Episode #30: Reset Your PCOS Hormones

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Have you ever just wanted to hit the reset button on your hormones? Like you feel like your PCOS is just out of control and there are too many moving parts that are not working for you and you just want to hit a reset button like you can do on your computer? I know I have and today I get to walk you through how I get past the cravings and the feeling like crap so that I can actually follow through with the healthy habits that I’m trying to cultivate and give my health a jump start. So that’s exactly what we need to do in today’s episode, I’m going to walk you through my method of reset that helps me quickly rip off the band Aid, so to speak, and get past the sugar cravings, improve my energy so that I feel better. So that I feel like I’m on the path to health so that it motivates me to continue and to build that momentum in the habits that I want to be creating in my life. All right, let’s get started.

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You’re listening to the PCOS Repair podcast, where we explore the ins and outs of PCOS and how to repair the imbalances in your hormones naturally with a little medical help sprinkled in. Hi, I’m Ashlene Korcek, and with many years of medical and personal experience with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, it is my joy to watch women reverse their PCOS as they learn to nourish their bodies in a whole new way.

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With the power of our beliefs, our mindset, and our environment and the understanding of our genetics, we can heal at the root cause.

[00:01:40.110] – Speaker 1

Hi, and welcome back to the PCOS Repair Podcast, where today I get to share my go-to way for jump-starting my health, for recommitting to my PCOS health, or it’s a great way to just get started when you don’t know what to do. This is a method that I use that revolves around food and using food to begin healing my PCOS hormones and reversing my PCOS hormone imbalance so they can get rid of the symptoms. Now, this of course takes months, years. It’s a lifestyle. It’s not a quick fix, it’s not a crash diet. But this method of resetting takes me about seven days, and it really only takes about three days to feel so much better and to start feeling like I’m getting a handle on things again that I just love this method. And I don’t know about you some people say, like, just slow and steady, and I agree with that, but I have a hard time getting started with slow and steady. So if that’s you where you’re like, okay, I’m going to do this, and you kind of feel like I need something to get me over that hump so that I can do the slow and steady, this method is going to be something you want to try.

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So, first of all, we always want to start by thinking about this as a PCOS lifestyle. I don’t want us to suggest that a seven-day reset is going to fix all your problems and you don’t want to just do a reset every once in a while and then drift all the way back to where you were before. And it’s a lot of work to get back all the effort that you put into these seven days. So the way I like to approach this is that each person’s lifestyle needs to fit them. Whatever job you have, whatever dynamics you have in your personal life, whatever things you enjoy doing. Are you someone who travels a lot? Are you someone who works nights? Everyone is going to have a very different picture of what their PCOS health looks like. Are you someone who’s extremely busy during the week and then you have more time on the weekends? Or are you someone who kind of is more paced out where you have time throughout the week, but you also have a lot of weekend commitments? Everyone’s life is going to look a little bit different. Everyone’s hobbies and enjoyment are going to play a big factor into what do you enjoy in your life. At the end of the day investing in our health is something that is to serve us. And so trying to follow a health plan that doesn’t work in your life or doesn’t lead to the type of health, the level of health that you want to maintain isn’t really a good fit, right? So first of all, start there. This reset can fit into really anyone’s health plan because all it is is really just that it’s a reset. It’s like you take a pause, you focus on your nutrition for a few days, and you get past the sugar cravings. You get past the feeling like crap, you boost your energy, you start sleeping better, like all those things that when you feel like, okay, my stomach is hurting all the time, and I’m just sick of feeling bloated with my stomach hurting. This is how you can kind of get past that quickly and then move into where you want to continue. You can also use this method to jump-start your next health goal. So maybe you’ve been at this for a little while and you’re like, okay, I’ve been doing okay, but I want to take it to the next level.

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I want to push myself a little farther. I want to see what else I’m capable of doing in my health. And so you do the reset again with the intention of what comes after. Okay. So that’s why it’s important to look at what is it that you’re looking for in your lifestyle. How does your health for your PCOS fit into that? And where do you want this reset to take you? As I go through what this reset looks like, I don’t want you to get so stuck in the details of how to do the reset. I want to kind of keep a big picture and then keep in mind that I’m going to give you the exact plan to follow if you want to that I do. Otherwise, you can learn from what I’m doing here and you can create it your own way. So focus on the big picture because if we get too stuck in the details, we’ll kind of lose what we’re actually trying to accomplish here with a reset. So one big thing that we want to take away from this week of diving into our health through the foods that we eat is learning to listen to our bodies.

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So when we are having energy crashes, when we are craving certain foods and when our stomach is hurting and bloated and we just feel icky like we want to curl up in a ball and just or we don’t have the energy to get through our day, that is our body telling us that something is or isn’t working for us. So we want to learn to listen to that, and so one of the big parts of this PCOS detoxing or this PCOS reset is after we reset our hormones through the foods that we’re eating is slowly reintroducing and taking the time to listen to how our body responds to certain foods. And when we’ve kind of cleared the slate and we’ve only been eating foods that really nourish and are noninflammatory and non-refined carbohydrates, no sugar, things like that, it’s a lot easier to hear what our body is saying. My body typically says I don’t like a lot of gluten, I’m not gluten intolerant. But if I eat a lot of refined carbohydrates that are high in gluten so a lot of bread, pasta, things like that, I can eat some. And my body does fine.

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But I need to pair it with a lot of vegetables, and a lot of protein, and it needs to be a small part of my diet. So that’s really important to know, right? And that’s what this reset helps us to do. It helps us to listen to what our body needs from a clean slate as we slowly reintroduce some of the things that are not super unhealthy. Because we all know like super unhealthy food isn’t going to be good for us, right? But we want to kind of introduce like do I have a problem with a whole grain version of gluten in small portions? And my answer has been no. But maybe somebody else would say yes. Actually, I have a complete gluten intolerance and that’s important to know because we don’t want to be cutting things out of our diet and making life harder on us if we don’t need to. The next part is because we reduced the sugar content, we are going to actually probably feel worse for a few days before we feel amazingly better. Our body treats sugar like a drug. What happens is that when we consume something that is either high in processed sugar or high in refined carbohydrates, it shoots our blood sugar up.

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And when it shoots our blood sugar high, we get this rush, that rush of energy, it makes us feel good. Our brain gets all of this happy energy, and so we feel great. It doesn’t last very long, it lasts maybe an hour or so, and then we have an energy crash. Have you ever had that feeling of, like, if you eat a doughnut, maybe with a sugary coffee in the morning, you feel pretty good, you feel energized, you feel woken up, and then around 1011 in the morning, you get this crash? That’s why your blood sugar just plummeted after a lovely high. So when we eat foods that don’t give us quite as much of a high but are more sustained energy, we don’t get addicted to them as much, which is why we don’t crave them as much, which is unfortunate, because they’re better for us and they create healthier hormones. The first couple of days of resetting these hormones is really about resetting those sugar cravings, resetting our taste buds to be able to taste things that are not overly processed and packed with sugar so that we can actually taste the flavors of foods like berries and other fruits and have that be super sweet to our brains instead of having things be so processed.

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So that’s where we want to kind of reset the sugar. And then basically by cutting all of it out, we rip the Band-Aid off quickly. We go through about three days of feeling pretty, but it’s a lot easier, at least in my opinion, to hold steady, keep the determination and keep the motivation and create a schedule for about three days that make it easier for us to avoid temptation. After the three to four days, we don’t crave things quite as much. We’re kind of in a rhythm of like, okay, I can do this. And we continue on the week with our energy restored without as many cravings, without it being as difficult to stick with our plan. And so then we start to create a habit of eating the way that will nourish our body. After that, ripping the Band-Aid off quickly. The most important step is intentionally continuing on past the week. If we don’t have an intention for after the week, life will take over our old habits, habits will kick in, and we will go back to the way we were eating before. Now, that’s great that you felt good for a couple of days, but I don’t know about you, I would rather it last a little longer especially when I put that much effort in and had to go through the three days of not feeling so great to get there.

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So what we want to do is then continue with a plan. It doesn’t have to be as strict. My reset program walks you through 30 days of momentum where we slowly reintroduce some other foods. And so over about 30 days, you’ve really built that habit of eating to nourish. But either way, you’re setting that intention of how you want your lifestyle to be looking at your health and seeing where are you at. Do you have a lot of work to do here at the beginning? Maybe you don’t even have a period right now, and you’re trying to recover your period. You may need to be a little stricter for a little bit longer or a little more strict for a little longer than someone who’s been at this for a few years. It needs to recommit and then go back to the lifestyle that they have found works for them. All right, so how do you get started, and what does my reset entail? So basically, I do not believe that women with PCOS should follow a cookie-cutter approach. First of all, I know I’ve said that before, but this is very unique to each person.

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Each person needs to listen to and find what’s going on with their body and discover the root cause. Now, my reset program is really not about discovering your root cause. It addresses all the root causes because it’s strict. But ultimately, we don’t want to live in this strict detox mode. So this is really about ripping off the Band-Aid. It addresses the inflammation, it addresses the insulin effect, it addresses the nourishment needed to destress your body and to create a hormone balance after being on birth control, because you’re really nourishing your body. You’re replenishing your body stores, you’re giving it everything it needs to get started, and our bodies just love it. Now, it’s not necessarily practical to live like this all the time, but when we get our bodies on this trajectory, it’s easier to maintain momentum and to continue even as real-life kind of sprinkles back in where we may eat at a restaurant and not be able to be, you know, perfect. It’s not about being perfect long term, and this isn’t even the detox. We want to be as perfect as we can because it makes it easier for us.

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What the whole point is, the faster that you get past those cravings, the easier it is for you if you slip up during those first three days because the cravings are so bad. You didn’t ruin your reset, you didn’t ruin the detox period. What you did is you just made it a little bit harder. You may find that now it takes you four or five days instead of three days to start feeling better during this week and that’s fine. It’s just the fact that the more committed you are, the more strict you are, and the faster you’ll get over that hump. And so that’s the thing. We don’t have to think of it as a fail, we don’t have to think of it as, oh, I couldn’t quite do it, we went a little slower. That’s fine. During this time, I like to cut out a lot of the problematic things that on a generally broad basis, women with PCOS struggle with, and that includes dairy, and gluten. And the most important one has really refined processed foods that contain high amounts of sugar. During this process, we want to learn about these foods and more importantly, how they’re affecting our bodies.

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And as we remove them, we can start to see as we add them back in, what does or doesn’t agree with us, and in what amount. So for me, certain dairy I do fine with. I definitely have an eye on making sure I don’t allow too much dairy into my diet. I try to make sure that I really watch my gluten. That’s the one that gets me. And I’m always trying to be low and mindful of the amount of sugar that I’m eating. But a lot of times when we fill ourselves up with healthy foods, the whole foods, there’s just already not that much room for that. And you don’t have to be super strict about where you’re at. But first, we have to build those habits. And so that’s where as we follow the 30 days of eating to figure out and listen to our bodies, we start to see what works and what doesn’t. So what I like to do is remove all sugar, refined and processed foods for a week, remove all dairy for a week, and remove all gluten for a week. And then I’ll typically actually do a second week like that just because I’m kind of on a roll.

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But especially if you’ve done this before and you kind of already know what does or doesn’t agree with you, you can start moving back towards your normal way of eating healthy. Not just your normal like when you’re not paying attention to it, but your normal way that you set the intention for. If you’re new to this, then what I like to do is try to keep you on a roll and really clear that slate by maybe doing a second pretty strict week and then slowly introducing a little tiny bit of dairy. And I like to do it and it doesn’t matter if it’s dairy or gluten first. The biggest thing is that you only do one at a time and you start with a really clean, good version of whatever it is you’re adding back gluten or dairy and you add it back in a small amount. So I’m not going to add back sugary yogurt, right, but adding a little bit of non-fat or 2% plain Greek yogurt with some berries and some nuts. Nuts, that’s a really good way to test. How do you do with dairy now? If you get a horrible stomachache and you’re really bloated, you have your answer.

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For most people, they find that you know what, I actually tolerate this pretty well. I’ve been cutting out dairy for no reason because somebody told me dairy was bad for PCOS. Now there’s a lot of dairies that I try to avoid. I try to buy hormone-free, no antibiotics used type of dairy and I don’t eat dairy all the time. Yogurt isn’t my go-to breakfast, but I think that cashew yogurt or coconut yogurt really has no nutritional value and it has a lot of additives and fillers and things that are going to be inflammatory in their own right. And so when we think about a little bit of dairy, I think sometimes the real thing may actually be a better choice. Now, if you actually have an intolerance to dairy then if you need to have something in a recipe or something quick to grab every once in a while, cashew or coconut yogurt may be a better option because you’re actually insensitive, but you have a sensitivity to dairy. So that’s going to be something that you want to find out. You’re going to find that out by listening and slowly adding things back in.

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When it comes to gluten, there are really whole-grain healthy crackers that I’ll add with like hummus or something like that so that I’m not just eating a big bowl of pasta and hoping it settles well. But I’m really testing out, do I have a problem when I have something that’s high in fiber and I’m pairing it with other healthy foods and I’m using it more as a nice complement to all the healthy foods that I’m eating? Do I have a problem with that? And so that’s really how you get started with a PCOS reset. Now, if you would like to follow my exact method and have all the meal plans for the seven-day reset as well as the 30 days of momentum, I’m going to leave the link to learn more about the PCOS detox in the show notes below. And if you’re listening to this, as this episode is released here at the end of 2022, we’re going to bring in the new year by doing a reset together and following the PCOS detox program in a community setting so that you can do it along with me and with several other ladies that are in a similar place of wanting to recommit and start the year off in a way that focuses on their health and really dives back into their nutrition.

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Even if you have been working on improving your PCOS and reversing your PCOS at the root cause for a while now, we all struggle with the holidays just to kind of do our best and that’s great. That’s what we should do, right? So there’s no like, guilt, there’s no feeling bad about what we did over the holidays. They are the holidays. They are meant to be enjoyed and spent with family. And of course, we want to do our best, but at the same time, we also want to enjoy what the holidays have to offer and hopefully, you did have. A couple of yummy indulgences during the holidays and you also hopefully took some time to care for yourself and to make sure that you didn’t overdo during the holidays, both in your energy and your nutrition. And so this is a great time to just reset our focus as we say goodbye to the holidays and we move into the new year to recommit to our health and to rediscover what our body needs and to provide it the nourishment that it needs as we start 2023 and make it what we want. So, again, I hope you join us for the PCOS detox in the next couple of days.

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And if you’re listening to this later, you can still grab the program and do it at your own pace. We do about four community live challenges with the PCOS talks a year, so you can catch us on any single one of those. You have lifetime access to the materials and lifetime access to the community involvement. So with that, I am excited for what 2023 has to bring for you, and I hope you really go through and try this reset. There is something magical that happens when we take a few days to really commit to ourselves, to focus on our health, and to just allow ourselves the grace and the time and the effort to get past our hurdles and to feel better in our bodies. And it actually helps us to believe that we can do this too, because all of a sudden you’re like, oh my goodness, I thought I had so far to go. And when you see yourself in three days feeling better, not feeling bloated, even losing a few pounds, it can feel so amazing to release some of that inflammation, to be sleeping better, to feel like, okay, this isn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.

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This is doable and I have this in my back pocket. Anytime that I need to recommit. If I’ve slipped or if I have let this kind of not be my focus, I can just really easily jump back in. I have everything I need, I know what to do, and it takes kind of a weight off when it comes to thinking about your PCOS health. I use it. I mean, I’ve been using it. I created this program off of what I did originally when I was like, okay, I need to get my health under control. When I was going to see the Infertility specialist, and I have used it countless times since to just be like, oh, my gosh, it’s been a busy month. And I just need to remind myself how I need to eat and reset my cravings, reset my intentions, all of those things. And it’s a really awesome way of doing that. So there you have it, my friend. If you have found this episode helpful, be sure to hit the subscribe button so that you are notified each week when the next PCOS Health topic becomes available here on the podcast.

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And I would also greatly appreciate a moment of your time to rate and review this podcast. A good rating helps spread awareness of PCOS, and it also helps other women to find the support that they need through this podcast. So until next time, if you have any questions about this episode or any other episode of the PCOS Repair podcast, the best way to connect with me is over on Instagram at Nourish to Healthy so that we can continue the conversation and I can answer any of your questions over there, until next time, bye for now.

[00:20:45.870] – Speaker 2

Did you know that studies of PCOS epigenetics have shown that our environment can either worsen or completely reverse our PCOS symptoms? I believe that although PCOS makes us sensitive to our environment, it also makes us powerful when we learn what our body needs and commit to providing those needs, not only do we gain back our health.

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But we grow in power just by showing up for ourselves. This is why I’ve created a guide for you to get started. My PCOS Fertility Meal Guide can be found in the show notes below.

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I want to show you how to create an environment that promotes healing while still being able to live a life that you enjoy. This guide is completely free, so go get your copy now so that you can step into the vision that you have for your life and for your health.