Fighting PCOS Naturally

I've been talking a lot recently about going gluten-free. No, I'm not following the crowd and trying it as a fad diet. In all actuality, 85% of women with PCOS have some degree of gluten intolerance. This is one of the newest things I have learned in my ongoing research to fully understand what is wreaking havoc with my body. I decided to try eating gluten free for just a few days to see how I felt. WOW. I have felt a little happier and my bathroom trips have been easier. That's a big deal, since all I did was modify what I ate. In light of this, I decided to try a GF diet for a longer period of time to experiment some more. This past holiday weekend was the start of this experiment. My mom came over and helped me make a ton of food to stock the freezer. It's easier for me to eat GF if it's already prepared. We made: > Banana Bread > White Bread > Apricot Peach Hemp Seed Cobbler > Very Berry Hemp Seed Cobbler > Black Bean and Mango Salsa >

Farmer's Markets. I talked about them a lot in this week's menu plan, What's For Dinner May 23-27, 2011 . I've always loved farmer's markets, I just hated having to get up so early. Saturdays are my sleep-in days. Ok, ok, weekends are my sleep-in days. By the time I get up, the markets are already shutting down and packing up - except for Dallas. I really like the Dallas Farmer's Market, because it's HUGE. After visiting Barton Creek in Austin to see what a Top 10 Farmer's Market in the Country looks like, I'm certain the writers have never been to Dallas. You could fit the entire Barton Creek FM within one shed at DFM. It spans several city blocks in the heart of downtown Dallas. They are even open every single day (except X-Mas and New Years) from 8am to 6pm. No worry about sleeping late, right? Wrong. As much as I love DFM, I refuse to go. Why? It's in downtown Dallas. I hate the drive to get there. I hate driving in Dallas at all, let alone d

Today's song selection might surprise some people. Why? Because I'm 23. You'd expect me to be one of those people who listened to and fantasized over boy bands. Ok, when I was a pre-teen, I did. But I grew up listening to classic rock with my dad, and disco with my mom. I have a very eclectic taste in music. I love rock of all sorts, but can't stand that emo/punk crap. I'd choose Polish reggae over pop any day. I like some rap, but most of it just seems dumb to me. I also find I am more focused on writing code (as I am a software developer) if I'm listening to Trip-Hop. Techno gets annoying after the first 1-2 minutes of each song. I could keep going, as I have opinions about every type of music. My whole point is that I'm not a mainstream/normal type of chick. Now back to the song... To preface this - the first time I heard this song was at the end of one of my favorite movies, Space Cowboys . If you haven't seen it, you should! Tuesday evening we had

Normally you wouldn't think that food poisoning would intice you to create a menu plan, but it has for me. I'm getting better, so I can finally start thinking about food I can eat! We went to Austin for the weekend. We took the time to go to 2 different farmers' markets ( Sunset Valley and Barton Creek), and a grocery store much like Sprouts called Sunflower Farmers Market . We also went to one of my favorite shops, Savory Spice Shop . I was even more excited when I found out that Karen, the owner, remembered us from the one time we went over 6 months ago! Although there are spice shops much closer to home, I much prefer the fantastic customer service and amazingly fresh spices Karen has to offer! This week's menu is focused on eating the fresh veggies we got from the farmers' markets and the fabulous spices from Savory Spice Shop. Monday: Italian Spaghetti Squash I'm using fresh basil, spaghetti squash, yellow tomatoes, and roasted garlic olive oil from

I missed this last week, and although I've only participated for a few weeks, I felt really bad that I didn't get to. Lately I've been trying to find songs that fit into my category of I'm strong, and I'm not going to give up . There are a lot out there, but finding ones that are a little more vague is a difficult task. I'm not dealing with a breakup, so the songs about being storng after breakups don't work. I need songs about having to fight a life-long battle, fighting for what you believe in, fighting for what you want. This one fits :) The enemy: PCOS and infertility. I will be invincible. I may lose a few battles, but damnit I'm going to win the war! Then everyone will have to go into hiding, because between me, the hubby and our friends, we will have evil little children. We already lovingly refer to them as our future demon spawn lol :) Without further ado, here's Pat Benetar with Invincible Don't forget to head over to Goodnight Mo

We went to the park about a month ago, after the baby ducks started hatching. We got some great pictures. We went again last week, but I haven't had a chance to upload the latest pictures, which really sucks. I have newer pictures of the same babies, and it's amazing to see how fast they grow! Here are some of the old ones to hold you over :) If you want to join us on this link up, head over to Traci66's blog! >

A lot of blogs that have a larger following than I do have giveaways. On most, you can receive an entry just for blogging about their giveaway. I think it's about time I start blogging about them! I did this last week with just a couple of giveaways. This time I have 5! (For all giveaways - clicking the picture will take you to the giveaway post) I'll start with my go-to review and giveaway site, Take It From Me FyrFlyz I was drawn to this giveaway solely for the title. I loved fireflies when I was a kid, so I was curious as to what may be marketed with the same name. These things look so cool! My husband is, dare I say it, just a big kid. If I took him to Toys-R-Us and gave him money, he'd be in heaven. I love that about him. I know he'll be great at helping out with the kids because he'll always want to play with their toys! When I saw these FyrFlyz, all I could think about was him. They glow in the dark, and you can swing them around and make light shapes. I

Useless - I slept until 7pm on Saturday. That's right, 7PM. I had wanted to go to the botanical garden that day, but that obviously didn't happen. Thankfully I was able to get to the grocery store on Sunday to get supplies so I could make a ton of burritos to freeze. I have a laundry list of things I'd like to do, projects I'd like to complete, and I sit here, night after night, doing nothing. This is the first time I've posted in a week! I was doing great for a while, posting a lot, and now... (Although the new office configuration at work might have a little to do with it as well) Depressed - Well this one is pretty obvious. I'm depressed that we can't have kids without a lot of struggle, and my period being over a week late isn't helping either. At my psychiatrist's appt today, I brought up the depression. She just said I needed to wait for my bipolar meds to start working. I've been on these meds for 11 months... If they haven't started

This past week has just been, well, my week. I've been on a nice winning streak lately, which has been especially nice considering all the crap we've been dealing with lately, medically and financially. First, I won 3rd place in the Soul Cysters Weight Loss Challenge. I have lost 23+ pounds since the start of the challenge in December. That won me $20.00. Since the winnings are sent though PayPal, it's officially my eBay money :) Then, during National Infertility Awareness Week, there were giveaways everywhere! I won a cd from Chance To Hope. I'm not sure if it's just one song or a collection, but either way, I'm excited to listen to it. "Invisible Loss" by Fertility Advisors' Owner, Deb Grisset. It keeps going :) I also won a book, Taking Charge of your Fertility , and a basal body thermometer (BBT) from The Lucky 7. For those of you unaware, a BBT is a thermometer that is accurate to .1 degrees, whereas traditional thermometers are

This will be my third week participating, and I'm really enjoying it! This week's song is based on some issues I have been having with other women in my support group, on top of all the problems I have on my own. I don't know what's going on, but it seems that everyone wants to take offense to things that I have said with comments to me like "I work with mental patients all the time, but I don't know what I'm talking about..." or "I'm a nurse, but I don't know what I'm talking about." PCOS has not been studied enough. I don't really think any disease has. All I have done was comment about the link between PCOS and bipolar disorder, and I start getting comments like that. It's not like I'm pulling this info out my a**; I'm following it with links to legitimate research studies. It's frustrating to me that I want to share my knowledge so that others know what they are facing as well and I get griped at for it. It

I decided that I wanted to jump on the blog hop bandwagon. I realized if I want my blog to help someone I don't know, then I better start showing it off to people I don't know! If you become a new follower and have your own blog, please leave me a comment with your blog link so I can follow you too! Here's where I'm hopping today!

I feel like a failure lol... I haven't done this in a week. So here's a week's worth of pictures! Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die As if it wasn't already obvious, the one thing I want to do before I die is become a mom. I don't care about being a millionaire, having fancy things, or travelling the world. I would give everything up just to be a mom. Day 16 - A picture of someone who inspires you My little sister. No matter what comes her way, she is determined to succeed on her own. (She's the skinny one on the right) Day 17 - A picture of someone who has made a huge impact on your life recently She might be surprised to hear this, but the person that has made a huge impact on my life lately doesn't actually know me in real life. We are friends via blog and Facebook. Christina, from Mrs. O's Life, has been an amazing inspiration to me. Because of joining her PCOS group, I have found the help I needed to kic

I didn't get a chance to get my menu plan up yesterday or the day before. Work was keeping me busy busy busy, and then when I got home, I had some major back pain that kept me from doing anything remotely productive. If the pain had been a little futher forward towards my chest, I'd have sworn it was a mini heart attack. But I'm still alive, so that's a good thing :) We are on an extremely tight budget for the next few weeks, thanks to the Tax Man. I spent the last $50 I could at the grocery store Monday so we had some fresh produce. Here's to hoping nothing bad happens in the next two weeks! Wednesday: Asparagus Risotto I am posting this recipe as is, but I am modifying it slightly. I am not using shallots (yuck!), and I am replacing the arborrio rice with brown rice. I'm also combining white and green asparagus, because I don't have enough of either to use just one. We'll see how it goes :) Ingredients 1/2 tsp table salt, for cooking water

Good morning/afternoon/evening! I hope the weather didn't make it difficult for you to get here :) Here in Texas we went from 90 degrees on Saturday to a high of mid-50's yesterday, and the high today is only 50. And it's wet and raining :( Thanks for dropping by my blog. I am excited to be the featured blogger on Mrs. O's Life: Monday Bloglight. I'm sure you have already read the intro on her page, so I'll spare you the boring details. I am primarily a PCOS/Infertility blogger, with a little of my own craziness blended in. I am also fighting depression and bipolar II disorder, making this journey especially difficult - because we are automatically disqualified from so many adoption agencies for that. If only they knew that these mental problems are linked to the reason we were trying to adopt in the first place. Anywho, enough ranting. I post several times a week - depending on what I have to blog about. I try to get a meal plan out by the end of every Mond