PCOS strikes AGAIN!

So here goes....

I had blood taken last Thursday to check my insulin levels to reset my Metformin dosage. Rich has agreed to start trying again in July! That's the exciting news. We will also have to see if I'm ready in July, as I keep vacillating back and forth. For those friends that read this blog, we will tell you when we are pregnant, people asking if we are 'pregnant yet' drives me insane! Since our miscarriage risk is 50% for the first 12 weeks it is a VERY stressful time for us and we like to stay private.

Here's yesterday's conversation:

The bad news according to the nurse. I quote " We don't normally ask for a cholesterol panel but your numbers didn't come back good'

Me: 'GReat!' (put a lot of sarcasm there)

Numbers:

Overall Chol - 184
Triglycerides - 225(this is the one they are concerned with)
HDL - 33
Bad Chol - 45
Some other bad # - 106
ratio: 3:2

The nurse didn't tell me what the ratio exactly meant but she made it sound bad. My understanding is that I have abnormally HIGH numbers of bad cholesterol compared to the good.

This is what I found out this afternoon when I googled. Dyslipidemia is the actual term for it when cholesterol level is in normal range but triglyc. are high. It is caused by extended periods
of raised insulin levels...hmmm sound familiar. Women with PCOS tend to have a higher total cholesterol and higher triglycerides because of the Insulin Resistance and imbalances that come with the disease. Here is the Wikipedia article that I found - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslipidemia

With the family history on my mom's side of high cholesterol and blood pressure, the cards are just stacked against me on this one. My Bepaw had 2 quadruple bypasses and was on a STRICT diet for the last 20 yrs of his diet. The good news is that with all the problems the family is SUPER informed on how to combat the deck of cards that is set against us. PCOS + family history = long medical road.

I'm hoping to get things more under control by working out and switching some things in my diet. (eat fish more). I already work out 5-7 hrs of cardio a week so I think I'm good there. I've lost 10 lbs since Jan. 1st so hopefully the next 20 lbs will also help that number.

Ear Infection and 2 Teeth

Last weeks fun in a nutshell:

1. Nora has ear infection #4 diagnosed one month to the day after the last one was diagnosed. Left ear in January and the right ear took February just to not to feel left out. She is on a 14 day round of antibiotics and will be seen again in a month.
* She LOVES Amoxil, actuall says 'YUMMMMMM!' after taking it!
* She has been put on the 'short list' for tubes. Or at least the Dr. mentioned them since her ear canals are crooked and very narrow. FUN!

2. We finally have all 4 middle teeth on the bottom!(found Feb. 20th) And just to make it more fun a left canine on top.(Found Feb. 22nd) I'm convinced teeth have evil plans, because EVERY time there's an ear infection new teeth arrive! Just to prolong the sleepless nights and mommy/daddy torture.

More exciting and fun news.

Asked Nora to say 'Poppy' as this is what my father wants to be called...Pop-poh! It seems Nora disagrees with the given name and has decided on another. We called Poppy so he could hear it but all he got was 'Oh-No'. Guess conversation was not in her plans.

other words: Bubble(buhbuh) , Butterfly (buh a byes) Butterflies is her second 3 syllable word!

Stairmaster take 2!!!

Ok, so excited! I did 101 flights in 35 mins. Here's how that breaks down

49 steps/min x 35 mins = 1,715!

Now to see what my knees think about that tomorrow. I know my sugar levels didn't appreciate it very much since they went really low towards the end. (Had to come home and gulp some OJ) I forgot to eat my breakfast bar before going to the gym. Opps!

Still working up the courage to do the SPIN class. Maybe by the middle of March.

Carbonation withdrawl.

I miss fizzy coke!

(coke = any beverage with carbonation, not COKE specifically)

Back in the summer and fall, I read several articles that were speculating that even Diet cokes were to blame for added pounds on the American body. Basically, the body was 'reading' Splenda, Equal or the artificial sweetner of choice as 'sugar'. So it didn't matter that the coke was Diet because your sweet tastebuds STILL tell your body to spike your insulin because 'sugar' is being eaten. This artificial spike eventually causes your metabolism to not process ANY sugar properly. My PCOS already causes insulin issues so no need to give my metabolism addition hurdles to overcome.

SOOOO......

I gave up carbonated beverages back in September on the OFF chance that it might help me lose some weight. But alas, my Diet Coke was not causing me to retain any weight. Five months later and I'm convinced the only reason for the weight loss is the 5-7 hrs/wk of cardio since Jan. 1st.

The good part is I don't feel the need to drink cokes anymore. I just sneak sips from Rich's nightly Diet Coke at dinner.

Disposal WINS!

Admittedly I have a whopper sinus infection and am stumbling through my day...Here is evidence to how tired I really am....This happened in less than 10 seconds, which in some way is a great endorsement for our new disposal.


Disposal - 1
Bottle Ring - 0

BOO!

This is Nora's favorite game of late. There are several games that revolve around 'boo!'

1. She 'hides' in the half bath and closes the door, leaving her in the dark. No fear of the dark with her. She talks in a questioning voice for a couple seconds and then opens the door and BOO! The only downside to this game is she will try to play it alone and lock herself in the bathroom. Many a day there are little screams from the bathroom.

2. The pillows on our upstairs couch are oversized and she will hide behind one and peek around the sides to say 'BOO!'. This can take up a half hour before bedtime.

3. The cutest rendition happened tonight. Nora was doing her bath time thing where she STANDS in the tub and duck splashes with her feet. She then grabs the CLEAR shower curtain and pulls it in front of her body and face. She then smirked and said, 'BOO???' and tilted her head to one side. She knew I could see her but decided to be a clown. I must give her a star for creative thinking though!

Dripping!

Ok, just have to post this because it's a HUGE thing to me. It is so important for me to focus on non-scale related goals to keep myself motivated about the health behind the weight loss, not the actual weight.

Today, I conquered the Stairmaster machine at the gym! That's right, after 40 minutes on the bike I decided to see how long I could hold my own on the evil machine. I've been very tentative since the cartilage in my left knee is shot from years of tennis. Big deep breath and off I went

I did 86 flights in 30 mins!!!!!

The machine said I did an 'average' of 45 steps per minute, so roughly 1,345. I was dripping sweat off my face by the time I was done. I love that, because it's a sign my workout was intense and doing it's job. The BEST part is that my knee didn't twing at ALL, guess all those miles walk/running on the treadmill finally strengthened my tendons.

Next goal: RPM cycle class

Winning and Losing

So the road to weightloss has been a tough one! I've lost, gained, lost, gained, lost again in the last 4 mths. I'm still no where close to my goals but have found out some interesting things none the less.

1. I actually don't eat ENOUGH! I started tracking calories on sparkpeople.com back the beginning of January. Ummm, most days I was hitting between 1000 and 1200 calories. Basic starvation mode for my body. Sorry body, been there done that and promised not to do it again! - LOSE

2. I'm not ovulating again. ERRRRR. Stupid PCOS. Going to be having MORE extensive bloodwork in the next couple weeks. This time it's testorerone, estrogen, lipids, glucose, thyroid, and one other thing I can't remember right now. - BIG LOSE

3. I CAN do 5+ hrs of cardio a week! This includes tennis, walking, running, or stairs. - BIG win for me on this one!

4. I feel ok about my body image but not great. Working through a lot of food issues and body image issues creeping up from the past, but I'm processing feelings not burying them. WIN

5. Scale obsession, not a good thing. Really thinking about Rich hiding it from me because I don't think the morning weigh-ins are helping the psyche. - LOSE

6. Doing all of this with real life friends and on-line buddies I think keeps me focused - WIN

I know I'm my worst critic. I also know that I'm doing this for ME, no one else, but I'm having trouble getting over the feeling that people are watching, waiting for this miraculous change. What if it never happens, will they be disappointed. (my husband is not in this # of people)

Crazy stories from the Past

Rich has often encouraged me to write down all the craziness that was and I assume still is my first set of bosses here in Atlanta.

In May 2001, I interviewed with a little but well-known landscape architecture company in Buckhead. The owners were a husband and wife team that were completely dedicated to their work, no children except dogs(we'll get to that later) and were extremely talented.

I will preface this by saying while I'm FOR herbal remedies in most cases there are some things that should just be left to prescribed medicine.

First 'signs' of complete cookyness....Fellow employee tells me to never take ANY pill she offers me if I'm complaining of an ailment. Praytor, continued to tell me that he couldn't feel his legs for 2 days after she gave him something for a headache! Holy moly people! NEVER went down that road with them.

Being the new employee, they asked me to house sit one weekend for $50 a day...ummm heck yeah! Let the crazies begin! First they lived in a very nice area of town, quaint little cottage decorated to the nines. Here's where the aforementioned dogs come in. We will call them Pokey and Earl. They were a cocker mix type dog, super hyper and needy. This was their diet, Organic turkey, 10 pills, oriental frozen vegetables, and fish oil poured over that. YUCK! Wife/husband believed they were ensuring LONG life for their dogs with this concoction. The pills were things like ginkgo, fish oils, green tea, echinacea, and anything else they decided.

Of course while I was house sitting they said I could eat anything in the house. I guess that included the 50+ jars of preserved herbs, mushrooms, berries that were on the sun porch and 100's of vials of herb oils/essence in the pantry. It was a scene out of a witch doctor's cave! Seriously, 15 types of mushrooms, no labels. I was dating Rich at the time and he was betting those were the smoking type of mushroom.

The presumed smoking probably led them to the 'pet psychic' inquiring about the soul of a previous dog. The dog was still alive but they wanted to make sure he was going to a peaceful place. Pet psychic told them they had to get a portrait painted of the dog by a SPECIFIC artist to insure this. Can anyone say SCAM! They completely bought it! Yep, 10K on an oil painting as doggie soul insurance.

Of course they were also concerned about their own souls but not in that go to church make myself right with God type of way. Let's just say that an employee stumbled upon a journal entry in the MAIN file directory of the computer system. ENLIGHTENING! Bosses thought they were REVERSING the aging process through herbs, yoga, and visualization AND that it was God's will as they were SO needed in the world...One part actually professed to 'feeling my body aging slow and reverse in time'...Because that is so God's plan.

Can't say there was ever a dull moment with those two.