Hi all!
I don't know exactly what kind of help I'm looking for but I was poking around the net for some PCOS diet support and found this so here I am!
I was diagnosed with PCOS last winter, so not quite a "new" diagnosis but recently enough that I haven't been able to deal with it properly. Im 21, and I was diagnosed through a personal decision to stop using birth control in hopes of losing weight, but instead I gained weight and facial hair, and lost my period all together. A few doctors trips, a metformin prescription, and a new pack of birth control later, here I am.
To add on to this in January I went from attending a community college near home and eating home-cooked food daily, to transferring to a university and eating on-campus, which is essentially fast food for 3 meals a day unless you go out of your way to find the healthy options. I was very stressed out with my dorm room situation and had never properly lived away from home before, so I binged constantly. However through this I did work out at least once a week, usually twice. The workouts continued through the summer break and i went back to eating home cooked foods, but I didn't lose (or gain) any weight the way i had hoped.
Now this semester, starting August, I have been living off campus with a roommate. We regularly eat home cooked meals of chicken breast or salmon and veggies, but we also enjoy eating out a few times a week. I've completely stopped working out and I can feel it in my back and shoulders when I work. I'm a graphic design student so I spend long hours hunched over a drawing board or in front of a computer, and regularly doing basic weights and shoulder presses kept shoulder pain, back pain and carpal tunnel at bay.
However its been much harder to find motivation. My friends are not fitness type people and the campus gym is a 20 minute walk away. When I mention working out to my friends they say "oh yeah i should do that..." but never seem to actually want to. I find it hard to do things alone without support.
I also find it very discouraging when I try diet after diet and never seem to lose more than a few pounds. Meanwhile, my friends are all very thin and eat terribly, campus food and fast food every day. I'm currently 195lb, 5'10. At my thinnest I was 158, and while I would like to be that weight again, I'm ok with just getting back down to around 170.
The diets I've tried are basic calorie counting (This worked the best. I lost 10lb on this), a modified ZONE diet, abs diet, carb cutting, etc etc. I know I'm pretty young to be diagnosed with this, as apparently many women only find out after they try to conceive. So I'm really hoping I can get this on track early in my life. but i guess its hard to stick to things like diets and meal plans when every day is completely different. I love college but routine is hard! I'm still trying to figure out what kind of hairstyle i want to commit to, much less my lifestyle!
Sorry if this was long and all over the place.