Unforseen Benefits of a Whole Food, Plant Based Diet

As anyone who has read my blog so far may know, I decided to make the switch from mostly veggies and animal products to whole plants; everything plants! I was so unaware that a lot of people can't understand how someone can eat JUST plants. As if meat, eggs and dairy are the only food groups!
Anyway, I feel I've been luckier than most with the decision to transition. Some of my family members feel it's a phase and I can see why. I've tried so many different things. Honestly, this is the only thing that has helped me lose weight, get mental clarity and such. I plan for this to be a lifelong commitment.
Moving forward, I wanted to fix my PCOS and things are changing and getting better, slowly. But there's one thing I never thought would change - my vision. My eyes were getting so bad to the point that looking at this very screen for more than a few minutes would give me a massive migraine. I had to wear a hat at work because the lights were too bright. I could barely see from one end of the machine I work on to the other (and it's not a very big machine...)
However, my vision has cleared up, my light sensitivity has decreased to a more normal level (I'll be going to a specialist early next year to see how well it's improved), and I think even my color vision has improved. I'm not sure if that's even possible, but I'm finally believing in the impossible now.
I'm happy that I can do the things I enjoy again, like writing and sculpting without suffering for the next few days. I never thought that chaning my diet would improve my eyes so drastically. I could go on and on about how wonderful it is, but there's not enough time for that!

I just wanted to let everyone who is following this know that so much more than just PCOS can be conquered when transitioning to a whole food, plant based diet. It's truly incredible.

If you want to make a switch, there's so much information for you online or you can email me. I have a link below and I hope you'll check it out.

Even though it may seem like I'm avoiding my main goal of this blog, I'm not. Work got busy, holidays have come and gone and more are coming. At the beginning of the next year, I will get back to this blog. I need the time to spend with family and get things ready for Christmas. Thank you so much for reading and I hope this is inspiring to anyone who is struggling with vision issues.

https://veganuary.com/starter-kit/
sharaelyse@live.com (please put 'wfpb' in the title your message)

Research Supporting a Whole Food, Plant Based (Vegan) Diet

Doing a quick Google search, I surprisingly found a good bit of articles that support my theory that a whole food, plant based diet can help tremendously with PCOS.
Whole food, plant based being categorized as a vegan diet that is also free of oil, added sugar and added salt with a minimum intake of saturated fat.

Neil Barnard wrote a very intersting article that explains his reasoning behind a vegan diet for PCOS.
It's pretty short so I won't rephrase it, but you can read it here:

thekindlife

In this Happy Herbivore article, a woman named Beth was able to cure her PCOS, IBS and get off all medications with a healthy vegan diet. She was featured as an "Herbie of the Week" on HH's blog. Read the full article here:

HappyHerbivore

There are actually a few more sucess stories found here:

wholefoodplantbasedhealth



This woman is amazing. I feel like I could have made this video, this is how passionate I am about living this way. Please take time to watch this 16min video:

There is hope! It can be fixed/reversed/healed/cured. I'm really excited after reading a lot of these articles and watching this video. Don't give up and please continue to follow me on my journey.

Recapping September

Hello everyone! I know it's been a while since I've blogged here, but I'm not leaving this blog alone, I promise. September got a little crazy and while I managed to do a post a day about PCOS on Instagram (@Shara_Elyse), I did manage to neglect this.

I was lucky enough to be chosen to write about my story on a small blog site and you can read it here:
My PCOS Story

There were a few other women to leave their story on that site too, so it may be interesting to read those as well.

I also made a vlog about what I eat in a day, you can watch it here:
What I Eat in a Day

It was pretty fun to make and I did learn that I'm not eating enough each day. So I am working on that currently. My goal is to find others who have reversed PCOS on a plant based diet. I had a lot of discussions with women on different social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, sadly most want a magic pill to cure this. I think it can be found in what we eat. I was a bit down by all the negativity, but if I can inspire and help just one person, this will all be worth it in the end.

This weekend, I will share with you all some of the blogs I've found about women with PCOS and their journey into plant based eating. After that, I shall continue on with my original plan of breaking down each individual part of PCOS and how food can cure those ailments.

End of September

I've been busy with Instagram and trying to come up with 30 facts and support topics for each day of Semptember. I will be getting back on track with this blog starting next weekend!
September 29 - October 1, I will be doing my "What I eat in a day" video for PCOS. I'll pick one day and I'll show you what I eat in a typical day. I'll be scaling it so I can put it into Chronometer and see how many calories I typically get in a day. I'll also be recording my glucose levels as well. I want to show people that having PCOS and eating a high carb, low fat diet that is free of any animal products is beneficial for us.
I'm official down to 141lbs and for me, I never thought I'd be able to lose weight so this has been incredible!
Thank you for reading and I will get back on track soon!

PCOS Awareness Month

September is PCOS awareness month! I am using my social media pages to spread awareness and I have not forgotten about this blog. I am busy this weekend fixing my bathroom.
I will be doing a weekend of WFPB eating vlog this month. I'm not sure when yet, but it will be before September ends!
Thanks for understanding and see you next weekend!
Happy Labor Day, everyone.

WFPB - What's That; Another Craze?

The acronym, WFPB, stands for whole food, plant based. Is it another craze or trend? Probably for some. For me, it's life.

So why did I choose to switch to a whole food, plant based diet? Because the science is clear. It's the only diet in the world that has been proven time and time again to reverse our major ailments such as heart disease and diabetes.

The reason I believe that it is a bit of a trend right now rather than a way of life is that there have been many documentaries like, What The Health and Forks Over Knives that have become popular recently. Now this isn't a bad thing, but some people will try anything and if it doesn't work within their time frame, they give up and move onto the next big thing.

That being said, I tried it for two weeks, feeling rather skeptical, and the immediate results were fantastic! It helped with my IBS almost instantly. Inflammation went down allowing me to lose a good bit of weight quickly. I finally had energy and I could finally go to sleep rather than toss and turn all night. As of today, I've been on this journey for 61 days. My insulin resistance has improved drastically. Normally, I'd wake up with very low glucose levels (50's or below) and this morning when I checked them (after 12 hrs of sleep) they were at 89.
After eating, my blood sugars don't really get any higher than 110 and all I've been eating is carbohydrates and some fats. Before, I could eat an apple and they would spike to 130 or higher. For me, this is incredible and I'm happy with the results.

Not only has it helped me physically, but emotionally as well. I struggle with depression and lately, I've been able to keep my emotions in check. I've gone from having weeks if not months of feeling hopeless from something little triggering it to the same situations getting me frustrated but only temporarily. I no longer have this constant state of anxiety or stress either which is amazing for me.

And the last major thing I want to point out about this way of living is my eyes. I have an eye disease called cone-rod dystrophy and it basically breaks down the lens of the eyes over time. I'm not sure if this can be reversed, but when I went to my eye doctor he was so excited that he would be able to adjust my prescription to allow me to see 20/20. The whole 20 plus years that I've gone to see him, I've never had that kind of success in anything I'd done prior!

Anyway, this is a blog about PCOS and not my eyes!

Okay, okay what does whole food, plant based eating include?

To begin, WFPB basically follows the same food guidelines as veganism. No meat, no dairy, no eggs, no fish, no animal bi-products. But here is where it differs, it also requires that you avoid all oils, added sugars and added salts. All of these have negative affects on our bodies and while I'm still working on avoiding oil, sugar and salt, I still fall short here. I do however, still see major health benefits from just cutting out any animal products.

Whole foods means to eat a plant in its entirety. So don't avoid fat, but rather eat whole nuts, seeds or avocados. Avoid sugars but don't say no to whole fruits. Fruit juices, however, are not a good choice. Even juicing them yourself could still be harmful. And while I'm on this, berries and bananas can be blended up for smoothies or juices as they don't seem to have the same negative affect as fruits like apples or oranges.
Separating the fructose from the fiber basically gives you pure sugar. The fiber in fruit is what helps slow down the absorption of sugar into the blood.
Now, a lot of people get mad about having to avoid oil, but when you eat just oil you're eating pure fat. It does not matter if it's coconut oil, olive oil or canola oil. When separated from their whole form, they cause issues in our bodies from paralyzing our arteries right after eating to heart disease.

Here's a video by one of my favorite YouTubers. He goes into the studies showing about the dangers of oil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbtwwZP4Yfs

I hope that helps you understand why, if you are using food to heal your body, that it's better to eat whole foods instead of processed foods.

Then you have plant based. It basically means just that - eat plants. Any plants! We do have issues with major crops and GMOs around the world. I personally try to avoid soy, wheat or corn that do not have the GMO Free stamp on them. If you are not sure what these are, leave a comment and I'll do a blog just on those!

Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of a whole food, plant based lifestyle.

PS: I will go into the different aspects of PCOS and see what the science has to say about each and how a wfpb diet can help. Also, September is PCOS awareness month, so I will be setting aside one weekend to do an entire blog, possibly vlog using cronometer.com and my glucose tester to show everyone what I typically eat day to day and how much I'm eating as well as how it's affecting my glucose levels. Stay tuned!

PCOS - What it is and Why You Should Care

I hope everyone got a chance to read my very first post here. I go into detail as to why I'm making this blog and why Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is the focus of my blog site. It's something I've dealt with for several years now and I only heard about it in 2012 when I did a little research and then had an OBGYN confirm it. 
The frustrating part is, we as women, may not know we have it and when we do find out, we're told it's treatable, but there is no cure.
To make matters worse, there is so much controversy over what actually causes it that doctors do not know how to prevent it. Then when you do your own research, you find information that is confusing or overly simple. 

An example of the overly simple solution is - "exercise and lose weight." 

Now, exercising is great advice. Everyone, regardless of their condition, should be exercising regularly. However, I personally tried exercising while still eating in accordance to the SAD (standard American diet) guidelines. For about six months, I would wake up at 7AM - eat a breakfast of cereal with milk and fruit with coffee or tea. Spend time with my family as we watched the morning news. After it went off, I would run on the treadmill until I had gone 2 miles. Next, I would work out on the Wii - at this time I was doing a 20 min a day premade weight loss program via EA Sports Active. (Please note, I was drinking a lot of water at this time too). After the 20 min work out, I would finish off my morning with about 15 - 20 min of Yoga. After my work out, I would eat an egg and yogurt or chocolate milk and some unsweet mint tea. I would then work on chores or whatever else I needed to do for the day. Then at lunch, I'd have whole wheat skinny bread with jalapenos and cream cheese, cooked in butter with some fruit juice and some tomatoes. Then I'd get ready for work. At work, I'd have whatever snack the kids were having. It was usually some form of "healthy" chip and yogurt or cheese with juice or milk. After getting home, it'd be dinner time and my parents would have some dinner made and it would always be white starch with some sort of vegetable and a good bit of meat with it. All of it was cooked in oil or butter depending on the meal. Then I'd spend the evening with them and go to bed about 9PM or 10PM and read until I fell asleep.
Now, I did lose some weight - about 25lbs total I believe and I did look a little better, but it wasn't sustainable. 
Here's a picture of me when I was doing all this:

While I did lose weight, my PCOS symptoms did not improve at all. I'll go into the issues in a moment, but I wanted to address the sustainability part. When I moved back in with my husband, we continued to eat the way I had been at my parents. I believed this was healthy and wanted to keep it up. However, I started working more and didn't have time to exercise like before, so you can imagine that my newly somewhat smaller self ballooned up once I had to stop all the exercise. I ended up gaining all of the weight back and then some in spite of me still eating "healthy."

Hopefully now you can get an idea of what I've already tried based on the overly simple and completely logical advice. Hopefully, you can also understand my frustration. From that point in my life until today, I have tried every bit of advice possible. The ultimately lead me to Kym Campbell who I will discuss in another blog later on. I want to get to the point here about what PCOS is. Here we go!

What is PCOS?

According to WebMD the definition of PCOS is as follows:

Polycystic ovary [or ovarian] syndrome is a problem in which a woman's hormones are out of balance. It can cause problems with your periods and make it difficult to get pregnant. PCOS also may cause unwanted changes in the way you look. If it isn't treated, over time it can lead to serious health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease.

The complete article can be found in this link.

PCOS is a hormonal balance that affects 1 in 10 girls and women from ages as young as 11 to women in their 40's. Many different sites will tell you different age ranges, but from what I've read those are the youngest and oldest ages I've found. 

So what are the symptoms?

Since they had a larger list of symptoms, I used belmarrahealth.com; you can click the link for the full article.

Most common:

• Weight gain
• Fatigue
• Hirsutism (unwanted hair growth): hair growth may appear on the face, arms, back, chest, thumbs, toes, and abdomen. Hirsutism is a result of excess androgen.
• Thinning of hair on the head
• Infertility
• Acne
• Changes in mood
• Pelvic pain
• Headache
• Sleep problems

I'm not sure why these were not listed, but you can also have PCOS but no ovarian cyst. Insulin Resistance is another symptom of PCOS.
Every symptom varies depending on the woman and I believe you have to have at least 3 of them to be diagnosed. For me, it was my insulin resistance, high testosterone levels and no period.



In conclusion, PCOS is one of the most common causes of infertility in women and while it's treatable, there has not been any recorded cure. In the next article, I am going to shift topics and focus on the whole food, plant based movement to tie it in with PCOS and why this is something I'm willing to try to combat my PCOS.