7 Steps to Healthy Hormones - Step 1: LifeStyle

STEP 1: LIFESTYLE

Take inventory of your lifestyle to find out whether poor eating habits, lack of exercise, lack of sleep, your environment or stress may be affecting your hormone balance. Make a list of things you can change that will have a positive impact on your health. Pick one thing from the list and write down the steps you would need to take to make that change. 

In Dr. Christiane Northrup's Hormone-Balancing Food Plan, she asks patients to eliminate refined carbohydrates, such as sugar, white rice, bread, alcohol, and foods made with white flour, such as muffins, bagels, pasta, pretzels and other snack foods. 

If you reintroduce a certain food, do it one at a time, journal your symptoms, and see if you should stay away from that food permanently.

Endocrine Disruptors:

Your environment can also be the boogie man there to rob you of healthy hormonal function. Endocrine disruptors are the hidden toxins that are ruining everyone’s health. In men, endocrine disruptors enlarge breasts, reduce sperm count and increase the chance of prostate cancer. In women, they affect pap smears, encourage early onset of puberty and increase the chance of breast cancer.

In both sexes, they slow down the thyroid.

Endocrine disruptors are common in many traditional building supplies and environments, including polyvinyl flooring and wall coverings, wall-to-wall carpeting (a carcinogen magnet), high VOC paints, stains and sealants, and poor indoor air quality as a result of insufficient ventilation. 

Xenoestrogens are another invisible culprit; they hijack your natural hormones and have reproductive and developmental consequences. In a typical day, we are exposed to more than 700; in toothpaste, deodorant, sunscreen, food preservatives, the lining of cans that hold food, and many kinds of plastic.

You can start making positive changes to your lifestyle now. We have made it easy. Visit with our LifeStyle Educator to learn how you can make positive LifeStyle changes that will improve your hormonal health.

Take that first step!

Positive change happen one step at a time.

Schedule a visit with our LifeStyle Educator to set goals

and work on Healthy LifeStyle habits.

7 Steps to Healthy Hormones

If you’re just beginning the journey to optimal health, naturally balancing your hormones can seem like a daunting and confusing road to travel. Just take it one step at a time! I will be posting about some simple steps that  can help set you on the path to optimal hormonal health. But first of all, let's talk about what hormones do.

WHAT ARE HORMONES?

One of my colleagues gave this great description in explaining hormones. She refers to the three main hormones for women “Charlie’s Angels” – they are cortisol, thyroid and estrogen. Men have got the “Three Amigos” – cortisol, thyroid and testosterone. These hormones regulate metabolism, sleep cycle, energy levels, mood and sex drive. 

Think of them as a well-connected family that works together to manage all the important processes within the body. When they don’t work together well, it is as damaging as a dysfunctional family.

Hormones, such as estrogen and insulin, are chemical messengers that affect many aspects of your health as they travel in your bloodstream throughout your entire body.  Organs and glands like your thyroid, adrenals, pituitary, ovaries, testicles and pancreas regulate most of your hormone production and if your hormones become even slightly imbalanced it can cause major health issues.

COMMON SIDE EFFECTS OF HORMONAL IMBALANCES:

·                                        Infertility

·                                        Weight gain

·                                        Depression

·                                        Fatigue

·                                        Insomnia

·                                        Low libido

·                                        Hair loss and hair thinning

Unfortunately, modern medicine has taught doctors to throw a prescription at these problems and leave it at that. Learn to take responsibility for your own health. That is the first step towards making lasting changes to your hormonal health. Be educated, be informed. Put yourself in the driver’s seat of your own health and engage informed practitioners who will support your health goals. Know what your part is and what part you need help with. Then partner with trusted practitioner's who will work with you in supporting your goals for Healthy Hormonal Balance.

7 Simple Steps to Vibrant Health: Step 1: Thinking Well

I want my clients to know that achieving optimal, vibrant health can be easy! I have come up with 7 Simple Steps to help them create Vibrant Health and I am sharing them with you. By practicing each step, day by day, you will notice long term results when it comes to your health! I often tell my clients, do one thing, each and every day, and before you know it, you will realize that vibrant health is not so hard to achieve! So let's get ready ....



STEP 1:       THINK WELL          

1. Set SMART Goals
1. Specific - Define what Vibrant Health means to you. Does your goal clearly and specifically state what you are trying to achieve? If your goal is particularly large or lofty, try breaking it down into smaller, specific SMART goals. What are your specific goals regarding your health? Write them down. Be very specific so your subconscious mind can go to work on them.
2. Measurable - A goal needs to me monitored and measurable. You have to know if you are hitting your targets and if not, readjust! How will you (and others) know if progress is being made on achieving your goal? Can you quantify or put numbers to your outcome? 
3. Attainable - Is achieving your goal dependent on anyone else? Is it possible to reframe your goal so it only depends on you and not others? What factors may prevent you from accomplishing your goal?  
4. Relevant: Why is achieving this goal important to you? What values in your life does this goal reflect? What effect will achieving your goal have on your life or on others? Knowing how being able to do the things you want to do with the people you want to do them with is a great motivator when it comes to your health goals.
5. Time-Bound: When will you reach your goal? Again, if your goal is particularly large, try breaking it down into smaller goals with appropriate incremental deadlines. A good goal is something that can be reached, in the amount of time you decide to achieve it. If you have a big goal, like losing 50 pounds for example, then a SMART Goal would look like this: "I will lose 50 pounds" in one year's time". It can also be beneficial to break that goal into smaller increments and measure your successes as you go. For example: "I will lose 10 pounds in 2 months time. I will achieve this by increasing my exercise to 40 minutes, 5 days a week; I will eliminate pop from my diet; and I will increase my daily intake of green vegetables to 4 cups per day.
6. When you do hit your goal, celebrate it! Celebrate all the win's in your life and in the lives of those you love!
   
2. Do Daily Affirmations
3. Consider your best self – hope for it, see it, and believe it!
4. Be kind to yourself
1. Incorporate self-loving habits into your life
2.  Believe in miracles and expect them!