Yea, isn't menopause fun.

I'm taking fistfulls of vitamins and supplements recommended by WtoW (specifics are in my journal). I've just finished my first round of progesterone, and will be starting my second round in about a week. I'm already at the max for the DHEA (5 drops morning and night), and don't feel any different. They say that some women need more than 5 drops. My next appointment there is Thursday, June 1.

They are definitely proponents of Schwarzbein. It's strange. If you look at one of the articles on their site about "fad diets" it strongly recommends AGAINST Atkins and Protein Power and describes them as low-fat plans. Huh? Says they cause metabolic problems.

My NP says that the body absolutely needs carbs. I don't believe that. I tried discussing it with her, and told her I do a lot of reading. She looked down her nose at me and asked what I read. I told her I've read books, scientific studies I get on the Internet, and that I've been reading about human paleontology and our evolution since college.

She dismissed that and said that she's been studying this for 25 years, and she knows what's right (implying that what I think is wrong).

Well, I've lived in this body for 51 years, and I know what works and, more to the point, what DOESN'T work for my body. If I eat 90 carbs a day, it will set off cravings and I'll gain weight immediately. Then I'll be in worse shape.

I just get the feeling she's patronizing me, and I don't like it.

She keeps telling me that she's going to have me do the Isogenix program later this summer. I finally looked it up on the Internet, and it's a cleanse program where you have to drink their shakes and do all their cleanses and buy all their products. I think you have one "regular" meal (according to their instructions) per day. And it's expensive. Almost $350 for a month.

Now that I've read about it, I'm going to tell her that I will not do it. It's expensive, for one thing. For another thing, I don't believe in cleanses. For another thing, I don't believe that eating a bunch of fake stuff is better than eating whole, unprocessed, natural foods.

So there! That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

She also wanted me to drop the workouts down to almost nothing until my adrenals are healed. (I'm starting to question the whole adrenal thing, too.) I've now gained even more. I now have these lumps of fat on both hips that were never there before, even when I was at my highest weight.

This week I upped my exercise again, and that will be my plan. I will be doing 30 minutes of treadmill most days (shooting for 5 to 6), and weight training twice a week -- an intense upper-body routine on Wednesdays (the day I work from home) and an intense lower-body routine on Saturdays or Sundays.

Sorry this got so long.

Has anyone else experienced the weight gain and was able to get it off again?