Hello from beautiful Vermont! I'm here at Green Mountain at Fox Run Resort for their first-ever PCOS program. Today we discussed healthy skin. I used Carmina McGee's recent interview on PCOS Challenge for the basis of our discussion. You can listen to the entire interview at PCOS Challenge…but for starters, here are her top tips for improving your skin from the inside out.
1. Get enough sleep. 2. Reduce your stress. 3. Eat regularly--don't skip meals. 4. Limit your intake of processed foods. 5. Moderate your alcohol intake. 6. Don't smoke. 7. Get plenty of physical activity. 8. Be sure to make time for yourself that does not include taking care of others. 9. Be part of some kind of community to decrease your sense of aloneness. 10. Have some sort of spiritual path.
Marsha Hudnall, owner of Green Mountain at Fox Run, added this one to the list:
11. Laugh!
We've been so busy, I haven't posted much about what we're doing. I have been taking photos, though, so check back for more details.
Yesterday I talked about the biochemistry of a nicotine addiction. Today I wanted to share a psychological technique that can help you tackle cigarettes in manageable bites, so that the prospect of giving it up for good, all at once, isn't so overwhelming that you give up trying before you give yourself the opportunity to succeed!
In my Smoke Stoppers training we learned about a 2 pack a day smoker who was able to eliminate all but his first cigarette of the day. No matter what he tried, the urge overpowered him and he succumbed. So his Smoke Stoppers coach asked him to journal everything he could about that cigarette, to see what the trigger was. Turns out, it was the stop sign at the first corner out of his garage. He'd pull out of the driveway, up to the corner, stop the car…and while he was stopped…he'd take the time to light up the cigarette. Everything leading up to the cigarette, from starting the car, to stopping, to the visual cues at that particular intersection, were part of the ritual.
So what did the man do to kick that last cigarette? Instead of pulling out of his driveway and turning right, he went the opposite direction, where the corner was a little bit further away. Did the trick.
My suggestion to you is to first tackle the first cigarette of the day. The one you light up with your morning coffee, while reading the paper, while driving to work…because it lays the groundwork for all of the nicotine highs and lows that trigger the rest of the cigarettes throughout the day. It's the most behavioral of all of your cigarettes, because you made it through the night without smoking. Mix up your routine. Go for a walk instead of reading your email. Eat a different breakfast. Sit in a different chair at the table. Anything, anything at all, to mix up the spatial, visual, and emotional cues.
See what happens. See what you learn about your habits. And how intertwined they are with food.
Speaking of food, as important as it is to me that you eat well to manage your PCOS, if you're making a choice between quitting smoking and changing your eating, the former is the most important one to prioritize. Don't worry about weight gain, we can take care of that later. Smoking is your bigger health risk. And if you can kick the habit, the one that has you chained to the second most addictive substance in the world…well, changing eating is going to be a much easier thing to tackle than you're envisioning.
One thing at a time!
Let us know how you're doing with this, by the way. Share the cues you figured out, help your fellow cysters!
I was just asked about tips for stopping smoking. This is a tough one, since nicotine is the second most addictive substance known to man (surpassed only by heroin). Yes, it's that powerful.
I was once certified as a Smoke Stoppers teacher and I thought I'd create a couple of blog posts around this one. Hope you find them helpful.
It's most important, first of all, to understand how nicotine works. It doesn't actually hit your bloodstream until about 20 minutes after it's been inhaled.
So the relief you feel when you light up, is likely due to the deep breath you took, not the chemicals in the cigarette.
The anxiety that you feel when you crave…THAT's the nicotine. It's very tricky timing that works on behalf of Big Nicotine. You associate the wrong thing with relief from the symptoms. You've been associating the wrong stimulus and response all this time!
Practice this technique: Lie down on your bed or sofa, and place a pillow or book on your stomach. Practice breathing in a way that makes that pillow or book move up and down. Notice how quickly you feel less anxious? Now practice that using a hand on your stomach. If you can do that, you can use this technique wherever you may be…at work, in the car, at a party…get used to how it feels to breathe deeply. Associate breathing deeply with feeling better, to help disconnect the association between the cigarette and breathing more deeply.
If you can make it for 20 minutes the urge to smoke often passes. So don't start catastrophizing about how miserable it feels to not be able to smoke now and forever, just focus on the next 20 minutes, breathe deeply, and trust.
If you make it, put the amount of money you saved by NOT smoking that cigarette, in a jar in a highly visible place. Once you start to see that money rack up (it's about $1.50 a smoke), you'll start to question whether or not this is something you really want to spend money on. Especially if you're struggling in other financial areas of your life.
Here's a pretty large study (650 women with PCOS) that illustrates why taking care of your PCOS is not just about diet and exercise.
Smoking cigarettes may be very important in hormone function and PCOS. They found that women with PCOS who smoked, compared to women with PCOS who did not, had higher fasting blood lipids (cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein) and lower prolactin levels. They also had higher adrenal responsiveness (meaning more cortisol secretion).
One of the reasons often given by women for not quitting smoking is that it helps keep weight down. But if you're doing unhealthy things to keep that weight down (restrictive dieting, smoking, diet pills, etc.), you may be making the problem you are trying to control, even worse.
Sometimes the initial weight gain that comes with quitting smoking keeps people from quitting. But if you hang in there, and keep up the other healthy behaviors you have been working on, that weight will eventually come off. It's a type of weight gain, in my opinion, that is well worth it, for the long-term gains you earn.
It's a tough one, I know…nicotine is the second most addictive substance (behind heroin) known to man…but if you can conquer the butts…you can do just about anything that comes along afterward that you decide to put your mind to.
Glintborg D, Mumm H, Hougaard DM, Ravn P, Andersen M. Smoking is associated with increased adrenal responsiveness, decreased prolactin levels and a more adverse lipid profile in 650 white patients with polycystic ovary syndrome. Gynecol Endocrinol. 2011 Jul 20. [Epub ahead of print]
