When trying to get healthy, one of the first things many people will always say is... "change your eating habits."
I remember hearing this all the time when I was changing my lifestyle. Although I was raised to eat healthy, I needed to own eating healthy for myself, and discover what was going to help my body with the hormonal imbalance symptoms I was experiencing.
I am a true believer in supplements, but I also realize that diet changes were the key to maintaining my balance. I couldn't just rely on supplements while still feeding my body junk and foods that were working against my goals.
However I also believe that can be overwhelming at first. Hearing that we should eliminate all these foods we love so much, can be discouraging. With that being said, I try to commit SOME dietary changes, not ALL. 5 or 6 things that I know I can make sure I do. The other restrictions in diet I still do, but moderately. I chose my list based on what I thought was most effective for my body in regards to maintaining hormonal balance. These are my choices:
SUGAR
You already knew this. Too much sugar, even with fruits. I remember when I first tried to balance myself..I decided to do a fruit and veggie diet. I was loosing weight, but there was no relief with my hormonal issues. I found out the smoothies with the bananas, mangoes, grapes as snacks...yeah....no. It was way too much sugar. My gut was still full of bad bacteria, which was not helping my imbalances.
RED MEAT
They say eat more if you are low on iron. At the time I thought I was, as I was displaying the typical symptoms of being cold all the time and eating ice. So okay, eat more red meat....NO! I was bloated, having bad headaches all the time, and my cycle came on with a vengeance! I had never experienced such a painful cycle before. And because I make one change at a time, I knew it was the red meat. After researching it, I was confirmed. It does not help with hormonal balance. So I stopped eating it. And felt better immediately.
SOY
There are some plant based foods that mimic estrogen. The problem with this is that one of the biggest symptoms hormonal imbalance in women is estrogen dominance, which means there is an overproduction of this particular hormone. Of course, that means that the hormones are not balanced, as our body is using what comes from soy as it is actually estrogen, in addition to producing its own. PEANUTS, SOY, FLAXSEED AND OATS are all plant-based foods that mimic estrogen. I stay away.
For the most part, eliminating these foods while reducing carbs (which metabolize into sugar), keeps me pretty well balanced. Additional foods that harm your body will reveal themselves if you eliminate these foods first, as your body will be able to signal you if it doesn't like it. Headaches, rashes, dandruff, allergies, all are signals that there is a gut imbalance. As we learn to listen to our bodies, these are the ways it speaks to us.
Our MYNTLYNX colostrum is a prebiotic that feeds the good bacteria in your gut, which will help your body establish its own balance with improved dietary ad lifestyle changes. This an garlic pills (another prebiotic) are the two I take to maintain gut health and hormonal balance as well.
Hormonal balance can be attained. Naturally. I'm a witness. Stay beautiful my friends.
-Love Charly