National Infertility Awareness Week

This week is National Infertility Awareness Week, I have been thinking all week about how to write about this and to start this conversation. As a woman who has been recently diagnosed with PCOS, I have not yet dealt with infertility. I was blessed to have had my daughter before I developed PCOS, however, my doctor has told me that conceiving a second child will be difficult, if not impossible, but she did not say it was completely out of the question.With a lifestyle change of diet and exercise we could have a chance. Of course, my husband and I are holding onto hope that we will be able to conceive another child.

Since my diagnoses, the possibility of being infertile has not been something that I have really opened up and talked about. I guess, since my husband and I are not actively trying for another baby, and have not been given the definitive answer of “you are not going to able to conceive a child”, I feel like am not able to have a complete understanding of this devastating situation. I will be honest, I am scared. I am scared of the hurt. I am scared of the loss. I am scared of the toll this could take on my family.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The theme for this years NIAW is “You are not alone”. I take solace in this statement and I hope every couple who has dealt with infertility, or who will one day come to it, will feel some sort of comfort in knowing that they are not alone. In a situation that feels so hopeless I pray that these couples and families find hope and comfort in the communities that they are a part of and know that God has a time and a plan for everyone and everything.

“You are not alone”, to me this theme not only sends a resounding message of hope and comfort, but also one of courage. Courage to speak out and tell your story of infertility. Sharing you story is the first step to finding and developing the support system that will help you through dark times.

RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association has these points for the basis of this years theme:

• 1 in 8 couples will deal with or have dealt with infertility, you are not alone.
• Do not let infertility leave you feeling isolated.
• You are not alone on this journey, find a support group in your area.
• No one with infertility should walk alone.

To find out more about infertility, and National Infertility Awareness Week, please visit http://www.resolve.org/

 

Healthy Desserts

Alright, it is time for my weekly Wednesday round up! This is something I would like to start doing every Wednesday to share with you guys what I have found around the blogisphere and pinterest. Here is a little secret… I am on Pinterest All. The. TIME!
I love looking at recipes, DIY projects, stuff for my 18 month old to make out of toilet paper roles,and much more. I eat it up! So, I figured I could share with you my top 5 pins for the week.

Oh and you can always pin with me by following me here.

This week I have decided to go with some of my favorite dessert pins. I have been fighting my sweet tooth all week, and drooling over these pins is helping me get through it!

First up we have Flourless Fudgey Peanut Butter Brownies from Creme De La Crumb.
These Brownies look so freaking amazing, I think I am going to make a batch this weekend! I mean, peanut butter AND chocolate, how can it get any better? Just look at them!

All yummy chocolate peanut butter goodness and no yucky gluten!
You can find the recipe HERE.

Next up we have Apple cinnamon Quinoa Bites from And They Cooked Happily Ever After. (Which is just the cutest name for a blog BTW!) I recently wrote a post about a few super foods for women who have PCOS and cinnamon was one of them. Well, this recipe includes cinnamon and the great wonder food, qunioa which is mega healthy and packed with protein. Plus they look like golden perfection!

You can find the recipe HERE.

On to Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies from Amys Healthy Baking. I love oatmeal cookies. They bring me back to childhood! Remember the little Debbie oatmeal cookies with the cream filling? So yummy, but so not healthy! Well these little babies are made with fresh oats, gluten free flour and fresh grated carrots, YUM!

You can find this recipe HERE.

My favorite meal of the day is breakfast, and on Saturday mornings I like to get up and cook breakfast for the hubster, our baby girl, and myself. I think this Saturday I will be making this French Toast recipe from Blonde with Bangs.  This Delish Breakfast dish is only 240 calories and uses egg whites, almond milk, and cinnamon (super food, ya’ll!) to keep it healthy!

Get this recipe HERE.

And Finally, we come to the Nutella Energy Bites from Gimme Some Oven. I am sure I probably don’t need to explain to you my love and appreciation for that hazelnut delightfulness that is Nutella. In short it is A-Freaking-Mazing! Here, Gimme some oven combines Nutella, coconut, Chia seeds (another super food), with a few more healthy ingredients to make a yummy little bite that packs a healthy energy punch!

You can find this recipe HERE.

Well there you have it. My top 5 healthy dessert Pins for this week. I encourage you to take a look at all of these recipes, and let me know if you try any of them!

Don’t forget, you can find these and more great pins when you Follow me on Pinterest.

Ranch on Everything!

 

The title of this post says it all, I freaking love ranch dressing! I always wished that I lived in that magical land that they show in the hidden valley commercials, where there is a babbling brook of ranch dressing flowing throw this Utopian society where you dip all your foods in this magical zesty goodness. I want to find this hidden valley, take me to the valley!

Moving on, since the beginning of my PCOS/Clean eating journey I have realized that although tasty, ranch dressing is not the best condiment for me. It is high in calories, as well as fat, and not the good fat. There are all sorts of weird ingredients in this stuff that I have never heard of and can’t even begin to pronounce. Take a look at this label found on the hidden valley webpage.

If you can’t zoom in on that, let me just tell you; Meltodextrin, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), “Artificial Flavors”, and good ol’ Carboxymethycellulose are not things you want in your body! (Side note, my laptop does not recognize these words, when I click on them to find the correct spelling it reads “detrimental”, I think that says it all!)

Looking at all that I decided I NEEDED to find an alternative, because a life without ranch is a life I don’t want to know. 🙂

                        

I started with a single serving cup of chobani greek yogurt and added some almond milk to thin it out. I whipped that together and then looked to my herbs and spices to make it yummy.

       

I chose my spices and dumped them in the yogurt and almond milk mixture,and whipped it all up! I then poured the mixture into a mason jar and shook it like a Polaroid picture!

Once the mixture was well shaken, I let it refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Then I cut up some veggies and enjoyed! Now, you need to know that although this tastes yummy and is somewhat close to what ranch tastes like, it will not fool anyone. Food corporations add things like MSG to our food to make it taste better, we need to retrain ourselves to like what is naturally good for us. Even though this doesn’t taste like hidden valley, I know that I am not putting harmful chemicals in mine or my families bodies and that is pretty awesome!

Homemade Clean Ranch Dressing:

5.3 OZ Greek yogurt (One Single serving cup)
1/4 Cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
1 TSP. Salt
1/4 TSP Pepper
1/2 TSP Dill Weed
1/2 TSP Parsley
1 1/2 TSP Onion Powder
1/2 TSP Garlic Powder
1/4 TSP Thyme

*Note* You can adjust any of these spices and herbs to your taste! Enjoy and let me know what you think!

SUPER FOOD!

When you have PCOS it is hard to know what foods are helping you and what foods are hurting you. In general, I have found it’s best to go with a low gluten, low glycemic diet. I also make sure I don’t get to crazy with the dairy products.

When I was first diagnosed with PCOS in January I took to the internet to see if I could find a few natural ways to help alleviate some of the symptoms that come with living with PCOS, such as hormone imbalance, bloating, vitamin deficiencies, high glycemic levels, ect..I found several informational sites that gave me some great information on what to eat and what to stay away from. The lists varied here and there but I have found some commonalities and would like to share them with you in hopes that they may help you in your day – to – day battle with PCOS.

• Chia Seeds-  I am going to start with my favorite super food, Chia seeds. These little suckers are teeny tiny but pack a HUGE punch!  They contain 20% more protein than any other seed or grain and contain a very sizable amount of Omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids have been shown to lower testosterone levels, which is something that we “cysters” need help with. They are a great source of Iron and calcium and help prolong hydration to help keep you fuller longer. No wonder “Chia” is actually a Mayan term for “strength”! Sprinkle these babies in a smoothie, over yogurt, or drop them straight into your water bottle.
• Coconut Oil – If you have not yet jumped on the coconut oil band wagon…you need too! Coconut oil has so many great uses, that I literally would have to write another post to talk about all of them. In a nut shell, coconut oil has been proven to help regulate thyroid function, assists in aiding insulin resistance, promotes weight loss, and contains “good fats” your body needs. You can take 1 tbs of coconut oil a few times a day or use it in your cooking to saute veggies, or drop some in you favorite smoothie!
• Cinnamon- I don’t know about you, but I love fall! One reason I love it, is because of all the cinnamon flavored food items I get to eat! Well, if you have PCOS you may want to consider cooking with cinnamon all year round. Cinnamon has been proven to lower glucose and cholesterol levels. It helps reduce insulin resistance and may help boost fertility. Also, in one study I read about, women with PCOS who took a cinnamon supplement daily, had more than twice the number of cycles than women who did not take the supplement in a 6 month period. Sprinkle this delish seasoning on your favorite gluten free toast or go to your local vitamin shop and look for a cinnamon supplement.
• Sweet Potatoes-  Sweet potatoes are so yummy, and they are actually pretty good for you! Sweet potatoes help lower your glycemic index and are very high in B6 vitamins. B6 vitamins can help reduce symptoms of depression and increase energy levels, both of which PCOS women have trouble with. They also contain quite a bit of vitamin D, which also plays a vital role in energy and mood levels. You can pop one of these in the oven or microwave and top with you favorite healthy spread, maybe skip the brown sugar. You can also make a mash or you use them in your pancake mix! ** Just a PSA: BEWARE OF THE RESTAURANT SWEET POTATO FRY! These tasty little fries are usually fried in fat and oil which counter acts all the good things they contain. Make your own at home in the oven with some sea salt and coconut oil!
• Avocado- I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE avocados! Now, some of you may be a little concerned about the fat contents in avocados, and if you are, I am proud of you for being concerned. However, you are wrong. Yes, avocados contain a very high amount of fat, but it is the “good” kind of fat that our bodies need. It is called “monounsaturated” fat and it can help lower your cholesterol and keep your hormone levels in check. They also are a great source of Vitamin E! Mash some avocados with lime juice, cilantro and tomatoes for fresh guacamole. You can slice them up and use them in a yummy egg scramble for breakfast, or just cut one open and drizzle some sriracha on that beast and go to town!

There you have it. My top 5  SUPER FOODS for managing PCOS. These are also great for anyone in general, even if you aren’t technically a “cyster”. Our bodies are meant to last for a long time, so we need to take care of them as best we can!

Just a quick pick me up!

I am working on an informational article for this blog at the moment that will go up tomorrow. I am researching some PCOS super foods that are useful in balancing hormones. Lots of research and notebook paper, I feel like I am in high school again!

This morning, I thought I would take a quick break to re focus myself. I really forgot how much work research can be! I wanted to remind myself of the hope that needs to drive every post I make. Hope that one day maybe PCOS will not be a source of sadness and worry, but merely an obstacle that can be quickly conquered by our medical professionals.

This is one of my favorite quotes that I try to look at everyday. It is a reminder that every great story has an obstacle that has  to be overcome, and in all the great stories they do with such strength and valor. I hope that today you are reminded that your struggle is just part of a story that will turn into something tremendous!

Flower Power

 

YAY! YAY! YAY! It’s my first DIY crafting blog post, and I am super pumped about it!
For this post, in honor of spring, I have chosen one of my most favorite crafts – coffee filter flowers!

These flowers are beautiful and extremely easy to make, plus they last a really long time! I am the kind of person who loves to have fresh flowers everywhere around the house, but these particular flowers are perfect for making wreathes and garlands. You could make a pink flower garland for a baby shower, or dye a few different colors for a lovely spring center piece. The possibilities are endless!

 

Alright, let’s get started. First, you will need some supplies:

• Scissors
• Coffee Filters
• Floral tape
• Floral Green Wire

For Dye:

• Food Coloring
• Plastic Container

 

Once you have your supplies, if you want to dye your flowers you will need to do that first. For the wreath pictured above I used yellow and red food dye. You will need to set aside 4 filters for each flower. Take your containers and add a little water. Just enough to cover one filter. Then add 2 – 3 drops of food coloring of your choice. Feel free to let your creativity flow with this part! Mix colors, or dip the tips in one color and the end in another. Don’t be afraid to have some fun! If you want solid colored flowers take 2 of the 4 filters and fully submerge them in the colored water for just a few seconds, then set them out to dry. I recommend adding another drop or two of color to the water to do the remaining filters for your flower. I found it gives the flower more depth if the inside filters are a little darker than the outside.

 

Once your filters are completely dry, take your 4 filters and fold them in half, then over, and then over again. It should look like this:

Then you will need to cut 3 different patterns around the edges. The first will be a fringe pattern, like this: 

 

Then a zig-zag pattern, and finally, a scalloped pattern. You should have 3 folded filters that look like this:

 

For the 4th filter do a second scalloped pattern. Then snip the ends of the triangle off the bottom of the folded filters to make a tiny little hole in the middle. Now, you will need your floral wire. I cut about 9 inches off the spool and twist the end around a pencil to make a small coil at the end. Set that aside and layer you filters, one on top the other in this order : two scalloped, one zig-zag, then the one fringe. The holes should be lined up and you can just stick the little coil through the middle of your filters.

 

Then fold your flower in half around the wire, and then over just like you did before.

Now take your your “stem” and wrap it a few times around the bottom of your flower.

Grab your floral tape and cut a piece twice as long as your stem. (It is easier to cut this piece in half because the tape gets sticky and a little funky to handle.) Stretch the tape to activate the adhesive then start at the top of your coil and wrap tightly all the way down and then back up the stem. Be sure to wrap a little extra around the base of your flower to keep it secure.

Voila!

Now, you can put this lovely little flower in a vase, or make a few more and use the wire stem to attach it to a wreath.

I went to michaels and purchased a grape vine wreath and simply wrapped the wire stem around the vines and stuck some fake leaves in there to add some green. I did not have to glue the flowers because the wire keeps the flowers attached really well, which is great in case I want to use the wreath for something else. I love options!

I really hope this inspired your creativity, and lightened up your day a little. I have found that in my battle with PCOS, it helps to take myself out of the PCOS world and do something creative and fun.

Have a wonderful day and happy crafting!

Gluten Free Banana Zucchini Bread

If you know me, you know that I have a horrible sweet tooth! This is something that makes eating clean and healthy a little tricky. I also love anything that has a cake like consistency, whether it is actual cake or a dense moist bread, does not matter to me. This also presents a problem with the big bad Gluten monster.

This weekend I discovered brown rice flour and quinoa flour, both of which are gluten free! I made some qunioa tortillas this weekend and they were pretty good. I will be making a post with that recipe soon, but I am still perfecting the recipe. Also, quinoa flour is hella expensive, so I am going to get out my trusty food processor and see if I can make some myself. I will let ya’ll know how that goes! (Yes, I said ya’ll. I am from the south so bless my heart, I will not apologize! 🙂 )

So, Monday I wanted something sweet and fluffy for breakfast. I got out an old recipe for zucchini bread. The original recipe is not gluten free so I thought, “why not use my new brown rice flour?”. So I replaced the flour it called for with brown rice flower, and decided to mash in my last banana in the fruit basket we keep on the counter to make it more “breakfasty”. I also replaced the Olive oil with coconut oil and apple sauce. Olive oil is a not so friendly food for those of us with PCOS, so try to branch out to other oils. Coconut is my go to, but grapeseed is also great!

I’ll be honest with you, I was worried that it would turn out kind of funky, because I have not worked with brown rice flour before. I was pleasantly surprised! This bread was moist, fluffy and absolutely delicious! I cut a slice right from the oven, with steam rising up, and dropped a dollop of earth balance spread on top. It was so yummy, I can not even put it into words! The absolute best part is that my 18 month old also ate a whole piece! She is the most picky eater I have ever met, so I know its good if she gobbles it up. Also, hidden veggies! That makes me one happy mama. 🙂

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did! Makes sure you come back next Wednesday for a new clean, PCOS friendly recipe! I will also start posting DIY projects and informational articles on PCOS every Monday! Have a great day!

Gluten Free Banana Zucchini Bread

1 Large ripe banana
1 Large to medium sized zucchini

1 Cup Brown sugar
1/4 Cup  Coconut oil (Melted)
1/3 Cup Applesauce
2 Large eggs
1 1/2 TSP Pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 Cup Brown rice flour
1/2 TSP Baking powder
1/2 TSP Baking Soda
1 TSP Cinnamon
1/2 TSP Nutmeg
1/2 TSP Dry Ginger
1/4 TSP Salt

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees and grease a 8 1/21 -4 1/2 meatloaf pan*, set aside.
In a large bowl, mash your banana and grate your zucchini. Then add in your brown sugar, oil, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla. Stir until combined.
Slowly, while stirring add the flour, then the rest of the ingredients.
Pour into greased pan and set in the oven. Cook for about 45 min. to an hour. When the top is a nice golden brown, it is done.

Slice and top with butter or drizzle with honey and enjoy!

* You can also use this recipe for muffins. You just have to cut your cooking time to 20-30 minutes.

Beef Stir fry with Sriracha sour cream

 

Sometimes I have no idea what I am going to make for dinner until its 4:00 in the afternoon and everyone is coming home and getting hungry. There are also times when I have not gone to the grocery and do not have the energy to go at 4:00 in the afternoon, after taking care of a toddler all day! Stir fry is great for these days and is also very PCOS friendly. It can be high in protein and you can throw in whatever veggies you like. This kind of stir fry can be anything you want really, so this will not be an exact recipe, just an example of the one I made.

First, I browned my beef tips. Usually we have beef tips or the really thin sliced beef specifically for stir fry or fajitas. I prefer the thin sliced meat, but all we had were the beef tips. Stir fry is an Asian cooking style, so I like to use sesame oil to give it a great Asian flavor. I also add in salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a small dash of red pepper to give it a little heat. Not too much because I always add sriracha later.

Once the meat is done I set it aside in a bowl and use the same pan to cook my veggies. I had broccoli, green bell pepper, and mushrooms on hand so that is what I used. Usually, I like to add more color, so I’ll throw in red or yellow bell or sweet peppers. Also, snap peas are great in a stir fry! During the summer I like to toss in a couple pieces of pineapple as well.

While you are sauteing your veggies, go ahead and start your quinoa. Rice is not at all PCOS friendly. We shouldn’t eat brown rice and especially white rice. I have found that quinoa is the perfect alternative! If you haven’t jumped on the quinoa band wagon, do it! It is so nutritious!  It tastes and cooks like a grain, but it is really a seed and packed with all sorts of good stuff for your body. It is also high in protein and low in carbs. Now, just a PSA for my readers who are strictly gluten free; quninoa is not really categorized as a gluten free food. Although it does not contain any gluten, the levels of protein could activate a gluten reaction if you have celiac disease.

If you are not completely gluten free, I highly recommend using quinoa to replace your grains.

I love this giant bag from target! You get a lot and it’s a very competitive price!

Once my veggies are done and my quinoa is cooking, I add my meat back into the pan and sautee the two together to warm everything back up and mix it all in. I then make my sauce.

I LOVE Sriracha! I literally put it on everything from eggs to stir fry. 🙂 So, for the sriracha sour cream I do a 1 to 1 ratio, a little goes a long way. I just drop a dollop of sour cream in a bowl and then match the amount of sriracha and mix it all together. Easy , right?

Once everything is finished I put a layer of qunioa, seasoned with just salt and pepper and a small dollop of earth balance butter, on the bottom of the plate. Then comes the meat and veggies, and then I drizzle my sriracha sour cream on top.

Voila!

I hope this helps you find something yummy and nutritious to make when you are out of ideas. It is really a great way to work in as many veggies to your meal as possible!

Chicken Alfredo with Zucchini Noodles

I just want to start this post by saying… I LOVE PASTA. Penne alla vodka, Baked Ziti with meatballs, Lasagna, I love it all! Unfortunately, with PCOS carbs are the devil and should be banished from the pantry and our bellies.  This fact lead me on a hunt to find a PCOS friendly alternative to wonderful, yummy pasta.

I had seen a few recipes and heard some talk about substituting zucchini for noodles. Fortunately for me, I love zucchini and so does my family. So I decided to give it a go and turn my favorite pasta dish into a carbless wonder.

I did some looking around on pinterest and found that I needed one crucial tool in order to achieve this recipe. A spiralizer is the greatest invention since the wheel, okay maybe that’s a little much, but hey I am on a slight “pasta” high.

I think I am also going to look into using the spiralizer to cut carrots and do, like an asian salad of sorts, but that is another post for another day.

I gathered my ingredients and my spiralizer and went to work. I wanted to do both zucchini and squash noodles but as I started spiralizing…I think that is the correct term, I found that the squash turned mushy and jammed up the spiralizer, I ended up just using the zucchini.

Once the noodles were cut I tossed them into a pan on medium heat with a pad of earth balance butter. I love earth balance, it is non GMO, Gluten free, soy free, all the free is in this butter!I sautéed the Zucchini until I felt it was tender. Oh, and just a FYI, if you follow this recipe and use two zucchini, it’s going to look like a lot. Never fear though, the noodles kind of shrink down while you are cooking.

I set the noodles aside and sautéed some mushrooms and pan cooked my chicken, lightly seasoning the chicken with some salt and pepper. I then attempted to make a very clean alfredo sauce with almond milk, earth balance butter, and mozzarella cheese. Yeah, that didn’t go so well. I ended up going to an old faithful recipe that is one I love for a quick and easy alfredo sauce. I’ll post it below with the ingredients for the meal.

Once the chicken, mushrooms, and sauce were done I assembled the plates, and we dug in. Not to toot my own horn…but toot toot, this was fabulous! I want to make this at least once a week, it was so easy and guilt free! Also, the recipe for the Alfredo sauce makes like 4-6 servings depending on how much you like on your pasta, so I have a jar in my fridge now. It takes no time to make the noodles and works great for a quick, carbless lunch as well as a satisfying dinner!

Bon Appetit!

Here are the ingredients:

For the noodles 2 zucchini, spiralzed
1 TBS earth balance spread
Dash of salt and pepper to taste

2 Chicken breasts
4 whole mushrooms chopped

For the Sauce-  4oz Cream Cheese at room temp.
4 TBS Earth Balance Spread
2 TSP Garlic powder
3/4 Cup 2% milk
2/3 Cup Parmesan Cheese
Pepper to taste
Dash thyme and oregano (optional)

Top with parsley

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family did!

*** If you click on and purchase an item through a link on this blog, I will receive a small commission from your purchase.**

My first post

Wow my first post! I have always wanted to have my own blog. I would look at all the great DIY projects on pinterest and just admire all the beautiful mom blogs they were linked to. Something always stopped me though, I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe I wasn’t confident in my writing skills ( Just a warning, I tend to be a little scatter brained, also, grammar is NOT my forte’). However, with little confidence and horrible grammar skills, here I am writing my first post.

To explain why I am starting this blog, let me start by telling you a little about myself. My name is Ashley and I am from the great gulf coast of  Florida. Side note: I feel that Florida REALLY gets a bad rep! Yes, we had the whole bath salts incident and the hanging chad, but Florida really is a beautiful and wonderful place.Well at least the panhandle is! Anyway, I live in the lovely town of Pensacola, which is the real first city of Florida, despite what the twits in St. Augustine want you to believe ;). Here we have the beauty of the coast, mixed with a deep southern history.

I moved to Pensacola in 2009 to finish school. Not too long after that I met a boy, and not too long after that he asked me to be his wife. We were married in 2011 in a beautiful garden along 30A,outside Destin Florida.

Weren’t we just precious? After our wedding we had a quick honeymoon in Napa Valley (I highly recommend frequent trips to wine country BTW) Then we had to move to Texas for Ryan’s job. For about a year we were back and forth from Texas to Florida when we couldn’t take it anymore. I was living in Pensacola and Ryan was working right outside of Austin, TX when I said “Come home!”. He was home for two months before I found out I was pregnant with our Daughter Madison Lee.

She was not planned what so ever, but we were excited and filled with anticipation! My pregnancy went off without a hitch, until I was about 30 weeks. My blood pressure sky rocketed and I was put on bed rest for the last six weeks of the pregnancy. Madison, or “Maddie” was born in September and let me tell you, every cliche’ you have ever heard about having a baby is absolutely true! She was perfect and we have loved her unconditionally from the start.

Not long after Maddie’s first birthday we were home one night, everything was normal. We were all sleeping, and then all of a sudden I woke up terribly nauseous. I ran in the bathroom and got sick. I ended up getting sick five times before Ryan had to get up for work. He got Maddie dressed and took her to day care. I was convinced I was dealing with food poisoning, we had eaten out the previous night. I called into work to let them know I would not be able to make it in that day. My manager reminded me that I had to bring in a Doctor’s note to be excused. So up I got, woozy and cramping. I drove to urgent care and waited, and waited…and waited. Finally, they told me to go to the ER to be seen faster, so off I went, still thinking that it was just food poisoning and that all this was so ridiculous.

I was admitted to the ER with Ryan by my side.
This is when things took an interesting turn.
It turns out I was not dealing with food poisoning. I had a large complex cyst burst on one of my ovaries.

It is common knowledge, as a woman, that we have cysts on our ovaries constantly and they are usually not a big deal. I figured, Okay,well this was not a fun experience, but it happens. They gave me some meds, told me to rest, and scheduled a follow up appointment at a local gyno.

Around November I saw the Doctor, she had me do an internal ultra sound to look at my ovaries. She came in the room and said “Have you heard of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome?” . Of course I had not, she then told me I had so many cysts on my ovaries that they “looked like they were wrapped in pearl necklaces”.

I had no idea what this meant. She had me do some blood work and come back in three months for another ultrasound. On my next appointment she diagnosed me with PCOS. I had done some research between visits, so I kind of knew what I was up against. I asked her why I had this, and why I didn’t have it before my daughter was born. She said that there is no rhyme or reason behind who has PCOS.

Suddenly, all the things that I was just brushing off as “after pregnancy weirdness”, or just a “really bad period” made sense. I had experienced what I thought was postpartum depression and anxiety, now I know that was part of the hormone imbalance that PCOS causes. I was having brutally painful periods, where I couldn’t stand up because the pain was so intense. I now know that this too was caused by PCOS. I was also experiencing excessive water retention as well as hard crashes, similar to what a diabetic would face, if I had to many carbs or to much sugar.
All of this was because I turned out to be 1 in 10 women who develop PCOS in their reproductive years, and without that trip to the ER I would have not known until it was too late.

I found out that untreated, PCOS can lead to heart disease, diabetes, and infertility. These are all VERY scary terms for me. I have seen my family members and friends deal with these terms. My Dr. assured me that now that we know, we can fight it.

She has put me on a very strict low gluten, low sugar, low dairy diet and a moderate exercise regimen. Apparently, carbs and sugar are like fertilizer for those stupid little cysts, so the less I put in my body, the better I’ll feel and the more likely I am to have another baby.

I will admit that all this scared me at first.
I really want a second baby, and not knowing whether I can have one or not, is not something I want to dwell on. I felt isolated with this disease I had never heard of, so I dug into the internet looking for support groups and other women who happened to be 1 in 10. I found some really great blogs and some very inspiring women. I did not find any support groups or local facebook groups though, and that was pretty disappointing.

So there it is, after all that we have reached my reason for “blogging”. I want to create a space for women with PCOS to come and find recipes for meals they can actually eat, along with stories of my journey as well as other women with PCOS. Also, because you need to step out of the PCOS bubble and live a normal life, I will have lots of fun DIY projects too.

I will also be starting a local facebook group for women in the Florida panhandle with PCOS. We can share, we can encourage, and we can fight together.

If you would like to share your story or struggle with PCOS, please feel free to leave it in the comments or visit my facebook group.

P.S. I promise that all my posts will NOT be this long! 🙂