I'm baaaaaaaaack! 152 pounds to lose. Down with PCOS!

New start, new account. It's named after one of my favorite Fraggle Rock characters, Marjory the Trash Heap.

I'm a 32 year old female who is a silversmith/jewelry designer, just a smidge shy of 6 feet tall, and wanting to lose around 150 pounds, which is more than half of my current weight. I gained most of my weight very quickly when I was between 22-25 years old and going though a bad marriage/divorce. I blamed myself and my bad habits (and thought my history of eating disorders in my teens had killed my metabolism), but it was an unnatural amount of weight to gain so quickly, especially considering I was fairly active and have never been one to drink many sugary drinks or eat that terribly. I had my thyroid tested and everything came back normal, so that was frustrating. No doctors ever suggested that I might have PCOS even though I've never had normal cycles and mentioned it during visits. I figured it out on my own and it was later confirmed by a gyno (there was a whole disaster with my treatment which I won't go into here). Currently I'm taking 1000mg Metformin XR once daily.

I was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia and I suffer from migraines, but since figuring out that I am very sensitive to certain food additives, I've been much better with both of those issues. A few of the things I have to avoid are MSG (or anything similar- soy sauce, balsamic, sulfites, autolyzed yeast extract, etc). Anything with free glutamates, and there are so many hidden names for it. Also red dye #40. I'm caffeine free as well because it was also a headache trigger for me and I have horrible insomnia if I have even one small coffee early in the morning.

Over the past few years, I've yo-yo'd up and down by 20-40 pounds multiple times, and am currently about 25 pounds below my top weight thanks to a few rounds of whole 30 Paleo and exercise. I've had some serious health issues which really threw me off track in the past year and a half (mostly due to PCOS), but I'm pretty much back on my feet and ready to tackle this thing head on. Learning that I have PCOS/insulin resistance on top of everything else really explained a lot, especially why I gain weight so quickly when I eat carbs, even in moderation. Due to this, and everything I've read on r/pcos, I decided that I need to do Keto diet long term and began yesterday. I'm taking a slight break to recover from an exercise related hip injury (ouch!), but I've been doing 25-30 minutes of kettle bell 3-4x per week for about a month and I'm going to start walking a lot more frequently. Haven't shifted any weight doing exercise only, but I have lost about an inch off my waist and gained some flexibility, so there's that.

Anyhoo, I'm hoping that Keto is the magic diet that "actually works for me" and something I can maintain long term. I have many reasons for wanting to lose weight. I'm hoping that it will improve my self esteem (which I think would help with my anxiety/depression/social phobia issues). I miss being able to get excited about clothes and especially vintage fashion, and so tired of having to wear crappy, ugly clothes because that's all that fits. I miss having more energy. I'm also hoping weight loss helps with my PCOS issues, which it does for many sufferers who succeed in shedding the pounds.

*fingers crossed!*