I've had it !

mustnothrowcantelopes
mustnothrowcantelopes Posts: 116 Member
edited September 29 in Motivation and Support
I stopped counting calories. It was just too much stress. I exercised yesterday and instead of losing weight gained another pound and this was after I had gone to the bathroom. In total, I've gained back 4lbs, though I haven't recorded it. I work 4 days a week at my stupid job and I'm too tired to exercise after and with what I get paid, can't afford a gym membership, which is ironic , because I spend a good portion of the day , at work, on my feet, running around, so I should be losing weight , not gaining. And when I'm not at work I see doctors and therapists and do other errands. I know starving yourself is dumb, but there doesn't seem to be a way out. Whatever I was doing before, my PCOS seems determined to reverse and I've tried all the medications already , both homeopathic and chemical and nothing works on me. No matter what, I still have stupid hair growing on my face that I need to get removed constantly and in other places that I can't remove. I still can't get my period. The only time I've actually gotten it was when I was having some sort of a sex life or exercising like crazy. There was one time , when I was staying with my aunt in Florida and I would go swimming, every day, and I lost like 5lbs, and got my period. I work 9-5 so I have no time to do that. I don't know how other people that work that shift deal with it. I don't know how the people that work 5/6 days a week get anything done. How do they squeeze it all in? Do they just not sleep? I know that not eating after 7PM helps, but I run on a schedule that doesn't really allow for that. I can sometimes do it. I don't know.

Replies

  • smiley01x
    smiley01x Posts: 93 Member
    I feel your pain, I too have PCOS and my dr said that it would be a struggle to lose weight. She said that I had to keep my calories at 1300 and do NOT eat the exercise calories back. Be patient and you will succeed. I wish you all the best. You can friend me if you like.
    alissa
  • sunkisses
    sunkisses Posts: 2,365 Member
    It's frustrating, I know. PCOS does make things difficult but not impossible. You will figure out your way. Good luck to you. *hugs*
  • i take a note pad with me and just jot down what i snack on alittle and my husband hides our scale cause i was weigh my self every day that helps that i only weigh myself once a week now though.... just remember that your weight will fluctuate all day long since water will make you can weight when you drink it doesn't mean you've gained weight just hasn't processes yet.. i have to be reminded of that alot
  • I'm very frustated myself. In the last two weeks I have barely lost a lb. I work out 5 times a week and keep my calories at 1200-1250. I love the workout routine that I do (Slim in 6) but I gotta wonder if there is something else going on with me. I do feel a difference in my clothes though. Don't give up.....I am trying to keep that in mind too...it's hard. :frown:
  • Marig0ld
    Marig0ld Posts: 671 Member
    Hi there. I understand how you feel. I work 5 days a week, with a 1hr+ commute (BOTH ways), and during the school year I am in class two nights a week from 7-10pm. Believe me, it ain't easy.

    One thing that works for me is steering clear of words like "should" or "have to." If I criticize myself all the time and say "I should walk today even if I'm tired, geez why am I so lazy" I say "It would be in my best interest to walk today." Turn it into something positive.

    Same with counting calories and exercise. It can be a pain in the @$$ to track everything perfectly. Just do the best you can. So you might be off a bit. So what? Who cares? The point is that you stay cognizant of what and roughly how much you are eating.

    Best of luck to you, whatever you decide to do.
  • mandygal13
    mandygal13 Posts: 219 Member
    I would love to throw you some big words of wisdom about how you CAN do it, but I don't know your life. I can tell you that I work full-time, go to school part-time, am very active in church and other activities. (My nephew is getting married in two weeks, and I'm assisting with several things with that - and I just went through a divorce.) I can't afford a gym membership, but I do have a DVD player. I bought a "walk at home" DVD, and have several others from previous weight loss attempts. I roll out of bed, put on my shoes, and exercise. Get dressed for work while eating a protein bar, and sometimes make a smoothie to drink on my way to work. I have the app on my phone, and I can track my foods that way. I enter EVERYTHING into the MFP diary. That makes a huge difference. I watch my sodium intake, drink TONS of water (like 10-15 cups a day), and I just do my best without beating myself up. In three weeks, I've lost 17 pounds and 8.75 inches. I didn't have a big weight loss week this week, but I lost 2.25 inches.

    I think the bottom line is - how badly do you really want to lose weight/be healthy? We are motivated by those things we truly want in life. If you really want to be healthy, you can be. You just have to shift your priorities. Plan better. Do it whether you 'feel' like it or not. At least, that's what I've had to do........

    Good luck to you.
  • crb1988
    crb1988 Posts: 134 Member
    I'm sorry you are having such a hard time. I work 8:30-5 six days a week, but I have found a way to exercise every day. I get up at 6 in the morning and work out anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes, depending on my mood. I do Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds. I have PCOS too, so I know how you feel. Don't give up. Take a break counting the calories for a while and just get the exercise going. Once you are able to do it consistently, then start dealing with the calories again. I have learned that a little weight fluctuation is okay. Don't let that stupid scale keep you from getting healthy! You can do it!
  • atcbabe1
    atcbabe1 Posts: 22
    I usually work out in the mornings before work. It takes a major effort to get up early and work out but that is what works for me. As for a gym membership one is not really needed. i bought or rented a bunch of work out DVDs to get started and did one a day. most dvd's are 30m or so and then i usually would walk/jog do push-ups etc. Right now im doing a fitness bootcamp that i bought a month membership to off of Groupon. Look for deals on sites like that to get different work out options on the cheap. Good luck and for what its worth pcos sucks big time and the only way i cycle regular is to keep my weight down.
  • mlynnthomas
    mlynnthomas Posts: 11 Member
    Believe it or not you have come to a very healthy place. A place where you realize that you have done enough and cannot do anymore. What is one to do? From my perception and past experience, take it easy. Embrace what is true (work schedule, natural body issues) and take it easy. Maybe down size or realx on the working out. And don't put so much energy towards the eating menu just feed your body when it says it's hungry (breakfast, lunch, snacks,and dinner). Excercise, well due to your female and health issues, in the morning or before bed try a relaxing yoga video. Maybe take a walk at night. Yea, you are stressed and I can understand. You deserve the rest and your body is saying that it needs one. Stress and anxiety can cause the body to do opposite of what we want it to do. You can do this, you can.

    6276300.png
    Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter
  • tuskegee4
    tuskegee4 Posts: 110 Member
    I too have a busy schedule with work and activities with children, but the 30min.-hour I exercise helps me keep my sanity. A friend told me to do sit ups or jumping jacks during commercials while I'm watching TV 15 years ago and that's how I started.NOW I'm hooked on exercise.
  • symphonika
    symphonika Posts: 107 Member
    I work 5 days a week most days 9 hours, and I go to school full time...and somehow manage to squeeze in exercise. Even though half of the time I'm tired when I get off work and don't want to work out, I still make myself and once I get going it's easy. You just have to find your dedication and motivate yourself. It is possible it just takes a lot of willpower. Last semester on wednesdays I'd work 6:45-2, then go to school 3-9, and still be able to squeeze in some kind of work out after that... Granted, I only usually get 6 hours of sleep a night, but I'd probably only get that work outs or no work outs. Hang in there! You can do it!
  • husker_gal
    husker_gal Posts: 462 Member
    Oh girl! I feel your pain on every level! I don't have PCOS but I do have all the problems that go along with it (all the side effects with no diagnosis :( ) Hang in there as best as you can. Take a few days off from recording anything and just let your nerves settle. On the days that you work try just to squeeze in a 20 minute fast walk when you get home or in the morning before you go to work. If you need anybody else to vent to you can add me as a friend and vent any time! :flowerforyou:
  • byHISstrength
    byHISstrength Posts: 984 Member
    Don't give up. I have PCOS too, and I know it is definitely a struggle, and unfortuately there is not a "one-size fits all" remedy...you just have to keep working at it until you find what works for you. I have my carbs set for 30% of my daily intake, and I think it has been working...try changing things up.

    I too, work full time. I am at work by 7:30AM, and I workout at home mostly getting up by 4:30AM. I am a wife and mother of 3 boys. You can do it. Don't give up...keep striving...even if you don't get the results you are looking for as quickly, you are still becoming more healthy overall...and that's worth it.

    Be encouraged...you are not alone!
  • atticus84
    atticus84 Posts: 18 Member
    I also have the PCOS, my obgyn just put me on Metformin, for fertility reasons, had lost some weight on that as well, but then have been bad about taking it, and gained it back, just with not eating right though, will now really work hard at losing, and taking the med as well. I hear you about getting out there and excercising, I too find that I have absolutely no time, or that I do walk at work. But I think just doing anything will help. I wish you all the best as well. And about the whole counting calories i find that hard to do as well, but this website actually keeps it fun, and it makes you want to put it all down. And maybe if you do have a bad food day, You put all the food down and see the number go up, you don't ever want to do that again, I think that was my push, I did that yesterday. (well i am really cracking down and doing this whole program, I had stopped) But today is a new day and I will get it done. Hope you have a fantastic day!!!
  • AlsDonkBoxSquat
    AlsDonkBoxSquat Posts: 6,128 Member
    At first with your post I thought you were going to say you work 10 hour shifts for 4 days.
    I'm in the office at 7 and leave between 5 and 6, I work those hours M-F and have a 21 month old. I made the commitment to myself that I was going to exercise, and that was life. It wasn't "where do I fit exercise in" it was "where do I fit everything else in?" I've taken to waking up a 4:15 so I can work out at home from 4:30 - 5:30, take 30 minutes to shower and get ready, take 30 minutes to get the boy ready, and out the door we go by 6:30. After work, I usually have a bag packed and change at the gym, stopping back home to change just makes me want to sit on the couch. So you can't go to the gym? Pack a bag, change clothes, and hit the park after work doing some trail running, find a local kettle bell group that meets in the evenings and get some kettle bells, sometimes you can find free yoga in the local parks, you just have to look.
  • smiley01x
    smiley01x Posts: 93 Member
    i work 7:30 am to 6 pm and then i go right to the gym! i am tired but i want this so bad!
  • previn84
    previn84 Posts: 48
    AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Ok so sometimes screaming helps.
    You sound stressed. Breathe.
    First of all, stress is not going to help at all.
    Secondly, I haven't the slightest how people cram so much activity into one day. Sometimes I think other people are like robots and don't sleep and survive on caffeine for fuel or something. That isn't for me.
    I'm no expert, but I do have PCOS, and I've been battling it for going on 9 years now. After rollercoaster weight loss and gain I finally started looking for a different answer than what I kept getting. I found out that part of my issue was low progestrone. Maybe you should have your hormone levels tested. I know that an imbalance can literally derail your life and emotions and stress level and... well everything.
    Give yourself a break and relax a little. Take a few days off. Don't log calories. Find some junk food and some peace. Then after a few days slowly get back on track. Sometimes we all need a vacation from diet, from chaos, and just live a little and let loose.
    I know its frustrating, but hang in there. Get your mind clear and focus on the positive. Its hard when you see that scale go up, but keep your mind focused and keep at it.
    If you ever need support, friend me, and just ask. Sometimes we all just need a little motivation.
  • mustnothrowcantelopes
    mustnothrowcantelopes Posts: 116 Member
    1300? How can you stand it . I have 1440 and I almost never stay under. Not eating after I exercise when I have hunger gnawing at my insides. I don' t know how you do it! You are so brave!
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    Don't worry about not eating after 7 pm. There is absolutely NO evidence that it "works" except on a personal level. The only thing that it really does is stopping people who eat dinner early and then tend to snack all evening from doing that. There is no physical or medical reason for it. I work 9-5 job too, only mine is a desk job. I sit all day. We never eat dinner before 8 pm and sometimes not until 9:30 or 10 and I'm almost at what the charts show as my healthy weight (though I've met my jeans size goal and my doc says I'm "the picture of health".

    You are right it IS hard to work in exercise with a full time job. I've been eating a healthy diet for decades and only put on weight when I stop exercising. The only advice I can give is to find some exercise that you like so that you'll be more likely to stick with it. If you dread doing it you probably won't. I've always exercised at home because when my kids were young I didn't have the time or money for the gym. Even now that it's just me and the hubby I still work out at home because that extra 40 min driving to and from the gym just isn't worth it. I like DVD workouts, although the Wii is pretty fun too.
  • shellybsn
    shellybsn Posts: 57 Member
    One of my major problems with PCOS was a complete lack of energy. I was so tired all of the time, I couldn't hardly function. This in turn made me depressed. Metformin worked for me, but it doesn't for everyone. Maybe you need to take a week and just focus on eating healthy and exercising, but not counting the calories. Give your self time to settle down and get over the bad spell. Then get back on the wagon! If meds don't help your PCOS, you'll need to stick to a low glycemic diet. Are you seeing an endocrinologsit? They might have some suggestions. An antidepressant might help too. Remember your hormones are still screwed up and losing weight will actually help that problem, but it's darned hard to do with PCOS.
  • stefraab
    stefraab Posts: 402 Member
    I work 8-4:30. When I get home we make dinner and go for a bike ride, and then put my daughter to bed. Once she's in bed I work out for about 45 mins. Then we clean up a little, or watch TV, and then I am in bed by 10pm (up by 6am - I need my rest!). I do that 4 days during the week. Saturday and Sunday I work out during her nap time.

    If you open up your diary maybe we can give you suggestions?
  • CallejaFairey
    CallejaFairey Posts: 391 Member
    i work 7:30-4, and am dead tired at the end of the day that i am lucky if i even cook myself food instead of getting something to go. i just plain don't work out. i walk in the morning though, only because i have a dog and she needs it before i go to work. so every morning i walk her for 20 minutes, it sucks, but i don't have a choice. and on the weekends, i will walk as well. that is it. so maybe you need to just concentrate on your cals and not worry about trying to fit in exercise. the diet part is more important for weight loss than the exercise, at least to begin with. so don't stress if you can't find the time to exercise, it happens.

    you can do it, don't let this beat you!
  • mustnothrowcantelopes
    mustnothrowcantelopes Posts: 116 Member
    @previn84 - that's just it. I do have a hormonal imbalance and I've been taking everything under the sun for it, homeopathic and chemical. I've been on metformin, fortamet, glucophage, biaetta with a combination of different birth control and both birth control and the diabetic meds by themselves. I've been on orthotricyclin, lo-estrin, Yasmin and a bunch of other types of birth control. I've also taken supplements and vitamins and things to boost my progesterone and decrease testosterone. I've even gone for acupuncture. My body basically resists everything.

    and apparently I can't stop counting calories or take a day off like ever, because I took a week off and gained 4lbs. I'm terrified I'm going to gain all the weight back. I want it to go down and it just keeps going up and I hate myself for it. I've been buying jeans a size smaller, because nothing fits me anymore. Size 18 is too big and size 16 is too small in the waist and I don't know what's better or worse, to wear clothing that is big everywhere or to wear something that is okay everywhere , but looks terrible in the waist. How can one size less make such a big difference. It's like the difference between swimming in your clothes and having something that's skin tight and it literally makes no sense!
  • mustnothrowcantelopes
    mustnothrowcantelopes Posts: 116 Member
    @shellybsn - Haven't seen an endocrinologist in a long time. After trying practically every med under the sun and getting no results, I just gave up. I've also been on different anti-depressants in combination with birth control and I literally went crazy. I was crying every two seconds for no reason, until a client of my mom's who is a psychiatrist advised her to take me off the birth control and then I was fine.

    What is a low glycemic diet? I already have a lot of restrictions on mine. I can't eat bread that has gluten in it. I have gout, so I don't eat red meat, for the most part (pretty much chicken and turkey and lots of seafood for me), I avoid milk like the plague. I haven't been tested for lactose intolerance, but I'm pretty sure I'm either that or allergic to milk, because I have this weird bloated feeling after I drink milk. I get the same thing with yogurt and cheese, but to a much lesser degree. I eat the cheese anyway, because I love cheese and any soy alternative just doesn't match up. I also have to watch my sugar intake , because I'm borderline diabetic, also tough because well, it's summer and my family is having guests visiting from overseas, so that has kind of gone to hell.
  • mustnothrowcantelopes
    mustnothrowcantelopes Posts: 116 Member
    @stefraab- My diary is open, but I don't feel comfortable sharing it with people who aren't on my friends list.
  • Got2believe
    Got2believe Posts: 31 Member
    @must
    yo, you know I have it too. after two weeks watching my diet, my body decided it wanted to make me feel like i was ovulating (last cycle was in jan). this was 2+ weeks ago. like clockwork, i'm now having migraine, trying to kill my guy (hes not too fond of me at the moment), and moody beyond all belief. The whole "i'm ovulating" thing caused me to binge eat, taking my 3lb loss, and making it a .2 gain, I dropped 1.4 this week, so i'm down to a total loss of 1.2, but what i'm trying to say, no matter how horrid it is, don't give up. I update my diary often, I count often, though sometimes (mood dependant) i miss stuff.
    Stay strong, its the ups and downs of being people like us. For all the work we are going through now, for all the lack of losses, for all the extra hair, anovulation, etc, it will pay off. I know that at healthier weights (though its HARD), cycles sometimes even out. Try the diets offered, maybe there is a way to reset the body ya know? right now i'd focus on it, but with the move... yea it can wait. (though moving boxes and furnishings up 3 staircases to our place will be exercise in itself). As for not exercising... you forgot to mention that your job is on your feet. that itself is exercise.
    stay strong
    now i'm gonna go back to moping until this thing gets here (yea right, i'll have PMS for 2 weeks until my body decides it changed its mind... i know the games ; ; )
  • shellybsn
    shellybsn Posts: 57 Member
    @shellybsn - Haven't seen an endocrinologist in a long time. After trying practically every med under the sun and getting no results, I just gave up. I've also been on different anti-depressants in combination with birth control and I literally went crazy. I was crying every two seconds for no reason, until a client of my mom's who is a psychiatrist advised her to take me off the birth control and then I was fine.

    What is a low glycemic diet? I already have a lot of restrictions on mine. I can't eat bread that has gluten in it. I have gout, so I don't eat red meat, for the most part (pretty much chicken and turkey and lots of seafood for me), I avoid milk like the plague. I haven't been tested for lactose intolerance, but I'm pretty sure I'm either that or allergic to milk, because I have this weird bloated feeling after I drink milk. I get the same thing with yogurt and cheese, but to a much lesser degree. I eat the cheese anyway, because I love cheese and any soy alternative just doesn't match up. I also have to watch my sugar intake , because I'm borderline diabetic, also tough because well, it's summer and my family is having guests visiting from overseas, so that has kind of gone to hell.


    Even if you can't take any medications, you sound like you could still use a little support and monitoring. Some of the PCOS websites have docs who are familiar with PCOS. I think that you are just going to have to stay diligent, even when you aren't losing weight just to keep from gaining it. You may find that your body likes consistancy before it decides to give up a pound or two. Google low glycemic--it's good for diabetes and shouldn't interfere with gluten/gout restrictions as long as you avoid your personal trigger foods. Feel free to friend me...I thikn you could use all the support you can get!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This discussion has been closed.