Last month I was part of a team of 16 speakers invited to present at the very first Ignite Food. I am pasting the link that gets you to all of the presentations so you can enjoy the evening vicariously. It was a great time, I met a lot of new people with similar interests, and look forward to meeting and collaborating with at least a few of them on similar projects. We had everything from chefs to gardeners to ranchers on stage, which offered a perfect variety of viewpoints of food and where it comes from.
Click here if you'd like to see more!
I noticed on watching the video that I was so intent on not moving from the tape line on the floor so as not to move out of camera range…all the energy I normally put into moving around more on stage was channeled into a little bit of bobbing. So sorry about that! This was a new experience for me. Note to self, practice that part next time around!
If you have trouble hearing what I was saying, and you are interested, please let me know. I am considering re-recording the presentation using the same slides. The experience helped me to refine a message about food and health that I have been working on for a long time, and I'd be happy to put something together. I was appealing to the audience to consider how much we might be able to lower our health care budgets, personally and nationally, if we started respecting the healing powers of foods growing all around us.
I've been getting a lot of questions about juicing lately, so it's clearly a popular trend right now. I love the fact that juicing gets more vegetables into people who normally wouldn't get them. However, there are some important things to know about juicing if your intent is to use it for a healthier diet.
1. Juice contains calories! Ounce for ounce, juice and soda are similar calorie-wise. 8 ounces of either is about 120 calories. Some of the sweeter juices are even more calorically dense. Don't get caught up in the false assumption that because it's juice, it's lower in calories, or that unlimited quantities are permissible.
2. When you juice your vegetables, you remove the fiber. In researching this blog post, I learned that many juicer companies actually sell this point, claiming that without the fiber, the nutrients that are left are more easily absorbed. The fiber itself is an important nutrient! Especially if you're someone who has trouble regulating energy or blood glucose levels. If you're counting on your juice as your source of all of your vegetables, you could be cutting yourself short on fiber.
3. If carrots are what you're juicing, be aware that you can overdose on vitamin A. I've seen this actually happen, it's not just a myth. If the pads of your hands and feet start to get an orange-ish tinge, and you've recently fallen in love with juicing carrots, you might want to think about the connection. Be sure to vary your juice ingredients.
4. Spinach, another common vegetable to juice, eaten in high quantities, is high in oxalates. This compound can prevent the absorption of iron, calcium, and magnesium. It can also promote the development of kidney stones. Oxalates leach out of spinach when it is cooked, but if you're using the juicer for convenience, this extra step may not be useful. Other foods high in oxalates, in case you're using them in your juicer, include rhubarb, beets and sorrel.
5. Juice contains little to no protein. You may find that when you switch to a juice-heavy diet, your craving for sweets increases. What I recommend to people who ask about juicing, is to make a smaller amount of juice and blend it in with milk, yogurt, or protein powder. I actually like to use 1 cup of plain yogurt, a ripe banana, one other piece of a different fruit, plus a handful of veggies and some ground flaxseed. I always vary the fruit and the vegetable to be sure I don't overload on any one food. And I keep the fiber and protein in my breakfast.
If you make those simple adjustments, the possibilities and combinations are endless. Enjoy!
I am mostly a purist. I like real food from the source. But I am also a realist. And I understand that not everyone can cook, or even likes to cook. And that there are times when you are hungry when there's not a kitchen in sight. So I wanted to share a new product with you that I really like.
I have 3 friends in Seattle, all nutritionists, who partnered with a fourth friend, to create an all-natural, wheat-free, gluten-free, soy-free, low-glycemic energy bar that is just perfect for someone with PCOS. It's got the right kind of fats, and its protein source is whey protein powder, which is great too. Currently available flavors are: chocolate peanut butter, blueberry almond, and oatmeal chocolate chip. I especially like the fact that nutritionists understand that it's much easier to get people to try something healthy if you throw in a little chocolate!
I am really excited about this product, because it's not easy for me to come up with grab-and-go ideas for women with PCOS, and this one fits the bill.
It takes a lot of work and sacrifice to take an idea you have over coffee…"There's nothing out there I can recommend to my clients…hey, why don't I create my own?"…into a reality…and I am really excited that my friends stuck with their idea to the point where I can promote it to people like you. Which is the other reason I'm telling all of you about them. I'd really like them to be rewarded for what it took to go into a business that provides a much-needed service for women like you.
Currently, Zing Bars are primarily available on the West Coast (there is a store locator on the website), but you can order them online by the box. If you like them, be sure you encourage your local stores to stock them.
Just a quick thought for Earth Day. Have you ever considered how sustainable living and PCOS management go hand in hand?
If you walk more instead of driving, you use less gasoline and improve your insulin resistance.
If you choose less processed foods, you reduce your consumption of preservatives and unhealthy fats, in addition to your use of packaging and energy.
If you eat locally produced foods, you increase your antioxidant intake and reduce your consumption of fossil fuels.
If you eat organic foods, you reduce the amount of artificial estrogens you put into your body and into the surrounding environment.
If you eat lower on the food chain, you do a lot of all of the above.
If you improve your sleep hygiene and turn the lights out earlier, you improve your melatonin metabolism at the same time you reduce your electricity consumption.
It all fits together. If you sustain the planet, you bring your body into balance.
What are you going to do today, to pay homage to Mother Nature?
This week we’ll talk about bargaining, from the perspective of how bargaining plays out in relationship to our PCOS, and the sadness and grief that are often parts of PCOS. Bargaining is part of the DABDA (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) model that is typically applied to chronic/terminal illness. In the dying process, bargaining looks quite similar to what it looks like in PCOS, although it tends towards making deals with god, or trying to manipulate doctors. In PCOS, it looks more like this:
• Making a deal with god to be more attentive to him/her, if only the PCOS will go away • Trying to negotiate with doctors – “Okay, so I’ll take the metformin like you said, but I’m still going to keep eating fast food, and it should all balance out, right?” • Negotiating with your dietician, personal trainer, etc. – “I’ll do the cardio, but then I don’t have to do weights today.” Or, “I’ll come in three times a week, but only if you cut your fee in half.” Or, “Look, I know that dark green leafy vegetables are really good for me, but they give me gas, so can’t I just have a (pre-sweetened, sugar-laden, actually junk food) yogurt instead?” (HUH?! As you can see, we get very creative with our attempts to avoid what we don’t want, and get what we do want instead.) • Over-exercising in order to compensate for eating badly – we develop a strange, twisted, internal logic that allows us to, essentially, do whatever we want. We convince ourselves that there are no consequences. • Eating badly but taking lots of medication or supplements – this is another favorite form of a secret internal balancing plan that absolutely has no scientific or logical merit. It doesn’t just apply to food. • Figuring, I’m young, I can do what I want until ___ age, then I’ll behave – the damage is occurring now, the bad habits are just getting more cemented as daily behavior, etc.
And here’s the thing about these games that we play with ourselves, our partners, and the professionals who try to help us – who’s it hurting? Really? You know the answer to this one. It’s only hurting you. I know reality is uncomfortable, but you’re spending so much energy on this bogus bargaining practice. What if you applied all of that energy to grounding yourself in reality, and taking small, manageable steps towards getting your self-care practices in line with what you know (or at least believe) to be true?
Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She has completed the inCYST training. She specializes in counseling women and couples who are coping with infertility, PCOS, and related endocrine disorders and chronic illnesses.
If you would like to learn more about Dr. HOUSE or her practice, or obtain referrals in the Los Angeles area, please visit her website at www.drhousemd.com, or e-mail her at AskDrHouseMD@gmail.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askdrhousemd.
This is the final installment of this series, but probably the most important one to understand. Weight fluctuates. Even when you eat exactly as you've been advised to. Even if you weigh and measure everything out. It just does. And it's not 100% tied to what we eat. We cycle as humans, and those cycles are reflected in our weight.
We weigh more in the evening than we do in the morning. Of course we do, there's food in our bellies, and there's water we've drunk! In the morning we're dehydrated and hungry. So it is counterproductive to weigh in the morning as well as the evening and assume that any conclusion that the evening weight reflects how much fat we've gained or lost…is logical. I can't stop you from doing that…but I can tell you it isn't a scientific…or self-esteem promoting…technique.
If you have lost your menstrual cycles, it's important to remember that as they return, they will affect your weight. Your weight can fluctuate between 1 and 10 lbs. throughout the month. Every woman is different in this respect. Part of that is fluid, and many women (unfortunately, myself included) experience constipation as part of their PMS. It just happens, and it's a reflection that your body is working just as it should.
I used to notice when I worked more exclusively with eating disorders, that weights would often cycle a couple of months before the period actually returned. It was kind of like the reproductive system was ramping up and taking running starts at menstruating, and eventually got there. Since my clients didn't have the period to validate that this internal process was what was happening, it was hard for them to live with the temporary weight shift.
So in addition to, as I mentioned in the last post, being sure you compare a Monday weight to a Monday weight, etc., you may do best to compare a Monday weight from week one of your four week cycle to the Monday weight from four weeks earlier.
Most of my clients actually notice that they lose waist inches before they lose real weight. That's a really good sign the rest will follow. But you are going to have to look up from your scales and focus on the more important information in order to see that for yourself.
If you're addicted to getting on and off the scale multiple times in a day, perhaps you should hand your scale to a friend for safe keeping. It's not the most accurate indication of how you're doing with your nutrition plan. Really, all it's telling you is how hard the earth has to use gravity to keep you from floating off into space. Really? Really. Maybe it's time you gave up your astronaut fantasy and focused on what is important.
If your mood is stabilizing, your hormones are cycling, your cravings are dissipating, and your energy is better, that's what matters most. Take care of that…and the rest will follow.
I've had this conversation with two different clients recently and it occurred to me it's a phenomenon likely to be more common in women with PCOS, because of their focus on carbohydrates, than even the average dieter. Figured a blog post would be helpful to others.
Both of these clients shared with me that they went on low carbohydrate diets and did very well on them, until a few weeks into it, when, for whatever reason, they"fell off" the plan and started eating carbohydrates. And within a few days they'd gained a few pounds and felt more than a little discouraged…not to mention bloated.
Here's a little fact you don't often hear in weight loss advice or discussions. Not all weight that you gain, or lose, is fat. Some of it is water. Some of it can even be bone, if you severely restrict your intake for long periods of time, as with an eating disorder.
And some of that weight…can be your own body's carbohydrate stores.
When you are eating enough food to meet your daily needs, your body stores some of it as carbohydrate, in liver and in muscles. The function of this stored carbohydrate, is to help keep your blood sugar levels high at times when no food is directly coming into the system. Your brain relies almost entirely on carbohydrates to function, and the body has evolved with this"storage tank", so to speak, to be sure the brain never, ever runs out of energy.
Carbohydrate that is stored for this purpose is called glycogen. The body uses water to help store glycogen. And for every gram of carbohydrate you store, there are 3 grams of water alongside of it.
So what do you think happens when you suddenly switch to a low-to-non carbohydrate diet? All of the carbohydrate you've stored in your liver and muscles has to break down in order to keep your brain running. The weight loss is rapid, because you're losing 3 times as much water as you are other weight. It feels good when you look on the scales, because we're so cultured to believe that all weight shifts are coming from fat.
And what do you think happens when you eat carbohydrate again? The weight shift moves in the opposite direction, and 3/4 of what you gain is actually water. But again, because you're likely focused on fat if you're dieting…you visualize that what you've gained is more of that stuff.
Have you ever heard of carbohydrate loading, that athletes do before an endurance event? When you diet and bounce back with a high carb binge, that's exactly what you're doing! Here's a description off of the Internet that describes a carbohydrate loading protocol, from the Mayo Clinic website: ■Step 1. About a week before the event, reduce or maintain your carbohydrate intake at about 50 to 55 percent of your total calories. Increase protein and fat intake to compensate for any decrease in carbohydrates. Continue training at your normal level. This helps deplete your carbohydrate stores and make room for the loading that comes next.
■Step 2. Three to four days before the event, increase your carbohydrate intake to 70 percent of your daily calories — or about 4.5 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight. Cut back on foods higher in fat to compensate for the extra carbohydrate-rich foods. Also scale back your training to avoid depleting your glycogen stores. Rest completely for a day before the event. And…no big surprise…here, farther down the page, are the potential risks associated with this protocol:
■Weight gain. Much of this weight is extra water — but if it hampers your performance, you're probably better off skipping the extra carbs.
■Digestive discomfort. You may need to avoid or limit some high-fiber foods one or two days before your event. Beans, bran and broccoli can cause gassy cramps, bloating and loose stools when you're loading up on carbohydrates.
■Blood sugar changes. Carbohydrate loading can affect your blood sugar levels. It's a good idea to consult your doctor or a registered dietitian before you start carbohydrate loading, especially if you have diabetes I remember when I was working on my master's degree in exercise science, we were taught that the bloating and weight gain from carbohydrate loading could be so extreme and uncomfortable, that athletes should not even attempt to use it for a crucial race if they had not tested it out prior to know how their body would react.
So see, it's not your body, your PCOS, or anything weird about YOU that causes you to gain weight when you eat after restricting. It's exactly how ANYONE's body will react when pushed to extremes.
Try living somewhere in the middle, with a moderate, healthy carbohydrate intake…and see what it does for your weight, your body, and the bloating.
Hey, wait a minute! This is supposed to be a healthy blog…Girl Scout Cookies!?!?!
Let's start at the beginning. I have a pretty active group of Facebook friends, and many of them are Girl Scout moms. I started seeing status reports about what to do with the temptation of all those cookies sitting in the garage…coming in from points North, South, East, and West.
As a joke, I mentioned that I was going to start a support group especially for these moms.
At which point my college pal and wine aficionado Hank Zona chimed in, and we discussed which wines might go with which cookies. Hank is one of those guys who, I can honestly say, I've never seen without a smile on his face, and who finds fun in everything from food and wine to music, to the little things in life that he can pair with them. I found myself wishing I could replace the fear and anxiety in all those Girl Scout moms with some joie de Hank…and thought perhaps a blog post on the topic might be a start in that direction.
So here's the deal. I am a First Class Girl Scout and I strongly support their work with girls. But…I do not think Girl Scout cookies are a health food, and suffered a severe breakout once myself from eating an entire box of Samoas in a single sitting. I think the Girl Scouts would best consider a healthier fundraiser…but the reality is, they're part of our food world. Rather than let that fact control me and how I feel about food and myself…I want to share some ways we all might include Girl Scout cookies in our lives that have nothing to do with bingeing and everything to do with being a"little more Hank".
1. Eat a couple of cookies as part of a meal, at the end of the meal. By combining a small, moderate amount of them with other foods that have helped to fill you up first, you will (1) be less likely to binge and (2) help temper the blood sugar fluctuations they are sure to produce if eaten on their own.
2. Eat the cookies at your dinner table, not standing in the kitchen, driving in the car, sitting at your work desk, or any other place where you might easily lose track of what and how much you are eating. Better yet, eat them in the presence of others so you are accountable for what you do.
3. Challenge yourself to see how long it takes you to eat one cookie. Contrary to popular practice, Girl Scout cookies were not intended to be consumed by the sleeve or the box. Chances are, if you're gobbling them down, you're not even tasting them and you're already stressing about the future consequences of what you're doing right now. You may actually find, as many people do, when you allow yourself to eat something sweet, and take the time to taste it, a bite or two is all you really need.
4. Try a Girl Scout cookie smoothie! Put some Greek yogurt, a banana, and a couple of cookies in your blender for a tasty treat with healthier influences.
5. Again, I'm not saying wine and cookies are the ultimate health food combination, but there's an energy that goes with savoring a glass of wine and a sweet treat, in moderation, that could be used with all foods, in order to have healthier attitudes about those foods. Hank's wine pairings will be shared in Part Two of this topic.
6. Finally, if the combination of you in the house and boatloads of cookies in the garage is not working for you…then don't freaking do it!!!You're still a good mom, and you're still a Girl Scout supporter if you do not turn your garage into a glucose surplus warehouse for 6 weeks each year. Donate money…donate your time…the Girl Scouts will exist whether or not you eat, sell, or support their cookie fundraiser.
Finally, here's your litmus test. If you're squirming about my suggestions, looking for ways to interpret the wording for permission to eat more than one or two at a time…or even left this post mid-blog to go get a few cookies to munch while you read…be honest with yourself. Are you using Girl Scout cookies to augment a healthy diet? Or are you hoping that somehow, some way, you are going to discover a magical piece of advice that gives you permission to just read about, not act on, healther choices that you don't really have to enact?
If you truly try these suggestions and they didn't work…that's where inCYST can help. Our providers are trained in this very dilemma and have many great ideas for ways to de-slave yourself from trigger foods. Look to the side here, and find someone who can help you.
We know you all love recipes and inspiration, so we are excited to be joining a group of bloggers that will provide you even more of what you're looking for!
Recipe Redux is a monthly blogfest showcasing the creativity of registered dietitians who love to cook. At the beginning of the month we are each given a theme to work with, and on the 21st of each month, our creation relating to that challenge is posted, along with links to all of the other recipes our colleagues have provided.
Dietitians participating in this club agree to focus on at least one of the following in their recipes.
reduction in overall calories and/or sugar
increase in fiber
lowering of saturated fat and/or increase in mono- or poly-unsaturated fats
reduction in sodium/salt from processed foods
showcases at least one food group mentioned by the Dietary Guidelines as the basis of a healthy diet: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fat-free and low-fat dairy products, seafood and beans
I encourage you to peruse the links at the bottom of this post, learn, and collect…since all the recipes are from registered dietitians, you can be reasonably confident that most of them will be healthier than what you might find on other websites. (I say that because we dietitians love the occasional indulgence as well, so you will find some dreamy fun entries in the collection!)
Our challenge this month was to create something using either maple syrup or honey. I decided to use one of my favorite treats on a cold night, champurrado, as the basis for which to create Mexican Oatmeal. Champurrado is a hot drink traditionally made with masa (the cornmeal you use to make tortillas), flavored with all of the spices native to Mexico (chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla, fennel seed, and some type of sweetener). All of these are beneficial for inflammation and insulin resistance, so adding them to oatmeal makes a perfect hormone-friendly breakfast! I simply took those spices, switched out the masa for oatmeal and created the following breakfast you can make in your microwave. Think Mexican Hot Chocolate and oatmeal all mixed together…yummy, healthy, and full of energy to get you through to lunch!
Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Remove, stir until chocolate is completely dissoved, and microwave for one minute more.
*You can use any dark chocolate, really, I just chose this one because it's what I keep around to make Mexican hot chocolate. The darker the chocolate the better…vegan chocolates will give you more antioxidant power as milk tends to bind the beneficial compounds and render them metabolically unavailable.
I am currently swimming in Expo West samples, which makes me happy because it gives me fodder for blog posts and Examiner articles. This show is the place where anyone wanting to do business with Whole Foods, Mother's Markets, Central Market…any natural kind of market, parks themselves and their goods for 3 days in Anaheim, California, in an exhibition hall the size of six football fields. All of the products are natural. Not so many are healthy. You'll see all kinds of body building types (you know, the kind who are so overdeveloped they have to walk around looking as if they are carrying invisible suitcases), yoga types, Bob Marley types, chain smokers, heavy drinkers, and a gazillion flavors of kale chips, kefir, gluten free pizza, and nutrition bars.
I have come to hate nutrition bars for the most part, because there are so many, because I like real food, and because most of them should have a"really a glorified candy bar" disclaimer on the label.
But, it is great people watching, great for identifying trends, and we do have some really great inCYST supporters in our yard that we have met at Expo West.
My all time favorite laugh this year came from a product I didn't even pick up, it fell out of my trick-or-treat…er…sample bag, as I was organizing myself on returning home.
Called Blu2Go, it is a blueberry supplement with the tagline,"The Fusion of Blueberries and Science". As you can see on the front label, there are three medical claims with asterisks:
(1) Focus and Energy Melt. Ummmmm…can someone please tell me what an energy melt is? If you had asked me, I'd say that is when I return home after working out on a midsummer Phoenix day and collapse from the heat.
(2) Sustained energy boost. My understanding is that the benefit achieved from eating blueberries comes from consuming them regularly over an extended period of time. It's not like you put them on your oatmeal and take off on your run like you've got a Jetsons jet pack on your back.
(3) Supports focus and mental clarity. Well yeah, each one of those tablets is almost the equivalent of an ounce of espresso!
I went to the website and found a lot of really long and official sounding words…but what do you know? Nothing at all about why caffeine was added to the supplement and why you need to have caffeine with your blueberries. And even though the website goes into great scientific detail, even providing references about DNA, aging, etc…there is nothing, absolutely nothing, about the focus, mental clarity, yadayadayada hyped on the label.
I don't argue, there are healthy things, lots of healthy things, about eating blueberries. So why not let them do their job instead of adulterating them so that you can distract your customer from the fact that the buzz your product induces has nothing to do with the ingredient you are hyping?
Because you won't buy the product for its long term effects, you'll be on to the next, newest goodie in the Expo West bag by then. Add the addictive substance, hope the customer connects it with the other ingredient, and make as much money as you can while riding the wave.
I just made some sample breakfast menus for a client. I had not finished making the rest of the day, and she wrote back to share that in just using the breakfast menus, she could tell an immediate difference in her cravings that were positively influencing how she ate the rest of the day.
I thought I would share them to give you all a challenge to try--eat these breakfasts and see how you feel as the day progresses--is your energy level better? Are your carbohydrate cravings less invasive?
I'm not the hugest fan of McDonald's, but since this particular client noted that one of the breakfasts she finds really helps get her off to a good start with less nibbling the rest of the day, is an Egg McMuffin, I added it to illustrate that the choice really isn't so bad. If you use your fats early in the day, in a way that actually decreases fat intake over aa 24 hour period, it may be a judicious move. I actually have the same experience with this meal. It keeps me full. Which is why we discussed how to make the homemade microwave version of the same thing on Whole Wheat English muffins.
Also, I am very intentionally leaving out the calorie, fat, and protein counts. If you use these breakfasts…I want you to focus on how the food tastes, how it feels in your stomach, and how you feel in the hours after you eat. Eating well is not about the calories, fat, and protein. Well…not totally. It has to be tasty if you're actually going to do it!
Hope this helps get you all off to a great start!
1/4 cup ricotta cheese 2 slices Ezekiel toast 8 ounces skim milk 1 medium apple 1/4 c sliced almonds
1 cup oatmeal 1/8 c whey protein powder 1/4 cup walnuts 1/2 c strawberries 8 oz. skim milk
There are a gazillion possibilities here, I just put four sample meals together to help my client get a grip on portion sizes and potential combinations. Two of these breakfasts use Ezekiel bread becausse she likes it. Oatmeal was another possibility because she travels a lot and can take advantage of the new Starbucks oatmeal option or even carry her own packets and mixins'.
I'm betting many of the foods you enjoy aren't so bad after all, and that you can include them if you know how. Often times when you move a food from the"bad" to"perfectly fine" column, the temptation to binge on them is removed. And many times, with PCOS, it's the bingeing and the quantity, not the food itself, that is the problem.
Most women I work with have lost confidence in food and are afraid to eat many foods that can benefit them. That is how a nutrition consultation can help you--if you use it wisely. Rather than looking to someone else to do all the work, make a list of your favorite foods, foods you want to eat but are afraid to, foods you are feeling are"bad" or"not an option" and ask, not IF, but HOW they can be included in your plan.
Let an inCYST provider help you design your own program! We're just waiting for you to ask so that we can be part of your success.
So let's say you've landed on this website because you were doing a Google search at 3:30 in the morning.
Or because you're home from work and can't slow your head down enough to relax and enjoy a leisure activity…so you're surfing the Internet to distract yourself.
What's going on?
It could be a lot of things.
1. If your hormones are out of balance, as with PCOS, you may have excess levels of stress hormones such as cortisol that rise more easily than average, and take longer to normalize after a stressful day.
2. If you didn't sleep well last night and used caffeine and sugar to get through your day, you may be experiencing the aftermath of that.
3. If you over-exercised too late in the day, because it's only large amounts of exercise that help to calm your mind, it may have stressed you more than it relaxed you.
4. You may have a mood disorder (anxiety, bipolar disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder).
How to know which is which? If you've made major changes in your lifestyle, corrected nutrition choices, worked to prioritize sleep, etc., and your head simply won't slow down, that's a huge red flag that something important lies beneath those behaviors. In fact, the imbalances you adopted, from eating sugar to drinking alcohol to relax, to marathon exercise sessions, may have helped you to"medicate" something more important going on in your nervous system.
Mood disorders are important not to ignore. They can be degenerative, which means, left unchecked, they can prematurely age the brain and nervous system. Your new lifestyle choices are incredibly important in slowing that process down, but you may find that additional help, such as a medication, can be tremendously useful as far as finally bringing you back into balance.
If you feel as though I'm describing you, you may be interested in another blog I write, about nutritional aspects of psychotropic medications. It goes into more detail about this specific topic, and I do post a lot of information about nutrition for brain and nervous system health.
Awhile ago I made an informal (that is, never scientifically tested) questionnaire. It's not intended to diagnose, but rather to get you thinking about what kinds of thinking patterns may be underlying how often and how intensely you experience stress. You may be blaming your racing head on your stress, but it may be that your racing head attracts you to situations and relationships that are stressful.
There is no right or wrong way to answer these questions. But do consider, the more"yes" responses you give yourself, and the less your answers change in response to reasonable changes in diet, activity, sleep, and stress management, the more important it is to consider that you may have a mood disorder.
Are You A High energy Thinker? (Copyright 2000, www.afterthediet.com)
1. I am easily flustered.
2. I am easily drawn into a conflict.
3. I am very organized, and when my routine is disrupted, it can ruin my day.
4. I have a hard time with change, I would rather control thngs than let them take their natural course.
5. I can become so attached to a person, idea, or situation that I lose sight of the"big picture" perspective.
6. Staying focused on a task is a challenge; I am easily distracted/bored.
7. I can become obsessed with an activity. I ccan lose track of time because I get so absorbed.
8. People tell me I overanalyze things.
9. Peole tell me I am an adrenaline junkie.
10. I am a perfectionist.
11. I am very sensitive to criticism.
12. I worry a lot.
13. I procrastinate/can't finish projects I start.
14. I feel like I sabotage myself.
15. I have a way of saying or doing impulsive things that undermine relationships or which hurt my credibility.
16. I toss and turn a lot before falling asleep.
17. I can do a lot of things at once; in fact, it's easier thann doing one thing at a time.
18. I feel driven by some sort of internal machine.
inCYST is in the process of developing a program that would connect reputable companies with PCOS-friendly, earth-friendly products with the women who could benefit from them.
We want to hear from you, are there foods, personal care, design products (such as non-VOC paint) that you think you'd like to know more about? Have samples from? Coupons from?
The information we get here will be used to help us focus our energy on the most productive options so please let us know what you want.
“Dysmorphia” may not be part of your everyday vocabulary, but if I tell you that lots of people thought the late Michael Jackson suffered from it, you’ll probably know what I’m talking about. Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD, for short), is a complex psychological problem that results in obsessions with imagined defects in your personal appearance.
It drives people to exercise excessively, engage in extreme dieting, reshape their bodies through weight-lifting, get cosmetic procedures including plastic surgery, change their clothes often, engage in approval-seeking behaviors, and dress oddly in order to disguise imagined defects. It may also result in avoidance of mirrors, failure to seek medical help when necessary, refusal to participate in sports, sex, or other social activities, excessive beauty practices such as permanent make-up, dangerous chemical hair straightening, and the like. Many if not most of us have engaged in some of these behaviors at some point in our PCOS journeys.
In a group of people who have anxiety or depression, you’ll find BDD as an additional diagnosis in about 5 – 40%. This is quite a range, to be sure, but I think we’d find an even higher rate of BDD among women with PCOS. BDD is more common among women, actually, since we’ve already got a culture that is fixated on our likes as a central factor in our value. And, we’ve already got a much higher incidence of depressive and anxiety disorders, and our symptoms, while both internal and external, have particularly disturbing external manifestations. It can definitely reach an obsessive level of preoccupation when a woman is losing her hair, covered with excess hair in all the wrong places, erupting in acne, or dealing with stubborn, unbudgeable abdominal fat. The desire to be rid of THE PROBLEM can take an astonishing amount of time and energy.
I have clients who do all of the above, and more. If they’re not tackling the problem head-on (all discretionary funds go towards laser or electrolysis, they will not have sex unless and until they lose 50 pounds, they consider themselves complete failures at managing their bodies and tell themselves so regularly), they’re in avoidance mode. The avoidance usually affects social relationships, and further exacerbates depression – or being forced into a social situation will bring up anxiety.
It’s a complex condition that merits more than passing, gossipy attention from the media. It ruins lives. If you think you may suffer from BDD, please seek professional consultation to see how you can be helped. PCOS is complicated enough, without the extra layer of problems caused by BDD.
Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She has completed the inCYST training. She specializes in counseling women and couples who are coping with infertility, PCOS, and related endocrine disorders and chronic illnesses.
If you would like to learn more about Dr. HOUSE or her practice, or obtain referrals in the Los Angeles area, please visit her website at www.drhousemd.com, or e-mail her at AskDrHouseMD@gmail.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askdrhousemd.
If your PCOS has you struggling with weight, chances are, you have an ongoing battle with the scales. I encourage you to give up that battle.
First of all, when you are in good shape, chances are you are going to be able to carry more weight than a woman without PCOS and look leaner than someone without PCOS. As the photo here suggests, the only thing the scales tells you, at any given point in time, is how much you happen to be resisting gravity at the moment you measure yourself. It really is not an indication at all, of who you are as a person.
Secondly, if you haven't exercised much in awhile, because of your testosterone levels, when you start to exercise, you will put on muscle more easily than the average woman. This is going to work in your favor, over time, because muscle mass is your very best weapon against insulin resistance. If you freak out and stop exercising because you have gained weight early on…you have missed the point! If you have gained weight but lost inches, you are on the right track. Hang in there. It will all fall together, if you are consistently exercising.
Thirdly, something your body will do, as an adaptation to regular exercising, is start to store glycogen to fuel that exercise. Glycogen is a stored carbohydrate that your body becomes proficient at storing to help your blood sugar and energy levels stay stable during your runs/swims/spin classes. Every gram of glycogen that you store in your muscles and liver is stored with 3 grams of water. This water is important water, as it is released while you exercise and it helps keep you from becoming dehydrated while you're working out. A well-trained athlete can carry about 10 extra pounds of glycogen and water that simply is not there if you are not regularly training. But it is not fat, and it is not bad weight, and without it, you likely will feel miserable because you are not well fueled or hydrated.
If you have been restrictive with your diet, and you work out pretty hard…and then you go have a regular meal…of course the scale will jump! Your body is doing what it is supposed to do, start storing fuel and water for the next workout. The absolute worst possible thing you can do is try to control these fluctuations by cutting your calories.
Honestly, I can't even remember exactly when I last weighed myself…I think it was sometime last summer and I can't even tell you what the scales said when I did. I know my clothes fit pretty much the same as they usually do, and when they have been a little tight it's been right before my period and it resolves after about a week, and I know that is normal so I don't stress about it.
If you're not at that level of comfort with body yet, if you can't envision even being there, I'd like to ask you to do at least this:
-If you must weigh yourself, only compare Sundays to Sundays and only compare Sunday mornings to Sunday mornings.
- Once you have enough data points, only compare the Sunday after your period to another Sunday after your period.
The surest way to set off unnecessary exercising, or restrictive eating that is sure to set off a binge later, and to sabotage your overall progress in the long…is to weight yourself multiple times daily and assume that the numbers you see are 100% based on calories in and calories out. Anything you do in response to multiple daily weigh ins, is not based in proven exercise science or nutritional math. It is emotional and disordered.
The more you hear that from us, and the more you recognize that anything you do in response to disordered ideas about nutrition, calories, and exercise, the better chance you have at recognizing that these thoughts and feelings are based on anxiety. When you fight anxiety with responses that can help the anxiety, rather than behaviors that may actually DRIVE the anxiety cycle (think playing with the dog, participating in a hobby, reading a book that has absolutely nothing do do with self help, food, infertility, or hormones) that is when your weight actually starts to stabilize.
Heard from an inCYST fan yesterday, and I thought her words might be inspiring to other fans. Of course, the real reason this success story exists, is because she acted on what she was learning. We were merely there to encourage and support.
Many, many congratulations!
I have been meaning to email you for some time now to give you some positive feedback of your inCYST website and online radio segments. I found out I had PCOS last August and since then it has been a complete whirlwind for me. I found out because I was trying to get pregnant, and I truly believe that I would not have gotten pregnant if it weren't for both the inCYST website and the PCOS Challenge radio show (which is where I first heard about you). I'm due July 20th!: )
I seem to get something out of every post, but recently I especially appreciated the 'Note to physicians on Metformin' as well as the 'Lesson in reaching out for support' segments. On the metformin issue, that was the first time I've ever heard a professional mention that the current standard dosage may be too high for some. I believe this is true for me. I was told to get up to 2000 mg/day, but could never seem to do it. I stayed between 1000 and 1500/day and got regular periods that way (and thus became pregnant).
I also listened to the lesson for support segment. That caller (bless her heart!) could have been me talking. What a wonderful source of support that segment was! My favorite portion of that segment was when you pointed out that it might not always behoove us to listen to our appetite. I totally agree with this. Sometimes my appetite is right on, and sometimes it really deceives me. Before I knew I had PCOS, I remember feeling shameful because the mass media always said that overweight people have emotional problems and just need to deal with that in order to lose weight. Oprah Winfrey always sends this message on her shows. I believe that for many and for me, it is way more of a blood sugar issue.
Monika, I can't stress to you the importance of the work you are doing here. Thank you for dedicating so much of your time and energy into this population. I feel so fortunate to be a part of the inCYST network.
This press release comes from Sasha Ottey of PCOS Challenge. inCYST is always pleased to collaborate with and support her compassion and energy she devotes to women everywhere with PCOS! Best of luck with this project, Sasha!
New Reality Series Provides Renewed Hope and Needed Resources for Women with PCOS
As part of its continuing mission to provide information and support resources for women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, PCOS Challenge, Inc. is producing a new 13-week reality series that focuses on improving the lives of women with PCOS with the help of health and medical experts. The goal of the PCOS Challenge™ television show is to educate, inspire and spread awareness about PCOS while helping women with the condition to live healthier and happier lives.
The women participating in the series will receive guidance from three main experts – a nutrition coach, fitness coach, and mental wellness coach. The women will also receive supplemental advice from other experts including a naturopathic physician, acupuncturist, and Reproductive Endocrinologist. As the participants compete in various fitness and healthy lifestyle challenges, they will have an opportunity to win cash and prizes.
“We are very excited to be launching the television show. It is a tremendous opportunity to help a lot of people. In the last year, the PCOS Challenge online and offline community has quickly grown to over 4,000 members, and this has been something that many people have been asking about for some time,” says Sasha Ottey, CEO of PCOS Challenge, Inc. “The television show is a natural extension of our popular PCOS Challenge Radio Show where we feature prominent PCOS experts. Now, through the television show, the audience will have an opportunity to see how to practically apply the information that they have learned in the face of daily life challenges and how to make sustainable healthy lifestyle choices.”
“Since its inception, PCOS Challenge, Inc. has been innovative in its programming and multimedia approach to spreading awareness and providing support for women with PCOS, which is one of the reasons the organization continues to gain traction so quickly and is able to keep people engaged,” says William R. Patterson, CEO of The Baron Solution Group and Executive Producer of the PCOS Challenge television show. “It is our aim to bring greater attention and resources to the PCOS community. With a condition that affects millions of lives and families worldwide, we feel the program will be an important vehicle to get more people involved.”
The PCOS Challenge television show is scheduled to begin shooting in mid-march and is currently casting for 6-10 women with PCOS in the DC metropolitan area to participate in the 13-week series. Participants will meet with the experts 1-2 times per week for the duration of the series and commit to changing their lifestyles to promote healthier living with PCOS. The PCOS Challenge television show will air on various local cable stations across the United States as well as stream online.
To become a participant, sponsor, or for more information about the PCOS Challenge television show, visit http://www.pcoschallenge.com/events/pcos-challenge.
About PCOS Challenge, Inc.
Sasha Ottey is Founder and CEO of PCOS Challenge, Inc. She is a Clinical and Research Microbiologist with a Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Laboratory Science from Howard University and a Master’s in Health Administration from the University of Phoenix. Her company, PCOS Challenge, Inc., is a nonprofit organization that provides support for women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) through the PCOS Challenge Support and Social Networking Website (PCOSChallenge.com); PCOS Challenge nonprofit website (PCOSChallenge.org); PCOS Challenge Expert Series Workshops (PCOSChallenge.net); PCOS Challenge Television Show; PCOS Challenge Radio Show; and local offline support groups.
If you’ve been busy learning and applying various techniques to improve your health, you’ve probably heard of “Meatless Monday,” the idea of substituting a healthy vegetarian meal one day per week in order to beef up (no pun intended!) your vegetable consumption and lessen your dependence on meat. It’s a great idea, relatively easy to implement, and, over time, contributes to an overall pattern of good eating.
This “Mental Health Monday” column is also a good habit. Reading it is a way of bring attention (mindfulness) to the practices inherent in creating and maintaining good mental health. I often talk about ways to make small changes in attitude, behavior, or thought patterns. From a mental health perspective, what I like about Meatless Monday is the way it breaks down an overwhelming task (eating healthier) into a small, actionable, and rewarding step. If you implement Meatless Monday, it means you’re really thinking about what you eat. You’re taking time and energy to explore and experiment. You eat the food and realize that you don’t need meat to feel complete or satisfied. Or maybe you make a bad choice (pasta, pasta, pasta!), and realize that your needs call for more protein – but maybe it doesn’t have to come from meat.
Mental health is like this. You can’t take a huge, amorphous goal (say, “feel happier”) and just say, “that’s what I want – where is it?!” It’s a process, a project, a series of steps and experiments. There is a need for assessment, evaluation, and revision. Over time, you learn what’s missing in your upbringing, your thought patterns, and your ways of relating. Or you learn that there’s something you do quite often that is off-putting or unproductive in your relationships. You implement homework assignments from your therapist, read self-help books and do the exercises, and practice affirmations and positive self-talk. At some point, you begin to notice that things are improving. The process gets easier. You don’t have to consciously think really hard about how to have a productive talk with your boyfriend, set a boundary with your overbearing mother, or express your anger productively. You’re better. You’re happier. You’re healthier. And it all started with a small experiment, such as:
• Meatless Monday • Not saying negative things about yourself, privately or in public. • Joining a therapy group. • Going to the gym just once a week. • Adding Vitamin D3 supplements. • Eliminating gossip.
In and of itself, one action is not enough. Cumulatively though, as you slowly implement mentally and/or physically healthy choices, the impact is there. What are you going to start doing to get happier and healthier today?
Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She has completed the inCYST training. She specializes in counseling women and couples who are coping with infertility, PCOS, and related endocrine disorders and chronic illnesses.
If you would like to learn more about Dr. HOUSE or her practice, or obtain referrals in the Los Angeles area, please visit her website at www.drhousemd.com, or e-mail her at AskDrHouseMD@gmail.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askdrhousemd.
inCYST is designed to be a support network for women with PCOS, the professionals who serve them, and the companies creating products and services who can genuinely help them. Even so, there are times when I need support too. Like today, when I learned that the guests I'd been so looking forward to interviewing had to reschedule their interview.
Not wanting the airwaves to be silent, or to disappoint anyone who was really wanting and needing information about binge eating disorder to be turned away without help, I decided to, for the very first time, open up the phone lines for callers. I was more than a little concerned that no one would call!
We had a great call in that not only answered my prayer, but also was a great voice of encouragement and hope for anyone who might be looking for that kind of energy. Please tune in to our recording of the session if you are in fact looking for that kind of help. She was my angel today, and I'm so happy she called! I made a new friend and learned that everyone, no matter what their position in life, needs to ask for help once in awhile.
Also, if you are a mental health professional working with binge eating disorder and you are interested in completing our PCOS training and joining our network…if you can, on or before Friday January 28, contact me and list 2 of the 3 mental health resources listed in our interview, I'll give you 25% off the total price of the training.
Contact me at monika at afterthediet dot com if you are interested.
In addition to PCOS, I specialize in the nutritional aspects of medications affecting the brain and nervous system. That includes psych meds, Parkinson's meds…pretty much any medication that has the potential to affect how the brain and nervous system function.
A few years ago, while compiling a series of fact sheets about the nutritional implications of these medications, I started reading about the anti-obesity medication called Meridia (generic name sibutramine). This drug appeared on the market after the famous phen-fen combination was deemed dangerous. It was supposed to be a kindler, gentler alternative. And it supposedly can reduce the severity of symptoms associated with PCOS.
I was floored by what was showing up, unedited, in the peer-reviewed literature about this medication. But not at all surprised with the announcement yesterday that this drug is potentially dangerous for people with heart conditions.
Repeatedly and consistently, researchers were reporting reactions. Some of the most common problems this medication seemed to incite, were anxiety, hypertension, and elevated heart rate.
If Meridia was a drug intended to treat cancer, or glaucoma, or hangnail, and it caused this battery of symptoms, I don't think the FDA would have tolerated consistent reports that it had the ability to send the cardiovascular system into a tailspin.
Yet, in the obese research subject, in the face of these observations, researchers continued to report some of the following conclusions:
**In a 21 patient study, 40% experienced sleep disturbances and 30% complained of irritability, unusual impatience, or"excitation". RESEARCH CONCLUSION: Sibutramine, 5 and 20 mg, added to a multimodal program assisted participants in losing weight. Weintraub M, Rubio A, Golik A, Byrne L, Scheinbaum ML. Sibutramine in weight control: a dose-ranging, efficacy study. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 1991 Sep;50(3):330-7.
**In a review study, the author reported,"In controlled studies, 84% of sibutramine-treated patients reported adverse events, compared with 71% of patients receiving placebo. The most frequently reported adverse events are related to pharmacological actions of sibutramine, and include dry mouth, decreased appetite, constipation and insomnia. Despite the high incidence of"side effects" in the control population, the author of this article attributed the problems in the tested population to"pharmacological actions of sibutramine". Lean ME. Sibutramine--a review of clinical efficacy. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1997 Mar;21 Suppl 1:S30-6; discussion 37-9.
**In a study of 226 people comparing sibutramine to dexfenfluramine, researchers reported,"174 patients (77%) experienced adverse events; 17 patients withdrew due to adverse events. Pulse rate increased significantly in sibutramine-treated patients." Then they concluded,"Sibutramine (10 mg once daily) is at least as effective as dexfenfluramine (15 mg twice daily) in achieving weight loss in patients with obesity." Hanotin C, Thomas F, Jones SP, Leutenegger E, Drouin P. A comparison of sibutramine and dexfenfluramine in the treatment of obesity. Obes Res. 1998 Jul;6(4):285-91.
**In a study of 235 people, the following was reported,"a significant increase in heart rate (about 4 beats/min) was noted for patients who received 10 mg or 15 mg sibutramine, compared with the placebo." Then it was concluded,"Doses of 10 mg and 15 mg once daily were shown to be similarly effective, well tolerated and significantly more effective than the placebo." Hanotin C, Thomas F, Jones SP, Leutenegger E, Drouin P. Efficacy and tolerability of sibutramine in obese patients: a dose-ranging study. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1998 Jan;22(1):32-8.
**In a study of 11 men, it was observed that"the sibutramine-induced increase in energy expenditure was accompanied by an increase in plasma epinephrine, heart rate, blood pressure, and plasma glucose. The conclusion:"Sibutramine caused a significant increase in both energy expenditure and satiety, which may both contribute to its weight-reducing properties. Hansen DL, Toubro S, Stock MJ, Macdonald IA, Astrup A. Thermogenic effects of sibutramine in humans. Am J Clin Nutr. 1998 Dec;68(6):1180-6.
As of 2006, I had found 14 studies reporting an elevated heart rate with use. You can easily find them yourself in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/; I encourage you to see for yourself. I've supported myself here with enough references and my Saturday has other obligations prohibiting me from using it to repeat work I've already done. I hope I've encouraged you to see for yourself what I've been talking about with colleagues for several years.
I like to call this the Biggest Loser Mentality. It doesn't matter if we make these people vomit, pull a muscle, or give them a bloody heart attack. This market of obese people is just too lucrative to ignore.
If you have PCOS and you are obese, you deserve better. You're not where you are because you have a deficiency of ANY kind of medication in your body. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
