Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The day that changed my life forever.

I will never forget that day in December of 2003..... my wonderful sister-inlaw, who I will always be grateful to, decided to open up and share her experiences with me about being low carb. She didn't know I had PCOS until my Mom mentioned it, but come to find out doing low carb was seriously helping ladies with PCOS when the medicine wasn't helping. I had been on the medicine for 2 years and it only made me feel even more sick then I did before the medicine. They had given me Metformin a mild diabetic medicine but I am not diabetic. It resulted in morning sickness every morning for 2 years..... I tried different doses, different times of day and nothing helped. I was told by my doctor that I have a severe case of PCOS and not everyone has the symptoms as bad as what I did. I won't go into the gross details but let's just say it was pretty bad and I was anemic because of it.

I lived on carbs, I craved carbs, I was a carboholic and craved the carbs like an alcoholic craves alcohol. I was afraid of trying low carb, but I was more afraid of dieing. I cringed because my favorite foods were potatoes, pasta and bread..... but I told myself I had to try it, because I wasn't ready to die. I was 525 lbs and luckily no high blood pressure or heart trouble, but it was only a matter of time at the rate I was going. Earlier in the month I had watched my Mother bury my Grandfather and I didn't want to be next. I am very close with my Mother and I could see the pain in her eyes when she looked at me, she would smile and try to be happy, but I could tell what she was thinking whenever the subject of health came up. My Grandfather lived to be 92 (3 days shy of his 93rd birthday) and I didn't want to die in my 20's. I was pretty active for my size and I wouldn't admit it then but I would wear out easily and have shortness of breath and basically push myself beyond exhaustion just to keep up with all of the things I did.

I had tried just about every diet out there and nothing had worked for me. I was skeptical but I went and bought both the Atkins New Diet Revolution book and the South Beach book. I HATE reading books but I read them both cover to cover. The first two weeks were hardest and within 4 months time I had lost 108 lbs. There was no question at that point, I felt so much better and my doctors were shocked! The more weight I lost the easier it was to avoid the carbs and turn down the things that were not good for me. This isn't just a diet, it is a lifestyle. I stopped taking my medicine when I went low carb too, because I didn't want my blood sugar to go too low being on a diabetic medicine when I was NOT diabetic. If you are on any medicines, make sure to talk to your doctor first!

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