They are not what you think, but even nutrition experts get caught away from home when hunger strikes! Here they are, in no particular order.
Source: google.com via Peter on Pinterest
1. Sushi boxes. I am partial to the brown rice California rolls at Trader Joe's. Go for sashimi if you don't want the rice. I love the portion control and feeling just full enough.
Source: google.com via j jump Janenifer on Pinterest
2. String cheese sticks and an apple. Just walk into the grocery store, grab, hit the"10 items or less" lane, and you are in and out in 1/10 the time the drive through would have taken.
Source: google.com via Rhonda on Pinterest
3. Justin's Nut Butter pack with whole grain crackers and a sliced banana.
Source: shop.wholefoodsmarket.com via Salina on Pinterest
4. Any protein-containing option at the Whole Foods Deli. They only use olive and canola oil so no label reading is required.
Source: ohsheglows.com via Alina on Pinterest
5. Hummus and vegetables.
And there you have it. As soon as you stop obliging marketers who need you to say"restaurant" after every time you say"fast food" in order to keep your job…the possibilities are endless.: )
Excited to tell you that we have a few Pinterest boards going with plans for another soon. please take a look, and if you like, share what you see.
The first one pays homage to the organizations that have supported us in our programming and fundraising. We hope you return the favor by at least checking out the honor roll and consider patronizing these companies when you can.
The second one compiles profiles of our network members, hopefully bringing them a little more to life and making it easier for you to reach out when you need individualized help.
Just wanted to update all of you about something new I've been working on with Pinterest. I know how I cook; I find a great recipe, buy all of the ingredients, cook the recipe…then I have half of something left that I have no idea what to do with, that rots and gets thrown away. That kind of cooking can get expensive, and it certainly doesn't motivate you to continue trying new things.
So my inCYST board is now organized by ingredients. Meaning if you have half a bunch of cilantro after making the salsa, you can visit my"cilantro" board for ideas for what to do with the rest of the cilantro. And once you marinate the meat with the cilantro dressing you made, and you have some left over green onions, you can click on the green onion board to see what's next.
For the most part the recipes are PCOS-friendly. There are exceptions and you do need to exercise common sense. This is just a place to gain inspiration, it's not a diet prescription.
I hope the cross-referencing keeps you going and inspired!
If you're looking for PCOS-friendly recipes, I have been uploading files I've saved over the years onto my Pinterest account. I am organizing them by month, to help you with seasonal ideas. For the most part, they are PCOS-friendly, some instances may require substitutions. Recipes are sources of inspiration and should be adapted by the chefs who use them!
We got a really fun vegetable in our boxes this week that I wanted to share with you. This is Romanesco cauliflower. Isn't it exotic? It almost looks like it was harvested from a coral reef!
Source: Uploaded by user via Monika on Pinterest
I didn't really have to do too much to it, I just broke it into pieces, drizzled olive oil on them, sprinkled with some Italian herbs, and roasted for about a half hour. As you can see they turned a beautiful yellow green when they cooked.
We get so many requests for"recipes" here at inCYST. Just wanted to make the point that when you eat really good, really fresh food…you don't need a lot of complexity in the kitchen. Just a little tweak to bring out the natural flavors.
Source: barefeetinthekitchen.blogspot.com via Monika on Pinterest
One of the most well-intended things people do when they decide to start eating healthier, is to eat more salad. A healthier choice, right? Only if you are salad dressing-savvy. Most commercial brands of salad dressing are made with soybean oil. Even if you shop at Whole Foods! If you've cut out a lot of fat from your diet, but you've kept or added more salad dressing, the ratio of that omega-6 to what omega-3 you have could be enough to push you toward a pro-inflammatory situation.
I can't even remember the last time I bought ready-made salad dressing. I made a vinaigrette once and it was so easy, I wondered why I didn't just do it all the time. These days I usually just drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar on my salads and that works just fine.
If you're not there, and you want something a bit more complex, try this balsamic vinaigrette recipe. It comes from a food blogger who uses our Chow Locally food…it went viral after pinned it on Pinterest. So I figured you'd like to have the instructions.
I also found a handy thing at Fresh and Easy yesterday, it's a balsamic vinegar spray bottle. I love it! I just spritzed the surface of my salad bowl with vinegar before adding the greens. The cap twists off if I want to measure out a larger quantity for a recipe. It's going to become a staple on my vinegar shelf.
With all the spring greens in season, it's a good time to try a newer, cleaner way of dressing your salads!
One of the most frequently asked questions we get at inCYST, is whether or not a specific food raises blood glucose. It is understandable, given the fact that women with PCOS are insulin resistant and highly likely to develop diabetes, that this would be a concern.
And in response to that concern, it is understandable that nutrition and wellness experts often quote a list of foods to avoid in order to maintain a low-glycemic diet.
Did you know, this"low glycemic" list is highly variable? That even though there are trends, certain foods may affect one person more than another? and that a food that has a tendency to be"high glycemic" on its own…may be perfectly fine when eaten with a mixed meal?
Those high glycemic lists floating around the Internet tend to report the response of your body to a food when it is eaten by itself. So all of those people telling you not to eat carrots or bananas are not telling you the entire story. We rarely eat that way. If you dip carrots in hummus, or eat a banana in a smoothie with Greek yogurt, for example, your body will respond completely differently to that nutrient mix than it would eating either of those foods by themselves.
So when you ask us if a food raises blood sugar and whether or not you should eat it, unless someone has measured YOUR blood sugar two hours after you have eaten it, any advice they give you is pure surmising and not based on relevant factual information.
You can do these tests yourself, you know. All you have to do, is buy a glucose meter at your nearest drug store and test your blood sugar a couple of hours after eating a meal. And before you conclude whether or not a food doesn't work for you, you need to try it alone, in a mixed meal, and at different times of day in order to determine how your body interacts with it.
My point here is, a nutrition, fitness, or wellness expert who is merely parroting information he or she has read on another website and is not customizing that advice to YOU is doing you a disservice. You may be cutting out perfectly healthy foods that you could eat in the right situation. You may be dealing with a food sensitivity that is not going to respond to a low glycemic diet.
Why waste time on information anyone can Google when you can tailor information to your own personal situation?
We love to do this kind of detective work at inCYST, and our network members have taken a lot of time to learn how to interpret that kind of data and make specific recommendations based on how YOUR body works.
Listen to someone who doesn't know you and who may be misguiding you, for free…or get evidence-based, customized information with personal relevance. It may cost you in the short term but save you a lot of trouble in the end.
Last week I was at the farmer's market, admiring a beautiful box of greens. I noticed a woman looking longingly at the same box. So I asked her if she liked kale.
"Oh, I do!" she answered."But I had to give it up when my husband went on Coumadin."
Coumadin is a blood-thinning agent that is being prescribed more frequently than it used to be, as blood that clots too easily is one consequence of inflammation. Since leafy greens are high in vitamin K, a nutrient that promotes blood clotting, patients prescribed Coumadin are advised to limit their intake to a level they can consistently commit to eating. That commitment factor intimidates many people out of eating them at all.
What is ironic about the Coumadin dilemma, is that leafy greens are packed with omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants, both of which hold potential to fight the very inflammatory process that is likely creating the need for Coumadin in the first place.
So how does one back themselves out of this corner once their previous lifestyle has backed them into it?
Here are a few things to try. Note, Coumadin is NOT a drug to mess with, so if you choose to make these suggested changes, it is essential that you communicate with the physician in charge of managing your blood clotting issues. If your condition is improving, medications will have to be adjusted to maintain clotting balance. It is best to make these shifts one at a time and wait 6 to 8 weeks to see how your body responds, rather than make too many changes at once, which can make it challenging for your physician to keep up with what is happening.
1. Shift your fat consumption, as much as possible, away from omega-6 fatty acid-dominant fats. They are easy to remember, they primarily begin with the letters"s" and"c"--soybean, safflower, sunflower, sesame, corn, and cottonseed. (Canola is the exception to this rule). They are primarily found in processed foods and in restaurant cooking, places where the price, not the quality, of the oil, is determining recipe makeup.
Check in with your physician to see how you are doing.
2. Add more vegetarian, non-leafy omega-3 foods into your diet. Flax is one of my favorites. You can add ground flaxseed into your smoothies, oatmeal, homemade vinaigrettes…and you may want to try a relatively new product on the market, flax milk, as a substitute for coffee creamer. If you are adventurous, try some chia seeds on your salad!
Check in with your physician to see how you are doing.
3. Try a protein-containing snack at night. It can help to stabilize blood sugar and cravings for sweets throughout the day, which keep you from being tempted by baked goods containing those oils.
Check in with your physician to see how you are doing.
4. Work on getting your seafood omega-3's. Note: ALL seafood, not just salmon, contain omega-3 fatty acids. If salmon is too fishy for your taste, spend some time at a knowledgeable seller such as Santa Monica Seafood, and try some of the recommendations they have. One of my favorites, which is available at Santa Monica Seafood, as well as Safeway, is barramundi, a sustainably farmed, mild-flavored whitefish that has a lot of versatility with regards to cooking technique.
Check in with your physician to see how you are doing.
5. If you are not a fish eater, consider a fish oil supplement. Despite what the supplement companies tell you, fish is fish; I've seen great changes in clients using Costco's Kirkland brand. The most important thing about using fish oil when you are taking Coumadin, is that you take it consistently. If remembering it is a challenge, program your smart phone to send you a daily reminder.
Check in with your physician to see how you are doing. If your clotting times have improved enough to get the greens-eating go ahead, good for you!
Later this week I will share some ideas for getting greens in your diet consistently without burning out on them.
“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.
Kale is the new rage. I've even seen it hailed as The New Beef.
Problem is, for newbies to this green way of eating, kale is a bitter veggie to swallow.
I wanted to share some of my favorite ways to work with kale that get you out of the bitter and into the tasty zone!
1. Make chips! I put a photo album on our Facebook page showing you how to do this with pretty much any green, including kale. It's soooo easy!
2. Cook with Parmesan cheese. Cheese, for some reason, helps to take bitterness out of greens.
3. Massage with oil. I'm sharing a couple of links here to recipes describing tis technique, which is basically breaking down the membranes of the leaves with your hands while massaging in a little oil. The first recipe, Kale Salad with Grapefruit, and photo are from friend Valerie Griswold. The second recipe is for the popular kale avocado salad at Whole Foods, which is what I always encourage people to try if they have never had kale. The avocado does the job that the oil does in the previous recipe.
4. Throw a handful into smoothies! You won't taste it at all, and you'll still get the benefit of its goodness.
5. Add to soups. If I get close to the next weekly veggie box and I still have things I haven't used, I make soup. Kale is a great thing to throw in anything.
If you're looking for pasta alternatives, consider soba noodles. This gluten-free Japanese creation is made with buckwheat, a food with potential multiple health benefits. Buckwheat has repeatedly been shown to improve blood lipids, by lowering blood pressure, total cholesterol, bad cholesterol (LDL), and triglycerides, and raising good cholesterol (HDL). It has also been reported to prevent the development of gallstones
Buckwheat is also a potent cancer fighter. It contains anthocyanin compounds (yes, that stuff that makes blueberries so healthy!), and it has been shown to fight tumor growth in a respectable list of body parts.
Photo credit: http://www.thekitchn.com/
Buckwheat is also good for people with insulin resistance. In one study, people who did not regularly consume buckwheat were five times more likely to have hyperglycemia (high blood glucose) than those who did. When it comes to our recent theme of increasing protein and maximizing muscle mass, buckwheat has been found to be a good vegan protein source for accomplishing this goal.
If you have been following my interest in bees and colony collapse disorder (important to PCOS because many hormone-friendly foods are dependent on bees for pollination), eating soba noodles is good for bee health as well. Provided the buckwheat is organic and not laced with pesticide, one acre of the crop supports an entire hive of bees, important in US locations where bees have been found to be declining because of exposure to neonicotinides used on corn. And buckwheat honey is good for you as well; it has a reputation for its antioxidant and antifungal content. You can make a difference! Increasing demand for crops that are healthy for everyone in the ecocycle is a win-win situation.
One note for celiacs: soba is only partially buckwheat. Be sure you read the labels and use a brand like Eden 100% Whole Buckwheat Soba.
The photo above is from a blog post I found on Pinterest. The recipe looked easy and like it was a great noncommittal Americanized way to put a little soba on your plate.
Kayashita J, Shimaoka I, Nakajoh M, Yamazaki M, Kato N. Consumption of buckwheat protein lowers plasma cholesterol and raises fecal neutral sterols in cholesterol-Fed rats because of its low digestibility. J Nutr. 1997 Jul;127(7):1395-400.
Metzger BT, Barnes DM, Reed JD. Insoluble fraction of buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) protein possessing cholesterol-binding properties that reduce micelle cholesterol solubility and uptake by Caco-2 cells. J Agric Food Chem. 2007 Jul 25;55(15):6032-8. Epub 2007 Jul 4.
Tomotake H, Yamamoto N, Kitabayashi H, Kawakami A, Kayashita J, Ohinata H, Karasawa H, Kato N. Preparation of tartary buckwheat protein product and its improving effect on cholesterol metabolism in rats and mice fed cholesterol-enriched diet. J Food Sci. 2007 Sep;72(7):S528-33.
Kuwabara T, Han KH, Hashimoto N, Yamauchi H, Shimada K, Sekikawa M, Fukushima M. Tartary buckwheat sprout powder lowers plasma cholesterol level in rats. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo). 2007 Dec;53(6):501-7.
Bijlani RL, Sud S, Sahi A, Gandhi BM, Tandon BN. Effect of sieved buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) flour supplementation on lipid profile and glucose tolerance. Indian J Physiol Pharmacol. 1985 Apr-Jun;29(2):69-74.
Lin LY, Peng CC, Yang YL, Peng RY. Optimization of bioactive compounds in buckwheat sprouts and their effect on blood cholesterol in hamsters. J Agric Food Chem. 2008 Feb 27;56(4):1216-23. Epub 2008 Jan 24. Zhang HW, Zhang YH, Lu MJ, Tong WJ, Cao GW. Comparison of hypertension, dyslipidaemia and hyperglycaemia between buckwheat seed-consuming and non-consuming Mongolian-Chinese populations in Inner Mongolia, China. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 2007 Sep;34(9):838-44.
Pui KC. [Inhibition of tumor growth in vitro by the extract of Fagopyrum cymosum]. Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Xue Bao. 2003 Jul;1(2):128-31.
Alvarez P, Alvarado C, Mathieu F, Jiménez L, De la Fuente M. Diet supplementation for 5 weeks with polyphenol-rich cereals improves several functions and the redox state of mouse leucocytes. Eur J Nutr. 2006 Dec;45(8):428-38. Epub 2006 Oct 11.
Zduńczyk Z, Flis M, Zieliński H, Wróblewska M, Antoszkiewicz Z, Juśkiewicz J. In vitro antioxidant activities of barley, husked oat, naked oat, triticale, and buckwheat wastes and their influence on the growth and biomarkers of antioxidant status in rats. J Agric Food Chem. 2006 Jun 14;54(12):4168-75.
Watanabe M. An anthocyanin compound in buckwheat sprouts and its contribution to antioxidant capacity. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2007 Feb;71(2):579-82. Epub 2007 Feb 7.
Wang ZH, Gao L, Li YY, Zhang Z, Yuan JM, Wang HW, Zhang L, Zhu L. Induction of apoptosis by buckwheat trypsin inhibitor in chronic myeloid leukemia K562 cells. Biol Pharm Bull. 2007 Apr;30(4):783-6.
Wang KJ, Zhang YJ, Yang CR. Antioxidant phenolic constituents from Fagopyrum dibotrys. J Ethnopharmacol. 2005 Jun 3;99(2):259-64. Epub 2005 Apr 7.
Leung EH, Ng TB. A relatively stable antifungal peptide from buckwheat seeds with antiproliferative activity toward cancer cells. J Nutr Biochem. 2008 Oct;19(10):700-7. Epub 2008 Mar 6. Kim SJ, Maeda T, Sarker MZ, Takigawa S, Matsuura-Endo C, Yamauchi H, Mukasa Y, Saito K, Hashimoto N, Noda T, Saito T, Suzuki T. Identification of anthocyanins in the sprouts of buckwheat. J Agric Food Chem. 2007 Jul 25;55(15):6314-8. Epub 2007 Jun 20.
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Source: picasaweb.google.com via Katie on Pinterest
I am not a celebrity chaser, and I am definitely not a Kardashian fan. It just so happened that when I was getting ready to leave yesterday morning, I had the television on to catch the news.
I actually almost turned off the television when I heard from back in the bedroom that Khloe K was promoting another reality show. But by the tome I came out to shut it off, she was talking about some wildly inappropriate and insensitive behavior on the part of not one, not two, but THREE separate infertility clinics…in Dallas…on Valentine's Day no less. and she has not even said she is dealing with infertility!
This comes straight from her, which, since I don't gossip, is the only reason I am even sharing it. Kudos to Khloe for calling these clinics on their greed. If I were in her shoes and I ever DID need these services, I would definitely intentionally seek them far, far from Dallas just to make a point.
I shared this on my Facebook page yesterday, and a woman shared that in her own journey, she had pursued three unsuccessful IVFs and never once received flowers from anyone who treated her.
Yup the industry creates DNA but seems to forget that inhabiting those cells, DNA, etc., are hearts and souls.
It is an industry that in many cases has lost ITS soul.
Have you noticed that the skin under your arms, on the back of your neck, and/or in your groin area is darker than it is elsewhere? Does it seem a little dirtier than the rest of your skin…but no amount of scrubbing or skin lightening products seems to help lighten it?
You may have a condition called acanthosis nigricans. It is caused by insulin resistance. It isn't something you may connect to your PCOS, and if you haven't had to take your clothes off for a medical exam, it may have been sitting there unnoticed, telling you something very important about how your insulin is (not) functioning.
I had a friend I had known for several years, who knew I specialized in PCOS, who was always dieting…but who always wore a lab coat for work whenever I saw her. It wasn't until A hot summer afternoon, at a social gathering, when she wore a tank top,that I noticed her acanthosis
This condition will resolve, but only when you correct the source of the problem.
If you have groin, armpit, or back of the neck skin that looks anything like what you see in these photos, be sure to let your PCOS caregiver know.
We love to hear how we're helping you, what you want more of, less of, etc.
I recently received this letter from someone who joined the inCYST Institute. Thanks, friend!
I remember very clearly which article was the one that opened my eyes. I'd been reading the blog for a while after I'd done a PCOS-related search. I think there were a few articles where you mentioned fish oil and I do remember reading them but I figured I'm already seeing a Naturopath and if she hasn't prescribed it to me then I must not need it.
And then you wrote this: http://www.incyst.com/2011/11/what-inflammation-means-to-your-brain.html. I remember reading it and it was like a hit in the face. I'm an Engineering student and for the last five years I've carried around a ton of guilt regarding my 'professional' success. I used to be more motivated in high school and I'd put in more effort and I'd get better results. Ever since I'd started my undergrad career those things had just gone more and more and more downhill. I couldn't concentrate and I just stopped caring after a while, I basically resumed to doing whatever I can to pass, and honestly I don't think I had it in me for much more than that.
Before reading that article, I blamed it all on myself, thinking I'd just become lazy and I'm not as smart as I think and I'm never gonna be as good as the other Eng students around me. I can't even tell you how much I thank you for that article, it was the biggest relief of my life to read it and think that maybe it wasn't all me. I've been taking fish oil ever since and things do seem to be getting better. So thank you, again. Thank you!
I very much enjoy reading articles like that because you explain in very common terms what it is that bad habits do to you and it kinda scares me into submission (I know it's a bad way to put it). I find that I have to constantly remind myself what could happen if I don't have healthy habits since I'm constantly being bombarded with images of unhealthy people who still look great (I'm referring to the mass media here). I also find it useful when you review products and/or actual food items, nutrients and vitamins, with the science behind of course as you always do. I'm really excited about Fitness Fridays and I think the first article was really useful (perhaps not for me personally right now since I can't afford a personal trainer anyway) for people who actually spend their money on working out with someone.
I won't lie, I rarely try recipes that you post even though I read them unless they're super raw. I'm way better at taking ingredients that I know I want to eat and somehow mix them up together to create a great meal rather than following instructions. I do use the recipes you post to guide my creative meal-making though. I also try to eat most of what I eat in the most natural form possible so I don't actually cook quite so often.
Anyway, that's all I can think of for now. I made the final decision to join when I read this on facebook:
inCYST Programs for Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome I am starting to get the feeling that one of the reasons many of you have so much trouble with food…is that you were not raised in environments that were in touch with food in healthy ways. So much of what suggest is too far removed from where you are in reality. Do you need some kind of boot camp or club that worked you through the basics of food and cooking? This would have to be a paid offering, as I am pretty tapped out with regards to offering help that does not pay my bills.
It's pretty sad that it had to come to that for me to decide but it did. I think I often forget that there's an actual person behind all of this and yeah, why not help if I can. I mean for 25 dollars, it's not the end of the world. I spend that much going to see a movie with my boyfriend. If I could I would encourage more people to support inCYST, but I know of no one else who actually benefits from it since I don't know any other women with PCOS in my non-online life. I think that people respond better when they realise what kind of impact they can have with just a little bit of help from each of us.
I had not put that on Facebook to garner sympathy, but rather to encourage people to consider investing in something they felt had value to them. An investment here has the potential to save you money on medications…and for some…assisted reproduction. We don't ask for much, but we hope you can help if we have helped you!
If you have ever lived in the world of athletes, you may be familiar with a term, the"cheat day". A cheat day is a day set aside each week to eat the foods that are not on your diet…it is included in a lot of strict regimens with the philosophy that if you let yourself have those foods one day a week, it will be easier to follow the strict regime the rest of the week.
The cheat day is extremely counterproductive for PCOS, and here just a few of the reasons why.
1. It creates the mentality that there are good foods, and bad foods. Of course, there are foods that are more supportive of lessening insulin resistance than others. But subscribing"good" and"bad" designations to foods can be counterproductive. I have found that the minute a food becomes something you limit to just one day a week…it can cause you to crave and obsess about the very food you are supposed to be limiting.
2. And that brings me to my next point. Binge eating is extremely strongly correlated with PCOS, and what happens on some of those cheat days…can be mind boggling. Women with PCOS are extremely sensitive to small changes in diet, and a binge episode can include salty foods that promote fluid retention. If your physician is monitoring your insulin function with a test called a hemoglobin A1c, it is a reading of your average blood glucose over the past weeks. Major binges that take you a few days to get over can throw that average off.
3. I have seen cases where overdoing the cheat day has been a major barrier to overcoming insulin resistance. It can be the thing that provokes your physician to increase your medication dose…a dose which may be too high on days when you are eating well. The very best way to reduce your dependence on medication, is to refrain from starving/bingeing cycles that make it hard for your physician to create a medication regimen that helps you.
4. Cheat days can interfere with weight loss. Let's say you are losing about a pound a week. Your calorie deficit is about 500 per day. All it takes is one fast food dinner, in addition to a normal breakfast and lunch, to offset your progress you have made the rest of the week.
5. A lot of foods people"cheat" on are processed and high in sodium. It can take a few days to flush the water this sodium is retaining. My experience is, if you are working with the mentality of cheating and not cheating, even if you give yourself permission to do so, there is guilt involved after the cheat. And that can drive you to weigh in the next day, look at the higher weight, assume it is fat you have gained…encouraging overexercising and over restricting food. Both of those choices impose stress on your insulin and cortisol systems and interfere with blood sugar control.
Our goal at inCYST is to create a lifestyle where the healthier foods are the ones you gravitate toward, not because they are good for you, but because you genuinely enjoy them. My experience is that when you are in a hormone-friendly groove, you actually LIKE to eat greens, fruits, and lean proteins. I know, for me, when I am taking care of myself, I can barely handle walking through a food court in the mall or airport without feeling nauseated from the smell. I don't really need cheat days because I don't have an appetite for the kind of foods cheat days are designed to allow.
When you are craving"bad" foods, it is a major sign that you are out of balance. Cheat days have a way of keeping you stuck In that imbalance, not helping you out of it.
Let us help you learn what life is like living life in balance, rather than constantly counteracting some kind of extreme with another extreme. That is what we excel at.
I've now worked with three Chow Locally boxes, and for the most part I was cruising along. Until this past week when arugula showed up in the box. A few years ago, I belonged to a CSA at a farm where arugula grew particularly well. So for weeks at a time, it would show up in the box. I was not particularly fond of it in the first place, but when having to eat it for weeks on end…well, let's just say I developed an intense dislike for the green.
But my job at Chow Locally is to show people how to use foods in season. I decided to use this as an opportunity to put myself in many of my client's shoes, and I chose to challenge myself to learn to eat--and like--arugula.
Flipping through some recipes, I happened across arugula pesto. And I like basil pesto, so I figured it might be fun to try it with arugula. It turned out so tasty I was eating it by the spoonful!
So I cruised the Internet and found a lot of recipes for pesto using a lot of other greens that people often turn their noses up at. I found kale pesto, collard pesto, and mustard green pesto.
I think I was open minded to and expecting to like this recipe because I had an expectation of the taste that would be positive. Trying something completely foreign on top of a new food would have been too much. Expectation is half the battle!
So if you're trying to learn to cook and eat new foods, think of ways to cook the new so that it is familiar. Willing to bet it helps you add more new things to your repertoire than you thought yourself capable of.
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.
One of the things I am very conscious of in doing this work, is that the recommendations we make on this blog have the potential to have consequences far beyond then plates of our actual readers.
We are approaching 10,000 page reads a month, and our readers come from some pretty surprising places like India, Uzbekistan, and Trinidad. I am honored and flattered to know that the information we provide here is popular and useful to a variety of women. I do not want anyone to think that because they do not live where I do, that they cannot be healthy with PCOS. Or, that if they do not have the money for some Amazon-based supplement, they cannot be healthy with PCOS.
That being said, I am ever-mindful of the collective consequence of 1 in 5 women all rushing out to buy something because they read about it on this blog. That is why you never see me parrot, repeat, or retweet those lists of top ten healthy foods. While salmon, blueberries, and walnuts are all healthy, they are not available to many of our readers. And even to those who are, they are not the most environmentally friendly choices to make.
There simply are not enough wild salmon on the planet for it to be feasible for nutrition experts to be promoting the idea that this is the only fish that you should eat for omega-3 fatty acids. I LOVE blueberries, but I live in a hot climate where they do not grow, and the carbon footprint of the ones that make it to my local store…well…just not something I want to sign off on as my personal contribution to environmental disruption.
The other trend I see is a tendency to believe that if the food or supplement did not come from some exotic Amazon river tributary, or if it was not handpicked by an esoteric band of Mongolian monks, it can't have health value. We are sick in the Northern hemisphere, so our answer lies outside of our own environment, right?
Not quite.
One of the reasons we are sick, is that we have made our environment sick. We are all simply artifacts and consequences of our sick environment. Clean up the way we grow and produce food, reduce our carbon footprint, and we become healthy as a natural consequence of living responsibly.
Rather than jumping over foods in your own backyard, or buying into the idea that your answer is growing on some mountainside in Kenya, take a look at your immediate environment. How much fresh food are you eating? How much of it is locally grown? How much is seasonal?
Do you even know what foods are in season right now? I was floored when I used to do grocery store tours at Whole Foods several years ago. The people coming through those classes, in Tempe, AZ, and Venice, CA, were pretty well educated, and they viewed themselves as environmentally conscious.
But invariably, I would take them into the produce section and say,"Now tell me what's in season." And they would look at me like a deer in the headlights. In the middle of winter they would gravitate toward the blueberries shipped in from South America. And in the Arizona classes, they had no idea our perfectly healthy nuts are pecans and pistachios, not walnuts.
(Psssssttttt…by the way, what is in season is usually what's in the biggest bin at the lowest price, in case you were curious).
Back to blueberries. Turns out, one of the reasons blueberries are such an incredible powerhouse, is exactly why desert-friendly foods are also pretty incredible. If you would like to learn more, check out my blog post for Chow Locally this week. Take a look at what Mother Nature may have planted right in your own backyard before you get in a hurry to spend a lot of money on some food or supplement that comes from exotic, faraway land.
Much of what modern medicine tries to do, is OUTSMART Mother Nature. I believe the more logical, effective, and sustainable answer, especially for PCOS, is to LISTEN to Mother Nature. Her lessons are not the loudest ones, and they are not always on a prominent website, with a strong profit margin, but they are powerful, and they are valuable.
If you have questions about what might be lurking in your part of the world, pass them along! I'd love to learn along with you.
Source: iwishihadanocean.tumblr.com via Christine on Pinterest
• “I’m so stupid!” • “I’m never going to figure out how to hold better boundaries.” • “I’m so fat, it’s disgusting.” • “I just can’t figure out how to actually fall asleep.” • “I don’t know why I keep getting involved with people who don’t treat me well.” • “This is hopeless.”
In my psychotherapy practice, I hear comments like these every day. Many of my clients have low self-esteem, and run a constant stream of mental verbal abuse. It may stem from an abusive background (the things their parents said to them are embedded at this point), frustrating health conditions that are difficult to manage, or having a tendency to find unhealthy relationships. Not knowing how to create change is another reason for this kind of self-talk. Lots of things can trigger self-abuse, and it usually doesn’t take much. Many of us are all too good at starting the litany of self-abuse. For some of us, it’s a 24 hour a day practice.
What is the result of this constant barrage of mean, unproductive, and even cruel commentary? Feeling bad goes to feeling worse, depression is exacerbated, motivation decreases, and sometimes an eating, drinking, spending, or sexual binge is set off because a woman feels and thinks, “What’s the point? I can’t change. This is too hard. I’ll never figure it out. This isn’t worth it. I’m not worth it.”
I want you to stop beating yourself up – NOW. There are enough negatives coming in from external sources (bad grades, an unappreciative spouse, kids who walk all over you, the competitive types at the gym who sneer at your efforts, the not-so-subtle one-upmanship of your friend who has a much larger clothing budget, etc.). You need to combat all of that with positive self-talk, and a commitment to deleting the negative statements from your vocabulary. Every time you start with the negative self-talk, write it down, and immediately counter it in writing with a positive statement. For example:
• “I look like crap” becomes “I have some extra weight because of my PCOS, but I’ve made huge improvements in my diet and exercise program – and I’m getting there. And I still dress really cute. That matters.”
• “I’m stupid” is countered with “I’m smart, and there’s lots of evidence to prove it – I had a 3.9 GPA, and three people (name them) told me I was smart in the last month.”
• “I don’t know how to be happy” gets countered with “happiness is a process, and I’m taking important steps to achieve it, like journaling, going to therapy, and keeping a gratitude list.”
Your language is powerful, and it’s a choice. It impacts your sense of well-being, productivity, and even your health. By choosing positive language for your self-talk, it also shifts your interactions with other people. More importantly, it shifts your sense of self, and improves your self-esteem. Only you have the power to do that.
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.
I was asked by one of our readers (who happens to also be my dear cousin Susan), if there was anywhere on the Internet, a checklist for vegetarians to follow to be sure their diet is complete. Her pretty exhaustive research found nothing really practical for meal planning.
So in response to that, and knowing that a very high percentage of our own readers are vegetarian, I put something together. Please let us know if it needs refining or detail, so that we can make this as practical as it can possibly be.
There are five main things to attend to. All of them are important, but I ordered them in the way I look at them when planning a vegetarian meal for myself.
1. What is my protein source and how much of it do I need to truly give me enough protein?
Here are your goals based on the number of calories you eat. This will make 30% of your calories protein, which will help to fight insulin resistance.
2. Where is my vitamin D coming from, and have I had enough? You will have to make a very conscious effort to get enough of this vitamin. With regard to whole foods, mushrooms are pretty much the only vitamin D-containing food. With regard to vegan milk alternatives, beware. Most are so low in protein, they are more accurately thought of as juices rather than milks. If you choose to drink them you will need to find other ways to meet criteria nu,ber one above. I blogged about this in detail not too long ago.
3. Are my fats healthy? If your definition of vegan is primarily not eating meat, and you are eating a lot of packaged, processed, prepared, or baked food…be extra sure you are not inadvertently letting the pro-inflammatory fats sneak in. Remember, they tend to begin with the letters"s" and" c" — soybean, safflower, sunflower, sesame, corn, cottonseed. (Canola is the exception.). Vegans are often blindsided here with salad dressings, baked goods, cookies, and chops. Read your labels--as much as I love Whole Foods, their entire snack food aisle only has a handful of choices you can bring home if you follow this rule! Good fats include olive and organic canola.
4. Am I getting DHA and EPA (marine omega-3)? Yes, flax, green veggies, and other foods contain omega-3, but the conversion rate is not high. You will need to find a marine algae supplement to be sure your intake of these two essential fatty acids is adequate. InCYSTer Chris Marquette found one that is not genetically modified; look for it next time you shop.
5. Am I getting enough fruits and vegetables? Ideally, these should be the vast majority of what you eat. I am surprised at how many vegans I know who do not like vegetables! You should be aiming for 2-3 1/2 cup servings PER MEAL. Beware of juicing; it is a great way to get in large volumes of fruits and vegetables…BUT…the carbohydrate to protein ratio is not going to help reduce insulin resistance. Make a smoothie out of your juice with your favorite protein powder.
Of course, you can take supplements to make up many of these deficiencies…but if your solution in more than one of these categories is a supplement, I challenge you to consider why you do what you do. The true definition of a vegan is someone WHO MEETS THEIR DAILY NUTRITIONAL NEEDS without using animal-based food to make it happen. If all you have done is remove animals from your diet, you are simply a picky or misinformed eater.
