February 10, 2025 • 49 mins
💥 NEW EPISODE ALERT! 💥
In this episode of the Bariatric Banter Podcast, your fave hosts Hannah & Steph get REAL about living with PCOS and how it impacts weight loss and overall health. 🧠💪 They spill the tea on their personal experiences with PCOS and the struggles of managing comorbidities while navigating the world of weight loss. It's not easy, but it’s TOTALLY possible!
🙌 From the importance of exercise to starting small with lifestyle changes, this episode is packed with actionable advice, personal stories, and real talk that will leave you feeling motivated and ready to take on the world!
🌎💥 Grab your favorite drink, sit back, and get ready for a conversation that’s all about finding balance, starting at your own pace, and making your mental & physical health a priority! 💖
Don’t forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and COMMENT your thoughts below! 💬 Like, Subscribe, and Comment and be sure to follow us: https://www.instagram.com/bariatricbanterpodcast/
#PCOS #BariatricBanter #WeightLossJourney #ExerciseMotivation #HealthyLiving #PCOSAwareness #LifestyleChanges #MentalHealthMatters #BariatricSupport #EmpowerYourself #FitnessJourney #HealthAndWellness #StartSmall #WeightLossTips #PCOSLife #PodcastEpisodes
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Here we go. Ready? Oh, yeah. Hey, Steph. Hey, Hannah. This is I can see you. I know. Welcome
(00:15):
to our first video podcast. Guys, this is weird. This is so weird. I'm still like, where
do I look? Yeah. Do I look at the camera? Do I look at myself? Do I look at Steph? I
don't know. Like, so bear with us while we learn how to be video podcasters. It must
be a little bit of grace on this one, guys. We're learning. We'll figure it out eventually.
Yeah, we'll share some behind the scenes photos because if you could see how long it took
(00:38):
us to get set up and to then be like, is this a good angle? How's my hair look? Is this
okay? Like, the joke is, yeah, give us a few episodes and we probably won't give a shit
what we look like when we show up. No, it's going to be like a pajama messy bun episode
in three or four. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. But at least for the first one, you get Hannah
and Steph with makeup and like really trying to look presentable. With like a ring light.
(01:03):
I know. I have like the office lit up. There is a dog in here. So enjoy the distractions
when he gets up and down. But you know, Bo gets to be in here for the day. So I love
it. It's mine out. That's okay. I kicked everybody out. I was I was going to kick everyone out
and then the cat wanted in. So the cat's in here somewhere. Bo's in here. It's just going
(01:24):
to be a good time. Yeah. Keep the brood in the room is right. I love it. It's going to
be a good time. No, I kicked the whole family out. The dogs out there probably crying somewhere.
I love it. Hey, listen, Saturdays are podcast days. So for those who don't know, we record
on Saturdays. I love it. Cool. Well, welcome to episode five of the Bariatric Bander podcast.
(01:45):
Now live in a living cover. Can't believe it's five. I know. I can't believe we're on
five. I can't believe now we are doing video. So you will be seeing us every week. You can
still catch us streaming on every platform. Spotify, Apple, iHeartRadio. We love iHeartRadio
because you're now our biggest download and streaming service. I love it. I love it. So
(02:07):
hello Americans. And now you'll find us on YouTube. So wherever you want to watch or
listen, we're trying to be everywhere so that you can choose the format that you'd like.
And also so that you can put faces to names for those of you who don't know, Steph and
I, this is who we are. This is what we look like. We look different than we did a couple
(02:28):
years ago. You can see the faces we make when we talk about things that get us really riled
up. When we're typically sitting behind the camera just, yeah, all the way to come out.
My face is going to be bad. It's going to be very bad. I get heated a lot. It's true.
But that's, you know what? This is the real deal guys. So yeah, we're on unfiltered. We'll
(02:50):
get into the groove in a couple, a couple of episodes. Listen, I've cut my swearing
down substantially. So you are all welcome. I was impressed. You did a good job. You're
welcome. I think I swore more in the last episode than you did. Hey, you were passionate
in the last episode. So this one's a good one too though. Gotta give you grace. Right?
This is a good one. This is a good one. This is a good one. This week on episode five,
(03:12):
we are going to talk PCOS or as I call it PCOS and comorbidities, which I will mispronounce
this entire episode. You did it. I know. Because it's right in front of me and I always call
it comorbidities, but it's comorbidities. So we're going to talk about PCOS, comorbidities
and bariatric surgery together. And kind of what we mean by comorbidities for those who
(03:37):
don't know, comorbidities are kind of health issues that you have that can absolutely lead
to death. Now, not, they're not really going to cause you to die instantly, but there are
two or more medical conditions that occur at the same time within your body that can
really impact your health and outlook. And what they mean by outlook is it increases
(04:00):
your risk of death. And it's all about lifestyle changes when it comes to comorbidities. So
comorbidities are not something that you've inherited through your genes or things that
you have no control over. These are things that have directly happened to you because
of your lifestyle. Things like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, pre-diabetes.
(04:24):
Now, yes, does this run in families? Sure. But they specifically would look at, did you
develop this because of your lifestyle, not because of your genes? So that's what comorbidities
are. I'm not a doctor, so there's probably somebody being like, she butchered that so
badly. But comorbidities are basically things that take away from your life expectancy that
(04:45):
are within your control. So we're going to go through bariatric and bariatric surgery
because shocker, spoiler alert, Steph and I both have PCOS and Steph and I also both
had slash have comorbidities. And so we kind of wanted to cover what did that look like
before surgery and give you guys an update on what it looks like now after surgery. Love
(05:11):
it. Yeah. So I covered what comorbidities are. Boy, for someone who cannot pronounce
that word, I am going to have to consistently keep saying it this podcast. But Steph, maybe
you want to cover what is PCOS or as I affectionately love to call it, PCOS. Yeah. So Anna, I love
that. So PCOS is polycystic ovarian syndrome. So it's when on your ovaries you have cysts.
(05:37):
So you can see these typically on an ultrasound. The thing with PCOS is there is no definitive
test. And the reason I say that is because not everybody will show multiple cysts on an
ultrasound all the time or at all. There's a lot of symptoms that go into PCOS. So there
(05:58):
are a lot of people who have undiagnosed PCOS. There's a lot of people who don't get diagnosed
until later. But basically what it is, is cysts on your ovaries and that can impact
hormones. It can impact fertility. It can lead to weight gain, hair in places you don't
want hair. You saw my Instagram story this morning. You'll notice I even called it on
(06:20):
my story. I forgot to shave my lovely ones this morning. So I did that for you today.
It's the worst. It's so bad. And so it is basically an overarching diagnosis that has
a lot of symptoms within it. So for me, I was diagnosed with PCOS, but I rarely had
(06:40):
multiple cysts on my ovaries on ultrasound, but I had all the other symptoms that fell
in place. So it's different for everybody. A lot of women are undiagnosed and there is
no magic cure for PCOS either. I think this episode will honestly just become all about
PCOS because it is just such a huge topic we need to cover. And maybe we'll just cover
(07:05):
comorbidities in its own because there's like a million to cover there. But I think that's
the big thing when I first learned about it, which was later in life, by the way, I only
learned about it because I was having an ultrasound of my kidney because I only have one working
kidney. And while I was there, they were like, hey, maybe we should just like, do you want
(07:26):
to get a pap test done while you're here and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, oh yeah,
sure. They were like running some sort of clinic and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So,
you know, okay, we're going to do that. And I had both, like I had the speculum, all that
stuff, but like then they did an ultrasound when they were in there for good measure and
they were like, oh, and I was like, oh, what they're like, you have a ton of this on your
ovaries. And I was like, okay, I also have them in my kidney and I seem to be doing fine.
(07:51):
So I had no idea what it was. It was later in life, but then it all kind of started adding
up. But the one thing that really bugged me was I would start Googling it and boy, did
I find a ton of people being like, here's how you cure it. Here's how you cure it. Here's
how you cure it. Here's how do you cure it. And there is no one solution to fix it. Like
(08:12):
this is, yeah, there's things to help, but there is no help. And we'll talk about weight
loss surgery, but none of it is like, nobody said to me, oh, if you have weight loss surgery,
it's going to totally, totally cure your PCOS. Like nobody said that. But when I would go
see certain people, they absolutely kind of tried to sell me on, oh yeah, like this is
(08:37):
what you need. This will cure it. And it's like, cure it. If I have cysts on my ovaries,
won't the cysts always be on my ovaries without surgery? Like do they just go away? Because
I have a feeling if they kind of go away, it's probably painful. Like that's probably
because they burst. So I just remember there were too many people telling me like there's
(08:57):
quick fix, quick solution, spearmint tea, Metformin. The big thing was like the diets.
Everything I was seeing online was diets will fix PCOS. And there just, there wasn't any
studies or enough people that had specialized in this, which was shocking because once I
was diagnosed with it, it's like everyone I knew was like, oh yeah, I have that too.
(09:20):
I have that too. Yep. For me, I did have symptoms, but obviously we didn't know what those symptoms
were. Right? Like I have male doctors and don't get me wrong, Dr. Singh is a fucking
G. I love him. He's great. This was before I had him, but it was a lot of like, oh, you
have anxiety. Oh, okay. Oh Jesus. The amount of times I was told, you have anxiety, you
(09:42):
have anxiety, you have anxiety. And then they'd be like, why don't you start anxiety medication?
And I'd sit in this office and go, I don't, I don't think this is anxiety. Like I'm not,
I don't think I'm bad enough to need medication like it is. They made me anxious because then
I started to have herculean anxiety where I thought there was something wrong with me.
But my symptoms were, I was going an entire year where I'd have one period. Before that,
(10:09):
I had a period that wouldn't end and it lasted months, which was just like horrible in your,
you know, mid to late twenties to be like, quite disgusting. How do I live a normal life?
Like a single girl, you know, 300 period. Okay. I then had like solid years back to
back where I just wasn't having it. And so a lot of it was like, well, you're overweight.
(10:33):
Yep, I am. But I've been overweight my whole life and my periods never been this weird.
So okay. And then it was, well, you go, it's anxiety. You need to be on anxiety medication.
And I remember my mom was a nurse being like, do not fucking take that medication. Like
you don't need it. And not that she's against medication. She just knows me. And in your
situation, you didn't need it. Yeah, exactly. And she knows me. She's my mother. Like she
(10:57):
knows you are not like, you are not at that level. And I luckily have a great therapist.
And I remember saying to her, like, am I supposed to be on this medication? And she was like,
you're like, no. And I was like, okay, she's like, if you need it, like there's nothing
wrong with it. But remember her telling me at the time, like, you're one of like the
(11:18):
least anxious people I see. And I was like, oh, cool. But boy, they make you spiral. So
yeah, it was the stress, your weight, your fat, you got to lose weight. Then I was overweight.
And then it was, you're anxious, take anxiety medication. Then it was, oh, some women just
have hormonal imbalances, never once got sent for hormone testing. So, you know, it's normal.
(11:42):
And then they were like, oh, well, I guess if you haven't had it for six months, like,
we're going to have to induce it because, you know, it can lead to cancer. And I was
like, oh, do you know how long it took for, but it took so long for someone to tell me
that you could induce your period. Like, why was I waiting years to finally be told? Like,
what happens is if you don't, sorry for the men listening, but if you don't have a period,
(12:07):
the tissue will build up and that tissue-
It doesn't just disappear.
That tissue is what can start to become cancerous if it doesn't leave your body. Again, I am
no medical expert. This is just what I was told by my gynecologist. So when I finally
got prescribed a gynecologist who was the best, she was like, oh my God, yes, you need
to be doing this every month because you don't want that building up. I had to have the world's
(12:30):
most excruciating procedure, a uterine biopsy. I wish this on no one. And she was like, we
have no choice, Hannah. It's been years where I don't know what's growing and going on.
And I have to be certain that there's not old tissue, scar tissue. Like we have to.
And I was like-
And they don't, note to men, they don't medicate you for these things.
(12:50):
Oh no, you're not knocked out.
Yeah. Take some time and all.
Yep. They literally was told to take some Advil before I come in because it might be
quote crampy. And there's nothing that happens to numb you or anything. And for those who
don't know, they go up in you and cut a chunk out of you while you're away.
Take a deep breath.
Yep. Oh, it's going to be a little bit of pressure, little bit of pressure. I threw
(13:14):
up and then almost passed out in the car in the parking lot. Because by the way, they
were like, yeah, you can drive yourself to this. Should not have driven myself to that.
I called my mom and I cried and I rarely cry. So I'm sure my mom thought, oh God, she's
dying. But I just remember thinking, I'll never have that procedure done again. You've
got to be kidding. So I went back to my doctor and said, no, how do we fix this? I need to
(13:38):
fix this now. This is, this is absurd. So yeah, my experience with PCOS is that, yeah,
I did have symptoms. I was having infrequent to no periods. I had to get induced with medications.
I had to have uterine biopsies. And then I was put on metformin, which did absolutely
(13:58):
nothing for me. And then I was told, lose a ton of weight. Oh, and then if I want to
have babies, I should just start having babies. It doesn't really matter if I found the right
guy. You know, if there's somebody in my life that I, you know, is good enough, I'm not
even shitting you. This is what I was told. If there's someone in my life that's good
enough, I should start trying because it'll be really hard for me to have kids with this
(14:20):
thing that I have. And I was like, Hey, I'm here to fix my medical issue. I couldn't give
a shit about starting a family. I would like to not get cancer. Let's focus on the immediate.
I was so pissed. I was like, well, thanks so much for, thanks so much for this. Thank
you. Thank you so much. I was, I was 20, 20, no, 28, 25 ish. I was 25 ish. 26, 26. I was
(14:50):
26 because I was 25. And then decided we wanted to have kids. Cool. And nothing was happening.
Nothing was happening. Nothing is happening. Okay. I know it takes a while. Like at least
they say like within the first year, it takes a while. Right. And then I had started having
random, weird spotting, like mid cycle, almost like clockwork out of nowhere. Weird. This
(15:15):
is weird. So went to the doctor and at this time I had a doctor who I despise. I, I'm
so glad we got rid of this doctor. Anyway, um, I went to him and he's like, well, how
long have you been trying? And I said a couple, a couple of months and he's like, Oh, well,
he's like, you're young. And I was like, okay, but I just, I said, I have a feeling something
is not right. I said, I now have this weird random spotting and he's like, yeah, again,
(15:39):
you're fine. You got to wait at least a year. And I was like, no, something, something is
not right. I just know it. Something is not right. He's like, okay, fine. I'll send you
for some blood work to check your, um, menstrual levels. Okay. And I was like, okay, cool.
So he sent me for blood work. It came back a little bit off, but nothing crazy. Okay.
Well, that doesn't really help me with any answers. He's like, okay, I'm going to send
(16:02):
you for an ultrasound and a scope. And I was like, Oh, okay. So send me for the ultrasound,
for the results. The next couple of days, I'm supposed to go for this scope at the hospital.
Yeah. On my notes to me, I find out like the day before that the scope means they are going
up in there. Oh yeah. Like a little camera scopie thing. Yeah. So I was not- It's like
(16:24):
a reverse colonoscopy. Yeah. So I was not looking forward to this. I took time off work.
I booked it off. I go, I'm by myself. I'm so nervous. I walk in and the doctor who's
doing it, like they're just basically like pumping people through this room, getting
scopes done. And so I walk in and the doctor, he's standing there like with a chart like
this. Yeah. And I opened the door and he looks up at me and he looks at the chart. He looks
(16:46):
at me, the chart. He's like, are you Stephanie? And I was like, yeah. So it was, how old are
you? I said I'm 26. And he just literally can see him go, Oh, he goes, come sit down.
Oh, and I was like, what? He's like, you're not getting a scope today. Oh, and part of
(17:06):
me was like, thank the Lord. I've been stressed out for days. I took time off work. I'm in
a gown and now you're telling me this isn't happening. Like what the shit is going on?
So we go into the down. He goes, I'm sorry. He goes, I didn't even look at your file before
you walked in the room. I just assumed people that are here should be here. Yeah. He's like,
if I would have seen this, I would have canceled your scope before you even got here. And he's
(17:28):
like, let's look at your file while you're here. So I told him, he goes, okay, he goes,
you don't need a scope for that. I was like, okay. And then he goes, I have your ultrasound
results here. Everything looks fine. Okay. He goes, except for the tumor. Excuse me.
And I, yeah, I went, what? For the tumor on your liver. And again, I just served, he goes,
(17:51):
I'm guessing you didn't know about that. I was like, no, no. He goes, it's nothing bad.
He goes, it's a benign tumor. It's like a, not like a fatty tumor, but he goes, people
get these all the time. They go away. Nothing to worry about. I'm like, I think, I feel
like I should still know it's there. Yeah. Like, yeah. So I thank him. He was great.
We talked about it. I left, I stormed back to work. My boss is like, why are you here?
(18:12):
I was like, I'm going in. We had like personal call booth rooms. Yeah. I was like, I'll be
back. So I went and I called the doctor's office and the receptionist answered and I
loved her, but I said, Jennifer, and I lost it on her and she apologized. She had no idea,
whatever. So I went back to the doctor again and I was like, this is bull. Like you are
referring me to a gynecologist. Um, I said, we're getting Devin tested. And he's like,
(18:36):
well, Devin's not my patient. I was like, I don't care. I'm like, I am your patient.
You're sending me to a gynecologist. You're sending me to a fertility specialist and you're
getting Devin tested. So I got referred to that oncologist while I was waiting for that.
We went to this one fertility clinic in Kitchener, which I will not name, but oh my God,
I would never step foot in this door again. I have some of the worst, the worst doctor.
(18:58):
So we got Devin tested. Thank gosh through her. And then I went to see Dr. Pops in Kitchener
and honest to God, I walked into his office. He looked at the file. He looked at Devin's results.
He looked at all my stuff and he just looked me in the eye. He goes, where do you want to go?
And I said, what? And it's now been like a year. He's like, where do you want to go?
(19:19):
I was like, for what? He goes for fertility treatment. You tell me and I'll send you.
And I was like, thank God. So anyway, we ended up going fertility place. Um, and that's
where I found out I had PCOS based on all my other testing. Um, they, they were able to tell me within
like my first appointment. He looked at me and he's like, okay, the weight obviously is a PCOS thing.
(19:39):
Yeah. He looked at my blood work levels. Um, but then he said to he, we talked about like, um,
tiredness and bloating and a bunch of other things that are common symptoms, like, yep. And
can continuous fatigue, like all the time. And then he looked at me and he told, I'm sorry for staring.
He goes, but I'm looking for hair. And I was like, what? And he said hair, chin hair, um, hair,
(20:05):
like thicker than normal hair in here. Um, and he goes, do you have hair on your thighs?
And I was like, well, he goes like upper inner thigh area. Do you have dark hair? Not a lot,
but like dark predominant hairs. And I said, yeah. And he goes, um, PCOS like right off the bat.
And he's like, what? He goes, you have PCOS. And instantly they checked my thyroid because often
(20:30):
PCOS and thyroid are connected. I got tested for that too. And it was, it was negative. It was,
so it was fine at first. Um, so that was okay. But yeah, he instantly diagnosed with PCOS. Wow. Um,
we started fertility treatments. We did one round of fertility treatments that ended in miscarriage
that kicked my thyroid out of whack. So then I was on thyroid meds. Um, but yeah, it was,
(20:54):
we did like a year fertility stuff with this clinic who was phenomenal, but that they're the
ones who finally diagnosed PCOS and then everything kind of started to make sense. I had, I did
sometimes have cysts, but not regularly. It was only the odd time, but I had every other symptom
in the book. And they do differ. Like there is insulin resistant PCOS. I have that too. There's
(21:18):
another one, like I'm not an expert on that, but there are different types. So
I do know that the insulin resistance one closely mirrors diabetes in the sense that you can gain
weight, um, around your abdomen. You have like the swollen faces. We'll post on Instagram,
some photos of before surgery. Um, just so you could see what my face looks like. Cause that,
(21:41):
that alone should have been enough. So yeah, different. I know. And I always had really full,
I still do. Like I'm not as clearly as far in the process as you are, but yeah, but I've always had
a full round. Yeah. But this was insulin resistant. Never knew. This was really different. And I
didn't notice at the time, but like, yeah, cause you see it every day. It was swollen. I think I
(22:04):
just thought, Hey, I'm fat versus that's just not a fat face. Like that is a very, um, and it caught
up quick and they put me on metformin because again, like I, I still don't know what type of
PCOS I have because they never really tested. They just kind of assumed it was insulin. I actually
don't think it is for the fact that like metformin didn't work kind of like the diet changes didn't
(22:28):
really do much for me. The really annoying thing with PCOS that we can both attest to is that it
makes it really difficult to lose weight, not impossible. And this is going to be, sorry,
this is a really hot tape. I know I'm really sorry. It makes it difficult, but not impossible. So I,
100% I think because I was obese was looking for a way to be like, I'm obese and it's not my fault.
(22:54):
Um, and so as soon as I got described, Jesus prescribed with PCOS, I was like, Oh, cool.
That's the reason I'm fat has nothing to do with anything else in my life. I have a medical issue
and that's why I am fat. So I used it to justify like, it's not me. It's not my eating habits.
I'm clearly working out enough. And the truth is like, does it make it difficult? Sure. I'd say
(23:18):
for every 10 pounds, someone without it can lose. You probably can lose too. And that fucking blows.
That really fucking blows. Super demogorgous. But it is not the reason you're obese. There. It is
not the reason I was 315 pounds. The COS alone is not the reason. And that's where the different
diet come in because they'll say like this diet is good for this time. And like I had insulin
(23:39):
resistance PCOS for sure. And that's when I got looped into the keto because everybody said,
I tried that keto and PCOS and now I will say I did lose weight with keto. 100% I did. But I,
one of the things that I have an issue with with my insulin resistance and my PCOS is I will lose
(24:00):
weight, like you said, very slow, but it will happen. But then I almost hit this plateau and
I can't get past the plateau. And it's almost as if I also have really high cortisol, which is
another thing I found out. It comes with it. It's continually high all the time, which basically
means for anyone who doesn't know, you, your cortisol level should go up and down. It's your
(24:22):
stress hormone. So it should, there are times in the day or when you exercise that your cortisol
will go up and then it should come back down. Mine is always high. So my body is permanently
panicked and stressed, which is great. Which gets mistaken for anxiety and then we get put on
medication we don't put on. So I usually hit a plateau and then I get like, my body goes into
(24:45):
extra panic mode. And then it's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're losing weight. You're losing
weight. Stop and try to hold on to it. And it's really hard to get over that, that doable, but
again, very hard. It's called cravings. It because of cortisol, your body wants you to eat. And
there's this common theory. Oh, everyone's going to hate me after this episode. There's this common
(25:11):
theory called starvation mode, which is, oh, your body is just so deprived that it's going to hang
on to all the nutrients and keep you fat. Now, logically you could be like, okay, but like if
we starve prisoners of war and they lose weight, or if you were on, okay, let's have a nicer example.
If you were on naked and alone or whatever that like bear guile show is or survivor, right? How
(25:35):
come they lose so much weight? They're not in starvation mode and they're not gaining weight.
Who's a fat survivor that you've seen? So like, I don't disagree, don't disagree that there are
things that kind of, you know, can help hold on to weight, but this notion that you've deprived your
body or you've not eaten enough. And that's the reason. No, it's not. It's not. It is not
(25:56):
scientifically. It comes down to not being sustainable. Like it's just the diet, the keto.
And I, I know people personally who have done keto for a long time and have seen great success.
And that's great. You always see success. That's great. Yeah. But it, for me, not sustainable.
Not at all. And they'll say low, low carb is good for PCOS. But again, for me, not sustainable. It's
(26:22):
and I, this, I'm sure we'll talk about this in another podcast, so we don't go down the rabbit
hole and do a two hour podcast, but it comes down to lifestyle changes, not diet. And it comes down
to things that are sustainable, that are real life that you can implement as a lifestyle change
and continue on. And so that's where people with PCOS struggle is because a lot of these
(26:42):
diets that are supposed to help PCOS are not sustainable. And you have to think if you are
insulin resistance, you really got to look at your diet and look at sugar. You got to almost think
like you are a diabetic. No, I have diabetics in my family. Yeah. Runs in my, runs in my family on
my dad's side. So they don't just track their sugar. They're not sitting there going, oh,
(27:06):
how much sugar is in this? It's carbs and sugar. Like there's a, there's a few things they have to
look at to make sure they keep their sugars balanced. So that's the other thing when you have
insulin resistant PCOS. And again, we're not medical experts. This is just based on the medical
experts we've been dealing with having PCOS, having our own dieticians from the bariatric clinic
and our own internal medicine doctor, nurse, and surgeon from the clinic. They track calories,
(27:31):
not calories, carbs and sugar. And they have to make good choices for themselves to keep their
insulin balanced. You do too. And the hard thing is a lot of women getting prescribed. There we go.
A lot of women getting, I'm not even thinking of the right word, but basically being told you have
this, are overweight, too obese, and unfortunately aren't making good life choices. So if your body
(27:54):
is already unbalanced and already teetering into high cortisol and insulin, do you think throwing
yourself into keto and throwing your body into something that's so drastic is actually going to
be sustainable and help you? Not really, because you're just adding more stress to a stressful
situation. So one of the best pieces of advice I got from the clinic was, oh yeah, this will help
(28:17):
with your PCOS because we're going to teach you how to re-eat and also don't be afraid of cardio.
You know, blah, blah, blah. When it comes to the diets on Instagram that we're told to do for PCOS,
it's, don't do cardio. You gotta get that high fat in there. Oh, spearmint tea, spearmint tea,
spearmint tea. Only wait. Fucking hate spearmint tea. It's so gross. Oh, and then you need to get
(28:41):
metformin and this other thing that you buy off the internet. Oh, and then you need to eat whole
seeds, like just a scoop of hemp seeds. Like first of all, oh my God. And then it was, you need to
move really slow. You shouldn't be doing cardio. You know, you need to just lift five pound weights
and go really slow. Cause if you go too hard, you're going to put your muscles up and oh my
(29:02):
goodness. If I hear anyone tell me fuck cardio one more time, I'm going to lose my mind. Cardio is
not the enemy. Cardio does not make your PCOS bad. Cardio is not keeping you fat. Strength training
is important. You want to build muscle. Muscle is great. Muscle burns fat. Muscle's awesome.
(29:23):
But if you want to do HIIT, do HIIT. If that's your class, cool. If you want to lift slow,
lift high weight slowly, go for it. But this notion that you need to hold a five pound weight
and just go really slow and that's what PCOS needs. I spent a year following these stupid
exercise routines that I kept seeing for PCOS and I gained fucking weight. And the thing that
(29:46):
worked before surgery, I started walking. I was 315 pounds before surgery. I was obese. I was
morbidly obese. I was huge. I've lost weight once in my life before. I was 195 pounds from walking.
I didn't go to the gym. I didn't do HIIT classes. I literally walked twice a day to and from my job
(30:09):
in Toronto. I walked 30 minutes to catch my bus, caught my bus, walked 30 minutes home after I got
off my bus and I dropped an enormous amount of weight after bariatric surgery, which is a tool.
It's not a magic device. I walk. I walk 5K a day, minimum. I'm getting a ton of steps in and the
walking has been great. I'm a runner now. I'm training for a 10K and a half marathon. Walking
(30:35):
still has helped me lose more weight than running because running makes me so hungry that I want to
eat all the carbs in the world. But cardio has had one of the best impacts on my PCOS, my mental
health and my weight loss. It's helped me regulate my breathing. It's increased my heart capacity,
made my heart more efficient than it's ever been. And I still strength train. I have nothing against
(30:59):
it. But for the love of God, if I see one more PCOS account say, do not do cardio, cardio is so
bad for PCOS. It's not. That's total bullshit. Total fucking bullshit. It is not spiking your
cortisol. It's not keeping you fat. It's not ruining fit. Like I'm hot take, but I'm so tired
because all I see are PCOS accounts saying that cardio is the worst thing ever. And now I'm seeing
(31:21):
like other accounts saying cardio is why you're not losing weight and you'll be fat. Like it's a
balance folks. Our clinic has told both of us specifically two days of strength training and
the rest needs to be cardio. They've even said you need to be moving every day. Now it's not get out
and run every day. There's a cat walking right in front of me. It's not get out and run every day.
(31:43):
No, but it's 30 minutes minimum a day of walking or some sort of vigorous exercise and two days a
week of strength training. And I hate to break it to people, but they told me Pilates does not
count as strength training and neither does yoga. Cause early on I tried to go, I'm doing Pilates.
And they were like, it doesn't count. So I said, great, I'll do body pump. And they were like,
(32:06):
you could, yeah, absolutely. If you love it, do body pump, but also like you could just go
lift heavy weights. And I was like, oh, and my dietician now has said the same thing to me. How
much are you weight training? And I was like, you know, so you're not. And I was like, she's like,
you can't just run five days a week. So he's like, gotta be, it's gotta be a healthy mix of both.
(32:29):
And like, I hate cardio. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. But it's gotta be a mix and walking is
so Filippen underrated. And I used to have this, he's doing this bootcamp with this trainer who I
still to this day, I love him so much. And he used to say, and it always stuck with me, that your body
recognizes movement, not exercise. Because I remember like, I would go to these bootcamps
(32:52):
with people that were fit and I was morbidly obese and I couldn't do half of the things. And he was
so great. He would come over and I remember he would put my hand on his hand on my back and he
would just say, just move, just move like what he goes, I don't care if you can't do whatever I've
told you to do at this station. Just do something. Yeah. And then you say your body recognizes
(33:13):
movement, not exercise. And so I hand down for first strength training. But cardio, like you said,
even if it's just walking, that counts as cardio. Walk is boring. Yeah, it doesn't have to be hit.
You're not gonna find me doing it. There's no way in hell. I hate it. I would rather die than do it.
So cardio, as long as your heart rate is up, walking counts. So get over it. The hate for walking
(33:38):
blows my mind. Like why people think walking doesn't count as exercise? Bitch. So my mom lost an
incredible amount of weight after she had kids. It was something she struggled with. Walking,
she just walked every day. And now it's part of their routine as retired individuals. My mom's
like, your dad and I go out for a nice walk. And it's how they maintain. My dad, who's going to be 80,
(33:59):
does 10K a day, not at once. But he goes for two walks a day. He was a runner, a hockey player.
He'd never had his knees replaced, his hips replaced. He's battled and won his battle against
cancer. We owe it all to walking. We attribute it to, he was a drinker, a smoker. I wouldn't say he
(34:19):
ate the best. That man probably eats three ice creams a goddamn day. How he's not a diabetic,
I'll never know, but like good job, dad. But we do, we tell them all the time, we attribute it to
your walking. He plays golf. He's an avid golfer, which like love golf. And he plays with younger
people because the 80, like he's 70 something, but the 70 something and 80 year olds he plays with
(34:42):
are all literally in the hospital too much to play with because they've had their hips replaced,
their knees replaced, their shoulders replaced. Like they're not healthy people. He now plays with
60 year olds because they're actually healthy. And my mom said, it's your walking reg. Like
you're getting out every day and walking twice a day. It's keeping you fit. It's letting you
(35:02):
eat those ice creams. But like, I don't know why there's so much hate. Thanks, Mel. So much hate
for walking. Early on in my bariatric journey, I just walked. I was not a runner until June of 2024,
by the way. I walked. I did laps in the driveway. Yeah. I did. When I got up to it, I was doing 10k
on the weekend and I loved it. I put an audio book on, I went out for an hour and a half.
(35:24):
And the weight was just going. So with or without surgery, I can attest, I lost an enormous amount
of weight back in my very early twenties from just walking as well. So I stand firm in my belief that
if people are telling you with PCOS not to do cardio, no, if you like spin, do spin. If you want
to run, run. If you want to walk, walk. If you're just starting, walk. Walking is the one of the
(35:49):
best things. And if people tell you it's not, get rid of the account, move on and goodbye.
Walking is literally not keeping you fat. Walking is not keeping you with PCOS. This is a medical
disease that is causing cysts on your ovaries and walking is not causing that. It's not. And it is
not hurting your chances of losing weight at all. So just move your body in whatever way it makes
(36:13):
sense. But if people are telling you not to do something, it's, it's probably not the best advice
because what I've learned from surgery, everything in moderation, everything has a balance. Just like
I can't just do cardio. I have to do strength and cardio for a well-rounded healthy body. If I want
to keep those muscles and I want to build muscles so I don't become really weak, you need to do
(36:36):
strength training. So that's my hot take on, I hate the fuck cardio movement. I hate it. And I don't
think it's helping. I don't think it's helping you not to do cardio. I really don't. I think what it
comes down to at the end of the day is, is PCOS a medical issue? Yes. Yes. Is it, is it a medical
(36:57):
disease? Yeah. Does it make things in your life harder? Yes. Yes. Does it make things impossible?
No. Oh. There is, is there a cure? No. There, but at the end of the day, there's lots you can do
to make improvements. There's lots of things you can do to help. In terms of diet, it really comes
(37:17):
down to clean eating for me at least. Clean eating. Clean eating. Lifestyle changes. I don't,
I'm really trying to get the word diet out of my house and out of my mouth. And I agree with you.
Yeah. Because it's not diet. It's not a lifestyle change. A diet implies, diets imply short term.
Yeah. And diets come into the good food, bad food, which is a whole nother conversation that I don't,
(37:39):
I don't want to get into today because we'll be here for another hour. But it's just, is it a medical
condition? Yes. Does it make things hard? You damn well bet it does. And challenge. Are there people
who, I know like for me, one of my big symptoms is I'm always tired. Now that is also my cortisol,
but like I'll wake up and Devon will say, Oh, like good morning. How are you tired? He's like,
(38:02):
you always say that because I literally wake up tired. It's a day and I go to bed. So people with
PCOS are not lazy. No, they're not, not trying to better themselves. No. But at the end of the day,
there are things you can do. Like you said, move your body, just walk some weights, just walk,
just move, let some weight, eat clean foods. And if you're not somebody who's planning on having
(38:24):
surgery, vitamins are, yeah, vitamins huge. And if you are not someone who's planning on having
surgery, you will, the weight will be lost. It will just be slow. I hate to say it. It's going to be
tougher. It's going to be harder for you. It's going to be more work for you. It's going to be
slower for you. But that was one of the reasons why, yeah, for me, it was appealing to have the
(38:46):
surgery because same thing. They said that it will improve your PCOS because one of, one of the catch
22s with PCOS is it will get better if you lose weight, but it's so hard. It might not cure it,
but it will get better. Yes. But the losing weight part is the really hard part. So for me, it was,
okay, I can continue to work my butt off like crazy, see results, but see them so slow, which for me
(39:12):
was so demotivating and I have a lot to lose. So it was, do I want to sit here and put in all this
effort for the slow result, which I know for me makes it very hard then for me to be motivated
and for me to have the determination to stick with any sort of thing. Right. So I can bust my butt
and it'll take me two, probably two plus, let's be more than two years, probably to lose the amount
(39:36):
of weight I need to lose. Or I can have this surgery, drop the weight shit ton faster,
which to me was like, why would I not want to put myself and my body in the best position possible
as fast as possible? A hundred percent. I feel better and not be so tired all the time and not
have my, yada yada. Right. So for me, that's what it was. Is PCOS something that is going to
(40:00):
make it impossible for you to have a healthy life? No, not at all. But it does make it really
freaking hard to challenge, but it's not impossible. It's like everybody is running a race.
Everybody's running the same 200 meters. You have to carry a boulder with you while running
at 200 meters. So not impossible, but harder. It's you're going to be slower. You're more tired.
(40:25):
Sorry, I have animals in here. You're more tired and it's, it feels unfair because well, they get
to run without the boulder. They do. They do. And that's shitty, but if you push through, eventually
losing weight will help. And I know you don't want to hear that, but don't discredit your doctor or
stop seeing your doctor because they mentioned weight. I know I mentioned it at the beginning
(40:47):
and I kind of rolled my eyes because that's how I felt when I was a baby. It's hard to hear.
Stop talking about my weight. They're not wrong. My mom always says this.
Losing weight just means your body has to work less hard to fuel and run your body.
Okay. It is not something that doctors say to be mean because they think you need to be skinny or
look better. It has nothing to do with your looks. They're saying if your body even lost 10 more
(41:09):
pounds, it would function more efficiently. Your organs wouldn't have to work as hard. Your joints
wouldn't be as sore. You might not be as tired. Walking might not be as hard. So losing weight has
helped. If it was impossible to lose weight with PCOS and Stefan, I wouldn't be losing weight.
I've lost over 150 pounds. Steph's lost over 50 pounds. Like it's doable. Now surgery gave us the
(41:32):
tool to just eat less because eating less causes you to lose weight. So it helped us get lower.
And because we're lower, I can say two years out, I have regular periods. I have totally normal
energy levels. I'm not waking up tired or falling asleep in the middle of the day.
Things feel so much better than they were. They're under control. I don't have cravings
(41:56):
like I used to. I don't have any of the symptoms I had before. I have regular cycles that I could
set my watch to. So it has immensely helped, but you don't need surgery to do this. There's lots of
people who've done it without. You have to look at your diet. And I know it's tough because you're
tired and you don't want to move and you're dealing with a lot of shitty symptoms, but you
(42:17):
have to look at your diet. And unfortunately you have to say, I have a medical issue.
That means I don't get to just eat what I want to eat. I really got to watch the sugar and probably
cut the sugar out. I got to really look at my carbs as well. You don't have to be keto, but like
just look at how many carbs you're maybe eating a day. Switch to high protein. High protein is not
boring. There's a lot you can do, but switch to high protein. Don't listen about the keto this or
(42:43):
take this drug or that drink spearmint tea. Eat clean, eat in a calorie deficit. Not a major one.
We're talking like maybe 200 calorie deficit. And then just walk. And it's tough, but when you wake
up and you go, I'm tired and I don't want to move, there was a great quote that helped me at the
beginning of surgery that was basically like, don't make up your decision to exercise or move
(43:06):
or whatever until you start moving. So you can't sit in your house and go, no, I'm too tired and
I don't want to do it. You can make that decision when you put one foot in front of the other out
the door and move for a few minutes. And if you then decide, I can't do this, that's fine. But
you have to be in motion to then make the decision. Should I stay in motion or should I not? Because
you'll always convince yourself you're too tired till you get going. And that's why I vote just
(43:29):
try walking. And I'm not saying walk 5K or 10K. Walk for 10 minutes and go back in. Okay. Walk
around the block. But don't make that decision till you're physically dressed with your shoes on and
out the door. And then make the decision if you're too tired and you don't want to do this.
Don't let the tired you make that decision because exercise actually, I know you're not going to want
to hear it. It can help make you feel a bit more energized. It gives you more energy. Yeah. It
(43:54):
actually does. And like I said, if you physically can't, like Hannah said, if you put your stuff on
and you get out that door and you get halfway down the street and you just can't do it.
You know what? You tried, you put the effort in and something is better than nothing. Right?
Progress over perfection guide. That's what it boils down to. And like after surgery, I literally
(44:16):
would just do laps of my driveway for five, 10 minutes at a time. And then build up. And then
I went back to the gym and now I'm back to workouts and stuff. But it's that the hardest part is that
first couple of minutes. And then once you get into it, it's you're good. And I tell myself this
all the time because before surgery, I was getting up at 5 a.m. and going to the gym every morning.
(44:41):
And then part of it, part of it was a winter fit. And it became, am I getting up at 5 a.m.
to go brush now where I live? We have a lot of snow. So am I getting up at 5 a.m. to go brush the
10th and we just know off the truck, let it heat up and then go to the gym. Hard pass. So have I
been doing my 5 a.m. gyms? No. Do I need to get back into it? Yeah. I've been doing lunchtime
(45:03):
workouts because I work from home, which is great. But you on it, like I have to keep reminding
myself how much better I feel after the workout, even during the workout. And my entire day
is just so much better. I'm less stressed. I'm less irritable. I have more energy. Yeah. And for me,
the big part is if I wake up with my kids, I'm so grouchy. I'm irritable. I'm grouchy. I yell at
(45:28):
them. I'm angry. If I get a workout in and then deal with my kids, I'm like a totally different
mom. It does so much for your, yeah. Even on a side, even a walk, it's not only for your body,
but for your mental health. It clears my head. So good for you. And so yeah, I think because
people think if you're walking, you're not sweating and you're not out of breath and you're not
(45:50):
panting. You don't have to. No, people have it in their mind that unless you're out of breath,
you feel like you're going to throw up and you're drenched in sweat, you didn't work out.
Which is totally BS. It's totally BS. So start with small achievable goals. Don't like innocent,
small calorie deficits here. We're not talking thousand calorie deficits. No, set yourself up to
(46:13):
succeed one little goal at a time. And you will get there. You will get there. It's not easy.
And surgery is not easy. P.C.S. isn't easy, but it's doable. You can do it. You just have to be
patient, which I, anyone who knows me and hears me say you have to be patient is in a part still
a lot because I have none. You're not alone. You can do this. It's not going to be easy
(46:39):
because that is the medical disease you've been handed is a challenge, but it's not an impossible
challenge. It literally isn't. Don't let it become your crutch and convince you that there's nothing
you can do, which we all did before surgery was, oh, well, P.C.S. It's that's not what it is.
Okay. It's a challenge. And then I'll end on Steph is right. Don't try to do it all at once either.
Don't try to be like, well, I'm going to walk five days a week and I'm going to do this and I'm going
(47:01):
to be in a calorie deficit and I'm going to go to bed at this time. No, you will fail. Start small.
And maybe that small goal is I'm just going to try to walk three days a week. And until that becomes
easy and not a massive challenge, then go, okay, now I want to look at what I'm eating and maybe I
need to cut my sugar down to 40 grams a day instead of what it's at currently. Or maybe the goal is
(47:21):
I'm just going to start looking at what I eat every day and then make an analysis on what maybe
I could change. Because the one thing I didn't realize before was that what I thought I was eating
versus what I then track was not even a little bit. It was drastically underestimating the sugar,
the carbs, the calories, the protein. Yeah. The protein. Like, so again, start small, start slow.
(47:45):
We're going to have lots of podcast episodes that'll help you with things like this.
Our next episode is going to be about what we eat in a day, what our macros are like, like what
eating and recipes look like. So that will be a great one to help anybody that's now at that
stage of changing their life where they want to look at. Where do I start? So this was a good
(48:05):
episode where we just needed to talk about PCOS and PCOS and just let you guys know we've been
there. We know the challenge. You're definitely not alone. Surgery is a remarkable tool to help
with this if you're thinking about it, but you can definitely do it without it as well. It's just
slower. But surgery helps, improves things drastically. And I would give it a big thumbs
up if you're thinking about it while having PCOS. I've already seen women. I know we're running so
(48:32):
over, but a lot of women who have PCOS that have had surgery have successfully gotten pregnant
a year after. I apologize about the noise in my room. I finally had my first normal cycle in two
years. Finally. I had my two years today, but they've gone down. Yeah, they've gone down. My
(48:55):
joints have gone out and my blood pressure has gone down. My bloating has gone down. Like it's
already, I'm only three and a half-ish months out. Wait till you're two years out. Exactly. Just the fact
that I had a normal cycle. That alone is to me massively. I could if I wanted. I went from being
(49:17):
told you probably just are not going to be able to conceive children to like, hey, you better be
careful. Right. So yeah. But our next episode is going to be about diets and macros and other
things. But yeah, we're looking forward to it and we will chat with you guys next week. Like,
subscribe, please rate and review if you like it. We want to hear from you. We love all the new
(49:41):
listeners we have. Let us know what you think about the episode, but thanks for coming along
on the PCOS journey this week. Love it. We will see you. We'll see you next Monday. Next week.
Bye Steph. Bye Hannah.
Here we go. Ready? Oh, yeah. Hey, Steph. Hey, Hannah. This is I can see you. I know. Welcome
(00:15):
to our first video podcast. Guys, this is weird. This is so weird. I'm still like, where
do I look? Yeah. Do I look at the camera? Do I look at myself? Do I look at Steph? I
don't know. Like, so bear with us while we learn how to be video podcasters. It must
be a little bit of grace on this one, guys. We're learning. We'll figure it out eventually.
Yeah, we'll share some behind the scenes photos because if you could see how long it took
(00:38):
us to get set up and to then be like, is this a good angle? How's my hair look? Is this
okay? Like, the joke is, yeah, give us a few episodes and we probably won't give a shit
what we look like when we show up. No, it's going to be like a pajama messy bun episode
in three or four. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. But at least for the first one, you get Hannah
and Steph with makeup and like really trying to look presentable. With like a ring light.
(01:03):
I know. I have like the office lit up. There is a dog in here. So enjoy the distractions
when he gets up and down. But you know, Bo gets to be in here for the day. So I love
it. It's mine out. That's okay. I kicked everybody out. I was I was going to kick everyone out
and then the cat wanted in. So the cat's in here somewhere. Bo's in here. It's just going
(01:24):
to be a good time. Yeah. Keep the brood in the room is right. I love it. It's going to
be a good time. No, I kicked the whole family out. The dogs out there probably crying somewhere.
I love it. Hey, listen, Saturdays are podcast days. So for those who don't know, we record
on Saturdays. I love it. Cool. Well, welcome to episode five of the Bariatric Bander podcast.
(01:45):
Now live in a living cover. Can't believe it's five. I know. I can't believe we're on
five. I can't believe now we are doing video. So you will be seeing us every week. You can
still catch us streaming on every platform. Spotify, Apple, iHeartRadio. We love iHeartRadio
because you're now our biggest download and streaming service. I love it. I love it. So
(02:07):
hello Americans. And now you'll find us on YouTube. So wherever you want to watch or
listen, we're trying to be everywhere so that you can choose the format that you'd like.
And also so that you can put faces to names for those of you who don't know, Steph and
I, this is who we are. This is what we look like. We look different than we did a couple
(02:28):
years ago. You can see the faces we make when we talk about things that get us really riled
up. When we're typically sitting behind the camera just, yeah, all the way to come out.
My face is going to be bad. It's going to be very bad. I get heated a lot. It's true.
But that's, you know what? This is the real deal guys. So yeah, we're on unfiltered. We'll
(02:50):
get into the groove in a couple, a couple of episodes. Listen, I've cut my swearing
down substantially. So you are all welcome. I was impressed. You did a good job. You're
welcome. I think I swore more in the last episode than you did. Hey, you were passionate
in the last episode. So this one's a good one too though. Gotta give you grace. Right?
This is a good one. This is a good one. This is a good one. This week on episode five,
(03:12):
we are going to talk PCOS or as I call it PCOS and comorbidities, which I will mispronounce
this entire episode. You did it. I know. Because it's right in front of me and I always call
it comorbidities, but it's comorbidities. So we're going to talk about PCOS, comorbidities
and bariatric surgery together. And kind of what we mean by comorbidities for those who
(03:37):
don't know, comorbidities are kind of health issues that you have that can absolutely lead
to death. Now, not, they're not really going to cause you to die instantly, but there are
two or more medical conditions that occur at the same time within your body that can
really impact your health and outlook. And what they mean by outlook is it increases
(04:00):
your risk of death. And it's all about lifestyle changes when it comes to comorbidities. So
comorbidities are not something that you've inherited through your genes or things that
you have no control over. These are things that have directly happened to you because
of your lifestyle. Things like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, pre-diabetes.
(04:24):
Now, yes, does this run in families? Sure. But they specifically would look at, did you
develop this because of your lifestyle, not because of your genes? So that's what comorbidities
are. I'm not a doctor, so there's probably somebody being like, she butchered that so
badly. But comorbidities are basically things that take away from your life expectancy that
(04:45):
are within your control. So we're going to go through bariatric and bariatric surgery
because shocker, spoiler alert, Steph and I both have PCOS and Steph and I also both
had slash have comorbidities. And so we kind of wanted to cover what did that look like
before surgery and give you guys an update on what it looks like now after surgery. Love
(05:11):
it. Yeah. So I covered what comorbidities are. Boy, for someone who cannot pronounce
that word, I am going to have to consistently keep saying it this podcast. But Steph, maybe
you want to cover what is PCOS or as I affectionately love to call it, PCOS. Yeah. So Anna, I love
that. So PCOS is polycystic ovarian syndrome. So it's when on your ovaries you have cysts.
(05:37):
So you can see these typically on an ultrasound. The thing with PCOS is there is no definitive
test. And the reason I say that is because not everybody will show multiple cysts on an
ultrasound all the time or at all. There's a lot of symptoms that go into PCOS. So there
(05:58):
are a lot of people who have undiagnosed PCOS. There's a lot of people who don't get diagnosed
until later. But basically what it is, is cysts on your ovaries and that can impact
hormones. It can impact fertility. It can lead to weight gain, hair in places you don't
want hair. You saw my Instagram story this morning. You'll notice I even called it on
(06:20):
my story. I forgot to shave my lovely ones this morning. So I did that for you today.
It's the worst. It's so bad. And so it is basically an overarching diagnosis that has
a lot of symptoms within it. So for me, I was diagnosed with PCOS, but I rarely had
(06:40):
multiple cysts on my ovaries on ultrasound, but I had all the other symptoms that fell
in place. So it's different for everybody. A lot of women are undiagnosed and there is
no magic cure for PCOS either. I think this episode will honestly just become all about
PCOS because it is just such a huge topic we need to cover. And maybe we'll just cover
(07:05):
comorbidities in its own because there's like a million to cover there. But I think that's
the big thing when I first learned about it, which was later in life, by the way, I only
learned about it because I was having an ultrasound of my kidney because I only have one working
kidney. And while I was there, they were like, hey, maybe we should just like, do you want
(07:26):
to get a pap test done while you're here and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, oh yeah,
sure. They were like running some sort of clinic and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So,
you know, okay, we're going to do that. And I had both, like I had the speculum, all that
stuff, but like then they did an ultrasound when they were in there for good measure and
they were like, oh, and I was like, oh, what they're like, you have a ton of this on your
ovaries. And I was like, okay, I also have them in my kidney and I seem to be doing fine.
(07:51):
So I had no idea what it was. It was later in life, but then it all kind of started adding
up. But the one thing that really bugged me was I would start Googling it and boy, did
I find a ton of people being like, here's how you cure it. Here's how you cure it. Here's
how you cure it. Here's how do you cure it. And there is no one solution to fix it. Like
(08:12):
this is, yeah, there's things to help, but there is no help. And we'll talk about weight
loss surgery, but none of it is like, nobody said to me, oh, if you have weight loss surgery,
it's going to totally, totally cure your PCOS. Like nobody said that. But when I would go
see certain people, they absolutely kind of tried to sell me on, oh yeah, like this is
(08:37):
what you need. This will cure it. And it's like, cure it. If I have cysts on my ovaries,
won't the cysts always be on my ovaries without surgery? Like do they just go away? Because
I have a feeling if they kind of go away, it's probably painful. Like that's probably
because they burst. So I just remember there were too many people telling me like there's
(08:57):
quick fix, quick solution, spearmint tea, Metformin. The big thing was like the diets.
Everything I was seeing online was diets will fix PCOS. And there just, there wasn't any
studies or enough people that had specialized in this, which was shocking because once I
was diagnosed with it, it's like everyone I knew was like, oh yeah, I have that too.
(09:20):
I have that too. Yep. For me, I did have symptoms, but obviously we didn't know what those symptoms
were. Right? Like I have male doctors and don't get me wrong, Dr. Singh is a fucking
G. I love him. He's great. This was before I had him, but it was a lot of like, oh, you
have anxiety. Oh, okay. Oh Jesus. The amount of times I was told, you have anxiety, you
(09:42):
have anxiety, you have anxiety. And then they'd be like, why don't you start anxiety medication?
And I'd sit in this office and go, I don't, I don't think this is anxiety. Like I'm not,
I don't think I'm bad enough to need medication like it is. They made me anxious because then
I started to have herculean anxiety where I thought there was something wrong with me.
But my symptoms were, I was going an entire year where I'd have one period. Before that,
(10:09):
I had a period that wouldn't end and it lasted months, which was just like horrible in your,
you know, mid to late twenties to be like, quite disgusting. How do I live a normal life?
Like a single girl, you know, 300 period. Okay. I then had like solid years back to
back where I just wasn't having it. And so a lot of it was like, well, you're overweight.
(10:33):
Yep, I am. But I've been overweight my whole life and my periods never been this weird.
So okay. And then it was, well, you go, it's anxiety. You need to be on anxiety medication.
And I remember my mom was a nurse being like, do not fucking take that medication. Like
you don't need it. And not that she's against medication. She just knows me. And in your
situation, you didn't need it. Yeah, exactly. And she knows me. She's my mother. Like she
(10:57):
knows you are not like, you are not at that level. And I luckily have a great therapist.
And I remember saying to her, like, am I supposed to be on this medication? And she was like,
you're like, no. And I was like, okay, she's like, if you need it, like there's nothing
wrong with it. But remember her telling me at the time, like, you're one of like the
(11:18):
least anxious people I see. And I was like, oh, cool. But boy, they make you spiral. So
yeah, it was the stress, your weight, your fat, you got to lose weight. Then I was overweight.
And then it was, you're anxious, take anxiety medication. Then it was, oh, some women just
have hormonal imbalances, never once got sent for hormone testing. So, you know, it's normal.
(11:42):
And then they were like, oh, well, I guess if you haven't had it for six months, like,
we're going to have to induce it because, you know, it can lead to cancer. And I was
like, oh, do you know how long it took for, but it took so long for someone to tell me
that you could induce your period. Like, why was I waiting years to finally be told? Like,
what happens is if you don't, sorry for the men listening, but if you don't have a period,
(12:07):
the tissue will build up and that tissue-
It doesn't just disappear.
That tissue is what can start to become cancerous if it doesn't leave your body. Again, I am
no medical expert. This is just what I was told by my gynecologist. So when I finally
got prescribed a gynecologist who was the best, she was like, oh my God, yes, you need
to be doing this every month because you don't want that building up. I had to have the world's
(12:30):
most excruciating procedure, a uterine biopsy. I wish this on no one. And she was like, we
have no choice, Hannah. It's been years where I don't know what's growing and going on.
And I have to be certain that there's not old tissue, scar tissue. Like we have to.
And I was like-
And they don't, note to men, they don't medicate you for these things.
(12:50):
Oh no, you're not knocked out.
Yeah. Take some time and all.
Yep. They literally was told to take some Advil before I come in because it might be
quote crampy. And there's nothing that happens to numb you or anything. And for those who
don't know, they go up in you and cut a chunk out of you while you're away.
Take a deep breath.
Yep. Oh, it's going to be a little bit of pressure, little bit of pressure. I threw
(13:14):
up and then almost passed out in the car in the parking lot. Because by the way, they
were like, yeah, you can drive yourself to this. Should not have driven myself to that.
I called my mom and I cried and I rarely cry. So I'm sure my mom thought, oh God, she's
dying. But I just remember thinking, I'll never have that procedure done again. You've
got to be kidding. So I went back to my doctor and said, no, how do we fix this? I need to
(13:38):
fix this now. This is, this is absurd. So yeah, my experience with PCOS is that, yeah,
I did have symptoms. I was having infrequent to no periods. I had to get induced with medications.
I had to have uterine biopsies. And then I was put on metformin, which did absolutely
(13:58):
nothing for me. And then I was told, lose a ton of weight. Oh, and then if I want to
have babies, I should just start having babies. It doesn't really matter if I found the right
guy. You know, if there's somebody in my life that I, you know, is good enough, I'm not
even shitting you. This is what I was told. If there's someone in my life that's good
enough, I should start trying because it'll be really hard for me to have kids with this
(14:20):
thing that I have. And I was like, Hey, I'm here to fix my medical issue. I couldn't give
a shit about starting a family. I would like to not get cancer. Let's focus on the immediate.
I was so pissed. I was like, well, thanks so much for, thanks so much for this. Thank
you. Thank you so much. I was, I was 20, 20, no, 28, 25 ish. I was 25 ish. 26, 26. I was
(14:50):
26 because I was 25. And then decided we wanted to have kids. Cool. And nothing was happening.
Nothing was happening. Nothing is happening. Okay. I know it takes a while. Like at least
they say like within the first year, it takes a while. Right. And then I had started having
random, weird spotting, like mid cycle, almost like clockwork out of nowhere. Weird. This
(15:15):
is weird. So went to the doctor and at this time I had a doctor who I despise. I, I'm
so glad we got rid of this doctor. Anyway, um, I went to him and he's like, well, how
long have you been trying? And I said a couple, a couple of months and he's like, Oh, well,
he's like, you're young. And I was like, okay, but I just, I said, I have a feeling something
is not right. I said, I now have this weird random spotting and he's like, yeah, again,
(15:39):
you're fine. You got to wait at least a year. And I was like, no, something, something is
not right. I just know it. Something is not right. He's like, okay, fine. I'll send you
for some blood work to check your, um, menstrual levels. Okay. And I was like, okay, cool.
So he sent me for blood work. It came back a little bit off, but nothing crazy. Okay.
Well, that doesn't really help me with any answers. He's like, okay, I'm going to send
(16:02):
you for an ultrasound and a scope. And I was like, Oh, okay. So send me for the ultrasound,
for the results. The next couple of days, I'm supposed to go for this scope at the hospital.
Yeah. On my notes to me, I find out like the day before that the scope means they are going
up in there. Oh yeah. Like a little camera scopie thing. Yeah. So I was not- It's like
(16:24):
a reverse colonoscopy. Yeah. So I was not looking forward to this. I took time off work.
I booked it off. I go, I'm by myself. I'm so nervous. I walk in and the doctor who's
doing it, like they're just basically like pumping people through this room, getting
scopes done. And so I walk in and the doctor, he's standing there like with a chart like
this. Yeah. And I opened the door and he looks up at me and he looks at the chart. He looks
(16:46):
at me, the chart. He's like, are you Stephanie? And I was like, yeah. So it was, how old are
you? I said I'm 26. And he just literally can see him go, Oh, he goes, come sit down.
Oh, and I was like, what? He's like, you're not getting a scope today. Oh, and part of
(17:06):
me was like, thank the Lord. I've been stressed out for days. I took time off work. I'm in
a gown and now you're telling me this isn't happening. Like what the shit is going on?
So we go into the down. He goes, I'm sorry. He goes, I didn't even look at your file before
you walked in the room. I just assumed people that are here should be here. Yeah. He's like,
if I would have seen this, I would have canceled your scope before you even got here. And he's
(17:28):
like, let's look at your file while you're here. So I told him, he goes, okay, he goes,
you don't need a scope for that. I was like, okay. And then he goes, I have your ultrasound
results here. Everything looks fine. Okay. He goes, except for the tumor. Excuse me.
And I, yeah, I went, what? For the tumor on your liver. And again, I just served, he goes,
(17:51):
I'm guessing you didn't know about that. I was like, no, no. He goes, it's nothing bad.
He goes, it's a benign tumor. It's like a, not like a fatty tumor, but he goes, people
get these all the time. They go away. Nothing to worry about. I'm like, I think, I feel
like I should still know it's there. Yeah. Like, yeah. So I thank him. He was great.
We talked about it. I left, I stormed back to work. My boss is like, why are you here?
(18:12):
I was like, I'm going in. We had like personal call booth rooms. Yeah. I was like, I'll be
back. So I went and I called the doctor's office and the receptionist answered and I
loved her, but I said, Jennifer, and I lost it on her and she apologized. She had no idea,
whatever. So I went back to the doctor again and I was like, this is bull. Like you are
referring me to a gynecologist. Um, I said, we're getting Devin tested. And he's like,
(18:36):
well, Devin's not my patient. I was like, I don't care. I'm like, I am your patient.
You're sending me to a gynecologist. You're sending me to a fertility specialist and you're
getting Devin tested. So I got referred to that oncologist while I was waiting for that.
We went to this one fertility clinic in Kitchener, which I will not name, but oh my God,
I would never step foot in this door again. I have some of the worst, the worst doctor.
(18:58):
So we got Devin tested. Thank gosh through her. And then I went to see Dr. Pops in Kitchener
and honest to God, I walked into his office. He looked at the file. He looked at Devin's results.
He looked at all my stuff and he just looked me in the eye. He goes, where do you want to go?
And I said, what? And it's now been like a year. He's like, where do you want to go?
(19:19):
I was like, for what? He goes for fertility treatment. You tell me and I'll send you.
And I was like, thank God. So anyway, we ended up going fertility place. Um, and that's
where I found out I had PCOS based on all my other testing. Um, they, they were able to tell me within
like my first appointment. He looked at me and he's like, okay, the weight obviously is a PCOS thing.
(19:39):
Yeah. He looked at my blood work levels. Um, but then he said to he, we talked about like, um,
tiredness and bloating and a bunch of other things that are common symptoms, like, yep. And
can continuous fatigue, like all the time. And then he looked at me and he told, I'm sorry for staring.
He goes, but I'm looking for hair. And I was like, what? And he said hair, chin hair, um, hair,
(20:05):
like thicker than normal hair in here. Um, and he goes, do you have hair on your thighs?
And I was like, well, he goes like upper inner thigh area. Do you have dark hair? Not a lot,
but like dark predominant hairs. And I said, yeah. And he goes, um, PCOS like right off the bat.
And he's like, what? He goes, you have PCOS. And instantly they checked my thyroid because often
(20:30):
PCOS and thyroid are connected. I got tested for that too. And it was, it was negative. It was,
so it was fine at first. Um, so that was okay. But yeah, he instantly diagnosed with PCOS. Wow. Um,
we started fertility treatments. We did one round of fertility treatments that ended in miscarriage
that kicked my thyroid out of whack. So then I was on thyroid meds. Um, but yeah, it was,
(20:54):
we did like a year fertility stuff with this clinic who was phenomenal, but that they're the
ones who finally diagnosed PCOS and then everything kind of started to make sense. I had, I did
sometimes have cysts, but not regularly. It was only the odd time, but I had every other symptom
in the book. And they do differ. Like there is insulin resistant PCOS. I have that too. There's
(21:18):
another one, like I'm not an expert on that, but there are different types. So
I do know that the insulin resistance one closely mirrors diabetes in the sense that you can gain
weight, um, around your abdomen. You have like the swollen faces. We'll post on Instagram,
some photos of before surgery. Um, just so you could see what my face looks like. Cause that,
(21:41):
that alone should have been enough. So yeah, different. I know. And I always had really full,
I still do. Like I'm not as clearly as far in the process as you are, but yeah, but I've always had
a full round. Yeah. But this was insulin resistant. Never knew. This was really different. And I
didn't notice at the time, but like, yeah, cause you see it every day. It was swollen. I think I
(22:04):
just thought, Hey, I'm fat versus that's just not a fat face. Like that is a very, um, and it caught
up quick and they put me on metformin because again, like I, I still don't know what type of
PCOS I have because they never really tested. They just kind of assumed it was insulin. I actually
don't think it is for the fact that like metformin didn't work kind of like the diet changes didn't
(22:28):
really do much for me. The really annoying thing with PCOS that we can both attest to is that it
makes it really difficult to lose weight, not impossible. And this is going to be, sorry,
this is a really hot tape. I know I'm really sorry. It makes it difficult, but not impossible. So I,
100% I think because I was obese was looking for a way to be like, I'm obese and it's not my fault.
(22:54):
Um, and so as soon as I got described, Jesus prescribed with PCOS, I was like, Oh, cool.
That's the reason I'm fat has nothing to do with anything else in my life. I have a medical issue
and that's why I am fat. So I used it to justify like, it's not me. It's not my eating habits.
I'm clearly working out enough. And the truth is like, does it make it difficult? Sure. I'd say
(23:18):
for every 10 pounds, someone without it can lose. You probably can lose too. And that fucking blows.
That really fucking blows. Super demogorgous. But it is not the reason you're obese. There. It is
not the reason I was 315 pounds. The COS alone is not the reason. And that's where the different
diet come in because they'll say like this diet is good for this time. And like I had insulin
(23:39):
resistance PCOS for sure. And that's when I got looped into the keto because everybody said,
I tried that keto and PCOS and now I will say I did lose weight with keto. 100% I did. But I,
one of the things that I have an issue with with my insulin resistance and my PCOS is I will lose
(24:00):
weight, like you said, very slow, but it will happen. But then I almost hit this plateau and
I can't get past the plateau. And it's almost as if I also have really high cortisol, which is
another thing I found out. It comes with it. It's continually high all the time, which basically
means for anyone who doesn't know, you, your cortisol level should go up and down. It's your
(24:22):
stress hormone. So it should, there are times in the day or when you exercise that your cortisol
will go up and then it should come back down. Mine is always high. So my body is permanently
panicked and stressed, which is great. Which gets mistaken for anxiety and then we get put on
medication we don't put on. So I usually hit a plateau and then I get like, my body goes into
(24:45):
extra panic mode. And then it's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're losing weight. You're losing
weight. Stop and try to hold on to it. And it's really hard to get over that, that doable, but
again, very hard. It's called cravings. It because of cortisol, your body wants you to eat. And
there's this common theory. Oh, everyone's going to hate me after this episode. There's this common
(25:11):
theory called starvation mode, which is, oh, your body is just so deprived that it's going to hang
on to all the nutrients and keep you fat. Now, logically you could be like, okay, but like if
we starve prisoners of war and they lose weight, or if you were on, okay, let's have a nicer example.
If you were on naked and alone or whatever that like bear guile show is or survivor, right? How
(25:35):
come they lose so much weight? They're not in starvation mode and they're not gaining weight.
Who's a fat survivor that you've seen? So like, I don't disagree, don't disagree that there are
things that kind of, you know, can help hold on to weight, but this notion that you've deprived your
body or you've not eaten enough. And that's the reason. No, it's not. It's not. It is not
(25:56):
scientifically. It comes down to not being sustainable. Like it's just the diet, the keto.
And I, I know people personally who have done keto for a long time and have seen great success.
And that's great. You always see success. That's great. Yeah. But it, for me, not sustainable.
Not at all. And they'll say low, low carb is good for PCOS. But again, for me, not sustainable. It's
(26:22):
and I, this, I'm sure we'll talk about this in another podcast, so we don't go down the rabbit
hole and do a two hour podcast, but it comes down to lifestyle changes, not diet. And it comes down
to things that are sustainable, that are real life that you can implement as a lifestyle change
and continue on. And so that's where people with PCOS struggle is because a lot of these
(26:42):
diets that are supposed to help PCOS are not sustainable. And you have to think if you are
insulin resistance, you really got to look at your diet and look at sugar. You got to almost think
like you are a diabetic. No, I have diabetics in my family. Yeah. Runs in my, runs in my family on
my dad's side. So they don't just track their sugar. They're not sitting there going, oh,
(27:06):
how much sugar is in this? It's carbs and sugar. Like there's a, there's a few things they have to
look at to make sure they keep their sugars balanced. So that's the other thing when you have
insulin resistant PCOS. And again, we're not medical experts. This is just based on the medical
experts we've been dealing with having PCOS, having our own dieticians from the bariatric clinic
and our own internal medicine doctor, nurse, and surgeon from the clinic. They track calories,
(27:31):
not calories, carbs and sugar. And they have to make good choices for themselves to keep their
insulin balanced. You do too. And the hard thing is a lot of women getting prescribed. There we go.
A lot of women getting, I'm not even thinking of the right word, but basically being told you have
this, are overweight, too obese, and unfortunately aren't making good life choices. So if your body
(27:54):
is already unbalanced and already teetering into high cortisol and insulin, do you think throwing
yourself into keto and throwing your body into something that's so drastic is actually going to
be sustainable and help you? Not really, because you're just adding more stress to a stressful
situation. So one of the best pieces of advice I got from the clinic was, oh yeah, this will help
(28:17):
with your PCOS because we're going to teach you how to re-eat and also don't be afraid of cardio.
You know, blah, blah, blah. When it comes to the diets on Instagram that we're told to do for PCOS,
it's, don't do cardio. You gotta get that high fat in there. Oh, spearmint tea, spearmint tea,
spearmint tea. Only wait. Fucking hate spearmint tea. It's so gross. Oh, and then you need to get
(28:41):
metformin and this other thing that you buy off the internet. Oh, and then you need to eat whole
seeds, like just a scoop of hemp seeds. Like first of all, oh my God. And then it was, you need to
move really slow. You shouldn't be doing cardio. You know, you need to just lift five pound weights
and go really slow. Cause if you go too hard, you're going to put your muscles up and oh my
(29:02):
goodness. If I hear anyone tell me fuck cardio one more time, I'm going to lose my mind. Cardio is
not the enemy. Cardio does not make your PCOS bad. Cardio is not keeping you fat. Strength training
is important. You want to build muscle. Muscle is great. Muscle burns fat. Muscle's awesome.
(29:23):
But if you want to do HIIT, do HIIT. If that's your class, cool. If you want to lift slow,
lift high weight slowly, go for it. But this notion that you need to hold a five pound weight
and just go really slow and that's what PCOS needs. I spent a year following these stupid
exercise routines that I kept seeing for PCOS and I gained fucking weight. And the thing that
(29:46):
worked before surgery, I started walking. I was 315 pounds before surgery. I was obese. I was
morbidly obese. I was huge. I've lost weight once in my life before. I was 195 pounds from walking.
I didn't go to the gym. I didn't do HIIT classes. I literally walked twice a day to and from my job
(30:09):
in Toronto. I walked 30 minutes to catch my bus, caught my bus, walked 30 minutes home after I got
off my bus and I dropped an enormous amount of weight after bariatric surgery, which is a tool.
It's not a magic device. I walk. I walk 5K a day, minimum. I'm getting a ton of steps in and the
walking has been great. I'm a runner now. I'm training for a 10K and a half marathon. Walking
(30:35):
still has helped me lose more weight than running because running makes me so hungry that I want to
eat all the carbs in the world. But cardio has had one of the best impacts on my PCOS, my mental
health and my weight loss. It's helped me regulate my breathing. It's increased my heart capacity,
made my heart more efficient than it's ever been. And I still strength train. I have nothing against
(30:59):
it. But for the love of God, if I see one more PCOS account say, do not do cardio, cardio is so
bad for PCOS. It's not. That's total bullshit. Total fucking bullshit. It is not spiking your
cortisol. It's not keeping you fat. It's not ruining fit. Like I'm hot take, but I'm so tired
because all I see are PCOS accounts saying that cardio is the worst thing ever. And now I'm seeing
(31:21):
like other accounts saying cardio is why you're not losing weight and you'll be fat. Like it's a
balance folks. Our clinic has told both of us specifically two days of strength training and
the rest needs to be cardio. They've even said you need to be moving every day. Now it's not get out
and run every day. There's a cat walking right in front of me. It's not get out and run every day.
(31:43):
No, but it's 30 minutes minimum a day of walking or some sort of vigorous exercise and two days a
week of strength training. And I hate to break it to people, but they told me Pilates does not
count as strength training and neither does yoga. Cause early on I tried to go, I'm doing Pilates.
And they were like, it doesn't count. So I said, great, I'll do body pump. And they were like,
(32:06):
you could, yeah, absolutely. If you love it, do body pump, but also like you could just go
lift heavy weights. And I was like, oh, and my dietician now has said the same thing to me. How
much are you weight training? And I was like, you know, so you're not. And I was like, she's like,
you can't just run five days a week. So he's like, gotta be, it's gotta be a healthy mix of both.
(32:29):
And like, I hate cardio. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. But it's gotta be a mix and walking is
so Filippen underrated. And I used to have this, he's doing this bootcamp with this trainer who I
still to this day, I love him so much. And he used to say, and it always stuck with me, that your body
recognizes movement, not exercise. Because I remember like, I would go to these bootcamps
(32:52):
with people that were fit and I was morbidly obese and I couldn't do half of the things. And he was
so great. He would come over and I remember he would put my hand on his hand on my back and he
would just say, just move, just move like what he goes, I don't care if you can't do whatever I've
told you to do at this station. Just do something. Yeah. And then you say your body recognizes
(33:13):
movement, not exercise. And so I hand down for first strength training. But cardio, like you said,
even if it's just walking, that counts as cardio. Walk is boring. Yeah, it doesn't have to be hit.
You're not gonna find me doing it. There's no way in hell. I hate it. I would rather die than do it.
So cardio, as long as your heart rate is up, walking counts. So get over it. The hate for walking
(33:38):
blows my mind. Like why people think walking doesn't count as exercise? Bitch. So my mom lost an
incredible amount of weight after she had kids. It was something she struggled with. Walking,
she just walked every day. And now it's part of their routine as retired individuals. My mom's
like, your dad and I go out for a nice walk. And it's how they maintain. My dad, who's going to be 80,
(33:59):
does 10K a day, not at once. But he goes for two walks a day. He was a runner, a hockey player.
He'd never had his knees replaced, his hips replaced. He's battled and won his battle against
cancer. We owe it all to walking. We attribute it to, he was a drinker, a smoker. I wouldn't say he
(34:19):
ate the best. That man probably eats three ice creams a goddamn day. How he's not a diabetic,
I'll never know, but like good job, dad. But we do, we tell them all the time, we attribute it to
your walking. He plays golf. He's an avid golfer, which like love golf. And he plays with younger
people because the 80, like he's 70 something, but the 70 something and 80 year olds he plays with
(34:42):
are all literally in the hospital too much to play with because they've had their hips replaced,
their knees replaced, their shoulders replaced. Like they're not healthy people. He now plays with
60 year olds because they're actually healthy. And my mom said, it's your walking reg. Like
you're getting out every day and walking twice a day. It's keeping you fit. It's letting you
(35:02):
eat those ice creams. But like, I don't know why there's so much hate. Thanks, Mel. So much hate
for walking. Early on in my bariatric journey, I just walked. I was not a runner until June of 2024,
by the way. I walked. I did laps in the driveway. Yeah. I did. When I got up to it, I was doing 10k
on the weekend and I loved it. I put an audio book on, I went out for an hour and a half.
(35:24):
And the weight was just going. So with or without surgery, I can attest, I lost an enormous amount
of weight back in my very early twenties from just walking as well. So I stand firm in my belief that
if people are telling you with PCOS not to do cardio, no, if you like spin, do spin. If you want
to run, run. If you want to walk, walk. If you're just starting, walk. Walking is the one of the
(35:49):
best things. And if people tell you it's not, get rid of the account, move on and goodbye.
Walking is literally not keeping you fat. Walking is not keeping you with PCOS. This is a medical
disease that is causing cysts on your ovaries and walking is not causing that. It's not. And it is
not hurting your chances of losing weight at all. So just move your body in whatever way it makes
(36:13):
sense. But if people are telling you not to do something, it's, it's probably not the best advice
because what I've learned from surgery, everything in moderation, everything has a balance. Just like
I can't just do cardio. I have to do strength and cardio for a well-rounded healthy body. If I want
to keep those muscles and I want to build muscles so I don't become really weak, you need to do
(36:36):
strength training. So that's my hot take on, I hate the fuck cardio movement. I hate it. And I don't
think it's helping. I don't think it's helping you not to do cardio. I really don't. I think what it
comes down to at the end of the day is, is PCOS a medical issue? Yes. Yes. Is it, is it a medical
(36:57):
disease? Yeah. Does it make things in your life harder? Yes. Yes. Does it make things impossible?
No. Oh. There is, is there a cure? No. There, but at the end of the day, there's lots you can do
to make improvements. There's lots of things you can do to help. In terms of diet, it really comes
(37:17):
down to clean eating for me at least. Clean eating. Clean eating. Lifestyle changes. I don't,
I'm really trying to get the word diet out of my house and out of my mouth. And I agree with you.
Yeah. Because it's not diet. It's not a lifestyle change. A diet implies, diets imply short term.
Yeah. And diets come into the good food, bad food, which is a whole nother conversation that I don't,
(37:39):
I don't want to get into today because we'll be here for another hour. But it's just, is it a medical
condition? Yes. Does it make things hard? You damn well bet it does. And challenge. Are there people
who, I know like for me, one of my big symptoms is I'm always tired. Now that is also my cortisol,
but like I'll wake up and Devon will say, Oh, like good morning. How are you tired? He's like,
(38:02):
you always say that because I literally wake up tired. It's a day and I go to bed. So people with
PCOS are not lazy. No, they're not, not trying to better themselves. No. But at the end of the day,
there are things you can do. Like you said, move your body, just walk some weights, just walk,
just move, let some weight, eat clean foods. And if you're not somebody who's planning on having
(38:24):
surgery, vitamins are, yeah, vitamins huge. And if you are not someone who's planning on having
surgery, you will, the weight will be lost. It will just be slow. I hate to say it. It's going to be
tougher. It's going to be harder for you. It's going to be more work for you. It's going to be
slower for you. But that was one of the reasons why, yeah, for me, it was appealing to have the
(38:46):
surgery because same thing. They said that it will improve your PCOS because one of, one of the catch
22s with PCOS is it will get better if you lose weight, but it's so hard. It might not cure it,
but it will get better. Yes. But the losing weight part is the really hard part. So for me, it was,
okay, I can continue to work my butt off like crazy, see results, but see them so slow, which for me
(39:12):
was so demotivating and I have a lot to lose. So it was, do I want to sit here and put in all this
effort for the slow result, which I know for me makes it very hard then for me to be motivated
and for me to have the determination to stick with any sort of thing. Right. So I can bust my butt
and it'll take me two, probably two plus, let's be more than two years, probably to lose the amount
(39:36):
of weight I need to lose. Or I can have this surgery, drop the weight shit ton faster,
which to me was like, why would I not want to put myself and my body in the best position possible
as fast as possible? A hundred percent. I feel better and not be so tired all the time and not
have my, yada yada. Right. So for me, that's what it was. Is PCOS something that is going to
(40:00):
make it impossible for you to have a healthy life? No, not at all. But it does make it really
freaking hard to challenge, but it's not impossible. It's like everybody is running a race.
Everybody's running the same 200 meters. You have to carry a boulder with you while running
at 200 meters. So not impossible, but harder. It's you're going to be slower. You're more tired.
(40:25):
Sorry, I have animals in here. You're more tired and it's, it feels unfair because well, they get
to run without the boulder. They do. They do. And that's shitty, but if you push through, eventually
losing weight will help. And I know you don't want to hear that, but don't discredit your doctor or
stop seeing your doctor because they mentioned weight. I know I mentioned it at the beginning
(40:47):
and I kind of rolled my eyes because that's how I felt when I was a baby. It's hard to hear.
Stop talking about my weight. They're not wrong. My mom always says this.
Losing weight just means your body has to work less hard to fuel and run your body.
Okay. It is not something that doctors say to be mean because they think you need to be skinny or
look better. It has nothing to do with your looks. They're saying if your body even lost 10 more
(41:09):
pounds, it would function more efficiently. Your organs wouldn't have to work as hard. Your joints
wouldn't be as sore. You might not be as tired. Walking might not be as hard. So losing weight has
helped. If it was impossible to lose weight with PCOS and Stefan, I wouldn't be losing weight.
I've lost over 150 pounds. Steph's lost over 50 pounds. Like it's doable. Now surgery gave us the
(41:32):
tool to just eat less because eating less causes you to lose weight. So it helped us get lower.
And because we're lower, I can say two years out, I have regular periods. I have totally normal
energy levels. I'm not waking up tired or falling asleep in the middle of the day.
Things feel so much better than they were. They're under control. I don't have cravings
(41:56):
like I used to. I don't have any of the symptoms I had before. I have regular cycles that I could
set my watch to. So it has immensely helped, but you don't need surgery to do this. There's lots of
people who've done it without. You have to look at your diet. And I know it's tough because you're
tired and you don't want to move and you're dealing with a lot of shitty symptoms, but you
(42:17):
have to look at your diet. And unfortunately you have to say, I have a medical issue.
That means I don't get to just eat what I want to eat. I really got to watch the sugar and probably
cut the sugar out. I got to really look at my carbs as well. You don't have to be keto, but like
just look at how many carbs you're maybe eating a day. Switch to high protein. High protein is not
boring. There's a lot you can do, but switch to high protein. Don't listen about the keto this or
(42:43):
take this drug or that drink spearmint tea. Eat clean, eat in a calorie deficit. Not a major one.
We're talking like maybe 200 calorie deficit. And then just walk. And it's tough, but when you wake
up and you go, I'm tired and I don't want to move, there was a great quote that helped me at the
beginning of surgery that was basically like, don't make up your decision to exercise or move
(43:06):
or whatever until you start moving. So you can't sit in your house and go, no, I'm too tired and
I don't want to do it. You can make that decision when you put one foot in front of the other out
the door and move for a few minutes. And if you then decide, I can't do this, that's fine. But
you have to be in motion to then make the decision. Should I stay in motion or should I not? Because
you'll always convince yourself you're too tired till you get going. And that's why I vote just
(43:29):
try walking. And I'm not saying walk 5K or 10K. Walk for 10 minutes and go back in. Okay. Walk
around the block. But don't make that decision till you're physically dressed with your shoes on and
out the door. And then make the decision if you're too tired and you don't want to do this.
Don't let the tired you make that decision because exercise actually, I know you're not going to want
to hear it. It can help make you feel a bit more energized. It gives you more energy. Yeah. It
(43:54):
actually does. And like I said, if you physically can't, like Hannah said, if you put your stuff on
and you get out that door and you get halfway down the street and you just can't do it.
You know what? You tried, you put the effort in and something is better than nothing. Right?
Progress over perfection guide. That's what it boils down to. And like after surgery, I literally
(44:16):
would just do laps of my driveway for five, 10 minutes at a time. And then build up. And then
I went back to the gym and now I'm back to workouts and stuff. But it's that the hardest part is that
first couple of minutes. And then once you get into it, it's you're good. And I tell myself this
all the time because before surgery, I was getting up at 5 a.m. and going to the gym every morning.
(44:41):
And then part of it, part of it was a winter fit. And it became, am I getting up at 5 a.m.
to go brush now where I live? We have a lot of snow. So am I getting up at 5 a.m. to go brush the
10th and we just know off the truck, let it heat up and then go to the gym. Hard pass. So have I
been doing my 5 a.m. gyms? No. Do I need to get back into it? Yeah. I've been doing lunchtime
(45:03):
workouts because I work from home, which is great. But you on it, like I have to keep reminding
myself how much better I feel after the workout, even during the workout. And my entire day
is just so much better. I'm less stressed. I'm less irritable. I have more energy. Yeah. And for me,
the big part is if I wake up with my kids, I'm so grouchy. I'm irritable. I'm grouchy. I yell at
(45:28):
them. I'm angry. If I get a workout in and then deal with my kids, I'm like a totally different
mom. It does so much for your, yeah. Even on a side, even a walk, it's not only for your body,
but for your mental health. It clears my head. So good for you. And so yeah, I think because
people think if you're walking, you're not sweating and you're not out of breath and you're not
(45:50):
panting. You don't have to. No, people have it in their mind that unless you're out of breath,
you feel like you're going to throw up and you're drenched in sweat, you didn't work out.
Which is totally BS. It's totally BS. So start with small achievable goals. Don't like innocent,
small calorie deficits here. We're not talking thousand calorie deficits. No, set yourself up to
(46:13):
succeed one little goal at a time. And you will get there. You will get there. It's not easy.
And surgery is not easy. P.C.S. isn't easy, but it's doable. You can do it. You just have to be
patient, which I, anyone who knows me and hears me say you have to be patient is in a part still
a lot because I have none. You're not alone. You can do this. It's not going to be easy
(46:39):
because that is the medical disease you've been handed is a challenge, but it's not an impossible
challenge. It literally isn't. Don't let it become your crutch and convince you that there's nothing
you can do, which we all did before surgery was, oh, well, P.C.S. It's that's not what it is.
Okay. It's a challenge. And then I'll end on Steph is right. Don't try to do it all at once either.
Don't try to be like, well, I'm going to walk five days a week and I'm going to do this and I'm going
(47:01):
to be in a calorie deficit and I'm going to go to bed at this time. No, you will fail. Start small.
And maybe that small goal is I'm just going to try to walk three days a week. And until that becomes
easy and not a massive challenge, then go, okay, now I want to look at what I'm eating and maybe I
need to cut my sugar down to 40 grams a day instead of what it's at currently. Or maybe the goal is
(47:21):
I'm just going to start looking at what I eat every day and then make an analysis on what maybe
I could change. Because the one thing I didn't realize before was that what I thought I was eating
versus what I then track was not even a little bit. It was drastically underestimating the sugar,
the carbs, the calories, the protein. Yeah. The protein. Like, so again, start small, start slow.
(47:45):
We're going to have lots of podcast episodes that'll help you with things like this.
Our next episode is going to be about what we eat in a day, what our macros are like, like what
eating and recipes look like. So that will be a great one to help anybody that's now at that
stage of changing their life where they want to look at. Where do I start? So this was a good
(48:05):
episode where we just needed to talk about PCOS and PCOS and just let you guys know we've been
there. We know the challenge. You're definitely not alone. Surgery is a remarkable tool to help
with this if you're thinking about it, but you can definitely do it without it as well. It's just
slower. But surgery helps, improves things drastically. And I would give it a big thumbs
up if you're thinking about it while having PCOS. I've already seen women. I know we're running so
(48:32):
over, but a lot of women who have PCOS that have had surgery have successfully gotten pregnant
a year after. I apologize about the noise in my room. I finally had my first normal cycle in two
years. Finally. I had my two years today, but they've gone down. Yeah, they've gone down. My
(48:55):
joints have gone out and my blood pressure has gone down. My bloating has gone down. Like it's
already, I'm only three and a half-ish months out. Wait till you're two years out. Exactly. Just the fact
that I had a normal cycle. That alone is to me massively. I could if I wanted. I went from being
(49:17):
told you probably just are not going to be able to conceive children to like, hey, you better be
careful. Right. So yeah. But our next episode is going to be about diets and macros and other
things. But yeah, we're looking forward to it and we will chat with you guys next week. Like,
subscribe, please rate and review if you like it. We want to hear from you. We love all the new
(49:41):
listeners we have. Let us know what you think about the episode, but thanks for coming along
on the PCOS journey this week. Love it. We will see you. We'll see you next Monday. Next week.
Bye Steph. Bye Hannah.
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