PCOS Weight Loss: How to fail spectacularly
One thing we know about PCOS weight loss is that it is unforgiving. A ‘normal’ person can cheat a little on their diet and they’ll still probably lose weight. But not us, sister! Which means there are lots and lots of ways to fail. Let’s review a few so we know what to watch out for.
Do the program Monday through Friday only.
Plan out your meals and your workouts exercising and eating 100% on plan throughout the week, then on the weekend, loosen up a little. Have some ice cream with your partner during the movie. Steal a few chips from their plate at lunch. Enjoy an English muffin with jam for breakfast and an extra hot mocha in the afternoon. A little here. A little there. It can’t possibly undo all the work you’ve done, can it? Yes. Yes it can. If you’re serious about losing weight you have to remember that accountability extends through Saturday and Sunday.
Let yourself get too hungry.
You get home from work. You’re starving. Your dinner is going to take an hour to make but you need food now before you eat the kitchen counter. Peanut butter it is! And down the hatch it goes by the tablespoon, skyrocketing your calories. When you get so hungry you can’t stand it, bad choices are never far behind.
Drink alcohol.
Your body cannot burn a single gram of fat until it has burned off every bit of alcohol you consume first. Alcohol is empty calories.
Additionally when you drink, poor food decisions go hand-in-hand. We’re not saying you can never enjoy a glass of wine again. We’re saying that most of the time, it will not be a decision that is in support of your weightloss goal.
Undereat.
It is tempting to go for the quick scale win. But it’s never a good idea. You can undereat for a while and feel like you’re making progress. But there is a binge on your horizon, without question. Under-eating leads to hunger. Hunger leads to panic. Panic leads to the dark side. 😉 Seriously, when you get too hungry, you cheat. Then you double down the next day with even fewer calories to try to make it up. But then you’re even hungrier and the taste of yesterday’s fatty binge is fresh in your mind and you do it again. It’s a vicious cycle. Eat enough of the healthy stuff the first time around so you don’t lose your grip.
Add a few little extras to every meal.
There are things we don’t measure. We don’t worry about salt, pepper, hot sauce, mustard, herbs erythritol, and seasonings, tea or zero-calorie sauces for the most part. But there are extras that you should take note of. An extra pour or drizzle of olive oil doesn’t seem like much, but each drop is calorie-laden and an extra pour 2-3x per day, 7 days per week adds up. A second or third coffee, especially if it’s fancy, can blow your whole calorie allowance for the day. Watch the sauces. Watch the drizzles. Don’t let it steal your progress.
Don’t meal prep.
If you have the luxury of time to prepare all your meals fresh, you are one lucky duck. Most of us have too much to do, so meal prep is necessary. Some of us have prepared all our food for each week on Sundays for almost a decade. The only thing we had time for during the work week was to open a plastic box and push start on the microwave. That worked for us. It doesn’t work for everyone. But you should plan and prep so you don’t end up with no healthy food to eat and no groceries to make said food in the house. This leads to pizza and fast food ordering. This is not something your body will forgive easily. Luck and weight loss favors the prepared.
Keep your trigger foods within eyesight.
Did you know that if you have a candy dish on your desk at work, every single time you look at the candy dish you have to make the conscious decision to not eat the candy? That’s a lot of opportunities to fail. Same goes if you’ve got chips or chocolate sitting on your counters at home. You see them and even the label starts your mouth watering. If you share space with a person who is eating unhealthy foods or your kids’ foods trigger you, put them somewhere you don’t have to look at them. We have a snack drawer. We don’t open the snack drawer.
Put yourself last.
It’s hard to turn down food when your peers are pressuring you to partake in the fun. It may be mildly unnerving to turn down your mother-in-law’s chocolate torte. When there’s a big win at work, you might think dropping your goals for celebratory drinks are in order. But this puts solidarity and other people’s enjoyment in front of your own goals. We promise you that it is in your power to say no and the sun will rise again. We find it’s easiest to just say, “no thank you” without explanation. You don’t need to explain your diet and goals and what you’re doing to better yourself to anyone. Avoid the big discussion. Should we be naughty and get fries as an appetizer? No thank you. Done.
Don’t commit.
If you sort-of, kind-of do the program now and then, you aren’t very likely to meet your goals. The smallest cheats can derail our progress more than it would others. So if you approach this project from a wishy-washy, uncommitted standpoint, you aren’t likely to have too much success. The weeks and months are going to pass anyway. Why not lean in and get something out of them.
Give up when you fail.
You will fail. Spectacularly. We all do. Before you start, plan to pick yourself up when you fail and get back on track with no self-punishment. You missed 2 workouts this week? Don’t make them up. Just continue with the plan. You ate nachos, and brownies, and candy, and a pitcher of margaritas. Yes, your week’s progress is probably gone. Don’t throw away next week’s too by quitting. The one thing women who reach their goals have in common is that they don’t give up and quit when they mess up. They don’t punish or bad mouth themselves. They take the lesson and do better next time. Never give up.
There are too many ways to fail spectacularly. The older you get, the more you’ll be able to add to this list. Better to focus on how to succeed spectacularly.
PCOS Weight Loss: How to succeed spectacularly
Succeeding means avoiding the pitfalls and adopting new habits one by one until we are living in a way that propels us toward our weight loss and fitness goals.
Do the program every day.
Be as committed on Saturday night as you are on Monday morning. You have to decide with your brain to do it before your body follows suit. PCOS nutrition requires a 7-day approach.
Have healthy food available when you’re hungry.
If you know it’s going to be a long time before you can eat again, plan to eat half of your next meal in advance and the rest when you can. Figure out how to take food with you. Plan a meal that can pop into the microwave 2 seconds after you walk in the door. Try not to let yourself reach a hungry out-of-control monster state.
Cut out alcohol.
If you’ve got a lot of weight to lose, you need a period of commitment to putting your goals first. So, don’t look at it as, ‘you can never drink again.’ But maybe right now and for the next many months until you’ve gotten to a better place, alcohol doesn’t have a seat at the table.
Eat big low-calorie meals.
The one way to avoid being out-of-control hungry is to stuff yourself. This practice is highly underrated. We think we need to avoid that feeling of fullness when dieting, but it isn’t so
When we make high volume, low calorie choices, we can eat and chew in front of the TV to our heart’s content. This isn’t a new practice. It’s tried and true and one of the best weapons in your arsenal for succeeding spectacularly
Stick to your meal plan with no extras.
It’s hard to eat food that tastes like cardboard, meal after meal, so the temptation is great to add sauces and sides and little flourishes to make it taste better. We’ve worked very hard to come up with recipes that won’t leave your taste buds bored. Stick to the meals. Leave the bacon bits in the cupboard.
Meal prep.
Ultra-fitness ladies (and some of us) meal prep on Sundays. Then they eat the same breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack every day for 4-5 days in a row. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO THIS. This is hard core. Most people do not like to eat the same thing every day. We get that. It’s simply more manageable for many of us in terms of time and budget.
For you, we would encourage doing some meal prep just to make it easier on yourself. Many meals lend themselves to multiple servings. Soup and salad for example. Making a big pot of soup that can feed you for 3-4 lunches is appealing and practical. You can pull your daily salad together while the soup cooks or warms up. Prepping a healthy pancake batter to keep in the fridge, then simply pouring out the pancakes every morning after you wake up is a time saver. There are plenty of prep hacks that can help to keep you on track. As Scar says, BE PREPARED!
Keep trigger foods away.
Get all the candy in a drawer that closes where you can’t see it. Don’t walk down the street that has the bakery you can smell for blocks. Don’t drive by that HOT DOUGHNUTS NOW sign. Walk away from colleagues with birthday cake. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.
Put yourself first.
Be a little selfish when it comes to sticking to your diet plan. We’ve sat down to family dinners with a plate of food that’s completely different from everyone else’s. We’ve filled up the vacation house fridge with our own egg whites and veggies despite what family meals had been planned for the group. Bring your own food. Stuff yourself with healthy food before an event so you’re not tempted at the table. Say no. People don’t really care. They will make a fuss. But they will also see you in your new smaller jeans later and ask for your secret. Do what’s best for you.
Commit.
Commitment trumps motivation. You will not wake up with motivation every day. But if you make a promise to yourself, you should keep it even when it’s not easy. Go for it. Challenge yourself. Do something hard. It will be worth it.
Fail gracefully.
Just start again. Not a discouraging word should be heard out loud or in your head. No crying or wallowing. It happens to everyone. Save the drama. Just start again tomorrow. A missed workout here or a meal cheat there won’t derail you long if you’re in it for the long haul. It’s done. Get over it and move on. You must be kind to yourself and take every experience as learning. Failures teach us more than successes ever did. Every day is an opportunity to do better.
Go forth and succeed spectacularly!
You can achieve your most audacious goals. And mindfulness can take you a lot of the way. Plan. Prepare. Make good choices.
For a good example of big, low-calorie meals, check out one of our daily PCOS meal plans. You can also have a look at how we structure our meals for PCOS weight loss here. It’s easier to have healthy food available when you’re hungry if you meal prep. Try out some of our Recipes to see if you like our cooking style.
As always, stay up to date with our YouTube Channel for supportive videos weekly on PCOS Nutrition, PCOS Inspiration, PCOS Training, PCOS Mental Health, and PCOS Accountability.