To all the incredible women who have entrusted me to help them understand their bodies. Im eternally grateful to you. x
Copyright Clare Goodwin, 2020
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author.
This book offers health, wellness, fitness, and nutrition information and is designed for educational purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for, nor does it replace, professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional. Do not disregard, avoid, or delay obtaining medical or health-related advice from your healthcare professional. The use of the information in this book is solely at your own risk. Some names have been changed to protect clients identity.
Designed by Kate Barraclough
Printed and bound in Australia by Ovato Print
First published in 2020 through Point Publishing Limited, Auckland
www.the pcosnutritionist.com
978-0-473-53860-6 (paperback)
978-0-473-53861-3 (epub)
978-0-473-53862-0 (Kindle)
978-0-473-54662-5 (audiobook)
Ebook conversion 2020 by meBooks
Contents
Clare Goodwin is a Registered Nutritionist, with a first-class honors degree in Exercise Prescription from the University of Otago, New Zealand. She has trained in Functional Medicine (an individualized approach to medicine with a focus on root causes) through the Kresser Institute, and is a certified trained teacher in Natural Fertility Education through Dr. Kerry Hampton, researcher and lecturer at Monash University, Australia.
A competitive multisport athlete, Clare was diagnosed with PCOS and insulin resistance in her mid-twenties, having just retired from international athletics and triathlon competition, and was told she wouldnt be able to have children. Determined not to accept this fate, Clare kept researching, learning, and seeking out specialists to find the lifestyle changes which could help her reverse her symptoms.
After finding what worked for her, Clare started working with other women with PCOS, both one-to-one and in a group program. Clares PCOS Protocol , a 12-week supported online e-learning program for all women with PCOS, has helped over 2,000 women understand whats driving their hormonal imbalance. This is important for understanding all PCOS symptoms, as well as helping women to not just get pregnant but also have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.
THE PCOS DIAGNOSISA PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
I was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) when I was 25 years old. Id just finished university and was working for a tech company in my first graduate role. I was still having to deal with acne, even though I thought I would have grown out of it by my mid-twenties. Trying to be taken seriously at meetings with the GM while worrying about whether my makeup really was covering the pimple that had just erupted on my chin wasnt the best recipe for a calm, confident demeanor.
I had the loveliest doctor, who could probably tell from that first meeting that PCOS was the culprit. She ran some blood work, including testosterone and glucose levels, and two days later I got a call to come in to see her again. In New Zealand, where I live, you only get a callback if your blood work is abnormal, so I knew something was up. I sat down and was told I had PCOS. She explained that this was why I was struggling to lose weight, why my periods were irregular, and why I was still getting acne. She then explained the other consequence of PCOS: Youre going to struggle to conceive.
I was devastated. I walked out to my car, put my head on the steering wheel, and wailed. While I didnt want to get pregnant right then, I certainly wanted children in my future. Feeling like that dream had been taken away from me was devastating. My mind raced forward a few years when all my friends would be happily popping babies out, while I dealt with infertility.
The next day, I went to the bank and opened up an account to start saving for IVF.
Like many of you will have experienced, this wasnt the first time Id thought my symptoms werent typical or visited the doctor. But this was the first time that someone had been able to put it all together for me.
Id just finished five years at university, doing a joint honors degree in Exercise Prescription (more well known now as exercise physiology) and nutrition. Id also just retired as a competitive athlete, having spent the previous 10 years racing for New Zealand in athletics (track) and cross-country, and then later triathlon when running injuries got the better of me. Although retired from international racing, I was now aiming to compete in one of the worlds longest multisport events, the arduous Coast to Coast Race, involving running, cycling, and kayaking for 151 miles (243 kilometers) from the west coast to the east coast of New Zealands South Island, over the Southern Alps. While no longer training 17 to 20 hours a week (that wasnt conducive to working 50-plus hours a week in one of the top graduate programs), I was still doing 12 hours every week minimum. So I was no slob.
I had all the hallmarks of PCOS: I hadnt had a period for about three years, my weight was going up and up (but only accumulating around my stomach), and I had acne. Id visited the student campus doctor many times about these separate issues, but the picture had never been put together from all its separate parts. Instead, I was given a low-grade antibiotic for the acne and told that the missing periods were due to my being a competitive athlete. I was prescribed hormonal birth control to regulate my periods and was told to eat less and exercise more to control my weight.
The problem was that I knew too much to accept this diagnosis. My honors thesis was on female athletes with eating disorders (how ironic), and the research supported that the main reason why athletes lose their period is due to low bodyweightwhich didnt fit my situation because I was gaining about 10 lb (5 kg) per year.
After five years of training in nutrition and exercise science, I was severely disappointed that weight gain or weight loss was merely being put down to calories. It went like this: If you were eating more than you burned (calorie surplus), you would put on weight; if you were eating less (calorie deficit), youd lose weight. But I knew I wasnt in calorie surplus.
Every weekday Id get up and swim for an hour of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), followed by lectures and labs, and then either a run or a bike ride for one to two hours in the evening. At the weekend I did a four-hour swim and some bike fun on Saturday, and a three-hour bike ride on Sunday. On average, I was training for 17 hours a week and burning 300 to 400 calories an hour. The average female needs 1,800 calories (kcal) a day to maintain weight, without exercise, and I was burning an extra 800 to 1,500 a day. In theory, I would have needed to eat 3,000 to 3,300 kcal to put on weight. Have you ever tried eating 3,300 kcal a day? Its a LOT! It would be the equivalent of my usual day of foodmuesli, apple, and yogurt for breakfast; pumpkin soup and two slices of toast for lunch; roast chicken and vegetables for dinner; two bottles of sports drink, two crackers with cheese mid-morning; and a yogurt and apple in the eveningPLUS five Krispy Creme donuts, a cheeseburger, and two KFC drumsticks. Spoiler alert: I wasnt doing this. I was meticulously tracking everything I ate and burned and should have been in calorie deficit.
