104: How a food blogger successfully manages her insulin resistant PCOS and habit changes without restriction

The PCOS Nutritionist Podcast

It’s really common for people who have PCOS to feel like ‘everything’ makes their symptoms flare up and that they have to do keto or intermittent fasting or go vegan or do some other diet to help get on top of those symptoms.

If those work for you — fab! But I think we can all agree that for most of us, going really gungho into a specific diet doesn’t work. We feel restricted, confused on if it’s even working, we find it harder to be in situations where we can’t control our nutrition and it’s just a lot of thinking about food. All. The. Time.

No one wants to feel so consumed by what to eat and what habit changes will help their PCOS symptoms right? We want to have an idea of what works for us, have some sustainable habits that allow us variety while still being on top of the nasty symptoms PCOS brings and just kinda get on with it — without it compromising the things we love doing. For today’s guest Daisy, figuring out how to do this and manage her PCOS successfully while still running her beloved foodie blog was the dilemma.

We don’t want to be forced into a restrictive diet culture fuelled pattern but we also don’t want to just say F it and let our PCOS symptoms wreck havoc (like her acne, weight gain and missing periods were). It’s a pretty darn tough balancing act — Daisy, like me, is a perfectionist so finding the happy medium between the two was the goal.

In today’s episode we speak all about her PCOS journey — where it all started, her core ‘why’ behind wanting to improve her symptoms, how she manages a food blog (which means she’s given burgers, fries, cakes, drinks, brunches, elaborate dinners) while still managing her insulin, how she got on top of that perfectionist mindset to lead a more 80/20 approach to her PCOS, listening to your body, managing your PCOS while travelling (she’s on her honeymoon!) and her key advice for anyone struggling with their PCOS.

If you feel like you’re struggling with this balancing act between getting on top of your PCOS, enjoying yourself still and quieting that perfectionist voice in your head, you’re going to luuurve this episode.

This episode is for you if:

• You’re struggling with symptoms like acne, weight gain, irregular/missing periods and gut issues
• You don’t want to give up your favourite foods and you’re wanting a way to balance your PCOS and the things you enjoy
• Travelling and managing your PCOS seems like an impossible task and you need advice
• You are a foodie, so the thought of nutrition changes stresses you out
• You have perfectionist tendencies and/or you’re a Type A kind of person
• You want to improve your relationship with food

Some things we cover in this episode:

• PCOS nutrition while travelling
• Non-negotiables
• Making habit changes for your PCOS that are actually sustainable
• Getting on top of severe acne, constant weight gain and missing periods
• Running a food blog and eating out when you have insulin resistant PCOS
• How long it takes to see changes
• What your ‘why’ is and why having a ‘why’ is so important
• IBS and PCOS

Resources and References:

• Daisy’s Food Blogger Instagram
• My Book: Getting Pregnant with PCOS

Links to our programs:

• The PCOS Protocol
• Eggducated