The Hemp Connection + women's health

Are you your own biggest barrier to PCOS wellness?

Three different clients in the last two weeks have expressed the same inspiration independently of each other, so I figured I'd let them inspire me on this blog topic.

Each of these women expressed that once they stopped mentally fighting with themselves over their diagnosis, stopped focusing on how badly they're feeling, and started prioritizing their self-care, they began to lose weight and feel better.

Up until the point that they had this moment of inspiration, they were fighting against the disease, feeling sad and angry because of the diagnosis, and much of the time, interfering with their own potential to succeed at feeling better.

Here's the deal.

1. Your PCOS is not going to go away. You can fight with it for the rest of your life. You can draft an encyclopedia's worth of reasons why you shouldn't have to be asked to make different food choices, get out and walk on your lunch break, go to bed a little earlier, set boundaries with your husband. You can even complain about the dozen doctors who don't get it. But the whole time, you'll be stuck in a body that is even more tired, frustrated, and depressed than it already is. Unfortunately, you can't just go jump into a newer, upgraded model. The model you have to learn to work with…is the one that you were given.

2. Accepting that you have PCOS is ABSOLUTELY NOT accepting defeat. I hear in a lot of comments that many of you feel that by accepting your diagnosis, you're failing, that somehow being stubborn and fighting back, and demanding more money be devoted to research and the development of a cure…is the most productive path you can take. Have you considered the psychology of this argument? That until a cure is found, you've committed yourself to not taking care of yourself and unloading choices that make it even harder for you to function normally and enjoy TODAY? It seems to me that now that you've discovered you have PCOS, you have an extra special reason to be treating yourself a little more proactively, so that if and when that day of a cure does arrive, your body is in the absolute best condition it can be in, ready to respond to this new treatment.

Acceptance is actually a stage in the grieving process. If you've ever lost a loved one, you likely know how sometimes you fight to keep the memory of that loved one in your presence out of fear that if you stop fighting, stop feeling sad, stop wrapping your day around the sad thoughts, you've let go and lost the person forever. It's not really that way. When you accept the loss, you just put them in a place in your heart and spirit where they still have your love, but you have room for new and different experiences that they do not share with you.

Accepting that you have PCOS is a lot like learning that if you have curly hair, you need a different kind of hair conditioner than someone with straight hair. Now that you know how your body works, what makes it feel badly, what helps it to feel better, you have an opportunity to make choices that drive you more often toward feeling better.

You can still be a PCOS advocate, you can still fight for more and better research, you can still research your disease. Only you're feeling a whole lot more energetic in the process.

Oh, by the way, I'm willling to bet…even if a cure is found, it's not going to be any kind of vaccination that allows you to eat Fritos and Twinkies ad lib without consequence. You're still going to have to prioritize self-care in order to see progress. Just sayin': )

I encourage you to think about whether or not fighting against yourself and pushing away all of the possible choices that could help you to feel better isn't part of why you're not feeling better?

It's ok to accept. A diagnosis. Help. Support.

Thanks for coming and using this blog as a part of your personal PCOS acceptance plan.

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Are you your own biggest barrier to PCOS wellness? + women's health