How I beat my sugar habit (almost)

Biscuit Plate (Photo credit: Caro Wallis)

One of the things I hear most about women with PCOS is we seem to be drawn towards all things sweet and sugary.  Seems to be part and parcel with all the other delightful things that come with this disorder.  Despite the fact I still indulge in treats from time to time,  I’d like to share how I tackled my sugar addiction.

1) Identify your weak spot.
There was always a time and place where my need for sugar was too easy to satisfy.  For me that was morning tea at work.  Even though I didn’t buy any biscuits or cakes for home,  there was daily temptation in the tearoom. I could easily have a couple of biscuits with a cup of tea and forget that I would suffer for it later when my blood sugar crashed or I was simply starving by midday. So this was one small area I felt I could work on.
2) Set a limit.
Rather than go cold turkey,  I decided to set myself a ration of one biscuit in the morning and one in the afternoon.  This worked to cut down my intake but my cravings weren’t curbed in the least. And I relapsed on more than one occasion.
3) Find a substitute.
Finally I decided that if I had something else to eat for morning tea that would keep me full till lunchtime and keep me away from the biscuits then maybe I can finally get some control over my biscuit habit. There are many Low GI cookbooks in my collection that have cakes and other tasty treats that substitute out flour or sugar with Low GI alternatives like oat bran and honey. So I made myself some lovely Banana and Sultana Bread and started bring a slice to work.

Well with my cake and tea, I still looked at the biscuits but didn’t NEED to eat them.  Saying ‘no’ became easier and I stopped being hungry so soon before lunch.

Today I still have the occasional treat and dessert now and then but don’t have cravings that make me head to the supermarket at 10pm in search of chocolate. So here are a few other tips others might find useful

:

This image was selected as a picture of the week on the Czech Wikipedia for th week, 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• Don’t keep sweets in your house, out of sight out of mind right…..

• Be sure to have nice Low GI snacks available when the munchies attack. Some of my personal favorites include peaches with low fat yoghurt or a non-salted mix of seeds, dry fruit and nuts.
• Treat yourself occasionally. Have an ice-cream on the weekend once in a while but keep it small and special
• If you really need a chocolate hit, go dark. Chocolate with high cocoa content not only has a stronger flavour so it’s harder to over indulge but greater health benefits when compared to milk chocolate.

Hopefully these few tips help out. Now pass the Caramel Crowns ………… 😉

Can I eat that? What about that?

When I first discovered PCOS and it’s link to diet, I began looking into various dietary strategies to be used for weight loss and generally controlling the symptoms of PCOS. This next statement should come as no surprise to any of us cysters who have searched in vain for dietary advice:

Nobody can agree on what we can and can’t eat !!!

You would think for a condition that is affected so strongly by diet there should be a simple list of do’s and don’t as far as diet is concerned. Sadly for us, it appears that what works for one woman won’t work as well for another. I’ve seen in many other blog posts and websites that many people advocate certain dietary plans as THE plan that will work to treat PCOS. Low Carb seems to be the most popular from what I’ve seen. Then again from many of the books I’ve read, Low GI seems the way to go. These seem to be the two most popular dietary plans used for women with PCOS. For what it’s worth, here’s my two cents:

I’ve heard great things about Low Carb diets especially from the scientific perspective. Keeping your carbs low in theory should lower your body’s insulin response hence reduce many of the undesirable effects of high insulin levels. It also appears to be a great way to lose weight fast. When I tried it (twice) I found my blood sugar issues I’ve had for most of my life get WORSE on Low Carb diets. Even though I don’t crave sugar per say, it’s more that I get those lovely hypoglycemic attacks a few times a week when cutting out most carbs. And that’s looking at 120g carbs a day, forget the ultra low levels such as 40g per day some women get away with.

When I was first tested for PCOS, I purchased a book called “The Low GI Diet for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome” by Prof Jennie Brand-Miller. She’s been a long time advocate for Low GI dieting and as written a series of books for Low GI dieters as well as co-authoring a few Low GI cookbooks. Firstly there’s a heap of helpful information for women with PCOS in easy to read language and covers most of the basics on the disorder. She also lays out some basic tenants on eating Low GI for treaing PCOS.

For a year I followed her tips on switching high GI carbs to low GI carbs and, even though I lost no more than a kilo within a year, my measurements at the gym showed I’d lost about 9cm off my stomach and 12cm off my bust. And I hardly noticed.

Unfortnately I went back to study and switched to Lite n Easy meals since I had no cooking time. And that weight has gone straight back on. That’s not a dig at Lite n Easy at all, just that meals with mostly potato and pasta just aren’t good for my body.

So, for me Low GI is the way to go. For some of you, this might work too. For some Low Carb might be your silver bullet. Best (non-medical) advice I can give you, try it and see how your body reacts. And give it time, these are lifestyle changes and not going to make you a supermodel overnight.

For those who are tempted into a low GI diet, here are my basic guidelines:

• Choose low GI carbs, especially lots of fruit and veggies (avoid potato though)
• Use Basmati rice or grains such as pearl barley or quinoa.
• Eat lean meat, fish, legumes, nuts (as snacks) and low-fat dairy (more on this in a later post)
• Keep processed food to a minimum (my doc advised me to avoid pasta even though it’s technically Low GI)
• Sugar is okay in small amounts, but suggestions involve switching to floral honey, Low GI cane sugar or natural alternative sweeteners such as Steevia (can’t stand this stuff myself)

One more suggestion from my doc is to limit my carbs from grains to earlier in the day and keep my evening meal to a meat/fish and veggie/salad mixture. Again these are just guidelines for myself. If you’re interested in reading more on Low GI I again recommended Jennie Brand-Miller’s books (Available on Fishpond or Amazon). There’s also a lot of web information if you want to try it.

For those on the Low Carb bandwagon, I’m a frequent visitor to Anne Seccombe’s blog My PCOS Info http://www.mypcos.info/1/ . She has a huge variety of PCOS infomation and does advocate a Low Carb diet as treatment.

Happy Eating all 🙂