I consider myself a pretty healthy person. I enjoy sweets and things covered in cheese but I try to enjoy them in moderation. I’m not always successful at this and I’ve definitely gained more weight as I’ve gotten older. However, I started noticing I would gain weight easier. I lost 10 pounds a few months ago when I was being very careful about eating balanced meals (healthy fats, mostly veggies, lean protein, and MAYBE some grains). Then I looked at a cookie too long and gained it back in what felt like a matter of minutes.

While I acknowledge the role I played in that I felt something was still off. I was also one hangry lady. If I hadn’t eaten in awhile I would feel lightheaded and couldn’t even function as a human. Luckily, I’m dating the most patient man in the universe who insisted I carry almonds in my purse any time we went anywhere to avoid these moments. I wasn’t just hungry, I felt like shit. There was a long list of other things that were going on in my body. Hirsutism, for example. (If I really let myself go, I could probably grow I nice beard, you guys. It’s a problem). I had assumed that my thyroid had finally stopped functioning, as I’m fairly certain I’m the only person in my family who has a working one. However, to my surprise, it was still working, but my endocrine system as a whole was not. My doctor said that I had polycystic ovaries syndrome. 1 in 10 women have it and it is not something that is life and death or even life-altering. It can cause issues when trying to get pregnant, but again it’s manageable. My hormones are just a fucking mess. And my insulin can be a fucking mess (hence the hanger issues). Even my cholesterol is an imbalanced mess.

After doing hours of reading and research I found the best method for controlling PCOS systems was changing your diet. And nothing super crazy, just a really healthy diet. Like cutting out sugar, cutting out processed foods, cutting out dairy, and eating mostly vegetables and only like  1/4 of your diet should be whole grains (not bread and pasta too much processed sugar) and 1/4 lean protein. Which if I’m being honest with myself, if we are all being honest with ourselves, is probably how we should all be eating anyway. After doing a lot of reading, I was coming across all the things that our over-sugared and over-processed diet could potentially be doing to us.

So I’ve decided to quit the majority of these over-processed and over-sugared foods cold turkey. In addition, I’m also detoxing from caffeine (day 2 y’all and it is rough!). The reason for the caffeine detox is that too much caffeine can mess up insulin. While I could drink caffeine in smaller amounts eventually, I need to detox from the crazy amount I typically drink and potentially just quit it all together. Then there is alcohol. Alcohol increases your estrogen levels, which I’m already dealing with an imbalanced mess of hormones so that is also going to need to be given the boot. Now, I’m not saying that I won’t drink a glass of wine or champagne for a special occasion, but the weekly happy hours may include me sipping on soda water or tea.

I’m working up to the dairy thing. I don’t drink milk or eat yogurt but my one true love is cheese. I’m not sure I can quit that. I love you cheese, I can’t quit you.

So as I move into my herbal tea drinking, the mostly veggie eating phase of life, I’m probably going to need a little grace both for myself and others. The caffeine withdrawal is real and as I become more aware of the sugars in my foods I’m sure the sugar withdrawal will be very real as well. I’m apologizing now to anyone who has to be around me for the next couple of weeks…it may get real ugly.

**Note: Anything that is worded weirdly or that seems incoherent I’m blaming on the splitting caffeine withdrawal headache I am currently experiencing. The struggle is real**