Fighting PCOS Naturally

I drive myself crazy with how often I decided I'm going to start making changes, then don't follow through. I HAVE TO MAKE SOME SORT OF CHANGE. I told hubby last night that part of my problem was him. Things are different when you are married. You don't just live your life for yourself, you live your life for your spouse, too. If I was living alone, all the household responsibilities would be up to me. However, as I am the one working and hubby is the one at home, he has the responsibility of helping out around the house. Things such as: I cook, he does dishes. I'm not expecting any more out of him than he would expect out of me if the roles were reversed. I am right in my thinking so far, yes? Now I clarified that I was not specifically blaming him for my previous failures. I know that a lot (80%+) of my failure is my own damn fault. But being depressed and going home to a ton of things that need to be done is not helpful. AT ALL. When I know I need to make healthy ...

The first day of my second job was great. I enjoyed every bit of it. I spent most of the day cleaning greenware (removing clay seams from pottery left by molding process), and got to load up the kiln. I also got to start learning how to dip glaze pieces. I'm not so great at that yet - the better you are, the less glaze you get on your fingers. My fingers were very glazy lol. I think this job is going to go well, especially because you have to have a delicate touch when working with all the pottery. And since I have very little strength in my hands these days, I'm always gentle. Have you ever met a person or heard about someone who has a fun job, and you feel a little jealous because they get to do such cool stuff every day? That's sorta how I've felt about crafty jobs, like this new one. About halfway through the day it hit me - "I've got that crafty job now!" But it's times like this that start to worry me. It's not intentional. I'd love ...

My rheumy prescribed Elavil as treatment for my fibro. He did this because he knew I didn't have insurance, and the most popular drugs like Lyrica, Cymbalta and Humira are expensive. Elavil has been around so long and used for so many things - anti-depressant, sleeping pills, chronic pain, etc - that it's on all the $4 generic prescription lists, so it certainly doesn't hurt my pocket like the other drugs would. I was grateful that he took my financial restrictions into consideration. Now I'm starting to regret it. It's 7am, and I haven't been to sleep yet. The Elavil helps me sleep, but it also gives me nightmares. I dealt with it in the beginning, because I'm no stranger to nightmares. The rheumy also suggested that I do what I could to reduce my stress levels. About a month ago I impulse bought herbal drops called 'Deep Stress', made by WishGarden. I started taking 3 droppers full at night before I went to bed. Just a few days after I starting, I ...

I figured I needed to do this to hold myself accountable. Okay, that was a crappy reason, but I'm sticking with it until I come up with one better. July Goals:  Eliminate soda - again. Walk at least a mile twice a week (2.5+ laps around BBR pond) 3 days without red meat, pork or poultry 1 week without eating anything on my sensitivity list Start oil-pulling again Take my vitamins and meds EVERY DAY Rearrange dining room and living room Attend a transcendental meditation info session Listen to my Circle+Bloom mind-body meditation sessions 3+ times a week Complete and sell some of the crafts piling up in the bedroom I know that these are not difficult goals - I just have to decide that they are more important than whatever it is I'm doing now.

March is the birthday month in my family. The hubby, my dad, my stepmother, hubby's aunt, hubby's g'ma and myself are March babies. My sister and hubby's g'pa might as well be, theirs are at the end of February. Being completely broke, we didn't do much this year. I sent birthday wishes. For my birthday, my sister came to our side of the world and we went out for Mexican food. Food was pretty good, no alcohol in the margaritas, and services was TERRIBLE. I wrote a review on restaurant.com = that bad. But it was fun to be out with my sister and hubby. My birthday gifts were really more for the pets than for me, but I am totally cool with that. Spike has given a new, larger kennel and we got a gift certificate to Petsmart. We spent it on new goodies for all the birds and the dog. They were happy. We figured out that rawhide = doggie ritalin . We've been able to let Spike hang out in the living room a lot more than normal because he will lay quietly for hours o...

I've been feeling overwhelmingly hopeless lately. DH and I are both disabled and not fit to work, but we aren't disabled enough to be recognized by the gov't. Since we are not working, we cannot afford insurance to cover medications I need to become remotely sane - although they never really did work. Every day that goes by is just another day where I realize that I am having to rely on my 77 year old grandfather, who will probably end up working until the day he dies because he is the only one in our family who gives a damn and supports us, even if he really doesn't want to. I've been trying so hard to lose weight in an attempt to feel better. I figured if I didn't have to carry around so much weight, I might feel better. Well gaining 8 pounds in the last 2-3 weeks definitely isn't helping. I've been sitting here for hours scouring the internet for some piece of advice I haven't heard before, something that might make me feel better. I guess I did...

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...

I'l be honest - I rarely talk about TV shows. Although I have my favorites, and ones that I just have to watch (like almost all the competition shows on Food Network!), I don't write about them. What we saw last night, though, is an exception. Hubs and I don't watch America's Got Talent. But somehow, that's what we started watching last night, and the channel never got changed, even after the Justin Bieber lookalike performed. The very last performance of the night was from a group called The Silhouettes , from Denver, Colorado. They use a massive light and a screen to make shapes. You know how you used to make birds and dogs with your fingers and a flashlight? Yeah - that's kid stuff compared to this group. And their performance was amazing. They got all 10 of my votes. Check out the performance: They even increased the size of their group by 4 people from the audition to the Hollywood performance. Here is their original audition (I liked last night...

It's time to cry again. Why? Because I talked to my coworker about babies. His wife has epilepsy, and is on the same medication that I'm on for my bipolar disorder. And what did I find out today? They are waiting until she is weaned off this medication before they start TTC, because carbamazipine almost completely inhibits the body's ability to process folic acid. And pretty much everbody knows that folic acid during pregnancy is UBER important. If the baby doesn't get enough, they are at increased risk for spinal and mental birth defects. I already knew that I was going to have to go off my depression meds, but my bipolar meds keep me from going psycho. Hubs told me he never forgets to give me my pills because he remembers what I nightmare bitch I was before I was on them. Why do I have to deal with these problems? I'd like to go back in time, meet the person I was in a former life, and beat the living crap out of him/her, make them straighten up their lives so I d...

I don't normally blog several times in a single day, but I couldn't help myself today. I found a new blog to love, Hybrid Rasta Mama . I've never met this woman, but she is pretty much everything I want to be when I'm a mom. All-natural, patient, loving, and happy. As I was perusing her posts, I was drawn to one called Real Men Wear Babies . I had to read it. As I was looking at all the pictures of dads wearing their babies, I couldn't help but think of my hubby. I've often joked that we are going to have to have twins because I'm probably never going to want to put my baby down. After seeing this, and realizing just how cute Hubs will be wearing our baby, I think I might share. Enjoy all the wonderful pictures Hybrid Rasta Mama has on her blog, Real Men Wear Babies ! Oh, and here is Hubs with one of our nieces :) (It's hard to believe she's already 2 and a half years old)

I know I've said this before, but I'm going to change my life. I've started, and have been doing fairly well in the food department. I still have some foods I haven't been able to give up, like Doritos, but I'm getting there. I'm still useless when it comes to exercise. I don't get to walk anymore, because once summer shows up in Texas (like May), being outside is a bad idea. I can't walk in 90-100 degree weather. I've thought about going to the mall to walk, but I'd have to resist shopping, and that's a different problem for a different day. I watched Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition last night. Didn't even know the show existed. The guy on the show started at 651 pounds, and finished a year later at under 350. Holy crap. I wish I had the motivation and determination to lose 80 pounds in a year, and he lost over 300! He had intense 2-hour workouts every morning and evening. I haven't worked out in over a week. Then, by way of ...

Photo credit I feel so run down. I felt like this most of last week, and ended up taking 3 days off work due to it. This weekend was better - We went to Houston. We spent several hours enjoying the Downtown Aquarium on Saturday, and I enjoyed my PCOS symposium on Sunday. But as soon as I got in the car to head home, this feeling came back. It was so bad that I tossed my cookies less than an hour after we got on the road. This was definitely not from being car sick. I don't get car sick. I was tired all evening, had stupid issues with my homework, and finally went to be at 2-2:30. I realize that was late, and it could explain why I'm tired, but it doesn't explain the run-down, crappy feeling. I got plenty of sleep last week and still felt this way. I think it could be a cortisol issue. I have high cortisol levels. I know I haven't checked with a doctor, but from the information I received at the PCOS symposium, as well as years of research, it fits. I did some more re...

I apologize for the lack of menu plans lately. I have been so busy that we've just been eating whatever we can find in the fridge. Thankfully most of it is very healthy stuff we made of Memorial Day weekend and froze. I don't think I put this in my Memorial Day post, but we made a ton of peach ice cubes. We had a lot of peaches, but they were getting too ripe, and couldn't be cut into nice little slices. We decided to take them all, puree them, and stick them in the freezer. Worked great! I made myself a smoothie for breakfast - banana, peach puree cubes, almond milk, and flaxseed oil. It was really good. I think I'm going to have to do that more often. It was quick and painless, especially since I have a Magic Bullet. Very rarely do I promote 'As Seen on TV' ads, but the Magic Bullet really is awesome. I got mine for 'free' last year for my birthday. I had a 20% off coupon at Bed, Bath and Beyond, so I bought my fabulous KitchenAid stand-mixer (I got ti...

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...

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! >

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...

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!

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...

2007 was a big turning point in my life. Along with the heartbreaking diagnosis of PCOS, I was in school full-time trying to get my Associate's degree and married to an lazy, emotionally abusive husband - we'll call him... Meanie. I was expected to get a full-time job, go to school full-time, take care of his child and keep the house spotless while he sat around and watched tv. For months I put up with it because I loved his son. Then his son's mother called Child Protective Services on us because she hated that Munchkin started calling me Mom before her. CPS determined that we could not have Munchkin back until we took parenting classes, which Meanie refused to take (Now I'm glad I didn't have a child with him). Had I received a little help cleaning from Meanie, or if he had potty-trained the dog like he promised, that wouldn't have happened. In late June, I met Razure (not real name...). He was a great friend, and hated seeing the way I was treated. He quick...