Life Abundant Blog

living life abundantly in spite of PCOS

PCOS on an Airplane: A True Story

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Once upon a time, I boarded a plane for a work-related trip. What happened next surprised me big time.

Earlier that day, I had experienced some light abdominal pain. I honestly texted my best friend that I thought I was ovulating, but was really confused because I was hurting in my lower back from it, and I thought I had already ovulated. I went about my morning, minding my own business, and kept my pain to myself.

Fast-forward to the plane: as we prepared to take off, I suddenly realized that I felt feverish. I texted my husband and let him know that I was afraid that I was getting sick. It seemed to come out of nowhere and I was really unhappy that I went from feeling completely fine, sipping on my Starbucks, ready to fly to this conference for work… to having body aches, the chills, and like I had the flu. I had zero “sick” symptoms, just the symptoms of a fever. And when I say it came on fast, I’m talking minutes. I was completely fine and suddenly I wasn’t.

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A Minimalist Meal Plan for a Complete 21-Day Fix

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This post contains affiliate links.

This post is a follow-up to this one: A Simple 21-Day Fix Meal Plan for the Full 21 Days, so be sure to check it out first if you’re looking for multiple 21-Day Fix meal plans with different ideas to help you succeed. I have learned that I like to keep things pretty simple with the 21-Day Fix. One of my biggest discouragements with the Fix last year was the food. I used to feel this pressure to do something exciting and different every day, but I discovered that minimalism is the real winner.

A Note About The Food

The point of me showing a full 21-Day Fix meal plan schedule is to show that I’m human. I’m organized, but I’m human. There are days that everything is planned out, like you’ll see, and then days where we go out to eat or to a gathering, and I just do my best, but also give myself some grace. I put my meals at restaurants in red along with what I ate. Sometimes if I know I will splurge a bit at dinner, I will be super strict during the day, so you’ll notice that here. Also, minus a tiny bit of feta in my salads (and that dang Chick Fil A sandwich), I cut out dairy during this round to help with my bloating, and I was very selective about my carbs most of the days. This round was following a miscarriage, so not only did I have a little bit of first trimester weight+bloat to lose, but I had nutrients to replenish after extensive bleeding. I struggled a lot this round with my hormone levels so it was crucial that I had cut out certain things to help.

Additionally, you’ll see a lot of repetition. This is to give you an idea on how to keep things simple for the full 21 days. During my 2nd week, I ate stuffed grape leaves for lunch every day. You may have something else that you love and can prep for a week to eat for lunch every day – whatever that is, tackle it and go for it!

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Why PCOS Awareness Is Important

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For PCOS Awareness Month this year I wanted to write something a little different than I have in the past. I’m sharing a bit of a personal thought process on what PCOS symptoms look like, what awareness means to me, and why it’s important.

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A Simple 21-Day Fix Meal Plan for the Full 21 Days

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This post contains affiliate links.

Happy End of January! I don’t know about you all, but January tends to be a difficult month for me. The holiday festivities are over after what seems to be two solid months of excitement, the weather is colder, the ice is upon us, and the sun doesn’t shine very often. Aside from the shock of putting away the Christmas tree and asking yourself “what did we have in that big empty space before?”, January is a time when many people are ready to start something new. It’s a new year and the perfect time to kick off a healthy lifestyle to purge all of the cookies, fudge, and butter we all just consumed. Don’t even play like you didn’t. But starting “new” can be scary. Intimidating. It can seem unreachable and difficult. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be hard and I’m here to help!

You all know I’m no stranger to the 21-Day Fix (you can keep up with the whole journey here). I’m not a coach, but I’ve done several rounds and have loved it because it’s PCOS-friendly, easy to follow, and provides a gateway to a real lifestyle change. This time last year, I started my first round, and I admit I was a little scared. All the colors to remember, the portion sizes, the workouts… I was nervous that I would fail, but also knew that I didn’t have time to fail. My only option was to thrive. And thrive I did! I want you to thrive, too. So today, I am sharing with you my entire meal plan for the last 21 days, including the honest truth of when I didn’t work out, and what happened over the weekends.

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The Countdown to Thanksgiving: My 21-Day Fix Meal Plan with Grab-and-Go Options!

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Disclaimer: This post is in no way endorsed or sponsored by Beach Body or 21-Day Fix. I am not a coach, but I can sure hook you up with a few. Also, there are some Amazon affiliate links in here, and I do receive a small commission off anything purchased. Just bein’ real.

21-Day Fix Meal Plan - Countdown to Thanksgiving

On November 1, I started a new 21-Day Fix meal plan AKA COUNTDOWN TO THANKSGIVING!

I decided that I really want to enjoy the holidays, but I can’t completely enjoy them until I do some resetting with my body. What a better time than now? I decided I could handle 3 weeks of no fall treats before the explosion of culinary glory happens during my favorite time of year. I knew a 21-Day Fix meal plan would help with that.

Yesterday started Week #3, and this will be my last aggressive 21-Day Fix meal plan for 2016. I completed 3 rounds of 21-Day Fix (this makes #4) and 2 rounds of 21-Day Fix EXTREME this year. The first 3 rounds were consecutive, and then I took a tiny break before 2 back-to-back rounds of EXTREME. 25 lbs were down for the count! After the last round of EXTREME, I continued to eat well on an 80/20 balance for a while, but somewhere in there, the scale tipped a bit, I lost motivation, and I started on a 50/50 balance. It wasn’t quite working out for me. I didn’t feel as well and started fighting off 5 lbs of bloat. Before the holidays hit and I feel completely miserable (and in an effort to NOT undo all the hard work I did this year), I figured it is time for one last round for the books. Then I’ll enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas full-force!

I have to admit, December is off limits. I love Christmas time, and I have no shame in the baking and cooking that will happen during that month… but that’s what January is for, right? 😉 Work hard now, play later… then work hard again to kick off 2017. It’s only logical. I will still exercise in December, just not as aggressively or as consistently. I’m talking 3-4x/week instead of 6-7x/week. I think it’s fair! Like I said, I have no shame in admitting what I’m about to consume in December.

No.

Shame.

So, with all of that shamelessness said, November 1-21 is (and has been) a strict round of 21-Day Fix, and here are some of the things I’ve been eating pretty consistently:

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On Infertility and Turning 32

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So, I wrote this post in the order I thought it through, and you’re going to think I’m either (a) crazy; (b) sleep deprived; or (c) that I have serious attention issues. I went back and read it when I was all done and thought “Lawd, what is wrong with me?” Bear with me… I’m keeping it as is because let’s be real, I don’t have the time or the will to reorganize it into something that makes sense. And that’s all she wrote.

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Today is my 32nd birthday!

I was asked the other day how it feels to be turning 32, and it honestly doesn’t feel any different. 32 isn’t really a milestone birthday. It’s one that comes and goes, and is just kind of there.

Can I make a confession?

I don’t feel 32.

Quite often, I feel like a young girl in my 20s, hopeful for a future of babies, telling myself “you’ve got plenty of time!” When I was a 20-something, I was convinced I’d be all done popping out babies by the time I hit 30. The thought of having babies in my 30s was foreign to me and a “surely not”.

And yet here I am. I’m 32… and my family of 3 still feels like someone is missing.

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Weekly Menu for PCOS and 21-Day Fix

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I feel like I have been on a blogging hiatus the last couple of months. It’s amazing how you can go from being completely inspired to write 3x/week for months or even years, and then suddenly hit a wall. But that’s life, isn’t it? Not just in the blogging world, but real life. Whether it’s your work life, your relationship with food and exercise, your church life, your friendships… sometimes there is just a wall you hit. The last few months have been my wall. I went through a job transition (not by choice, but by the grace of God, I’m in a new position that fits me just as perfectly as my last one), I have been upset with myself for being complacent, I feel uninspired to pursue any more fertility treatment, and I’ve lost a lot of hope in growing our family. But during this time, God has also taught me a lot about myself… it’s been a ride for sure.

But I’m back (or trying to be) and I wanted to share what my meal plan has been for the week to hopefully inspire you, whether in your 21-Day Fix journey, or PCOS journey. After taking several weeks off from heavy exercise (I still ran periodically and did a 21-DF video here and there), I decided to jump back in before life catches up with me via weight gain. Those of you who have followed me this year know that I have lost roughly 25 lbs since January, and while that number fluctuates here and there (sometimes I bloat up to 5 lbs before my period and then it falls off as soon as it’s over – completely out of my control), I’m wanting to make it an even 30 lost before the holidays sneak up on me. Now is the time! I also recently went clothes shopping and everything fits me like a glove! Everything fits in such a way that allows me room to lose just a little more poundage so that I have flexibility to fluctuate, so that is my goal. I want to make sure nothing becomes tight, which it will if I don’t do something now… because once I feel discouraged in tight clothes, it’s a downward spiral of self-destruction.

Weekly Menu for PCOS and 21-Day Fix

Find other 21-Day Fix inspired meal plans here.

I didn’t get pictures of everything I ate, so bear with me… I’m trying to do better about that.

Breakfasts

On Sunday night, I whipped up 18 egg cups and they are so easy!
egg-cups

Each cup is one egg, a little bit of frozen spinach (eyeballed, not measured), diced orange bell pepper, pepper jack cheese, garlic sea salt blend and pepper. All I did was added the ingredients to 2 sprayed muffin tins, took a fork and mixed each cup so the egg would break up, and baked them on 375 for 20 minutes. I popped them all out easily after they cooled and stored them in the fridge in an airtight container. A serving is 2 egg cups! Just remove what you need (top with hot sauce! Yum!) and microwave for 30-60 seconds. Enjoy with a side of fruit. I like bananas in the morning even though they are higher on the glycemic index. I’d rather process those earlier in the day than later.

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My 21-Day Fix Meal Plan – Now It’s Just a Lifestyle Change!

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Now that I am down by 20 lbs, I am fully celebrating where I’m at with my new lifestyle, thanks to the 21-Day Fix meal plan.

Oh, did I not tell you yet?

I’ve lost 20 lbs since January 11 thanks to 21-Day Fix! Officially 20! I just have 7 lbs to go to the finish line of my weight loss goal, and only 3 lbs to go before the BMI scale will stop saying I’m overweight. (Side tangent: I think the BMI scale is a load of poo. Body builders are labeled as obese according to the scale because of their muscle mass… so I don’t fully allow the BMI scale to determine my health, I’m shooting for a certain body fat percentage instead. I currently reside in the Average area of the chart and want to be in the Fitness area.)

Today, I want to share with you what I’m eating this week as part of this lifestyle change, and it is a 21-Day Fix meal plan. I’ve been receiving a lot of positive feedback from many of you on these meal plans, so I think I’ll continue to share them sporadically, especially as I continue to find new recipes on Pinterest.

Sample 21-Day Fix Meal Plan

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My TTC Story {National Infertility Awareness Week 2016} #StartAsking

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Infertility Blog Link Up - April 29th

Today, I am joining Caroline from the blog In Due Time for a TTC Story linkup! Whether you’ve been following me for years or are new to this blog, today I want to share my journey through infertility and TTC with you.

When my husband and I married in 2007, the last thing we expected was infertility. Prior to marriage, I had gone on a birth control pill solely for the purpose of keeping my body in sync. Up to that point, my cycles were ranging between 30-45 days long, so they were considered normal (albeit inconsistent), but the cramping associated with each one was getting to be more than I could handle. I had no idea that this was just the surface of my PCOS.

After we got married, I started reading about birth control pills, and at the time it was suggested that women who want to conceive get off of them completely for 3-6 prior to trying. I had no idea what it would mean to come off of them. Those initial 6 months went by, and suddenly, everything stopped. And by stopped, I literally mean stopped. I suddenly started having abdominal pain I had never had before, and lower back pain. All of the pain was centered around my right ovary. I stopped having periods. This is where our infertility journey began.

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To check out more stories and connect with other women just like you, be sure to head over to Caroline’s blog for more:

My TTC Story Blog Link Up

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That Brief Moment of Pregnancy Hope in a Perfect Cycle

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Over the last 6 or so weeks, I have started charting again. For those who aren’t familiar with charting, it is where you take your temperature every morning, the moment you wake up, before getting out of bed, and record it. Over time you learn your body’s pattern. Your temps are generally lower in the follicular phase (the days leading up to ovulation), and then they spike up during the luteal phase (after ovulation). If you ovulated, you will see a clearly defined shift on the chart.

I personally use Fertility Friend to document everything, because it’s familiar, it’s easy, and I like that it will give me crosshairs on the chart to denote ovulation. While it can sometimes be unreliable, most of the time it’s right. Your temps don’t lie, as long as you are taking them consistently at the same time each day. Inconsistently is a different story.

Well.

Last week, I had something happen for the first time ever. And I mean, ever. Well, first of all, I FLIPPING OVULATED ON MY OWN. So, yay for that! But the big surprise? My chart started to look like a potential pregnancy chart. It appeared I was about to have a tri-phastic pattern, which means my chart was close to showing a very clearly defined three-tier range of temperatures. Usually if a woman is pregnant, there will be a third shift in temperatures due to the hCG and increased progesterone levels from the pregnancy. When my Conceivable rep noticed this, she mentioned to me that pregnancy was a possibility.

Chart

I didn’t want to get my hopes up, because I didn’t want to feel anything, albeit excitement or pain. I knew putting my hope into this was a leap for me, so I kept my guard up and told myself that no matter what happens, the fact that I was able to ovulate without Follistim mattered, pregnancy or not.

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