The most impactful thing you can do for your PCOS in 2025 #112
What to focus on in 2025
Hello,
Here we are, the first 2025 post 🎉.
We are all looking to make some changes in January—we just can’t help it. As I did at the beginning of 2024, I have a small request: please don’t fall into restrictive diets. They don’t work, and you will be disappointed by March.
I have reflected on the most impactful thing we can do for our PCOS to manage our condition better. I don’t think it’s all about nutrition and exercise. I started writing this article with the intention of including the most essential things for PCOS: nutrition, exercise, stress, etc. But something stopped me in my tracks. I think there is a more critical ingredient we are ignoring.
There is a more considerable and critical skill we are missing and losing nowadays: mindfulness.
Let me explain.
Our environment has never been so filled with excess bad food, sedentarism, and stress. At every corner, we are met with chocolate, ice cream, or pastries. Moving has become something we need to schedule, not a default. We spend our days filled with worries, deadlines, and never-ending work.
We often think about health at a macro level: How many carbs did I eat, how many days did I go to the gym, and where are my calories over the limit? However, actual change happens at a micro level: the daily micro-decisions we make. Following the law of compounding, little by little, these positive micro decisions add up to make up your health. Either positively or negatively.
Examples of micro decisions are stopping after one biscuit, taking the stairs, not ordering a Coke at dinner, and choosing the fish on the menu. Stopping before eating and asking ourselves: “Are you hungry, or are you stressed?” “Am I consciously choosing to scroll on my phone for 30 minutes, or am I just numbing a specific feeling?”
However, to make positive daily micro-decisions, we must be mindful of our actions, thoughts and feelings throughout the day.
We need to master this skill of stopping before acting; we need to figure out how to become mindful.
We don’t need another significant diet overhaul; we must consider those small decisions and choose wisely.
As I always do, I went on a research adventure to understand what we can do to build this brain muscle mindfulness. Here are three things that can help:
1. Meditation
Regular meditation practice has been shown to activate brain regions associated with more adaptive responses to stress and negative situations. Meditations allow us to create space between what happens in our environment and how we react. For example, when we are mindful and experiencing a stressful situation, we can recognise that we want comfort. Rather than picking up our favouring comfort food, we can create a few seconds of space to choose a different coping mechanism. All it takes is a few seconds to choose differently. We have a whole article on Emotional Eating if this subject interests you.
I have done the 30-day course from Waking Up before, and it’s the only meditation app that has worked for me. It does get slightly weird at a certain point, but it works. When I did it, I got very good at intercepting unpleasant thoughts. However, something I am still struggling with is emotions. This is what I am working on in 2025. I am full of passion and ambition. I am jolly and upbeat. With that comes a drawback: I am also easily annoyed and frustrated. I love my emotions, but they sometimes get the best of me.
2. Practicing deep work
Our brains are evolutionarily wired to be distractible. This served our ancestors well in terms of survival as they could pay attention to dangers. No matter what we’re doing, our evolutionarily-designed brains will distract us from what we are doing. However, I think this is becoming a massive issue with our phones. There is constantly a reason to be distracted and be pulled away from what we are doing. Intentionally doing deep, focused work can help us become more aware of when we get distracted and build that muscle to pull us back. This will help create a state of mind where we are more in control of our thoughts and actions and can say “no” rather than going with the flow.
Here are some of my favourite tips on how to increase focus from Carl Newport’s book Deep Work:
Schedule specific times for deep work and create rituals to support i
Treat deep work as a skill that improves with practice
Minimize shallow work (non-cognitive, logistical tasks) to maximize time for deep work
Embrace boredom and avoid constant stimulation to build focus
Balance deep work with adequate rest to prevent burnout
Create a distraction-free environment
3. Breathing Exercises
You can find a list of different breathing exercises here. However, we don’t need to make this rocket science. Focusing on our breath occasionally serves as an anchor for our attention, drawing our focus away from distracting thoughts and into the present moment. Something you can play with is a Chrome Extension that reminds you to take a breather when you work. I am currently testing Breathing.ai.
Doing this activates our body's "rest and digest" system, the parasympathetic nervous system. Breathing exercises have been shown to lower heart rate, reduce blood pressure, and decrease negative reactions to thoughts.
I know these things are not easy to implement. Our busy lives are full of things we need to do. This is why we must be intentional about everything that makes its way into our busy agenda. We discussed how to set the right type of habits here:
I hope you join me in making 2025 a mindful year, which will profoundly affect all other aspects of our lives, including our PCOS.
See you next Sunday,
Francesca