125: Why ‘high impact changes’ are the key to improving your PCOS

Did you go searching the internet ‘abyss’ for information and try to piece together a list of lifestyle changes that can help your PCOS symptoms after being diagnosed? And end up with a list SO freakin’ long it’s hard to keep up with and you didn’t even know where to start? Lifestyle changes can make a massive, positive impact on your symptoms - that’s pretty undeniable and we can all agree on that.  But it doesn’t mean that loading up on as many lifestyle changes as possible is the best idea. Figuring out what those few ‘high impact’ changes are for you that you can maintain long term is what’ll really make the difference. 

Learning that more isn’t always better can be kinda tough and it’s something that I know a lot of you struggle with or have struggled with. You’re not alone - both myself and the protocoler you’ll be listening to today on the pod have been there.  In today’s episode we talk all about this and more with Lily, one of our lovely PCOS protocolers. Like me — and probably a lot of you — Lily is a perfectionist, type A kinda gal. So when she finally got a diagnosis after years of trying and suspecting, she jumped straight into ‘ok now give me the steps to fix this and I’ll follow it to a tee’ mode.  And yes, as suspected this of course left her feeling frustrated when she got only tiny, unhelpful crumbs of information from her doctors. There’s so much information out there, so she ended up with an extremely long, unsustainable list of changes to made life feel really restrictive.  She dealt with aggressive cystic acne (like the accutane type, not a couple of measly spots), uncontrollable weight gain, some hirsutism and unexplained fatigue. Not only did we help her drastically improve those symptoms (5.5 inches of her waist, 6 inches of her hips, no need to sleep in the day, cleared up acne and no more hirsutism!) but she’s also come out the other side (and into our Lifers program) equipped with knowledge about her body and with some really solid, fantastic mindset shifts that enable her to continue keeping on top of her PCOS symptoms.

We wanted to bring back this podcast because it’s something that a lot of you struggle with and something that we VERY often see in the clinic with our patients.

If you’re feeling like you’ve tried everything, you’re feeling like a failure and it feels like the list of things you need to do to get on top of things is miles long, then you’re going to get so much out of this chat. 

Plus, there were plenty of laughs and relatable ‘that’s so me’ moments along the way — it’s a hoot of a pod!

This episode is for you if:You’re struggling with uncontrollable weight gainAcne is a major symptom for youYou find that you’re always tired for no logical reasonYou feel like your doctors aren’t really giving you any options beyond the Pill, IVF and eating less moving moreYou have a type A / perfectionist personalityYou’ve been looking all over the internet for answers and stitching together different recommendations but you can’t seem to get on top of your symptomsYou think you may have or know you have thyroid issuesYou want to know how to make changes for your PCOS sustainableYou think you may have or know you have autoimmune issuesYou’re doing so much for your PCOS so you’re confused about why nothing seems to be workingTalking to your family and friends about PCOS usually ends up in them asking why you can’t eat certain foods and what someone they know did to help their symptomsYour tests have come back ‘normal’ but you don’t feel normalSome things we cover in this episode:Weight gainAggressive acneWhy making more and more changes isn’t always betterWhy conversations with loved ones about P