The Weight Of It All

I don’t want to make this a weight loss blog. However, my weight does seem to be very intertwined in my infertility journey. In fact, so far my worst experiences BY FAR have been the THREE separate occasions where people [women!] have asked me if I was pregnant! By the last time, I had my witty response about how this wasn’t possible for me with the full intention of making the person feel half as horrible as they made me feel, but it was a patient’s mother and I decided this probably wasn’t professionally appropriate so I ate some more humble pie. But next time, I’m ready!

I’ve gained about 20 pounds since stopping birth control and starting all the medications, which puts me solidly in the “overweight” category (I used to be holding on for dear life in the “healthy range”) and the RE has mentioned, more than once, that losing 10-15 pounds of this could really help with ovulation. So they referred me to Endocrinology [which is a completely separate department from Reproductive Endocrinology, who knew?!] and this Dr explained that the weight was likely due to all the drugs they were pumping into me, especially the progesterone, and that I wasn’t obese so I shouldn’t be worried. Also, there are several drugs that they could give me to help with weight loss, but none of these are safe for pregnancy so they don’t recommend this. This was frustrating to say the least.

To be honest, as much as the infertility sucks, the weight gain has been just as hard. With the infertility, I get monthly feedback that my body hates me, but with the weight gain the feedback is daily – every morning when I try to find clothes that fit or in the evening when I feel less than sexy and am desperately trying to maintain a sex life in the midst of all the medicalization of what used to be an intimate endeavor. It sounds vain, but this aspects really hits me hard and drives home the feeling of my body boycotting in every way possible (gotta love the increase in acne also!).

So I went a dietician and started seeing a personal trainer. I already eat mostly healthy, except for those times when I don’t (it doesn’t help that the half-price sale starts in the bakery shop just as I am leaving for the day and located along my walk to the car and they keep all the cookies and Danishes in the front window for display. I also doesn’t help that I’m often jacked up on hormones and that sugary, chocolaty things make me happy). I digress. I don’t do this often, but often enough that I need to stop. Also, I enjoy carbs of all varieties and this can have big negative effect on insulin and PCOS symptoms. Also, they recommend that I get up to 300 minutes of exercise per week and this is hard to fit in my schedule.

So I won’t make this all about my healthy eating and exercising efforts, but I will be using this to publicly state my goals, plans, and accomplishments and to keep myself accountable to world [wide web]. It is my blog, after-all.

The dietician recommended the following plan:

·  Meals should consist of at least 20g protein and less than 30-45g carbohydrates (counted as Carb grams – Fiber grams)

·  Snacks should be 15g carbs or less, for a rough total of 120g of carbs per day (calorie goal was 1300-1500)

·  Drink 64 ounces of water per day

·  Aim for 300 minutes (5 hrs) of moderate physical activity per week, but at least a minimum of 150 minutes.

I plan to accomplish this goal by a) recording everything I eat/drink and b) providing weekly Health Updates here for increased accountability. More specific plans/commitments will follow.