Uncover how to balance your hormones in a week in this article.
Hormones can go out of whack very easily. Just doing certain bad habits in a row can make your hormones go haywire in just a week. Look at this list of some of the key factors that lead to hormonal imbalance:
- Poor sleep
- Having unwanted weight & excess fat
- Lack of exercise
- Chronic stress
- Poor diet
- Excessive consumption of stimulants like alcohol, caffeine and sugar
See what I’m talking about? It’s not hard at all for your hormones to fall out of balance.
Just one day of being stressed due to work/family related issues can throw you into a spiral of poor sleep, snacking on too much junk & drinking excessively. And that’s all it takes for your complex endocrine system, that manages hormones, to get affected.
Luckily, by following the 12 tips below you can figure out how to balance your hormones in one week.
Remember, consistency is key, so doing the things mentioned below every day can get you on the fast track to hormonal balance!
12 Ways – How to Balance Your Hormones in A Week
1. Munch a Raw Carrot Daily
Did you know that eating one single raw carrot a day for three days in a row significantly reduces bad or excess estrogen in the body?
This is according to Dr. Ray Peat’s research.
Raw carrots have a special fiber in them that binds to toxins in your intestines and sweeps them out of the body through bowel movements.
One of these toxins is excess estrogen freely floating in your body.
Eating raw carrots helps eliminate the excess estrogen, which is one of the major causes for hormonal imbalance disorders such as endometriosis, ovarian cysts and fibroids.
2. Drink a Green Smoothie Every Day
Eating leafy greens can be a challenge so having a hormone-balancing smoothie laden with greens is a great way to consume these nutrient-dense foods in your diet.
Spinach, kale, collard greens, watercress, swiss chard and more are rich in Vitamins A, B, C, D, E and minerals like folate, magnesium, zinc, manganese, copper, iron, among others.
Not to mention, these greens also pack a lot of fiber in them, which is essential for flushing out excess estrogen and other toxins stuck in the gut. Remember gut health is linked to hormonal health in a very major way.
So drink a green smoothie every day – preferably in the morning at breakfast and you’re set for the day!
3. Consider a Dairy-Free Diet
Many women find that dairy products aggravate their allergies, increase inflammation and unbalance their hormones.
That’s because dairy is not only a common allergen that triggers our body’s inflammatory response but it’s also mostly available as a heavily processed product produced in factories.
Factory raised dairy cows are pumped with antibiotics & hormones such as estrogen to make them yield more milk at a faster rate. This estrogen found in the milk is consumed and creates excess estrogen levels in our bodies.
If you can source your dairy from free range cows raised in a farm, then you may probably consume it with no dire effects.
Also, fermented dairy products such as Greek yogurt and kefir are generally good for gut health so they can be included in your diet, only if you choose organic and free range products.
4. Eat a Lighter Breakfast
Breakfast is an important meal and rightly so – many people get much of their daily nutrient-intake from a healthy breakfast.
However, eating a hearty breakfast may lead to more harm than good, especially when you have hormonal imbalances.
In the morning, there is a natural rise in our body’s cortisol (stress hormone) which signals us to wake up and also feel hungry. This is a part of the cycle that keeps us energized and healthy.
But for people with hormonal imbalance, there is no cortisol rise. This makes them start the day already feeling fatigued, barely being able to get out of bed in the first place. To get energy, they often tend to drink a lot more coffee than usual to ‘wake up.’ The overstimulation the caffeine provides can affect the adrenal glands (organs that produce cortisol), creating afternoon slumps and energy crashes which leads to more hormonal imbalance, continuing the cycle.
Another disadvantage of a heavy breakfast is that loading your body with filling foods in the morning can cause a rise in blood sugar levels that can cause insulin resistance and unwanted weight gain.
Also, eating a big breakfast can cause your body to become sluggish because it spends a lot of energy digesting the food instead of giving you that energy to carry out your tasks for the day.
Try a simple breakfast comprising of a tall glass of a green smoothie or eggs lightly fried in coconut oil with sautéed spinach or avocado slices on whole wheat toast. Drink no more than one cup of coffee, if you must.
5. Replace Meat with Legumes
Consuming too much meat is not something hormone-friendly. Read meats are rich in protein but that’s about it. They lack a lot of nutrients that you need if you’re skipping out on other nutrient-rich food.
For hormone balance, replace meat dishes with legumes including beans, chickpeas, peas and lentils.
Legumes contain protein but also have carbs, fiber, B-vitamins, folate, magnesium, iron, flavonoids, antioxidants and phenols. They also contain a natural sugar known as inositol, which is an important nutrient for women with PCOS.
6. Get 8 Hours of Sleep at Night
During sleep is when the body has time to repair and regenerate itself.
There are many benefits of good sleep for hormonal balance. Getting enough sleep increases your glucose metabolism and your body’s secretion of growth hormones that are responsible for cell reproduction and regeneration.
High levels of cortisol, the stress hormone are linked to poor sleep.
Aim to get 8 hours of sleep at night to help get your hormones fixed. You can use the aid of 3 drops of lavender essential oil (where to get it) and 3 drops of cedarwood essential oil (where to get it) diffused 15 minutes before your bedtime, in a high-quality diffuser (where to get it).
7. Drink Plenty of Water
Drinking enough water must be greatly emphasized in a hormone balancing diet.
Water is responsible for flushing out toxins including excess hormones from our system. Our cells and organs rely on water to function properly.
Without water, the body’s pH will become too acidic and inflamed, which creates a bad environment for healthy hormone production.
8. Try Seed Cycling
Seed cycling is a great way to balance your hormones fast. It involves rotating certain types of seeds throughout your menstrual cycle.
When your period starts, up to the first half of your menstrual cycle (Day 1-13), estrogen levels rise while during the second half of your cycle (Day 14-28), progesterone levels rise. When this natural rhythm is not in balance, the ratio of estrogen and progesterone is unbalanced which causes irregular menstrual cycles.
Seed cycling also helps you get omega 3 fatty acids in your diet.
These healthy fats signal the production of leptin, a hormone that reduces appetite by suppressing the portion of our brain that signals us when to eat and when to stop. Low leptin levels lead to overeating and weight gain.
9. Do 15 Minutes of Daily Exercise that Makes you Sweat
Another one of the ways how to balance your hormones in a week is do daily workouts that make you sweat.
Sweating releases toxins, increases your heart rate and burns calories.
However, do moderate-intensity workouts like cardio, treadmill and others. High-intensity workouts can actually cause hormonal imbalance.
10. Supplement with Magnesium
Magnesium is an essential mineral, known to be a muscle relaxant. It has many benefits and functions including relieving stress, promoting good sleep, soothing pain, alleviating PMS and reducing menstrual cramps.
Research also shows that taking magnesium daily helps control how cells keep their own cellular time keeping to cope with the circadian rhythm of the body. This influences the daily 24-hour cycle of sleeping and waking, body temperature, hormone release, and other important human bodily functions.
You can take magnesium supplements.
Magnesium absorbs very well externally. So, you can also spray magnesium oil on your body or add 1-2 cups of Epsom salt (magnesium sulphate) into your bath.
11. Take Adaptogens like Ashwagandha
Ashwangandha is an adaptogenic herb that has many benefits including strengthening the immune system, boosting mood hormones like dopamine, increasing libido and stabilizing the nervous system.
It is also known to reduce anxiety and lower stress levels while improving the ability to deal with new stressors that come about, which is why it’s known as an adaptogen.
Taking ashwagandha supplements also supports healthy thyroid function which is important because the thyroid glands are a major organ in hormonal health.
12. Consume Probiotics
Studies show that estrogen-related imbalances might be reversed with probiotic supplementation by replenishing the bacteria known as estrobolome, which is responsible for metabolizing estrogen.
Probiotic-rich foods include yogurt, kefir, pickled vegetables and fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, miso soup and more.
Probiotic supplements can get you faster results in balancing hormones by improving gut health rapidly.
Thanks for reading the above article, ‘How to Balance Hormones in One Week.’ Following the above 12 protocols are sure-fire way to get your hormones fixed.
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