Shed holiday pounds fast with this…
What if there was a magical pill or food you could eat that would stop cravings in their tracks, give you long-lasting energy, and promote weight loss all at the same time?
There actually is…it’s called Fat!
Contrary to what you might believe or have been told, the latest research is showing us how consuming healthy types of fats can be beneficial not only for curbing cravings, boosting energy, and supporting weight loss but also for preventing chronic diseases and cognitive disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Before we dive into this fat conversation, let’s set the record straight on what types of fats are beneficial for your health.
Each type of fat is essential for bodily functions and comes with its own health benefits.
Saturated fats are commonly found in butter, lard, milk, coconut oil, and milk. They serve as a primary source of energy in the body; as the preferred fuel for the brain, as signaling agents for cells, and can even encourage weight loss.
Monounsaturated fats can be found in avocados, olives, certain meats, and types of nuts. This type of fat is known for its positive impacts on cardiovascular health by reducing LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, inflammation, and blood pressure, and increasing HDL cholesterol.
Polyunsaturated fats are mostly found in fish, some nuts and seeds, and oils such as flax, corn, safflower, and soybean. This type of fat plays a critical role in forming cell membranes, cell function, and regulating gene expression. Omega-3 and 6’s are a type of Polyunsaturated fat.
Though Trans fats are most controversial, even some of these are healthy for you when they are naturally occurring. Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) is a natural type of Trans fat that reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, and autoimmunity. It can also improve glucose tolerance, which can prevent or help manage type 2 diabetes.
On the other hand, artificial Trans fats are highly inflammatory and have been shown to increase the risk for cancer, heart disease, obesity, and other chronic inflammatory-related conditions.
Fats are your friend, and the quality is what counts.
Aside from the different types of fat, the quality of the fats you are consuming is what matters.
Fat is not only how the body stores energy, but it’s also where the body stores toxins and excess hormones to protect itself from those harmful particles circulating through the system.
If you eat sources of fat that have been exposed to pesticides and herbicides or injected with hormones and antibiotics, such as non-organic, grass-fed, free-range meat and eggs, then guess what? You’re consuming those toxins, hormones, and antibiotics too.
The same goes for fat derived from plant sources such as avocados, olives, and oils.
To really reap the benefits of dietary fats, you’ll want to avoid all the additives. Aim to consume them from natural, clean, organic, hormone-free, grass-fed, pasture-raised, free-range, humanely-raised, and minimally-processed sources.
Look for your fats to be:
In this week’s video and blog, I dive into more detail about why you should eat fat for weight loss, more energy, and better health!
Yet the dietary guidelines for Americans suggest that your daily food intake should consist of 45-65% carbohydrates.
Let’s talk about what’s wrong with this recommendation…
Carbohydrates are the easiest macronutrient for the body to metabolize. They are instantly converted into glucose (aka sugar) that floods the bloodstream. Your blood sugar goes up for a period of time, and what goes up must come down.
This is why you may have noticed that you get an instant energy boost after eating a meal higher in carbs, followed by an energy crash – feeling like you need to take a nap or feeling hungry within 30 minutes to 2 hours after.
As your blood sugar comes crashing down after eating a higher-carb meal, your body loses its energy source and starts craving food to bring your blood sugar back up.
Proteins and fats, on the other hand, require a much more complex and lengthy process to be metabolized and converted into glucose.
Thus, if you eat a meal higher in fat and protein, you’ll have a nice and steady release of glucose over a longer period of time, keeping your blood sugar balanced, energy even, and curbing those cravings.
In fact, fat can’t be converted directly to glucose. It has to go through an even longer process of conversion before it hits your bloodstream.
When you eat a diet higher in fat, as your body works to metabolize the fat you ate (which is a long process) it will tap into your existing fat stores for immediate energy, thus promoting weight loss!
In addition to keeping your blood sugar in balance, eating more fat (and therefore fewer carbs) promotes weight loss and more energy by:
A great example meal would be a ribeye steak dinner with a side of leafy greens or types of vegetables that grow above the ground (asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, etc.) sauteed or cooked with olive or coconut oil.
Remember, you just want your fat sources to be clean, as previously discussed.
Notice after eating this type of meal how you can go 3-5 hours, or possibly longer, without feeling hungry. Your energy is even, and when you cut the cravings or need to snack between meals, it becomes easier to manage your weight.
So don’t fear fat. It does a body good. Use the right fats to get the results you want!
If you need help figuring out what fats and other foods are right for your body so you can lose weight, have more energy, and get back to feeling like yourself again, then click here to check out my Food & Body Language Log.
P.S. If you are a part of the 20% who don’t do as well with a higher fat and protein diet, you’ll know right away. Within 30 minutes to 2 hours, you’ll experience the opposite effects; you’ll feel sluggish, have a heavy stomach, and want to take a nap while your body is trying to digest.
The first live women’s health event of the year is coming up!
Something I’ve become more and more passionate about since turning 40 last year, is helping other women as they approach 40 and beyond, learn how to flow through perimenopause and menopause with ease.
Because moving through these stages of life doesn’t have to be scary or hard.
It is possible to gracefully move through hormonal changes at any stage of life when you have the right lab tests and resources to navigate it.
At 40 years old, I feel healthier, stronger, energized, and more comfortable in my body than ever.
But this wasn’t always the case.
There was a time when I loathed my thighs, and hated wearing short dresses, and when skinny jeans came on the scene, I thought there was no way in hell I would ever fit into a pair.
For the longest time, I struggled with a variety of hormone issues, everything from painful irregular periods to adult acne, cyclic breast tenderness, and hot flashes.
Despite officially entering the mid-life era and officially sailing towards peri-menopause (according to my age), I have NONE of these symptoms anymore.
In fact, my periods are easy-peasy. If I didn’t track them on an app, I would hardly know they were about to happen.
My weight and mood are reliably stable, and the only things that mess with my sleep are furry snuggles or certain travel circumstances.
There’s so much confusion and frustration about women’s bodies in mid-life.
We’re told weight gain, mood swings, hot flashes, and other hormone-related symptoms are just a part of getting older, but they don’t have to be.
The body naturally wants to be in balance, even when riding the wave of age-related hormonal changes. All your body needs to gracefully move through life at any age is the right food to function at its potential and a lifestyle that supports giving your body what it needs at any point in time to feel your best.
Instead of learning about what the body needs to thrive through life, we’re often offered bandaid solutions for hormone-related symptoms such as birth control, anti-depressants, or hormone replacement therapy.
That’s why I’m eager to share the HotFlash Summit, which is designed to help women approaching 40 and beyond take back control of their bodies and hormone health.
You can get all the details about The Hotflash Summit and grab your free access pass HERE, but here is a quick overview:
It wasn’t until my 30s that I really started to understand how my body works as a woman.
Reaching rock bottom with my long-time hormone imbalance battle led me down the road to a higher health education. Had I known as a teenager what I know now, I could have prevented the 17+ years of irregular periods, chronic fatigue, weight gain woes, allergies, brain fog, waves of depression and anxiety, Hashimotos, disrupting the precious balance of my body with birth control, and so much more.
Women go through multiple stages of hormonal changes throughout their lifetime, it’s inevitable.
I’m doing everything I can to prepare for the next stages of peri and menopause so I can get through it gracefully.
And I hope you’ll join me in doing the same by attending the Hotflash Summit.
Not just for yourself, but to support all women and the generations to come by increasing awareness about hormone health and how to live in balance with the body.
Learn more, grab your free ticket, and share this with other women here!
2023 Health Tip Highlights
Wow. Can you believe how fast 2023 has come and gone?
I’m curious…how are you feeling in your body as the year ends compared to when it started?
Better, worse, or the same?
As the (W)holistic Health Boss, my mission is to help keep you up to speed on the latest information, tips, tools, and resources so you can always feel like your best self.
This year, I’ve written over 40 blogs and hundreds of social media posts to educate and empower you about the right lab tests and resources you need to achieve your ideal health and weight.
But if you’re anything like me, then life has surely been busy and maybe you’ve missed a few of the important things I had to share with you.
So to close out 2023, I’ve compiled the top tips and pieces of information I shared this year, in hopes that these will give you the insights you need to kick off the new year with a healthy bang!
Even if you read them the first time, read them again. A new golden nugget of information just might jump out at you!
As you reflect on the past year, take a moment to envision what you want for yourself and your health in the new year.
Do you want more energy?
To feel great in your body again?
To finally put your digestive issues, anxiety, or crappy nights of sleep to rest?
All so you can feel healthy, strong, free, and limitless; to be adventurous and live life to the fullest every day?
If so, then the year ahead is your year.
And these are my top health tips to help you take back control of your health!
P.S. If you want to hit the ground running towards your ideal health and weight in the new year, then CLICK HERE to check out my 28-Cleanse Challenge for just $28!
Final Holiday Hormone Tips [inside]
How are you feeling in your body as we wrap up the last week of the year?
I know you want to feel like your best self, so I’ve been sharing a series of simple tips to balance your hormones during the holidays on Instagram and Facebook.
These posts have been full of helpful insights over the past week along with practical things you can do to keep hormones (such as cortisol, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, thyroid, melatonin, insulin, and leptin) balanced during the holiday season, to minimize the impact the holiday season can have on them.
Hormones can take a hit during the holiday season, as you tend to focus SO much on giving to others this time of year and maybe less on giving to yourself with all the holiday festivities, last-minute gift shopping, and visiting family or friends.
By the end of it all, I bet you usually feel wiped out or wonder why you feel so fat, tired, and sick all the time just like I used to.
To help you keep your hormones intact this holiday season and breathe life back into them for the new year, on December 12th I kicked off my annual Instagram and Facebook series called the “12 Days of Healthy Hormone Hacks for the Holidays”
Here’s a recap of a few simple tips I recently shared…
Day 6 – Bank Some Sleep
Sleep is the first thing to do during the holiday season as you stay up late…
- Burning the midnight oil to meet last-minute work deadlines
- Wrapping presents when kids or loved ones are asleep
- Dancing or socializing the night away at holiday parties
- Waiting for Santa or loved ones to arrive
- Or by taking red-eye flights to save a few bucks
Have you noticed that even when you get 8 hours of sleep or allow yourself to sleep in after a late night, you just don’t seem to wake up feeling rested?
Our body has an internal clock according to the sun’s cycles. This internal clock determines specific times of day when the body does critical functions to help keep our hormones balanced.
For example, from 10 pm to 2 am, it…
- It releases human growth hormone to repair damaged cells and create new ones.
- Cortisol levels are at their lowest and melatonin hormone peaks to support restful sleep
And from 2 am to 4 am…The liver and gallbladder do their deepest detox work to get rid of toxins.
The body does not shift its internal clock if these critical sleeping windows are missed, it simply can’t perform these functions well, and our hormones take a hit. Regularly staying up late can flip the cortisol rhythm, mess with melatonin production, and disrupt all other hormones.
Obviously, there are some fun-filled and valid reasons to miss some shut-eye this time of year, but you can make up for it by banking on sleep on the days you can get to bed at a reasonable time.
Every hour of sleep before midnight is worth 2 hours of rest!
When you can, get to bed by 10 pm or earlier to bank sleep for late nights ahead, or to make up for the ones already had.
Getting good quality sleep at optimal times will help you wake up feeling rested and support hormone balance through the holidays.
***
Day 5 – Crush Some Cruciferous Veggies
It’s the last full weekend before the holiday season reaches its peak and all through the town, celebration cocktails are going down… meaning estrogen levels are on the rise.
ONE alcoholic beverage can increase estrogen levels in the body for up to 24 hours, but this time of year there’s bound to be more than one drink with back-to-back holiday festivities not giving your body a full 24-hour break to normalize estrogen levels.
Aside from alcohol, we come in contact with more xenoestrogen-type toxins, such as plastics that increase estrogen in the body this time of year.
Consistently elevated estrogen levels can contribute to estrogen dominance, weight gain, thyroid imbalances, sleep issues, mood swings, and more.
But don’t worry about indulging this holiday season if you focus on crushing some cruciferous veggies.
Cruciferous vegetables are known for their anti-estrogenic effects. They contain a compound called DIM (3’3 diindolylmethane) which helps eliminate estrogen through the liver.
Most of them also contain chlorophyll (found in the green leaves), which aids in reducing estrogen through improved liver health.
See where you can incorporate some of these cruciferous veggies for the rest of the year and beyond…
- Arugula
- Bok Choy
- Broccoli
- Brussels Sprouts
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Collard Greens
- Kale
- Mustard greens
- Radish
- Turnip
- Watercress
Some of my favorite holiday side dishes include roasted Brussels sprouts and arugula-based winter salads.
Keep that estrogen in check by crushing some cruciferous veggies as we wind down the year!
***
Day 4 – Wake Up with Warm Water
Whether it’s cold outside or not, start your day with warm, lemon-salted water while brewing your usual cup of coffee or tea to boost hormone balance!
Make your hormones happy this holiday season with a cup of warm water, a slice of lemon, and a pinch of Celtic, Himalayan, or sea salt.
Lemons have been known to help detoxify the liver, which plays a major role in hormone balance by facilitating actions such as thyroid T4 to T3 conversion and eliminating excess estrogen, to help achieve ideal weight, sleep, and mood.
A pinch of Celtic, Himalayan, or sea salt promotes important hydration and electrolyte balance for hormone and cellular function. Plus, the magnesium, sodium, and potassium in the salt nourish the adrenal glands that produce cortisol and DHEA hormones, along with some adrenaline, estrogen, and other hormones as well.
Warm or room temperature water aids in the absorption of the lemon and salt nutrients in addition to promoting digestive health and bowel movements – which is how we get rid of toxins or excess hormones that impact body balance. Warm water gives your body a gentle nudge to get going instead of a cold electric shock.
During holiday craziness, we are more likely to forget about drinking water throughout the day and to indulge in dehydrating things such as alcohol, coffee, and traveling.
This holiday season, add a cup of warm, lemon-salted water to your morning to start your day with a hydrating healthy hormone boost!
***
Head on over to my Instagram and Facebook to see what other tips you might have missed AND to catch the last of my 12 Days of Healthy Hormone Hacks for the Holidays!
P.S. Turn on your Facebook and/or Instagram notifications for my pages so you don’t miss a single simple tip to keep your hormones intact this holiday season, AND remember to save the posts for future reference because these tips can help balance hormones all year long!
Top 12 Holiday Hormone Hacks!
It’s that holiday time of year again!
There’s an abundance of joy and gratitude going around this time of year, but…
By the end of it all, do you usually feel wiped out or wonder why you feel so fat, tired, and sick all the time?
It’s because your hormones took a hit!
The holidays can wreak havoc on your hormones while there is so much focus on giving to others this time of year and not so much on giving to yourself as you run around from holiday parties, last-minute gift shopping, and visiting family or friends.
However, there is a way to still give this holiday season AND support your hormones at the same time.
To help you keep your hormones intact this holiday season and breathe life back into them for the new year, on December 12th I kicked off my annual Instagram and Facebook series called the “12 Days of Healthy Hormone Hacks for the Holidays”
Over 12 days on Instagram and Facebook, catch my videos and posts where I’m sharing simple tips for practical things you can do to keep your hormones balanced while you enjoy the holiday season!
Here’s a sneak peek at the simple tips I’ve lined up for you…
Day 1 – Fill Up With Fat
This likely sounds counterintuitive, but trust me, it’s not when it comes to your hormones, energy levels, and kicking cravings!
The body needs healthy dietary fats that are broken down into LDL and cholesterol, along with other nutrients such as B vitamins to maintain hormone balance. Yep, you heard me right. LDL and cholesterol are actually necessary for hormones. Fat gets a bad rap, but it’s not bad for you if sourced in a healthy way.
Filling up with healthy fats can also help balance blood sugar for longer-lasting energy, reduce inflammation, and kick cravings.
So what healthy fats should you indulge in during the holidays?
- Avocado on its own, as guacamole, or as an oil
- Full-fat coconut milk in your coffee, tea, or smoothies
- Organic, nitrate, and gluten-free bacon
- Cold-Pressed organic olive or coconut oil
- Grass-fed ghee instead of butter (less inflammatory)
- Fatty cuts of organic pasture-raised meats and eggs
One of my favorite fat-bomb beverages is a matcha latte or coffee with full-fat coconut milk and vanilla bean ghee. This keeps me feeling full and energized for 5 hours or more!
I always fill up on fat before I hit a holiday party or aim to eat the fattiest snacks while there, to keep my hormones happy and hunger under control.
Focus on filling up with healthy fats throughout the day and notice the way it makes you feel more full, more energized, and craving-free.
***
Day 2 – Breathe Deeply
We’re constantly moving this time of year – decorating, planning, working, shopping, traveling, cooking, cleaning, and socializing. While all are necessary and some fun, it does take a toll on hormonal health.
Constant movement triggers our sympathetic nervous system eliciting a stress response, aka the fight or flight response. In a stressed state, our body uses a lot of valuable hormonal resources. Cortisol is a primary hormone at play, but it is not the only one impacted in a negative way.
In stress mode, our body directs valuable resources outward for quick thinking and quick-moving, leaving little resources for critical functions in our body to take place keeping our health in line.
BUT in just 2 minutes or less, you can snap yourself out of stress mode and quickly into rest and relaxation mode, bringing your hormones back into balance so your body can heal from all the work it has been doing. Here’s how…
Deep Breathing.
It’s that simple. When we breathe deep and rhythmic like a relaxed person, we can instantly flip the switch from fight or flight mode into a more relaxed and healing state.
Try this ten times…
- Inhale for 5 seconds
- Hold the breath 5 seconds
- Exhale for 7 seconds
Use this simple breathing technique anytime you notice yourself moving too fast, when you’ve gone a long time without a break, or feel anxious to instantly bring cortisol and other hormones back into balance.
I do this in the morning, afternoon, and before bed. Set a reminder on your phone to stop at least once a day this holiday season to breathe deeply and promote hormone balance.
***
Day 3 – Go Green
Inflammatory factors are on the rise during the holidays as we indulge in different foods or beverages that might have a more inflammatory effect on the body, or as we encounter toxins while traveling and experience mental or emotional stress that is common this time of year.
Inflammation is at the core of hormone dysfunction or any other health issue. It drives cortisol out of balance, creating a negative domino effect on other hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and thyroid. Over time, constant inflammation (even low levels) can overwhelm the immune system, making you more susceptible to seasonal sickness and even autoimmune conditions.
Sure, you’re going to indulge during the holidays, and you can’t always control toxin exposure or the need to travel, but there are things you can do on a daily basis to calm the inflammatory fire.
To help you reduce inflammation daily – GO GREEN!
One cup of green tea has an abundance of anti-inflammatory effects that can positively impact your hormones and digestive health. EGCG is an active green tea ingredient that modulates genes to produce an anti-inflammatory effect.
To help contain the inflammatory fire, aim to incorporate a cup of green tea daily during the holidays.
This is such an easy task! You can grab a cup of green tea almost anywhere while traveling or pack it to always have with you. It’s the perfect drink to start your day or keep you warm when it’s cold outside.
As mentioned on tip day 1, filling up with fats supports hormones and one of my favorite fat-bomb beverages is a matcha green tea latte with full-fat coconut milk and vanilla bean ghee. This keeps me feeling full and energized for at least 5 hours, plus it has all the added anti-inflammatory benefits.
You can’t go wrong by going green this holiday season to keep your hormones happy.
***
Make sure you’re following me closely on Instagram and Facebook to catch all of my, 12 Days of Healthy Hormone Hacks for the Holidays!
P.S. Turn on your Facebook and/or Instagram notifications for my pages so you don’t miss a single simple tip to keep your hormones intact this holiday season, AND remember to save the posts for future reference because these tips can help balance hormones all year long!
The best exercise time and type [for results]
I’ve been a morning exerciser since the age of 5, when I used to get up before dawn with my dad to ride my little bike by his side while he got in his morning run.
And throughout my life, if I don’t work out before noon, all motivation is lost.
You could say I was conditioned to be this way but actually, we are biologically built to get up and get moving in the morning.
I cringe every time I see someone out running or headed to the gym in the late afternoon or evening.
What they don’t know is that the time of day and type of exercise they are doing are likely working against them, making it harder to achieve their ideal weight and health.
Yet working out in the late afternoon or evening is so common.
And most of the people I know who do this struggle to lose or maintain their weight, wake up feeling tired, are slow to get moving in the morning and don’t sleep great.
This is because the time of exercise and type matter to get the best results.
Although I’ve always been a morning person, I haven’t always done the right type of exercise for my body, and it often held me back from reaching my goals.
Back in my personal training and fitness competition days, my workout routine was super structured:
- Monday – leg day
- Tuesday – back and chest
- Wednesday – long run
- Thursday – shoulders, biceps and triceps
- Friday – high-intensity interval training
- Saturday – short run
- Sunday – long run
- Hit repeat
As a result, I often felt wiped out in the afternoon and had constant muscle soreness.
When I was diagnosed with Hashimotos in 2016, I finally realized just how much the type of exercise you’re doing matters.
Upon receiving that diagnosis, I was determined to heal my thyroid and reverse Hashimotos so I changed my diet, focused even more on getting supportive sleep, added in more supplements, and doubled down on my daily detox efforts.
The one thing I didn’t change was my exercise routine. I continued to run to the gym, lift heavy, and run back multiple times a week paired with longer intense runs in between.
When my healing and weight loss results were marginal at best despite all the changes I had made, I knew I had to change the way I was working out to get the results I wanted.
So I committed to 30 days of ONLY walking and yoga, and that’s when I started to make more leaps and bounds toward my ideal weight and health.
In this week’s video and blog, I’ll explain how the right time and type of exercise for your body can help you achieve your ideal weight and health too.
Let’s talk about timing first to help you get some quick wins with your exercise efforts.
To get the best results, you can align your exercise routine according to your internal body rhythms and daily hormone fluctuations.
When the sun rises in the morning, temperature and light increase, signaling the release of cortisol hormone which peaks about 2 hours after sunrise. As the sun moves throughout the day, cortisol slowly tapers off through the afternoon.
Cortisol is your body’s natural source of energy which makes the 2-hour window after sunrise, and any time before noon, the most ideal window for intense types of exercise such as weight lifting, running, and interval training.
As the sun sets, temperature and light decrease, signaling your body to prepare for sleep by lowering cortisol and energy levels to their lowest by 10pm.
Intense exercise later in the afternoon and evening goes against your body’s natural flow and availability of energy, which can deplete the body and disrupt optimal sleep timing and quality leading to even more depletion.
If you are currently, or have ever done, intense forms of exercise later in the day, afterwards you probably feel “wired but tired” or get a “second wind” in the evening that keeps you up late and you wake up feeling tired or not fully rested.
If you’re someone who likes to move your body later in the day like I do, it’s ok to engage in more restorative and lighter intensity forms of exercise such as walking or yoga that won’t disrupt sleep quality and are more in alignment with your body’s energy capacity.
Now you might be thinking it’s hard to wake up early to workout, but trust me, when you align your exercise time with your body’s natural hormone rhythms it will become easier to fall asleep by 10pm, you’ll get more restful sleep, and you’ll wake up feeling rested with the sun as you’re biologically built to do.
Now let’s address the ideal types of exercise to get the best results.
As discussed with timing, it’s better to do intense types of exercise earlier and lower intensity later in the day.
But there is even more to be considered daily when choosing the most ideal type of exercise for your body.
As I mentioned before, when trying to reverse Hashimotos, committing to less intense forms of exercise such as walking and yoga for at least 30 days helped to accelerate my progress so I could lose weight and get my energy back faster.
This experience reinforced what I always say and aim to teach my clients…
“By tuning into your body in any given moment, you can give it exactly what it needs to feel your best, maintain results, and continue making progress.”
Your body will do anything you ask it to, but that doesn’t mean you should.
We’ve been conditioned to push through it when we don’t feel our best, instead of resting. So when we don’t feel 100%, we’ll still grind away at the gym or go for a run. I know because I’ve been guilty of this too.
However, when you don’t feel 100% that means your body is already in a depleted state; whether it’s from a stressful week, poor food choices or sleep, environmental or other lifestyle factors.
So instead of depleting your body even more with intense exercise, which impairs your ability to get optimal results, when you feel less than your best, these are the days to choose less intense exercise, even in the morning.
The majority of the clients I work with are doing intense forms of exercise in the morning yet struggling to get the expected results. When we investigate why this is happening with functional lab testing, the data reveals how depleted their bodies are from pushing through it all for too long.
By dialing back the intensity of their exercise for a short period of time so the body can heal, balance is restored, and eventually, they can return to their favorite intense forms of exercise without creating a deficit because they have also learned to choose the right type of exercise on any given day to support what their body needs to feel its best.
The last piece I want to touch on is about choosing the right type of exercise specifically for my fellow females.
As women, our sex hormones (i.e. estrogen and progesterone) fluctuate throughout our menstrual cycle, and different stages of hormone changes during our lifetime. These cyclical hormonal changes also determine what type of exercise is best during certain times of your cycle or life.
For example, a woman’s body is more primed for building muscle and heavier lifting during the first part of their menstrual cycle, and more prone to ligament injuries with agility or high-intensity interval training during this time.
Alternatively, the female body is better equipped for conditioning and interval types of exercise during the second half of the cycle, with less risk of injury.
I have personally been aligning the type of exercise I do with my cycle and have not only noticed significant improvements in physical results, but also a higher level of desire and motivation to do the type of exercise that is right for my body during specific windows of my cycle.
In summary, to get the best results from your exercise efforts, follow these 3 guidelines:
- Do intense exercise before noon
- Only do lower intensity/restorative exercise later in the day
- Tune into your body daily to choose the right type of exercise your body needs to feel your best instead of pushing through
What changes do you need to make (if any) to get the best results with your exercise efforts? Comment below to let me know!
P.S. Want more exercise tips to help you get better results? Check out some of my favorite exercise experts on Instagram.
Debra Atkinson for more women’s hormone-balancing exercise insights.
John Parker for strength and conditioning exercise insights.
Emily Kiberd for online kettle bell workouts to support thyroid health.
Don’t let daylight savings set you back
It’s that time of year again when places all around the world are setting the clocks back for daylight savings, but your body doesn’t care about the time on a clock because it’s guided by the cycle of the sun.
Let’s be honest, changes in daylight savings time can be challenging.
Does it take weeks for your body to adjust to the time change?
These annual changes used to be rough, leaving me feeling super tired in the late afternoon or dragging my ass when getting out of bed.
I often wonder why we still do them at all. And if we stop daylight savings, how would we adjust the time to align with the actual time of day according to the position of the sun?
Modernization has given us a lot of conveniences in life, but it doesn’t always take into account what your body needs to feel its best.
Take the light bulb for example…
It’s so much easier to flip a switch or set a timer to turn on your lights from your phone these days instead of fumbling through the dark lighting candles.
However, did you know that artificial lights such as the ones in your very own home can trick your body into thinking the sun is still up and negatively impact your ability to fall asleep or get a good night’s rest?
It’s true.
The same is true for your central heating. If your home is too warm at night, it can also trick your body into thinking the sun is still up.
Your body has an internal clock aligned with the sun and the moon cycles.
When the sun rises, light and temperature increase, signaling your body to release cortisol hormone which gives you energy to get going in the morning and throughout the day.
When the sun sets, light and temperature decrease, signaling your body to lower cortisol hormone and release the sleep-supporting hormone melatonin along with other hormones to restore and repair your body at night.
This internal body clock aligned with the sun cycle is a big part of why it’s so tough to adjust to daylight savings time changes. The clock says one time but your body knows another based on the sun cycle.
But you don’t have to be on the struggle bus over the next few weeks while your body adjusts because there are ways to support your body during this transition so you can have more energy, sleep great through the night, and feel your best.
In this week’s video and blog, I’m giving you my top tips to get through daylight savings like a health boss so you can have more energy, feel great, and even lose weight!
Let’s first point out that feeling tired or sluggish after daylight savings isn’t your fault. It’s the result of a natural response your body has to light and temperature.
So stop beating yourself up and start loving up on your body to get your bounce back.
The key to feeling great, no matter what time of year or timezone you’re in, is to honor your body’s internal clock that is ruled by the sun cycle.
As humans, we are wired to be diurnal (aka day dwelling) meaning our energy is best during the day and we are meant to sleep when it’s dark.
The exact opposite of our feline friends or other critters who are nocturnal and enjoy romping around at night.
Based on this internal clock, our body does some really important things during certain times of the day. For example:
- Sunrise: cortisol is released giving you the energy to get up and get going
- 5 – 6 am: the large intestines get moving leading to a bowel movement upon waking
- 11 am – 1 pm: circulation is emphasized to nourish organs and optimize digestion
- Sunset: cortisol lowers to lower energy and prep for bedtime
- Evening: darkness promotes the secretion of melatonin to prep for sleep
- Midnight: the largest amount of human growth hormone is released to repair cells
- 1 – 3 am: the gallbladder, liver, and lungs do their major detox work
When we acknowledge and adhere to this internal clock, it can produce huge results relating to your energy, sleep, hormones, and weight balance.
When we sleep too far past sunrise or stay up late, it interferes with the body’s natural rhythm and can leave you feeling tired, sick, or fat all of the time.
With this knowledge in hand, you can take action like a health boss to support your body when traveling across different time zones or when daylight savings takes place.
Here are my top tips to get through daylight savings like a health boss so you can have more energy, feel great, and even lose weight!
#1 – Rise with the Sun
This might be the most challenging but effective one for shifting your energy, improving sleep quality, and ultimately supporting weight loss and feeling your best. You’ve got to get up when the sun rises or just shortly after.
Remember, according to your body’s natural rhythm when the sun rises so does cortisol which gives you the energy to get up and get going. Cortisol then peaks about 2 hours after sunrise. If you’re sleeping through this critical moment not only will you feel groggy all day long but you’re also messing with the rhythm of your other hormones.
Don’t hit the snooze button. Get up, even if you’re slow to get moving. After doing this for a few days along with the other tips it will get easy.
#2 – Move in the Morning
With cortisol peaking in the morning, this is the best time to move your body. Most people know of cortisol as the stress hormone, but it’s also what gives us the energy to do things.
This morning cortisol spike is what gave our ancestors the energy to get out early in the morning to hunt while prey was active, and do the most vigorous work before the sun peaked and it was too hot.
While we don’t have to hunt for food, build shelters, or migrate, we do want to honor this natural biological circadian rhythm and even leverage it to get better health results.
Aligning your exercise routine with this natural cortisol boost in the morning will give you more energy all day long and better physical results. Plus, moving your body in the morning will also balance your sleep-wake cycles leading to better quality sleep.
You can’t out diet, out supplement, or out exercise a poor sleep-wake cycle so get moving in the morning to put results in motion.
#3 – Mimic Sunset
When the sun sets, both light and temperature decrease. But the modern luxuries of life allow us to create an artificial environment that tricks the body into thinking the sun is still up, interfering with our internal clock and balance.
When the sunsets, mimic it in your house by dimming lights and temperature. This will signal your body to lower cortisol (aka energy) and start prepping for sleep with the release of melatonin, your sleep hormone.
When you do this, you should feel naturally tired into the evening time instead of wired or getting a “second wind”, which will set you up for a great night’s sleep. This will make it easier to wake up with the sun in the morning – see how that cycle works!
On average, the optimal sleeping temperature is about 68 degrees so set your thermostat to start working towards that at least 30 minutes before bed.
Turn lights off around the house that you really don’t need, swap light bulbs for softer lighting, or my personal favorite is to use the soft light of salt lamps around the house in the evening.
Wearing blue-blocker glasses in the afternoon and evening like my favorite Viva Rays also helps to diffuse artificial light to support the body’s natural rhythm.
#4 – Be Asleep by 10 pm
This step is what makes the whole rhythm work. According to your internal body clock, it’s critical to be asleep by 10 p.m. so your body can do all of its major detox and repair work at night.
If you’re not asleep by 10 pm, then you’re not in the required restful state for these critical actions to take place, thus you’ll wake up feeling exhausted no matter how late you sleep in.
So in order to wake up feeling rested and to have the energy to move your body in the morning, you’ve got to be asleep by 10 p.m.
This creates the foundation for more energy and hormone balance that are dictated by your cortisol rhythm, to lose weight and feel great.
Every one hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours of rest for your body. In the winter months, it’s normal and okay to be asleep earlier than 10 p.m. because the days are shorter.
So don’t fight feeling tired when it’s dark outside, let yourself go to bed and wake up with an abundance of energy to get things done like a health boss!
These are the exact steps I take daily to feel my best every day of the year, despite daylight savings, and they have made a HUGE impact on my client’s health and well-being too.
I’d love to hear which step(s) you are going to focus on to support your body through daylight savings.
Comment below to let me know
Simple strategies to detox your body daily…
If you’ve been following me on Instagram or Facebook recently, you know I’ve been traveling like CRAZY (I’ve only been home for one of the last 6 weeks!)
In fact, today I’m getting on another plane this afternoon heading to Florida again to attend the Microbiome Labs Keynote Symposium (stay tuned for more tips and inspiration I’ll be sharing throughout the weekend).
Since I’m hitting the road again today, I’m going to keep this short AND make sure it’s packed with a TON of useful information for you.
As much as I love traveling, it used to wipe me out and set my health back, but I know how to do it differently so I can feel as good, if not better, upon my return than when I left.
Whether you’re traveling as much as me or enjoying life at home, your body is hard at work for you all year long—it’s constantly filtering out toxins that you unknowingly or knowingly are exposed to; digesting and converting food to energy for you; and even running on little sleep or pushing through overworking.
We live in a world where more and more toxins are being released into the environment every day, week, month, and year. There are far more than we can ever fathom, and our bodies have taken on a huge burden as a result.
During the 2020 pandemic, your toxin exposure increased tenfold as a result of being confined indoors more than before, in addition to the heightened use of disinfectants and hand sanitizers.
The air inside your home alone is said to be up to 100% more toxic than the air outside due to paint, sealants, fire retardants, and cleaning products.
All of these micro or macro exposures add up over time leading to weight gain, low energy, hormone imbalances, bloating, allergies and a laundry list of other symptoms or health issues.
Reducing your body’s daily toxic burden is fairly simple once you know how to identify toxins in your environment, and by putting some simple healthy habits in place to support your body’s natural elimination process.
Implementing simple strategies to detox my body daily has been pivotal in not only achieving my ideal health and weight, but also maintaining it while traveling.
To help you feel like your best too, I’m sharing these simple strategies with you in a FREE MASTERCLASS YOU CAN ACCESS TODAY!
Access the Masterclass…Simple Daily Detox Strategies: No Juices, Gimmicks or Supplements Required!
Simple Detox Strategies Masterclass
This Masterclass will examine some of the biggest myths around detoxing your body from toxic burdens and what you should know or be doing instead…
MYTH #1 –Juice Cleansing Is The Best Way To Detox
FACT – It’s a waste of money if you’re not eating protein. Protein is required for your body to actually move toxic elements through the different phases of detoxification in order to eliminate them.
MYTH #2 – Diet & Exercise Are The Key To Weight Loss & Eliminating Toxins
FACT – Diet and exercise aren’t really enough. The liver is the powerhouse when it comes to eliminating toxins and regulating your metabolism and energy. You need to show your liver some love in order to get the results you’re looking for, and one of the best ways to support your liver is sleeping from 10 pm to 4 am.
MYTH #3 – Detoxing Requires Expensive Supplements
FACT – Supplements help, but aren’t the ultimate answer. You have to decrease the toxic stuff coming in and increase the toxic stuff going out consistently. Otherwise, supplements are just keeping you afloat, but not helping you to actually get ahead.
MYTH #4 – Detoxing / Cleansing Means Deprivation
FACT – No, it doesn’t at all! There are simple ways to detox your body daily using food, water, sleep, exercise, and at-home liver-supporting techniques that allow you to enjoy food and life.
It’s a total shift in perspective to help you take control of your health and feel like your best self!
Access the Masterclass…Simple Daily Detox Strategies: No Juices, Gimmicks or Supplements Required!
And after you watch it, comment below to let me know what your biggest takeaway is for how you can naturally detox your body daily.
Are you going to fall back or spring forward?
Health is about balance; striking a balance between what you eat and moving your body, a balance of hormones, finding a balance between work and life, how much water you need daily versus how much you eliminate, and a balance of indulgence vs healthy choices.
I like to call myself a realist when it comes to health.
I aim to live in the 90/10 zone and coach my clients to do the same; 90% of the time minding healthy habits while reserving 10% of the time for special occasions and indulgences. This type of balance will help you achieve and maintain your ideal health and weight, so you can always feel like your best self.
Here’s a real-life personal example of what this looks like…
I just spent an extraordinary 10 days in Spain and indulged in all the amazing food and experiences the trip had to offer while still being mindful to drink plenty of water, physical activity, rest, and take supportive supplements. This is the 10% of the time reserved for special occasions and indulgences.
I had wine, bread, and cheese daily and even stayed up past 10 p.m. most nights.
And as soon as I got home, I got right back into my ideal health and weight-supportive routines (this is the 90%).
Destination vacations are just one example of the “10%” opportunities that life presents us.
We also tend to encounter an abundance of them throughout the Summer with all the fun-filled activities the season brings, and again in the Winter with all the holiday festivities, and also when birthdays, weddings, or other celebrations come around.
What we do in between the 10% moments is what helps you feel like your best self, or get it back.
Every choice you make can either build health or break it down.
With Summer behind us and the holiday season quickly approaching, this is the perfect window of time to double down on your 90% to restore balance to your body and build resiliency before the holidays hit.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fall and Spring are the best times of year to cleanse and detox the body of harmful impurities that have collected in our organs and tissues to restore balance to the body and prepare for the next season ahead.
This is just one of the reasons why I originally created the 28-Day Cleanse Challenge that gives you a step-by-step easy way to detox for increased energy, weight loss, hormone and digestive balance that decreases belly bloat, allergies, and other symptoms of poor health.
It’s even specifically designed for health-minded people like you who want to take their health to the next level, naturally.
This challenge will help you boost your body’s natural detox process using foods and gentle cleansing methods, so you can:
- Shed stubborn pounds
- Boost your energy
- Reduce inflammation
- Strengthen your immune system
- Enhance your hormones and overall health
The 28-day Cleanse Challenge starts as soon as you enroll (there’s no waiting), and you can participate for just $1 per day!
Your body is hard at work for you all year long—it’s constantly filtering out toxins that you unknowingly or knowingly are exposed to; digesting and converting food to energy for you; and even running on little sleep or pushing through overworking.
Doing a cleanse during the ideal times of Fall and Spring always helps refresh my body, boost my energy, and maintain my ideal weight.
Consider the Cleanse Challenge as an opportunity to recommit yourself to healthy practices after Summer, to prepare your body for winter, and to get ahead of the holidays that are coming up!
Joining the 28-Day Cleanse Challenge is like hitting the “reset button.”
Because we’re not perfect (and we shouldn’t expect ourselves to be); you can’t control all the variables in your life or health all the time. And because your body works so hard for you every day, this is a chance to give it 28 days of your undivided attention to reset yourself and feel your best.
Here’s how the Cleanse Challenge works: Over the course of 28 days, you will…
- Learn what ratio of proteins, carbs, and fats that are best for your body to boost your energy, weight loss, balance hormones, reduce belly bloat and inflammation
- Incorporate the highest naturally detoxifying foods (beets, grapefruit, dandelion greens) into your daily routine to promote the body’s natural cleansing systems
- Focus on minimizing your intake of the top inflammatory and hormone-disrupting foods: gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, and alcohol
- Get accountability to work out regularly, drink plenty of water, and get quality sleep in order to support the body’s cleansing and healing process
- Receive 30-minute weekly educational webinars and be part of a special Facebook group for support
- Receive recipes and a checklist to guide you along your journey
- Get exclusive resources and discounts to help you along your journey and beyond!
Throughout my health journey, I have incorporated all of these strategies into my daily way of being to eliminate seasonal health issues, boost energy, lose weight, and create long-lasting sustainable results.
If you’re not sure whether a cleanse is right for you or not, here are 10 common signs your body needs cleansing:
- Seasonal allergies
- Abdominal bloating
- Menstrual irregularities
- Abdominal fat aka a pot belly
- Joint and muscle pain
- Low energy or fatigue
- Acid reflux/heartburn
- Body odor, hot flashes, and excessive sweating
- Acne, rosacea, or itchy, blotchy skin
- Unexplained weight gain and inability to lose weight even with calorie restriction\
Will you join me and many others to shed pounds, boost your energy naturally, and cleanse your body so you can feel like your best self again?
The 28-day Cleanse Challenge starts as soon as you enroll (there’s no waiting), and you can participate for just $1 per day!
CLICK HERE to join my 28-Day Cleanse Challenge right now for just $28
For me, striking a balance is all about controlling what you can and minimizing the impact of the things you can’t.
As life continues to happen, the way you choose to navigate it is what makes all the difference.
So ask yourself… are you going to let your health fall back or spring it forward during this pivotal time of year?
The choice is yours, and I’m here to support you in taking control of feeling like your best self through my 28-Day Cleanse Challenge!
Why NOW is the best time for this…
Happy first week of Fall if you are in the northern hemisphere and Spring if you’re in the southern.
I personally love the cycle of seasons and the variety they add to life. I can’t wait to indulge in some of my favorite fall foods and decorate my house with all things Halloween.
But I didn’t always feel this way…
Seasonal shifts used to really get me down because of the impacts they had on my health. Every Fall and Spring I would struggle with:
- Foggy brain
- Low energy
- Congestion
- Earaches or infections
- Coughing and sneezing
- And downright just feeling blah!
When I moved from Northern California to sunny San Diego for college, I started suffering from seasonal allergies which I found to be odd since I had moved from a farming town full of pollen to a place with refreshing ocean breezes, so it didn’t really make sense. But I brushed it off ignoring the smoke signals my body was sending.
I’ll never forget walking home from class on the dreadfully hot San Diego Fall days (yes, it can get very hot in San Diego from about August to November due to the Santa Ana winds coming from the East pulling dry heat and all kinds of pollen with them). I lived in a seasonal allergy haze on these days. I couldn’t think straight, I had headaches and recurring earaches, and despite how much coffee I drank I couldn’t break the wall of fatigue.
Now seasonal shifts are a blip on my radar. I still feel them but they don’t take me down the way they used to anymore. For perspective, my symptoms are a 1 or 2 on a scale of 1-10 when they used to be an 8 to 10.
Seasonal allergies might be common, but they are not necessarily normal.
The frequency and intensity of seasonal allergies are clues about your body’s detox, digestive, and immune system function since they represent an inflammatory response; the more frequent and intense, the bigger the indication is for poor body system function.
The stronger and healthier your body systems are, the more resilient and thus less reactive you’ll be to things like pollens and allergens in the air.
Over time, I have implemented strategies to reduce the inflammatory load on my body that has drastically reduced the intensity of my seasonal sensitives down to almost zero. And when the seasons change, I have a few other tricks up my sleeve to keep even the smallest symptoms at bay.
When seasonal shifts started to hit me hard in my early 20s, my inflammatory way of living at the time didn’t help my case. I was…
- Eating mucous-producing foods like gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, and alcohol
- Staying up late and not getting adequate sleep for my body to recover daily
- Working out hard when my body was depleted from poor sleep and food choices
- Enduring long stressful days going to school full-time, working and interning
- Dealing with a variety of very emotional family and relationship events
This combination of emotional stress, less-than-ideal nights of sleep, hitting the gym hard, hidden environmental toxins, alcohol, and sub-optimal food choices increases the demand for cortisol to regulate stress and inflammation.
The constant demand for cortisol due to an overstimulated fight or flight response really starts to wear down your body over time, and it can lead to all kinds of body system imbalances that express themselves as symptoms like seasonal allergies.
The good news is… to restore balance to your body and reverse symptoms like seasonal allergies, it’s actually quite simple.
You can do this daily by:
- Eating the right foods for your body
- Being asleep by 10 pm and sleeping through the night
- Moving your body daily and decreasing exercise intensity on days you feel tired
- Drinking at least half of your body weight in ounces of water to flush toxins
- Taking time to destress and disconnect daily even if it’s for 5 minutes at a time
- Gradually eliminating toxins from your environment
All of which I guide you through in my 28-Day Cleanse Challenge.
In fact, NOW is the perfect time to focus on supporting your body in these ways.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fall and Spring are the best times of year to cleanse and detox the body of harmful impurities that have collected in our organs and tissues to restore balance to the body and prepare for the next season ahead.
I created the 28-Day Cleanse Challenge to give you a step-by-step easy way to detox for increased energy, weight loss, hormone and digestive balance that decreases belly bloat, allergies, and other symptoms of poor health.
It’s even specifically designed for health-minded people like you who want to take their health to the next level, naturally.
This challenge will help you boost your body’s natural detox process using foods and gentle cleansing methods, so you can:
- Shed stubborn pounds
- Boost your energy
- Reduce inflammation
- Strengthen your immune system
- Enhance your hormones and overall health
The 28-day Cleanse Challenge starts as soon as you enroll (there’s no waiting), and you can participate for just $1 per day!
Your body is hard at work for you all year long—it’s constantly filtering out toxins that you unknowingly or knowingly are exposed to; digesting and converting food to energy for you; and even running on little sleep or pushing through overworking.
Doing a cleanse during the ideal times of Fall and Spring always helps refresh my body, boost my energy, and maintain my ideal weight.
Consider the Cleanse Challenge as an opportunity to recommit yourself to healthy practices after Summer, to prepare your body for winter, and to get ahead of the holidays that are coming up!
Joining the 28-Day Cleanse Challenge is like hitting the “reset button.”
Because we’re not perfect (and we shouldn’t expect ourselves to be); you can’t control all the variables in your life or health all the time. And because your body works so hard for you every day, this is a chance to give it 28 days of your undivided attention to reset yourself to feel your best.
Here’s how the Cleanse Challenge works. Over the course of 28 days, you will…
- Learn what ratio of proteins, carbs, and fats that are best for your body to boost your energy, weight loss, balance hormones, reduce belly bloat and inflammation
- Incorporate the highest naturally detoxifying foods (beets, grapefruit, dandelion greens) into your daily routine to promote the body’s natural cleansing systems
- Focus on minimizing your intake of the top inflammatory and hormone-disrupting foods: gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, and alcohol
- Get accountability to work out regularly, drink plenty of water, and get quality sleep in order to support the body’s cleansing and healing process
- Receive 30-minute weekly educational webinars and be part of a special Facebook group for support
- Receive recipes and a checklist to guide you along your journey
- Get exclusive resources and discounts to help you along your journey and beyond!
Throughout my health journey, I have incorporated all of these strategies into my daily way of being to eliminate seasonal health issues, boost energy, lose weight, and create long-lasting sustainable results.
If you’re not sure whether a cleanse is right for you or not, here are 10 common signs your body needs cleansing:
- Seasonal allergies
- Abdominal bloating
- Menstrual irregularities
- Abdominal fat aka a pot belly
- Joint and muscle pain
- Low energy or fatigue
- Acid reflux/heartburn
- Body odor, hot flashes, and excessive sweating
- Acne, rosacea, or itchy, blotchy skin
- Unexplained weight gain and inability to lose weight even with calorie restriction
Will you join me and many others to shed pounds, boost your energy naturally, and cleanse your body so you can feel like your best self again?
The 28-day Cleanse Challenge starts as soon as you enroll (there’s no waiting), and you can participate for just $1 per day!
CLICK HERE to join my 28-Day Cleanse Challenge right now for just $28
I can’t wait to see how you improve your health and get to feel like your best self from this program at one of the most ideal times of year!
