03.24.06
The times, they are a-changing.
I guess sometimes I just get so busy that I neglect certain things. It’s become painfully obvious (due to jabs by one person from Maine that I know) that this blog is one of the things that gets ignored more than a lot of other stuff.
But, let’s put that all aside for now.
A lot has happened since I last posted here. Probably the biggest change is that I’ve had to make some pretty drastic lifestyle changes over the past two or three months.
I guess it would help if I started from the beginning. As a lot of you may know, Jeff and I have been trying to start a family for roughly a year now. As 2005 drew to a close, my frustration at our lack of progress was probably at its highest point. I felt like a failure, and couldn’t understand why things hadn’t progressed as I wanted them to.
So, faced with the thought that there may, in fact, be something wrong with me, I made the decision to make an appointment with my doctor to discuss things. It was with a heavy heart and a lot of nervous tension that I sat in the chair in my doctor’s office, fearing the worst.
The news wasn’t stellar, but it wasn’t a death sentence, either. I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, or PCOS. Basically, it’s a disorder akin to Type II diabetes, where your body has slowly become insulin-resistant. In turn, your body doesn’t produce enough of the hormones necessary to facilitate ovulation. So, it was pretty obvious that that was the cause of our problems.
However, the treatment of this disorder was enough to make the old Adriene cringe. The only effective way to treat it is weight loss. Furthermore, because I’m insulin-resistant, I was told that I would probably have a much harder time shedding the roughly fifty pounds I need to lose. She challenged me to have 20 pounds off by the time I have a follow-up appointment with her April 21.
I sat there and stared at her in disbelief. Surely this woman wasn’t serious. Lose 20 pounds in two months? She was obviously deranged. But, she stared back at me and said, “You want to have a baby, don’t you? I can prescribe medicine if you’d like, but I assure you, the medicine won’t do a thing if you don’t lose weight.” I left the office initially feeling a bit depressed, and was tempted to do my usual thing of stopping by Atlanta Bread Company and drowing my sorrows in a House Latte and Chocolate Chunk cookie.
But, as many who know me well would tell you, once I get determined to fix something, I do everything I can to fix it. I became ravenous in my quest for knowledge on PCOS. I read books upon books on it. Probably the most helpful for me was The Insulin-Resistant Diet. It detailed exactly the way I need to eat, not just to bring this under control, but for the rest of my life, since in addition to being insulin-resistant, I have a higher chance of developing Type II diabetes as I age, and should I ever get pregnant, I have a much higher chance of developing gestational diabetes as well.
I’ve radically altered my diet. Gone are all the sweets, white breads, pastas, and refined sugars. No more candy bars. No more cookies. No more cakes. No more ice cream.
I joined a class called Lose It For Life at Johnson Ferry Baptist with several of my close girlfriends, Jeff, and one of my girlfriends’ husbands back in January just before my diagnosis. Becky, our class leader, challenged us to get in between 200 and 250 minutes of exercise a week. Now, let me tell you. To a girl whose previous definition of exercise consisted of walking from the couch to the freezer to get some ice cream prior to this challenge, that seemed absolutely impossible. However, I gave it a shot. The first week, I did 150 minutes. The second week, I bumped up to 180. The third, I was up to 200. Now I’m averaging between 210 to 230 minutes a week, usually running, walking, and biking.
I think the most eye-opening thing for me during this whole experience is that when I stopped wallowing in self-pity and turning to food instead of God during times of sadness, depression, etc, I actually started seeing amazing things happening to my body. My blood pressure is down. I’ve got loads more energy than I used to have. Probably the best news I’ve gotten is that my insulin levels are normal.
I think the best thing for me is that because of all of these changes I’ve made, I’ve finally started seeing RESULTS. As of March 22, I am down a total of 16.4 pounds and one pants size from what I weighed January 15. No, it’s not an overnight thing. However, I feel confident that in the four weeks I have left, I can get the 3.6 pounds off to reach the 20-pound goal my doctor gave me back in January, a goal which seemed impossible and so far off a mere two months ago.