I Want a Flat Stomach!!

I’m on a mission to get a flat stomach ready for my beach holiday in September. So how the hell do I go about it because everybody keeps telling me different things and also I need something simple, not time consuming techniques that I can fit into my busy everyday life (Really, I’m a lazy bugger).

It is all over the news here in the UK, one paper wrote “More than half of British women have waists that are larger than the recommended healthy size, experts say.  Researchers from the charity Nuffield Health say overweight women risk an increased chance of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, infertility and cancer.  The researchers found the average waist measurement for women is 84.9cm (33.43in), compared with the healthy size of 80cm (31.49in).  Dr Deniszczyc, professional head of physicians and diagnostics at Nuffield Health, said: "Fat being stored around the waist can contribute to significant health issues, such as breast cancer and infertility."

My waist is currently 38” and I look about 4 months pregnant all the time and by the end of the day I look about 6 months. It’s so depressing because I know that with a flat stomach I would look hot, nice and curvy. I don’t want to be skinny again because I hated it. I wear clothes from a UK 14–16 on the bottom and 16-18 on the top. I would like to be a 12-14 bottom and 14-16 top but all toned with no muffin tops loool. I look like a thinish cyster due to my height but I suffer the effects of PCOS badly due to the extra weight I carry.

So today is the 3rd July 2012 and my holiday is on the 19th September 2012, so not long now (Woo Hoooo!!!). I am not buying any clothes because the aim is to drop a dress size so I’m saving for my big fat shopping spree in my sexy new clothes :-)!!

Okay so you have probably all guessed already that I am a research freak so my lazy techniques are going to consist of the following. Drinking lots of water, a min of 2 litres per day, taking a Chromium supplement, buying a weighted hula hoop, lots of planking (I hate sit ups, prefer to plank), going for at least three long walks per week and no junk food now until after my holiday (that’s going to be the hardest…eek)

1. Water - Drinking plenty of water is crucial if you have PCOS. It helps to keep hormone systems working. Water helps to lubricate parched tissue and helps fibre in your food swell and perform its function. It helps your liver to break down and excrete toxins and for your glands to secrete the correct balance of hormones. Drinking more water will also stop your body from retaining it thus reducing abdominal bloating. Try to drink 6 to 8 glasses a day.

2. Chromium - A small study of six women with PCOS and insulin resistance showed encouraging results with chromium supplementation. These women took 1000 mcg of chromium picolinate for two months, at which time their glucose disposal (insulin sensitivity) had improved by an average of 35%, and their baseline insulin levels fell by 22%. This is the only study we've found that deals specifically with PCOS. (I personally always see a difference when I take Chromium but since I have been researching, I didn’t realise that I wasn’t taking enough so I have increased my does to 1000 mcg instead of the 200 mcg I was on… I don’t have metformin so this is a substitute which has the same effect.)

3. Weighted Hula Hoop - Hula hooping requires effort from some of the biggest muscles in the body. These muscles require a significant amount of energy, so it forces the body to burn fat stores. Hula hooping works out several of your body’s core muscles. It strengthens and tones these muscles. Muscles that can be toned by hula hooping include: glutes, thighs, hips, legs, knees and abdomen. In addition, you can twirl a hula hoop with your arms to tone your shoulders and forearms. Hula hooping with heavier hoops can provide additional resistance to tone these muscles faster.

Hula hooping is such a low impact exercise that just about anyone can use it to increase their endurance and general fitness level. Even just 10 minutes of hula hooping can provide enough benefit to your body to increase aerobic activity. Hula hooping is so effective as an aerobic workout that an hour of hula hooping can help you burn just as many calories as the same length of time of an intense workout, such as the treadmill. For those unable to perform serious aerobic exercises due to health reasons, hula hooping can be their gateway to better health. (Just ordered one from eBay £14.99!!)

4. Planking - We all want to have flat tummies and gorgeous abs. Planking exercise is one of the best abs exercises, according to the Fitness Magazine. Planking exercise develops the abs and the muscles inner thighs, glutes, hamstrings and our quads. This exercise can be done anywhere, anytime and can be performed even without equipment. Planking exercise is better and more effective than doing a hundred crunches a day.

Planking exercise is done by positioning the entire body like a wooden plank. This exercise promotes core stability, strength and endurance. Doing planking exercise trains our abdominals, backs and butts. Depending on how you support your planks, you will also be strengthening the muscles of your arms in the process. The more you perform planking exercise, the faster you develop our abs and firm your thighs. All you need to do is hold this position for 60 seconds and repeat three times or if your stronger instead of using your elbows use your hands.

5. Walking - Complicated aerobic exercises can have a great effect on personal fitness. But so, too, can something as simple as walking. Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh revealed that overweight people who walked briskly for 30-60 minutes a day lost weight even if they didn’t change any other lifestyle habits. I plan to do a brisk walk at least 3 times a week.

6. Eating Better – I’ll save this for another blog, but basically I’m just going to cut down and cut out a few things, nothing drastic as I don’t want my body going into shock lool.

So I if I keep doing all six in theory I should have a flatter stomach come September but I will let you know how I get on later.

Wish me luck as I am already struggling as I am thinking about ordering a pizza :-(

Coca-Cola and BFP's

So in my last post I wrote about how coke, lemonade and Coffee can all produce positive BFP's, so I tried it lool as you do and here are my result. I definately got a BFP from Coke one on a pound shop test and one from an internet cheapy.

This is the pound shop test (dollar test)..

This is the internet cheapy vs my urine..

FYI.. I am not sure if I'm pregnant but im really late now and tons of symptoms!! fingers x'd

Here are some links to some forums about BFP's with Coke..

http://www.babyandbump.com/trying-to-conceive/700662-sure-fire-way-get-your-bfp-updated-pic.html

http://www.twoweekwait.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=174696

Faint Positive Pregnancy Tests... Wow

Okay this is a quick blog as my lunch is nearly over at work, I have done loads of tests and they have all been coming up with really faint BFP's, ill post some pics when I get home for work. So as far as I’m concerned they are negative because they are really faint.

Since May 2011 my periods have averaged 33 days which means that I would have ovulated on the 20/01/12 and on the 26/01/12 I had one drop of blood literally when I wiped followed by a bit of pink spotting, then brown then it turned white and has stayed white ever since (My thought is an implantation bleed). My last period was 29/12/11 and none since!! So.... as of today I would be 7 weeks pregnant if I was pregnant and should be getting strong positives by now!!

Symptoms which are irrelevant as you can get all of these with PCOS but anyway - tingling breasts and sensitive nipples but not painful like when AF is due which come and go throughout the day - veins are becoming more prominent on my breasts - Extremely bloated Uggh!! - peeing all the time which is annoying when you go 4 times in the night - slight metallic taste in my mouth - light cramps on and off - my beard is growing at a phenomenal rate!! - spots and blemishes are a lot darker and harder to cover with makeup - rashes all over my body (I had eczema as a kid) - overwhelming tiredness - very moody (my fella is not talking to me at the moment and called me an old moody cow!!..... nice!!) - very heavy discharge feels like a light AF and its very milky white, my nose is also running more, drooling, lots of ear wax and watery eyes..ewwww

So I did some research and I was shocked to find that one of the reasons for a faint positive is if you have too much HCG which can cause a false negative result and that you should dilute your urine with water and test. I will give it a try later but I doubt I am really pregnant.

A false negative pregnancy test means that the test tells the patient they are not pregnant when they really are. Why does this occur? There are four well known reasons pregnancy tests can give false negative results.

1) The most common reason is testing too early after fertilization occurs. The pregnancy hormone, hCG, is not produced until implantation occurs and it takes several days for the hCG concentrations to get high enough in blood and then urine to give a positive signal. Most devices give positive results around the day of a woman's expected period, but this can vary widely.

2) Another reason for false negative results is dilute urine. If a woman drinks a lot of fluids, the concentration of hCG in the urine will be more dilute. For this reason many doctors recommend that testing be performed on the first urine of the morning because this tends to be the most concentrated (because you probably have not drank anything all night long).

3) A very rare cause of false negative results occurs when very, very, high concentrations of hCG are present. This is called the high-dose hook effect. The hCG assays works by forming a so-called "sandwich" with two different antibodies as the "bread" and the hCG molecule as the "meat." The hook effect occurs when the hCG concentration is so high that it saturates both antibodies and there are so many molecules that the antibodies don't actually form a sandwich. This is rare because women don't normally produce enough hCG to saturate both antibodies. The hook effect should be of concern in a hospital setting, but most women should not be concerned about a hook effect with their urine. A hook effect can be confirmed if testing shows a positive result after sample dilution.

4) Finally, the other reason for false negatives was only recently described and is referred to as the "variant hook effect." This is much more common than the hook effect. As pregnancy progresses, there are actually different variant forms of hCG that begin to appear in the urine. After about 5 weeks of pregnancy (i.e. 3 weeks after the expected period) concentrations of hCG beta core fragment are higher than all other forms of hCG. This is perfectly normal. Unfortunately, the concentration of hCG beta core fragment can saturate one of the antibodies used in the assay in certain pregnancy kits, and the other antibody doesn't recognize the beta core fragment. As a result, no sandwich forms and the test is read as a negative. The farther in pregnancy a woman is, the more likely that this false negative will occur. Similar to the hook effect, the variant hook effect can be confirmed if testing shows a positive result after diluting the sample.

Posted by Ann M. Gronowski, PhD 5/8/11 - http://www.pregnancylab.net/hcg-variants/

Wow – I did not know this so I had to share it, also Coke, lemonade and coffee all produce BFP’s on pregnancy test which I found out by accident. (basically I left an old test next to take away cup which leaked coke onto the test and a strong positive came up so I googled it and found out that it was possible, I took an internet cheapy and tried it and got a faint positive like my first test... FYI the internet cheapy tests are rubbish!!)

Can anyone who gets a faint positive and then dilutes there pee and gets a strong positive let me know as it would help so many!!

Quick update! I wasn't pregnant, may have been a chemical pregnancy who knows what happened? But I had a period on the 6th March and on the 10th April"

Savannah x

I Hate EXERCISING!!

I love the thought of exercising but actually I really hate doing it. In my head I am fit and active and I don’t need to exercise. I have Shallow Hal’s vision I look in the mirror and I look great, I am one of those people who get a Danish look out the window and watch them fools outside jogging thinking to myself Ha bet the wished they were fit and sexy like me...

Ok realistically I have PCOS so I have the typical big bloated stomach, I’m far from sexy and I am so out of shape and unfit its ridiculous. My resting heart rate was over 100 and the slightest movement would send my heart rate off the chart. I really want a family so I need to do something about my weight and generally just to get myself esteem back. I need to lose 3 stones to get back within my BMI!! Well that’s ridiculous I’m 5ft9 and I would look too thin so I think 2 stones should be enough.

So recently I went to visit my cousin in Germany for two weeks of torture. She decided that she would be the one to get me fit to her dismay. She lives in the country which is very hilly and a great place to do outdoorsy stuff. I really thank my cousin for persevering with my excuses and whining and pushing me to exercise. She made me go for long power walks, cycling through the hills (that was tough), gym, boot camp style training outdoors and she signed me up for a 3k run (which I have to honest I walked but I did it). Basically everyday for 14 days we did some kind of physical activity which was extremely painful.

So after two weeks of exercising surprisingly I have seen some great benefits that I think is important to share:-

• The first and most exciting benefit is that I have had the shortest menstrual cycle since my cycles changed. Normally my cycle is 150 – 60 – 40 - 150 – 60 days etc but this times instead of being 60 days it was 34 days and I felt the difference. I just knew that my body had reacted to the exercising.

• Secondly my resting heart rate has already changed from over 100bpm to 85bpm. I can defiantly do a lot more before I start panting and acting out the dying scene in Romeo and Juliet.

• Thirdly I have so much more energy, I am not lethargic and sloth like anymore. I am still tired to some degree but I have more energy to do more things and faster without getting tired.

• Finally, my body shape has changed slightly, my stomach is definitely a lot flatter (note the word flatter not flat!!) my calves look great my butt is tighter and my clothes are slightly looser.

What I am trying to hopefully show is that if there are anymore PCOS suffers like me who hate exercising or who lack motivation to exercise there are some huge benefits. I really want a kid and the doctor told me that if my cycles aren’t regular then I am losing my chances of conceiving (I mean come on it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out) so only I can do something about it. My point is if I can do it then anyone can do it. Exercising has already boosted my chances of conceiving and I feel great.

I have signed up to boot camp which I start in June 2011 not 2013 for 5 weeks and then I am going to sign up for a 10k run and train for it.

I would love to hear from others how exercising has benefited them???

Now I just need to work on my eating habits....

Womens hair loss - Geoffrey P Redmond, M D www.hormonehelpny.com

My hair is thinning and I'mm not happy, I dont want to go on birth control pills because I want to have a baby. I found this video and he also has a book which I am going to buy and read. Leave some comments about what you think!!

PLEA FOR A GET FIT BUDDY!!

I am officially looking for someone to be my Kick PCOS in the Ass Buddy who has all the intention but no motivation of eating properly and exercising. Virtual support is no good because as soon as I log off the computer my motivation switches off too. I need someone I can meet up with and we can exercise together. I am good at motivating others but not myself and I will make sure that I attend planned exercise

I like the gym, swimming, vibro plates, cycling and exercise classes. I hate running!! I wouldn’t mind trying that Zumba thing everyone is banging on about..

I want to lose weight for mental stability, that I am within my BMI, to be healthy and losing weight will increase my chances of conceiving. You see I have the right intention I just can’t motivate myself...

I am located in Erdington, Birmingham, UK if you are nearby and need a buddy please contact me!!

SS x

Uncontrollable Emotions!

My moods are out of control, it’s ridiculous!! I can’t tell good decisions from bad ones. It’s not until they are back to normal I realise what a nightmare I have been and then I have to go around apologising to everyone. It’s frustrating!!

I also seem to make up things in my head and act upon it. I could be sitting there minding my own business then a thought would enter my mind, the thought upsets me and then I take it out on the person that I am thinking about regardless as to whether they have done anything wrong. I’ve even reached the stage where my instincts tell me not to be happy and act upset without any justification or reason behind the mood that I am in.

Recently I took a phone call from an ignorant client, he wasn’t overly rude but he wound me up for some reason to the point where I saw red and put the phone down on him. I was suspended from work for a week with full pay, I knew it was my hormones and stress but I also know that they would not understand, especially with a male boss. They would be like oh another bloody woman blaming her actions on hormones!!. So I just took the punishment. Ordinarily I can deal with wankers on the phone in a calm and professional manner.

Right now I have dumped my boyfriend because I feel like it, I have decided that I am not happy in the relationship although last month it was the best relationship ever...WTF!! I’m not sure if he will take me back this time, I tend to dump him a lot and I am completely irrational and he said that he has had enough because I’m not doing anything about it...Whoops

The problem is when I am really hormonal, I have a very low self esteem and I think that I am fat and ugly and why is he with me. I am completely needy and I push everyone away. I don’t think I am capable of anything and I don’t want to do anything, just sit and be depressed. I think I have bought nearly every sad film available which is just pathetic but for some reason it makes me feel better.

In my head I want to diet and exercise but the thought is taken over by Hmmm MacDonald’s Big Mac with large fries with a large full fat coke. My fella said it’s like watching me self harm myself and he always says that I cut my nose off to spite my face.

How do you stop when you don’t even know you’re doing it???

So being the sad geek that I am I decided to look up mood swings and PCOS on the net, and this is what I found...

Understanding Mood Swings and PCOS

PCOS is the result of a misdirected endocrine system, a cascade of hormonal imbalances that have very real and very serious affects on the body as well as on the mind. Each and every cell of the body is a buzzing energy factory with numerous receptors or docking sites on its surface that allow hormones and other nutrients to latch on and perform their specialized tasks.

Our bodies require that specific levels of these hormones be maintained. In a complex response system, based in part on the amount of different hormones that successfully locate and latch on to their own receptor sites on the cell’s surface, the body monitors and adjusts the levels of hormones and other active constituents such as glucose.

If the body senses that a hormone level is too low, it will stimulate the production of more hormones. If it senses that it’s too high, it will stop production and possibly even send in another specific kind of molecule to remove the excess, as it does with excess glucose which is stored as fat. In the case of perfect health, our systems work well. However, because of disease, genetics and lifestyle factors such as nutrition, exercise and stress, this highly sensitive system is often thrown out of kilter. (This makes a lot of sense...hmmm)

How Can We Alter This Course?

Exercise is the single most important first step in the treatment of insulin resistance that we all can do on our own. Within days of starting a regular exercise program, our body’s systems begin to respond to the exertion of energy. Endorphins are released in the brain, stimulating the immune system and softening the strangle-hold on mood swings and depression. (Easier bloody said that done!!)

And it doesn’t have to cost a bundle. What is necessary, however, is that we approach a daily exercise regimen as if our lives depend on it…which they do. The problem is, it’s difficult – if not impossible – to get going if our mind is overwhelmed with thoughts of hopelessness and fear. This is when we need a support group, a group of walkers or a group of women with PCOS, who support us in motivating ourselves into taking that first walk and continue each day after that. (This is sooo true, if I had someone to help motivate me I would have lost the 2 stones I need to get back into my BMI by now as trying to do it alone is almost impossible, I am going to find me a GET FIT BUDDY!!)

Consulting with a health care provider is also important because, depending on your PCOS symptoms, you may still require medication. In the meantime, taking a few steps to improve your overall health will help support your progress. In addition to exercise, improving your diet and reducing your stress levels will help stabilize your insulin and glucose levels and improve hormonal balance.

It would be interesting to read how other PCOS suffers deal with these damn mood swings??