Just One of Those Days

Hi. It's Monday and I'm fat.

Okay, maybe that wasn't exactly a revelation for anyone.

However, the progesterone is affecting my weight a bit.

And the lack of squats is making my legs big.

Or maybe the progesterone just reassigns the fat. I don't know.

Because the number on the scale is not big enough to be a change in size, yet things aren't fitting correctly.

The unfatting of my body is never easy, not unless my adrenals are in the toilet.

I don't want to go back to the days of adrenal insufficiency.

But weight loss is damn difficult when I'm what passes for healthy in this malfunctioning body.

Sometimes I feel cursed.

Today is one of those days.

At least my books are selling?

Violating the Laws of Fatness

My pants are tight.

But I've lost 7 lbs.

I was not exactly thrilled about having a doctor's appointment right after a vacation that featured cherry pie nightcaps. With whipped cream.

I was awash in carbs all last week. Good carbs, bad carbs, I left no carb uneaten. It was a fun break from my usual routine, albeit a bit painful as my digestive system went into shock at the onslaught of refined foods. My entire gut just ached for the first three days until it finally adjusted.

So I had my carb face on; that particular blimp bloat that comes with sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening, sugar all the time. That pic of me with the toddler a few posts back is what carb face, in its full glory, looks like.

Because I don't have a scale, I had no idea how much water I was retaining from the junk I ate, but I wasn't curious enough to be happy to get on the scale at the doctor's office, you know?

But that's what I did today.

Stepped on the scale and found out I lost 7 lbs*.

However, my pants won't fit until I get rid of all the water retention that comes with a carb binge.

And they say the universe doesn't have a sense of humor.

As for the doc appointment, it was fine because the asthma is fine. Very unexciting and uneventful. Too bad I can't become so dull as to not need these appointments at all! My diagnosis now is 'severe persistent asthma.' Prior to March it was 'moderate persistent asthma.'

*Since the last weigh in which was in...late May? I think. Meaning I'm losing like 2.33 lbs a month. Dismal. I'm telling ya, I can't eat the watermelon and corn (or anything I ate on vacation). I bet I would've lost twice that if I'd cut out those carbs. Although, I haven't finished losing all the water I've retained, so maybe the weight loss is more than I think it is.

I really need to get a scale, but that requires the toddler to become fully self-sufficient on the potty, which I estimate will take forever at the rate we're going. Right now I've got too much potty junk in there to fit in a scale.

A Note for Megan Carter's Doctor

Megan Carter was one of the dancers auditioning last night for this season's So You Think You Can Dance and she was fat.

Quite overweight.

Yet an exquisite dancer. Clearly the mistress of her body.

Beautiful too.

But fat.

And she was cut from the auditions, partly because she was fat.

Here's the thing that upset me. It's probably not her fault. It's very likely her doctors have missed PCOS or don't understand how to properly counsel someone with insulin resistance.

Sure, she may eat crap, but so do many of her dancing peers who are thin. The problem isn't what she eats, it's that she has incredible strength and physicality, something that takes years of training hours to develop and yet her body retains its fat. That is not normal.

I have been a dancer. Nowhere near as talented as Megan, but I performed in an actual troupe at one point. You can't dance and not be fit. The strength required is immense. The calorie expenditure is insane. I remember 3 hour rehearsal sessions that were the physical equivalent of doing the polka full bore and non-stop. I loved it. Too bad prednisone and subsequent adrenal suppression made it impossible for me to continue.

Anyway, the point is, the strength and endurance required to do what Megan Carter does is akin to that of a professional athlete. There is no way she's that active and overeating any more than her thinner peers. There is something going on physiologically, something her doctors probably don't have the education to address.

A few weeks ago I 'spoke' with a woman on a message board about how to eat for PCOS. Her doctor had snidely told her it didn't matter what she ate, as long as she didn't overeat. They even suggested she could eat Snickers bars all day so long as she stayed below a certain total calorie threshold.

Utter bullshit. Of the worst kind. This kind of 'medical care' kills people. Sugar makes PCOS lethal. Restricted calories comprised of pure sugar won't produce weight loss. This is the kind of crap obese people run into repeatedly when they turn to medicine for help and I have no doubt that Megan Carter has experienced the same kind of 'care.'

So if you are Megan Carter's doctor, please check this lovely young lady for PCOS and figure out how to explain a low carb diet or find a nutritionist who can.

If you are Megan Carter googling yourself, you are a beautiful dancer as you are, however, should you ever want to lose weight, check out insulin resistance, PCOS and low carb eating.