Hormone healing for beginners: 6 principal steps to start restoring bodily balance
There's no holistic health without hormonal balance
Feeling tired despite long naps, gaining weight despite barely eating and acting out even whilst having a dedicated meditation routine in place often leave you feeling...crazy. But more often than not, it's not you, it's your hormones. Wellness and PCOS influencer, Rachel, who goes by the handle @getyourglowww breaks down what's going wrong, for the newbies on the block ready to commit to true holistic well being.
Poor diet
It's not enough to just keep your stomach full. If you suspect hormonal health glitches, the quality of the produce you're consuming becomes manifold times important. Rachel suggests organic meats, healthy fats and complex carbs, a veggie and fruit overload as the cornerstones of a long-term eating pattern that will work for your body and not against it.
Chronic stress and anxiety
Everybody deals with stress. A progressive overload of this over some time eventually gives way to anxiety, creating an endless loop of being in fight or flight mode. What this does is automatically imbalance cortisol and heighten inflammation. As idiotic as 'don't stress' sounds in situations like this, is to make consciously slowing down, actively resting, setting boundaries and regulating your nervous system your default setting. Remember, if you don't give your body the rest it needs, it's going to find ways to make it happen.
Identify and lower endocrine disruptors
Rachel explains that endocrine disruptors (or EDCs) are chemicals that can interfere with the body's hormones by essentially acting like a "blocker", destabilising their levels based on the context. The most common culprits of these are found in tap water, plastic, pesticides, fragrance and even cosmetics. While unraveling this is quite a bit of labour, a great place to start is to stay away from plastic (especially in the kitchen) and look for 'fragrance-free' and 'non-toxic' labels on all the products you use.
Eating is not an option
It's no longer cool to skip meals. Skipping meals, especially breakfast, puts the body in scarcity mode such that hormone metabolism is not a priority for it, explains Rachel. An obvious side effect of hormonal imbalances is weight gain. But in this case, ironically, eating three meals a day (and the number is a non-negotiable), with breakfast ideally happening within 30 to 60 minutes of you waking, is an absolute must.
Sleep it off
There's only one other thing that's as important as prioritising eating thrice a day and that is good, quality sleep. Not getting enough sleep, unending screentime before bed and going to bed late are cheat codes to wreaking havoc on your hormones. Rachel says going to bed between 9PM to 10PM optimises hormone production. The goal is to achieve at least 7, and ideally 8 hours of good sleep, in addition to switching off all screens right before you get into bed.
Alcohol and caffeine woes
Rachel explains that alcohol disrupts sex hormones, thyroid, cortisol and insulin. Caffeine does the same, while also messing up your natural melatonin. There's no way out of this one, except for cutting back on alcohol and caffeine if you are heavily dependent on either. While there's no need to be dramatic and try and go cold turkey, two things to start following right away are to not consume caffeine on an empty stomach and not consume it at all after 2PM. As far as alcohol is concerned, try taking adaptogens or experimenting with mocktails.
Knee-jerk shifts hardly last long and often lead to bigger relapses. The above is meant as a starting guide to eventually get yourself to a point of enough discipline to incorporate whatever changes are required, as non-negotiables for your routine.
Remember, slow and steady — after all, Rome wasn't built in a day!
