It can be really hard to give up old favorites!  

Here are some of my favorite swaps:

• Swap oatmeal with banana for chia pudding (chia seeds soaked in almond or coconut milk) with a handful of berries
  
  
• Swap a banana smoothie (my old favorite breakfast) for  smoothie made with frozen zucchini or cauliflower, plus a flavored protein powder (e.g., vanilla or chocolate)
  
  
• Swap two eggs on regular toast for three eggs on a high protein/keto bread, or three eggs plus some smoked salmon or chicken sausage on a bed of sauteed greens
  
  
• Swap a cereal or muesli bowl with fruit and yogurt for bowl of coconut yogurt with a handful of nuts (like macadamias and walnuts) and fresh or frozen berries
  
  
• Swap a breakfast burrito made with a regular tortilla for a flaxseed wrap with a high protein filling like smoked salmon or bacon.

Intermittent fasting and skipping breakfast are commonly touted as “solutions” for women who are struggling with weight loss or other PCOS symptoms. 

However, the truth is, skipping breakfast is one of the worst things you can do for your hormone, blood sugar, and insulin levels.

Research shows that skipping breakfast has a far more significant impact on our hormones than skipping dinner.22

An interesting study in 2013 took 60 women with PCOS and split them into two groups. 

The first group ate a large breakfast and a small dinner, and the second group ate a light breakfast and large dinner (similar to how many of us are used to eating).

Other than the timing of the meals, the women in both groups ate exactly the same ratios of carbs, fats, and proteins and the same calories over the course of the day. 

After 90 days, the women eating the large breakfast had a 50% decrease in testosterone levels, greatly improved insulin sensitivity, decreased androgenic symptoms, and a 50% increased ovulation rate.22 

The large dinner group had no changes.

This study suggests that something as simple as changing the timing of your meals could have a dramatic effect on your PCOS symptoms. 

PCOS causes our hormones to function differently than other women. 

This means that diets and styles of eating that work for other people might not work the same for us. It’s important to keep this in mind.

Ideally, aim to eat your breakfast within an hour of waking up. 

This is because the research shows this timing has the best effect on our blood sugar and insulin levels for the rest of the day. 

If you like to exercise first thing in the morning, you might like to have a small snack, and then eat a larger meal following the PCOS Repair Breakfast principles after you finish exercising. 

This is fine as well. After a few weeks of experimenting with this new way of eating, you’ll find what works best for you.

Exercising first thing in the morning before eating can cause increased cortisol levels. 

I suggest having a small snack before starting your workout to prevent this. 

The best choice is a small carbohydrate plus protein or fat-rich snack. For example, half a banana with some almond or peanut butter.

Even though we are avoiding starch and sugar in the PCOS Repair Breakfast principles, if you eat this small amount of carbohydrates within 30 minutes of exercising, the carbs will be used as fuel for your workout and therefore won’t contribute to significant insulin production. 

Once you have finished your workout, you can enjoy a larger meal following the high protein, low carb breakfast principles.

Many of my clients find they don’t feel hungry in the morning and prefer to skip breakfast or have something light like some fruit or a piece of toast, only to be starving later in the day. 

For women with PCOS, our insulin issues, gut bacteria imbalances, and history of restriction and dieting can cause our hunger and fullness cues to be a little out of whack.

If you don’t usually eat breakfast or are used to a lighter breakfast, it’s normal for it to take time for your body to adjust. 

My clients have found that after two to three weeks, their hunger stabilizes and they feel much better eating this way.

 In the meantime, you might like to delay your lunch time meal or eat a smaller lunch until your hunger adjusts.

If you feel nauseous or struggle to eat first thing in the morning, try having one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice in a glass of water around ten minutes before your meal. 

This helps to stimulate appetite and prepare your stomach for food.

If you struggle to eat a full breakfast, try a drinkable breakfast like a smoothie that still meets the PCOS Repair Breakfast principles. 

You could try sipping on this over a longer period of time as you go about your morning routine.

Remember, you likely won’t have to eat this much protein at breakfast forever, just while your insulin and other hormones are finding balance again, which usually takes around three months.

If you are feeling hungry within two hours despite hitting the 30-40 grams of protein target, try adding some extra healthy fats to your breakfast to keep you fuller for longer. 

Ideally, this breakfast should keep you full for at least three to four hours.

My favorite healthy fats are coconut milk (great in smoothies), nut butter, avocado, and olive oil.

We’ll cover whether or not reducing dairy could be helpful for your type PCOS in chapter 17, however as a general rule, dairy tends to cause an increase in insulin, so it’s best minimized at breakfast time. 

You can swap dairy for coconut or almond milks and yogurts.

A good rule of thumb is vegetables that grow above the ground are generally lower in starch and higher in fiber.

 Vegetables that grow below the ground tend to be starchy vegetables (with the exception of onion and garlic). 

To find out if a particular vegetable is low or high in starch, you can Google “is [insert vegetable] a starchy vegetable?”. 

This tends to be a pretty accurate way of determining it.

Some of the most common starchy vegetables to avoid in your breakfast include potato, sweet potato, corn, beans and legumes, yams, peas, pumpkin, and butternut squash.

You’ll be able to enjoy these foods later on in the day.

Some of the most common non-starchy vegetables include asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, eggplant, mushrooms, onion, garlic, capsicum (peppers), spinach, kale, tomato, and zucchini.

 You can enjoy as much of these non-starchy vegetables as you like – there is no limit as they won’t cause a spike in your blood sugar.