“I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) in my early twenties. Although I did not experience many of the extreme weight loss/gain issues that other PCOS people experience, my appetite changed. I constantly felt hungry and never fully satisfied. I have always been very active, but when I started training for my first half marathon, I got so frustrated with myself because I never seemed to have enough energy to make it through.
When I wasn’t making progress with fitness, I felt frustrated because I didn’t think I looked fit. This made me think that I needed to eat less food, or eat smaller portions in order to get the results I wanted, which of course left me weak, hungry and unsatisfied. This tug-of-war between fitness and food was a constant battle of pushing myself to look and feel fit while trying to satisfy my body’s need for nutrition.
When I tried to get control of this battle, I started following a diet and fitness plan (21 Day Fix) that focused on portion control and color-coded food containers. At first, this felt great because it was something tangible that was supposed to help me understand different types of foods and the appropriate portion and times to have them. But I found myself even more frustrated because, being gluten and dairy intolerant, I was so limited by my options. I remember finishing a tough workout looking in the refrigerator in tears because I was so weak and hungry but couldn’t find anything to eat that would meet the requirements of my plan.
My first breakthrough with ONE-TWO PUNCH happened during my first meeting with Claudia when she helped me to understand that when I experience hunger it is my body telling me it needs to be filled up. When I fill it with an unbalanced meal like an apple, it is not really being filled up and will naturally be empty again. Understanding hunger and how to balance meals was the first key to success for me. It was so freeing to recognize when I was really hungry, I could fill my body with what seemed appetizing to me. As long as I had a fist of protein and a fist of carbohydrate I knew I was balanced.
My second breakthrough happened over time as I continued to practice OTP. Understanding balanced nutrition has helped me to understand balance in other areas of my life as well. There is something psychological that happens when I eat a balanced meal, I don’t feel so much pressure to work out extra hard at the gym to compensate for a large meal from the day before. I don’t feel this constant, unsettled, unsatisfied feeling that lead me to seek out satisfaction from other things. And I handle stress in a much healthier way because I understand how it affects my body. ONE-TWO PUNCH has changed everything for me!”
-Noelle
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