Ok, here's the hormone post!

If you've heard me mention, a time or ten, about hormone replacement therapy, here is why:  I care about how you feel.   

When I hear that members are truly working the plan and seeing no results, I care.  When someone says they look into the mirror and don't recognize themselves anymore, I care.  When someone says they don't care anymore and want to give up, I care.

I care so I will share.  I will share how I was feeling about 8 years ago.  Eight years ago I was doing everything in my power to loose weight and no results, in fact kept gaining.  When I looked into the mirror I saw an angry person and did not recognize her.  I got to the point where I didn't care and so wanted to give up but I was afraid if I gave up I'd never find my way back.  Sound familiar?

Luckily for me, I now realize, I have this Hartman gene that never gives up (sometimes to our own detriment) so I kept searching for an answer.  I had been going to a naturopath (Carole Quinn, she's awesome!) for a couple of years who had been helping me with stomach issues and we started talking. She suggested that at 45 years old my hormones could be out of whack.  What???  Menopause, me????  No, no, no, no.....yes!

She told me about Dr. Schlanger in Toronto.  I believe in being pro-active so I made an appointment, got blood work and saliva testing done and found out indeed that my progesterone and estrogen levels were "depressed'!  Seriously, that's what the results said!

  

So, I got my prescription (BTW you cannot do this by yourself and buy over the internet, you need to see a doctor.  Hormones are serious, and a tad touchy, they like to be in balance....no more, no less). Balu's in Stirling is a compounding pharmacy and he made up my prescription cream.  Within 4 days, I was no longer seething inside, it was like the huge angry cloud that hung over me around was lifted! I started to feel like my old self and, yay hooray, all my hard work in the diet and exercise department started to pay off. Not to mention when the hot flashes started occurring 2 or 3 times an hour...24 hours a day...a tweak to my prescription took care of most of them!  Let me be clear, this is not a miracle weight loss pill/cream.  Like I've said many, many times;  If there was a magic weight loss pill, Oprah would have it and she'd be thin.  

So the whole point of this entry is to share an option that gave me myself back.  I know that's a strong statement but that's truly how I feel.  I've had women tell me that they just "sucked it up Buttercup and put up with it"....well, great.   If that works for you and you're happy, great.  But if you're not happy, I urge you to be proactive, look for options, talk to your doctor, do your homework. 

Please don't settle for being unhappy.

. Life is a gift but sometimes our personal

 "fog" keeps us from receiving it.