20 Jun Balance your hormones for a more youthful you!
A high-stress lifestyle coupled with improper eating habits can wreak havoc on a woman’s delicate hormonal balance. Even healthy women following a good diet may find challenges with hormone balance.
Symptoms of hormonal imbalance may include PMS, osteoporosis, weight gain, altered sex drive, allergies, uterine fibroids, urinary tract infections, changes in the skin, fatigue, anxiety, water retention, hair loss, facial hair growth and even depression. By keeping hormones in balance, women can find it easier to maintain a healthy weight, keep a regular menstrual cycle, experience and easy menopausal transition, as well as exude optimal energy levels.
When out of balance hormones may wreak havoc.
Basic hormone imbalance causes are:
Less than optimum nutrition: Excellent nutrition provides your body with all the necessary tools to balance hormones naturally.
Stress and adrenal exhaustion: Stress is a major factor in hormone imbalance. And under prolonged stress, and a lack of enough sleep and rest your adrenal glands can’t continue to do their job.
Glandular or insulin imbalance: Your endocrine gland system, responsible for hormone production, can be negatively affected by a wide range of conditions, like yo-yo dieting, stress, drugs or illnesses.
Chemicals, stimulants and drugs: Medications, painkillers, stimulants like caffeine, toxins and hormones from pesticides in our food, water and air can mimic estrogen and interfere with our natural hormone balance.
Food allergies and gut issues: gut health plays a significant role in hormone regulation. If you have a lack of beneficial probiotic bacteria lining your intestinal wall, the more susceptible to hormonal problems you are. Inflammation usually stems from your gut and then impacts nearly every aspect of your health.
9 ways to support hormone balancing for a more youthful you!
1) Remove Gluten and Dairy as they are the most common food intolerances. Research suggests that going gluten free can reduce fatness, inflammation and insulin resistance. Food intolerances tend to raise stress hormones such as cortisol, and they can trigger inflammation.
2) Eat Healthy Fats – Eating a variety of foods high in short, medium and long-chain fatty acids is key to keeping your hormones in check. Your body needs various types of fats to create hormones, including saturated fat and cholesterol. These are building blocks for hormone production, and they keep inflammation levels low, boost your metabolism and promote weight loss. Some favorite sources of anti-inflammatory, healthy fats include: coconut oil, avocados, grass-fed butter and wild-caught salmon. Coconut oil (or cream/milk) has natural anti-bacterial and fat-burning effects. Avocado benefits include improving heart health, lowering inflammation, controlling your appetite and contributing to your daily intake of fiber and nutrients such as potassium. Salmon is is one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which are known to lower inflammation and help with cognitive functions.
3) Balance Your Intake of Omega-3 to Omega-6 Fats –
Many people have elevated omega-6 levels which can lead to chronic diseases caused by inflammatory processes because of very disproportionate fatty acids in the Western modern diet.
Omega-3 fatty acids are a large component of brain-cell membranes and are important for cell-to-cell communication in the brain. Be sure to steer clear from oils high in omega 6 fats (safflower, sunflower, corn, cottonseed, canola, soybean and peanut), and load up on rich sources of natural omega-3s instead (wild fish, flaxseed, chia seeds, walnuts and grass-fed animal products).
4) Improve gut health – Gut problems have been found to trigger autoimmune reactions, including arthritis and thyroid disorders. When undigested food particles, like gluten for example, leak through your gut into your bloodstream, it causes inflammation that impacts the entire body, especially glands like the thyroid which is very susceptible to heightened inflammation. Most people with gut challenges have an a deficiency of probiotics (healthy bacteria) that can actually improve your production and regulation of key hormones like insulin, ghrelin and leptin. Stay away from foods that can cause damage in your digestive system most, including: processed foods, gluten, hydrogenated oils and added sugar. The top foods that support a healthy gut are ibone broth, kefir, fermented vegetables, and high-fiber foods like vegetables and sprouted seeds.
5) Eliminate Toxic Kitchen, Beauty and Body Care Products
Another way to eliminate toxins in your body which wreack havoc on hormones is to avoid conventional body care products that are made with potentially-harmful chemicals including DEA, parabens, propylene glycol and sodium lauryl sulfate. A better alternative is to use natural products made with ingredients like essential oils, coconut oil, shea butter and castor oil. Another thing to consider is your use of plastic bottles, aluminum cans and containers. It’s best to replace plastic and aluminum with glass and stainless steel because of the toxic effects of BPA. Switch from teflon pans to stainless steel, ceramic or cast iron, which can make a big difference in the amount of chemicals that get into your food.
6) High intensity interval training is known to help reduce body fat and decrease stress hormones. It involves exercising at a high intensity for 30-75 seconds, separated by 2-3 minutes of exercising at a lower intensity. These bursts of high intensity training allow for far more fat loss than steady cardio. Undereating protein and overeating carbs can lead to weight gain. Lentils, legumes, organic wild-caught salmon or cod, or organic grass-fed beef are anti-inflammatory proteins that can help keep you full and nourish your body.
7) Manage Stress as chronic stress raises cortisol levels which can lead to weight gain, fat storage and the breakdown of muscles. Find a way to manage your stress, whether it’s through essential oil baths, yoga, meditation, exercise or a creative outlet.
8) Sleep and rest enough as sleep helps keep stress hormones balanced, builds energy and allows the body to recover properly. Excessive stress and poor sleep are linked with higher levels of morning cortisol, decreased immunity, trouble with work performance, and a higher susceptibility to anxiety, weight gain and depression. To maximize hormone function, ideally try to get to bed by 10 p.m and stick with a regular sleep-wake-cycle as much as possible. 7 -8 hours of sleep helps burn visceral fat. Sleep keeps cortisol and insulin levels in check, so make sure you’re getting a good night’s rest on a regular basis.
9) Limit Fructose as fructose is the most metabolically hurtful sugar. It doesn’t tell your brain when you’re full, so you still feel hungry and keep eating. Fructose goes straight to the liver where it creates fat and triggers insulin and leptin resistance, resulting in inflammation.
Come find out this Thursday about the optimum foods and lifestyle habits that can help you escape hormonal slavery and balance hormones naturally…
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In this 2 hr workshop you will learn simple tools to help you naturally balance your hormones, heal your digestion, boost adrenals and feel vibrantly alive, well and more youthful!.
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