Losing It!

Not my mind. Or maybe that too. Who knows. I mean my weight. Dudes, I have dropped another two pounds this week. I'm now four pounds down in May for a total of 14 since April 1. Holy cow! I'm so doing this!

I'm that girl who starts diets, loses a few pounds, stalls, and then says, "Screw It!" I always, always, always fail. But not this time. I'm kicking my chubby butt into gear. A few people have asked what's different this time.

For one, I stepped out of the shower on April 1 and noticed a few patches of brown skin on my belly, neck, and thighs. I almost crapped a brick. Acanthosis Nigricans! That is one of the first symptoms of developing insulin resistance and Type II Diabetes. OMG. Both sides of my family are rife with diabetics. My father is a diabetic with major blood sugar control issues. My paternal grandfather died from diabetes complications after losing both of his legs. I refuse to go down that path.

After identifying the AN, I pulled on some workout clothes, went downstairs, and hit play on my Slim in 6 DVDs. I almost died, but I didn't care. As soon as I finished working out, I grabbed the IR diet book and decided that if Dave is doing it, I'm doing it. No more cheating. No more excuses. I eat correctly. When I do screw up, I have to admit it to Dave and my support group.

That's the second most important motivation for me, my support group. We're all ladies dealing with the horrid effects of PCOS (and some POF too.) Until you've had PCOS, you can't imagine what it's like. Some women get lucky (compared to others) and have mild cases of the disease. Others, like me (poo!), get the severe cases. I have pretty much all of the symptoms: weight gain, cystic ovaries, hirsutism (excess hair everywhere), thinning hair (the hair on my head falls out in clumps when I'm not on my meds), acne, dandruff, oily skin, hidradenitis supporativa (boils/cysts in my armpits, lymph nodes), insomnia, pelvic pain, amenhorrhoea (1 menstrual cycle every 14-15 months), and infertility.

Many of these symptoms are caused by super high testosterone levels. Because our ovaries are all screwed up, we make massive amounts of testosterone. Seriously, my blood work in October was nuts. I had testosterone levels equal to those of a hormone raging 16 year old boy. I think this is why I used to be such a nympho and so competitive. Now that I'm on hormone therapy, I'm a lot more mellow and less of a nympho. Okay. Not much less of a nympho, but at least Dave's not fending me off with a golf club anymore. He doesn't complain about his back as much either. Coincidence?

A lot of chicas are embarassed to talk about the disease. I was like that for a few months, but now I'm like, eff that. The reason I was misdiagnosed for, oh, a decade is because doctors are uneducated and the general public has no understanding of this disease's symptoms. If I had a penny for every woman/young girl in my support group who was ignored/insulted by a doctor and told to lose weight, I'd be diving into a vat of shiny copper a la Uncle Scrooge.

Anywho. So my support group has kept me accountable. I post my daily food intake and exercise. I set goals and have the benefit of encouragement from others. I also reciprocate that encouragement whenever possible. It's a give and take. It works.

I'm also very encouraged by the lessening severity of my symptoms. I've only lost 5% of my body weight, but I can tell a difference in many of the skin symptoms. The weight loss won't have much (if any) effect on my fertility, but hey, at least I won't be in a high risk pregnancy category because of my weight. It might (might) make me more sensitive to some fertility therapies. I'm all for that.

Although, just a quick tangent, one of the ladies in my support group just conceived quads. I know! She used one of the protocols that's recommended for women with my blood panels and medical history. I told Dave and he got that deer in the headlights look. Can you blame him?

All right. That's all for today. I need to shower and change. We're trying this going to the movies thing again. Hopefully this time we won't need a tow truck.

L8R.