This is the old thread.

Welcome to Spring months! Check in and let us know how you are!

For the Spring round up:

• How are you?
• How's the PCOS?
• What are you working on now as goals?
• How successful were you for past season on your goals?

A.

So I finally had some time to check in.

How are you?

I am ok. Had some eldercare stress last week but not too bad.

How's the PCOS?

Well, I'm in PCOS perimenopause. I did start bioidentical hormones which was a RELIEF! But I ended up not liking my OB/GYN. She had a good bedside manner at first but rotten follow up so I am moving on to a reproductive endocrinologist in April that I hope will play nicely with my regular endoc that looks after my thyroid.

What are you working on now as goals?

Still trying to get a grip on my food log and my fitness log. I tried on Plated.com to break up the cooking rut for 2 weeks which was fun.

How successful were you for past season on your goals?

Ok enough. Just that it's a long journey.

A.

Hi All!

I'm back! I kind of have been in my own medical nightmare the last four weeks for some things that I think are unrelated to PCOS. However, the end result is that all my doctors are saying that I got the infection that I did due to having a low immune response, because I'm not taking care of myself. In other words, more fruits and vegetables, less stress. Aside from all the antibiotics and medicines I've been taking (and will continue to take).

This made me go back to my probiotic that I had dropped ages ago, and wow, what a difference. The stuff really works. It changed my mood significantly -- I hadn't felt it so strongly, ever. I also lost a lot of the cravings that I had for sugar. I was eating so much chocolate (dark, but still, a lot) and I stopped, cold turkey. Now, if I eat some chocolate, I don't have the desire to devour it (and it's been over a month in this situation, so it's not associated with my period). My ezcema also clear up. My general cravings are also gone.

Now that I am not so sick, I'm working cleaning up my eating (well, I guess that started about a month ago with the situation) and I am deciding on what exercise I really need to do (so I don't stress my body too much with that -- I'm going to be doing yoga and pilates, primarily), and telling myself it's okay, not to worry.

I'm also trying to "clean out" some of the annoyances in my life. And that's including people... I've decided I've kept some friends around because we have a history, but we're not really friends today... and it stresses me out to have to "pretend" to have the same friendship we had before... but if you look at our actions, we're more acquaintances. So, I'm trying to disengage and not pretend. Pretending makes me tired and stresses me out because I'm not being authentic.

I'm trying to spend my time focused on things that do matter.

For this spring, my goal is to go down 10 lbs by May (just thought of that one up).

Astrophe -- letting go of the elder drama will probably be great for you. I'm so happy you're going back to school! I love school! Losing 5 lbs last month was great, I'm glad you're on track. I hope you reach your goals this year.

I am relatively new to this forum, but noticed that it has its own PCOS sub-section which made me extremely happy. Just reading through some of the topics--makes me feel better. Sometimes it feels like I am the only one working my butt off with nothing to show for it.

I have been actively at this phase of my weightloss since January. Initially I lost a good deal, but now I have stalled. I literally gain a pound, lose a half a pound, gain 2 pounds, lose 3 pounds. But I am losing inches....I am training for a 5K and doing strength training at least 3 times a week (usually 4). My husband keeps saying to be patient, that weightloss will come since the inches are coming off....but I just don't know. PCOS/insulin resistance is such a funny thing. I believe I am going to try low carb and maybe keto if I can and see if that helps. Frustrated with my body!

I'm new to the forum, so this is my first season here. But I'm so happy that there's a PCOS subsection! It's difficult having to explain to people just what PCOS is what extra hurdles it places in my life. As far as my PCOS goes, I just had an appointment with a new Endocrinologist who was /amazing/ and didn't scold me for being fat. During the 'losing weight will help' portion of the evening, her entire spiel was "PCOS can make it hard to lose weight, and carbs can make that even harder. Let's try less carbs and more lean protein for awhile and see if that helps you. We can discuss other options later if we need to." And that was it. So that's what I'm doing now, and we upped the dosage on a couple of my medications.

Now I'm taking:
-2000mg metformin (working through the last of my regular pills, and then I'll start taking the XR ones)
-50mg spironolactone
-oral birth control
-multivitamin because why not

My doctors and I have discussed taking something for my pituitary tumor, but we decided that right now the side effects aren't bothering me enough to warrant taking another pill. Does anyone else have a pituitary tumor with their PCOS? I named mine Mitchell. Fortunately, he's very small. Only 4mm, according to the MRI I had in December. As far as other medical stuff goes, we thought my kidneys might be messing up. I did a 24 hour urine test, and both my creatinine and cortisol were elevated. So I'm repeating it again next weekend, and we'll see what happens then. I just had a lot of blood work done today, actually. Already got the results and kidney, liver, and basic metabolic panel all look good! I thiiiink I'm waiting on one more result, and then the urine test next weekend and we'll go from there. But I think we're on the right track, finally. Only time will tell, lol.

My current goals are to 1) find something that works to help me lose weight and 2) stick with it. I'm terrible about not sticking with things. I need to work on being more active (which will be easier since we're moving into better weather. I live in Washington. It's so rainy all the time @_@), and I also need to stick with better eating. But I've packed my lunch for work tomorrow and am happy with what I chose. Rather than getting delivery to the office (my only options being Dominos, Pizza Hut, Chinese, or JimmyJohns), I packed homemade tzatziki, carrot and celery sticks, strawberries, blackberries, and cheese. I didn't feel like busting out the steamer tonight, but tomorrow I'm gonna hard-boil (hard-steam? I steam my eggs because they peel /so much easier/ than boiled) some eggs for the rest of the week. Thinking of picking up some falafel too, to go with my tzatziki. I made a BIG batch of that because I love it as a veggie dig, sandwich spread, salad dressing (I thin it down with a little milk for a salad dressing), and sometimes I just eat it with a spoon but only when no one's around to witness my shame and judge me lol!

I don't really have much of a yard stick on measuring my success, because honestly this is the first time I've been serious about making changes. I feel like I'm starting off from a good place, so I really hope I can keep this optimism and enthusiasm going. =)

Has anybody ever heard about Inositol? From what I hear its really supposed to help PCOS. I'm a member of a group on Facebook and several on there have recommended it. I ordered it and it just came today. Hoping it benefits me the way it has some of them!
Here is one of the articles they posted about it:
http://www.pcosdietsupport.com/suppl...itol-and-pcos/

I did some more google research and it looked like something that it wouldn't hurt to try. It's basically B-8.....so its not like it can hurt. Just wondering if you all had tried it.

Rana – Sorry to hear you were sick but glad you are bouncing back! Which probiotic are you on? I'm trying to work that in also. Glad you are trimming out friends you have outgrown. That def helps with stress.

Lovinlife115 – Welcome! Def focus on inches – that's what changes clothes size anyway. Good for you on your upcoming race! I take d-chiro-inositol. It works for me but I know some people go with myoinositol.


Feverpitchfiasco – Welcome! Having a supportive doc makes a big difference. Glad you are liking your new endoc. Home the pituitary thing isn't too stressful. And WTG on packing lunches!


MY CHECK IN

Please with some weight loss and inches lost this month. Go me! Stick to plan is SLOOOOOW but it moves.

The elders are still being a pain.

I don't blame Dad so much. He is so Alzheimer goofy that him having outbursts is not his fault. There's a certain level if complain-y cranky that we all have to live with there. But my mother drives me up the wall. She won't call his docs when he's having an major episode, she won't give me the info so that I can call, and then what happens?

Instead of getting his meds adjusted and getting checked out for hidden UTI's or whatever to make sure he is as comfortable as possible and doing ok? He has a cow for weeks on end because his meds aren't right or he's hurting somewhere and cannot say. How's that kind to the patient? I put my foot down and he was seen and I was right. He needed meds adjusted and he is doing better.

I don't get her. She's weird.

Proud of my hubby. He's been doing his own improved eating, more walking workouts, taking his meds, combatting andropause & hypertension, etc.

So for the most part I'm doing ok other than the elders still being a pain. Two more weeks til my first teacher test. I'm excited!

Hugs
A.

My update -- I'm out of control. I'm not sure what's going on, but the weight gain has continued. I need to get this under control. I am going to see a personal trainer tomorrow, to start to do something different with my exercise and meal planning. And I guess, start meal planning (which I have for the next couple of weeks, I have something I can control -- no travel).

The probiotics are great, astrophe! I'm taking ones called Renew Life (or something like that, from Whole Foods). I get the ones with the highest number of live stuff in them.

I don't know why I'm so out of control. I need to focus on this weight loss/health thing again. I think part of it is that I don't want to think about it as much as I used to think about it. But I think I need to accept that this is the way it is -- I need to put thought into it, for better or worse. I just need to keep the short cuts, and not find reasons to deviate.

So, I'm back up... and I need to start losing 30 lbs again. I want to be accountable and stay accountable. I wish I could press a button and just make it all work again.

Rana -- I see you are looking to see where changes can be made. Hang in there as you figure it out.

MY CHECK IN

I'm hanging in there. I'll do a longer check in later but I wanted to share that I continue to put distance between me and my parents. They simply have to get a paid caregiver to help Mom care for Dad.

I cannot do it any more. They drive me up the wall with their poor boundaries. Him I can overlook since he is ill, but Mom will not work with me in any way that makes sense. We end up arguing/fighting over his care and I do not enjoy it. I also don't get paid doing that work. So I'm moving on and moving away from letting this be a drain in my life. I need more fulfilling work, and I need to be employed by people who appreciate what I'm doing.

I've been super busy studying so my apologies for being absent. The good news is that I passed my first set of tests for teacher certification and I'm working on my next set! That's the dream right now -- to become a math teacher. I love math (I know, I'm weird).

I ended it with a draining friend. So that's been a relief. I spend more time with friends I enjoy.

I'm still weak in exercise. Spouse is doing great doing his walks on schedule but I'm not as good at being consistent with mine. So I just wear my fitbit and try to be as active as possible. It's not anything like "formal" exercise. I'm hoping to get there one day.

I do food log and recently got strict with it. Really strict with both sugar and salt. We probably eat out too much or on the run. So far I'm holding fort at -9 lbs. No regain.

I lose sight of that accomplishment sometimes because there is SO much more to go, but I wanted to affirm to myself that I'm on the path to improvements in my life and reducing my stress.

So.. yay for me in May.

A.

Hi again! I'm trying to check into 3FC more often too.

I saw the personal trainer and he wanted me to try HerbaLife. I read into it, and I decided that no way jose! No after all of the changes I had made to eating healthier, from scratch, organic type of food. I did agree, however, that I am eating too much and he was fine if I wanted to go on my non-GMO blah blah blah shakes, if it just meant that I stop eating as much, period. So, I do have some shake mix made from brown rice protein and it's actually kind of yummy. I don't do the meal replacements, per se, because I know that's just an avenue to gain weight if you stop replacing the meals with a shake... but I am more aware of how much I was eating and that because of PCOS, my metabolism is just slower than other people. I don't lose 2 lbs a week.

My trainer is going to have to get used to that. I think he's used to working with people who are eating all kinds of junk and then start a healthy diet, so they have tons of water weight to lose and then tons of weight to lose by switching from the SAD to a lower carb diet.

Unfortunately, I was eating "healthy".... just too much of it.

I haven't lost weight in this past week, but I know I am feeling better and clothes are fitting better too. The pounds will come. I just have to remember that eating less does not equal starvation and that my mind/body are fine being hungry.

Come over to the summer thread!

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/pcos...-june-aug.html

A.