blind studies have proven the efficacy of acupuncture. And, in my case, this alone helped my food smell-nausea issue completely. It took a series of visits before I was feeling a lot better, but now my appetite and sensitivity to food odors is normal, and I'm feeling much better pain-wise at my baseline! And I never vomit!! Sooo worth it! Western medical doctors couldn't figure it out, but in this area, acu and TCM did the trick.
2) SWIMMING, wading, or even just standing in the shallow end of the pool and doing basic movements gets you started. Worked for me.
Water exercise gives you a go at physical fitness without putting strain on your back/bones (since you're weightless!), thereby making exercise possible with minimal strain on your body. If you don't have a pool near your home, you can do this at a gym, a YMCA, or even an apartment complex or hotel's pool. Even better if you have a community pool nearby. You'll be getting in shape, you'll be teaching good habits to your kids, plus they'll have fun goofing off in the pool with you.
3) YOGA
Specifically kundalini yoga and pre-natal yoga, in my case. Try the Ravi & Ana (raviana.com) DVDs (check out Amazon reviews), and just do what you can, even if you can't do most of the poses at all at first, and you just have to do the breathing exercises alone. In my case, I've seen a lot of improvements from their DVDs (and some other kundalini vids on YouTube), as a lot of the exercises are designed to address your endocrine glands, which is key for metabolism and losing weight. And I can now do most of a DVD without having to stop, which is a huge improvement over when I started a month ago. I can't tell you how peaceful and mood-boosted I feel after I've done even part of one of their DVDs. I know I may sound doofy here, but...it's a bit magical, actually.
Hope this helps somewhat, somehow. I'm really just getting going in addressing my health (including weight), so feel free to contact me if you want to commiserate or form a cheer squad or something.
My hips, butt, and legs are much slimmer than my waist, so finding jeans that fit right is a nightmare... Even the "Right Fit" yellow label ones are baggy below the stomach. Sigh.
I'm just happy that is has gone down some with weight loss and hopefully it will keep getting smaller.
Same here! My pants get saggy under my belly too. I have very narrow hips to begin with, honestly if it weren't for these boobs, I'd look like a boy!
I was once asked if I was pregnant when I was getting ready for a bikini wax. And it bothered me so much that I haven't actually gotten another one since (not even at another spa). It's been about 2 years. I wish people would just learn to mind their own business. So what if I am pregnant? It doesn't mean you have to point it out.
I have the PCOS belly. Until recently, I felt like my legs were slim, but lately I think my legs are picking up some of the fat as well, but it is still super centralized and out of proportion to my belly.
I am actually strongly thinking I would actually do better off wearing maternity pants. My sister in law is pregnant, and I tried them on when buying them for her for Christmas. They felt great on. They kind of go over your whole belly but don't leave a waste mark from what I can tell.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has resorted to maternity pants. Ultimately I know and want very badly to lose weight, but almost no matter what I do I am not able to lose weight.
I have been mistaken for pregnant in my swimsuit before as well.
Oh my gosh....I feel your pain! I've been asked 3x if I'm pregnant and one of those times I was in a swimsuit...great! My legs look like they belong to a size 8 woman but my middle is a 14-16. I hate it as well...so hard to shop.. I just want for my whole body to "match".
I have same problem, belly like a pregnant woman, lean legs and hips! Bust- 32 C, so upper body looks heavy with bulging belly and size zero lower body I wish my upper and lower body match! Wanna put on weight on my butt n legs and lose from belly! Dunno what to do! I have PCOS!
I have to wear maternity pants because my waist is so big. I started wearing them when pregnant with my older daughter, never got out of them before getting pregnant with my youngest, and am still wearing them. So it's been almost 4 years of maternity pants. I have to lose a lot of weight before my waist would fit into regular pants (it's the last place I lose weight).
I feel like a Willendorf doll.. 
I'm really just getting going in addressing my health (including weight), so feel free to contact me if you want to commiserate or form a cheer squad or something. 
