If you've ever troubled yourself over these issues as you try to eat more healthfully, take a half hour and listen to today's radio interview with Lesli Koskela, RD, LD, registered dietitian and certified Wellcoach. Lesli is also a licensed facilitator for a group called"Am I Hungry?" (inCYST's only such qualified member), that she conducts in the northwest Chicago suburbs. She shared a lot of information about how the kind of work she does can help you to tease apart the differences, and what to do to address each. Many women with PCOS struggle with this and their hormone imbalances can make it challenging to figure out how to start putting the pieces together in a cohesive and doable fashion. That is what Lesli loves to do!
If you like what Lesli has to say, she is also available to work with via phone or Internet.
Check out her website at http://www.harmonicnutrition.com/!
I recently had an enlightening conversation with a colleague who has completed our inCYST training, has a master's degree, and is a lean woman with PCOS. She shared that despite doing all the right things, as we would prescribe for PCOS, she still has days when her appetite is not consistent with her food intake or activity. In other words, she can be ravenously hungry without logical explanation.
I found this comment interesting, as it suggests that intuitive eating may not be appropriate even in a case of lean PCOS.
I would like to hear from others reading this blog who are lean with PCOS.
Is your hunger at times seemingly irrational?
Do you still struggle with cravings?
Do you feel like you have to be more structured and less intuitive with your eating even if you're doing what you're told is"healthy"?
You can comment here, or if you prefer a private response, contact me directly, monika at afterthediet.com
All information we can get is most appreciated, and we thank you for your time!
‘Tis the time of year when blogs, magazines, and radio broadcasts are full of tips for combating overeating, over-drinking, and the kind of carousing that leaves you tired, bloated, overly full, and generally disgusted with yourself. They’re often repetitive, and not all that useful. I’m full of tips, techniques, and strategies myself, actually! One that I DO think is useful and easy to remember is HALT, which stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and Tired.
If you’re one of those things – hungry, angry, lonely, or tired – the risk of over-indulging rises. If you’re two, three of those things, the risk of losing control is much greater. And if you’re all four of those things, watch out world, because almost nothing’s going to stand in the way of the oncoming binge, bad behavior, or acting out.
But what’s the first aspect of change? Awareness. HALT is a way to bring yourself back to a place of awareness, so you can reign in your behavior before it becomes self-destructive. Let’s talk about the specifics:
Hungry: When you’re hungry – really hungry – your blood sugar starts to drop, and you feel tired, confused, and irritable. And did we mention, hungry? Really, really hungry. Like, so hungry you could the entire contents of a small refrigerator. Or the buffet table. Or as much as you can load up on at the drive-through. Yeah, that kind of hungry. Women with PCOS are more subject to the vagaries of blood sugar dysregulation (it’s the insulin resistance thing, AGAIN) than other people. We’re more vulnerable. Accept it, and plan for it.
Strategy: Have a little healthy snack with you at all times. Know that shopping is hard work and frequently results in blood sugar drops because you’re walking more than you think. Plan ahead. Decide: “If I get hungry, I’m going to Subway for a turkey sandwich loaded up with vegetables and skip the mayo.” This will prevent you from going to McDonald’s and getting a Big Mac, large fries, and a shake.
Angry: The traffic, the crowds, the prices, the shopping for people you don’t even care about, the time pressure, and the social obligations, your spouse who still expects home-cooked meals when you’re in the middle of SHOPPING!, can all lead to a build-up of anger.
Strategy: Do not shop when you’re angry. Do not expose yourself to challenging foods or social situations when you’re angry. Take five to twenty minutes to meditate, walk around the block, drink a glass of cool water, and practice forgiveness and compassion. Now engage in your usual activities.
Lonely: So often, it’s assumed that we’re off with our friends, families, and other loved ones at the holidays, but some of us are sitting home alone, without an invitation, a thought, or a concern.
Strategy: If you’re alone, embrace it. Don’t take a shower until 3:00 p.m. Spend all day on FaceBook. Eat breakfast for dinner. Revel in your ability to live precisely how you want to live today, without judgment or interference. It can be utterly rejuvenating. If you don’t like being alone, and really do feel lonely, make a point of issuing invitations to other people, or showing up at every group event you know about, and don’t tell me it’s unfair that you have to do all the asking. Life is like that sometimes, and if you want to undo this loneliness, you will have to take action. Tell people you don’t have any plans for Christmas, and you don’t have any invitations either. Quite often, one will be forthcoming. People are feeling generous this time of year. In any case, again, avoid whatever triggers you to behave uncharacteristically. This is not a good time to shop the web, bake a cake, or order enough take-out for six people. Remind yourself that this is a temporary, and repairable, condition.
Tired: Tiredness connects to hunger quite often. Drops or dips in blood sugar can leave you feeling exhausted, confused, and overwhelmed. When you’re tired, your decision-making capacity is impaired. See where I’m going with this theme?
Strategy: If you’ve been running around like a maniac, trying to get it all done (The shopping! The cooking! The baking! The cards! The decorating! The parties! OH MY!), slash and burn. You are NOT Superwoman. I repeat, you are NOT Superwoman. No one will notice. Seriously. I used to send upwards of 100 handwritten (and often handmade) greeting cards. A few years ago, I only sent a few. Now I don’t send any, except to my mother, and that’s a maybe. Not one single person has called me out for it. Wow, what a relief!
If you feel strongly, pick a few critical priorities (i.e., my husband will definitely die, or at least pout for days, if he doesn’t get a homemade peppermint cake by Christmas, my children will be ostracized if they don’t get Chanukah gifts like everyone else, and my staff assistant is going to “lose” my messages for the rest of the year if I don’t buy her a great present) and lose the rest. Children are important; adults will have to understand. Your budget, your sanity, and your ability to get the rest you need are the most important things. The rest is not. HALT. And be well.
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 a common complaint I hear. Let's work backwards to understand what is happening…and what can be done about it.
Your hunger and satiety (fullness) is regulated by a number of factors. Only one of those is how physically full your stomach is. Another very important mechanism is your blood chemistry…primarily, your blood glucose.
Your blood glucose is strongly linked to your insulin levels. Insulin is a storage hormone, and its job is to pull glucose and fat out of the bloodstream and store it. One of the first things that happens with PCOS, before you develop full blown insulin resistance, is hyperinsulinemia (elevated insulin levels). This extra insulin is always in the blood, which means you may have more of a tendency than average to experience drops in blood glucose.
It takes awhile for food you've eaten to be digested, absorbed, and to get into your blood. So if your blood glucose dropped precipitously before dinner, it may take awhile to bring it back up to a place where you're not feeling hungry. Even though your stomach might be feeling physically full, you may not have enough energy in your system for your biochemical radars to trust that you're ok.
And so they tell you that you are hungry.
The very best solution to this, is to eat a diet higher in protein. About half of the protein that we eat is converted into glucose, and that process tends to kick in just about the time the carbohydrates we're eating have been used up. So if you're having trouble feeling hungry just as you're finishing up dinner, try having a snack with about 10 grams of protein mid-afternoon.
This is one reason why it can be challenging (and not appropriate) to use a 100% intuitive eating approach when you first start to change your diet. If you acted on that post dinner hunger, you would likely binge. Intuitive eating is what you're aiming for, but you may need to be a little bit more conscious about structuring your diet in the early phases of a nutrition plan so that your hormones aren't interfering with your ability to detect true hunger and satiety.
