PCOS'ers...your diet

What changes have you made? My RE suggested following the South Beach diet (somewhat). I just ordered 2 PCOS books, one is a diet book. I love bread and I love sweets (great!).....any simple changes you can suggest?

Re: PCOS'ers...your diet

I started by cutting out sugar, and watching my fat content. I lost a little bit of weight, but not much. The weight started to come off after I started the Metformin. I'm now on Weight Watchers, and it's been working (although, I just got home from a 7 day eat fest cruise!). I've lost 20lbs since last July, and I just started WW about 1 month ago.

I have a couple of books about PCOS/Diet if you want to borrow them, let me know.

Re: PCOS'ers...your diet

I'm a sweets person as well - carbs are beyond my favorite thing in the world. That being said in an attempt to lose the pregnancy weight and having PCOS I've done the following.......

(sample menu)

Breakfast:
- egg omelet w/ 1 slice american cheese - using olive oil to coat the pan instead of butter.....will throw in some peppers, onion or spinach if I have it
- apple with peanut butter for the days I'm not starving and can't deal with eggs LOL
- cup green tea with Agave nectar to sweeten (low on the glycemic index and 1 teaspoon totally does the trick, its super sweet)

Lunch:
I'm a big soup person - I usually have some sort of soup I've made in the fridge. Sometimes I'll have a sandwich, sometimes a salad with a few chicken nuggets tossed it.

Dinner:
Meat, veggie, salad and no more than 4 times a week I'll add in a starch like a potato or pasta.

I'm not perfect - I do eat sweets but I really try to limit them so I don't keep that stuff in the house.

I also work out 4 days a week with spin classes and a personal trainer. I find that w/o the exercise for the PCOS the diet alone does absolutely nothing.

I have the south beach book but for me it was a no go - i don't eat fish and I hated half the stuff in there so I modified it to fit my life. I love the glycemic index in the book - I found that to be a HUGE help. I would sit and snack on pineapple or grapes not thinking anything of it........guess what - the sugar content is enough to send you over the edge LOL. I actually switched my fruits according to that list and lost a few pounds just doing that.

Hope this stuff helps - if you need anything else let me know!!!!!!

Re: PCOS'ers...your diet

I followed the South Beach Diet exactly. But I was also put on a 1200 calorie diet per day. So I think they both helped me. I am crazy about pasta and sweets and I thought Phase 1 was going to be so difficult. It was pretty easy. After I stop BF my infant, I will be going back into Phase 1.

I really liked making turkey tacos. I'd just get the ground turkey and FF shredded cheese and make it with taco seasoning. If on Phase 1, I'd wrap it in a romaine leaf (very filling) or Phase 2 I would put it on a whole wheat tortilla. I highly suggest the Mission whole wheat tortillas!!!!! Amazing! Not very grocery store carries the whole wheat ones, but they typically have the Mission tortillas.

I also enjoyed the vegetable breakfast cups. (Can't remember the exact name of them, FM me if you'd like it. I can look it up in my book when I get home.) It's made with egg beaters, FF cheese, spinach and other veggies. You put it in a cupcake baking cup and bake it. You can make a lot and freeze them, then microwave it when you want it. Soo good!

The easiest thing to do is change from white to whole grains. Change your bread to whole grain, or wheat and you can have Barilla Plus pasta.

I wasn't fond of many of the recipies in the book, but they helped me find out what foods I could and couldn't have. I arranged many of the recipies to fit my tastes. I found out that I could make many meals with many spices and enjoy them. One weakness I have is buffalo chicken and I was able to make it using all South Beach ingredients!

Oh! And breakfast, even my DH jumped in to the South Beach diet. We typically will have some egg beaters and turkey bacon, if we are cooking breakfast one day. It's fast, easy and low in calories!

Please, FM me if you have any questions. I saw a nutritionist that specifically works with PCOS patients, so she was able to tailor a diet for me. It worked great!

Message edited 2/17/2008 12:56:36 AM.