Because we live in a stressful, toxin-filled world, many women (and men) are faced with various chronic diseases and hormone imbalances. Luckily, in many cases, simple changes are enough to get those issues under control. The main culprit behind hormonal imbalances is usually the metabolism. The metabolism plays a key role in nearly all bodily processes, which is why I’ve begun taking various steps to begin to support my metabolism.
I’ve had hormone issues pretty much since I went through puberty, but it wasn’t until the past couple years that I’ve become aware of them, and realized they weren’t normal and need to be addressed. The conventional approach to hormone imbalances is to give birth control or some type of synthetic hormone in the form of a pill. While these approaches do bring about symptom relief, they aren’t really helping you, no matter how much it may seem like they are. And in the long run, they are most likely causing you more harm than good. Because they mask your symptoms, you never really solve the real issue at hand. You think it went away, but it didn’t. As soon as you stop taking that pill or medication, your symptoms are probably going to come right back because they didn’t fix the root cause. That’s exactly what happened to me after taking birth control and then synthetic progesterone pills for a year. In order to truly heal, you have to figure out what is going on at a cellular level.
If you have abnormal symptoms of any kind, then some type of imbalance is happening in your body.
One of the easiest ways to figure out the cause is to work with a health care provider. However, you have to be picky as to who you work with. Most conventional doctors and practitioners will simply prescribe you a medication and send you off. But when you are obviously suffering from a deep cellular issue, you need a practitioner that will sit down with you and spend the time it takes figuring out the root cause of your symptoms, and will already be well versed in various holistic actions and naturopathic remedies that will guide you towards healing. This may be difficult because it seems as though these types of practitioners are few and far between. There are many great ones, but they are hard to find and are generally quite costly. Because of this, many women choose to go down their healing path alone by doing their own research (myself included). This may take a lot more time, but it seems as though it is generally more effective. Nobody knows you or your body better than you do no matter how many degrees they have. Since hormonal imbalances have become so common in women, it is very easy to find information on pretty much any concern and issue you yourself may face. There are many women on social media who have spent hours on end researching and sharing great content, as well as people who have created courses that you can take in order to learn without having to do the digging yourself.
Something I want to emphasize is that if the issues you are struggling with are severe or need to be healed urgently, then you should consult with a health care provider. On the other hand, mild and common issues are generally pretty easy to solve and heal on your own with a little time, research, effort, and dedication. Our bodies were not created to be broken. They were created to thrive and work properly. They want to be healthy. For the most part, all it takes to get them back to that place is a little metabolism support and knowledge of how the body actually functions.
I’ve been doing a lot of research and reading about how to heal hormonal imbalances naturally, and have learned a lot of things that are key in reclaiming your health, fertility, and proper hormone balance. Instead of starting everything all at once, I’m taking it slowly and working on incorporating one thing at a time. One of the first things I did when changing my lifestyle habits was to get rid of any toxic product that I was using. I have two posts already that go through some of the potentially toxic ingredients in dental care products and hair care products. Go read those and then come back here to read about some of the nutritional changes I’m making to support my metabolism and hormones.
eat at least 2,200 calories
Restriction and low-calorie diets are very popular these days, but they will not lead to weight loss. Most women have a BMR (basal metabolic rate) of between 1300 and 1600 calories. These are the calories that you need just to survive. That doesn’t even count the calories you need to do regular daily tasks like walking, standing, exercising, etc. And if your body is under any type of stress, it will need more energy to recover. If our body requires a minimum of 1300 calories just to survive then why are we restricting our calories to around that number or even lower? (“Survive” doesn’t even mean live. You need 1300 for your organs and cells to function enough for you to be able to wake up and lay on your bed. Anything other than that requires significantly more). Eating less than your body needs means it doesn’t have fuel to thrive. Your stress response will take over because your body senses a “famine” and it will begin to run on stress hormones instead of energy in order to store up the small amount of energy and fat you are getting. This wreaks havoc on your whole body, especially your endocrine and reproductive systems. One resource I love in regards to figuring out how many calories you should be eating is Fallon’s Table. She provides a very accurate quiz that you can take to determine your approximate needs, and also has meal plans catered for each of those calorie ranges that you can purchase once you have taken the quiz. These plans lay out various weeks of meals that will meet your caloric needs, as well as providing you with a wide variety of recipes filled with nutrient-dense foods that will support your metabolism.
eat real foods
Eating more food means nothing if you are eating a bunch of processed junk that does nothing for your body. We need real foods that are easily digestible, nutrient-dense, and full of vitamins and minerals. These are things like eggs, beef, chicken, organ meats, butter, cheese, raw milk, and fruit. Things like processed sugars, fake fats like canola oil and vegetable oils, fake nut “milks”, salads, and fast food do not support your metabolism or your body in the slightest. They may even be considered to have a negative nutritional value because of the harm they do to you. If you can’t make something in your kitchen don’t eat it. And, if they didn’t eat it 100 (or even 50 years ago) don’t eat it. A great way to stick to only eating real foods is to only buy things on the perimeter of the grocery store. Once you make your way into the middle aisles is when you stray away from real food and start looking at fake processed foods. Or better yet, try to get all your groceries from farmers markets. Not only will you get real food, but it will also be fresh and delicious.
reduce my intake of PUFAs
Polyunsaturated fats have more than one double bond which means they are more unstable (breaks apart and oxidizes more easily) than any other type of fat (monounsaturated fats and saturated fats). The more PUFAs a fat source contains, the more unstable it is. Each type of fat has a temperature at which it becomes unstable and goes rancid. Because PUFAs are very unstable due to their multiple double bonds, they break apart and go rancid when exposed to very low amounts of heat and light. Because our bodies are very warm, PUFAs go rancid inside of us and produce oxygen free radicals that are highly reactive and put oxidative stress on the body. It’s impossible to get rid of PUFAs completely from your diet because they occur naturally in real foods like eggs, butter, meat, and fish. However, these foods also contain vitamin E which is an antioxidant and provides a hydrogen ion that stabilizes the unpaired electrons of the the free radicals produced from rancid PUFAs. The Vitamin E acts to stabilize the PUFAs and reverse/prevent any damage they may cause. The issue comes when we eat processed fats that are high in PUFAs because they have no naturally occurring Vitamin E. The best thing to do is to try to avoid these foods as much as possible. But don’t panic if you end up eating some. Just make sure to supplement with some good quality Vitamin E.
eat organic
A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that organic crops have higher concentrations of antioxidants, lower levels of cadmium and nitrates, and less residue of pesticides than their non-organic counterparts. There are many adverse health effects that are associated with glyphosate, and other synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. Some of these include cancer, endocrine and hormone dysregulation, disruption of the microbiome, DNA damage, brain diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and autism. A study at the University of California found that eating organic food for just one week can significantly reduce the levels of pesticides in the body, and that after six days of eating organically, the levels of toxins in the body reduced by an average of 60.5%. Something really crazy to think about is that Glyphosate does not wash, dry, or cook off. The only way to avoid it is by buying organic produce or growing your own produce so you are in control of what goes on to your fruits and vegetables.
eat organic grass-fed beef, and pasture-raised eggs & chicken
Animals eat vegetables so we don’t have to. Ruminants- animals like cows, sheep, goats, deer, bison, and buffalo- have a unique digestive system that allows them to properly ferment and digest grasses and grains, and absorb their nutrients. Plants have cellulose, a carbohydrate that we are not able to properly digest because we are unable to produce cellulase, the enzyme that breaks cellulose down. This is also a good reason why you should eat red meats (from ruminants) instead of just fish and poultry. We should still eat vegetables ourselves, but we should also be aware that we aren’t able to fully absorb their nutrients on our own. One way to aid our digestion of vegetables is by cooking them. Cooking vegetables breaks down some of its nutrients and makes them more available for our bodies to absorb. When we can’t digest a food easily, we are hindering rather than supporting the metabolism. Grass-fed is also a lot better than grain-fed because it means their meat will be lower in PUFAs which are abundant in grains. Another great reason to eat grass-fed beef and pasture-raised chicken and eggs is because it generally means that the animal was given better living conditions. They were able to roam freely with adequate space in an open pasture rather than in a small barn with synthetic feed.
intentionally eating to support my metabolism
The most common culprit behind any hormonal issue in women is a trashed metabolism. Your metabolism is the sum of every metabolic process in your body. Some of these metabolic processes include your reproductive system, detoxification, digestion, immunity, and repair. Your thyroid is the conductor of your metabolism, so the main thing you want to focus on when living a metabolic lifestyle is supporting your thyroid. Several things happen when your metabolism is sluggish: stress hormones increase, cholesterol increases, sex hormones decrease, weight increases, and sleep quality decreases. Similarly, there are various symptoms that scream “sluggish metabolism” including poor sleep, low energy, needing caffeine to make it through the day, lacking hunger in the morning, PMS and painful periods, irregular periods, suppressed fertility, anxiety and depression, irritability and mood swings, constipation and diarrhea, urinating upwards of 10 times a day, basal body temperature of less than 97.8 and a waking pulse of less than 75 bpm, and cold feet and hands. Like I said, most issues go back to problems with your metabolism. Supporting your thyroid and cell function is the main goal of metabolic eating. There are basic things your body needs to thrive and function, and metabolic eating fills your body with those things. It focuses on good quality nutrient-dense foods like animal proteins, ripe fruits, root vegetables, quality (raw) dairy, and high quality sugars. Eating metabolically means you have well-rounded meals each time you eat that are composed of all three macro-nutrients: proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Many popular diets today demonize fats and carbs, but they are essential for proper metabolic health and cellular function, especially for women.
stop drinking plain water
Water itself doesn’t hydrate us. What hydrates us is the minerals and electrolytes that are in water. The problem with this is that most water sources today are depleted of these essential minerals and electrolytes. So there’s really no point in chugging a ton of water everyday because odds are it’s not hydrating you. Add good quality electrolyte and mineral supplements to your water, and drink an adrenal cocktail (see below), orange juice, coconut water, or bone broth. Eating your water through fruits is another great way to stay hydrated. If you’re constantly drinking depleted water, it’s going to run right through you because there’s nothing to absorb from it. This makes you urinate a crazy amount of times during the day, and each time you do that you’re depleting yourself of even more minerals.
decrease caffeine consumption
This may be common sense, but drinking a ton of caffeine a day is not good for your body. It can impair your ability to get quality sleep, dehydrate you, and can dramatically stimulate your metabolism, making you jittery and anxious. I’m not saying cut out coffee/caffeine all together. I could never do this because coffee makes me very happy. However, you should be mindful of how much you’re drinking and how late in the day you are consuming it. It’s also important to be well nourished before you drink your morning coffee, and pair your coffee with good sources of macronutrients like quality raw cream, sugar, and collagen. I’ve been working my way towards drinking decaf coffee every morning by adding less and less caffeinated beans to my coffee each morning. I started out doing 3/4 caffeinated, then 1/2, and so on. It’s important to pay attention to how your coffee is decaffeinated, though, as some companies use toxic chemicals. The swiss water process is one of the most common ways companies make decaf coffee in order for it to be a healthy and non-toxic process. My favorite brand for decaf coffee (and caffeinated coffee for that matter) is Purity Coffee. I get the Calm: Decaf Whole Bean Coffee and the Ease: Dark Roast Whole Bean Coffee.
eat at least 110 grams of protein
Protein is no more important than the other two macronutrients (fats and carbs), but it is something I struggle with getting enough of, and I think that might be a common struggle for many women out there. It is essential for a wide variety of things in the body including cell repair, enzymatic function, energy, liver detox, nutrient transport, and of course in your muscles. You should aim to get 20-30% of your calories from protein. In order to determine how much this is, find 20-30% of your caloric goal and divide it by 4 because each gram of protein brings 4 calories with it. So, if your goal is to eat 20% protein of your 2,200 calorie diet, you will need about 110 grams of protein each day. (20% x 2,200 = 440. 440 / 4 = 110). Not only should you focus on getting enough protein, but you should focus on getting good quality protein from sources like grass-fed beef, pasture-raised eggs, raw dairy, gelatin, and bone broth.
drink raw milk
Another popular thing in current diets is the demonization of dairy because it “causes inflammation.” I’m here to tell you that dairy is a great, nutrient dense food that does not cause inflammation if it is raw and high quality. (Of course if you have a legitimate allergy to dairy or lactose, then it most definitely will be inflammatory to your body). We need to unlearn the common belief that all dairy is bad, and realize that highly processed dairy, which is the majority of dairy products sold in stores, is really what’s bad. Good quality raw dairy is full of nutrients, minerals, proteins, and bacteria that are beneficial to our metabolism and overall health. But, the second these products are pasteurized, all of those good things are stripped away, leaving a dead, nutrient-depleted food. One of the most important elements of raw dairy is that it is full of microbes that aid the body in digestion. Processed/pasteurized dairy can be hard to digest for some people because it lacks the needed enzymes and microbes that help their gut digest it. I’ll expand on raw dairy and the history of pasteurization in another post, but to sum it up: the raw dairy itself is not the safety concern, the environmental conditions in which the cow is raised and milked is the safety concern. Raw milk made for human consumption by a small quality farm is a completely different thing than raw milk made for pasteurization by a huge corporate farm. The former is safe, alive, and nutrient-dense, while the latter is dirty, low in nutrients, and unsafe. Sadly, direct retail of raw milk is illegal in many states, but there are many small farms in those states that provide things called herd-shares. Essentially, you pay a fee each month to “own” part of their herd, and because you “own” some of their cows, then you have a right to the raw milk they produce. This may sound sketchy and like you’re bending the law a little, but herd-shares are 100% legal in most states in which the sale of raw milk directly is illegal. Just do a simple google search or reach out to local farms to see if they offer a herd-share program. And if they do, the most important thing to remember is to make sure the conditions of the farm and the cows themselves are clean, safe, and healthy.
in conclusion
I have a lot more health changes I want to touch on, but in order to not make this post crazy long, I will break it up into several parts. This may be overwhelming and seem like a lot, but that’s why I said going about a healthy lifestyle on your own will take time and dedication. In our current society, we are so used to fast and quick. We want our food to be ready as soon as we order it. We want the things we buy to show up the next day. We want to be able to look things up in a split second. We’ve become so used to getting things so quickly, that that mindset has transferred over to our health as well. Now we want to regain our health in a short period of time. But the reality for most of us living in modern America is that we’ve been unhealthy from filling our bodies and covering our bodies with so much junk for years that healing isn’t going to be a quick process. It’s been said that for every year you’ve had hormone issues, expect to put one month of work in. So, if you’ve had irregular cycles and metabolism and thyroid issues for twelve years, expect to put a good year of hard, dedicated work in before you are truly healed and thriving.
But, you don’t have to make all these changes at once. Doing that is setting yourself up for failure. You also don’t have to be perfect in every category because the reality is that we live in America. We are surrounded by toxins, endocrine disruptors, PUFAs, and technology. We can’t escape those things for good, but we can limit them in the environments that we are able to control.
Like I said, I have more changes to share, so keep your eyes out for Part Two in the near future.