Holistic ways to balancing hormones, today.
Happy December! I can’t believe we are officially in the last month of 2023.
I love December because I truly do love Christmas and it is a time of some serious reflection.
What was the year like? How do I want to be better next year? What should I leave behind?
Anyway, I digress.
Let’s talk about holistic ways to balancing hormones.
This is a big topic amongst women. Even myself.
It feels like from the moment we get our first menstrual cycle in our teens, then to pregnancy, postpartum and all the way to menopause, we are always having to find ways to manage them.
Many women are given birth control to control them at a very early age, are diagnosed with PCOS or as a doctor recently said to me “it’s just adult acne.”
Ugh, I really do not like those answers. Like huh?
Acne is a hormonal imbalance. Something is not right internally. Give me a little more than that!
Signs and symptoms of hormonal imbalance
- Acne
- Heavy or painful periods
- Low libido
- Weight gain
- Headaches
- Fertility problems
- Insomnia / poor sleep
- Mood swings
- Weak bones
- Vaginal dryness
So what are holistic ways to balancing your hormones?
It always goes back to the basics. As it does for everything else but depending on your situation you have to try different things and see what sticks. The deeper I get into longevity and health, the more clear it just becomes that health is so incredibly individual.
Just because a supplement works for an influencer, does not mean it will work for you. Same with skincare. I know that is usually hard because it is so easy to be influenced and want to look just like someone else does, but unfortunately that same recipe that works for them, won’t work for us.
Trust, I have gotten influenced many times over the years. I still do at times but now I am more skeptical. Every supplement and skincare is always going to be THE BEST THING EVER. You know what I mean? It’s just selling techniques.
I have spent a lot of money on what seemed to be the magic trick to find out later that it wasn’t.
So how do you balance your own specific hormones?
Like I mentioned earlier, going back to the basics. If that doesn’t completely work then you try more, by trial and error.
Holistic Ways to Balancing Hormones
Nutrition | Whole nutrient dense foods. Cut out ultra-processed foods as much as possible, reduce sugar intake, drink a lot of water (eliminate soda and sugary drinks), and cook more at home. Add fatty fish for omega-3s. Foods high in omega-3s are known to balance out hormones. Flaxseed and chia seeds are another staple to have on hand. Eat enough protein and fiber.
Fitness | Exercise 150 minutes a week. Get your heart rate up. Lift weights twice a week. Also, don’t over do it! Overdoing it with exercise and not balancing it out and getting enough rest can lead to adrenal fatigue and stress within the body with too much cortisol.
Eliminate tobacco | Tobacco is linked to so many health issues. Menstrual cycle changes and reproductive health being one of them. This means vaping too.
Reduce alcohol as much as possible | Alcohol forces changes in the endocrine system. It can disrupt menstrual cycles by raising estrogen levels. Any disruption in our system leads to disease.
Sleep | Sleep is so incredibly important for every single function in our body. This should probably be the top on this list.
Manage stress | Cortisol can play a really big role in disrupting your endocrine system (where our hormones come from). Meditation, yoga and breathwork are a great way to reduce stress. Sleeping is a great way to manage stress.
Take care of your gut | The microbiomes in our gut play a big role in regulating hormones because it regulates insulin resistance. Insulin resistance can lead to type 2 diabetes.
Following these 7 principles will help you heal a lot of health issues in addition to balancing out your hormones, which is a huge win.
Which gets me to, if you are doing most of these things but still have lingering symptoms then it’s time to try more. For example for me, I out of nowhere got mild acne. It happened after my second baby and breastfeeding for 19 months. I am now 34-years old, so I can’t compare how my body bounced back after my first pregnancy when I was 28-years old.
I eat well, I work out 5-6 days a week, I manage my stress, I go to bed early, I don’t drink alcohol, I haven’t used tobacco in what feels like ages. How could I possibly still have this acne?
Well, my body is different now I am sure after having 2 babies. I am wired to get to the root of the issue so for the past year I have been doing so much trial and error.
Which made me realize after some blood work, I needed to do things differently and pay more attention to my cardiovascular health, which in turn will help balance out my hormones. By altering things due to the blood work, I have already seen dramatic changes.
I don’t have the acne I used to have as of very recently. I get one pimple right before my menstrual cycle but that is it. I have lingering hyperpigmentation from the cystic acne but that is something I am currently taking care of with skincare products, and it is working!
I had to really write down my everyday habits to see where I needed to make changes. One of the things that stood out to me is that I was only really doing yoga and Pilates. No strength training and no cardio.
So what I have started to do is this:
- Juicing more, especially in the morning and on an empty stomach, to get more bioavailable nutrients in my system. The vitamins and antioxidants are known to reduce cholesterol.
- Intermittent fasting 1-2 days a week. 16 hours off and 8 hours on. This is not for everyone though and such a sensitive subject. Always speak to a healthcare professional. Especially because as women we can’t really take advice from men doing intermittent fasting. Their hormones are not fluctuating and depending on how old we are, then there are different forms of doing fasting.
- Cardio and strength training. It is a must for longevity and balancing out hormones.
The power of really looking at your everyday habits is incredible. I thought I was doing all the right things, which on paper I was, but my body was letting me know that I needed to do something differently.
Let me tell you though, it took me an entire year to finally figure it out how to get rid of this acne. Trial and error is the answer. Trying something multiple times until you finally figure it out. Sometimes the road is easy and sometimes it is not. It can be incredibly frustrating and long but so worth it in the end.
Live Well Longer Membership
The Live Well Longer membership is almost here!!!
This is going to be a place for you to be able to heal holistically with many other women who are walking on the same path. Who want to finally feel good.
What does your future look like? Do you see yourself mentally and physically active or do you think you will be in a nursing home? How do you want to play with your future grandchildren? What do you want to be able to do when you retire?
These important questions will help you understand what longevity means.
Chronic diseases and not being able to function on our own as we get older starts years and years earlier.
You can reverse that and not go down the same road as maybe many of your family members have gone through.
Sign up here to be the first to find out when it officially launches.
It will be for $1 a day. Completely self-led because health is very individidual. With fun workshops in between that you can attend live.
I can’t wait to see you there!
Still unclear on what holistic health coaching is? Find out more here.
I hope you have a beautiful holiday and see you soon!!!
Alejandra at Living Well Co.