6th Time's a Charm

So...as we learned in a previous post, I was "diagnosed" with PCOS about 4 years ago.  I use quotes because I found out last week that while it's likely that I have PCOS, I was improperly diagnosed.  I can't really say that I'm surprised by that though.  Last week I had a consultation with the endocrinologist that I was referred to.  He's the 6th doctor I've seen in the last four years, and he actually knows what he's talking about!

The consultation took about an hour and a half.  He was really attentive and explained everything to me in length using notes and diagrams (someone must have debriefed him on my personality prior to my arrival!), and we set up our plan of action as far as treatment goes.  The first part of treatment is officially diagnosing my disorder.  Previously, I was told that I had PCOS, but none of the other doctors bothered to actually go through the steps necessary to officially diagnose me.  In order to this, some unlucky phlebotomist is going to get to suck my blood.  That will happen in about a month after we've given my body some time to filter out the medication I was taking prior to my appointment last week.  Once the blood work is done and has been analyzed I'll start a new drug regimen and a new diet.

I'm mostly excited about having a diet that will work.  He created this diet with PCOS patients in mind (he's writing a book about it currently!), but says he's used it and he makes all of his friends use it as well.  He also said that every woman he's put on it who has stuck with it has lost all of the weight they needed to lose to be healthy again.  Also, he says the weight loss happens pretty quickly as well.  It will definitely be nice to not be carrying around all of this extra weight...both physically and mentally.

Overall, I'm so grateful to have been referred to this doctor.  So far I think he's amazing, and I'm excited to finally start getting everything worked out.  I'll keep you posted as I get more into everything.  Maybe when it's lab work time I'll treat you to the story of how I hate needles and phlebotomists hate me.  It should be a fun read!

Week 2 - Baby Steps

Baby steps has become my new mantra as of this morning. I only lost a half a pound last week. It's a little discouraging, but in all honesty I was ready to see that I'd gained a pound or so back, so what normally would have derailed my will power didn't. Last week was a high stress week for me, and the scale showed it. It happens.

So for this week, I'm going to try and avoid the things I did last week to screw myself up. No shoving half a bagel down my throat just to get food in my stomach. No chugging sugary coffee like it's going out of style. No cupcakes (I did only have one...to celebrate a co-workers birthday....I avoided the other set of cupcakes for someone elses something and the cake for a friend's farewell shindig...overall..win!).

I also got to the gym today for the first time since starting this diet. Another baby step.

I'm feeling pretty good about this whole process, so maybe I'll be able to channel some of this positive energy into a new job! Until next time....

Week One Update

So, in true procrastinators form I meant to write this on Monday, and am just now getting around to it! So here's a bit of an update.

Turns out grocery shopping is a lot harder when you're not buying your normal staples of bread, rice and pasta...all of which can last longer than a week. Unlike produce that starts to get a little iffy after a week sometimes!

Aside from that I can honestly say that it hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be, and the couple of things I anticipated that might be issues have been. First of all, I'm a pasta lover. I eat a lot of it. It's one of my favorite foods. Not eating it right now makes me sad. The end. Second, I suck at breakfast. Always have. I don't really like eating when I first wake up in the morning. It just never seems to settle well with my system. I also have this problem where I like to sleep as long as humanly possible in the morning, so I rarely eat before I leave for work. Because we have an employee cafeteria, I generally eat there in the morning before my shift starts. Unfortunately we rarely have "hot" options in the morning. The options are always: bagels, pastries, cereal, instant oatmeal and an assortment of breads and english muffins. Now that all of that stuff is out of my diet, that's also been tough.

Aside from those two minor things, I think this diet might actually be working! In one week I lost 9 lbs. And that was with cheating in a major way on Saturday (I also have a weakness for McD's french fries...eek!) and not making it to the gym once.

This week has been going pretty well so far, but with my stress levels as high as they have been, it's taking a lot more effort and will power to stick with it than it did last week. I'm guilty of stress eating, so all I've wanted all week so far is pasta and ice cream. I'm happy to report that I haven't caved yet!

I've decided to extend phase one for an extra week, but to add fruit back into my diet. I figure I'll start adding things in at baby steps so I won't over do it. I also think adding some fruit back in will help with breakfast as well as giving myself more options so that I won't start to feel bored like I am right now.

I think that's it for now. It's late. There's a good chance this whole post was rambling and didn't make much sense, but it's a post just the same! Have a good rest of the week everyone!

Starting Over....Again....

Okay...I'm starting over. All of the old posts for this blog have been erased along with my old lifestyle. According to my doctor this change is necessary, so here we go.

Starting around my senior year of high school I started gaining weight. It's only gotten worse since then, and now it's to the point where I need to work on losing about 75 lbs. Two years ago I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. This is part of the reason for the weight gain, as well as the reason why I can't lose it with regular diet and exercise. The only way to get rid of PCOS is to lose weight, but part of the disorder is an insulin resistance problem, which makes it more than difficult to lose weight.

My doctor refuses to prescribe the medication I used to be on to help lose weight. She wants me to try losing weight without it, and she'll reevaluate me in January. So after a lot of research and thought, I've decided to try out the South Beach Diet. After reading the book, I think this may be my best shot at being able to lose this weight since it's aimed at fixing insulin resistance problems.

That being said, this blog is going to be where I keep track of my progress. I figure if I need to write about my weekly progress, it will help me to stick with it. So we'll see how it goes.