Fighting PCOS Naturally

I need more greens in my diet. I like salad, but it get boring quick. I never seem to have the right ingredients to make some awesome salads from a few of the other blogs I follow, like Leann's Cranberry Mango Millet Salad at Healthful Pursuit , and Gena's Sprouted Lentil Salad at Choosing Raw . I have a hate/hate relationship with kale. I can't stand it raw, and my grandmother's recipe involves cooking it like collard greens until it's almost mush. I had high hopes for kale chips, but the last time I tried making them, it was a disaster. I had almost decided that I was never going to try them again. When I realized that the kale in my fridge was going to go bad if I didn't use it, and I was in desperate need of something crunchy, I gave in and gave it another go. These turned out great. The ingredient list is really small, and it's a very simple to make. I started with Gena's recipe for Spicy Curry Kale Chips , and modified it to my liking. These ce...

Have you read about my giveaway? You should! Find it here It's time for Halloween! YAY! This is our favorite time of year, and for good reason. Saturday is our 4 year anniversary, and Monday, Halloween, is our 2 year wedding anniversary! Our apartment complex has lots of decorating competitions throughout the year, and I figured they'd have one for Halloween. I waited and waited for the flyer about it, but it never came. I gave up, and decided I wasn't going to worry about it since I didn't have any money. Then, Hubs took the dog out yesterday and walked back in with a notice about the decorating and pumpkin carving contests! The deadline to enter was TODAY. Yeah. One day to decide if I was competing. The judging is tomorrow. I decided that I needed to carve a pumpkin, and that's what I've been doing all day. The name - 'Blunt Force Trauma'. It's half face, half skull. I'm going to hit the face with a hammer to make the blunt force trauma, and ...

My last post was about my decision to start a bakery. I'm very excited about it, and have been getting some fantastic reviews from my taste testers! My menu is small right now, but I am continually working on new recipes to expand it. I'm currently attempting to make a really good gluten free sandwich bread that doesn't have corn, potato, white rice, or soy in it. I hope to have it done by opening day, Nov 1. I know it's weird to open on a Tuesday, but I plan to be very busy celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary on Halloween by scaring little kids :) I figured one of the best ways to advertise the bakery was to have a blog giveaway. So that's exactly what I'm doing! One lucky reader will receive a $20 gift certificate to I Can't Believe It's Good For Me. The giveaway is open until midnight, Oct. 31. The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced on Nov 1. Here are the rules: 1 - You must complete the mandatory entry. 2 - Post each entr...

I'm so excited about this. I haven't been this excited in a long time. I love to bake. I've wanted to start a bakery, but here in Texas, that's been difficult. In order to run a bakery out of your home, you have to have a completely separate kitchen and storage facilities for your business. I understand the reasoning, but dang, really? I'd have no problem with a health inspector visiting my kitchen. I don't mind the licensing. But to either add a second kitchen to our home or rent a commercial kitchen? That requires a large financial investment - which I don't have. Thankfully, the Texas Senate understands. They passed SB 81, a.k.a. the Texas Baker’s Bill or Cottage Foods Bill. As of Sept 1, 2011 you can run a bakery out of your home - no license, no inspection, you can even have pets. The restrictions? You can't sell online, you can't sell at farmer's markets, and you can't make more than $50k a year. No problem. I can deliver in my area. No...

We got a couple of new games this week - Just Dance 3 and Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Edition. I blogged about JD3 a few days go, you can read it here . Hubs asked me if I wanted to sing for him tonight, so I played Karaoke Revolution again. I've been crowned American Idol twice now, lol. Next time we are going to see if we can get booted off :) Although I can belt out Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On or Rihanna's Unfaithful really well, my favorite song to sing is Hemorrhage by Fuel. Oh, and if you can keep from staring into the singer's eyes during this video, mad props to you! Join us on this great link-up from Amber at Goodnight Moon !

Every few weeks I try a new workout game. If I don't keep switching games, I get bored and just quit. Today I tried Just Dance 3 for the first time, and I really like it! What's great about JD3 is that they just took JD2 and improved on it. It wasn't a total overhaul, it was just some extra features. As you play, you gain 'Mojo', which in turn unlocks new songs and dance modes. I like games where you have something to work towards. JD2 didn't have that. The song list is fantastic, with a wide variety of speeds and styles. It also has some songs with 4 different dancers, to make things more interesting when playing with friends. My favorite song so far is 'Beautiful Liar', which was originally performed by Shakira and Beyonce. Of course it was a fun, booty-shaking good time :) And you know that song by Cee-Lo, called Forget You? It's on here too. Oh, and I was sweating like crazy after just a few songs - but it was fine with me because I was havin...

There's been something eating away at me lately. Although I want to be excited for all the ladies in my support groups getting preggo, but it's hard. A lot of them have been getting preggo without 'trying' - they took their focus off getting pregnant and it happened. But instead of being happy for them, it just depresses me even more. We don't get that opportunity. We will always be 'trying' to get pregnant, because we have to use a donor. It sucks. It feels as though we are worse off than a lot of other couples going through infertility. In a way, we are. We are, without a doubt, 100% not able to have a child that is biologically related to Hubs.  (Unless we use a family member as a donor - and that's just creepy to me. The thought of having to tell my child someday that Dad is really a brother or an uncle is a conversation I never want to have.) We don't have the options for him that I do. I can help improve my fertility with supplements, exercis...

  We went to visit Hubs' aunt after the 5K was over. She had just recently picked up this cute puppy, Spike, to keep her company, since her last one died a year ago. Spike is a black lab/Pomeranian mix. Wild, right? He's small, soft and fluffy, with an adorable lab face. He's rambunctious and has a little bit of a biting problem. Like all puppies, he thinks everything is edible. He has a tiny white line of fur that goes right down his forehead, hence the name Spike. It's not my choice for a name, because it's so common, but he knows it so it stays. My mom asked me last night if we could give him a middle name so she would have something to call him because she didn't like his name either, lol. The 3rd day we were there, he stopped being able to keep any food down. Hubs' aunt freaked out, thought he was going to need surgery, and started looking for a no-kill shelter she could take him to. He was still happy and playful, so I wouldn't let it happe...

Guest post from: Steve Delaney For some reason lately, my dog has started barking more than ever. The bark isn’t just a regular bark, it is a shrill. I swear it is loud enough to set off the HOME SECURITY SYSTEMS in the neighborhood! I am just waiting for a knock on the door for my neighbors to complain. When we first started barking like that he was doing it because he wanted in the house. Being an idiot, I let him in a few times when he barked. Now, he wants in the house all the time and barks non-stop. I have been trying to break him of the habit by not opening the door when he demands to get the house. It is so hard though. Eventually, I just give in because his barking drives me absolutely bonkers. I also get anxiety just thinking that the next random phone call is going to be from my neighbors complaining about his barking. I just don’t know what I am going to do! I really don’t want to put a barking collar on him, but I think I may just have to!

I've been gone for the past week and a half, so I haven't done any blogging. I've got so much to talk about! For the sake of my sanity and yours, I'm scheduling several posts to release throughout the week, instead of posting them all at once :) Two big things happened this past week: PCOS 5K in Houston TX and... we got a dog! His name is Spike, and he's a black lab/pomeranian mix. Pics and more details to come tomorrow! As for the 5K, hosted by the PCOS Foundation , it was fantastic. To be honest, I didn't think I was going to make it. I don't usually make it more than one lap around the pond at the park, and it's only 4/10ths of a mile. This was over 3 miles! The walk was along the Sabine-to-Bagby Promenade in downtown Houston. It was a beautiful location, and I enjoyed taking pictures as much as I did walking. There were over 100 runners and at least 150 walkers. I was not expecting such a huge turnout, but it was fantastic! Can't wait to ...