I’m feeling like you have a similar situation as I do. Maybe not exactly the same with symptoms, but definitely with feeling the frustration with not seeing improvements while growing a fat ass (pardon my French lol).
I haven’t been doing this program nearly as long (it will be 3 months on October 11). I have gained 30 pounds already!! Still the temps have not gone up (I take them orally with a traditional thermometer so I don’t have to worry about dead batteries) and many of my other menstrual issues haven’t improved. My moods have gone kinda wack since I’ve started and I noticed a few sneaky little symptoms of PCOS coming back (which I had thought I had gotten rid of when I was reducing calories/carbs and from taking estrosmart, which is a supplement to help with estrogen dominance). According to Matt, the PCOS symptoms should go away after awhile, plus I’ve upped my dose of Estrosmart.
When I started the program, I stopped taking the supplement Adrenasmart because I assumed that with higher calories and carbs my sleep would improve without needing the supplement for my adrenals. WRONG!! Just like you, I was waking up multiple times of the night and not being able to fall back to sleep. I figured that if I didn’t get any sleep, I wouldn’t be able to see any improvements with regards to temps and improvements hormonally, therefore I started taking the Adrenasmart again and I’m actually able to sleep through the night (unless my temps are very low, then my sleep sucks). If I were you, I would definitely check out this supplement for your sleep as you may have a problem with high cortisol as I do. Such a vicious cycle to be stuck in; no sleep, fatigue and stress because of no sleep, stress raises cortisol, cortisol prevents sleep etc. etc.
As for the dry skin situation, I may have a solution that you could try. I only use natural body wash and shampoo (conventional shampoos and body washes can be pretty harsh with all the chemicals) and I do not wash my face with soap (If I wash my face with soap I get dry patches on my face and crazy breakouts that turn into a rash). Before a shower, I also do the body brushing method to loosen dead skin and at the end of my shower, before drying off, I moisturize my entire body with coconut oil and then dry off with a towel (this kind of wrecks your towels, so you might want one or two towels just for this). I also only shower every three days and wash my woman parts every day (sorry TMI haha).
I do have fat moments where I think “OMFG I feel like a cow”, but then I’ve been on Pinterest and looked up plus size fashion and have gotten some ideas on how to cloth this new body of mine. Plus I look at pics of Ashley Graham and the old pics of Crystal Renn and I get reminded of how hot a plus size girl can look. I purchased a few new clothes (mostly from thrift stores) and I’m feeling pretty sexy :) I also do a program once a week called Callanetics which has helped to keep my figure more hour-glass instead of blimp, so maybe google this? I’ve used this program since I was 16 and it’s lovely. There is a beginner DVD, but now I’m doing the advanced program called Super Callanetics which is a little more intense.
One question I have for you, when did your temps start going up? I’m just curious because you’ve been doing the program since April and it looks like you have more ideal temps (I can only get mine up to 97.8 F after ovulation and before ovulation, during my current cycle, I had an all-time low of 96.4, YIKES!!). I’m thinking that by the 3 month mark, I might have to start taking a supplement again called Thyrosmart to get those temps up, because I don’t know what my boyfriend’s cut-off is on the fat-o-meter before he’ll start being repulsed by me :( (Not that he can talk, he has a bit of weight issues himself, but I don’t care because I love him the way he is).
Sorry for the novelette.