[NJMama]

Hi! My daughter was just diagnosed with PCOS. She is overweight and a carboholic. She also has OCD and anxiety, so I need to tread lightly. And as a teenager, she knows everything. Any advice on getting her to eat well? She refused to meet with a nutritionist. My thought is to put her in the driver seat as much as possible. To have her come up with 5 dinners that are not pasta based that I can rotate. Not to replace the cereal and mini-muffins. Thankfully she is not a juice or soda kid, so I don't have to wean her off those.

From what I'm reading, I should have her pair her carbs with a protein?

I sure would appreciate any help!

[alaskanlaughter]

as the parent of a teenager who also knows everything i try to balance him having the independence to pick food and also giving him healthy meals and choices....he is also taking a high school cooking class and could help me prepare healthy dinners if we wanted to do so...he stays active with an after-school job at the movie theater where he is on his feet most of the time...and now that he has a paycheck, i am really working with him on the food choices that he spends his money on - for example, a mcdonalds meal on the weekend isn't great, but not horrible, where mcdonalds every single day IS unhealthy.....moderation.....things like that....he has ADHD and impulse control issues so it's a learning process to do things like make healthy choices or control a portion size or stay out of the kitchen in the evening....and it's a lifelong process, because alot of us as adults still struggle with those choices

for a teenager with OCD and anxiety, i think you have a good idea to put her in the drivers seat as much as possible....that way she can plan ahead, prepare and know what to expect...i don't have those diagnoses, but even I don't like being thrown for a loop when I'm expecting something else to happen instead

i don't know how much help that is...but I think you're on the right track with ideas

[faiora]

Is there any way to just... not have the carbs in the house? Or to replace them with whole-grain versions? You could always just say it's for you.

Not saying it's the best solution or anything. Just an idea.

[astrophe]

Let her own it. Because once she moves out, she will have to.

Your idea of having her come up with 5 protein balanced dinners is a good one.

To make it even easier? Check out

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/054...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They had it in 2013 as a magazine but expanded it to a book. So ask her to choose 5 from the pix.

Give it a whirl, then pick another 5 to try on. Think about letting go of wheat bread/crackers -- for me? It leads to craving more bread type things. Where rice crackers and GF bread do no such triggering.

Some of that anxiety might be low blood sugar -- look up symptoms to hypoglecemia. I am PCOS/IR -- we present in at least 5 ways. And those of us that are insulin resistant can get into the bad habit of jacking up a low blood sugar thing with bread. There's better ways to manage that.
A.

[seize the day]

Going on a ketogenic diet really helped me, and it still allows things like Cheese, whipped cream (which I have on my coffee), real butter, any type of protein (including bacon and eggs) and vegetables (with some fruit). It really helped me lose weight, increase my fertility and clear up my skin.

Even if she isn't ready to go full on ketogenic, you should consider sort of subtly leading her in that direction by reducing the amount of carb-heavy things with more fat/protein-heavy things -- like Chocolate Moose with whipped cream instead of cake and cookies. There are tons of low carb and ketogenic recipes out there that are very rich and delicious, maybe try making some low carb snacks and just keeping them on hand for munching so she is more apt to grab some low carb cheese-cake bites with raspberries or cheese cubes instead of oreos and potato chips.

[nonameslob]

I do not have PCOS but when I was active in the weight loss community on Tumblr, I noticed a supportive community for young women with PCOS. I would also hazard a guess that there is a similar community on Instagram. Could you encourage her to seek out a community like that? She may make some friends who can also encourage her to make nutritional changes. Just a thought! Though I realize there are always negatives to social media use. But if she's already on Tumblr or Instagram, it shouldn't be much different.

[mcpherson1997]

I also have a daughter with PCOS. A co-worker of mine led me to this article and I had my daughter read it. It starts out about another teenage girls story and ends with natural supplements and diet recommendations. My daughter read it and has been reading some posts on here with me as well. She still loves her carbs but is trying a little harder after reading about PCOS. The article is about the PCOS diet and is from detoxscientific.