Marissa

I struggle with symptoms of PCOS and hypothyroidism, along with being a busy parent of small kids, so the most immediate concern for me beginning the Jumpstart Program was just feeling better. I have also seen health struggles my parents have started facing and wanted to just make a change that will put me on track to avoid the little cumulative health issues that are just that much harder to deal with in 10 or 20 years.

My husband has been very supportive of the Program and the new recipes, so I have really been able to change what my kitchen looks like and how our plates look for meals. Most importantly I feel confident that I will be able to find more new recipes that we will love. It doesn’t mean that we will never eat our old favorites again, but I want the new normal to be Diva-friendly eating and I feel confident that I can do it. The funny thing is I actually feel better about indulgences than I did before the Program. If I’m eating better 99% of the time, I don’t need to beat myself up over an indulgence now and then, because I know it’s not going to derail my health.

Jumpstart week turned into a very unexpectedly stressful and inconvenient week for me for reasons totally unrelated to Jumpstart, so I definitely was not achieving everything I’d hoped for this week. However by the end of the week instead of feeling disheartened that life had gotten in the way of me doing as much as I had wanted, I was feeling proud that during a week where I would normally have been stress eating, picking up take-out and guzzling soda, I was eating great, making dinners and sitting down with my family each night and taking care of myself when I needed it most. I definitely had a shift from thinking, “Oh why is all this stuff happening this week I’m trying to focus on my health,” to thinking, “This week happened exactly when I needed it most.” The idea of progress not perfection has really resonated with me. Why dwell on not being able to follow the program to perfection when even the small victories have me leaps and bounds above where I would be otherwise?

I would say to anyone considering Amy’s Jumpstart Program, go for it! Don’t give yourself an excuse to put it off. Do not think about it as giving up your current lifestyle. Just think about this as the first step and, no matter whether your victories are great or small, that first step puts you ahead of where you were before. Jumpstart gives you the tools to make your own better choices. It’s not about surrendering yourself completely to a life defined by PCOS Diva, it’s about giving you the tools to define a better life for yourself.