6 years ago I was diagnosed with PCOS I found myself sitting in my doctors office, feeling defeated and scared, I waited for the doctor to come in and tell me what magic pill I can take to get rid of my symptoms (excessive weight gain, hair in um not great places, depression, anxiety, cysts, clots etc.) Instead he entered the room and immediately said "you need to have weight loss surgery in order to see any results, women with PCOS can't lose weight without it - this is your only option" followed by "are you trying to get pregnant?" WHOA did he say weight loss surgery, like the kind that people have on that show My 600 LB Life? How did I let myself get to this point and then the reality set in, I am just going to be fat forever. I breezed past the weight loss surgery question and answered him with a "no, no I do not want to get pregnant and don't plan on having children." His main focus was helping women with PCOS conceive and since I wasn't one of them, he just tossed a prescription at me for metformin to help manage my symptoms and left the room. I felt like a monster.
This was six.year.ago. SIX. I tried metformin for a few months and was so sick I could hardly move. I had an IUD so the monthly menstrual symptoms completely stopped (thank god) but my weight just kept climbing. I watched "What the Health" and decided to be vegan, little did I know that all the soy was making things worse. I flipped completely and tried Keto but found that being able to eat unlimited amounts of fat, oil, meat, cheese only fueled my love for savory foods (bacon > ice cream, duh) so the scale again didn't budge.
A few weeks later I was mindlessly scrolling through the gram and saw a picture of an old colleague and thought "holy sh*t she looks incredible, she is wearing a jumpsuit, I wonder if that is from Target, eh it's probably not a plus size, oh well I would kill to wear one of those someday" So I reached out and sure enough she rediscovered WW and had lost 60+lbs. I've done WW several times, once with success (pre-PCOS + early 20's: the holy grail) and three more times over the years with no results. Welp, might as well give it one more try - if it worked for her, maybe I will actually see some progress this time!
I downloaded the app and stepped on the scale for the first time in months *sigh* - entered my height, weight, and chuckled when I typed in my goal. I immediately started thinking about all the things I can make with the "zero point foods" and hit the grocery store with a one week plan in place. After the first week I saw a huge loss (8.7 lbs) but wasn't too excited because this was pretty common in the first week of any diet. The next week I had family visit and BAM I gained 5 lbs back, just like that. This is what I usually do, I stumble, punish myself, and give up. I decided that this time I would be a little nicer to myself and simply get back on the horse...so the next day I did just that, back to basics.
12 months later and here I am, in a jumpsuit, from the "regular size" section at Target and 75 lbs lighter. While all this is great, I learned a LOT in my journey so far. There will be ups and downs (both on the scale and life in general) and I might go weeks or even months without seeing that damn scale budge, but I will not give up. My PCOS symptoms are virtually nonexistent, except for the hair thing which honestly I just need to get laser hair removal, and while I still have 60 more lbs to go I want to march back into that doctors office and tell him to shove it!
For all my ladies out there suffering with PCOS believe me when I say "IT IS POSSIBLE" to relieve your symptoms, lose weight, etc. Try several things and find what works for you and if that one thing doesn't work, don't beat yourself up, regroup, and try something different. Eventually you'll find the golden ticket, and it'll all be worth it, I promise.
You are the most powerfully inspirational. Keep sharing because so many women need to hear your voice!!!