I have been very discouraged about the diet this week.  I've also been very hormonal and moody and just feeling physically unwell.  But today, I stepped on the scale and to my completely surprise and delight, I lost another 1.5 lbs!  It's really working... just not as fast as I would like!  But maybe it's best to think of it as slow and PERMANENT!

This brings me to a total loss of 15.5lbs and 8.5 of THAT is in the 5 weeks since I started this diet!

I'm jazzed!  Praise God, it's working!

THAT'S IT!  No more fast food!

My son had a TaeKwonDo belt test this morning.  He did great.  As is our tradition, he got to pick where we would eat.  He picked Arby's.  Now, I am trying to get the kids to eat healthier as well and it's virtually impossible to eat well for any kid at a fast food restaurant.

This outing just sealed it for me, though - no more fast food.  The french fries are just to awful.  The kids fight over the toys in their kids meals.  It's just not worth it.

I told them, NO MORE!

I've been sort of out of it for the last week or so.  I had to have some minor oral surgery but due to my life in the last 3 months, it was my 3rd surgery in as many months.  I'm on the other side of it now.  I'm feeling pretty good and things are back in the swing.

I'm on my own again.  My husband left for his assignment in Nigeria.  He needs lots of prayer covering while he is over there.  But he's been there for almost 2 days now and he's settling in.  He seems quite a bit of touch from usual.  They only have a satellite phone and he doesn't have an email address set up there yet.  I really miss him.

Diet is going well.  I let myself off the hook when I had the oral surgery and had ice cream.  (Yeah, it was really good!)  But the funny thing is, I've always considered myself to be lactose intolerant and ice cream hasn't been my friend for years.  But this time, it didn't bother me *at all*.  I'm wondering if there was something else wrong with my system and the diet is straightening it out.  I dunno.  But I only allowed myself 2 servings and now I'm feeling better and - No more ice cream!

Tonight for dinner we had Peach Glazed slow cooked cornish hens, stir fried (not really "fried") zucchini and broccoli.  I'm dragging my kids along on this diet and they're not too crazy about it.  But my pickiest eater has discovered she likes broccoli if she dips it in HONEY!  I didn't even want to try it.  But if that's what it takes to get her to eat some broccoli, OK!

We're also back in the swing of school.  Today was a challenge because we had so many errands to run.  But, we did really good.  Due to all my surgeries, school has been tough lately - just like these last two weeks with my tooth pain and surgery.  But the kids were eager to be busy today and all in all, it went well.  I'm trying to get my oldest child (my son is almost 11) to write more and it's a challenge to say the least!  He's working on a paper about Christopher Columbus.

Let me know if there's anything in particular you want to hear about in regards to my diet, for those of you who are interested.

I have struggled with PCOS for years.  I've probably had it since early puberty but it wasn't recognized by my mother then and I never went to a doctor about my menstrual irregularities.  When I married at 20 and went off of birth control pills (which I was on to provide me with regular menses) that is when it really came on full force and caused infertility, immediate and massive weight gain.  Why do doctors take action if a woman loses 40lbs without reason and believe it to be medically related but if a woman GAINS that weight without a behavioral reason, it's all her fault?!  It has also caused male pattern  hair growth, some hair loss, darkened, shiny skin in my skin creases and one of the most difficult - insulin resistance which for many women with PCOS is the root cause of the weight gain.

Despite my infertility struggles, we have been blessed with 3 precious children.  My first two were conceived with the help of fertility medications and I was just on a low-carb diet when we found ourselves surprised to expect a third without any medical help.

After deciding that our family was complete, we pursued the typical medical treatment for PCOS.  I went on Metformin under the advice of my Reproductive Endocrinologist.  I lost some weight on it, my menses returned for a bit - but the major negative side effect of Metformin is diahrrea.  I could not get that under control.  That side effect dominated my life and I discontinued it.  I just couldn't take it anymore.

Now, almost 7-8 months has passed since I quit taking it and my symptoms of the PCOS are getting worse.  I haven't a cycle since last August and I felt like I had to do something, but I didn't want to go back on the Metformin.

So, late one night, I started looking into the potential of finding a different doctor that was closer to me who might consider some sort of alternative treatment - even though, I didn't know what that was.

I stumbled upon a web page - http://www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/ and I was overwhelmed with excitement at midnight one night!  I had only ever read about diets regarding PCOS which were the usual low carb/high protein diets.  But this one was different, it talked about foods and how they affected a woman with PCOS - how it would affect ME!

But, it was radically different than anything I have ever done before...

• No Dairy - No milk, cheese, creams, nothin'
• No Grains - No breads, rice or Grain-based thickeners.
• No Legumes - No beans, no chick peas, no peanuts/peanut butter Or hummus
• Organic meats and produce

I knew in my heart though that this could possibly be my answer, answer to prayer really.  I had to do something radical.  So, I went cold turkey and into the diet.

I'll admit, I haven't been a 100% perfect angel on this.  I discovered the diet on a Tuesday, shopped for it on a Wednesday and started it on the Thursday and that Friday was the start of my church's women's retreat!  That was tough, but I only "cheated" on one meal there and that was because there wasn't anything else I could eat.  It was a King Ranch Chicken Burrito.  Even after only being on the diet for 3 days, I recognized that for the first time in almost 4 days, that was the first GRAIN food I had eaten and within an hour after eating, I felt hungry.  I hadn't felt hungry in 4 days.  I knew that the way my body reacted to the high glycemic value of grains, that was what was consistently making me feel hungry after almost every meal.  Other than that, I think I've had only one whole meal that was off the diet in the last 2 weeks that I have been on this diet.

Symptom wise, I've already seen some improvements.  I have had to shave my chin every day for most of my married life.  I'm thrilled that the hair growth is down to now only needing to do that every other day.  I lost 5 lbs in the first week.  (Haven't lost any since thanks to a tooth infection).  But I hope that starts up soon.  I *feel* better.  I seem to always have a headache after every meal and I don't any longer.  I haven't had a headache in two weeks - well, except for the tooth infection!

I'm really excited about this diet and am very hopeful that THIS is my answer.  It is much easier on me now to eat this way than it was to take a pill and be tied to the bathroom - even as radical as this diet is, I can say that.

I hope that this blog helps others who are battling this complicated syndrome or that you can lead others who are also battling it to knowing that there is something out there that can help in a more natural way.

Welcome to my Blog!  Come on in, pull up a chair... have a cup of green tea!

I decided to start a blog to catalog my journey over a new "diet" I have discovered.  The diet was written specifically for women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)  I have had such tremendous success with it in just the last two weeks that I have been on it, I want to share it with everyone!

I struggle with using the word diet.  Simply because the modern sense of the word makes people think instantly of weightloss.  While weightloss is a major goal of mine in this struggle against the PCOS, it will be a "side effect" of the diet as it gets the hormone issues associated with PCOS sorted out.  I have PCOS and my husband has hypothyroidism and he is on this diet along with me in the hopes that it manages his hypothyroidism and maybe even one day, gets him off of the prescriptoin medication.