Anyone who has read this blog before knows that it’s been a tough two years for my family. We lost our job at a church in a dramatic and painful way, my husband lost his job and was unemployed for a year, I changed jobs (which is positive, but still stressful), and there have been various extended family related things going on.
Well, I have some fantastic news. My husband has a teaching job in the fall. I couldn’t be happier!
I also have some news that I consider good because of its informational value. I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome this past December. While that is not in and of itself a positive thing, it does explain a lot about my problems with weight loss. Apparently PCOS not only causes weight gain, but it can lead to insulin resistance and difficulty losing weight. Well, there you go. It explain why I can eat relatively healthy and not lose weight. It also explains that relatively healthy is not an option for me anymore. I just need to go full on healthy and quit dabbling.
Here is the issue, with insulin resistance, your body produces way too much insulin to make up for the fact that you do not receive and use it properly. This can cause weight gain, particularly around the waist and chest. If you know any people with PCOS, even if they do not have weight issues, they are often apple shaped (similar measurements in chest, waist, and hips, usually small thighs and arms). That is me! I’ve always hated it and felt like I was terribly shaped, but it turns out that there is something to be done with it!
I bought and read this book, and it really helped me to understand all the places that we get estrogen from and how it affects us. It really, really points toward a whole foods, unprocessed, organic if possible, diet. Well, duh! I’m no expert, but it seems to make sense to me!
I also have been using a wonderful resource lately. Spark People is a great way to track your food, get nutritional information, and get recipes. They have an app for your phone, and there is a cookbook, which I checked out from the local library. It’s so good, I may buy the Kindle version! Oh, and did I mention that it’s all free? It is.
Anyway, that’s my update for today. Hope you all have a great Thursday!
Congrats to you and Matt on his new job. Steve was out of work for a year, too, so I feel yer pain.
And thanks for sharing the health info (as always)! I’ve been trying to follow the Blood Sugar Solution, which is pretty much a whole foods sort of a thing, too, that really cuts out the sugar and carbs, but in a healthy way. While I’m more pear-shaped than apple, I’ve let my weight creep up way too high in the past few years and I know this will be an even bigger problem because of family history (including diabetes) on both sides. Here’s to putting on our big girl pants and getting healthy! 