​​​​My own experience with PCOS shaped so much of what I do. I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was a teenager. Like a lot of women, I was prescribed the pill and told to come back when I needed help getting pregnant. At that age I wasn't thinking about having kids, I was thinking about making it through school.

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The pill managed some symptoms, but the mood swings showed up, and the brain fog and stress stuck around. I wish I'd had more education on these symptoms back then. I thought what I was going through was normal, especially with the whole "hormonal teenager" thing. I survived those years anyway.

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Later, in my twenties, I met my husband. When we got serious, I gave him the warning label that comes with having PCOS, and he chose to love me through the symptoms and the possibility of not having kids at all. After a check-up, I was told to see an endocrinologist, who diagnosed me with insulin resistance and put me on metformin.​​

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Years later I decided to get off both medications and try doing things "the natural way." I did this because my mind and body just weren't feeling great but I had no plan, and no one to tell me how. The symptoms got worse, I was dealing with fatigue, hirsutism, brain fog skin issues, and the 40 pound weight gain. It was like I looked up one day and the weight was just there. I knew what I needed to do, but the momentum and the all-or-nothing mentality kept me stuck. Along the way I tried plant-based, keto, workout programs, personal trainers, functional medicine doctors, nutritionists; nothing really fit what I knew I needed. Eventually I got tired of my own excuses and went looking for help.