Hello again,
My name is Tianna. I am a Registered Nurse and Certified Life Coach and Ketogenic Coach. But there so much more to me than that…
I was never thin. I had this one aunt who was super thin and beautiful. I’d ask her for advice for how to get and remain skinny. I was desperate to know the secret. What she told me surprised me. She said “You don’t eat. Sometimes I get hungry and instead I take a shower or go for a walk”
Seemed easy enough, right? All I had to do was finding something else to do when I was hungry. I tried this method for a few days. After all, Wanted to be slim and pretty like my aunt.
Battling my Sugar Cravings
A few days later and my cravings were back. I wanted not only everything, but everything white. I wanted pasta, bread, potatoes, soda, and everything else that tasted like heaven but felt like hell on the hips. So I did what most people in my shoes would do… I gave in.I found happiness in my day to day despite living the Carb Life. I suffered from anxiety and depression, but who didn’t. It seemed like everyone suffered from depression and everyone was overweight.
Seemed like there were a lucky few who seemed to avoid getting plagued by the fat stick and I wasn’t one of them.
I was content. Like everyone, I had my good days and bad days. I had my ups and downs but nothing to severe to invoke a change in me or in my habits.
Trip to the Urgent Care
It was a typical weekend afternoon, we were going to the urgent care for what I KNEW was a urinary Tract infection (UTI). Having had suffered from them frequently since childhood and as far as my nursing brain could understand I had all of my symptoms of a UTI. Prepared with a post It note listing my symptoms, I riddled off my symptoms to my physician like I always do and suggested I thought I had a UTI. Expecting to leave just as quickly as I came in with a prescription for some antibiotics and I would be on my way.This particular doctor was different. He looked over my paperwork once I was finished talking and stared at me for a moment. He suggested for my beau at the time to step outside so that he could talk to me privately. I felt immediately on guard. What could he be thinking? More so, what could he say to me that would be so sensitive that he could not say in the presence of my beau?
Getting Diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
Giving my beau the nodding ok to exit the room, the doctor began to speak to me about PCOS. He said he noticed I was a frequent flier to the urgent care. After looking through my records, he could not find the lab results to support medications for a UTI. I explained, my urine usually came back negative for any bacteria. Nonetheless I was given antibiotics anyway.
He told me that he believed I had PCOS based on my medical history. The lower back and abdominal pain that I was associating with a UTI could unrelated. It could be a cyst or the presence of many cysts caused by what he thought could be “PCOS”. I left the urgent care that day confused and upset. Confused with a diagnosis I’ve never heard before. Upset bc I left without the antibiotics and pain meds.
I scheduled an appointment with my obstetrician. I explained my urgent care experience, and insisted to be checked for PCOS. After my blood results came back positive for increased androgens and my ultrasound positive for a cluster of cysts on my ovaries. I was diagnosed with PCOS. I was sent home with instructions that seemed all too familiar, limit carbs, sugars, and processed foods. I was provided with instructions to take OTC pain meds when I experienced abdominal pain and told to return back every 6 months to check on my cysts size.
Getting Pregnant with PCOS
Although my obstetrician recommended birth control to help alleviate some of the symptoms of PCOS, I felt differently. I had tried to take them in the past and felt overwhelmed by the side effects. I didn’t do anything to help ease my symptoms of PCOS. They weren’t interfering with my life enough to force me to create a change.I got married. PCOS was out of sight and out of mind. I got pregnant with much effort and might I add very fast the first time. PCOS was a distant memory for me and something that I knew had no cure and really no way that I could ever possibly manage… or at least I thought.
Due to my history of PCOS I was at increased risk for gestational diabetes. I went home with the same dreaded instructions again. Avoid carbs, processed foods, and sugar. I knew in my soul and my taste buds that the dietary restrictions and/or birth control wasnt an option. I would have to live with the hand I was dealt because there was no way I could commit to the alternative.
Late in my second trimester I lost the pregnancy. An ultrasound revealed my baby boy heart had stopped beating. For a moment, my heart had stopped too. The events that followed losing Logan weren’t very clear. But, nothing mattered anyway. I fell into a deep depression and gained a lot of weight.
Having a Rainbow Baby with PCOS
Some time had passed since I lost Logan, and I got pregnant again. This time things were bitter sweet. As happy as I was to be pregnant, I knew that until I saw the baby’s face in the delivery room. My heart could never be at peace for the duration of the pregnancy.Diagnosed again with Gestational Diabetes, I managed to have a healthy baby boy. Although life seemed to be great from the outside looking in. I was very depressed, rattled with anxiety and suffering from excessive weight gain.
The hardest part was trying to explain to my loved ones. The birth of my son, didn’t repair the tear in my heart from the loss of my other son.
Prescribed Metformin
Being a new mom and battling depression and anxiety, I continued to gain weight. My next appointment revealed that I was borderline for diabetes, and insulin resistant. The physician gave me metformin. Initially, I was ecstatic. A pill that promised to help reduce my sugars, help me lose weight, manage my symptoms of PCOS and fertility. Count me in!I filled the prescription for metformin the same day. I came home with my bottle of miracle pills and swallowed the first one. Immediately, I began to feel the effects. Within what seemed like minutes, I began to have stomach cramps. The ones that felt like they could end my existence.
I knew I had to make a change, immediately. Although I was feeling down from the lost of Logan. I was still filled with so much love as a new mom and I wanted to ensure I would be around for Anthony, my rainbow baby.
Finding Myself Through Keto
I read about the side effects of Metformin. I knew immediately that the stomach pain was the beginning. I needed to find a more viable solution for battling PCOS.After what felt like an eternity f research I cam across the Ketogenic diet. I read about its benefits in combating the symptoms of PCOS and knew immediately I had to give this a shot. Within days of implementing, I began to notice a change. I immediately started to feel better.
I spent what felt like a century doing research on the Ketogenic diet and its relationship with PCOS. As I continued to learn and put in place new changes, I continued to change.
I lost 40 pounds through the Ketogenic diet. I felt brand new, I felt invigorated, and I no longer felt plagued by anxiety and depression. My next doctor appointment revealed my blood sugars and insulin resistance has normalized. My depression and anxiety started to improve and my mind was clear in a way that I had never experienced before.
Love Served Warm
Have you ever gotten in on a major deal and felt the need to shout it from the rooftops?
Love Served Warm is a cultivation of all that I’ve learned and experienced. Not only a woman diagnosed with PCOS, but as a mom whose loved and lost. It’s an invitation to my dinner table to discuss topics that concern woman like you and me.
It’s an opportunity to reach out and help as many woman as can through life coaching and blogging. It’s an extended olive branch.
It is my hope that we learn together, laugh together, and cry together. Together we can find solutions to life’s problems. Problems that affect us as Woman, PCOS warriors, and sisters (Cysters).
Hope you stick around…
XO!
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