I'm not really sure how I'm going to tackle this post since there's a lot on my mind, so I apologize in advance if it comes out a jumbly mess!

Since the age of 11 my periods have been irregular, and when I was 16 I was diagnosed with PCOS. I've been on and off medication for 6 years, but I've given up on the pills and I'm trying to tackle this myself through diet and exercise. The past two months I've actually gotten my period with no help from birth control or medication, but I'm not sure how this whole water weight thing works. Last week I lost a bit, but I knew I was still bloated from it being that certain "time of the month". Yesterday I woke up to post my weekly loss on the Valentine's Vixen thread and I was down 6.6 pounds from last Sunday! I knew it seemed a bit unrealistic, and my suspicion was confirmed this morning when I was two pounds heavier. I'll admit I was a bit discouraged, considering I had a terrific day yesterday and even went to the gym until they closed! THEY HAD TO KICK ME OUT! So chickies, my question is..

How does water weight work? I know drinking more water helps, but when you lose the water you've been retaining do you gain it right back? I'm just confused!

Moving on to some good news, I'm actually FEELING results when I go to the gym now! Even though I've lost about 20 pounds from the summer and can't physically see it, I feel a whole lot healthier than I used to be (and that's what counts, right?! ) Doing a half an hour on the treadmill used to be a killer, but now an hour flies by and I don't even realize it. I've also noticed it takes a lot more work to get my heart rate higher than before, so does that mean the cardio is conditioning my heart? This leads to my next group of questions..

What's your exercise routine? I know I can't target fat loss on certain areas of my body, it pretty much comes off where it wants to. But I do know I can target and work out certain muscles to help me lose more weight and be there waiting for me when the layers of blub over it finally shed :P The areas I'm having the most time coping with are my lower belly, double chin, and my behind. I'm very middle heavy, it's what I'm most self conscious about and I can't wait until I slim down in that particular area. I know it's based on my body and genetics, but I'm really worried that when I lose all my weight I'm just going to be a big blob of loose skin there. My behind is kindof on the small end, what exercises do you recommend I do to make it a bit plumper? ;D And lastly, is there ANYTHING I can do for my double chin, or do I just have to wait for more weight loss to see anything noticeable?

30 Day Shred, opinions?

Roar. I think that's all for now! Sorry for the long post, but I was just a little disappointed this morning when I woke up heavier and I haven't had one "off" day in over two weeks. Looking forward to your responses!

-Stephy

Your body is mostly water which is a good thing. Water is in everything and helps everything flow. When you eat a lot of salt, hormones go off or you aren't drinking much water, your body will retain water. This water retention can be as much as 10 lbs. So if you regularly drink water, limit sodium, etc, then your body tends to let go of excess water because it knows that water is coming in and it doesn't have to hold it in. Water weight can come back but drinking plenty of water and keeping sodium low helps. I've also heard that eating/drinking dairy will cause water retention and for some people what will cause water retention as well.

My recommendation would be to look at an all over weight training program to help shape your body. Body for Life and the New Rules of Lifting for Women are two really good programs. Body for Life specifically addresses in the book that you can reshape your body. Right now, I'm doing running, karate, hiking, kettlebells and general weights.

30 DS - I think it is a tough workout but I think it is pretty good.

I feel ya on the PCOS thing - me too. I'm not sure why you don't want the meds. If it is because they gave you metformin and you couldn't tolerate the side effects then you might consider Januvia. It is a new diabetes medicine that they are also starting to give to PCOS patients. I have been on it since the beginning of July with no bad side effects at all. Also look into the IR diet - it helps people with PCOS and insulin resistance to lose weight. It is a very easy diet to follow in my opinion and is mostly about balancing the amount of carb you eat with protein.

The chin thing - put your hand under your chin and use your hand to provide resistance as you use your chin to push your hand down. I curve my hand and place the backs of my fingers under my chin. I do 10-20 with each hand every day. It does seem to be helping.

The butt - I agree with Nelie in that you should do a total body workout as well, but some good ones to focus on rounding out the butt are squats and dead lifts. Just make sure you use correct form or you could end up with some serious injuries and when doing dead lifts please start light with the weights and don't use more weight than you can handle or you could hurt your back. If done correctly though they are great for the butt. Jillian Michaels uses then a lot with the people she trains so you may be able to learn the correct form on episodes of BL - I know she uses it in her Beginners workouts which are totally awesome. I love all the Jillian workouts.

I would suggest not weighing yourself every day. I used to do that and everytime the scale would go up, I'd feel dissapointed and I felt like all that hard work was for nothing. I now weigh myself once a week and it's great because you don't see the up and down swings as much.

I just started the 30 day shred today. I've done the workout before, but this will be my first attempt at doing it 30 days in a row. I think it's a good workout!

In looking at your weight, about the same as mine, you have to understand that a 300lb mass is going to fluctuate with the amount of water it holds, sometimes drastically. For example, last sunday, 8 days ago I weighed 10lbs more than I do today. I just followed my food plan, nothing drastic. I estimate I've lost about 3lbs of fat this first week. If you focus on water and not fat you are going to drive yourself crazy. I have to weigh every day because if I weigh once a week and hit a high water day, I have a harder time dealing with it. Once a month is good if you can do it. Many years ago I did that but I don't seem to be able to get back in that groove. So, fat first, water no mas.