Hi! Today I am going to be sharing 3 amazing foods to help balance your hormones naturally! Please remember to always consult your physician or book a consultation with me before implementing diet changes, especially if you are experiencing thyroid conditions or are taking any medications.
You can watch the 15-minute video where I go into all of this, or continue reading below!
Balancing our hormones using more natural methods is a relatively safe and effective way of experiencing relief from some of the uncomfortable symptoms we live with as women. Oftentimes, many of our hormonal imbalances can be linked to the quality of food that we’re eating or even a lack of specific nutrients in our daily diets. So knowing some foods that are particularly amazing for your hormones can be handy when that time of the month rolls around!
In my last video, “Symptoms of a hormonal imbalance in women & What to do about it”, I shared a bit of my own hormonal hell that I lived through, and that really only scratched the surface. However, I will say today that I’m grateful to have learned what I know about nutrition and lifestyle because they became my saving grace in ending a lot of the hormonal issues and symptoms that I was dealing with. I won’t ever be cured, Endometriosis and PCOS are not curable. But I have been successfully managing my symptoms for 4+ years through diet and lifestyle better than I ever was able to use traditional medicine. It’s been an empowering journey to feel my body change positively in response to adding quality nutrients to my diet. And even though I’ve personally experienced it before, it always amazes me every day to hear how my clients’ bodies are also responding.
It’s just so exciting when they tell me things like: “wow, my period didn’t even hurt this month”; or “omg, my skin has never been this clear before”; or even “I can’t believe that my cycle is so regular now, it’s amazing!”
And since in my practice I focus on helping my clients develop a diet and lifestyle plan that works for them, I really like to focus on ADDING quality nutrients to their diet. Ultimately, there are always things in their diets that should/could be removed for optimal hormone health, but identifying my clients’ specific dietary needs is important in determining how to navigate that.
So with that in mind, let’s have a look at my 3 favourite foods to add for hormonal health!
1. Maca
Maca is a root native to Peru. It is full of antioxidants and is a very popular superfood renowned for easing hormonal imbalances6. Rich in vitamin C, copper, protein, and fiber, Maca is known to help with libido problems, PMS, and hot flashes.
If you have high blood pressure, thyroid hormone issues, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or have PCOS, you should consult with your physician or nutritionist before consuming Maca.
Steep Maca in hot water like tea, and add it to your smoothies, overnight oats, raw protein balls, or even soups!
2. Kale
Kale is a leafy green cruciferous vegetable. Cruciferous veggies contain indole-3-carbinol. Indole-3-carbinol helps the body to metabolize estrogens and can be very beneficial for people who struggle with Estrogen Dominance. Uterine fibroids, menopausal symptoms, low progesterone, and fibrocystic breast disease can all benefit from balanced estrogen levels. Kale is also packed with vitamins including A, K, C, and B5 as well as minerals like copper, manganese, and calcium.
For those with thyroid issues, it is important to cook kale to reduce goitrogenic compounds that inhibit the way thyroid hormones are metabolized. If you are eating a lot of raw kale and begin gaining weight or notice an increase in PMS, bloating, fatigue or moodiness, cut back or cook the kale --- those may be signs that you’re enjoying more raw kale than your thyroid can handle.
3. Walnuts
Omega 3 fatty acids support brain, cardiovascular and hormonal health. They are also known to reduce prostaglandins (which can help ease menstrual cramps and systemic inflammation). Other sources of omega 3s would be chia seeds, hemp hearts, salmon, and krill. Many women who struggle with extremely painful periods, ovulation, or inflammatory pain find that supplementing their omega-rich diet with a high-quality omega-3 blend provides adequate (or in my case and many of my clients, substantial) relief.
There you have it! From PMS to mood swings, menstrual pain, menopause, and everything in between, maca root, kale, and walnuts are amazing foods to support your hormones! And if you’re curious about which high-quality supplements I personally use and recommend in my practice, check them out here.
To get some support and direction with your hormones, take the Hormone Health Quiz! Good luck on your hormone journey!
Today we’re going to be talking about the symptoms of a woman’s hormonal imbalance - not diagnosing - but giving you some insight into some of the warning signs that your body could be giving you that you need some attention and then the next 2 steps for you to take!
You can watch the 15-minute video where I go into all of this, or continue reading below!
Hi, Iʼm Jenn J - I’m a women’s hormone health coach and family nutritionist. I help empower women living with uncomfortable and debilitating hormonal symptoms like painful periods, mood swings, PMS, weight issues, and low energy to reclaim their lives and put their period problems to rest while helping the whole family eat healthier!
When I was about 14 years old, I started having extremely painful abdominal pain that would leave me doubling over on the couch crying and screaming for hours. It was random, sporadic, and horrifying. Doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with me so they sent me home. As the months went on, I began having super painful acne, intense mood swings & PMS, irregular periods, and painful periods. Because of my age, and the normalcy of fluctuating hormones, the only medical suggestions or help I was given was birth control - which only hid the problems for months at a time, causing other problems of their own. But one thing that I kept telling my medical teams was this: I didn’t FEEL normal - nothing in my body FELT normal and it certainly didn’t feel good.
But it was actually another 12 years later that I would finally start getting validation about what was going on. And another 2.5 years before I finally got all of my answers.
At that time, I had pretty much already figured out what was going on, so by the time I had answers, I was prepared to evaluate all of my options. Knowing that I had a hormonal imbalance was helpful to know how to effectively treat and/or manage it.
Thankfully, I was able to make an informed decision and choose to manage my symptoms and conditions naturally with great success!
Signs & Symptoms of a Hormonal Imbalance
So let’s have a look at what some of the signs/symptoms are that could indicate you’re dealing with a hormonal imbalance
Constant headaches or migraines
Water retention and bloating
Gaining weight in your lower body
Ovarian Cysts
Oily hair and skin
Fibroids
Acne
PCOS or Endometriosis
Tender and painful breasts
Hair loss
UTIs
Random mood swings
Heavy flow during periods
Painful cramps before and during periods
Irregular periods and/or spotting
Anxiety & Depression
Extreme PMS
Vaginal Dryness
Hot Flashes
Low Sex Drive
What To Do About It!
Okay, now that some of that has your attention, it's important to know what to do! It took me a very long time to navigate my symptoms, my complaints, my medical teams, and the medical system, just to figure everything out. Let's skip a few steps for you!
1. Start Journaling Everything
Once you identify that something isn’t feeling right, your next step is to start documenting it. Keep a food, mood, poop, and period journal so that you can track what your symptoms are, when they’re happening, their severity, identify any patterns, and feel more in tune with your body. This will also help your doctors better understand what you’re dealing with so they can seek out the appropriate tests to verify what’s happening.
2. Ask Questions & Know Your Options
This brings us to our last point, KNOW ALL OF YOUR OPTIONS. Everyone’s treatment and management protocols look different but know that there are effective ways for you to naturally support your hormones, which can be an amazing place to start since it’s non-invasive and allows you to eliminate or narrow down the list of symptoms that you’re dealing with. Meaning that if you then choose any medical intervention, it’s less invasive and you’re hopefully then potentially treating/managing less bothersome symptoms.
Ask questions, visit different practitioners, and be open to making changes in your life that could improve your situation.
What to do next!
So just to wrap this up, we’ve covered the signs and symptoms that you may have a hormonal imbalance. If these are flashing warning lights for you, then you’re going to want to start journaling and tracking everything, and then know all of your options!
To get some insight on HOW you can manage your symptoms more naturally, take the PERIOD HEALTH QUIZ and get specific directions on some of the underlying factors in your health and some natural solutions!
I hope that you found this really helpful and if you did, share this article or the video with someone you love!
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7 Reasons to Grow Your Own Organic Vegetable Garden
During the last several decades, there has been a change toward mechanization and homogenization of farming, which uses pesticides, additives, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, and mass-production techniques.
The World Health Organization produces reports to show how the use of chemicals and other products in food, coupled with the manufacturing processes involved, are actually a threat to our health and our environment.
In fact, many common growing chemicals are known to contain EDCs (endocrine-disrupting chemicals), which can interfere with our menstrual cycles, fertility, and even our DNA! Learn more about the 5 Chemicals That Are Messing Up Your Hormones here!
So what can we do to avoid these chemicals and improve our health? Well growing our own food is a great place to start!
If you have space for a few pots or even a small piece of land, it is a wise decision to grow your own organic vegetable garden.
Growing your own food means that:
You will have no additives in your vegetables. Research by organic food associations has shown that additives in our food can cause heart diseases, osteoporosis, migraines, and hyperactivity.
There will be no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers used. These chemical products are applied to obtain crops all the time regardless of plagues or weather conditions and affect the quality of the vegetables. Besides, pesticides are usually poisonous to humans.
Your vegetables will not be genetically modified (GM). Antibiotics, drugs, and hormones are used on vegetables to grow more and larger ones. One of the consequences of this practice is vegetables that look all the same and are usually tasteless. Besides, we end up consuming the hormones that have been used on the vegetables, with the potential risks for our health.
Eating your own organic vegetables will be much more healthy for you. They will not contain any of the products or chemicals named above, and they will be much more natural than any ones you would find at the supermarket. Your health will not be at risk because you will then know that nothing has been added to your vegetables.
Your own organic vegetables will be much tastier. The use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, hormones, and antibiotics make vegetables grow unnaturally and take the taste away from them. With organic vegetables, your cooking will be enhanced as their flavour will show fully.
Organic farming is friendly to the environment. Because you won't use pesticides or other equally harming products on your vegetables, you will not damage the soil or the air with the chemical components.
When you grow your own organic vegetables you are contributing to your own self-sustainability and the sustainability of the planet. Small communities have been founded where members exchange products that they grow naturally, thus contributing to creating a friendly and better place for us all.
In the end, eating organic products only means that we do not add anything else to them than they would naturally have. As you can guess, additives, fertilizers, pesticides or hormones are not components of naturally grown food. To better care for your health, grow your own organic vegetables -and a few pots are all you need.
Not sure you've got the right growing environment or want to grow longer than your natural season? You're going to want to grab yourself the ultimate growing kit, right here!
