PCOS
Robin Nielsen:
Hey, beautiful sisters. I’m super excited to be here with you. We are alive right here to help you with that next step in your beautiful healing journey. And you know, I was reading the difference yesterday between healing and curing. And it was really profound. You know, healing is where we, you know, provide what our body needs to actually heal and overcome whatever is going on for you. And curing just doesn’t have that meaning. It’s using sort of things from the outside to help you get rid of what’s going on, but it doesn’t support your body to actually heal. So we are here to heal with natural solutions for hormone balance. And that’s why we’re all here together. So today for our hormone breakthrough, sometimes I give you my own pearls, but today I have a very special guest.
Her name is Greta Davis. And my team made me aware of this incredible woman because she has really taken charge of her health, so if you’ve been with me for very long, you know that I’m all about helping you to become the CEO right, the chief executive officer of your own health to figure out what’s going on with your body, to kind of um, uncover those root causes and to really start to kind of plug the holes and, and heal, you know, those parts of your body that really needs that extra support. And Greta has, has come from where you might be today, through then deciding that she needed to do her own research and take charge and actually helping, she found a solution, um, maybe several solutions and now she’s feeling so much better. So, you know, one of our jobs is to help you see that it’s absolutely possible for you to go from where you are right now, no matter what your symptoms, no matter what your diagnosis. I just want to put a plug in here. We are not our diagnosis. You are not PCOS. You are not, you know, all the symptoms that may become post-menopause or peri-menopause. You’re not any of that. You might be suffering from some of the symptoms, but you certainly are not those things. And so we’re gonna learn today how one beautiful woman has gone from experiencing so many of the same symptoms you may be experiencing to now feeling so much better. So her husband were here, he would do a drum roll for us. Welcome Greta. It’s so great to have you here.
Greta Davis:
Hello. So good to be here. Thank you for having me.
Robin Nielsen:
Ah, you’re so welcome. We’re just blessed to have, you know, women who are doing it on the program so that we can keep our inspiration going because you know what happens when we have not seen success for ourselves is that we don’t believe that it can happen for us. And so sometimes we have to hold onto the belief of others, right? We have to hold onto the belief that if it happened for her, it can happen for me too. And did that ever come up for you Greta?
Greta Davis:
Absolutely. Multiple times because I’m that type of personality. I’m type A, so when I like plan and I like making a plan and when I don’t see the results I want or I think I should have by that measurable time, I get very discouraged and I get all in my head. So to be able to see other people like they came from here and they’re here, it can happen. It’s like that ray of hope or sunshine and that it’s just a blessing to have those kinds of people in your life.
Robin Nielsen:
Absolutely. We, we need, we need the guiding light, right? We need that guiding light. I definitely do. Oh my gosh. Like you know, it’s called mentorship really. Right. It’s, you know, we can totally do it. We just have to have someone show us the way. Absolutely. So we want to get to know you a little bit Greta. Share with us where you’re from. We were talking a little bit about your accent, your southern drawl. So where are you from originally and where are you now?
Greta Davis:
So my husband and I are originally from Georgia, a little south of Atlanta and now we are in Houston, Texas since the beginning of February. So we moved out here for his job. He was transferred so, and it’s hot here. I didn’t think it was going to be as hot as Georgia. I wasn’t sure, but it’s worse and it’s way more humid. We’re making it. Thank God for air conditioning.
Robin Nielsen:
Yeah. Cause you’re really near the Gulf I think, right? That humidity comes in there. Yeah. So, I was asking Greta if the people in Texas sound funny to her
Greta Davis:
They have a lot more of a deeper draw then back in Georgia. But yeah, definitely a noticeable difference.
Robin Nielsen:
Pretty cute. And you’ve got a piano in the background and you were telling me that you and your husband are musicians that you play at church and it’s so awesome. So you play?
Greta Davis:
Yes, I play the piano and I sing and then my husband, he plays the drums and the saxophone and he sings, but he doesn’t say he’s a singer. He would prefer not to, but he’s multi-talented so.
Robin Nielsen:
Oh, that’s fantastic. We have a really musical family too, so we totally get it. It’s just really like, I don’t know, nourishes your soul.
Greta Davis:
It does. It really does. Music. It’s wonderful.
Robin Nielsen:
So, all right, well we want to dig in here. We’d love to know, so let’s just start at the very beginning. I know that, I’m not sure how long ago, but you can, you can share that with us. So like when or how old were you when you started noticing some symptoms that you just weren’t feeling quite right?
Greta Davis:
I would definitely say I was in high school, probably young teens, definitely earlier than 18. I don’t remember a specific age, but the hirsutism was a big, big thing that showed up for me more than anything else. That was, you know, it made itself known outside. You know, and you’re a teenager and you’ve got hair on your face and it’s embarrassing and you have to pluck and then you get acne because you’re plucking and it’s just a whole big mess. So it was really awful. So my mom, she did everything she could to help. So she tried to help find solutions and we didn’t know anything about PCOS at the time. Like nobody ever said anything like that to us. Um, so we tried here laser hair removal, which was incredibly painful with zero results. Like I had no results.
And even the people that did my treatments, they were like, this is really strange. You should be seeing some difference. And so we spent a lot of money on a solution that was not giving a solution, you know? And then after that, like looking back after the process, I can see now some other issues that I dealt with like in high school, um, when I became more educated on PCOS, but nobody had ever mentioned that we went to, um, I went to a dermatologist, she recommended shaving. And so I was like, which is really another embarrassing thing for me. I’m a woman. I shouldn’t have to shave my face and even think about it. I want to cry cause I feel sad, you know, so I’m sorry, I don’t want to cry, but
Robin Nielsen:
It’s all, it’s all good here. When I tell my story, I mean, I can just feel like where I was and it definitely brings up a lot of emotion for me. The good news is the more we talk about it, the more we can release it.
Greta Davis:
Yes. So true. So I went to dermatologist, that was what she recommended, um, on top of the laser hair removal and that didn’t work. Then I went to another dermatologist and he said, he said, I don’t even have to do any tests on you to know that I’m pretty sure you have something called PCOS. That was the first thing I ever heard. First time I ever heard about it. And I was like, okay, no education was given. No anything is just, this is something you have, you know, and it’s like, oh, okay, so I’m just supposed to go and live with this. And so, you know, I’m still in high school. Maybe at that point on, I had graduated, but it was of course over a long period of time. And um, so I just continued shaving. I just did what I could to make it manageable I guess. Um,
Robin Nielsen:
So Greta, can I interrupt here for a minute? Yeah. So you had said that there were other symptoms that were coming up for you and now thinking back, you know, you kind of are able to identify them. So, the dark, coarse terminal hair growth on your face and did you have it anywhere else?
Greta Davis:
Yeah, like on my chest and my back. Okay. Yeah. You know, lower area with my breasts.
Robin Nielsen:
That’s, hirsutism for sure. Okay. And then what other symptoms now looking back, did you, are you saying to yourself, oh, those were a problem?
Greta Davis:
Okay. So like terrible lethargy and fatigue. Like I was always constantly tired. And as a teenager, you know, you think, oh, it’s just cause I’m staying up late, I’m probably not eating the best foods and I’m, you know, going all the time. Well, it was so bad though, at one point my mom thought I might have had mono, so we’ve got me tested, was negative and it was just, Oh, I just need to sleep more. And so that was a huge, I was always tired and that, that is still something that I, I don’t struggle with as bad at all. Like that is really improved drastically. But throughout the years, like I’m just constantly tired all the time. Like, even to the point of, I remember before I started my journey of healing, like joining my sister and her friends at the Coca Cola Museum in downtown Atlanta and we literally had just pulled in, were walking to the building and I was already wishing the day was over and I was back home because I was so exhausted. And I remember hating feeling like that because this was something that’s supposed to be fun thing to do and I didn’t want to do it because I was too tired to enjoy it. That was a huge, huge part of it. And then constant fluctuation in my weight was always a big deal. Um, it was all the time, like all the time. And I would, you know, do what I thought I needed to do to get, you know, healthy.
Robin Nielsen:
And what was that? Like what were some of the things that you thought that you needed to do?
Greta Davis:
Well, you know, you always know, eat healthy. So I joined weight watchers and I started exercising and that helped for a little bit. But it didn’t, there was more that I just didn’t know. Um, so those are the things that I did do and I had lost weight. Um, but it just didn’t stay and it didn’t fix the other problems either. There was a key element missing. Now I know that’s Insulite the nutrients, but then I had no idea cause at the time, you know, that was still before I knew I had PCOS so yeah.
Robin Nielsen:
And you had shared that you’d shared that you’ve suffered from depression and anxiety. Tell us a little bit about that and then did you have any like, digestive issues that you can think back now? Cause I know, you know, I was constipated but I had no idea that that wasn’t normal.
Greta Davis:
Yeah. So I had a seriously sensitive stomach for as long as I can remember. Like I don’t even know now. Like there are certain things I don’t eat much of or eat zero of because my stomach is very sensitive. So yeah, it was a joke in our, it is a joke in our family. “Oh, don’t let Greta eat that. She’s going to have to go to the bathroom.” Like it was something we teased about but is my sensitive, my tummy was always very sensitive. I was always very stressed cause I was always doing a lot of things like involved in a lot at church and in school and just doing a lot. And um, depression. I think that I really suffered with that a lot and didn’t realize that’s what it was. Um, when I was so fatigued and tired. It’s almost like that the depression comes with that. Like when you’re so exhausted, you just sometimes I remember going to sleep and it’s terrible to admit this but I was like, I’m so tired. I just, let me go to sleep and never wake up. So that, so
Robin Nielsen:
Absolutely. You know, we get, we get the brain fog right and it just gets hard to think and, and we’re tired already. So, you know, just closing our eyes feels so much better. I mean, I remember, you know, for me having, I just, I just always wanted to take a nap during the day.
Greta Davis:
Yeah. Yeah.
Robin Nielsen:
You know, slugging through molasses all the time. You know, it just felt so hard. And I loved what you said about, you know, how you were going to do something fun with your friends and all you could think about was kind of how tired you were and how it really sucked to be thinking about that when you were going to do something really fun.
Greta Davis:
Yeah. Yup. That’s exactly right.
Robin Nielsen:
Yeah. So, so let’s move forward a bit. Are there any other symptoms that you are experiencing that you would like to share?
Greta Davis:
Um, I did have, um, some experience with binge eating, cause of like overwhelming cravings. Like I remember coming home from school and I would stop at Wendy’s and get food knowing that in less than an hour or even a couple of hours, I’ll be having dinner with my family and I would just be hungry and just for junk. Stuff that’s not satisfying, but something I thought I needed cause I was hungry. Like this overwhelming craving. And I hid that like I did that in private because it was embarrassing. I didn’t want people to think anything about, you know, um, and it wasn’t until years later that I realized, oh, I was a binge eater. You know, I didn’t know that was what was happening at the time and emotional eating seriously. Definitely to help with all those feelings and not knowing of what was going on, just trying to cover it up.
Robin Nielsen:
Yup. Yup. That was me too. Although mine was mostly baked goods. You know, I became a great baker, right? Yeah. Baked chocolate chip cookies in particular. And you know, it’s so funny cause I think about it, you know, I’m not a big person, I’m a smaller person. But you know, when I think about myself, I think of myself as a big person, you know, and Oh my gosh, I could eat, you know, a whole bag or, you know, whole bag of Graham crackers or, you know, anything like that. Super Addictive for me.
Greta Davis:
Yes, yes. Sugar, chocolate. Anything, chocolate,
Robin Nielsen:
Chocolate is a little, a little bit different category. But if it’s chocolate, then it might be in the same category, but dark chocolate is hard to overeat.
Greta Davis:
Yeah. Okay. That’s good. It was milk chocolate.
Robin Nielsen:
Exactly. So, milk chocolate is, you know, that’s more of the emotional eating. And here’s the thing, you know, you were hungry.
Greta Davis:
Mhm.
Robin Nielsen:
You know, we don’t think about it this way, but you were hungry because your body was just not absorbing those nutrients and you might not have been eating nutrient dense food and so you just weren’t getting what you needed. And that keeps us always hungry. So, you know, while we think we, while we really want to blame ourselves, we really do, “Like it’s your fault, you’re just so stupid. Why do you keep doing this?” It’s really not our fault. It has everything to do with our bodies getting what they need and your body was just still needing nutrients and so it just kept you hungry.
Greta Davis:
Yeah. Yeah. That’s so true.
Robin Nielsen:
So, transition us little bit now to, you had a PCOS diagnosis. You were not given any direction on what to do with that. And that is so common. And in fact, you know, a lot of times, the directive is to just lose weight and everything will improve. I don’t, did you ever receive that directive?
Greta Davis:
No. I don’t even remember him giving any kind of direction. Just saying this is what it is. I can guarantee you, I can run tests, but I guarantee you with the hirsutism you’re dealing with, the facial hair, I promise you, you will get a PCOS diagnosis. Like he, he just was that certain and that was it. I was just like, oh, okay. It was this bad. And like, well, it’s just something a lot of women deal with. That was pretty much it. So I didn’t even get a pamphlet or anything that I remember until later from another person.
Robin Nielsen:
So fast forward a little bit. So then what did you, what did you and your mom do? Like how did you start addressing some of these issues?
Greta Davis:
Um, well we just did the, started weight watchers and started working out. Those seem to help a little bit. Um, and it just seemed like this was just something I was going to deal with, like struggle with. Um, and then fast forward to, I move away to go to college in Indiana and of course like it just with college lifestyle, late nights, all of that and super involved in everything. I was on student council, I was involved in the music department and it was a lot. I was very, very busy and plus classes and tests and all of that. And working a job while I was, so I was just very, so it kind of fed into all of this. It just, it just seemed like, oh, like in high school, Oh, I’m just a busy, you know, young adult, so I’m gonna be tired, that’s just the way it is. And I started to gain weight and I didn’t, I mean I attributed that to the bad, poor eating in college cause you can’t afford to, you know, you just buy the cheap stuff so you can afford that.
Um, so then I graduated school and I actually lived in Terre Haute, Indiana as a music minister for a while or actually for about a year and a half. And when I moved there, it’s like everything exploded. Everything got worse. I was gaining weight rapidly, could not lose weight. Like I was trying, what I thought to do was to lose weight. Um, but again, I still had that busy lifestyle, was not sleeping well, also experienced just wanting to stay in bed all the time. I had serious, serious depression when I was there cause I was not with my family either. So that didn’t help. Um, I was by myself with new people, which is great, but it’s also a very lonely time. So I experienced a lot of depression. Fast forward, I get sick and I go to the physician assistant. Um, at the hospital, I actually also, uh, worked as, um, at an eye clinic and it was part of this big group of, uh, medical offices when I went to the doctor and I brought up because it just like all these years PCOS went out of my mind because it just was like something, whatever, it’s just something some guy told me and I didn’t know anything about it.
So it’s just out of sight, out of mind, whatever. It came back to my mind and was like, I wonder if that PCOS stuff that guy told me about, or the dermatologist told me about, “I wonder if that has something to do with how I’m feeling.” So I asked the physician’s assistant when I’m in the doctor’s office and she says, it’s very possible because of the hirsutism. She said, yeah. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to prescribe you, here we go. I’m going to prescribe you something to help get rid of the hirsutism, which is a combination of three things, birth control, spironolactone and metformin and I and she said, you should see some good results with that. And to me I’m like, okay, this is a solution that’s presented itself. Let’s try it. You know, in my mind that was what I needed.
So I get on the medicine, it seemed to help. She also may imply that it should help me lose weight as well. It did not do that at all. I actually think I gained weight. That it did help with my pores being so open on my face. It looked like it was helping with the hirsutism, but I kept taking it and I was like, hopefully it’ll work. You know, just, let’s cross our fingers. And then I go to my eye appointment and I am getting my, just your eye exam. And the doctor stopped and had a, um, a different, the ophthalmologists come in to check my eyes because he noticed something and she asked me, are you taking any kind of steroid? And I said, well, I’m taking birth control. And she said, stop right now because you have clotting in the back of your eyes that started to form and if it’s already starting in your eyes, it started somewhere else in your body, so stop taking it right now.
So I really believe that was the Lord that just kind of intervened in that cause. How else? How else would we have known that that was happening? So thank goodness it was my yearly eye exam. So I stopped that and at that point right there I was like, you know what, if PCOS is what’s happening to me, then I am not going to look for some kind of bandaid for this problem. We’re just trying to fix the symptoms. This is, I’m not taking this kind of medicine anymore, especially if it’s going to cause an issue. We’re going to look for a natural solution. This is my conversation with myself, like this is not, I can’t live like this anymore. And that is when I started doing my research and that’s when things started to change. I don’t know if you have any questions or if I need to stop at this point.
Robin Nielsen:
So let’s just take a quick break. So you shared some pretty profound things and I know a lot of the women listening and a lot of the women in our group here have experienced some things. If you’re listening in on this, I would love for you to comment, you know, right here about, what you’re noticing is coming up for you with what Greta is saying and you know, have you experienced some similar symptoms? Have you experienced some of the similar symptoms like, you know, depression and weight gain and hirsutism and have you tried some medications? Like what’s coming up for you? As Greta is sharing her story, we would love to hear from you and just post right here in the comment section below.
That’s pretty brave, you know. I know for a lot of us, you know, if the doctor says to do something, we do it, but then you had an ophthalmologist. I really feel like it was a divine intervention too. How blessed are you to have had to go to an eye appointment and they find this and, you know, I think that you’re using language that probably you didn’t have back then, but somehow you checked in with your body and said, I’m not going to put a bandaid on this. I’m gonna figure this out.
Greta Davis:
Definitely. Yeah.
Robin Nielsen:
Cause now looking back, you’re saying, you know, I’m not gonna just treat the symptoms. I really want to understand what PCOS is. And that’s, you know, that’s definitely farther down the road. Unfortunately, this is why we’re doing this to save women who are going through this right now. So much time and angst, you know, frustration and torture basically.
Greta Davis:
Yes. Yes. And I was very, like, it was a, it was a mental like frustration for me, like to know, okay, I was just given medication to help fix this, this symptom. Like, but why are we not digging into what this is further? Like I was very upset and I mean I didn’t express this to other people, but for myself, like why, why wouldn’t a doctor try to help me figure out what the underlying problem really is? You know, this is, this is gonna go on forever. And then I started reading stuff that this is not a curable thing. Like a pamphlet was given to me at that doctor’s appointment. You know that these are some things that can help with PCOS but you’ll never be cured and this is something you have to live with kind of thing. Which I know that’s, at the time, that was probably the information that was current, but it was just really frustrating for me because it was like, okay, the one solution that was given, I had, now I have to stop. There is no more solution. So what is natural solution? What, what else can we do? So that’s when like I started really digging in and looking for my own, my own solution. Really.
Robin Nielsen:
I am so glad that you talked about your feelings because it takes a, what’s kind of called righteous anger. It takes that anger in us to actually motivate us to do something different. If we’re kind of complacent or we’re apathetic, we’re not going to make big change. Like it just doesn’t happen like that. For me, I got really mad. I said, well for me it’s like I don’t like it when I get really irritated when people complain about the same thing over and over. It’s like you can complain to me once, maybe twice about the same thing and then I’m going to call you on it. Right. And that’s what I was doing to myself. I was like, grabbing that roll of fat over my pants. I’m like, what is this? I’m so tired of feeling fat, Blah Blah Blah, blah blah. And I’m like, stop complaining. Do something about it. Right. Of course I had a gazillion other symptoms. A weight gain was just one small symptom. And so it takes that anger to motivate us for change. So you are feeling like you wanted to get to the bottom of it. You were not satisfied. So then what did you do?
Greta Davis:
Oh. Then I just went online and I tried to find anything I could find about PCOS. I read multiple articles like webMD had some stuff. And then I actually stumbled upon Insulite on youtube from Katie Humphrey she does that previously. So and, and she had like several videos talking about her PCOS and I was like, okay, there is someone else out there who’s dealing with the same junk I’m dealing with. And I just kept watching. And then she said she talked about Insulite and how that completely changed her life. So that led me to the Insulite website and I started doing my research on there and reading the articles and I bought the system and I realized, okay, this stuff, this stuff really works. Like I noticed feeling different. And then I also followed someone, PCOS diva, and she inspired me actually to go to school to become an integrative nutrition health coach. So like totally change, like my thought process of food and how to take care of our bodies and it just, it completely changed everything. Well, fast forward a little bit because of financial reasons. I had to stop taking Insulite and I tried to do other things and still do the eating better and try to still do the five element system. But without the nutrition, it wasn’t smart.
Robin Nielsen:
Okay. So, without the nutrients, so you couldn’t purchase the nutrients for a while. And so let’s talk about what you noticed when you first started the Insulite five element system. What did you add? You tried anything else before that?
Greta Davis:
No, I didn’t. So the reason, one of the hugest reasons I chose Insulite was because it’s all natural. There was no synthetic medication because I was turned off from that, you know, from what I experienced before with the metformin and birth control and spironolactone. And I just, I was really intrigued by the natural solution that it offered. And I don’t remember how long because it was a while ago that I started, but, so I don’t know how long after I had started that I noticed the changing, but I remember feeling a lot more energy. I started to lose weight or release it and like I just had more consistent energy throughout the day, less brain fog and it was just, Oh okay, this is, oh, it’s like a breath of fresh air. Thank God I found something that’s helping me. You know, I just felt completely different. The depression and anxiety drastically subsided and whenever I did have to get off of or take a break for financial reasons, almost, not immediately, but very quickly, all of that stuff that I had worked so hard to try to help release it came rushing back and it was almost worse.
Like I didn’t really have severe menstrual cramping before taking Insulite. Like my periods were regular, so it didn’t, it wasn’t the typical fit of PCOS, most PCOS women. But the irregularity in my periods were how long they lasted and how, or how short they were or like they would come at a different time of the month, not the same time. So there was some irregularity just not like the typical, you know, diagnosis. But, I had, you know, menstrual cramping, but it wasn’t, it was okay, whatever. It’s just something you deal with. Well, in between having to stop, I noticed having terrible, terrible cramping and I did not connect it with not taking my nutrients. I even went to the doctor to see what could be happening. I didn’t know if maybe I had a cyst on my ovaries or something was going on. He was like, oh no, you’re fine. Here, take some Ibuprofen prescription strength and that should help it. It looks just like you’re having some spasms. And again, I had that same frustration. I’m like, this is not, this is not what this is supposed to be like. I’m not coming to the doctor for you to just say, oh, it’s nothing. And when I brought up PCOS, he contradicted me. I was very angry about that.
I left the doctor’s office and I called my fiance at the time and I was livid. I was so frustrated because like this is a common thing with women. PCOS is like one and now three women. You know it. We used to be one in every 10. Now it’s one in every three and he’s going to say, no, you don’t have PCOS just because you don’t show, or I don’t see any cysts on your ovaries right now. I’m like, that is old information. It was very, that righteous anger came on me again. It really did. I was like, no, this is not cool. I’m never going back to him again. Like, ah. So, not long ago. I was able to get back on Insulite and that cramping is not, it’s like almost gone completely. I have no more of that severe cramping. Again, my energy has come back. I’m finally starting to release the weight again. Like it’s just been life changing really. It really has been and I’m so thankful and now almost I’m kicking myself. I should’ve made at work where I did it stop. Like I should have found another way. But it’s like, you know, it’s just a life lesson I had to learn.
Robin Nielsen:
Yeah. And I think, I think that we all do that. You know, we have to experiment. You know, I think that, you know, one of the things I hear a lot of is that, you know, do I have to take these supplements for the rest of my life? And it doesn’t matter whether you’re taking the Insulite system or other nutrients, the bottom line is when you’re a rock star like Greta, you know, and you have a lot to do in your life and you want to feel great. We have these genetic predispositions that need additional nutrients. And if you don’t have them, you just cannot function at your best. I don’t know what I do without my nutrients and I have colleagues, I mean, you know, some of the ladies say, Oh, it’s a lot of pills.
It’s, it’s nothing compared to what many of us take. You know, I take, uh, gosh double that twice a day or at least double that twice a day. So it just really comes down to how you wanna feel and really creating that nutrient program for yourself, whether it’s with Insulite or whether you put it together yourself or you work with another practitioner. It’s finding those nutrients that really support you for what’s going on with your body. And you know, if you, let’s go back to the nutrients rock star training. You know, I share some of those biggie nutrients that we just have to have if we’re suffering from symptoms of hormone imbalance. And so, you know, a lot of times women who have been on the Insulite system, they’ll say, I’m just going to take a break and see what happens. And I think you have to do that because otherwise, you know, you don’t really know how they’re helping or not.
Greta Davis:
You don’t really appreciate it as much until you realize, wow, there it is.
Robin Nielsen:
And you may not have been in a place to really understand how important nutrients are for our bodies at the time. And now you have a lot more information. You’ve done your own clinical trial, your own trial of one, which is like that by the way, is the new standard, the new gold standard in clinical trials is the trial of one. So, doing it on yourself, figuring out what works for you, what doesn’t work for you, and then you know, going off it, seeing what you notice. I mean I’ve done that many times. It’s like I am so tired of, and I’ll go off it and I’m like, Oh, you know, I got the same stuff back. And you know, I always say if we lived on a beautiful island and we had a bunch of Cabana boys and there was incredible food and we didn’t have to do anything, life would be good. But we’re still with ourselves. You know, I’m not going to be happy sitting around for very long. So, you know, we need those nutrients to make us function. And you did all the other parts, you know, are you working on, you’ve done a great job with your diet and with movement. And how are your cravings?
Greta Davis:
With that too, I’ve experimented with the diet a lot and I’ve found that the best thing that works for me is as close to whole food as possible. Like it really does matter. Little to no grain. I removed dairy completely and actually funny story, my husband and I wanted to try this new place that’s like a burger and shake place here and we were like, oh okay cause he’s got a sensitive stomach as well with dairy. So we’re able to do that together. We went and we had a shake and almost like within less than 30 minutes we were both feeling miserable. So we both made a pact, no more dairy, like so we know what works. So sometimes you do have to experiment. I know dairy is a no, no. If you have PCOS and gluten is a big, big trigger for inflammation for me especially like I’ve noticed that. So when I don’t eat dairy or gluten, my stomach, I feel less heavy in the middle. And just like the bloating, I guess is what it is. I don’t know. It just is calmer and my bathroom trips are way more regular and consistent and healthy I guess. So like things like that I’ve noticed that I’ve been a huge deal as far as my diet and just eating whole foods. It’s really, that’s where it is. Whole foods and good lean protein. So I’ve noticed my cravings with when I’m on the system, like the cravings, the bad cravings are the wanting to go binge and have no real reason to just like it was unexplainable. Like I don’t know why I’m not hungry. I just want this food and I know it’s bad for me, but it’s almost like you can’t help yourself. I don’t want to use that as an excuse, but it almost that, that sensation, it’s like I can’t control what I’m doing right now. I just have to. It’s like a compulsion and that has gone away and thankfully I’m so glad. So the nutrients are doing their job and because I’m eating more whole foods like I can do better. I know like again that type A personality. Like I know the list of things I’m supposed to be doing. And if I’m not doing it, I give myself a hard time cause I’m a perfectionist, you know. But learning to kind of give myself a break, like you talk about being gentle with yourself, that is a big deal, I’m really trying to learn to do better with that as well. So eating and then moving, finding something fun to do. Like I posted a little while ago in the other group about, we went and played racquetball was the first time I ever played racquetball. It was so much fun.
Robin Nielsen:
That’s right. That’s so great. I was so happy when I read that. I’m like oh good, she’s going to play a game.
Greta Davis:
It was so fun. And then like the gym, we actually did just join a gym but it’s cause they had a racquetball court and like stuff and they have classes. So I love, I love weight, like doing weights and resistance training. I just feel strong and it makes me feel good. So I joined the um, there’s a class they do, body pump, and so it’s with a bunch of people, high energy for a short amount of time. And it’s done in an hour and I feel good and strong and healthy afterwards, you know? But it was, it took me a little bit before I just jumped into that. Like I really was trying to pay attention to the modules and saying, you know, don’t just go give it all you’ve got in a workout when your body is still trying to heal. Like give it some time. So I was really trying to follow that this time around because I think I was trying to do it all at once, you know, to get the results and it was not helping me. It was actually making it worse.
Robin Nielsen:
That’s one of the problems with those go-go-go girls, is that we want to do everything right right now. And it’s a process. Right. It’s definitely a process. And, um, you’ve really gone from well, one thing and you didn’t share about is how is your hirsutism now?
Greta Davis:
Well it’s still there. That’s probably, yeah. I don’t know. I haven’t noticed on my face it doing any better yet. But my, I’ve noticed on my chest it’s getting thinner and lighter, so I’m just going to stay consistent and the nutrients and just I know that eventually, I know that’s one of the last things to change, um, in your journey. But I’m just gonna stay consistent and keep doing what I need to do. And that’s the thing, like if you’re struggling with this, like I do so often, I feel like the things that I would recommend for anyone, any woman who’s feeling like they can’t, they just can’t go on anymore, is stay consistent. Just be consistent. Even if you don’t see results right now, be consistent, be persistent. Just keep going. Be intentional. Like that is the key. Like you have to have a plan.
Just make a plan. Even if, like I said at the beginning, that type A personality, your plan, you don’t meet the mark every time. Just keep going, keep making the plan. You will start to see results even if it’s a little bit at a time, it’s better than where you were yesterday. That’s what I have to keep telling myself. I don’t ever want to go back to that 274 pound woman who couldn’t walk into Coke-cola Museum because she felt so terrible. I never want to go back to that. So remember where you were and remember where you are right now. It’s, it’s different and it’s better. So don’t stop. Don’t give up cause you got this. That’s what, as I have to tell myself all the time. My husband actually, he told me the other day, cause I was having, actually was a couple of weeks, I was having one of those like down days and meltdown like I’m worthless, I’m never going to make it, you know, so you need good support too. That’s the other thing. You have to have a great support system. But he was telling me, he said, “you know Gret. I read something the other day and I think it will help you.” He said it was like this meme he saw on Facebook or something and it said, uh, “You are not fat. You have fat.” And he said you can’t identify, you can’t, you can’t let that be your identity. You are more than what that is. So really it’s,
Robin Nielsen:
It’s all good. It’s all good. That’s so nice. I love, I love how like your journey just continues to morph in a way that really supports you and I hope that you’re signed up for the New You master class. Yeah. This is part of what we’re going to do tomorrow. It’s really to craft our new stories because we have to have that new vision of ourselves to get out of the old stories we keep saying over and over that keep us stuck. Right.
Greta Davis:
That’s where I get sent the most is my mind. Like I can do all physical stuff and do the plan, but right here is where you get stuck the most or where I do. That’s, that’s my biggest downfall in just working out of that, like getting out of that is a big deal and just telling yourself the positive story and don’t stick on anymore.
Robin Nielsen:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, you’ve done a fantastic job. You know, really figuring this out for yourself and pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and setting some, some pretty hefty parameters for what you will and will not do around your health. And I think that’s just so inspiring and you’ve gone from, um, you know, some pretty big things like, you know, weight gain and hirsutism and digestive issues and anxiety and depression and kinda just a horrible exhaustion and fatigue to really pulling yourself out of almost all of it and really understanding your body in a much more powerful way. And I, what I get from this is that you really feel like you’re in charge.
Greta Davis:
Yes, I do. I do. I feel like a calming, like way more calm internally instead of that stress. Like I feel like I’d be, before I felt like there was this constant inner stress. Now it’s calm and we’ll just take it as it comes and we’ll just do, we need to do. And that is, and I feel more balanced. Like I’m becoming more balanced and I’m sure it’s the hormones, like everything’s starting to finally come in alignment. And I’m just thankful. Very grateful.
Robin Nielsen:
Oh Gosh. Well, we’re very grateful that you joined us today to share your journey. A huge inspiration to all of us just on, you know, what it looks like to take charge of your health. You know, this is what it looks like. And so if you’re, you know, a woman who is ready to take charge of her health, you know, do your research, ask the questions, start figuring out, you know, what those root causes are for you. We have the great handout here in the group called the Top 10 Things that throw your hormones off balance. It’s a great like checklist to start saying, okay, I got to start looking at these things and it’s exactly what Greta has been doing. And again, thank you so much Greta for sharing your incredible story.
Greta Davis:
Thank you for inviting me. I really appreciate it. I hope it helps somebody.
Robin Nielsen:
Yeah. It’s helped all of us right now. We’ve got this, right? All right, well let’s send Greta a big kiss. Thank you so, so much and sending you all a big kiss. And just letting you know you’ve got this. Bye everyone.
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Next Steps
Becoming victorious over the symptoms of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome is not an easy task, but you can overcome your symptoms to live the life you deserve.
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- Read more about PCOS
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About Insulite Health PCOS.com
Insulite Health, is committed to helping women reverse their symptoms of hormone imbalance. Scientific research has revealed that this imbalance can be a primary cause of many devastating health symptoms. Hormone Imbalance can also underlie the increased risk factors for PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) – a major source of serious diseases as well as cause of excess weight gain, adult acne, unwanted facial hair, depression, anxiety, and heartbreaking female infertility.
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