Healing PCOS

A PCOS Diva is a woman with hope. She has taken charge of her health and happiness and takes steps every day to enhance both. She chooses to thrive with PCOS and is empowered by the knowledge she gathers as she educates herself about PCOS. As a result of her regimen, she is able to give her best to herself and others and be an example of the power of self-care. She is capable of advocating for herself and surrounds herself with the supportive health-care team and community of friends and family she deserves. A PCOS Diva looks beyond the physical support required to manage symptoms and works to heal and enhance her whole person—mind, body, and spirit. A PCOS Diva is an inspiration.

Becoming a PCOS Diva doesn’t happen overnight. The journey of healing is lifelong. Every day, a PCOS Diva listens to her body’s signals and adjusts her diet and lifestyle, so that she can work in partnership with her body instead of fighting against it.

My path to becoming a PCOS Diva was long and winding. In high school and college, I struggled with hair loss, abnormal hair growth, stress, acne, insulin resistance, weight-loss resistance, and irregular menstrual cycles. I binge-ate and then punished myself with exercise. I could never get a straight answer from health-care professionals about the root cause of my symptoms or how to resolve them. I grew frustrated and hopeless.

It took me fifteen years to get a diagnosis of PCOS and years more to develop a holistic lifestyle plan that’s easy, effective, and enjoyable. Today, at age forty-six, I feel stronger, healthier, and more hopeful than ever before. What’s more, despite the common misconception that PCOS causes irreversible infertility, I have given birth to three beautiful children, the last conceived naturally after adopting the PCOS Diva lifestyle.

And I’m not alone. Thousands of other women who have followed my programs can attest to my approach’s effectiveness. By following an anti-inflammatory diet that’s rich in whole foods and mindful indulgences, prioritizing moderate exercise and self-care, and building a support system inside and outside the home, we’ve learned how to thrive, not just survive, with PCOS.

Congratulations! You have taken the first step toward becoming a PCOS Diva. Knowledge is power, and this book will help you develop a diet and lifestyle that work specifically for you. Soon you will be a PCOS Diva too.

The PCOS Diva Difference

The Healing PCOS 21-Day Plan is not a diet plan. If you have been diagnosed with PCOS, then your doctor has likely told you to exercise and lose weight. He or she may have prescribed a pharmaceutical or two as well and sent you on your way. For most women, this approach to treating PCOS doesn’t create true, sustainable healing, and there is a good reason for that. It isn’t that simple.

Sustainable healing with PCOS cannot be achieved by taking a pill, adopting a low-carb diet, and going to the gym. Healing takes so much more. We need to connect with our bodies and ourselves in a more loving way and learn to think like a PCOS Diva. Only then will we be able to willingly and joyfully make the small, day-to-day diet and lifestyle choices that heal our bodies and our minds and souls for a lifetime.

Healing from the inside out is the heart of the PCOS Diva difference. We thrive as a result of self-love and gratitude, not as a result of a trendy, temporary, and unsustainable diet.

Week One: Discover Your PCOS Diva

In Week One, you will discover your PCOS Diva by exploring the foundation of the 21-Day Plan—the way you think about your body, PCOS, and the way you eat. You will discover exactly what works for you. No two PCOS Divas are exactly alike, so you will learn to translate your body’s unique signals and work in partnership with it.

We will begin by changing the way you think about PCOS and your body. Surprised? Many of my clients are shocked that the first thing we do isn’t talking about their diet. They expect lists of foods to eat and not to eat right out of the gate. Here’s the thing: until you think like a PCOS Diva, you cannot live like a PCOS Diva. You may make changes that last a few weeks. You may even start to feel a little better. But until you upgrade your thinking, nothing will stick.

In the long run, no drug, diet, or exercise will help you until you take this step. For many women, this is the biggest challenge. It may be easier to pass up a bagel than to look in the mirror and say something nice or prioritize your well-being over someone else’s wants.

So we begin by establishing your PCOS Diva mindset and practicing mindfulness. We will work together to develop a perspective that will drive every decision you make, from what to eat to how to deal with stress. Finally, you will learn how to use gratitude to fuel your journey. Over the next 21 days, we will cultivate these elements of your upgraded mindset:

Control: By the end of this transformative 21-day plan, you will have the tools you need to take control of your symptoms and environment instead of playing the role of helpless victim.

Partnering: Your body is not betraying you; it is calling for help. You will learn how to stop fighting your body and instead work in partnership with it to recognize its signals and respond in a loving and nurturing way.

“With PCOS Diva, I learned how important it is to care for me. I realized that if one of my children or my husband had PCOS, I would have been doing this program long ago. I would tirelessly research what was good for them, and I would do everything I could to help them live their best lives. Why wasn’t I willing to do that for me? I thought I was being selfish by taking care of myself. I now know the opposite is true. I was being selfish by not taking care of myself. My family needs me. Now they have a healthy mama, and wife who is energetic and engaged. They love the food I make from the meal plans and are moving with me.”

Abundance: You will celebrate the abundance in your life. Instead of blaming situations on items you lack or imperfections in yourself and others, you will approach each day with gratitude. The positivity this brings will give you the strength to make the right choices for you.

Progress: You will work toward progress, not perfection. No one is perfect. You will set reasonable goals and celebrate the small wins.

Mindfulness: Truly savoring and being present in a moment will become a habit that will change your perspective on the world and how you move, eat, and love.

Nurturing: Caring for yourself is not selfish, and it is about to change your life. When you approach your body from a place of self-love and compassion, you are better able to hear the messages it is sending to you. You will respond to those messages in a kind and nurturing way, because you understand that you are worth the investment. You are a priority and deserve to feel good.

Please do not skip straight to the 21-Day Plan. There is important information in Part One! For example, you must read and internalize Chapter 3, “Think like a PCOS Diva.” It is the key to changing your life, controlling your PCOS, and thriving!

During Week One, you’ll also think about what you use to fuel your body. I love the expression, “Nothing tastes as good as feeling good feels.” Although I believe that to be true, eating like a PCOS Diva is no sacrifice. We heal and nurture our bodies with nourishing foods without denying ourselves pleasure. You will discover that:

Food is medicine. Much of what you need to balance your hormones and soothe your PCOS symptoms can be found in the produce section of your grocery store or farmers’ market. You will learn which foods heal you and which foods exacerbate your symptoms.

Your body is sending you messages. Your body is telling you what it needs. Those cravings signal something. You will learn how to partner with your body to translate those signals and give it the nutrients it is asking for. There is no one-size-fits-all diet for PCOS. We will find yours.

Food intolerances, sensitivities, and allergies are at the center of many of your symptoms. You will learn how to detect what is inflaming your body and what is healing it. Do tomatoes give you canker sores? Does bread make you feel foggy? Does dairy cause mucus? Learning which foods to avoid will help you develop your individual protocol for eating like a PCOS Diva.

Preparation is essential. You will learn to set yourself up for success with a few minutes of planning and preparation each day. Preparation will save you from raiding the vending machine at work or skipping your daily walk when you get overwhelmed.

No diet is perfect. Day to day, week to week, an essential nutrient or vitamin may be missing from your diet. Which one is it? Which supplements are right for you? You will learn the supplements that commonly help women with PCOS and how to choose the ones that are right for you.

Indulgence is not an indulgence. Feeling deprived is no way to live, and it certainly is no way to live like a PCOS Diva. You will discover satisfying ways to indulge that will not make you feel lousy later.

Week Two: Live like a PCOS Diva

During Week Two, we add the next building block of the PCOS Diva lifestyle—movement. Truly living like a PCOS Diva is more than just how you think and what you eat. It requires regular, joyful movement. Your body is made to move, and once you are in the right mindset and your diet is helping to boost your energy, you will be inspired to move it!

No, this is not where you order a chaise longue to be carried about like Mariah Carey. We are not that kind of diva.

PCOS Divas know how to move joyfully. We understand that regular movement is an important part of the PCOS Diva lifestyle, but we do not punish ourselves with exercise. I cannot count the number of hours I spent on the treadmill, miserably trying to work off calories. Years later, I understand that by approaching exercise as an exhausting chore, I was hurting myself more than I was helping. Not only had overexercising exhausted my adrenal glands and made my symptoms worse; constantly punishing myself was emotionally taxing.

Most women I work with are in the same boat. Exercise is not joyful for them. Does this sound like you too? If it does, I’ll help you to find movement you enjoy and want to do regularly—and not because you are afraid of the consequences of skipping it. You deserve to feel great and take pleasure in your body and all it can do. You will discover:

The best movement for women with PCOS is . . . whatever you enjoy! Some of the best choices for our metabolism and hormones include high-intensity interval training (HIIT), yoga, and strength training, but the possibilities are endless.

Adrenal fatigue may be keeping you from reaching your goals. Women with PCOS are hormonally vulnerable. Overtaxing our adrenal glands, producers of hormones that control fertility and the stress response, with the wrong types of movement can throw everything out of balance.

The best way to overcome gym anxiety is to think like a PCOS Diva. There is no need to wait until you have a perfect body or lose 10 pounds to go to the gym. You will enjoy going to the gym because it is an act of self-love. Trust me.

Movement and exercise are not weapons to wield against your body. The gym is not a battleground. I know that finding movement you enjoy can be frustrating and even embarrassing. But you can do it, and before you know it, you will be moving like a PCOS Diva (and loving it)!

Week Three: Thrive like a PCOS Diva

During Weeks One and Two, we explore the basics of the PCOS Diva lifestyle and experiment with what works best for you. In Week Three, we add meditation to your daily regimen. At this point, you are ready to step out on your own and practice making your own schedules and menus. You will combine everything you’ve learned into a sustainable, mindful, and joyful lifestyle tailored just for you. You will discover that:

Meditation benefits the mind and body. Not only does meditation help to calm your mind and ease stress; it has physical benefits all over the body.

There are many ways to meditate. You don’t have to do tai chi or chant “Om.” You can meditate anytime, anywhere. There’s even an app for that.

There is a balance that is optimal for your life. Diet, career, movement, relationships—you juggle all of these things and more. The trick is to find a balance of all these elements. We will use the Thrive like a PCOS Diva Wheel to help find your balance.

Clutter creates chaos. Whether it is piles of stuff on your counters, thoughts racing through your mind, or relationships that don’t benefit you, clutter bogs you down. You will learn to clear this clutter and thrive.

This may seem overwhelming, but remember: “Small hinges swing big doors.” Becoming healthy isn’t going to happen overnight. However, by taking small steps, you can begin to heal your mind and body.