My Top 5 Tips to Balance Your Hormones and Weight Loss that Lasts
The secret to sustainable weight loss isn’t just a healthy diet or exercise. The key to weight loss that lasts is actually making sure your hormones are balanced and working the way they are designed to.
Hormones can be found in your endocrine system and they act as chemical messengers in your body. They literally tell different parts of your body’s systems what to do and when to do it. They are more than something we have around reproductive health and govern our entire body. Some would say they act as the conductor to a symphony in our bodies and contribute highly to your weight loss.
Furthermore, when it comes to weight loss, so many women I know are trying to do it the traditional way of eating right and exercising – which by far, are two important healthy habits to incorporate into your life. However, what many women don’t realize, is how much other lifestyle choices contribute to your weight and can either help you manage or lose weight, or lead you to gain way.
These lifestyle choices such as stress management, sleep, toxic load and the type of food you are eating all have hormones involved in them. The seven main hormones at play when it comes to weight management or weight loss are insulin, cortisol, melatonin, leptin, ghrelin, estrogen, and glucagon. These hormones can either stay balanced or imbalanced by your everyday habits or lifestyle choices.
Therefore, I wanted to share my top five healthy lifestyle tips with you to help you balance your weight loss hormones naturally and sustainably, so you can finally experience weight loss that lasts.
I’ve shared the top five tips in a video and blog post below.
Video
Blog Post
1, EAT NUTRIENT-DENSE, WHOLE FOODS
Not only do nutrient-dense, whole foods provide you with the most nutrients possible, they also help regulate your insulin levels. Insulin is known as a storage or building hormone that is released every time you eat a carbohydrate of any kind – even fruits and veggies. Insulin breaks down these carbs into glucose (sugar) and stores them in your liver and muscles for energy purposes in the future.
However, when you eat too many carbohydrates from processed foods that break down into lots of sugar in your body, your livers and muscles fill up causing insulin to grab the glucose from your bloodstream and store it as fat. Therefore, in order to reduce the amount of fat you gain and actually use the stored fat as energy later, start incorporating less sugary, processed carbohydrates which will reduce the amount of insulin released, fat stored and will kick off your weight loss journey.
For me, when I started to follow a more Paleo and Whole30 diet, I started to have more sustained energy throughout the day and didn’t have to rely on processed carbs to give me that. Furthermore, I also lost weight doing the Whole30 and found healthier versions to foods I liked like spaghetti – hello spaghetti squash!
TIP: So start by adding in ONE whole food at each meal (fruits, veggies, good fats, etc.) and then continue to add in yummy, healthy foods until that’s all you are eating! Naturally, you will start to crowd out the not so good ones for you.
2. CHECK-IN WITH YOUR STRESS LEVELS DAILY
The main hormone involved with stress is cortisol. When you are feeling fear, anxiety or a threat of any kind, your body kicks on its sympathetic nervous system and goes into fight or flight mode raising your cortisol levels a lot higher than they need to be.
Typically, cortisol helps you manage stress by shutting down other aspects of your body’s systems that aren’t needed to survive that threat (metabolism, digestive system, etc.) and elevates your heart rate, blood pressure, and focuses your brain on that task at hand. However, chronic stress levels mean chronic cortisol levels which can lead to your body’s systems that contribute to your health and weight loss (like your metabolism and digestive system) not working the way they should.
Plus, you also start craving foods that will comfort you and will want all those sugary carbs and processed foods we wanted to avoid in Tip #1! So my tip here is for you to check in with your stress levels daily and ask yourself what is the best way you can eliminate, reduce or cope with that stress today so that it doesn’t control you and hinder your weight loss efforts.
I used to be a huge stress and emotional eater and gained tons of weight doing so. It took me a while to break free from it but one of the ways I did was by applying the H.A.L.T. method and by asking myself if I was truly Hungry, or was I just Angry, Lonely, and Tired and looking for something to comfort me? That 5-minute exercise of self-awareness greatly reduced the amount of stress and emotional eating I did and was a key tool that helped me in finding food freedom and sustainable weight loss.
TIP: So start by practicing the H.A.L.T. method on yourself and see if that helps you manage your stress better when it comes to emotional eating. Also, ask yourself if what you are stressed about is something you can eliminate, reduce or just have to cope with. When you do that, you’ll start to see that you indeed have more control over your stress than you think.
3. SLEEP MORE THAN YOU THINK:
Every single animal created on the earth has to sleep and rest at some point, and we ladies are no different. When you get enough, high-quality sleep, you activate the other part of your autonomic nervous system called your parasympathetic nervous system which shifts your body into a state of rest and digest and allows melatonin (your sleepy hormone) to be produced at the level you need to sleep and sleep well.
Also, when you sleep well, leptin – a hormone that helps you feel fuller longer – is produced. But when you don’t sleep well, ghrelin – a hormone that helps you feel hungry – is produced in higher quantities. Thus, if you are looking to just manage your appetite levels, getting more sleep will definitely help you do that. It will also make you crave less sugary foods since you will have the energy you need to do what you need to do that day.
So make time for sleep by creating a sleep routine that will get you sleeping earlier and longer.
I also found that while I did the Whole30 and practiced better sleep patterns, I felt fuller longer and didn’t have as many cravings for sugary things – which could have contributed to the weight loss I had on my first Whole30!
TIP: Start practicing a winding down routine at the end of each night. Dim the lights, light some candles, diffuse some essential oils, read, color or whatever will help you wind down. This will start to tell your brain and body that it’s time to sleep!
4. USE MORE NATURAL PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS:
Using more natural products is all the rave right now because more and more people are recognizing the harmful impact that synthetic chemicals have on our health over time – even if they are in small doses. In traditional toxicology, only high dosages of toxic substances can harm you.
However, more and more research has come out and shown that the low dosage toxins – the ones in our personal environment and everyday products – actually can contribute to many health concerns and harm your body as well.
These health concerns can include weight gain and obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, chronic fatigue, brain fog, depression, anxiety, learning issues, sometimes even cancer.
Toxins are endocrine disruptors – or hormone disruptors – and can mess with your hormones and lead to many of the health issues above.
For example, many of these toxins can act as estrogen mimickers making your body think that you have lots of estrogen in your body but you may not actually, and thus, become estrogen deficient – a very important hormone for females and males! Some of these toxins also are obesogens and mess with your body’s fat storage, and can lead to excess fat storage, or obesity.
One of the key ways I have reduced my toxic load is through using essential oils in all five of those areas. I started using and teaching about doTERRA essential oils over four years ago and it has transformed the way I care for my body and home. I now use essential oils like lemon and melaleuca (tea tree) to clean, a protective immune-boosting blend called On Guard to boost my immune system and a variety of doTERRA wellness products
TIP: Start to look at the 5 main areas of your personal environment (food, kitchen, cleaning solutions, hair, and skin) and asking yourself what’s in the TOP product you use in those 5 areas, and if there’s a better alternative. You can even use the www.ewg.org website to help you figure it out.
5. MOVE YOUR BODY DAILY:
Exercise is KEY when it comes to balancing your hormones and weight loss. When you move your body daily (whether through scheduled exercise or just regular, everyday movement), your body calls upon your stored energy in your muscles, livers and fat and releases that energy with the help of glucagon (an energy-releasing hormone).
By using the energy you have stored up daily, it will create a balance of energy you are taking in daily – and help your hormones and weight stay more stable.
TIP: Start to track how much you are moving each day and how much you want to move. See how much exercise you are doing, how much moving during the day, etc and start to increase it a little each day.
Which tip resonated with you the most? Which one are you going to implement this week?
Share it with us below in the comments! And also be sure to check out the two opportunities I have for you to get support in your hormone and weight loss journey!
Featured Freebie: Hormones Masterclass
If you are looking to finally balance your hormones naturally and lose weight, be sure to check out my FREE LIVE Masterclass happening February 18th on how to balance your hormones naturally, lose weight and reclaim your health for good.
What you’ll learn in this masterclass:
- What hormones are and the crucial role they plain in your health and body
- Why caring for your hormones is the key to losing weight and reclaiming your health back
- Common hormone imbalances women face and their causes
- Step-by-step lifestyle strategies, tools and resources you can implement in your health and life for immediate and long-term results in your hormones and health
- What essential oils are and how they can help you balance your hormones naturally
- Special Offer: There will be a special offer around my signature 1:1 Healthy Body Weight Loss 3 Month Program, that will include resources like books, essential oils and more to help you balance your hormones naturally this New Year
Get 1:1 Support: Book a Coaching Clarity Call
If you know you are ready to go to the next-level with your health and finally find simple, sustainable methods of losing weight, then wait no longer – book a health coaching clarity call with me today!
On this call, we will talk through what your main health goals are, your next steps and how my 1:1 coaching programs can help you get there.
All you have to do is go to 1) go to the link below, 2) find a time that works for you, 3) book it and then fill out the questionnaire that will come in yoru confirmation email.
Wait no longer! It’s time to ditch diets, lose weight and feel good in your body again.
Book your coaching clarity call below!
