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From Size 18 to Size 4 – Julia’s Amazing Weight Loss Story

December 3, 2013 by Ashley 2 Comments

Is it possible to lose 91 pounds without posing any risk to your health and well-being? Most people would think that losing that much weight could lead to health issues and the person losing the weight won’t be able to cope with it. However, Julia, a student, defied the odds and has successfully lost over 90 pounds. Her secret? She followed the Nutrisystem weight loss program and here is her weight loss story. Over this time, she has reduced her weight and gotten into shape, so much so that she has come down from size 18 to size 4.
Julia_Nutrisystem

“Being Overweight is Just the Way I Am”

Julia had been suffering weight problems from a young age. She was struggling to lose weight and none of the methods she tried worked for her. During her teenage years, Julia was diagnosed with a disorder known as the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). She then discovered that being overweight was one of the symptoms of this condition. It was due to this that she managed to convince herself that being fat was the way she was meant to be. In fact, she even tried convincing her well-wishers who warned her about the dangers of being overweight.

Only when she was working at a middle school as a math teacher did she finally realized that she needed help. According to Julia, her problem was that she knew she was overweight and was content staying that way. The reason for this, as per her statement, is that she didn’t know how to lose weight. Julia is not the only one who faces this dilemma. There are thousands of people around the US struggling with weight issues but have no idea how to lose it. It is only when they hit rock-bottom that they start searching for answers.

A Nutritionally Balanced Meal Delivery Weight Loss Plan Comes to the Rescue

Needless to say, Julia felt quite helpless at the situation. She had no clue about how to get started. However, she had seen the adverts and commercials for Nutrisystem and somehow they got stuck in her mind. She was still apprehensive about the program, thinking that it would require her to make drastic changes to her lifestyle or perhaps she couldn’t afford the cost. It was Julia’s mother who finally got through to her and explained how Nutrisystem works, and that discount codes are available online in sites like weight loss triumph.com.

Once Julia got to know that all she needed to do to lose weight with Nutrisystem was eat the food they send, she was convinced that she had the answers. So, without delay, she placed her order on their website. This was back in January 2007 which was when Julia started following the weight loss program. Since then, Julia has completely changed. Julia now calls herself ‘version 2.0’ of her previous being. She has regained her confidence and self-worth and is exploring new horizons.

This goes to show how a little support can help. If Julia’s mom hadn’t explained the concept of Nutrisystem to her, she would never have started following the program and most likely would have been her overweight self even today. So, if Nutrisystem can help Julia lose 91 pounds, there is a good chance it might deliver the goods for you as well.

What’s Your Weight Loss Story?

I would love to hear your weight loss story as well.  What your tips and tricks are to making yourself a healthier person and as Julia says a new “version 2.0” of yourself.

Filed Under: Featured, Health Tagged With: Dieting, Health, Polycystic ovary syndrome, Weight Loss

Infertility at 37 Hard Choices

June 16, 2013 by Melissa Cwynar 2 Comments

infertility

IVF BUB…. (Photo credit: Nina Matthews Photography)

I feel like many of you know me well, especially since I have shared with you all so much about my infertility issues with PCOS, Endometriosis and I shared the story of my miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies.

Now I come to you and ask all the readers of Parsimonious Pash for their heartfelt opinions. Recently my husband and I have found out our insurance will fully pay for in-vitro fertilization, also known as IVF.  IVF is when the eggs are fertilized outside the body and then returned to the woman’s uterus.  As you know since I had two ectopic pregnancies, I no longer have fallopian tubes. So there is no chance what so ever of me getting pregnant via any traditional means.

My husband is 40 has 3 kids to a previous marriage, I am like stated 37 and have my two beautiful daughters you read all about. Not to mention we have guardianship of an 18 year old boy, who will be leaving us soon for the Navy.

Everyone tells us we have it made because our kids are almost grown, I don’t really consider a 9 year old almost grown, but eh, what can you say to some people.

Now this is one of the hardest decisions of my life. I never felt like I was done being a mother, or having babies, I just felt as if I was robbed of my choices. I always wanted 5 kids. I know many people may think that is nuts, but you have to understand me to understand how this would be normal. I live and breathe the whole Mommy thing. I don’t think I was ever cut out to be anything but a mother. I love every single thing about it. I love the house taking care of the house, the kids, the cooking; it’s what I think I was put on this earth for.

pregnancy test
pregnancy test (Photo credit: Konstantin Lazorkin)

My husband is on the fence, while he wants to make me happy and give me that bond we lack between each other by having a child of our own. Sometimes it’s hard to be a blended family of his and mine without the ours.

We have been talking about this for almost 2 weeks now and we are not even sure how our families would take it, but, we did ask my kids about it since they do live with us and they are all for it. Well, at first the youngest was not for it because she thought she would no longer be mommy’s baby.  Well, I put that fear to rest quickly.

Knowing some of my background and knowing what I have been through, I am asking all the readers here if they would please take a moment of their time and give me an opinion of what they feel. I am really struggling with this.

I have sat long and hard wrapped up in my own thoughts to make sure it’s not my desire to just have a child due to the fact I can’t have a child traditionally. Yeah know, basically one of those you always want what you can’t have type things, and I truly know in my heart it’s not that.

miscarriage ritual (Photo credit: subvert.com)

My husband is worried about health problems I have, because I do have the early stages of heart disease but I have made all the chances needed to be made, I take my medication and I know the cardiologist would give the okay, it’s just a husband basically worried about his wife, and rightfully so, but I would never do it without the cardiologists okay, which I know will not be a problem.

He worries because my pregnancy with Amber was high risk. But that was also over 9 years ago. Our bodies do a major change every 7 years and I am willing to go through all horrible things it did to my body, to have another baby. When pregnant with her I had vitamin deficiencies so bad because she was taking every ounce out of me, she was fine, and I was a wreck. I even lost a lot of hair. So much for that beautiful mane we are supposed to get during pregnancy, I looked horrible! Lol But, I got over it and my hair grew back, small price to pay for that beautiful bundle of love I have had the pleasure to raise these past 9 years.

So I need your help… This is a major cry for help… I want your opinions. Do you think we should go forward and have that baby I have longed to have all these years or should I just be thankful I have these two beautiful children and give up?

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Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Ectopic pregnancy, Endometriosis, Fallopian tube, In vitro fertilisation, Infertility, Miscarriage, Mother, Parsimonious Pash, Polycystic ovary syndrome, Pregnancy

Seriously… Secondary Infertility Endometriosis What?

June 11, 2013 by Melissa Cwynar 2 Comments

EndometriosisAs if my story ended with the PCOS life had to take a wicked turn. That beautiful little Christmas baby is older now and I wanted another child, as I told my story about her and her father passing away, I am now into the future in another relationship and the discussion of having another child is there.  We know we will face battles, but lately I have been worn down, very tired and for some off reason sex is very painful now.

 

Back off to the doctors, they can’t figure out what’s wrong, go figure this is starting to become a pattern with doctors not knowing anything. Keep in mind I am being shipped off to Pittsburgh where some of the top doctors are. I have seen all types at this point and many different gynecologists, including a female who was ex marine and she was enough to put me off seeing gynecologist’s period. I swear she thought she could.

English: Pills Polski: Pigułki
English: Pills (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Off to a new doctor, who tells me everything I have sounds like Endometriosis. He decided drugs where the choice of treatment. I was given everything under the sun, but the biggest was Lupron shots, which I gave myself, it was horrid I ended up with so many side effects and his idea of treating those where MORE meds!!! I was on so much, I was run down and miserable and then I had a TIA, which is a mini stroke from all the medications. I was done, I went off them all and said I would suffer, but during the course of all this the Endo got worse and the pain was debilitating.

 

I ended up having to see a pain specialist who started me on Percodan, that’s basically Percocet without the acetaminophen in it, since I am allergic to it. For those that don’t know, acetaminophen is the main ingredient of Tylenol.  When that stopped working they moved me to oxycontin, then to dilaudid and finally to a fentanyl patch.  I was a drooling idiot, but I was pain free. I was also missing out on watching my daughter grow up, she was between the ages of 4 and 5 while all this was happening. I couldn’t even make it down a driveway without falling asleep and drooling from the fentanyl. Enough was enough, I decided I was going to let them do more surgery at this point, we are up to about 16 surgeries between the endometriosis and the PCOS so why not another to have them “scrape” the endometriosis out.

 

Now this is where my story gets a little crazy. I am admitted into the hospital, pre surgery and a couple comes into my room and asks to pray over me. At this point, I don’t care what religion comes into the room, if they want to pray so be it, I am in pain and I just want it to stop. They pray over me, the woman has her hand on my forehead the entire time. I am a little freaked by this, but Eh, whatever.  I was raised Roman Catholic, later converted to Christian, but I can honestly say, while the prayers were of a Christian nature I had never heard anything like this before. It was also my first experience with someone talking in “tongue” which really freaked me out if you’re clueless about it.

English: localisation of endometriosis Deutsch...
English: localisation of endometriosis (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Okay back to the morning of surgery, I am prepped I am ready to go; they still have me on some heavy meds so I am very groggy.  I remember being wheeled down, but that’s it. When I woke up, I was still too medicated for the doctor to talk to me, so it wasn’t till that evening it comes into my room, sits down and says, well we have a problem, but it’s a good one. How is any problem a good one? I mean seriously, the word good and problem should never be in the same sentence.

 

So here is my good problem in a nut shell. When they went in to clean up the endometrioses, (oh and btw, it wasn’t just in the female areas, I had it also in a cavity in my back, on my kidneys, liver and stomach.) they found absolutely none!

 

Gasp! What? Now what’s wrong with me was my instant thought, how could I go from being the worst case the doctor ever saw to having absolutely none? Was it the power of prayer? Who knows, I have my own personal feelings on that, and don’t want to make this a religious post. But, they prayed, it’s gone and to this day I have never suffered from endometriosis again!

 

I was able to get pregnant straight out the gate, but sadly I lost the baby at 8 weeks. We had moved and I was seeing new doctors, the one I thought was good until I lost the baby and was crying and he decided to be rude and tell me “Oh well, it happens, get over it” How do you ever get over something like that, when you have been trying for years.

 

4 months after that I got pregnant again, I had a very harsh pregnancy and kept going through early labor. I was put on terbutaline to stop the contractions, at one point I had to be given shots of magnesium sulfate and let it be known that they where to save the baby over my own life, due to the fact this medication can have very bad effects on the mother and the mothers heart. Luckily we were fine, I suffer from heart problems now, that they think where aggravated by the magnesium and just made hereditary heart problems show up earlier then they would have.

 

I had so many early labor episodes, when I finally went in to have her nurse was sort of cold towards me and told me I was not in labor. She checked me and I was 1 centimeter and she was not even willing to call a doctor. She sent my husband down to get discharge papers. I was hitting the call bell screaming I had to push and she told me she would “humor me” and check. Well she checked me, and the baby was crowning, she had my husband called for to get back to labor and delivery stat, and she called my doctor finally, but he would never make it on time. I was seeing a high risk pregnancy doctor and a neo-natal specialist were supposed to be on call when I delivered. Due to this nurse’s action, the only person they could get there was a midwife, not knocking midwives, but she was not equipped to handle a delivery like mine with all the complication. She barely made it though; my daughter was delivered in a bed that was not prepped, by a nurse who kept demanding I not push. Sorry, women have been delivering babies for centuries and when its time, its time.

 

That little girl I was carrying is now 9 years old, active and for the most part healthy. She does have three forms of epilepsy, but, it’s managed with medicine. I would include a picture of her, but her father and I are divorced and our court order states her picture cannot be posted online, unless it’s private.  You will just have to take my word on the fact she is one of the most beautiful kids in the world.

 

Do you think this story ends here? Hardly, I wish, but it doesn’t. This is just one more installment in the long battle I have had with infertility issues.

 

 

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  • What Causes Infertility in Women?
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  • My gyn blew off my concerns. She was wrong. What now?
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Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Body mass index, CFEngine, Endometriosis, False accusations, Health, In vitro fertilisation, Infertility, Light List, Men, Menstrual cycle, Microsoft, Nurses' Health Study, Pain, People, Pittsburgh, Polycystic ovary syndrome, Pregnancy, Surgery, Symptom, Tylenol, Uterus, Violence and Abuse, Wikipedia, Womens Health

Information about Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome

June 7, 2013 by Melissa Cwynar 6 Comments

Poly Cystic Ovarian SyndromePoly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is caused when a woman’s hormones are all out of balance. It causes problems with a woman’s periods making pregnancy very hard is not impossible.  Along with the hormone changes, it can cause you to stop ovulating, extra body and/or facial hair, along with acne and weight gain due to the body being unable to use insulin.

Poly Cystic Ovarian SyndromeSome Signs & Symptoms of PCOS:

  • Weight gain and trouble losing weigh
  • Acne
  • Extra body hair that can be darker and thicker, excessive body hair can be found on the stomach, back and chest area.
  • Cysts on ovaries
  • Fertility issues
  • Irregular periods

Sadly there is no cure for PCOS, but losing weight, and taking medications that work for some of the symptoms associated with PCOS can make it more tolerable. Medicine has come a far way since I have had to deal with PCOS being I am 37 now, there is a lot more hope for people with PCOS. Birth control pills are used to regulate periods, sprinolactone is used to help with excessive hair growth and metformin is used to regulate periods and assist in fertility. There are also various acne medications and fertility drugs used to help aid in other factors.

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Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Blog, Facebook, Federal Trade Commission, In vitro fertilisation, People, Polycystic ovary syndrome, Testimonial, twitter, United States, Violence and Abuse

Struggling to Become a Mom at 15

June 6, 2013 by Melissa Cwynar 9 Comments

Author: Melissa
Author: Melissa

Don’t let the title fool you, I wasn’t actually trying to get pregnant at the age of 15, but that was the age I was when the doctor decided to dash all hope and dreams of ever becoming a mother.

Right around the time I turned 14 I started having problems of the female nature, horrible cramps, immense pain, periods that where very sporadic and very heavy but the doctors insisted it could not be female issues and sent me off to a gastroenterologist where I had a ton of tests done that no 14 year old female ever wants to go through.

I remember it being close to my 15 birthday and the gastroenterologist told me there was nothing he could do for me because he could not find a problem, the gynecologist still was insisting it was not female issues and sent me off to another gastroenterologist. I refused to go and then followed up again with my regular PCP at this time; my family doctor had brought in another doctor because he knew he was outgrowing his practice. She took one look at my records asked me a few questions and said I bet its PCOS. I was stunned, but happy someone could finally put a name to what was wrong. But what was this PCOS and how would they fix it? Off to a specialist in Pittsburgh, which is about an hour north of where I live, I learned PCOS was Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome. Basically PCOS was effecting my periods, my hormones, and ovulation.  My periods where very irregular and I was in terrible pain because instead of releasing an egg, it would stay and turn into a cyst that would need surgically removed.

By the time I turned 19, I had already had 6 surgeries to remove cysts, they do what’s called wedging of the ovaries where they remove the cysts and cut small sections of the ovaries away.  At this rate I feared I would not have any ovaries left. My stomach was starting to look like a road map due to the scars. I was young and hated my body. I dealt with gaining weight, I was always a smaller girl, but here I am putting on weight due to the PCOS because even a low caloric diet and exercise would not correct due to the fact that energy, in the form of glucose was stored right away as fat. I dealt with excessive hair, in the way I could shave my legs and hours later they would be prickly, but if you look at my legs after shaving you can still see the tiny dots of black hair under the skin.  I was young, this is not what I wanted to look like, I wanted my body back and I certainly hated how much excessive hair came with PCOS, but most of all, I wanted to be a mother!

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Melissa’s Daughter

After having a surgery at 19, I took off out of the area with my husband at the time, who has since passed away. When we decided to come back I was feeling pretty sick and he kept insisting I take a pregnancy test. I laughed at him and told him it was probably the stomach flu, but he insisted, bought it and told me to take it.

I tossed it to him, and let him watch it because I knew it was not positive. When he told me congratulations mama, I remember throwing something at him, and saying don’t do that, it’s cruel. I humored you now let it go. He forced me to look, and when I saw the plus sign, I still did not believe it. There was no way no how I would ever have a child. At this time I only had ¼ ovary on one side and ½ on the other side. Periods that came maybe twice a year.  No way, this was not true it was a false positive.

4 months later, yes I was 5 months at the time I found out, a beautiful baby girl was born to me on Christmas Day. She was my miracle. The doctors who deliver her could not believe she was ever in existence. She was never supposed to be. She was truly my Christmas miracle.

Her father passed away the following year, around Christmas time and I have raised her myself all my life, later I went on to remarry and this is not the end of my story. Please stay tuned for the rest.

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  • why my body hates me
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Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Christmas, Health, Pittsburgh, Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome, Polycystic ovary syndrome, Surgery

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