If you’ve been working all year at trying to get healthy and balance your hormones (with a couple of bumps in the road here and there), you’ll know that the holidays can throw a big ol’ wrench in your plans. Why: because of stress. Stress is why we emotionally eat and even drink. And if you’ve got PCOS, then stress is definitely something you’ve got to watch out for because it can create some serious hormonal havoc. So in this week’s video, I thought I’d give you some pointers on:
Surviving the holidays with PCOS.
Please let me preface that I am not a medical doctor. I’m a Nutritionist with a background in Chinese Medicine, so if you do have any questions please consult your MD or Naturopathic doctor for more.
Now you may be wondering, “Why does stress wreaks havoc on PCOS?”
Let me start out by saying this: there are MANY forms of PCOS that are emerging and truthfully all need to be treated with individual care and respect for the patient’s condition. It’s why I’ve created my FREE PCOS Guide to help provide you with tools on what you can do.
But I will say this: stress is a nightmare for all hormonal conditions. Why: because our adrenals – which pump out our stress hormones effects our entire hormonal balance. Your hormonal system is supposed to operate like a symphony. But when one of the glands that make up that system isn’t functioning up to par, the symphony suffers and sounds out of tune.
When cortisol (your stress hormone) elevates, our inclination is to eat carbs, sweets or drink alcohol – pretty much anything that breaks down into sugar. Now while we’ve all done this (myself included) but it sets off a catalyst of reactions overtime that could lead to increased levels of estrogen and testosterone in women with PCOS.
So here are some tips to help you survive the holidays:
How to beat sugar cravings
At the first sign of a sugar craving, take either two dropper’s worth of St. Francis Canadian Bitters Combo, or one teaspoon of unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. Now I get that this may not be the first thing that you’ll want to have when you’re craving a cupcake, but sour/bitter are relatively opposite to sweet so it helps to cancel out that craving.
Drink lots of water
No brainer, right? Well if it was so easy, everyone would be doing it but the reality is most women I speak to aren’t drinking enough. Dehydration will cause stress hormones to elevate signalling hunger cravings…and not for salad.
Eat more fat and less carbs
If you’re hungry and getting attacked by your food cravings, trust me on this: eat more fat and less carbs. Fat satiates you, whereas eating carby breads, pastas, sugary treats etc. will only create a rise in blood sugar and then make you crash – making you want more.
So with that said, I thought I’d leave you with my recipe for my Chocolate Minty Bounty Cups which are sweet, delicious fat bombs. They contain organic spearmint essential oil from Living Libations too. Studies ahve shown that spearmint can actually decrease testosterone levels in women with PCOS.
Ingredients
- THE BOTTOM LAYER
- 2/3 cup coconut butter (I use closer to 1 cup)
- 2 tbsp coconut flakes
- 1 tsp liquid stevia or 1 tbsp raw honey
- Pinch sea salt
- 1 drop of organic spearmint essential oil (I love the one from Living Libations)
- THE TOP CHOCOLATE LAYER
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1/2 cup coconut butter (use up to 3/4 cup if you'd like this layer to be bigger)
- 2 heaping tbsp cacao powder
- 1 heaping tbsp dark chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 tsp liquid stevia or 1 1/2 tbsp raw honey
- Pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Begin by mixing all ingredients for the bottom layer and fill into muffin lined tins.
- Then freeze for 15 minutes.
- Next mix all ingredients for the top layer and fill the remaining layer. Please note this won't fill it right to the top, so feel free to use more coconut butter to compensate.
- From a texture perspective, you can leave the dark chocolate chips to top if you'd like to see some chunks on the top of these fat bombs.
- Freeze again for another 15 minutes and enjoy.
