In this power-packed solo episode, I dive deep into one of the most overlooked but game-changing habits for women with PCOS: eating breakfast. If you’ve been skipping it, running on coffee, or dabbling in intermittent fasting with little success, this episode is your wake-up call. Learn how the right breakfast can stabilize blood sugar, lower cortisol, reduce cravings, improve ovulation, and even support healthy weight release—especially if you’re dealing with insulin resistance or adrenal fatigue. I also share my signature breakfast formula, PCOS-friendly meal ideas, and how to make sustainable changes without restriction or overwhelm. If you’ve ever asked, “What and how much should I eat in the morning?”—this episode is your new go-to.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
🎓 Related episodes: [Insulin Resistance Series – Episodes 1-3]
📚 Research study I reference here
🥣 PCOS-Friendly Breakfast Ideas
1. Savory Breakfast Bowl
2. Hormone-Supporting Smoothie
3. Greek Yogurt Power Bowl
🛒 My favorite protein powder: Truvani
(0:02 - 0:25) Welcome to PCOS Unfiltered, Nourish, Heal, Thrive, the place where real talk meets real healing. I'm Lindsie, health coach, nurse, mindful eating advocate, and fellow health warrior. Each week, we're diving deep into the truth about PCOS, from nutrition and mindful habits to emotional healing and everything in between, all without the filters, the fads, or the shame.
(0:25 - 4:19) If you're ready to nourish your body, heal from the inside out, and finally thrive, you're in the right place. Let's get started. So today's episode is all about one of the most skipped and most powerful meals of the day, breakfast. So if you are someone who runs on coffee until lunch, or maybe you've tried intermittent fasting, which I'll get into a little bit more, but either way, if you felt worse, then this one is definitely for you. So why does breakfast matter? Let's just start off by saying skipping breakfast is not the flex we thought it was. I mean, I feel like, yeah, I mean, you know, coffee in hand, ready to go. You get busy in the morning, but there's definitely some disadvantages to doing that. So especially for women with PCOS, skipping breakfast or eating the wrong thing for your breakfast can actually send your hormones into a tailspin. And here's why. Blood sugar and insulin, number one, I talk about this all the time. I feel like in my other episodes, um, it just keeps getting brought up. Uh, you can also go back and watch the first three episodes where I do a three-part series on insulin resistance, but in regards to breakfast, eating in the morning, especially within 60 to 90 minutes, I say 60 minutes kind of best, uh, within 69 minutes of waking does help stabilize your blood sugar and reduce the mid morning cortisol spike cortisol. I've also talked about where that's that stress hormone. Um, so speaking of cortisol and stress, it is naturally highest in the morning and eating breakfast actually tells your body that you are safe and not starving and helps reduce the strain on your adrenals. So this is something I think I've touched on it before. Um, but whatever you're trying to accomplish, whether that's a healing journey, trying to lose weight, both your body cannot do that. When it's in this chronic stress mode, you have to be telling your body it is safe. It is safe to heal. It is safe to release the weight and that's how you will get better. And so, um, yeah, so eating breakfast and even the right things for breakfast can help with that as well. Um, next one, appetite and cravings, skipping breakfast might save calories in the short term. I do plan to talk more about calories counting calories cause I'm not all for that. Um, it's really more quality over quantity. Um, but either way, uh, it often leads to major cravings or overeating later. I know when I had the gym, I would talk to so many ladies that yeah, I would skip breakfast or not eat the right thing for breakfast. And they'd have these cravings later and couldn't forget what was going on. And when we just made that, that tiny little switch, um, to, to really focusing on breakfast, like they saw, they saw a lot of benefit for sure. So there is one study. I'm not going to pronounce the name of the doctor. Um, but I will post it, the link for it in the show notes. So you can, uh, check it out as well. But during the study, they found that women with PCOS who ate their largest meal in the morning experienced, you guessed it better influence sensitivity, reduced testosterone level levels. So remember testosterone is one of those male hormones.
(4:19 - 6:05) I've talked about that one a few times as well, and better ovulation rates, um, as well. So keeping that all in mind, here is the breakfast formula that I use with my clients. Um, protein, healthy fats, fiber, and color. So protein eggs. Yes. Um, eggs are probably a staple protein for a lot of people for breakfast. When you start getting into like the sausages, um, bacon, that type of thing, you're probably going to get more of the fats from that, but also maybe not the healthy fats. You really have to pay attention to the ingredients actually in those things because they are processed. And so they might not serve your body. Like you think another one for protein is Greek yogurt, of course, plain unsweetened, um, full fat Greek yogurt. And you can also do a protein smoothie again, paying attention to the protein that you are using as well. So healthy fats is something like an avocado. You could do half an avocado, nuts, seeds, coconut oil, olive oil. Um, those are probably the top ones there fiber. So veggies, yes. Um, veggies, number one for fiber, chia seeds, flax seeds, also low glycemic fruit, like berries are always at the top of the list for sure, which with the berries and the veggies, you're going to get your color from that as well. Um, definitely need to avoid sugary cereal, white toast flavored creamers. Uh, one thing I actually learned to those flavored creamers.
(6:05 - 11:40) I mean, there's, there's like probably not any actual cream or milk in those. A lot of the times they're full of sugar, full of, uh, artificial ingredients. So definitely pay attention to stuff like that. The toast, if you are slowly making this adjustment, um, sure. Keep the toast for now, but make sure you are having protein on top of that, along with some of those other things I mentioned. And then maybe you can eventually, or, you know, take out the toast a few times a week, just as you maybe try to make a transition here to really focusing on eating a better breakfast, but just plain white toast. Um, or I should say even toast, even if you put like a little peanut butter, for example, on it. Yeah. You're going to send your blood sugar on a roller coaster. The other thing I've seen a lot, and even in my nursing days is just a banana for breakfast banana alone. Oh my gosh. Again, your blood sugar is going to be all over the place. You're going to get the crash. You're going to get the cravings later. So instead of asking what is quick, I encourage you to start asking what will nourish me and my hormones. So again, eating within 60 to 90 minutes of waking up is best. Remember that cortisol is naturally high in the morning. Eating brings it down, helps the body feel safe and skipping can actually worsen adrenal fatigue and insulin resistance. So getting into this, if intermittent fasting isn't working for you, meaning that you're fatigued, you're getting hangry. Um, you might have heard that term, but basically hungry to a point where you maybe go to like a dark place. You just get kind of angry along with it. Very irritable. Um, you're having irregular cycles or your cycles are just not improving. Then I would encourage you to try front loading your meals earlier in the day instead. So what do I mean by that? Um, typically a good fasting schedule is 16 hours of fasting and then an eight hour feeding window. So maybe you start your fasting at 7.00 PM and then maybe you don't eat again until 11.00 AM. So try maybe getting a good breakfast. Say you wake up at six, you're eating, you know, by 7.00 PM, that would mean that she, or 7.00 AM, sorry, um, for your breakfast, then you would need to start your fasting at 3.00 PM. So that could mean a very early dinner or no dinner or, you know, a late lunch. However, you want to kind of structure that. Um, but the other thing to keep in mind with fasting, and it is something that I do talk with my clients about further into my program, but you really have to break the fast in the right way. That's the key. Otherwise, if you're not breaking it in the right way, and if you think that the eight hour feeding window is just your chance to eat whatever you'd like, then you're definitely not going to see the benefits of fasting. The other thing is, um, water, plenty and plenty of water. And then the other thing is when I talk to a lot of women is they are drinking coffee. And so you could kind of say, um, that they're still fasting, but then come to find out a lot of, a lot of women end up adding, um, creamer and sugar, you know, and all that stuff to it. So then you're breaking the fast that way, of course, not in a good way with the caffeine and the sugars and everything. So breaking the fast is one of the most important ways to see the benefit from that. But again, also try front loading your meals earlier in the day, instead of pushing them later and breaking the fast later in the day. And why do I say this is going back to that study that I mentioned the findings from that study underscore that the timing and distribution of calories, not just total intake can significantly influence insulin sensitivity and hormone balance in women with PCOS. So for hormone health, eating substantially more earlier in the day aligns better with natural circadian rhythms and yes, cortisol patterns. What are some ideas for breakfast? Um, I will include, um, a, uh, link for, um, some ideas for breakfast in the notes, but breakfast. So let me start off by saying this. You don't have to have all the typical breakfast foods for breakfast. If you did have a good dinner and you have leftovers, a good dinner, again, meaning that you had the good protein, the healthy fats, the veggies, you know, some color in there, and you want to have leftovers for breakfast, go for it. You don't have to have the typical breakfast foods. Um, but a few other ideas, you could do a breakfast bowl or like a breakfast scramble, couple scrambled eggs, maybe half of an avocado, and you can throw in whatever veggies you would like. You could do some sweet potatoes with it. You could do, um, spinach, mushrooms, peppers, uh, with, with some olive oil. If you're cooking the eggs in the pan with the olive oil, you can get some healthy fats that way. You could do some hemp seeds on top.
(11:40 - 13:09) Yeah. So like find what you like. Um, and you can add that in as well, the smoothie. So I did mention this, um, already, but protein powder, there are so many protein powders out on the market right now. And I can tell you probably a lot of them are drunk. Um, so really look at the ingredients on those, um, protein powders. If they have maybe more than like five ingredients and, or a lot of ingredients that you can't pronounce, then definitely needs to be out. That one is not going to support you and your health and your goals. Um, true Vani is probably the one that I, that's my go-to. Um, but again, just make sure that you are checking the labels on those. Otherwise you're not going to see the benefit from that. If they have a lot of sugar, like no more than two grams of sugar. Um, cause again, then you're not breaking the fast in the right way. So for the smoothie, you can do, you know, whatever you like in there. You could start, hear me out, um, by adding in maybe half of an avocado and spinach. And I say start, because if you're going to put those in, uh, I would recommend blending those up first, adding in your liquid and you could do an almond milk. You could just do water. You could do regular milk, whatever you like and blend it up again and then throw in whatever else you like.
(13:09 - 13:30) So like some frozen berries, for example, um, chia seeds, of course your protein powder, you could add some cinnamon in there and you won't taste the spinach or the avocado that way. Um, another one is a like Greek yogurt power bowl. Again, full fat, unsweetened, plain Greek yogurt.
(13:31 - 15:15) You could do a drizzle of some honey on top of that to sweeten it a little bit. Um, you could also add some almond butter to that. You could do some flax seed. You could put berries on top of there again, some cinnamon on top, uh, play with it, you know, see what you like bonus tip prep ahead. So you can also make kind of like your protein smoothie packs in freezer bags. And that way you just have those out, throw them in the blender. You're good to go. You're not like trying to think about what you're doing in the morning. So you can make those ahead of time. You can also do egg muffins that you can batch cook. Um, very simple for those, uh, you know, a muffin pan eggs and whatever else you want to put in there, veggies and you know, all that colorful stuff. And then that way they're already ready. You can just heat those up in the morning and you just have grab and go, you know, instead of some rushed decision where you either miss breakfast or you're choosing the wrong things. So kind of wrapping up breakfast is not just a meal. It's a message when you really think about it. And that message is that I'm showing up for my body. So start small one change, one habit, one meal, one nourishing breakfast. Um, your hormones are listening. Um, I've talked about this, I think in other podcasts and I, I feel like I talk about it. I talk about it during my, um, hunger boss challenge, even just a lot of clients that I, I talked to. And even we, we kind of implement it throughout the program too, is just adding in.
(15:16 - 16:39) So picking that one, one small change. So focus on one meal. Don't worry about removing anything add in. So like I mentioned the toast, if you still want to hold onto your toast, great, but add in the protein and the veggies and really focus on, on adding in that, even if it's just one meal, maybe one meal, um, that you focus on, you know, for one week, and then you can focus on a couple meals the following week. And you just kind of keep growing from there and making the change because when you try to take on too much at one time, you are setting yourself up for failure. Unfortunately. So, uh, my advice would definitely to focus on breakfast first for sure. And, uh, for all the reasons, of course I've talked about, but focus on breakfast, having a good breakfast and breaking your fast in the right way. See you next time. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of PCOS unfiltered. If today's episode spoke to you, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a thing. And if you loved it, a quick review would mean the world to me. Remember healing is a journey, not a destination, and you deserve to feel empowered every step of the way until next time, nourish your body, heal your heart and thrive like the boss you are.