The Best Hormone Regulators
Balancing your hormones truly is an art, but there are some simple, daily practices that you can implement to begin the process of hormone regulation since so much of your balance is connected to how your body interprets and handles stress.
Let’s be honest, without specific blood work, you cannot know exactly what is going on with your hormones. In fact, most OBGYNs only request the most basic lab work which only skims the surface of what’s going on in your body. So while I will always recommend you talk to your doctor about any diagnosis, I also ask you to advocate for yourself. Don’t settle for “answers like”:
“You just need to eat better.”
“You have a thyroid issue.”
“You’re pre-diabetic.”
“Looks like everything is fine.”
If you don’t feel fine or experience symptoms such as:
extreme body temperatures
hot flashes
intense periods
irregular periods
extreme mood swings
exhaustion even though you’re sleeping
trouble sleeping
brain fog
excess belly fat (even though you workout and try to eat healthily)
weight plateau
…and so much more, you need to seek a second opinion.
Meanwhile, there is so much more that you can do. My husband and I have spent the last year doing these practices as well as a dozen or so more to improve my hormone health and help my body, going through perimenopause, conceive. While we still pray and await our future baby, we know that all the practices I am sharing with you today and more have helped me to optimize my health, and reduce symptoms immensely. It’s worth it!
First of all, all of my information not only comes from my training and certification as a nutrition coach, but also through hours of research from Holistic OB/GYN’s and other certified specialists. Not to mention seeing it time and time again work in my clients’ lives. You have the power to change how your hormones express themselves and how you feel. Start with these 3 steps and you will feel better for sure!
1.Eat a whole food diet focusing on protein and healthy fats:
You have probably heard me say before that protein and healthy fats help you feel fuller longer as well as regulate blood sugar levels. Since your hormones are made in your gut, eating a variety of whole foods is sure-fire way heal your gut, making hormone regulation easier for your body. Don’t forget that your hormones travel through your blood, so if you’re consuming high amounts of processed foods, alcohols, and carbs, your hormones will have a harder time communicating. Think of it this way, your pipes are clogged and so it’s harder for any chemical messages (hormones) to make its way through the system. That is what leads to symptoms such as excess belly fat, mood swings, hot flashes, and more.
2. Switch out chemically laden products for botanically based products.
Your body absorbs anything you put on it in under a minute! That means if you’re personal care products, cleaning products, and even the containers you eat and drink from contain harsh chemicals, those are clogging up your system too! The challenging part with this is 1) cost & 2) immediate results. It is expensive to switch out your products all at once and I don’t recommend that strategy. Start when you run out of something and slowly switch over. You can easily do that in half a year! Let me share a quick story:
I have low estrogen…like below average low. Now there is a synthetic variation of estrogen in plastics, fragrances, and other chemically laden products. When your estrogen levels are low, your body temperature is harder to regulate and you can experience extreme hot flashes (mine were up to over a dozen a day with sweat dripping down my body and nausea, all while sitting doing nothing). This has been my experience these last few months. And one of the MAIN reasons I avoid fragrances, drinking from a plastic water bottle, and using any personal care products that have chemicals. It helps to reduce my symptoms of low estrogen. While visiting a friend recently, I saw how those endocrine disruptors directly and immediately impacted my hormones. They had those fragrance plug-ins in EVERY room in their house. While I unplugged the one in the guest room and bathroom, the strong scent was still there. That night, I woke up covered in sweat multiple times from hot flashes. My body was immediately reacting to the SMELL of the lingering fragrance left in the room. As soon as we left the house and I was outdoors again, I saw a reduction in hot flashes and felt much better.
So does what you put on your body and even in your home matter? Absolutely! Here are our favorite brands:
Personal Care Products - Arbonne (message me to get 20-30% off your order) but these are our favorites in use in our home today.
Cleaning and Laundry - Branch Basics
Ditch Plastic with these products:
Glass tupperwear
While those are just a few to get you started, it’s a great place to begin!
3. Ditching the long cardio workouts for short HIIT workouts and Strength Training workouts.
So many women, (I used to be one of them) fall into the guise that doing hours of cardio will help you lose weight and burn fat. And that’s just not true. Yes, steady-state cardio has a time and a place. I do love a good jog. But hours daily only spike your cortisol levels and when too intense and little to no recovery, it can keep cortisol elevated creating your body to go into fat storage mode instead of fat-burn mode. When cortisol is high, the rest of your hormones don’t communicate as well. Oftentimes, insulin will kick into storage mode too. Giving you the opposite effect of what you were hoping for. So try Short HIIT workouts instead. ( High-Intensity Interval Training) They are great to get your heart rate up and burn fat without keeping cortisol levels high.
I know so many women are hesitant to start resistance or strength training, but building muscle mass will help you burn more fat since muscle burns fat! The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn! Bonus, you can actually work to reduce the fat you see on your body this way!
So consider changing HOW your workout to see
Want a step-by-step approach to changing how you feel and empower yourself to change how your body feels? I have an easy-to-follow and apply SELF-GUIDED Online Course:
Learn more by clicking the link.
