zuna's Journal, 03 Apr 21

Hi Zuna Hope you doing well. I have been diagnosed with PCOS and it makes it very difficult to lose weight. You have to work 3 times harder then someone without it. I started drinking 2 sachets of Inofolic last month - 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening and it's really helping me. I also do the following on a daily basis: Intermittent fasting-mostly 18hours Cut my carbs to 35-42grams a day Calorie intake of 1400 Walking: 5-7km a day, and weekends I do 1 hike and increase my kilometers to 10. Stay positive. I hope this helps.  

I was diagnosed with PCOS almost 3 years ago by my gynaecologist. She told me I’d battle to fall pregnant and that losing weight would be really hard for me. She basically gave me all the bad news and offered ZERO help besides suggesting I lose weight... I later went to see a specialist and found that I also have an under active thyroid as well as insulin resistance and a severe vitamin D deficiency (low vitamin D can contribute to depression etc) I’m on a bunch of meds to correct all these issues now but also follow my New Drs diet, trying my best to eat foods that won’t spike my blood sugar levels and that is what’s been helping me drop my weight. (I do cheat on occasion though..) I also feel so much happier and have managed to go off my antidepressants. Recently I’ve also decided to cut out dairy and gluten. I don’t know all the sciencey words but dairy is incredibly bad for us ladies with PCOS and will contribute to acne as well. Try following a Cyster and her mister on Instagram, they’ve got so much info on why dairy isn’t the best for us. Already my skin is soo much better after going off dairy. 

Wow ladies, thank you for the positive feedback. I find it so hard to figure out what to eat and how to cook for PCOS. I have cut out gluten but am still to cut out dairy. Different pcos specialists have different opinions, some say dairy is the devil and others say everything in moderation is fine. My weight journey is a tough one and I often get discouraged. I have bought a pcositol supplement and really hope that I will find some sort of lifestyle to help me.  

I have hashimotos which is different but similar. Regarding the dairy I had read the suggestion to first eliminate milk before all dairy. I have found that is enough for me! The sugar in milk spikes insulin which is bad for me and I think bad for pcos too. I am still able to enjoy small amounts of cheese, cream and butter and be fine because they obviously don’t contain lactose. I personally don’t do well with yoghurt. That might be a starting point for you too :) 

Regarding what to eat do you eat low carb or just gluten free? Happy to give some suggestions!! 

Sorry to hear about your hashimotos. Currently I am just doing gluten free. I would love some suggestions please. I see on the recipe options on this app there isn't anything for gluten free and dairy free and I struggle with that 

So the nice thing about gluten free is the main ingredients you are cutting out are limited- mainly cereals, bread and pasta. Breakfast- oats are great if you aren’t low carb. All oats are actually officially ‘gluten free’ but they often get a bit of cross contamination as they are processed with other grains so you can always try regular oats first and if you don’t see any change in symptoms then buy pure gluten free oats (which are the same just processed in their own facility). Other breakfasts - I love eggs with veg like scrambled egg and mushrooms or spinach, an omelette or even just a few fried eggs and a tomato on the side. I make coconut porridge (you can google that) and sometimes add peanut butter if you want something very hearty. Smoothies are also great for breakfast if you want you can add protein powder (like nutritech vegan) I buy gluten free/low carb rusks from woolies or checkers just one box a month. And you can make your own toasted muesli or buy, woolies sells a muesli without sugar in their carb clever range but I just make my own with seeds, coconut, xylitol and coconut oil. Lunches- pilchards, salads, sweet potatoes with toppings, maize crackers or seed crackers. I make my own seed bread and have that with tuna or pilchards. This is where I sometimes have some feta cheese with my salad and I add olive oil to fill me  

Also you can have lentils so you could make a great lentil Dahl or bean stew or curry or veg curry with coconut milk. Dinners- you can have potatoes or rice and then you meat and veg. Curries are great, you can have mince and nachos and avo, the only tricky dish for me is a pasta dish if I make that for my family I take my mince out beforehand or I have eggs or stir fry instead.  

If you google gluten free and dairy free recipes there are tons of sites!! I make banana bread etc with ground up oats instead of flour, peanut loaves, flax seed muffins.  

Not specifically but I do have an autoimmune illness which means I can't tolerate sugar (carbs) or gluten. Keto has changed my life with this illness, even before I started on chemo meds. I cut out milk but can have cheese in moderation and goats cheese. I was in icu with anaphylactic shock and full body urticaria and swelling before this and within a few days of keto (after months of being critical) my flare ups lessoned. It was seriously wow