PCOS Strong Woman Spotlight on "That PCOS Coach"

Meet Letisha Bates, "That PCOS Coach"

We are so fortunate to have Letisha Bates, aka “That PCOS Coach”, for our Strong Woman Spotlight in this issue. She is unapologetically badass and she’s the kind of woman that you want on your team when you’re wading through the confusing and frustrating symptoms that come with PCOS diagnosis.

Letisha has a strong background in healthcare and pursued her own career to help women with PCOS as a result of her own experiences as a PCOS warrior. She shares her personal story and words of wisdom with us. Check out the eye-opening interview below.

Belinda: For our readers that are unfamiliar, can you tell me about your company, programs, and how you support women with PCOS?

Letisha: After 11 years in healthcare as a licensed nurse, I left to open my own company as a Registered Health Coach. I began specializing in PCOS as I am a PCOS fighter myself and advocate. I decided to change careers because in my own healing journey I kept learning things that no one was talking about.

I felt that the medical community, the fitness industry, and the diet industry all failed me and so many others. I wanted to become that beacon of light and hope and share the knowledge I had acquired in hopes to prevent others from becoming as ill as I was or help them regain their health.

Belinda: Oh my goodness, I love that! I also felt the exact same way: completely failed by doctors and the diet/exercise industry. We’re clearly not the only ones!

Letisha: Yes! After 2 years of successfully running my new company, I decided to change gears yet again and become a Functional Medicine Practitioner at the company Nutrition Dynamic where I have more resources to offer my clients while I'm pursuing my degrees in dietetics on the path to becoming a Registered Dietitian.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT MY JOB IS THAT I CAN OFFER PEOPLE LIVING WITH PCOS MORE DETAILED HEALTHCARE THAN THEY ARE USED TO GETTING. MANY, LIKE MYSELF, HAVE BEEN DISMISSED BY MANY PROVIDERS, DENIED THE CARE THEY REQUEST, NOT GIVEN ANSWERS OR EDUCATION, AND LEFT HOPELESS.

Once a client and I begin working together the first thing I do is have them complete numerous assessments. This helps me see exactly where their health is, current health concerns, stress concerns, and all of their medical history up to what their lifestyle looks like currently. I want to see the entire picture.

Then we schedule a virtual meeting that lasts roughly one hour so that I can go over my findings in their assessment, get more details on their health history, current regimen, and discuss their goals and our plan to get there. I provide each client with a tailored nutrition plan that is overseen by an RD, supplement regimen, labs is needed, lifestyle changes, and so much more.

Once my client receives their individualized plan we then meet each other on a biweekly basis for a minimum of 30 minutes to go over their concerns, update changes, and address all needs. This kind of healthcare is more than I ever received and what I wished I had. It’s personalized, packed with tons of educations, the client is involved in their care, and truly a personal experience.

B: I love your website and your whole vibe of empowering women with the knowledge and tools they need for health (kind of like WomanBeeWell too!). Your story resonates with me so much, it's almost like reading something I'd write about myself! For our readers, can you tell me more about your story and what inspired you to become THAT PCOS Coach?

L: I was diagnosed at the age of 23 because I was concerned about future fertility. I didn't start my first period until I was almost 16, then after that, it would be 13 months, 8months, 6months, or who knows when I would get another one. When I married my husband I worried about conceiving in the future because he is a merchant mariner that is required to work offshore on a supply vessel. This meant he was gone more than he is home.

So how was I going to get pregnant with a husband who is never home and a period that rarely comes?

The doctor went over my health history and said "Letisha you have something called PCOS" I ignored the diagnosis for a great part following that other than using it as my crutch to explain this is why I am always struggling with my weight and rarely have a period.

No one was giving me answers so I dove into the research and finally began to learn what PCOS truly is.

This was until I went back years later seeking help to get pregnant and luckily conceived rather quickly. We welcomed our son into the world and due to complications from my previous pregnancy (who was a total surprise from a previous relationship) I chose to have an unmedicated birth. That was quite possibly the hardest thing I did but it was my "ah-hah!" moment.

ONCE I REALIZED HOW TRULY STRONG I WAS, HOW CAPABLE I AM, I DECIDED THAT I WAS STRONG ENOUGH TO CHANGE MY HEALTH AROUND.

At my heaviest weight postpartum, I changed my nutrition, my lifestyle, lost 100 pounds, and discovered I fell in love with weight lifting. By the time I entered my 30s I decided to do the craziest thing, enter a bodybuilding competition.

This is something that would have always been impossible for me as the girl who has always been obese for most of her life. So I trained for 5 months and stepped on stage as a figure competitor taking home second place.

I WAS ON TOP OF THE WORLD. IN MY MIND, I HAD "MADE IT!" FINALLY, I WAS THE GIRL I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE. UNTIL IT WAS ALL BEING RIPPED AWAY FROM ME.

Months after competing I became very ill. I was gaining weight rapidly despite all of my efforts, my period was absent, my hair began falling out, my digestion shut down, my body ached and was ate up with inflammation, I suffered from intense fatigue, brain fog, sleep disturbances, and even lost my strength.

This led to a deep depression where I struggled to get out of bed and didn't want to leave the house. I finally gathered the energy to seek help from my doctor because I knew I was really sick.

My doctor looked at my records and said to me "Letisha, you have a history of PCOS and probably still have it. Just keep dieting and exercising. " I left that appointment so hurt and enraged! I have dieted and exercised to the ultimate degree. I was JUST on stage as a bodybuilder. Now I was sick!

No one was giving me answers so I dove into the research and finally began to learn what PCOS truly is. I learned that everything I was doing was making me sicker. The chronic dieting, the overtraining, the lack of sleep, the excess stress, the untreated trauma, and so much of the lifestyle I led thinking I was doing all the right things, was making me sick.

I found healing in functional and holistic medicine but that is when I decided to change careers and start sharing the information that I found was non-existent in my journey. I also got involved in PCOS advocacy after learning how it impacts the body entirely yet there are few resources for those who live with PCOS.

It takes 5-7 doctors on average to get diagnosed and even then 50% with PCOS are undiagnosed. So I decided to become someone who would do something about it and now spend each year fighting for the PCOS community on a lawmaker level in hopes to improve our resources for a better future.

B: What you are doing is so important for the PCOS community, thank you! What challenges did you face when you first started your company and to work with women that have PCOS? How did you overcome them?

L: Everything was a learning curve. I had to learn that what works for someone doesn't work for everyone so being flexible in my methods of coaching was important. I bet I changed my base program 100 times! Which is okay. That is how I learned, grew, and was able to offer better care to my clients. I am still learning, growing, transforming, and changing things in my business to better accommodate the people I serve.

I think the biggest challenge is accepting that you will always be a learner. You will never have it all figured out. You will not be able to help everyone. Once you can accept that you're going to have those struggles and shortcomings it makes the journey much easier and more fulfilling.

B: Ah yes, I have learned that myself as well. It is a difficult lesson but really does make a huge difference.

I know that there are many symptoms that PCOS can present in some women and not in others. Can you shed some light on why that is? And through your experiences working with women, have you seen any that are more common than others?

L: One thing to understand about PCOS is beyond popular belief it is not a reproductive disorder, it is an endocrine disorder. It literally impacts almost every process in your body.

Also, it is a syndrome. This presents differently in different bodies. There are different phenotypes currently stated for PCOS because there are different ways PCOS presents itself.

Some people have cystic ovaries, some do not. Some people have excess androgens, some do not. Some people have irregular or absent ovulation, some do not. One of the most common things I have found in my clients with PCOS is addressing blood sugar management and their stress. A stress assessment shows prolonged stress that can show up in the body with many symptoms. People with PCOS tend to produce higher levels of cortisol (our stress hormone) and have higher oxidative stress. Already out of the gate, we're more stressed than our non-PCOS peers. Then you add on stressors of life, poor diets, poor lifestyle, over or under-exercising, trauma, toxins in our environment, and so many other stressors it just adds fuel to the fire.

B: Oh yes, I think that we don’t truly realize the effect that chronic stress has on the mind and body until everything gets so jacked up that we have no choice but to finally address it. And we don’t think of all of the stressors that you mentioned as actual “ stress” . So it’s important to recognize these as well. Thank you for sharing those.

L: Absolutely! Then upwards to 80%, according to some experts, of people with PCOS have some form of insulin resistance. This is a big root issue as that can cause excess insulin production which can not only cause the body to have increased stress, inflammation, gain weight, but can also stimulate the ovaries to produce more androgen hormones such as testosterone.

For example, many of my PCOS clients may come in with a symptom of weight gain and wanting to lose weight. They've been told their entire life that is the problem, their doctors even tell them to lose weight to improve their PCOS.

BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY, THE WEIGHT IS NOT THE ISSUE. IT'S A SYMPTOM OF SOMETHING BIGGER UNDERNEATH.

I like to look at the client’s functional health issues such as insulin resistance, prolonged stress, chronic inflammation, and so on. Once you address those root issues the symptoms such as weight gain tend to improve and when I don't make the entire process all about their weight it also tends to improve their mental health and mindset about the whole experience.

B: Oh yes, I often say “Weight loss doesn’t equal wellness” for this very same reason. It’s amazing what a change in focus can do! You've got a great online "Crash Course" designed to help women with PCOS gain a greater understanding of what PCOS is and how to manage their symptoms in order to get their life back in balance. From that, what would you say are 3 key components to start to pay attention to when a woman is just starting to learn more about PCOS and how to manage it? (under my breath: please say gut health, please say gut health!)

I never want someone to have to experience what I went through. That is what got me started.

L: Just three?! Haha! The Crash Course is a great option for those who want to tackle their journey on their own, aren't ready for a coachto-client commitment, or need a handy resource beyond that covers all things PCOS.

If I were to choose three key components to pay attention to, I would go with the 3 basic things I work on when I get the chance to work with someone who has PCOS one on one:

STRESS MANAGEMENT, IMPROVING GUT HEALTH (YAY!) AND MANAGING BLOOD SUGAR.

I'm sure most people think I would jump straight to hormones but I can't do that work until these areas are in a good place.

Stress management is an area that I sound like a broken record on. Every area of the body from a health perspective is improved with stress management. It's so important! Then the gut is one of the first things I address because it is the foundation of our health. This is where your immune system lies, where you can harvest a lot of excess inflammation that exacerbates PCOS, and even your mental health is impacted by the state of your gut.

Every client I work with goes through a gut support protocol according to their needs. If I were to dive straight into hormones it could disrupt the gut and we'd have to backtrack.

So while I am helping them reduce stress I am also helping them clean up their gut health which results in reversing many symptoms right away.

Then blood sugar management is another huge area for those with PCOS. Many of the issues in PCOS can come back to insulin. If we are not living a lifestyle that supports a good balance in this area our PCOS can get out of hand easily. Once these three areas are addressed you may find your symptoms improving substantially or at least easier to tackle the other health concerns you have surrounding PCOS.

B: Excellent! Yes, all good places to start. Of course, I’m partial to gut health as a main one, so I’m truly happy that you mentioned that. Whether you have PCOS or not, gut health is truly linked to everything in the body, so it’s important to make sure that’s in order for sure.

I want to mention that you have a Podcast too, which I love by the way! In Episode 19 with Vince Pitstick, you talk about overexercising and metabolic resistance, which isn't talked about nearly enough! Everyone says, "just diet, exercise, and lose weight!" which drives me absolutely f*cking crazy as a recovering serial-dieter and over-exerciser myself (which you clearly know all too well about!) Can you talk more about these common traps and how they can affect women with PCOS in particular?

L: This topic is near and dear to my heart because I fell into that trap oh-so easily. I blame a lot of it on the industries that failed me and social media. The medical community always told me "diet and exercise" or "just lose weight. " The fitness industry, especially on social media, gave me messages like "go harder" "beast mode" "no days off" "grind" "hustle" "no excuses. "

We've all seen it. The influencers doing two-aday workouts, or people making you feel the need to always increase your weight or reps, the constant drive and push that you must always be better which translates to work harder or longer. I never felt like I was able to slow down, rest, or recover. I was always chasing the next intense workout to feel validated in the fitness community. Especially as someone with PCOS. When I didn't see the progress, the messages I received were to go harder, do more, and so on. I was told that I must work harder because I have PCOS.

When I struggled to keep up with my intense workouts my trainers made me feel like I was weak which made me push through all the red flags my body gave me. At the time when I was overtraining you didn't have fitness influencers or highly respected individuals in that industry sharing the risks of overtraining or the importance of rest and recovery.

Everyone spoke like more is more and now I know differently. It's easy for me to notice those toxic messages in hindsight but I never thought about it while I was in the thick of it.

I THOUGHT I WAS DOING GREAT BECAUSE THE SAYING IN THE FITNESS SPACE IS "THE PERSON WHO SUFFERS THE MOST LOOKS THE BEST. " GOSH, HOW TOXIC IS THAT?!

No one cared if you were screwing up your hormones, making yourself sick, it was all about how well you performed and looked. I would suggest those who may be starting their journey or are in the thick of it like I was to start paying attention to who your influencers are.

The people you idolize, who mentor you, and you look up to... do they have your health in their best interest?

Are they sharing about the impact of stress and overtraining on your hormones, PCOS, your health? Do they encourage rest and recovery times? Do they encourage meeting your body where it is at? Do they encourage lower intensity movements? Do they have an all-or-nothing attitude around fitness? I think you're able to catch on with the answers to those questions if the people you're being influenced by, or not, are a healthy fit for you.

B: From your Podcast to your Crash Course, you are doing amazing things to inspire women with, or without, PCOS! Who inspires you, and why?

L: This may sound self-absorbed, but myself. I never want someone to have to experience what I went through. That is what got me started. But over this amazing journey meeting so many others, hearing their stories, learning about the trials they face, I can also say the entire community of people struggling with their health inspires me.

So many people are left to feel like they have no hope in living the life they want, living in a body that feels good. I want to be someone who shows them there is hope. It drives me to be better and do more every single day.

B: I like that! “Be your own inspiration. ” I smell an IG post coming up on that! I like to ask every woman that we spotlight: What is one part of your own wellness routine that you would recommend our readers to try, and why?

L: One thing that is now a non-negotiable part of my wellness routine is sleep. I prioritize sleep over almost anything. My goal is to get 79hrs a night of good quality sleep. If I do not get this good quality sleep then I know on those days not to push my body so hard.

Something I had to do in order to make sleep a priority is to create a sleep ritual. Pick approximately three things you do every night to prepare your body for sleep. For me that meant setting a bedtime, I love to drink chamomile lavender tea and relax with a heating pad on my shoulders. I also love a good bedtime meditation.

B: Is there anything else that you would like to share with the WomanBeeWell audience?

L: You are wildly capable of doing hard things!

B: You’ve shared some amazing insight into your own PCOS story that will certainly help other women that may be dealing with the same things. The foundational knowledge you’ve shared around mind/body connectivity is particularly empowering for our fellow cysters. Thank you so much, Letisha!