Exactly 75 Days In...

I have been dieting and exercising for 75 days now. I feel like I can finally talk about what I'm doing, and how I'm doing it. It hasn't been easy, but I have lost 20 pounds doing what I'm doing. This is exceptional considering my conditions:

I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. This disorder affects an estimated 1 out of 10 women. I was diagnosed in 2010, but I really had no idea what the big deal was. Well, I know now that PCOS causes infertility, insulin-resistance, male pattern hair growth, dysfunctional periods, and weight gain. I have devoted my free time to educating young women about the signs and symptoms of PCOS. They don't know where it comes from, but I do have a family member with PCOS, and my doctor thinks it's related. So, I suffer from that on a daily basis. Here is more information about PCOS.

I have hypothyroidism. I was diagnosed with this when I was 12 years old. I had gained over 40 pounds that year! Again, as a child, I didn't understand the severity of the situation. I didn't take the daily, necessary medicine until about a year ago when my doctor impressed upon me the life-long implications of the disease. This is also not curable, and I will be on medication for the rest of my life. Hypothyroidism causes increased miscarriages, weight gain, lethargy, lack of concentration, anxiety, vitamin deficiencies, and a whole host of symptoms (comprehensive list here).

November 2011

Anyhow, over the years I had continued to gain weight, and in February, 2012, I weighed in at 260 pounds!

Somehow, I could still live with my decisions to be fat, even at the cost of embarrassment to my husband. Then in March, the doctor gave me some terrifying news: I was too heavy to ovulate due to my PCOS, and could not expect to get pregnant any time soon. She told me that if I could lose 50 pounds by next March (giving me 1 year), then she would prescribe fertility medications to me to get me pregnant if I wasn't ovulating on my own.

Finally the severity caught up to me. I had let my own body down. Despite my conditions, my body felt pretty normal (the lethargy was the most noticeable symptom), and I always thought it could do what it needed to do. This was the first time that I realized that I caused my body real harm.

So I researched everything. I learned what "insulin-resistant" (caused by my PCOS) really did to my body. I found out what foods interacted with my medications. The doctor put me on Metformin, a medication usually used for diabetics, to help regulate my insulin resistance. At the same time, she warned me that the medication was not a magic weight loss pill, and I had to work at it.

One of my favorite websites is called Pinterest. I made a "motivation" board and posted images to remind myself of my goals. Sometimes I would look through my posts when I felt overwhelmed.

   

These kinds of things were helpful, but I did so many more things to help me along. This blog is dedicated to my journey. It's not over, but I've been working really hard, and people are starting to ask the questions that everyone wants to know; how did you do it?

Most of my friends and family are aware of my struggles with PCOS and hypothyroidism, and combating these life-long illnesses makes my story even more amazing. Just last Tuesday I weighed in at 20 pounds lost. Tell me, can you see the difference?