Where To Start When You’re A PCOS Mess
The first time you embrace carbohydrates will probably be the scariest meal prep you ever do. Maybe it was just me, but seeing a bench full of grains, vegetables and carb-heavy dishes to eat through a week had me nervous as hell.
I was fearful I’d have increased highs and crashes of energy but most of all I thought I’d be a dress size bigger come Thursday. Gaining even more weight would have devastated me and is a conversation I still have with newer clients today.
Although scared and feeling like I was breaking every diet rule I knew, secretly I was pretty darned excited to be enjoying so many delicious meals. For the first time in many years I knew if this way of eating actually worked, it was the most sustainable way to eat for the rest of my life.
To jump-start your journey, it starts with improving a little of your current habits. Personally, my food preps were mostly chicken and broccoli so I added a few more vegetables to them and snacked on fruit between meals as a step forward. I instantly noticed that my energy picked up and I wasn’t as hungry.
To my surprise, the scales didn’t budge and I didn’t feel any fatter.
The rice, sweet potato and grains started appearing in a few dishes. That was a scary time, emotionally I had conditioned myself to believe I was doing the wrong thing but I was sadly proven wrong when I took some progress photos and saw my belly fat shrinking!
By this stage my meals were so full of flavour, they filled me up and I felt the best I had in years. The compliments started coming in where my family and friends said I ‘just looked happier’. Although grateful for their compliment, I was a little embarrassed because I had no idea I looked like a sad sack of potatoes I wasn’t even eating!
Your journey to better health may look a little different. Truthfully there isn’t one way to do this as each woman has their own food struggles to work through. Overall it just starts with improving what you’re doing with your food and aiming to be better, not perfect.
Here I am nearly 7 years later and still kick myself for being able to enjoy the delicious foods and dishes that I do. It may sound weird, but being able to go to any restaurant, holiday or location and knowing how to eat for health and fat loss simultaneously is such a freeing feeling.
It’s become an honour for me to work and share with each client as they relearn how to develop their own meals and enjoy food that suits their taste buds and goals too.