I'm happily married. A Mom of 3 now! Wow! Never saw that coming!! I coach others to help them find their personal balance with food, nutrition and fitness. And I love big dogs, pugs and all things DIY.
Before you dive into my lengthy history keep in mind I have not added in all the health/hormonal craziness that came along with baby #3. Or the fact that we almost had a #4. Yes, sadly I miscarried again and just am not quite in a place to talk about it yet. But I know I will soon, and when I'm ready I'll be updating this section.
Big hugs to all of you fighting the good fight to become the healthier you! Don't ever give up! There are always answers, you just have to keep digging and stay vigilant.
My History
My journey begins pretty early. I was never what you would call the "skinny" child. I was't extremely over weight, but I always had a layer of pudginess no matter what I did. I hit puberty late and suffered from irregular menstrual cycles. At the time I really didn't understand that my hormones were out of whack, so I didn't spend much time caring about my menstrual cycle hiccups. Which is probably why my Mother decided I needed to get checked out and had a ton of tests run. BTW worst feeling ever when you're 16 having all crazy tests run and weird Dr's checking you out. Not cool! After all that the Doctors found nothing really wrong with me other then one ovary was larger then the other (PCOS was not widely known back then), so I just went on with life as normal enjoying the lack of periods.
In my 20's I decided to give birth control a try for two reasons. I became sexually active then and I thought it would straighten out my erratic cycles. Ha! Good old Ortho Novum 777! I wish I could say that it helped me, but it just made everything worse! Not only did I end up in several awful relationships giving a piece of me away to those undeserving, I also gained around 20lbs. Ugh! Although my cycles did regulate a bit, they never became like clock work. They were still pretty all over the place, just closer on the calendar then before. In my opinion looking back, going on birth control caused more problems then it helped. I could tell back then that meds and I didn't and weren't ever going to get along, so I stopped taking birth control shortly after meeting my husband. I wanted to get pregnant and wanted that stuff out of my system.
Once I got off birth control I managed to lose most of the extra weight I was lugging around. I had to work my butt off with cardio, strength training and the Atkins diet to do it, but I got it done! Although I liked the Atkins diet it only worked for a short period of time for me. I was burning way too many calories daily with my Army job to maintain the diet so strictly. So I eventually had to start incorporating some cabs to stabilize my blood sugar through the day. And even with ALL the calories I was burning daily, even eating mostly ATKINS I was still carrying around a layer of fat. I know now it was because of certain trigger foods, but I'll get more into that later. Anyhow, it was super frustrating to work so had and not have the results! We were also trying get pregnant and it seemed like it was just never going to happen for us. We tried for 4 1/2 years and nothing. Out of shear frustration I went back to the military Docs to seek help. The Army Dr pretty much blew me off and told me to try harder. HA!! Ya, like we weren't trying or having enough sex?! Seriously,what a crock!By the grace of God we finally conceived our son 5 years after getting married. The pregnancy went well except for major swelling toward the end. The 1st trimester for me was the hardest. I had some odd bleeding which the Docs couldn't explain. And eventually I figured it out and through shear determination found a Dr who listened to me. Turned out I had a double yeast infection! The previous Docs would diagnose the viral kind- the kind you deal with over the counter, but not the bacterial kind. So it's a HUGE blessing Kaleb was ok through all that mess. While giving birth I also had a few hiccups. Labor was extremely long and difficult, then Kaleb got stuck on my pubic bone. I finally got him out though sporting a HUGE tear. But at least he was out!
At the time I wasn't sure why, but now I know most of the hiccups and bumps in the road were from the yet to be diagnosed hormonal issues. Anyhow, I now had a beautiful little boy, so I couldn't complain. Post delivery I thought I was good to go! Nope.. I went on to have breast feeding issues too. Can't Momma catch a break?! Just another wonderful gift handed on by PCOS for some of us lucky ladies. Letting down was extremely difficult, low milk supply, thrush and then mastitis sadly lead to me quitting early.
After I healed from giving birth I started trying to lose the baby weight but it was not easy. In fact it took me most of the year to get the weight back off. And by the time my son turned 1 year I was almost back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I was running often and tried to eat as clean as I could (still hadn't figured out those trigger foods yet), but now I was struggling with my energy levels and HUGE food cravings. I really wanted to over come the cravings and tried several no sugar diets, raw diets, candida diets and more. Unfortunately, I had trouble maintaining any of them long term. On a plus side I did learn a lot about how my body operated. I just hadn't found my balance yet. Oh, and I had an arsenal (rather an entire cabinet full) of supplements to combat all sorts of stuff! The supplements only helped a little though and after some time and research I eventually realized I also struggled with digestive issues. I literally couldn't absorb the nutrition I was taking properly, tried enzymes and had no luck with that either. Meh...
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| Heavy, Unhealthy & Hiding in layers of clothing. |
All the yo-yoing of energy levels made it harder to stick with any type of healthy eating or fitness plan longer then a week. So I eventually began packing on even more weight and got to the point were I just decided to accept feeling crappy as part of my normal and that I would never get the weight off.
After feeling low and stuck for what seemed like forever, I started to suffer in other areas too. So when I finally got to the point where I couldn't sleep anymore (toward the end of 2010), that was it! I was at my wits end.
Sleep was the only thing keeping me going. So to lose the one thing I had left was killer! All I knew was I was sick of being ill, over weight, and generally irritable with my life. Nothing was working! Which is why I decided it was time to figure out what I was missing nutritionally. So I went to a naturalist, had lots of blood work done and tried various cleanses. Spent loads of money on things that just didn't work or caused massive yeast breakouts!... Only to end up with no real answers again and money flushed down the toilet. It was such a frustrating time for me!
Sine my biggest issue seemed to be with absorption of nutrients I wanted to start there first, but I knew food played a bigger roll in my healing too so I couldn't just ignore that factor. However, at that time I was looking for a simpler solution, so I started with nutrition in hopes that it alone would be the key to all my problems. I must admit there's nothing quite like taking a whole bunch of pill supplements only to end up peeing everything out. Can you say, "Money flushed down the toilet!" Sigh... So after some trial and error I figured out that my body preferred liquid nutrition above anything else. I tried several different liquid supplements on the market with no success, but continued to research until I came across Shakeology. To my surprise Shakeology ended up being the winner for me and what started to help turn my health around!
I was pretty skeptical of the nutritional shake at first. Everything else had failed in the past so I was pretty certain this one wasn't going to help either. However, I decided to overlook my skepticism because I liked the fact that Shakeology was packed full of digestive aids, whole foods, amino acids, enzymes and a whole slew of other stuff too. Which meant if it worked I could stop doing so much guess work when it came to how my body processed food and nutrition. So I decided to give it a try.
With all my hidden allergy's I was afraid of investing in an entire bag of Shakeology, so my neighbor was gracious enough to give me a few samples. To my delight Shakeology proved to actually work! I didn't have any allergy issues with it and it tasted great even with the vast amount of ingredients it had in it. Over the next week I was feeling noticeably better too! And my family was already starting to notice a positive shift in my mood. I was needing less and less naps and my sweets cravings were diminishing! So when I got my first bag of Shakeology I couldn't wait to see what the next few weeks would bring me. Through the first month my energy levels started to increase to where I could work out consistently again. The bloat was going away and I was having less mood swings. And I also decided to start one of Beachbody's fitness programs, called Turbo Fire and I added some Brazil Butt Lift. No body likes a saggie bum. LOL! Which, to my surprise both programs were really FUN and worked well together!!
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| Before and After 90 days |
Everything I got from Beachbody was well thought out, easy to follow, kept my attention (not boring at all) and they gave me loads of options unlike other fitness programs I had tried in the past. I never got bored! I even toned up in places that had always given me trouble in the past. Even my workouts in the Army never produced results like I've gotten using Beachbody's fitness. So it's been really exciting see all the work pay off for a change!
Fast forward 6 months. Ding Ding Ding! I was pregnant again? Never saw that coming! I had honestly given up on ever getting pregnant again after so much time. Although my husband and I never stopped trying, we just thought if it wasn't happening then it wasn't meant to be. So to be pregnant again was a complete shock! Unfortunately my body was not completely ready to host a baby yet and sadly I ended up miscarrying.
Miscarriage is an awful experience that I would not wish on any women. There are just no words to describe the emotions, pain, loss and questions that come along with such an experience. And because I didn't know what to expect after having a miscarriage I ended up at the ER. Thankfully the staff was great, treated me with respect and compassion, then referred me to my current OB and fertility specialist. Dr. Saig has been amazing! She took one look at my blood work and ultrasounds and told me that I had PCOS and IR. I was like, "What"??? I had no clue what either of those were. But after she explained how it all effects our hormones, blood sugar and other problematic things, I finally understood why I had been struggling all my life. Sucky news for sure! But at least it was an answer and now I could move forward.
Eventually we got to the point where my husband and I had the big discussion. Are we ready for another baby? Do we even want to try for another baby?? At the time our son was already 10 years old, so having another baby would be starting all over again. Of course we were scared of all the what if's and really didn't want to end up with another miscarriage either. After praying about it and discussing our options we both decided we did in fact want to try again! However, I was emphatic about preparing my body the best I could to support having another baby. I knew that my hormone levels were a mess and needed to recover from the miscarriage, I also needed general improvement from having PCOS symptoms and I wanted to work on consistent clean eating. Which meant NO cheats for a lengthy amount of time! So I decided to give a 21 Day Clean Eating Detox system called the Ultimate Reset a shot.
During the Ultimate Reset Detox I really dug deep and learned what clean eating was all about. I honestly thought I had been eating clean before I started that program, but boy was I wrong! I quickly learned that some of the things I had been doing were actually triggering my PCOS symptoms and making them worse. So once I broke free of my personal triggers I started feeling even better. The UR also helped me break some old bad habits and helped me with my candida issues that were still lingering around. And by the end of 21 days I was feeling really good, sleeping better, thinking clearly and had even shed 13 more lbs! After completing the Ultimate Reset I continued to drop my extra luggage (weight) pretty effortlessly. And I only needed to work out only 3-4 times a week to maintain. Super cool!
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| 40 lbs lighter! |
My second pregnancy was extremely healthy. I was also able to continue my new healthy habits throughout the pregnancy and avoid all the bloat I had with my first pregnancy. I continued to drink my Shakeology while pregnant. Although my Doctor would have preferred me to take prenatal's because she was skeptical of Shakeology at the time. (She actually drinks it now herself!) And although I did try the pill form prenatal's just for her, I started feeling so awful that I had to go back on Shakeology and supplement where it lacked to support the pregnancy. So I added extra folic, calcium and EFA's. Even with Kloe's size (9lbs 10oz) I had a much easier delivery. Don't get me wrong, it was still long and hard but better over all!
I gave birth to a beautiful solid baby girl! Thankfully I was more prepared to try again with breast feeding and was able to let down better and produce more milk the second time around. We still had some struggles though. Went through thrush and mastitis again! But I was determined not to let it stop me and learned some new holistic ways to deal with those issues. Unfortunately after about a month I did struggle in the milk production department and eventually had to supplement Kloe with formula too. After much debate I decided to just go with the flow as I knew it wasn't my fault and at least Miss Kloe was still getting some breast milk through the day.
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| I gained more weight post pregnancy. |
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| Lost all the baby weight and kept it off! |
Once I was ready to get moving again my challengers were doing the 21 Day Fix. I wanted to be able to answer questions about the program and support them properly so I decided to do the program with them. I was blown away at how well it worked and how fast my body dumped the excess fat! Between Shakeology, the 21 Day Fix Nutrition Plan (BTW I love it!), the portion control containers, and the 30 min fitness my body shrank pretty quickly. And by the end of the 21 days I was down 11 lbs and loads of inches and I had learned more about me eating habits. Proving that weight loss with PCOS (at almost 40 years old) after baby is totally doable!
Another blessing after completing the 21 Day Fix, my periods became regular for the first time in my life! Which is another slam dunk that all my efforts over the last few years were making a huge impact on my PCOS symptoms!
Since beginning my healthy journey I had been successful in losing 40lbs and keeping it off. Becoming pregnant again, losing that weight all over again and then going back to my pregnancy weight. So I've lost way more then 40lbs through all these adventures! And I actually got even better results post baby #2 because of all I had learned about how my body functions with food, food triggers and other holistic stuff. Which has helped me stay consistent with healthier habits and continue to keep the weight off and keep my PCOS symptoms in check. Was it always easy? No, not every day. But everything I have done has been doable. Anyone can do what I've done. It just took making the choice to want to be better each day, and then just doing it!
Through all my experiences and what I have learned I become a Beachbody Coach to pass on the knowledge and help other people like me, who are sick of struggling. It's no fun feeling stuck! So my goal is to help you find your personal balance and feel good again too! If I can improve my health, so can you!! The point is to be healthy, not skinny and find what works for you. Not everyone fits into the same cookie cutter mold and I don't expect that you will either. Which is why I have compassion for everyone and especially those suffering with PCOS. No one should ever have to struggle to do what a women is supposed to do naturally. Everyone should be the healthiest they can be!
Whatever you are struggling with, don't do it alone. Message me and lets work on it together. My help is free. I won't push Beachbody products on you either. Those just happened to work best for me. But like I mentioned before, not everyone fits into the same mold. So my job your consultant is to listen and make recommendations according to what you need.
**Food for thought:
Shakeology is NOT specifically a diet or weight loss shake. Because it was formulated as a nutritional support shake to provide you with essential nutrients, minerals, enzymes, pre-biotics, phyto-nutrients, adaptogens and much more! It allows your body to easily absorb all the ingredients and use all the nutrition properly. Which is why most people have weight loss while drinking it. Once your body is working properly, you should lose the weight naturally. The shake tastes GREAT and is LOW in sugar too! No fillers, additives or junk added. Think of it like this; You wouldn't drive around with one flat tire on your car for very long, would you? So why would fuel your body with crappy food and not enough nutrients daily and expect it to function well?? You need to get the right fuel and support for you body in order for it to function optimally. ;) So if you'd like to give it a try contact me. I'll be happy to listen and support you in anyway that I can.
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| Post baby #2 results |
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