Greetings all,
It has been an interesting couple of weeks for yours truly (when isn’t my life interesting?). Since moving to Sydney back in September dealing with the emotions, weight gain, drinking and eating struggles, I have fully adjusted to Sydney life and accepted that the only way I would go back to 55kgs is by starving myself… oh hellz no!
I had thought that the this sudden weight gain of 15kgs since moving was due to the less walking, less working and the fact I was eating more – which is true to some point. Yet, why the crazy emotions and no period in 8 months?? With my recent past I was slightly freaking out and wanted to pack my bags and go back to Canberra, see my faithful Dr Dora and get my old job back because it was the best exercise. Yet I take after my mother in stubbornness and started seeing a new GP that my Aunt goes too. I have to say, though it was hard to fully explain to a new GP the past and how she should be just as worried as you. Yet having a fresh pair of eyes is good, especially with medical issues that are not related to the Whipple. For example, she has seen me go through the emotions of moving and adjusting, been thrilled for you getting a new job with awesome people and gives you amazing historical facts about women and their periods. Lately, as I’ve mentioned I haven’t had a period since December and my body was reacting wildly to sugar. She ensured me that this was ok-ish and doesn’t mean cancer (woot!) but sent me off to get an ultrasound, a number of blood tests to see if my half-pancreas was still holding up and got me to weigh myself.. bless her, she really understood why I cried like a little girl before and afterwards. Cried beforehand because I finally got over weighing myself 5 times a day and threw out my scales and afterwards when I realised how much I had put on. she suggested I only weigh myself at the office to prevent me from going back into that eating disorder mode.
Anyho, after the results came back she informed me that I have Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Greattttt.. which means I have loads of cysts hanging onto my ovaries without paying rent. Cheap bastards. This sends your hormones into a rave and makes it super easy to gain weight but makes it three times harder to lose it. Its funny, they say this can occur with women who are obese…. I was obese but had well-functioning ovaries! But now Im 8-10kgs overweight my ovaries decide its time to have a nap!! Stupid stupid universe.
So the easiest thing to try to treat PCOS is to (ha ha) lose weight. How?! I was already eating way better than before, though I know that I was snacking heaps with my hospitality job due to long hours, my brain confusing thirst with hunger and my sleeping patterns are out of whack again. She suggested I try to avoid all processed food as much as I could but don’t go down that path of starvation again and gave me a referral to see a dietitian that focuses on patients with PCOS and diabetes (I don’t have diabetes, but have some symptoms) so that’s good! Now I have mentioned in a previous post how I don’t like dietitians, but I am prepared to give them another shot now that I have had three years to understand what my body can and cannot cope with anymore. And the other great thing is my new GP has been me a couple of psychologists I can talk too, she’s been wanting me to seek mental health help for a while now, but understood that salary of a casual cook cannot help with that payment (if only I could pay with food or blackmail… mmmm tasty, tasty blackmail). But good news everybody! PCOS is classed as a chronic condition and that medicare will pay for some of my appointments! Funny, I’m sure my 1/3 stomach and constant battle of food would be also classed as this too.. but oh well, I have PCOS now.. it will do. So this is all well and dandy, but I’m waiting for my work rosters to find a good day to visit all these people until then, I am going to attempt to avoid processed foods to see if that will help. Except for caffeine-related drinks, cider, meeting people for lunch (will resort to my Whipple rules of gluten/dairy and onion free options when going out to eat). All this while keeping to a student budget! Challenge accepted.
So this blog is now a cross between a Whipple diet and a PCOS diet while still having a bit of fun on the side. Me in a nutshell. A delicious non-salted and non-roasted type of nutshell.
So besides from eating brown rice, tuna and steamed veggies, I have ventured out to make a delicious soup that is vegan friendly (for all my vegan buddies out there), Whipple friendly and *hopefully* PCOS friendly! Welcome to the Whipple Girl’s new adventure!!!
Roasted Soup
(GF, DF, Onion and Garlic free, Vegan friendly)
Prep time: 30mins – Cooking time: 40mins (plus 10mins boiling) – Serves: 4
1.3kg Kent pumpkin
600g-ish Sweet potato
1 1/2 tsp Dried thyme
1 tsp Dried rosemary
1/2 tsp Ground dried All-spice
3 Dried bay leaves
3 tbsp Olive oil
1 cup Lite soy milk (or any non-soy milk if avoiding soy)\
2 cups Water
*optional lactose-free cheese for topping
Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Chop the pumpkin and sweet potato into large chunks (as you would if you were just making roasted veggies). With the skins on! This adds to the flavour that would be missing from the onion and garlic.
Put the chopped veggies into a large roasting tray and drizzle the olive oil on top and add the dried herbs and spices and toss the veggies to coat.
Place the tray into the oven for about 40mins, basically until the veggies are well roasted.
Take the tray out, remove the bay leaves and spoon out the veggies onto paper towels to absorb the olive oil and allow to cool.
Peel off the skins of the veggies and put the skinless veggies into a medium saucepan.
Using a potato masher, mash the veggies into a fine pulp.
Add 1 cup of lite soy ilk and 2 cups of water and continue to mash.
Put the saucepan over a medium heat and bring the soup to the boil for about 5mins.
Serve however you want!
Personally I added a bit of lactose-free cheese.. tasty!
The Whipple Girl's Cookbook 