What your hormones could be telling you

Hormones are something we don't talk about enough. Outside of PMS, period bloat the whole "just get on birth control to help relieve symptoms," hormone balance is often neglected when it comes to educating women on their bodies.

Most of us have to learn when our bodies tell us something is going on. Take me for example... I’ve never had acne outside of a few pimples here and there as a teenager and then BOOM! A face full of cystic hormonal acne.

This isn’t the type of breakout that just goes away after you try to squeeze a pimple or exfoliate. This is a reflection of what’s going on on the inside. I had to dig deep into the root of the issue and it was due to hormones and gut health.

Your nutrition and physical activity play a big role in your hormone balance. Not only that but your gut health works with your endocrine system (along with every other system in the body) to help your body function in a healthy way. Changes in the food you're eating and physical activity you're doing (or not doing) can completely change your internal health.

To repair myself from the inside out, here's what I did:

RESEARCH: I had to REALLY get to know the endocrine system and listen to my body throughout the process. I asked several experts for advice and even asked for scholarly articles and studies I could read up on.

HERBS and SUPPLEMENTS: Herbs played a big role in balancing things out and clearing up my face (and chest). In addition to the Holistically Made detox that I was already taking, I used maca root, magnesium, probiotics, vitamin D and lots of omega 3’s.

REST AND NUTRITION: I made sleep a HUGE priority and limited processed sugar and caffeine. My diet is already pretty healthy, but I really cracked down and made it a priority to get my nutrients from whole food sources. In addition to sleep, I listened to my body very closely and whenever I felt I would be doing more than what my body could handle I would scale it back. In fact, since December, I didn’t start doing cardio consistently until around April.

SKIN ROUTINE: I washed my pillow cases regularly, deep cleansed my face with natural soap (very limited chemicals and did not use acne products), kept my face free from excess oil and made sure I could get to be in enough time to get a full night’s rest.

I did all of these things consistently for the past 6-7 months because I knew I needed to get myself back on track.

Speaking of being on track...

To help keep track of my hormones during my cycle and learn what adjustments to make to my food and training also used the Fitr Woman app (not an ad/promo ya'll I found it randomly searching for a period tracker in the app store).

I still use it, and tt taught me so much and really helps me understand what goes on during the full 28 days of my cycle. I share this because the more you know the more you'll be able to pay attention to what's going on in your body and plan accordingly.

It has been such a great tool for me that I decided to do some digging on IG and ask them if they wanted to go live with me every Wednesday to discuss topics pertaining to hormones... and they agreed!!!

So for the month of July that’s what we’ll be doing. Ya’ll know I’m always here for some knowledge sharing so tune in EVERY Wednesday on Instagram for a new topic! #WellnessWedesday is back for the month of July. Click here to follow