Misdiagnosed? – The Unbelievable PCOS Myths Destroying Your Metabolism (and How to Fix Them)
In this episode, Dr. Cassie Smith, a board-certified endocrinologist, discusses polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) with Tallene Hacatoryan, a registered dietitian, and Sirak, who is a PCOS personal trainer, who co-host the podcast “A Cyster and Her Mister.” They explore the prevalence, misdiagnosis, and four types of PCOS, emphasizing the importance of individualized treatment.
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Guest info and links:
Tallene is a Registered Dietitian who specializes in PCOS weight loss. She was diagnosed with PCOS when she was 18, but after much research and experience, she reversed her symptoms and now helps other women do the same. Tallene and her husband, Sirak, who is a PCOS personal trainer, focus on helping women with PCOS learn how to thrive, symptom free. They have developed an app called The Cysterhood, which hosts the largest community of PCOS women learning how to lose weight and manage PCOS.
Blog/Transcription:
0:03 welcome back to this week’s episode of Hormones Metabolism and You i’m your host Dr cassie Smith i am a
0:10 board-certified endocrinologist who practices functional medicine now my goal with this podcast is to help
0:16 educate people about all conditions that affect their hormones today we’re going
0:21 to talk about PCOS it is one of the most common endocrine disorders in women one
0:26 in ten women in the United States struggle with this but it’s estimated that it could be one in five it’s just
0:32 many women are have been undiagnosed or don’t know that they have PCOS i’ve done several episodes on PCOS and when I do
0:40 them you guys have tons of additional questions you reach out to me you comment and so because of that I’ve
0:46 looked for other people that I can interview about PCOS there is a wonderful podcast called a sister and
0:53 her mister done by somebody named Talon and her husband Shock they are a couple
1:00 and she is a registered dietician and he is actually a personal trainer and so they have this podcast about PCOS that
1:07 tons of people follow and listen to i think they do a wonderful job trying to
1:12 educate people around all things PCOS so I’ve asked them to come on today so that I can ask them a ton of questions that
1:20 you guys have talon is a registered dietitian who specializes in PCOS and
1:25 weight loss she was actually diagnosed with PCOS when she was 18 which she tells me a little bit about in this
1:31 interview but after much research and experience she reversed her symptoms and now helps other women do the same her
1:38 and her husband Sarak who is a PCOS personal trainer focuses on helping women with PCOS learn how to thrive
1:45 symptom-f free they’ve developed an app called the Sisterhood which is spelled C Y S T E R like a cyst which hosts the
1:53 largest community of PCOS women learning how to lose and man lose weight and manage PCOS like I said they also have
2:01 this amazing podcast called A Sister and Her Mister and so we talked today in depth about all things PCOS i started
2:08 out by asking them to just discuss what is PCOS and how is it diagnosed then we
2:14 moved into talking about why is it misdiagnosed and misunderstood they explained to us the four types of PCOS
2:21 so that you understand are you somebody that has inflammatory issues insulin issues adrenal issues thyroid issues or
2:28 a combination or all of these symptoms we talked about root causes of PCOS and
2:34 what women can do to reverse this how does PCOS trigger symptoms like uncontrolled weight gain how does gluten
2:41 and dairy relate to PCOS and metabolism so should we be eating gluten and dairy when we have PCOS how do things like
2:48 leptin cortisol and insulin change with PCOS and our metabolism we then moved
2:53 into women with PCOS are often told maybe to cut carbs so is keto a good
2:59 idea with PCOS or not since Sarak has a personal training degree and and Talian
3:05 has a registered dietitian degree we talked a lot about this they have some good information because I know there’s
3:10 people out there have varying opinions about this and in talking about that we talked about intermittent fasting is it
3:16 does intermittent fasting help PCOS or not we talked about you know should you have a big breakfast a small dinner what
3:23 do we do with meals from that we ch we kind of transitioned into workout styles
3:29 and so what workout style what type of workout should you be doing with PCOS to manage your PCOS symptoms better after
3:36 that we kind of walked through an ideal day of PCOS management so what does it look like what does what do they do in
3:43 their life what should we be doing what are 10 healthy habits that we can do with PCOS to help manage PCOS and so we
3:50 talked through all those things and at the very end Talian gave us her experience with PCOS and how she kind of
3:56 reversed her process and again she shared with us a typical day that they have pieced together with all of their
4:03 information so this podcast is full of great things if you have PCOS so many
4:08 great tips all kind of condensed into one thing some of the top 10 questions that people ask with PCOS so I think
4:14 this is a great podcast if you have PCOS you’ll definitely want to listen until the very end and then make sure please
4:20 that you are sharing this with other people that could benefit from it so here we go today you guys are in for
4:26 such a treat i have been super excited to have my next couple guests on the podcast they are just amazing with PCOS
4:34 which is something that so many people struggle with so I know a lot of you guys reach out to me on social media and
4:40 on the podcast and you want more information about PCOS so since you’ve asked I went and found some of the best
4:46 people I think that are giving very good information in the world of PCOS so I have Talen and Sarak which is her
4:54 husband they actually have a podcast called The Sisterhood which a lot of my patients know about and I’ve had you
5:00 guys start listening to it but they do a wonderful job talking about PCOS so we’re going to talk all things PCOS
5:06 today and so thank you guys for joining me on our podcast yeah thank you for having us thank you so much for having
5:12 us we’re so excited so I know we kind of talked about this before there’s a bunch of stuff I want to cover since I have
5:18 you guys and you’re amazing um and and we’re going to link all of their stuff in the show notes but if you guys
5:23 haven’t checked out their podcast I want you to do it i’m going to kind of get to like pull 10 questions from some of
5:30 their best episodes I think but you can always go back and you know listen to longer form content of this on their
5:35 episodes so we’re going to start just generally for people tell people what is
5:42 PCOS and how is it diagnosed so PCOS is one of the most common
5:48 endocrine disorders and it happens to about one in 10 and in some countries one in five women so that’s a lot it’s
5:56 very prevalent and often goes misdiagnosed not diagnosed it’s very
6:01 underdiagnosed so many women are just silently suffering from symptoms of
6:07 infertility symptoms of like hair loss fatigue facial hair cystic acne and uh
6:13 really rapid weight gain that’s really unexplainable and you know it’s hard to
6:19 pinpoint that it’s PCOS unless you go to a doctor who is experienced with diagnosing it i would agree with that
6:26 and so do you why do you think it’s so misdiagnosed or misunderstood so often
6:32 by patients and physicians i think in many cases because the name like the first thing is the name what it stands
6:39 for PCOS is polycystic ovarian syndrome so in many cases it suggests that you
6:44 have to have ovarian cyst to be diagnosed with PCOS but in reality um according to the Roderdom criteria you
6:51 need two of the following three symptoms which are hyper androgenism which is elevated male hormones like testosterone
6:58 second is ovarian cyst and third is irregular periods now as as I said
7:03 earlier you need two of the following three so it kind of creates like this generic like checkpoints or bullet
7:09 points to fill out because for many women we know when they’re teenagers like having elevated certain hormones
7:15 may may be normal during those periods of time or having a certain hormonal imbalances could be normal that could
7:21 lead to regular periods or could lead to miseriods and then it’s it’s thought as normal but there could be an underlying
7:28 issue like PCOS that can go undiagnosed yeah and I think a couple of other things too you know we used to think of
7:34 PCOS as you had to be obese or you had to be overweight and now we know that that’s definitely not the case and I’m
7:39 going to let you guys talk about that I think a little bit but you don’t have to be overweight to have PCOS so I I feel
7:44 like that gets missed a lot in people that I see that have had PCOS for years it’s somebody who’s not necessarily
7:50 obese the other thing I think people forget is if you take birth control your periods are going to be regular because
7:56 you’re forcing regularity of your periods um and so I have a lot of people say “Well I don’t have your regular
8:02 cycles i take my birth control and then I stop taking at the end of the month and I bleed every month.” Well what were you doing before you took birth control
8:08 right how are your menstrual cycles before and so I think that’s two things sometimes even doctors mess that up
8:14 right like they’re like “Oh well this person isn’t an ovulatory or they’re not having you know irregular menstrual
8:19 cycles because they’re taking birth control.” So but I do like that you pointed out the Roderdam criteria and so
8:26 that is the diagnostic criteria for PCOS it’s just you know you have to
8:31 understand those other things as well right yeah so you guys did a great podcast on the four types of PCOS which
8:38 I thought was very helpful for people can you kind of briefly explain that so
8:43 people understand you know because if you Google or chat GPT PCOS it gives you that generic what we were talking about
8:51 overweight but that’s not all people with PCOS totally well PCOS has several root
9:00 causes that drive symptoms so it helps if you understand what the root cause is
9:05 so there are four main uh root causes you can have multiple you can have all of them you can have one but if one
9:12 stands out to you then that’s the one you really want to focus on and then move on to focusing on the rest or else
9:18 it’s very overwhelming so the first one is chronic inflammation where all women with PCOS tend to have this it’s an
9:25 inflammatory condition and you’ll have symptoms of chronic inflammation like feeling bloated all the time the scale
9:32 just won’t budge your cell metabolism isn’t working properly and you can have
9:38 symptoms like skin rashes cystic acne and chronic fatigue ovarian cyst too
9:44 right ovarian cysts as well and then the chronic inflammation can lead to having
9:50 the second PCOS root cause which is insulin resistance and insulin
9:55 resistance is so prevalent 80% of women with PCOS have it so many women with
10:01 PCOS have it and often times we’re not even told what it is um and signs of insulin resistance are having really bad
10:08 sugar cravings and you know you think it’s your willpower but it’s really just you have this metabolic disorder that’s
10:15 making you crave sugar all the time and causing you to hold on to fat more and
10:21 then the third PCOS type is um adrenal fatigue and around 30% of women with
10:27 PCOS have this this is where you feel chronically fatigued you slept 8 hours
10:33 but then you wake up exhausted or you can’t sleep at night and you’re tired all day um perhaps you’re addicted to
10:41 the adrenaline rush of really intense workouts and you’re always on like level 10 these are signs of adrenal fatigue
10:48 your body’s producing a lot of adrenaline and cortisol and not enough progesterone and other hormones
10:54 necessary for ovulation and that can stunt ovulation and lead to PCOS
10:59 symptoms and then the fourth type is hypothyroidism and this is uh a really big sign of
11:06 hypothyroidism is losing hair all over your head and having chronic fatigue and w and gaining weight rapidly no matter
11:13 what diet you ch what you do like your thyroid is off and not working and a lot
11:18 of hypothyroid symptoms are similar to PCOS symptoms and so sometimes doctors
11:24 get confused on like what to diagnose you with but it kind of goes hand inand for some people i couldn’t agree more so
11:32 inflammation I think is like the root cause of all illnesses and when you have really high inflammation a lot of times
11:38 you end up with high insulin and so then those high insulin levels drive a lot of issues cortisol issues which then affect
11:44 your adrenal gland thyroid issues and then sex hormone issues as well like your estrogen your progesterone your
11:50 testosterone so I think in general in disease that’s you know even in men like I see this in men and then it changes
11:57 their testosterone and so I think that that is is very important for people to understand and so when you talk about
12:03 root causes of PCOS and what women can do to reverse them that kind of goes back to those four types is that correct
12:11 right you want to nail those like and understand which one of those four categories you fall into mainly and then
12:18 take it for them from there so for example if you’re really insulin resistant you have really bad cravings
12:24 you have labs that show your blood sugar’s out of control this is a great place to start now you can focus on
12:31 eating a higher protein breakfast or you can focus on lifting weights to improve
12:36 your body’s insulin sensitivity or you can you know start going on walks after your meal to help balance your blood
12:42 sugar and these little tweaks are going to make a really big difference in your cravings in your metabolism in your
12:49 weight loss because you’re targeting the root cause instead of just eating 1,000 calories and working out really hard
12:56 which is like a really blanket way to like you know to just lose weight you know according to Google right and so is
13:04 it possible that somebody has more than one of these root causes absolutely you
13:09 can have more than one you can have all of them a lot of times when you have a lot of chronic inflammation like I did
13:16 where I was really sensitive to gluten and dairy and um it was creating a lot
13:21 of cystic acne and fatigue and my I was hungry all the time no matter how much I
13:27 ate that chronic inflammation led my cells to become insulin resistant and so
13:33 I had both of them together and the cravings were out out of control so I do
13:38 think it’s important you know when you have PCOS that you see someone that understands how to not only do all these
13:45 labs but then interpret them for you right because I tell people this all the time like thyroid labs can be
13:50 interpreted different ways same thing with insulin levels a lot of people will say “Oh your fasting insulin is 17
13:56 you’re fine you’re not fine if your fasting insulin level is 17.” Although the reference range says you’re fine you
14:02 are not fine i promise with an insulin level of 17 so I think that is and then
14:07 your adrenal like I think that’s something that so many people forget about my my poor Hashimoto’s patients
14:12 and my PCOS patients I would say 30% is a low number in what I see almost 70 80%
14:19 of my patients have adrenal issues and so it’s like we have to go back and address that and then a lot of that also
14:24 when you’re chronically stressed and you have all this insulin and you’re inflamed it affects your gut
14:31 tremendously and you know you I know you guys talk about leaky gut and and you are believers in all of this um I see it
14:38 because I do soul studies i see some of the craziest gut studies you have ever
14:43 seen in people that have PCOS or hypothyroidism that are just chronically
14:49 stressed out and and they’re like well I mean you know I I eat well and I and they do they eat well and they exercise
14:56 well but their gut is just a wreck because of the stress and and their adrenal right and so I think that’s
15:04 something in today’s society that a lot of people just miss and it’s so disheartening because there’s not a lot
15:09 of education around it right and and these are the people who we’re going to kind of talk about this um when when we
15:16 keep going uh with the exercise part but these are the people who try to out exercise things and try to out you know
15:22 starve themselves you know better more exercise less food and that just makes it all worse makes your adrenal
15:29 completely worse and your gut worse it’s really interesting that when you’re diagnosed they literally tell you “Eat
15:34 less move more.” And women with PCOS are so desperate to lose weight of course
15:40 because they’re struggling with this so they listen to that piece of advice and then it leads to eating disorders it
15:46 leads to a really unhealthy relationship with exercise and food and years of um
15:53 yo-yo dieting and like desperately trying to lose weight in this crazy way that their doctor once suggested when
16:00 they were at a vulnerable age of 16 being diagnosed with PCOS and handed birth control with no explanation so
16:07 true but even women in their 20s and 30s you know I got diagnosed with PCOS in my 30s and they said the same thing like
16:14 “Oh just exercise more and eat less.” And at that time I was going to Orange Theory like seven days a week i’m not
16:19 sure you can exercise more than that and I was like I was eating like 1500 calories a day it was like always it was
16:25 terrible i had no hormones like I you know and I was already like 120 pounds so it’s like that’s not going to work i
16:32 don’t think yeah i mean sounds like you’re like your body was probably stressed out it’s like
16:37 working out as if there’s like a war happening and it’s not eating cuz it’s thinking there’s a famine so it’s just
16:42 like shutting down i finally got smart listened to people like you did my own research i’m like screw this i’m eating
16:47 like 3,000 calories a day sleeping more and doing some yoga and lo and behold like it was way better you know so Oh
16:56 yeah i mean I was going to say the gut health thing is so huge too because like you said we see so many people who are
17:01 doing things like perfectly you know they’re eating as best as they can they’re exercising but then something like stress for example is affecting
17:08 their gut health and they wake up and maybe they don’t have an appetite or maybe they have an appetite later in the
17:14 day and it’s causing them to kind of you know affects even their diet to a certain extent or Well we’re going to
17:19 get there we’re going to get there because I was going to talk to you about triggers food triggers but talk to me
17:25 about why PCOS trigger symptoms like what in PCOS causes people to have this
17:31 uncontrollable weight gain so wow loaded question where do we
17:37 begin um well it it really boils down to insulin resistance when you have insulin
17:44 resistance your cells aren’t communicating with the hormone insulin and insulin is trying to give your cells
17:51 the glucose that’s broken down from the food you’re eating and take it insulin takes it from your bloodstream and gives
17:57 it to your cells so your cells can burn it for energy and metabolism can work right but if you have chronic
18:04 inflammation your cells are all locked up your if you have insulin resistance your insulin can’t communicate with your
18:10 cells and then what happens is that sugar stores as fat especially around
18:15 the midsection turns into belly fat and then we start gaining weight in the midsection and sometimes women have lean
18:22 PCOS they don’t gain weight in the midsection but that doesn’t mean that that fat isn’t accumulating around your
18:28 liver leading to fatty liver or around your internal organs so you have this
18:34 disruption in your like metabolism because of your hormones so it’s not really just a hormonal condition it’s a
18:41 metabolic disorder and because of that insulin resistance not only are you
18:46 gaining weight but also insulin is triggering high testosterone in your ovaries and then your ovaries are
18:53 overproducing that testosterone it’s leading to infertility and PCOS is the
18:58 number one cause of infertility and it’s a treatable cause for infertility so
19:04 it’s like you don’t realize what you could do is reduce your testosterone levels manage your insulin resistance
19:10 get down to the root of it um and heal that i agree i think insulin is one of
19:16 the biggest drivers of weight with PCOS the cortisol you know you have these
19:21 certain people who are just you know the cortisol people that are just they are
19:26 their cortisol is so high from chronic stress or their type A personality and I think some of those people have issues
19:32 as well but I do think that it goes back to insulin and then you just get on this cycle like you said and when your
19:38 insulin’s high you’re storing all your food as fat when you’re storing all your food as fat you’re always hungry so
19:43 you’re eating more and it’s just this really nasty hamster wheel that you get in and you can’t get off of it very
19:50 easily so oh yes it’s combination too right with like if you have inflammation
19:55 then your body is not retaining weight due to the the water retention there’s also like thyroid if you’re have
20:01 hypothyroid then your metabolism is just drastically lower so you combine all these different factors you’re just now
20:06 like gaining weight uncontrollably yeah and then that doesn’t help when you go to a physician or a provider and they
20:12 say “Oh eat less and exercise more.” Just kind of makes it worse right so explain to people you know
20:21 we’re going to kind of transition to food for a second so I get this question all the time do I have to stop eating
20:28 gluten and dairy if I have PCOS or if I have thyroid issues or if I have
20:33 whatever this is how I feel in general but talk about how gluten and dairy
20:39 affect PCOS and insulin and just weight metabolism sure so I always say just try
20:48 it for 30 days and see how you feel and see if it helps with some of your
20:53 symptoms and then if you want you can continue you don’t have to be perfect at it but at least you know what your
20:58 triggers are and that’s you know the best way to find out if you should be gluten and dairyf free nobody can tell
21:04 you that it’s going to work every body is different you know of course uh but
21:09 everyone who eats gluten will have an inflammatory reaction to it and to what
21:14 degree it depends on the person so what happens is your body releases this
21:20 enzyme called zulin and when you eat gluten and that causes the tight
21:26 junctions of your gut to loosen up and then the protein called glyodin from the gluten molecule enters into your
21:33 bloodstream creating chronic inflammation and for some people that’s a lot and for some people it’s not that
21:38 bad but if you have PCOS an already inflammatory condition then more
21:44 inflammation could be making it worse and then there’s just so many other like I could go on for this whole gly was
21:50 like the thyroid molecule as well oh yeah exactly yeah you could yeah so glyodin is a molecule from gluten and it
21:58 looks like the thyroid molecule and so when you’re in when you’re sensitive to gluten and you eat that your body
22:05 attacks it but then it also attacks your thyroid molecule because they look the same molecularly and it so every time
22:11 you eat the gluten it’s going to affect your thyroid and if you have hypothyroid it’s going to create more problems yeah
22:17 and I like Yes i like the way you explain that too it’s like when you eat gluten it kind of makes sure your
22:24 stomach cells separate and you get this every time you eat like you just get
22:29 this reaction where the food that you’re eating is leaving your gut and it’s going to your bloodstream it just creates all this extra inflammation and
22:36 so Yeah and go ahead sorry so I was just
22:42 gonna say sorry go ahead so it just um yeah that chronic inflammation like you
22:47 said although that food tastes so good you know people say this all the time like I eat this food and then I feel
22:53 terrible and I’m like then why do you keep eating that food and they’re like well because they’re addicted to it
22:59 right because sugar is so addictive and so it’s just interesting when a lot of people I think know the answer to the
23:06 question but they just keep eating the food yeah absolutely and like as those
23:11 like the junctions within the gut open up there’s food particles that get through there’s bacteria foreign
23:17 particles that should not be in the bloodstream and the body attacks those molecules and creates that battleground
23:23 for inflammation right and then there’s that and as well as like gluten these days are so different than how gluten
23:28 was maybe like a 100 years ago i’m sure many of your listeners know but do the the plant like the wheat plant has
23:35 changed drastically from from the last like 50 to 70 years where they made it to to a thicker stock so it’s harder for
23:41 our guts to digest but not just that but it’s the glyphosate that’s like drastically been added to to the crops
23:48 sorry should I say crops and even so like in I believe it was 2006 or 2005
23:53 where they now allow companies to apply glyphosate in the last stages of the
23:59 wheat plant whereas before it was in the very early stages so that rain and over time it can get washed off but now they
24:06 literally apply glyphosate at the very end so that pesticide sorry glyphosate is a pesticide by the way and it’s a
24:12 huge endocrine disruptor so now that glyphosate is on the wheat plant at the very end so that’s being passed through
24:18 in our foods no I completely agree and it what I ask people this all the time
24:24 would you This is what I ask people when they ask “Should I eat gluten?” I say “Would you eat Roundup?” And they’re
24:29 like “No.” And I’m like “Then I wouldn’t eat gluten.” Just very simple like that’s
24:36 pretty much what you’re eating at least in America to be fair the wheat is not tra or not treated the same in Europe
24:43 and other countries australia not treated the same but in America if you eat wheat you might as well lick Roundup
24:51 like that’s just I mean factual like you might as well just eat Roundup and so
24:57 that’s why I try to tell people like they taste good you know and the other thing is like there’s so many
25:03 gluten-free options now that taste good so I don’t feel sorry for people because I haven’t eaten gluten for like 10 years
25:09 and when I first stopped eating gluten it was terrible like everything tasted awful but it’s so much easier now and
25:16 the same with dairy you know dairy is another really disruptive molecule in a
25:22 lot of people especially women and a lot of this goes back to our cortisol and our insulin and our leptin levels but
25:29 dairy and casein like that the you know casein and A1 in dairy a lot of it goes
25:35 back to the fact that we treat cows and what cows eat differently now right and so they have a lot more growth hormone
25:41 in them but it affects people a lot of people really negatively and they just don’t even realize it absolutely i mean
25:48 there are so many hormones in dairy that are meant to make a baby cow grow like
25:54 insulin-like growth factor and for a woman with PCOS who’s already insulin resistant that’s truly the last thing
25:59 that we need not to mention the studies that show that it increases androgen levels so that’s really the last thing
26:06 we need no for sure and it you know there are so many good substitutes for dairy too like not cheese but there’s
26:13 coconut yogurt there’s lots of you know there’s almond milk now you have to be careful about that because there are
26:18 certain almond milks that are better than others you know and and I for my listeners they know like I have a lot of
26:23 this on my website but yes dairy can be so inflammatory and
26:28 I don’t know if you guys know this but 53% of acne especially in teenagers can be cured by getting rid of dairy i I
26:35 totally believe it there’s so many research showing cystic acne and dairy like directly linked to each other that
26:40 I think that it should be malpractice in this country for a dermatologist to ever
26:45 give a teenager Accutane before they make them go on a dairyfree diet for at least 30 days because over half the time
26:53 you’re going to cure their acne as opposed to giving them a medication that could potentially harm their liver
26:58 forever and I think as a parent if you’re listening to this you should force your child to not eat dairy for 30
27:05 days before you allow them to do something like that because that is part of your job as their parent is to protect them and to make good decisions
27:12 for them that’s just my opinion i know that not all dermatologists agree with me but I don’t care because I agree yeah
27:20 I’m not a dermat i I remember going to the dermatologist when I had really bad cystic acne and being offered Accutane
27:26 or spironolactone and I also remember there was a poster in the the doctor’s
27:32 office that said acne doesn’t have to anything to do with your diet like it
27:38 was on a poster in the room and I was like whoa and I was studying nutrition i
27:43 was like there’s a problem here there’s like a systematic problem for sure huge
27:48 problem has so much to do with your diet and it has so much to do with your sleep
27:54 and you know your hormones all sorts of stuff so okay so then you guys are on
27:59 the train of you should at least avoid gl I say gluten for everyone and to your
28:05 point some people tolerate dairy better than others but I still think if you have hormonal issues like PCOS you
28:11 shouldn’t you shouldn’t eat dairy but to your point I like that try it for 30 days try it for 30 days and see how you
28:17 feel because I remember to be fair I was like the biggest cheese connoisseur in the world until 2022 when I got sick
28:24 again with my Hashis and I just I saw this functional medicine doctor and he’s like “Cassie you know that you need to
28:30 not eat dairy.” And I was like “Well you don’t understand like cheese is a food group you know like that’s what I eat for dinner i have like 10 different
28:36 cheeses in my fridge.” And he was like “Why don’t you just do it just do it for one week you know?” And I was like “So I
28:42 finally did it i remember I came home I told my husband I was like “All right I’m not eating cheese.” And he’s like “You just bought like $100 worth of
28:48 cheese.” I’m like “I know.” I didn’t do it for one week and I swear like my wedding ring just like was coming off
28:54 like I felt so good after a week i was like “Okay never again.” I never picked it up again since 2022 and I don’t Yeah
29:01 once you feel it you just never want to pick it up again ever my husband’s like “You don’t want some mac and cheese i
29:06 don’t want any of it i don’t want cheese and wine i don’t want mac and cheese i don’t want No like I don’t want to like
29:12 that it’s I mean Tally is the same exact way i’ve never seen her since we started dating like back seven years ago and now
29:18 we’re married like I never saw her one time actually be tempted to have something with gluten or dairy cuz she’s
29:25 seen like the effects the difference of course like there’s been times where like she gets a bite of ice cream or something that’s okay but like to her
29:32 like never seen you one time be like you know I’m going to just have it no because it’s actually addicting and once
29:38 you stop eating it it stops being addicting because dairy has casein in it that turns to quesomorphine and passes
29:46 through your bloodb brain barrier and like plays on your morphine like receptor sites and it makes you feel
29:52 like you’re addicted to cheese just like morphine would have you seen that
29:57 article by LA Times it says I think it was something like cheese is like crack or something like that i actually did
30:02 see that i thought that was interesting yes it does affect the same receptors so
30:08 dairy affects the same receptors as morphine in your brain which is highly addictive so kind of like sugar too
30:14 right so what’s crazy is that this is kind of off topic but what’s crazy is
30:19 that they allow things like this in the United States in our food right like why is this allowed uh my sister lives in
30:26 Australia and there are lots of things in America that we allow Americans to eat that they don’t allow their animals
30:33 to eat their animals can’t even eat what we eat
30:41 yeah because then you eat the animal and then you eat yeah and here it’s all the like majority of the bad stuff I feel
30:47 like is targeted towards kids with the candies and the cereals and I feel like as adults of course there’s a lot of bad
30:52 stuff too but like it’s really the kids that are being thrown all these like um dyes and stuff group yeah and they’re
31:00 changing it now I think yeah they’re making nice like better candy yeah like no more red dye 40 and I hear other
31:06 stuff is along the way but Yeah and we wonder why our children have increasingly rates of autism and
31:12 behavior issues and obesity and diabetes i have seen teenagers that need liver
31:18 transplants because they have such bad insulin resistance and diabetes type two diabetes in teenagers which is insane
31:26 and I actually saw one one time whose mother was telling me how her daughter didn’t eat that poorly while she was
31:33 handing her daughter a Mountain Dew and I was like okay we have some major
31:39 educational barriers i mean it’s like a it’s a systematic failure I think and it’s all in my
31:46 opinion done on purpose to a certain extent right to to keep us unhealthy and let the I mean I don’t know how deep you
31:52 want to go in how deep do we want to go but like you know let’s keep us unhealthy and let the pharmaceutical companies just make us feel quote
31:59 unquote healthier you know it’s all like just a band-aid approach as we just slowly get more and more unhealthy
32:05 hopefully it’ll turn around i completely agree um because healthc care is is a
32:11 big business right and when you’re healthy they don’t make as much money so it’s unfortunate
32:18 no one makes money from telling you to eat healthier or you know just take some
32:24 supplements you know have a nice high protein breakfast like that’s not as profitable as the other and here’s my
32:31 point to this it might not be as profitable for big pharma but for our economy and our country and our people
32:38 it is astronomically more profitable because less people are missing work less people are ill less people are
32:44 chronically depressed you know what I mean so the value is not looked at correctly the value is looked at you
32:50 know for this one pharmaceutical company but when you look at the lost wages and productivity and illness and time with
32:57 your family and happiness and it’s just it’s really sad so that’s what I see
33:05 unfortunately i mean it’s just really sad so okay so what about PCOS and carbs
33:13 so you know to your point you said a lot of doctors will tell people eat less exercise more and so then I have people
33:20 with PCOS who you know message me or come to me and say “So should I do keto?” And so what is your response to
33:26 that yeah I as a registered dietitian I really just don’t think that telling
33:32 everyone to do keto just because they’re insulin resistant is a good approach i
33:37 think that a moderate and I’ve read in a study that a moderate reduction in carbs
33:43 and eating 40% of your the food that you eat coming from carbs is enough to help
33:49 improve your insulin resistance dramatically and I’m saying 40% is like
33:54 eating 150 gram of carbs a day that’s plenty that’s like a cup of rice with
33:59 your lunch and like two slices of gluten-free bread with your dinner and some fruit with your breakfast and like
34:06 that’s not that restrictive you know as as restrictive as keto and it can help with your insulin resistance just the
34:12 slight reduction in carbs yeah and and some people see benefits from doing keto in the immediate like aftermath so for
34:18 example they go keto and then they do it for let’s say 3 months and they see immediate results and this is of course
34:24 due to lowering of the carbs and improving their uh insulin sensitivity however it’s when they get off of keto a
34:30 lot of times the weight can come back because they didn’t target the root issue of of the PCOS um weight gain or
34:37 or whatever symptoms they were experiencing so when they get off of the keto diet the other things that were happening are now happening again and
34:43 then the weight the weight gain comes back so to Tyion’s point instead cutting down carbs not drastically to a certain
34:51 point hence like your carb tolerance level like what carbs is your body good with and just going with that and man
34:56 and also focusing on other areas like you know protein versus just like cutting out carbs yeah I completely
35:01 agree and people who are just steadfast on like I’m going to go keto with me I try to talk them into carb cycling i’m
35:08 like “All right well then let’s do 150 grams on Monday and Friday and let’s do 100 grams on Tuesday and Thursday and
35:15 maybe you do 75 grams on Wednesday and then we cycle back up you know like I try to talk them into something that’s
35:20 not so crazy because I’m like you need you need some carbs too right?” So like you know as a personal trainer you know
35:26 this rock like you have to have energy to like function and to build muscle and to and so I think that I personally am
35:35 not on the keto train i try to not ever be on like a specific you know box like
35:40 that because I think everyone’s different but I do think that just I’ve read the same study so reducing your
35:46 carbohydrate intake by about 40% is very significantly you know beneficial for
35:51 people with PCOS and 150 grams of carbs is plenty and I tell people you know have 30 per meal if you have 30 per meal
35:59 and you know if you’re having a snack have 30 i mean that’s going to be sufficient and you’re not going to feel
36:04 like you’re you know starving or you’re you know neglecting yourself if you’re never getting carbs because I feel like
36:10 the rebound of that is a problem right oh yeah it’s fuel right it’s what fuels
36:15 our body before a workout after a workout during the day when we’re literally working our brain is fueled by
36:21 carbs so it’s like you’re just cutting out cutting off the fuel from your body functioning so with intermittent fasting
36:27 I recommend doing a 12-hour fast so eat your dinner at like 700 p.m and then
36:33 your next meal is at 700 a.m and I think a 12-h hour fast is is a great amount of
36:38 time for your body to have a redux a reduction in insulin levels and a nice
36:44 long period of time where insulin is not high because when insulin is high if you’re like snacking at night or
36:50 snacking all day instead of having like a breakfast lunch dinner like meal your insulin levels are chronically high and
36:56 that blocks fat burning your body isn’t able to shift into fat burning mode it’s
37:02 in fat storage mode because your insulin levels are high so that period of time
37:08 between 7:00 p.m and 7:00 a.m is very important to do a nice 12-h hour fast
37:13 and then the period of time between your meals are also important to bring your insulin levels back down so if your
37:19 breakfast is at 8 and your lunch is at 12:00 you know it’s you don’t skip breakfast and just snack snack snack
37:25 snack until lunch like that’s going to affect your metabolism and your ability to burn fat on your body and some people
37:32 may like opt to go to 14 or 16 hours however we don’t like uh really recommend going up to that much unless
37:39 you’re used to it and you can kind of gauge how your body reacts because a lot of the studies done on intermittent
37:44 fasting they are very positive but majority are done on men and on on women
37:49 who are not in their reproductive age so we don’t generally know how women who are in their reproductive age how do
37:56 they react to a 16-hour fast how does that affect their you know reproductive hormones because it could hurt hurt
38:02 those hormones when their body perceives them as not getting enough food and fuel to their body so yeah to Tian’s point 12
38:08 hours like where we generally start from and keep it there unless you feel like the changes yeah and to your point about
38:14 the hormones so I’m I talk a lot about this it depends on where you are in your cycle as a woman it’s very important to
38:21 fast with your body not against it so in the beginning of your cycle in your follicular phase when your estrogen’s
38:27 high so if day one is when you start your menstrual cycle when you start bleeding that’s the beginning of your
38:34 cycle until about halfway through your cycle depending on how long your cycle is with PCOS not everyone has a 28 day
38:40 cycle so if you have a you know a 56 day cycle you have to know when you ovulate but from when you start bleeding until
38:46 when you ovulate you’re in your follicular phase you have more estrogen you are more able to fast when you have
38:52 high estrogen it drives your insulin down and so your body accepts fasting better in the back half of your cycle in
38:59 your ludial phase after you ovulate your progesterone goes up and your cortisol you know if you fast in the back half of
39:06 your cycle you drive your cortisol up your body is in that rest and recovery phase it’s getting it’s at that point
39:13 your body’s trying to accept an egg and become pregnant and so your body changes and so if you try to restrict yourself
39:18 and over exercise and fast you can actually drive your cortisol up drive your insulin up and it’s
39:24 counterproductive um and that’s been shown multiple times you know there’s a great
39:29 book Fast Like a Girl talks about it a lot but so you can actually hurt yourself by over fasting so I like that
39:36 like 12 14 hour window i think the main thing is just you know don’t sit there
39:41 and snack after dinner that’s where a lot of people mess up is they’re just like eating random things after dinner
39:46 not even paying attention what they’re eating because they’re watching TV and then they go to bed and their insulin spiking and then they wake up at 3:00 in
39:53 the morning because they have to pee and they’ve got a headache and they’re having night sweats and then they’re trying to blame their hormones and their thyroid on their insulin spike and then
40:01 glucose drop in the middle of the night you know and same thing with alcohol a lot of people mess that up too like
40:07 alcohol counts people everyone listening sorry your wine counts so like you
40:12 shouldn’t be drinking that right before you go to bed either and so I like that i think anything more than 14 hours
40:18 especially when you’re trying to heal yourself right it’s like it’s too much
40:24 yeah and I one of the problems with PCOS is the cravings right when you have insulin resistance and so for anyone
40:31 who’s listening and trying to do a 12-hour fast and you feel like it’s simply impossible because you’re so
40:36 hungry for sweets after dinner you have to consider what you ate earlier in the day because that’s going to affect your
40:43 ability to not snack at night you know if you’re skipping breakfast and having
40:48 a light salad for lunch and then a huge dinner because you didn’t have time to eat earlier in the day you’re going to
40:55 crave everything that you were missing later you know what I mean you’re going
41:00 to want the cookies you’re going to want like more food you’re you’re not going to be able to sleep unless you’re having
41:06 like a bowl of cereal and like almond butter and a banana you know which is fine some like almond butter and a
41:12 banana is fine if that’s what you if you’re like really hungry but consider having 30 grams of protein for breakfast
41:19 don’t just skip your lunch and have a light lunch cuz you’re trying to lose weight these meal times are really
41:25 important to make sure that they’re PCs and to your point that’s so true like I’m 100% guilty of this there are days
41:32 that I try to always eat breakfast before I leave my house because once I get to my office it’s whatever but there
41:38 are days that I don’t eat lunch it’s getting better but there are days that I don’t and on the days that I don’t eat
41:44 lunch my husband like I come home and he’s like “Oh god I’m in the pantry i like want to eat everything.” You know
41:50 I’m just I’m starving and it’s true because your body you know I think people forget like our body does so much
41:55 for us all day long right i use my brain all day long it’s very taxing work to think and to talk to people and to
42:01 deduce things all day long and so if you’re not feeding your body correctly
42:07 then it’s going to tell you right and you know and I’m also very passionate about walking every morning i walk i
42:14 don’t necessarily go to Orange Theory like I used to and like kill it but I do walk for 30 minutes every morning and so
42:20 when you do things like this like your body requires energy and so it’s very
42:25 important like people need to realize that if you’re not eating those regimen of meals and I know this so when I do it
42:31 to myself I know but you have to make sure that you’re able to get nutrition
42:36 enough nutrition in a day or your body’s going to tell you and then your cravings are going to be insane you know that’s
42:42 when I want to stand in my pantry and eat peanut butter out of a jar i mean it just I’m like “Oh my gosh
42:48 I need all the peanut butter.” It’s so stupid but it’s because I missed lunch and you know I’m hungry
42:55 yeah okay so intermittent fasting we kind of talked about that and then you
43:00 kind of mentioned this but I am on the same camp of like having a bigger breakfast smaller dinner if possible you
43:07 know i say like eat breakfast like a king eat lunch like a queen eat dinner like a popper you know like so I think
43:14 that’s helpful for people too and I think we mess that up in America right they do it right in Europe we don’t do
43:19 it right here i think that that’s helpful if people can get used to that
43:24 right yeah well I think because I found this
43:30 study that was on women who ate a bigger breakfast and a lighter dinner and it
43:35 found that their testosterone levels and their insulin levels went down by 50%
43:40 the next day and that’s like a huge huge difference like once I read that I was
43:46 like “That’s what we’re doing.” Like that clear that sounds great you wake up you’re more insulin sensitive your
43:53 body’s ready to eat and metabolize because you had this 12-hour fast and
43:58 it’s time to like eat and to have things that are high protein and healthy fats
44:04 and that will make you stay full until it’s lunchtime around 12 or 1:00 and
44:10 then like you said having a light dinner afterwards so what do you guys typically eat for breakfast
44:18 i mean it’s usually a combination of things either Thai has meal prep like over the weekend so we we get we have
44:23 this like chia seed pudding that has um chia seeds protein a bunch of different
44:29 to a bunch of different ingredients i just I just eat it up i don’t
44:34 eat it or Yeah yeah it appears Talian like today
44:40 Tali made high protein pancakes i mean she made it the other day but we have like a bunch left over so again high
44:45 protein pancakes i think the goal essentially for us and for Talian of course with PCS not to speak for you but
44:51 just shooting for a goal of 30 g of protein especially for breakfast right
44:56 yeah absolutely and I don’t like to spend a lot of time making breakfast like just cuz it’s 30 gram doesn’t mean
45:01 you have to sit there and like flip pancakes like I made the pancakes Sunday froze them and now I can just microwave
45:08 it and you know crack an egg on top have some almond butter and it I know it’s
45:13 going to add up to 30 grams because it was high protein pancakes or like smoothies are like another go-to easy
45:19 one that we make a lot of time a lot of mornings eggs yeah smoothies are easy you put your protein powder in chia seed
45:26 pudding is always delicious i make it like I can go on and on about chia seed pudding i have these great flavor
45:32 combinations i post about it in our app perfect so I kind of want to switch and
45:38 ask you SAC about exercise so you know a lot of people ask like when I have PCOS
45:47 can I fill in the blank you know like what kind of exercise should I do is it okay if I do Orange Theory should I be
45:54 doing the stair climber until I feel like I’m going to fall off of it like what should you be doing to help manage
46:00 your PCOS when it comes to exercise yeah yeah i mean the first thing I want to really mention to everybody too is the
46:05 exercise you should be doing is something you should be enjoying so that it makes you want to go back to the gym
46:10 or your home gym anything right so like a lot of for example a lot of people love the stair master so they’ll they’ll do the stair master for like an hour
46:16 because it really works the glutes and the legs and like that’s a lot of people’s goals so like if that’s what you like and it gives you results and
46:22 you’re happy with it you know go for it and do it but just one thing I want to drive across though is your workout plan
46:28 your exercise plan should really focus on the root issues that we talked about earlier so for example insulin
46:34 resistance um adrenal fatigue um we highly recommend uh incorporating
46:40 strength training done at a low intensity because studies show that strength training just one session of
46:45 strength training can improve your metabolism for the next 3 days so literally if you work out today you do a
46:51 strength training session and tomorrow you’re just sitting at your desk doing working or at school your metabolism is
46:57 actually higher uh because of that workout you had the day before so essentially your body is now more
47:03 efficient at um at processing insulin it’s better at burning calories and burning fat if that is your goal so
47:08 highly recommend doing uh strength strength training at a low intensity so what what a lot of women with PCS do is
47:15 um again this is because like they go to the doctor’s office or they listen to like a Google search that tells them just eat less and work out as hard as
47:22 possible focus on the calories out calories burned and the calories in so
47:27 what they do is they’ll go and they’ll run for hours or they they’ll do spin classes or orange theory in your
47:32 situation you did like seven times a week right and this is like bombarding their body with constant stress spiking
47:39 their cortisol levels and that’s then exacerbating other PCOS symptoms because they’re in this high stress state so we
47:46 just highly recommend to first lower down the intensity so doing strength training where you’re taking adequate
47:52 breaks it’s kind of like like taking one minute rest it’s almost like bodybuilding but not like bodybuilding
47:57 right it’s like bodybuilding like doing like sets taking a break doing your next set taking a break listening to your
48:04 body controlling your breath making sure your heart rate’s not going crazy versus like hit workouts where you might be
48:09 jumping from one workout to the next to the next to the next you’re sweating you’re out of breath and then you’re
48:15 like “Am I even doing this right is my form correct?” And then like a week or two goes by and then you don’t see any
48:20 results and you’re just left feeling like you failed when in fact it’s just sometimes you might be working against
48:26 your body without knowing it so hopefully that answered it essentially I would just recommend anyone everyone to
48:32 start on a low inensity strength training regimen uh doing that two to three times a week and then
48:38 incorporating walks several times throughout your day so like shoot for 5,000 steps a day to get yourself
48:44 started and it doesn’t mean you have to do all your steps at once so maybe doing it after breakfast after lunch before
48:51 after dinner and then try to get to 5,000 steps and then from there try to maybe get to 10,000 steps as your next
48:57 you know goal and combining those two with walking and strength training we feel is may feel simple for some but
49:04 it’s a really really powerful workout regimen yeah I completely agree I like to like so I tell people walk in the
49:10 morning like when you first wake up in the morning one of the best things I think you can do drink some room
49:15 temperature water with lemon I don’t know if you guys believe in chakra but it clears your ch your throat chakra and
49:21 kind of helps with like digestion and so I that’s the first thing I do i leave a
49:26 like a glass of water on my counter before I go to bed so I know it’s room temperature and then as soon as I wake
49:31 up I just put my lemon in there drink my water and I go for a walk outside and it’s if it’s cold in bed cuz I use I
49:38 usually have like ice cold water next to me clear your throat chakra if you’re really into chakra and like either veta
49:44 medicine Indian medicine you’re in order to get digestion moving when you first wake up it’s supposed to be room
49:50 temperature but so that’s why I do that i have all sorts of either veta patients
49:56 and I know a provider and I’m they told me why it’s supposed to be room temperature i can’t remember but your
50:02 body accepts it better if it’s room temperature so So I do that and then I walk and to your point like when I got
50:08 off the orange theory train it was hard for me but I found that like if I go for a walk in the morning anywhere from 10
50:14 to 30 minutes i usually do 30 minutes now but I started at 10 just like very calming you know just like start your
50:20 day in this great calming presence and although it’s like seting ice in Oklahoma right now if you can go outside
50:27 you’re just like in this happier headsp space when you just like see nature and like you know so I encourage people like
50:34 go for a 10-minute walk in the morning and then if you want to do some strength training that’s usually what I do or I
50:39 may do it later in the day but then I like to walk for 10 minutes after lunch and then 10 minutes after dinner you
50:45 know and take your family with you like I make my husband go he used to I’m like we’re going for a walk i make my dog go
50:51 my dogs lost three pounds my dog to go for a walk amazing how cute
50:58 it’s usually the other way around like usually the dog makes you go right pug so pugs are very lazy dogs and she was
51:04 very overweight because my husband likes to feed her all the things but we put her on a diet recently which means I
51:10 make her food so now she doesn’t eat dog food because I listen to all the episodes about all the crap that’s in dog food so my dog’s not allowed to eat
51:15 dog food anymore so I make her food on Sunday when I meal prep for us she gets meal prepped food but yeah take your dog
51:22 take your significant other take somebody with you or just go by yourself but I think you know what I see in
51:28 30-year-old women 30 plus year old women is chronic overex exercising and that’s
51:33 because we were all a product of the 80s and it was like run run sweat run sweat
51:38 run instead of like do something to build muscle and strength train and that’s one of the things that I wish I
51:44 would have changed a lot in my 20s was to be more focused on building muscle instead of just like running on a
51:50 treadmill forever because it is so beneficial to your point like if you strength train even if it’s for 20
51:55 minutes that’s what I think people like people say to me all the time I don’t have an hour in the morning to strength train like neither do I you can strength
52:02 train in 20 to 25 minutes and like put in some work you know the people on social media that tell you you have to
52:08 exercise and strength train for an hour are bodybuilders with Most of them have like body dysmorphia anyways and you
52:14 don’t want to get any medical advice from them i promise so you want to talk about some serious body dysmorphia
52:20 issues go find go on social media and you know follow all these people that look like they’re bodybuilders oh yeah
52:26 and not to mention how many of them are on steroids or even like a lot of women personal trainers on social media you
52:32 don’t realize like they’re actually doing very small amounts of steroids or testosterone to make themselves look so
52:37 lean and stuff so yeah 100% luckily us women with PCOS already have a genetic
52:42 advantage of having high testosterone so if we can just harness it and let it and
52:47 get it to not be so high where it’s like a genetic advantage if it’s slightly high yeah and to that to that effect too
52:54 like a lot of times you know we’re focused on immediate results and what what do we feel like gives us the immediate results which is running for
53:01 hours or feeling exhausted after a workout you’re like drenched from all the sweat but obviously with for a lot
53:07 of people because of hormonal conditions and other scenarios like you you don’t end up losing weight but when you do
53:12 like these strength training workouts the morning walks it’s more about the compounding effect right like what we
53:18 talked about your your metabolism and your ins your body is more insulin sensitive for 3 days after a workout so
53:24 imagine you’re doing that now three times a week and that’s like compounding over weeks and months and now the
53:30 weight’s like falling off you’re no longer retaining weight when you eat so it’s really about the long-term results
53:35 like the investment you’re making that’s going to flourish it’s like a 401k right your 401k compounds year after year
53:42 after year and then when you’re when you’re 75 or sorry se 65 you retire and you’re like boom so it’s the same thing
53:48 like you work out now for the next 10 20 30 years and as you get older you’re going to feel better and better i
53:54 completely agree and so the last question I want to ask you well second
54:00 to last question what tell us like what does an ideal day of PCOS management
54:06 look like like what are like 10 healthy habits or what are something that you know give walk people through like if I
54:12 have PCOS from when I wake up in the morning till when I go to bed what is an ideal day look like for me just simple
54:19 actionable things an ideal day and I try to do this obviously no one’s perfect
54:25 but I try this um I wake up it’s like se 6:15 and I get ready and I go and I lift
54:34 weights starting at 7:00 until 8:00 15 minutes of that is stretching so it’s
54:39 like 45 minutes of weightlifting then I come home and I walk on my treadmill i
54:45 do something called 12 330 it’s a 12% incline three miles per hour 30 minutes
54:51 my husband told me to do this and it has been lifechanging but I feel like your routine now is like a experienced
54:57 person’s routine too so this is like this for anyone who’s like new to pieces I wouldn’t say like do all this to get
55:03 your to get started right yeah i’m painting the picture you do the best you can it took me years to get used to this
55:09 i was not a morning workout person like it just took time so I I lifted weights
55:15 i’m walking now it’s 8:30ish it’s like 8:45 actually by the time I like drive
55:20 and stuff and then I make breakfast around 9:00 it’s a high protein breakfast so if it isn’t a chia seed
55:28 pudding that I’ve already meal prepped then it’s probably a smoothie and there’s 30 or 35 g of protein in it and
55:34 so that’s my breakfast then I’ll take my supplements and I typically take um the
55:41 bundle that we have which is it’s co-enzyme Q10 it’s curcumin omega-3 and
55:47 a multivitamin and I’ve added glutathione to that as
55:52 well as bourberine what were we going to say uh inostol maybe oh inositol sorry
55:57 what yes all right people everyone who’s listening inositol is the most
56:04 researched supplement for women with PCOS so if you have insulin resistance
56:09 taking 4,000 milligs of enositol at a 40:1 ratio is ideal so you see me on
56:16 Instagram I’m always taking ovastol that’s the one that I use it’s NSF certified very important um which means
56:24 it’s third party tested so I’ve had my breakfast i’ve had my supplements i’ll pour pour myself a cup of spearmint tea
56:31 which helps reduce testosterone levels and then that’s like your replacement for coffee that’s like your coffee
56:37 replacement yeah exactly i don’t drink coffee i try to avoid alcohol but you know every once in a while a glass of
56:43 wine so anyways that’s my breakfast now I sit down to work la and then lunch is
56:50 around 1:00 i’ll have again something that’s very proteinentric but of course I’m not skipping out on the carbs like I
56:56 said earlier eating around 100 g of carbs works for me everyone’s different
57:02 and then do our walk after lunch yeah a little walk after lunch and then work
57:08 work work you know fold some laundry at six o’clock cook dinner blah blah blah
57:14 and dinner’s at like 7 and I try to eat less carbs at night i’m not saying no
57:19 carbs but like the majority was at lunch or uh during breakfast i I forgot to
57:25 mention I do like to have a snack around 4:00 5:00 which is right now i’m hungry
57:32 and that’ll consist of like nut butter and a banana or something that maybe I baked i like to make low carb high
57:39 protein snacks the other day I made it was like a brownie made with almond flour oh I made a banana bread with
57:46 coconut flour it’s gluten-free dairyf free no sugar in it the banana was the sweetness something like that you know
57:53 for a snack and then dinner and Yeah yeah i could I mean I I feel like I
57:58 could add more details but also like your nighttime routine do you want like can I touch on that yeah I’m I try to
58:04 have a nighttime routine this is actually the hardest part for me i’ve nailed the morning that I do do all of
58:09 those things regularly but the nighttime routine of like don’t stare at your phone at night make sure you have blue
58:16 light blocking glasses on if you’re going to look at screens try to read a book before bed um and and walk during
58:24 the sunset so that those sun rays help increase your melatonin levels and of
58:30 course fast for 12 hours after your dinner yeah I think you do a good job i mean we we moved into a new place that
58:37 get like we moved into a new place 6 months ago and I enacted a a law uh a
58:43 law that basically says after 8:00 p.m no phones in the bedroom so and we so we basically leave the phones in the
58:49 bathroom until the morning and alarm we have like a little battery alarm so that
58:54 like the alarm goes off like we have an alarm system just in case but essentially for two reasons one of
59:00 course like the blue light you don’t want to be looking at your phone before you go to sleep also two you don’t want that radiation the radio signals emitted
59:06 from the uh phone next to your head all night it’s already next to us all day as it is so for those two reasons yeah
59:13 bedrooms only sorry uh bathroom only i like that okay perfect so that sounds
59:19 like a wonderful routine do you So your experience with PCOS like when were you
59:27 diagnosed with PCOS how did you reverse it probably by the routine you just told us right did
59:34 you your husband after this diagnosis before was
59:40 he beneficial in helping like tell us about that just briefly yeah so I was diagnosed when I
59:47 was 18 i had a ruptured ovarian cyst and really bad symptoms the facial hair the
59:52 acne really bad cystic acne weight gain the whole nine yards and you know the
59:58 way I reversed it it took a long time to learn all of these little things like
1:00:03 eating a high protein breakfast stop doing the hit workouts that are like you know kickboxing every single day like it
1:00:09 took a long time to uncover this back then there was no Instagram nobody was talking about it and I went to
1:00:16 naturopathic doctors who really helped me figure that part out then I met my husband Sidak and we started working out
1:00:23 together and I was really into like kickboxing and running and all those intense workouts chaotic chaotic
1:00:30 workouts I like to call it and then he taught me how to lift weights which I was really intimidated by cuz it’s all
1:00:36 like men in the li weightlifting section like I’m just not I never lifted weights and he taught me how to do it and it was
1:00:43 like a meditation the first time the first time we did it I remember it was like a shoulder press i’m like “All right you’re going to do your first
1:00:49 set.” She does her first set and then it’s my turn and I’m like “Okay now you can rest.” And she’s like “Wait what do I do though should I like run around
1:00:54 should I do jumping jacks like should I do a jump rope?” I’m like “No no no you rest 60 seconds trust me you’re going to
1:01:00 want to rest because this workout’s going to be you know not intense but it’s going to you know take a lot.” So
1:01:06 yeah yeah and then that was like when you first learned about actually resting yeah and then after the workout it was like I meditated but I was sore at the
1:01:12 same time but I wasn’t exhausted and it was this whole new feeling that I didn’t even know could possibly happen so um
1:01:19 over time I’ve like learned things i became a registered dietician i which is
1:01:26 wonderful in learning metabolism but they don’t teach you about PCOS in school it’s just the same thing as
1:01:31 doctors like you you have like one slide on a PowerPoint for this condition that affects one in five women and it’s the
1:01:38 most common endocrine disorder that can be healed through diet and lifestyle changes but there’s literally one slide
1:01:43 on a PowerPoint and so I had to learn it on my own basically and I like to
1:01:49 condense all we have condensed all that information into our app into our
1:01:54 resources on Instagram on YouTube and everything our podcast because you know
1:02:00 it’s it’s hard there’s a I I I just told you a daily routine and it sounds normal
1:02:06 you know but it’s not like you have to learn like why and try it one step at a time and like track it and you know it’s
1:02:14 not easy at first and then it gets easier once you get used to it and feel good no I think that that sounds like
1:02:23 you did exactly what you were supposed to do but that’s funny i see that that was kind of me whenever I started lifting weights too like you do a set
1:02:30 and then you’re like “Oh should I sprint down and back?” I’m just seeing it in my head and
1:02:37 you’re like “No.” So no more hectic do you do your walking every day do you do it seven
1:02:44 days a week do you take a day off do you lift weights every day i lift weights four times a week and
1:02:51 then so far I’ve been doing the 12 through 30 four times a week i’m gonna eventually do it every day but I haven’t
1:02:57 got So then on the days that you don’t lift or walk kind of your off days do you do any sort of yoga or anything like that no I I have to like get into yoga i
1:03:06 have scoliosis so that would be great for my posture but again like for me doing the strength training at 7:00 a.m
1:03:13 four times a week and doing 12 through30 after that is like good and I feel good
1:03:19 you know and so there’s always more you could do you you already walk on your off days though like you walk still you
1:03:25 know I’ll go on a walk and right now it’s hard our puppy doesn’t have all of her vaccines so we can’t take her on a
1:03:30 walk or else I’d be walking all weekend you know for an hour at least every day but um so I I think like certain
1:03:37 circumstances are actually like deterring me from going on that walk i don’t want to leave the puppy at home
1:03:42 and walk you know or we have plans or something so um the the best way for me
1:03:48 to squeeze it in is when I’m already in my workout clothes I came back from the gym get on the treadmill in the garage
1:03:54 before getting into the house and get it out of the way okay well I think that was all awesome information about PCOS i
1:04:01 think that’s like the the most information you can provide someone about PCOS in about an hour so I hope
1:04:07 that anyone that’s listening to this that had questions I mean I think that we covered a lot of them and if not like
1:04:15 I said we’re going to redirect our listeners to your podcast because you do a wonderful job covering all the things
1:04:22 before we go though I want to ask you guys three questions that I always ask all of our um guests and so I want you
1:04:29 both to answer too you guys can take turns whatever but the first question
1:04:34 and don’t overthink it just whatever comes to your mind what is one food that’s most beneficial and why i know go
1:04:43 chia seeds why because they are jam-packed with nutrients they have
1:04:50 protein and fiber um they have more antioxidants than blueberries they have
1:04:56 more calcium than milk they are so nutrientdense i suggest every woman with
1:05:03 PCOS to have at least two tablespoons a day i I go with that response i think that’s
1:05:08 perfect and then the next thing I’d say is meat i I really like protein like
1:05:14 organ meat things that are really nutrientdense but I’m starting with chia seeds what is one thing that anyone can
1:05:21 do that improves their health that’s completely free i want to say strength training or just going on a walk like
1:05:28 just just a morning walk is going to help lower your cortisol levels just from your eye from your eyes seeing the
1:05:34 morning sun same thing when you’re walking in the evening just your eyes seeing the nighttime sky as you’re
1:05:41 walking as the sun’s setting that’s going to help lower cortisol increase melatonin so I would just say most
1:05:47 cheapest thing that everyone can do that will really make you feel better and help you on your goals is going on a walk okay perfect a lot of people say
1:05:55 walk and then the last Oh now we’re boring over here i don’t want to have a boring response i think because it’s so
1:06:01 true i think it’s one of those things that people just don’t give enough credit to like walking in the morning is
1:06:07 just so beneficial for so many things and people think “Oh well that’s not really doing anything because I’m not on a treadmill running really hard i’m not
1:06:14 sweating i’m not.” But it’s doing so many things for you mentally and physically and so yeah I think walking
1:06:21 is is amazing the last question is and you both have to answer this what is one
1:06:27 thing that you wish you would have known about your health 15 years ago that you
1:06:33 would have done differently i wish I knew about insulin resistance that’s
1:06:38 kind of broad so I guess I wish I knew about going gluten and dairyfree it took me a while to like learn it do it apply
1:06:46 it and see the difference cuz I was so resistant and it was so different than what anyone was telling me but I wish I
1:06:53 knew that sooner because it really helped with inflammation and insulin resistance that specifically made a very
1:06:59 big difference in my PCOS journey and I would say uh I would say for me just learning about like sugar and like I
1:07:08 want to say just I would say diet but I want to say sugar specifically cuz up until I was like 19 or 20 I really
1:07:14 wasn’t aware of like what was in our foods or like what kind of impact like drinking a Coca-Cola does things like
1:07:19 that and around 19 years old I started to listen to more like health consscious like podcasts like yours and from there
1:07:25 it really blew my mind about the things that were in our foods the things that we’re eating so like from like around that age I stopped drinking Coke stopped
1:07:32 eating certain unhealthier foods and like really developed a much um healthier um diet and lifestyle so I
1:07:38 would just say not knowing more about sugar just to be more specific
1:07:43 so I forgot to ask this question too sak do you eat gluten and dairyfree as well
1:07:49 or I have definitely changed my habits a lot i will not say though that I am 100%
1:07:55 like Italian is like she still will make me like a a sandwich if there’s no gluten-free bread from like a bread with
1:08:01 like wheat and stuff but like I will say I’ve definitely reduced it significantly and I’m like even more motivated like
1:08:07 this year to completely cut it out it’s just I think the only time you eat
1:08:12 a sandwich really the dairy is in like the cheese i make him a panini with gluten-free bread and you know and then
1:08:19 like sometimes a snack has gluten in it but our dinner never has gluten in it or dairy and breakfast and stuff so
1:08:27 generally he’s gluten and dairyf free but not 100% whereas if I have like a
1:08:32 slice of cheese I’m going to have acne but you know what I mean like it’s a serious situation for him it’s not
1:08:38 obviously a Yeah that’s similar to my husband and I he has done so much better i’m very proud of him but he still will
1:08:46 you know if we go out or whatever he’ll eat cheese it just doesn’t bother him it’s so not fair like he it’s not fair
1:08:52 but I do have like right now I’m really focused on like the similar stuff where
1:08:59 like I’m kind of looking at my gut health and my thyroid cuz two of both of those have been kind of like seeing some red flags and I really want to get down
1:09:05 to the bottom of those two so that’s been like my focus right now for sure so maybe like reducing gluten could help
1:09:10 with the thyroid as well 100% would you eat Roundup no then you need to stop
1:09:18 eating gluten all right yeah yeah honestly the only times I eat it is just a sandwich that’s really it
1:09:25 like I can’t even think about any other time cuz like Taline doesn’t make like carbs with gluten in it like she doesn’t
1:09:31 make like pasta or things like that it’s usually rice or sweet potatoes or potato like things that are generally naturally
1:09:37 gluten-free so you just need to get some gluten-free bread yeah yeah that’s tricky too so much no Kenyon
1:09:44 Bake House sent us a bunch well I have a great recipe on my website too that you could go to if you’re interested and you
1:09:50 can get a bread maker but I make my husband gluten-free bread now on Sundays and you just dump everything in this bread maker it’s so easy it takes like
1:09:56 five minutes to dump it in there and then in two hours you have this loaf of bread that’s amazing it’s gluten-free and we put it in the fridge and I just
1:10:02 make it every Sunday so now he doesn’t eat why don’t we because I gave the bread machine to your mother bring my
1:10:09 mother into this how dare you she’s a nice lady i can ask or I can ask you
1:10:14 know but okay well thank you guys so much for coming on our podcast and
1:10:19 helping to educate people more about PCOS it’s such an underserved topic like you mentioned at least one in 10 women
1:10:26 struggle with this in the United States and the sad thing is a lot of people don’t even know that they have it but there needs to be better education and
1:10:32 so I appreciate what you guys do i love your work please keep doing it if you’re listening to this and you struggle with
1:10:39 PCOS or anyone you know struggles with PCOS they’ve had infertility issues or issues with weight gain please share
1:10:45 this episode with them because that’s why we do this is for educational purposes and then make sure that you
1:10:52 join us next week on the next episode of hormones metabolism and you thanks guys
1:10:57 so that episode on PCOS was so inspiring and so full of just wonderful
1:11:04 information i hope that if you are somebody who is struggling with PCOS you feel better you feel better informed you
1:11:11 feel better equipped you feel like you have nuggets or information that you can take from this podcast and start
1:11:17 changing small things in your life so that you can start treating your PCOS and curing your PCOS and now you have
1:11:24 questions that you can ask your provider or if you are somebody struggling with PCOS and you need a provider to help you
1:11:30 figure out is your insulin high is your thyroid working is your adrenal stressed Modern Endocrine would be happy to help
1:11:36 you with that as well we do have a license in 21 states they are all listed on our website we do do virtual visits
1:11:43 if we don’t have a license in your state you can come to Oklahoma and see us once and then we can treat you from afar
1:11:49 virtually and we’d be honored to be on that journey with you we really really
1:11:54 look at people as a whole and that’s what’s needed with PCOS i hope that you can tell from this interview that I did
1:12:00 there are lots of moving pieces but having a supportive you know
1:12:05 practitioner a supportive provider will get you a long way and then just continuing to educate yourself so I hope
1:12:12 that you found this very educational if so please leave us a review and let us know that you appreciate this and that
1:12:18 you want us to continue doing it reach out to me on social and let me know who else you want me to interview what you
1:12:24 want to learn about we will link all of their stuff in the show notes as well again I love their podcast i think it’s
1:12:29 very beneficial a sister and her mister we’ll also link information to their app
1:12:35 as well if you’re somebody who wants to join their community so that they can continue to help cure and heal your PCOS
1:12:42 as well and don’t forget to not only share and like this but also follow us
1:12:47 next week for our next episode of Hormones Metabolism in You have a good week
1:12:53 [Music] the information presented including any materials discussed referenced or linked
1:12:59 within this podcast are for general educational purposes only not the practice of medicine no doctor patient
1:13:06 relationship is formed from you listening to this podcast or utilizing any of the information provided i am a
1:13:12 doctor but I am not talking to you as your doctor the information provided is
1:13:17 not intended to diagnose or treat health problems or take the place of the professional medical care provided by
1:13:24 your doctor if you are experiencing any health problems including problems you believe have been touched upon in any
1:13:31 respect within this podcast you should consult your doctor about the problems without delay you may ask your doctor
1:13:38 whether he or she believes the information I have provided would be helpful to you but you should still
1:13:43 consult your doctor immediately and follow his or her medical advice as your treating physician i’m just here to
1:13:49 provide you basic knowledge about the issues we discuss so you are more aware of them and can better discuss them with
1:13:56 your doctor that’s why we call it back to the basics join me on the next episode as we continue our journey
1:14:04 [Music]
Disclaimer:
The information presented including any materials discussed, referenced, or linked within this podcast are for general educational purposes only, not the practice of medicine.
No doctor-patient relationship is formed from you listening to this podcast or utilizing any of the information provided.
I am a doctor, but I am not talking to you as your doctor. The information provided is not intended to diagnose or treat health problems or take the place of the professional medical care provided by your doctor.
If you are experiencing any health problems, including problems you believe have been touched upon in any respect within this podcast, you should consult your doctor about the problems without delay. You may ask your doctor whether he or she believes the information I have provided would be helpful to you, but you should still consult your doctor immediately and follow his or her medical advice as your treating physician.
I’m just here to provide you with basic knowledge about the issues we discuss so you are more aware of them and can better discuss them with your doctor.
That’s why we call it Back to the Basics. Join me on the next episode as we continue our journey.