New Year; New Plan; New Goals

So I sucked at blogging the last 2 months of the year. I got too caught up in my fertility stuff (which BTW is going amazing since I've started taking 1500mgs of Metformin a day) and got too caught up finishing Christmas craft projects etc.

My brother and his girlfriend asked me if I wanted to do the P90X plan with them and I thought "Why the hell not?!?" So I printed out my workout plan, got my DVDs ready to go (have had them for a few years and haven't done them) and am ready to start!

My husband has been busy creating a new online app called Kinspire. I'm not sure how it works yet because he's kept it pretty hidden from me but he assures me it will be ready to go by tomorrow when I start my first workout!

My eating plan will not be too complicated. I'm going to be doing a type of insulin-resistance diet which is a form of low-card in my opinion. Essentially I'm going to aim for a 40-30-30 ratio meaning 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat. This is a great diet to do for those of us who have PCOS and who take Metformin especially (it prevents the upset tummy).

The most important thing to remember with an insulin-resistant type of diet is to link your foods. You can eat carbs, but you've gotta keep it to under 30 grams of carbs per sitting and link them with about 14 grams of protein. I've already been doing something similar to this already so I'm excited to see how it will work.

Of course I will be tracking everything through MyFitnessPal so that I can see where I'm at during each point of the day. I'm also going to try and stick to between 1500-1800 calories per day. We'll have to see how much P90X kicks my butt - cause I KNOW it will.

So why is this weight loss attempt any different from all of my previous attempts you might ask...well, it's because I've created some built in consequences and rewards for myself. In order to ensure that I actually DO my workouts every day, I'm not allowed to watch TV (I have a few favorite shows I record that I have to watch!) OR come down to my computer/craft area and sew (my favorite pastime). If I'm not allowed to do either of those things until I've worked out, I KNOW I'll actually do it. But I'm not going to be policing myself....I've given my husband permission to actually hold me accountable to this so if he sees me watching TV, he has every right to ask me if I've worked out yet....and I better be able to say YES!

And what is my motivation for actually completing the full 90 days besides the negative reinforcement?  Well, if I complete the full program, my husband has agreed to take me to either Disneyland or Disneyworld...depending on if we want to make a trip all the way to FL this year again.....SO....that's motivation enough for me because I just LOVE Disney!

I'll be taking my "before" pictures tomorrow before my workout and I'll post them up. I'll also try and be better about blogging my progress and my reaction to the P90X workouts. I'm a little scared about the intensity....but I also know I just need to do it already.

Also, there's the slight possibility I may be pregnant....but I won't be able to know for sure until the end of next week or so. Even if I am, I think I'll still stick to the program in some way.

A New Plan

So now that I know I've got PCOS, I've already starting taking some measures to clean up my act because now I really do realize the importance of eating healthy and exercising. I've also finally realized why all of my weight loss attempts in the past have been fruitless! Yeah I was eating less calories and exercising, but I wasn't eating the RIGHT things. I may have been eating only 1300-1500 calories a day, but my body was still storing everything as fat because I didn't have the right mix of carbs, proteins and fats.

Over the past 2 days I've stuck to a 25% carb diet with the remaining being protein and fat, mostly protein. I'm also down 2.5 lbs!! How incredible is that?!?! I've even noticed I'm feeling a lot better and I don't have that "brain fog" I used to have. I have tons more energy already and I survived my elliptical workout yesterday without getting shaky (damn those carbs!)

Here's the proof of my workout:

I actually ended up doing about 30 minutes on it total and burned almost 330 calories! Go me :) My heart rate always goes up pretty high when I'm on those tough settings...my heart rate can get up to 160 sometimes but that's just right before I'm into the "red" zone and then I back it down a bit to get it lower.  I love the elliptical cause it's so low impact and easy.

Here's a view of my new typical diet I'm going for these days. No cookies, chips, ice cream, bread, cereal, pasta, etc.  Now it's all veggies, chicken, fish, yogurt, eggs, cheese and more veggies! For now I'm ok with having less variety but I wonder when the cravings will kick in?

Today is salad and light greek yogurt for lunch. Salad has spinach, hard-boiled egg, tomatoss, peppers (yellow and orange), green onions, mushrooms, almonds, canned chicken and pomegranate vinegrette. Also, I always add in a wheat germ/flax mix to my yogurt for extra texture.

My snacks for the day consist of the cottage cheese below (with cayenne and green onions) and a Wonderslim protein shake in Chocomint. I can't wait for that shake because it will totally be like having dessert!!

I'm going out to a movie premier with a friend tonight and I've convinced her to go to Wendy's for dinner with me so that I can splurge on their small chili with cheese and onions - yummmm!

So far it's not that hard to eat this way, especially when I'm stepping on the scale and seeing it go down - that's so much motivation for me.  Plus the fact that seeing all of those cysts on my ovaries did not burn a good visual into my mind - every time I even think about wanting a cookie or chip I just have to remember that visual in my head!

Diagnosis

I'm essentially going to copy and paste this post from my family blog on to this one since it contains all of the info I wanted to share with you:

So my fears were confirmed at the specialist this week: I have PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome). I'm not going to go into massive amounts of detail about what it is because you can research on your own via Google if you want. But to say the least, a big part of the reason I'm fat is because I have PCOS and the reason I have PCOS is because I'm fat. It's a vicious cycle.

Nonetheless, I also had an ultrasound done of my ovaries. I've got about 15 cysts on EACH ovary - I saw it black and white for myself. Apparently the acne I've struggled with since I was a teenager is a major give away as well. Of course, the most definite indicator of PCOS is my irregular periods.

I'm not ovulating because of PCOS even though my eggs are trying so hard to grow and come out of the ovary. There's just too many receptor inhibitors - namely insulin - blocking my ovary's response to FSH (follicle stimulating hormone). So obviously I can't get pregnant if I'm not producing any eggs!!

The first step we're taking is to put me on Metformin (this was the same thing the mean endocronologist prescribed me in September) to help regulate my insulin levels. The second step is to take Provera - it contains progesterone. Basically I need to take that for 10 days and after that is up I should "bleed" and clear out everything that's old and been sitting for a while. Once the bleeding is done I'll start on Clomid to help me ovulate. During this time I'll be going back to the specialist so that they can monitor all of my progress.

I'm hopeful just to get my cycles regular again. From the reading I've done, all of the cysts should clear up on their own after a few cycles. So I shouldn't have to really worry about them.

The biggest thing I've got to worry about is my carb intake. Essentially I need to maintain a very low-carb diet in order to manage my PCOS. I'm REALLY sad about this because I love my pasta, ice cream and of course bread!! But I probably love them because I'm addicted to them. Ramin suggested I stick to around 100 carbs a day. I'm not too sure how hard this will be just yet but I'm definitely going to try it.

When I went to get my prescriptions today I also loaded up on eggs, yogurt, meat and veggies because those will be the staples of my diet for a while. I basically just need to reset my body and then I can slowly add in some carbs at that point.

So...we have the news. I'm relieved and excited to actually know what is wrong and to have a plan. It feels SO much better than not knowing!!

Latest Addictions

I loooooooove yogurt. And not just any yogurt - GREEK yogurt!  For me, food is all about texture and the thicker a yogurt can be, the better!

If you've got a Kroger store near you (for me it's the local Smith's), you've GOT to check out their Kroger brand yogurts. I used to be all about their Carb Master yogurts, but lately I've been into their Greek yogurts for the amount of protein they have in them!

This was part of my lunch yesterday....I usually have my yogurt as an afternoon snack really. I've been dipping all kinds of graham crackers into my yogurt and it's AMAZING!  I only had the regular Greek yogurt's left in my fridge and they run about 130 calories. They also have a Light Greek that runs 90 calories. I'm going to make sure I get the Light version from now on - so that I can eat more grahams with it!

This morning for breakfast I had an old stand-by:

I looooove these things and they're easy to either eat in the car on the way to work OR just take them to work and pop it in the microwave for a few minutes.

So I ate that this morning.....and then....I wanted something baked. Sometimes you just gotta have a baked good dangit!!!

I found this in my lunchbag and ate it!

I only had one...and it was goooood  - it's better than having a donut right?!?!?! :)

Happy Friday!!

5K Pictures

While I was on hiatus - I DID actually run another 5k....but I never even posted pictures from my first one!!

So here I am with my best friend (also Jenn) on August 11th during my FIRST 5k!!

Note to self: ALWAYS go potty before the race, even if you don't have to go!! 

Two weeks later in September, I ran another 5K (actually more like walked) with my friend Tanner. This one really kicked my butt because it was mostly uphill. I finished it in 49 minutes! 

It was called the Sundae Run and we got ice cream sundaes afterward. As you can see from my pic - I didn't even eat mine until 15 minutes or so after the race because I was literally THAT BEAT! When I DON'T want ice cream, you know I'm in pain. 

Anyway, I did the runs and then I stopped running, especially after I went on my "hiatus". I started to get the feeling that I was pushing my body too hard with the running and therefore it impacted my "cycles". I'm not sure if that was true or not but things are supposedly back to normal and I'm sticking with tried and true exercise that I know won't impact my body as much.

The Global Fat Scale

I was reading one of my usual blogs and came across The Global Fat Scale....I'd never heard of this before but it was surely an eye opener (to say the least!)

Basically, you can compare your current BMI to the rest of the world population, including the population within your own country.

Here are my results:

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............

I don't even have words for this right now. All I can think of is "at least I'm not as fat as SOME women in this country!"  BUT DAMN!!!!!!

If you want to check it out for yourself - visit The Global Fat Scale

Back on the Wagon!

Yep - I'm on it.

I went through a rough patch emotionally through the months of August and September. My whole TTC (Trying to Conceive) journey has been rough and emotionally taxing on me....but in the end I've come out stronger and I've realized that I just need to be healthy for it's own sake and not for other extraneous reasons.

Things will happen when they are supposed to happen.

All I can control in this world is myself and what I choose to do and think. The choices I make are the only things I can control and I actually feel empowered by that. So much is out of your control when you are TTC and as someone who's been in control of most of her life (and been very successful at that!) I've found that my TTC trials have been the most stressful.

So I've found some new found inspiration in the fact that I ACTUALLY HAVE A CHOICE to be healthy!! I never thought of it that way before.

With my newly found zest and zeal I'm already down 3 lbs!

This morning I weighed in at 216.6! I was hovering around the 220 mark just last week!

I'm back to counting my calories and exercising throughout the week.

I plan to make a NEW goal list - one that I can refer to often.

Thanks to any of you that stuck around and wished me well - it's been helpful :)