PCOS

*Content Advisory: Issues discussed may contain feminine material. Male viewers be cautious*

I have learned a few very important lessons:

• Elimination diets are easier when mom is cooking and shopping
• Never start an elimination the day before your period starts. You will not succeed.
• Go grocery shopping before you start eliminating foods, and get rid of all foods that you do not want to eat.
• The snack box at work is a dangerous thing. I think I owe the box about $5 just from the last 2 days. 

PCOS facts:

PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) is a condition where you pretty much just have aweful periods due to hormone imbalances. It amazingly enough is related to something called insulin resistance. From what I understand your insulin does not enter into your cells as easily as it would in someone without insulin resistance, so you have all this extra insulin in your blood stream which then hangs out and messes up your hormones. Insulin thus needs to be regulated by eating very low carb. I have definitely realized a correlation between how I eat throughout the month and all those lovely girl symptoms. I think my husband has noticed too, he just might not realize why things are so much worse lately. I almost stayed home today sick in bed due to cramps. I have also had a horrible month charting my basel body temps. More nerd stuff: your body temp should stay low for the first half of the month, then jump up about 2 degrees during the second half of the month when your progesterone spikes and you ovulate. When you are ready to restart your cycle, your body temp drops back down and you start your period. Fascinating, right!? I think so. BUT I have noticed: the worse I eat and the busier I get, the more  irregular my temps are. My chart looked more like a heartbeat monitor than a thermal shift this month (I was also sick most of the month which can mess with temps too). The more abnormal my chart looks, the worse my period is. Coincidence? I think not! If you find this as fascinating as I do, I suggest the book "Taking Charge of your Fertility" whether or not you want to take the time to chart, the info in it is suuuuuuper cool for nerd-ettes like me. 

Food can really effect your body if you are someone who is highly sensitive. Eating food your body does not like causes your gut to inflame which then kicks your body into "lets fix it" overdrive. Stimulants like coffee, alcohol, and sugars cause your body to crash because it cannot handle the stimulants. Carbs cause insulin issues (which then cause hormone issues), while the lack of protein can cause hypoglycemic symptoms- not pre-diabetic- it is just the unwellness (is that a word) of your body not being able to handle all the junk you are throwing at it. It turns out my whole life I would get treated for PCOS, IBS, hypoglycemia, and fatigue when really all I had to do was cut out food! 

SO. I have been doing okay at this elimination thing... but not great. I had really bad muscle shakes and fatigue again today, and my stomach is still upset, but at the moment I am just trying to end the week strong at work when all I really want to do is curl up with a heating pad strapped around my mid-section. Or rip out my overies. That would work too... but I kinda need those at some point to have kiddos. 

Over and out. Hope I didnt scar you too bad with all that info.