My Saturday in Atlanta for "Take Control of PCOS"

Saturday was an awesome day! I met my friend, Amanda, here in town and we left for Atlanta around 9:30 am. In case you didn't know, PCOS Challenge had a "Take Control of PCOS" symposium there. I shared it on Facebook, but I don't know if everyone saw it. I live in between Birmingham and Atlanta, but if I head back that way I'll try to post it, that way if anyone wants to meet up we can try to arrange something! =)

Anyway, we drove through downtown fine and arrived at the church in Buckhead without a problem. The church that it was held out was a pretty big church! And nice, too! Alana, a woman that followed me on Pinterest and found me on Facebook, and her mom drove over four hours to Atlanta and met us at the symposium. First of all, if you haven't checked out PCOS Challenge you need to! They have a radio show and all kinds of resources there. Sasha Ottey founded it after being diagnosed with PCOS and didn't want other women to have trouble finding PCOS resources llike she did.

Sasha welcomed us to the symposium and shared her struggle with PCOS. Shortly after that psychologist, Gretchen Kubacky, spoke to us via Google Hangout. She lives in Los Angeles, CA and couldn't be there in person with us, but I enjoyed listening to her. I knew that women with PCOS can problems with depression, but I never thought how that could correlate to a higher suicide rate. If you've been feeling suicidal please know that there are people here for you. You can call 1-800-SUICIDE or 1-800-273-TALK. If you can't remember either of those numbers you can call 911 and they will get you in touch with someone.


Next was my favorite speaker, Registered Dietitian Rachel Brandeis. She is awesome! If you live around Atlanta and am looking for one to see, she is who you need to go to! She said that she started having patients coming in and tell her that their doctors wanted them on a diabetic diet, but weren't diabetics. She wanted to know why they were being given this diet and make sure that they weren't being shortchanged. These were some of the tips she gave us:

• Eat breakfast! Don't skip it! Try to eat breakfast around 30-90 minutes after you wake up. If you don't eat breakfast you're more likely to eat more calories at the end of the day when you aren't as active. Try to keep on a schedule.
• Eat every 3-4 hours. We usually go longer without eating between lunch and dinner, about 6-7 hours or so? That's a long time. If you have a snack it will keep your blood sugar and insulin levels from spiking. 
• Combine "lean" protein with good carbohydrates or a "good" fat. Eating protein slows the digestion of complex carbs.
• Read the ingredient list. If you're looking for bread or crackers and the first ingredient isn't "whole" put it back. Just because it says on the front of the box that it's "multigrain" doesn't mean that it's healthy. If you're on a gluten-free diet you won't find wheat in it though.

• This is how she listed how our daily intake should be around

              40% < 160/g daily
              30% >   80/g daily
              30% <   55/g daily

After a short break Endocrinologist Dr. Mark Perloe talked to us. If I had insurance I would consider going to him even though his office would be two hours away. He kind of reminds me of Dr. Drew in how he talks. Which, I like Dr. Drew so that's a good thing. I don't have as many notes from him being that he covered a lot of information in a short amount of time. I haven't heard of PCOS being a metabolic disorder, I've heard of it being called an endocrine disorder but not that.

• High intensity interval training has shown to be a good option for us. He also said that if you work out for more than 20 minutes that instead of building muscles that you're actually starting to tear down muscle.
•  If you're taking Metformin and aren't eating better you're going to have more of an upset stomach.

At the back of the room there were tables set up from some of the sponsors: Georgia Reproductive Specialists, PCOS Challenge, and Glucorein PCOS supplements. NVN Therapeutics and (surprise, surprise!) Coca-Cola were sponsors also. Glucorein gave out a weeks worth of supplements, PCOS Challenge was taking donations, and Georgia Reproductive Specialists were talking to women. In between speakers and at the end of the presentations they raffled off some pretty cool prizes. Whoever came farthest received a three month supply of Glucorein, which went to my friend Alana! The first drawing was for a session with Rachel (Registered Dietitian), and guess who won it? I did! The endocrinologist and psychologist gave consultations and there were some PCOS books given away as well.

So, that pretty much sums up my day! I had a great time and look forward to many more PCOS centered activities! Rachel Brandeis has an awesome Facebook and Pinterest pages that you need to check out. Even if you can't have a session with her take a look at what she has available on the web. She has videos with all kinds of tips on her website, too! For PCOS Awareness Month Dr. Perloe has made some PCOS Tips videos on YouTube. There's almost 30! And Dr. Kubacky has some PCOS videos.

I hope everyone had a great PCOS Awareness Month! =)