Help?

Allsmiles · 12-07-2008, 11:58 PM

Hi there! I haven't been on this board consistently for a while, but been thinking about getting on here and gaining some wisdom from you lovely ladies!

I guess that since the holidays are in full force, and I am back to full-time teaching starting this year, I have realized how badly I am doing at maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I haven't exercised consistently in over a year (shame on me). I eat what I want, when I want it. I crave sweets, and since I can now afford to eat what I want, I eat sweets. Guess that financially being able to afford something really doesn't make it a good idea, but that's how I have recently justified my bad behavior.

Ladies, I am tired. I mean, physically, emotionally, spiritually tired. I have two beautiful children, a loving and devoted husband, a fulfilling career, and I am BEAT! I have a problem with a co-worker who teaches in an ajoining room, and I just really have let myself GO! I go to sleep late (midnight is pretty common), get up early (5:00 am), and don't exercise or eat well. I am flying by the seat of my pants, without the purpose that I so greatly desire.

My fatigue makes it hard to exercise. When I am not exercising, I am not eating well. I am not sure what program to do to lose the weight... IR? Weight Watchers? Count Calories? Eat naturally? I can't seem to stick with anything longer than 3 days, so I figure why try?

I am 5' 9" and 213 pounds. To be in the TOP of my healthy weight zone I should really be 162. That's a LOT of weight to lose, and I have not been in the mindset to do anything about it. Honestly, I think about my lack of commitment to myself all the time. I am committed to my family, to my class of 20 at-risk second graders, and to my friends and church, but not to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It truly bothers me.

I have always suffered from migraine headaches (since age 9). Since I have not been exercising and eating right, I am back up to 5 a week! It's horrible to turn off the lights on one side of my classroom and have my class "silent read" so that I can regain control. Last week, I had to have a student lead me to another teacher to get help because I felt like I was going to pass out. I had another 3 episodes last week.

Although I think these episodes are occuring partially due to the immense amount of stress from this co-worker (and my principal knows this is what I am dealing with), I also think that I could do much more to improve the situation through diet, exercise, and supplements.

Help? I guess this is a cry out for someone to boost me up. Give me some direction. I know many of us have been there before. I hate that I have heartburn every night, that I have galbladder pain (and have already had it out!), migraines 20 days a month, dizzy spells, and am suseptible to everything there is out there because of my fatigue. I am not sure where to go from here! I need to be in control of my life again. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Currently: Migraines, Dizziness to the point of passing out, 213 pounds, heartburn daily, ringing in ears, sugar addict, pain in my galbladder area even though I don't have a galbladder anymore, last checked I have very high cholesterol. Have already had an endometrial ablation, so my periods are light and very infrequent. I don't exercise, but have a treadmill and would like to start again.

TIA

I need the daily support here.

siamlovex2 · 12-08-2008, 01:12 AM

Hi Allsmiles (Amanda),

I live in Colorado Springs so we're virtually "homegirls"....LOL! It's nice to see another El Paso County resident on SoulCysters. Hope to see you around on the boards.

Anyway, I'm writing to you because until recently I was in the same boat you're in....mostly out of frustration and ignorance. You'll probably see snippets of "my story" here and there on these boards, but to give you a brief history, here it is:

I spent most of my life as a naturally thin adult with little to no health problems. Two years ago, however, I went through a series of traumatic life-changing events in my life (not of my own doing) that took its toll on me emotionally and also physically. After recovering from all of the stress, grief, and havok in my life, I found myself a victim of an increasing list of health problems: weight gain (over 20 lbs within two years!), extreme exhaustion, skipped periods, frequent and persistent acne, hair loss (my hair was coming out in clumps), high cholesterol, insomnia, depression...the list goes on and on. I went to my family doctor at first, who diagnosed me with hypothyroidism and prescribed Armour thyroid. The Armour helped mitigate some of the problems I had, but it didn't help at all with most of them.

I was so tired of "feeling tired", I kept going to one doctor after another, most who told me that I had nothing wrong with me and that my "problems" were caused by depression. By that time, I had no reason to be depressed: I have a loving boyfriend, close family, good job, my own home, etc. etc. I tried one diet after another (most of them extreme and unhealthy) to lose weight, with little to no success. Out of frustration and anger, I resorted to an eating disorder for a few months to help deal with the helplessness I felt from all of my physical ailments. I've since recovered from the ED, but my physical problems didn't go away. Thanks to my dietician and a very good doctor I found in the Springs, I was finally diagnosed with PCOS just last month!

Finally knowing "what I have" has caused me to take a serious inventory of my life, so I had to make a choice: continue the way I have and risk future problems with my weight, heart, diabetes, or cancer, or make some permanent lifestyle changes and recover from this thing. I chose the latter. I'm now on a low-gi, low-carb (not no carb) diet and exercise a LOT....I'm up to 5 times a week now. My doctor just put me on Metformin, so I'm taking that, too. I've just started this new regime just a month ago, so it's still too early to tell if I'm really making progress, but I do know that since starting on the Met, I am feeling a heck of lot better now and more energetic. I'm sleeping better at night, too.

Allsmiles, it really sounds like you're suffering right now, so I wish I could give you a hug. However, I guess the thing you'll have to ask yourself first is "What are you getting from living this unhealthy lifestyle?" Is it convenience, not facing the reality of your illness, lack of knowledge, lack of self-love, self-sabotage, or fear of failure? It's easier to keep doing what we're doing because it's familiar, even if what we're doing is causing us a lot of pain. I'm not going to pussyfoot around here: Making changes in one's life is HARD and it's scary...at least at first.

The next thing you'll need to ask yourself is the same question I asked myself: "Do I want to continue what I'm doing and continue getting migraines, feeling sick, being overweight, and (you can fill in the blank here), OR am I SO sick and tired of feeling this way, I'm ready to make some changes?"

For me, it was better to make all of my changes all at once (I'm an impatient person), but most folks seem to have success making small changes a little at a time, moving on to the next little change when they gain success with the last one. If I were you, I'd start with something like 1) drinking more water and less soda, etc. each day, 2) replacing a fast food meal with a salad two times a week, 3) go to bed at 10pm instead of midnight, 4) take a walk with your kids on the weekends, 4) start taking vitamins every day, 5) ask your doctor if Metformin (or another drug) is an option for you. Then once you master these few things, you can move onto the biggies: changing your diet, working on a moderate exercise plan (Curves is a great place to start - there's a really good one in Mesa Ridge, the folks there are super nice), reducing your stress (especially at work), enlisting the help of your husband and kids. Having family support is SO important; I know that if I didn't have my boyfriend around to cheer me on and lend a shoulder to cry on, I wouldn't have made it this far.

Geez, I wish I could help you more, but it's late and I can't think any more. If you'd like to talk some more, please feel free to leave me a message on my siamlovex2 page. I know it all seems overwhelming, but there's lots of cysters here on these boards who've been able to beat PCOS, so I know we can, too. Hang in there and best of luck and health to you!

SoSilly · 12-08-2008, 01:51 AM

Hi there.

I agree with everything siamlovex2 said in her post. I'll try to avoid repetition.

My own personal experience is this... I also started feeling very tired all of the time which, in turn, affected my stamina to work out. I was weighing in 225lbs and am 5'10. That was my heaviest. I went to the doctor and, after many blood tests, it was determined I had, PCOS, hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and hyperinsulinemia. Talk about a wake up call. I went from having no health problems to having 4... all of which aren't really ever going to go away. So now I have to manage them.

Like I said before, I was so tired all of the time and just felt sick. What I started to realize was I really would not feel well after I ate, which made sense since most of my diet consisted of carbs (and not that good kind!). Based on the advice of my doctor after diagnosing me with hyperinsulinemia, I started South Beach in August of this year. In 3 months I have lost 20lbs and am now below 200lbs (a mini goal for me). I walked 5 miles a day (because I had the energy and the WANT to do it.... now that it's 3 degrees here and snowing, it's slowing me down a bit). I cannot even begin to tell you how much better I feel when I eliminated the complex carbohydrates and sugars. I also am horrible at committing myself but I had to look at myself and actually TOLD myself that if I wanted to feel better and not continue living like this, I NEED to commit. No, it wouldn't be easy and of course, there'd be slip ups but you get right back on that train and keep on chugging. I will tell you the first two weeks of that diet are the worst. It's absolutely no carbs and no fruit. But if you can get yourself past those two weeks, it's purpose is to eliminate your cravings for the sugars and sweets, you can do it. It works. It's challenging now during the holidays with parties and sometimes, you just have to give in. You cannot allow yourself to 'diet' the rest of your life. This is a lifestyle change. And it is SO worth it.

But we can all sit here and post to you the things that have worked for us but YOU have to ultimately say "I'm ready" and mean it. You're embarking on a new journey... you're changing your lifestyle to better yourself. An example... my friend first told me about the GI diet (similar to South Beach). She told me I should try it (after I told her I'd like to lose weight). She would tell me off and on and I just kept saying "Yeah, I should try that". I didn't want to commit. I liked eating yummy cheeseburgers and fries and stuff like that. I didn't want to give that up. Then after my dx with hyperinsulinemia, I called her and said I was determined to do South Beach. After I lost 20lbs, she told me she KNEW I would do it because she could hear something different in my voice the last time I told her I was doing this... something that was not there the other times... determination and the hunger to better myself and my body. You CAN do this. It's just a matter of when. And how much you want it. Sugar is a strange thing... and it can do weird things to your body. By eliminating it, it's amazing the changes your body goes through, for the good. Because you mentioned you are a sugar addict, I wonder just how much it affects you and what would change if you eliminated it.

Sorry to ramble... sometimes my fingers are out of control.

But I do wish you the very best. It's awful to feel tired all the time but then to add headaches and everything else on top of it, I can't imagine. Hang in there and I think you'll make the right decision.

Good luck to you!