What Are Hormones And Why Balancing Your Hormones Is Key To Your Health?
Do you ever think back to your school days and wonder why your education was centered around things you’ve never used? But totally skipped the parts you wish you had learned…
Taxes, investments, and hormone changes would all have been super helpful to learn back then!
Unfortunately for so many women, we only learn about hormone changes when it starts happening to us. Wouldn’t it be great to understand all of this and have a chance to prepare and establish healthy habits before symptoms start?
Instead, we slowly feel the onset of symptoms start to appear. Your period might become increasingly irregular, but that’s easy to blame on stress. Then, you struggle to sleep through the night. Again, you pass this off as stress from the never-ending to-do list in your head. Lethargy starts getting in the way of exercise, which easily gets blamed on the lack of sleep.
One by one, the symptoms start affecting different areas of your life. And one day it hits you. Your body is changing and it turns out that several parts of your daily routine are making the symptoms a whole lot worse than they need to be. It makes you just want to scream, “Can I get a freaking break?!”
I get it, and I’m here to help you start balancing your hormones!
In fact, one of my favorite things about my career is helping fellow women manage their perimenopause symptoms. And I can help you, too!
What Are Hormones Anyway?
You always hear about hormones, but do you really understand what they are?
Here’s a little refresher to help you understand what’s happening inside your body:
It starts with your endocrine glands. These are a special group of cells that make hormones. Then, hormones travel through your bloodstream to tissues and organs throughout your body like secret little chemical messengers.
Over time, these small but mighty messenger hormones affect different processes in your body, including:
How your body gets energy from food (metabolism)
Your period cycle
Sexual function (libido)
Your mood (both good and bad!)
Weight gain and weight loss
Ready to manage your hormones naturally? Contact me today to learn how my program can help!
What Does It Mean To Balance Your Hormones?
As you enter into the phase of perimenopause, your estrogen production slows down. And this is totally normal! In fact, your body makes the majority of your estrogen during your reproductive years. So don’t be alarmed that your estrogen decreases as you age out of your reproductive years.
Unfortunately, low estrogen levels cause the hormones in your body to essentially go totally out of whack. The symptoms of imbalanced hormones can include:
Trouble sleeping through the night
Daytime fatigue
Acne
Low libido
Bloating
Weight gain
Trouble concentrating
Mood swings
However, it’s not all bad news!
You can stabilize your hormones through various lifestyle strategies. And that’s just what my program is designed to help you do!
5 Ways To Start Balancing Your Hormones Today
Add these habits into your daily routine to start feeling great again!
Want to learn more tips to start balancing your hormones? Contact me and let’s get started!
1. Eat A Diet Full Of Hormone-Regulating Foods
It’s important to remember that (almost) everything is fine in moderation. I urge my clients to stick to either an 80/20 or 90/10 diet. This means eating whole, natural hormone-regulating foods 80-90% of the time. And, of course, giving yourself permission to indulge the other 10-20% of the time.
The hormone-regulating foods that should be key components of your diet include:
Cruciferous vegetables
Omega-3s
Lean protein
Cruciferous vegetables
Leafy green cruciferous vegetables are anti-inflammatory antioxidants high in protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Incorporating a daily serving into your diet will help reduce or eliminate several pesky perimenopause symptoms like inflammation, weight gain, lethargy, and more.
Omega-3s
If you are a sushi lover, this shouldn’t be hard! Omega-3s are found in wild-caught fish, egg yolks, flaxseed, and tree nuts, which can all help reduce symptoms like headaches, hair loss, fatigue, anxiety, and acne.
Lean protein
Eating protein provides the building blocks for healthy hormones as many are made from protein. Additionally, our muscle mass decreases with age. So eating protein combined with strength training exercises helps us maintain our muscle mass and increase our metabolism.
Furthermore, the secret to maintaining your blood sugar stability is to pair lean proteins with fiber and healthy fats. When you combine protein, fiber, and healthy fat, it helps to stabilize your blood sugar throughout the day. Plus, it also helps you reduce inflammation, lose weight, and balance your hormones long term.
2. Avoid Inflammatory Foods That Cause Worsening Perimenopause Symptoms
While you add hormone-regulating foods into your diet, you should also consider avoiding these inflammatory foods:
Processed foods
Sugar
Gluten
Dairy
Processed Foods
Whole, natural, and unprocessed foods are key to stabilizing your hormones. Everything in the body is connected. And eating processed foods can lead to a cycle of poor gut health which contributes to fluctuating hormones, increased inflammation, and even symptoms of depression and anxiety.
In turn, these symptoms continue the spiral of additional worsening perimenopause symptoms, including weight gain. My program teaches you to quickly and strategically shop for hormone-regulating foods at the grocery store. Allowing you to easily ditch processed foods and feel your perimenopause symptoms start to go away.
Sugar
Avoid sweets and other foods like cakes, pastries, sweetened coffee drinks, and sauces that are packed with sugar. Doing so will help balance your hormones, decrease inflammation, and help with that stubborn belly fat.
Gluten
If you have a gluten sensitivity, it’s important to realize gluten is doing more than causing stomach problems and headaches. When gluten causes inflammation, it causes your body to produce extra cortisol. And this can lead to adrenal fatigue and a cycle of imbalanced hormones.
Dairy
Lactose intolerant or not, cheese and full-fat dairy products can worsen your perimenopause symptoms. Avoid dairy and other foods high in saturated fat and start feeling better!
As mentioned above, everything in the body is connected. Sources of poor gut health and inflammation correlate and can result in many worsening perimenopause symptoms. Eating the right foods (and avoiding the wrong ones) is key to maintaining gut health for your overall health and hormone balance.
3. Move Your Body However You See Fit
I love to get movement in by taking quick walks between meetings and attending yoga and HIIT classes whenever possible. However, it doesn’t matter how you move your body as long as you do it!
For instance, if you have a napping baby at home and can’t leave, try a 30-minute online HIIT workout. If the chores pile up and you can’t stand the stack of dishes, put on some music and dance your way through your tasks. Stuck behind your desk or hours of back-to-back meetings? Try some quick floor exercises and take the stairs instead of the elevator when coming and going from your office.
See a pattern here? The goal is to get your body moving, and it doesn’t necessarily matter how you do it. 30-60 minutes of heart-pumping exercise a day can really help your hormones get back in balance. Plus, exercise will help you get back into your favorite jeans you’ve been feeling too bloated to wear!
4. Chill Out Because Stress Makes Your Hormonal Imbalance Worse
Our bodies release a hormone called cortisol when we’re stressed. Unfortunately, stress and elevated cortisol can result in weight gain that’s hard to lose.
As a busy, ambitious woman, the last thing you need on your plate is additional stress. Fortunately, there are simple ways to effectively manage your stress so you can get back to fully enjoying life!
Try these destressing strategies to avoid burnout and to keep yourself focused on all your goals.
Ask For Help
Don’t forget that there are people who love and care about you. If you are having a hard time, reach out to a loved one. Whether to just let them know you are having a hard day or asking for help with something specific, it may surprise you how willing people are to help!
Maybe your neighbor can scoop up your curbside grocery order. Or send off your mountain of dirty laundry to a wash and fold service. Maybe you could use a housekeeper every once in a while to take some other tasks off your to-do list.
The point is to stop trying to do everything on your own, especially if you have someone in your corner willing and able to lend a helping hand.
Meditate
People have been using meditation to relieve stress for ages. Why not give it a try? You can meditate anytime and anywhere. All it really takes is a moment to close your eyes, take deep breaths, and allow intrusive thoughts to slip away. Try the Calm app and take advantage of their library of free guided meditations.
Practice Gratitude
You know those days when everything seems to be going wrong? You wake up late, realize you are out of coffee, the house is a mess, a kid throws up on your way out the door, and by the time you make it to the office, you have dozens of urgent messages to deal with.
Those days are rough! Instead of letting stress get the best of you, try making a list of the things you are grateful for. This can include enjoying a sunset, basking in the sun shine, a great job you love, healthy children (even if one of them puked on your shoes this morning), or helpful neighbors you can rely on. It’s amazing what practicing gratitude can do for your perspective.
5. Practice Self Care & Prioritize Your Own Wellbeing
When you spend your days running around being everything to everyone else, it’s easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle. So don’t forget that YOU are your main priority.
Yes, you can prioritize your health, wellness, and happiness without letting others down. When you take time to care for yourself, you will have more energy to help others.
Your form of self care could be reading a book, soaking in a bath with Epsom salt, having a spa day, or just laying out in the sun like a lizard (be sure to put on sunscreen though)!
Find what brings you joy and make non-negotiable appointments with yourself.
Balance Your Hormones & Get Back To Feeling Great
So many things in life are easier said than done. However, balancing your hormones doesn’t have to fall into that category.
My program is designed for busy, ambitious women like you who need guidance in navigating perimenopause. Together, we’ll figure out attainable changes that won’t upend your entire lifestyle. Because, honestly, nobody has time for that!
Reach out to me today to get a discovery call on the books. I can’t wait to see your transformation!