Ladies meetings, self defense, and flying carpets

Saturday I attended a ladies meeting with some friends at People's Baptist Church of Mcdonough; it was a phenomenal experience. I'm sure you ladies that attend events like this can agree that not every ladies meeting is really good through and through, but I look forward to attending this one every year! This year the theme was A Whole New World, and-like the last few years-it was a theme based on a Disney princess. As it turned out, Princess Jasmine had many things to teach us! 

The main speaker was a lady named Tam Bowman. Each of the sessions she taught had real-world applications, but my favorite was when she spoke on Ruth and reminded us not to settle for anything but God's complete will for our lives. For the very last session she taught, she spoke on hormone imbalances. This is a topic close to my heart (obviously) because I was diagnosed with it (Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome). I remember how suddenly I was reading everything I could get my hands on, and seeing that several friends likely had it but didn't know. As women, we're so used putting our own health problems/bodies after everyone elses, but that's so not cool. Mrs. Bowman told her story, listed symptoms, and suggested those that had these symptoms get their hormones checked. The whole thing was done in such a caring and sweet way that no one felt uncomfortable at all. 

One of the highlights of the meeting, was when the rest of the Bowman family (her husband and two sons) gave tips on self-defense and even gave a few demonstrations! While the whole family practices Krav Maga, a fighting style originating in Israel, her oldest son is the youngest instructor in the world and gave us some quick tips. My favorite tips were: if someone is in your comfort zone you will feel it in two places, your neck and your stomach, and "listen to your gut" telling you when something is off. Mr. Bowman gave us some scary statistics on abductions before the demo, but instead of rehashing everything he said, I would LOVE for you and your kids to watch these videos below. Try your best to ignore my comments, I really do narrate whenever I'm interested in something lol. 

This first video, he intro'd by saying that women fear having their hair pulled, and that while it's a rational fear, you need to be able to strike back when it happens.

This is one starts out talking about a child abduction and then ends out with good tips for ladies. 

So...I think you'll agree that it was a day well-spent! I wonder if I can send my request in early for next year's princess: Mulan!

Lizzi

PCOS -my acne journey

It is very difficult for me to put myself out there in this way. In person (specifically one-on-one), I'm very outgoing and can talk about PCOS, my acne, weight loss and gain etc...but really, my acne has always been a very embarrassing thing for me. There have been times I've brought it up just because I felt like it was an elephant in the room, and some of those times (as I supposed) the person was dying to give me "advice" on what to do for my skin. "Wash it every day!" they'd say. Better yet, they'd suggest I put toothpaste on it because the one time they had a pimple it dried it right up. Apparently, if you don't have acne and never have had it, you are the ultimate authority on problem skin, but I digress.

Check out beside my nose, to the right of my mouth, on my chin, and underneath my chin. This is a horrid pic someone tried to take of me that I must have forgotten to delete from my camera.

I was somewhat relieved when I found out PCOS aka hormone imbalance was the cause of mine. It gave me a seen enemy to fight. I didn't know yet how to fight it, or how long the road would be, but it was a starting point. I was ready to arm myself with info. Of course the first thing I did was ask my doctor. She told me to take birth control for the hormones to balance, eat-at most- two desserts a week and drink only water (part of PCOS is insulin resistance hence the "no sweets".) She said that if that didn't work she had some more drugs to throw my way. I asked if there were something natural I could do, and she said no. She told me that the birth control were gonna be something I did for the rest of my life, because there is no cure for PCOS. I was not happy with this, but decided to see what happened with the birth control. I took it for a few months, but I wasn't okay with the havoc it wreaked on my body and stopped.
I began to research and am now on two supplements, and have changed the way I eat as well as the way I care for my face. My breakouts have diminished, but not completely stopped; at least now it's only about once a month that I get a breakout. Years of acne have resulted in hyper-pigmentation that is so hard to get rid of. I would like to help others who struggle with this. It's not fun. It can really mess up your self-esteem. If you don't think you have someone in your corner cheering you on, think again; I would be happy to. Here are pictures of me now. I took close-up pictures with good lighting to show the dark marks on my face.

Haha, I was so busy making sure I got clear selfies without moving that I forgot to look pleasant. My eyes look completely glazed over. 

There is no way I can completely go over all of this in one post, so some of it will have to be saved for later. Feel free to contact me if you just want to talk about PCOS and acne, or if you have questions. 

Oh and I almost forgot...I started this conversation in a previous blog post. Find it here.