I'm turning 35 tomorrow. I'm a mother of an amazing 20-month-old son, named Micah, and a wife to an amazing husband. I'm also 6 months pregnant! The best thing is I didn't have to go do IVF or hormone therapy to become pregnant. I went through 3 rounds of fertility with my first pregnancy. Was it just luck? I don't think so. After Micah was born we decided to start trying right away because we were told that while I was breast-feeding I was more fertile and more likely to conceive naturally, though it was pretty unlikely. I have PCOS, and we tried for several years to conceive naturally with no luck. When we didn't get pregnant during Micah's first year of life, and my most fertile time, we had accepted that we'd need to go through IVF again and were going to wait another couple years.
The interesting thing that did happen after childbirth is that I started easily loosing weight, my energy was high and overall I felt great. This was pretty unusual for me as I always struggled with my weight and an overwhelming sense of fatigue. I worked out regularly and ate a "healthy diet". Actually fitness was, is my life. I own a Personal Training and Muscle Activation Techniques Studio in Washington, DC. Even with all my knowledge, and being surrounded with smart and supportive people, I could never keep my weight down. I was always about 30lbs over weight. Would go on low calorie diets and could lose weight for short periods, but it wasn't sustainable. The amount I would have to eat to lose weight was crazy. I needed to stay below 1200 calories. Yes, I'd lose weight, but I'd also be irritable all the time. It just wasn't worth it. As I got older I started accepting myself for who I was, and was okay with being 5"3' and 165-170. At my lowest I was 135, and miserable. I was working with a friend of mine that was a dietitian but my weight wouldn't change unless I cut calories really low. I couldn’t exercise enough to effect my weight. I picked my sanity over my vanity.
So when after I had my son I slimed down to 140 without trying I knew I wasn’t crazy and I wasn’t just unwilling to do what I needed to do. Many folks with PCOS suffered from weight issues and I just figured I was one of those. I was unwilling to go on medication, it made me feel worse. I also suffered from high cholesterol 250+. Though I couldn’t keep to a 1200-calorie diet, by all normal standards I had eaten very healthy. Seeing my weight come off without effort was refreshing, and gave me knew hope that I could control it and change it. After about 6 months I stopped producing milk and stopped breast feeding, my weight gain, and my issues with fatigue came back shortly after. I went from 140 to 155 in a matter of months without a dietary change. I was so frustrated. I was working with a dietitian and trying to figure out how to reverse this pattern. I went to see a holistic doctor and was considering starting an intense hormone therapy program with the hopes it would adjust this downward slope. During this same period we hired a new trainer at the studio, Alex R, he was a big proponent of the low carb, paleo diet and encourage me to give it a try. I was at a place where I was willing to try anything!
In the first month I lost 10lbs, and even more amazingly got pregnant! So that’s how I got here. Paleo and Pregnant! I have to say it’s actually been really tough for me. The first couple months of the pregnancy were rough, and I’m not the greatest cook out there. It’s a real choir for me. I fell off the wagon and gained a fair amount of weight during the first couple months. I was again encouraged to reset, and I actually lost weight this last month of my pregnancy, felt better, and the baby is growing well. So I’m starting this blog as a way of 1. keeping myself accountable, 2. staying focused, and 3. giving other folks in my same situation hope.
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