Transcript

One thing I’m constantly asked is, you know, how do I lose weight now that my hormones are changing? Why can’t I lose weight? [00:01:00] What’s the best supplement I should take? Why isn’t anything working? I eat really healthy. Nothing’s changing. What am I doing wrong? Now, one thing is a given once we’re in our forties, fifties, and beyond the things that worked for us in our twenties and thirties just don’t work the same for our 40 50 plus year old bodies. Now this is because during perimenopause and menopause, our hormones undergo significant fluctuations. So we have big drops, you know, surges up, down, up, down, and a gradual decline. Now all of this is part of that normal transition, but we’re not talking about the impact this has on our mental, our emotional and our physical wellbeing. So in today’s episode, we’re going to jump in and talk about hormones that are changing, I’ll answer your questions. We’ll talk about, you know, what exactly that means to have balanced hormones. How do we know if they’re not balanced and exactly which hormones we’re talking about.

Okay. [00:02:00] So when we’re talking hormones, we’re generally, you know, there’s different sort of categories. So the ones we are going to cover today are mostly estrogen, progesterone, which are our sex hormones, our two key sex hormones, insulin, which controls our blood sugar. Cortisol, which is one of our stress hormones and our thyroid, which controls our metabolism.

Now, there are plenty of other hormones worthy of a mention here. So, you know, also impacted is testosterone, DHEA, serotonin leptin, ghrelin, melatonin. You know, there’s, there’s plenty of others, but to keep it simple and also to keep it under a three-part scientific study, I want to keep it to these ones today.

So there’s lots of components to it, as you can see. So let’s have a little snapshot of the hormones that we need to consider. Okay. So what we need to do, so you can start to lose weight, you can easily maintain your weight, you can get [00:03:00] your energy back, start sleeping better and have your digestion working the way it should do as well.

All right. So firstly, we’ve got estrogen and progesterone, so these are our two key sex hormones that start, during perimenopause and this can be 10 years or so before actual menopause, we get big surges and big drops. So this, this fluctuation is what triggers all of our crazy hormonal symptoms.

So, and then as we head towards menopause, our body naturally starts to produce less of these, which is all part of that natural transition. So we absolutely need to support our estrogen, support our progesterone, but it’s important to remember that, you know, all of our hormones work together. We can’t just focus on one hormone.

We need to focus on you as a person and how your hormones all work together. So first up let’s have a look at stress. So when we go into that [00:04:00] flight or fight response, our body gets flooded with adrenaline and also with cortisol, which is great because you know, this is designed to keep us safe.

And this is what our bodies are meant to do. But the problem is in this day and age, we have this constant, you know, fluctuation and flooding into our bodies of cortisol and adrenaline, because we’re always, you know, in this constant state of busy-ness. So these hormones are all constantly pumping through.

So our body constantly thinks we’re under stress. So a very simplistic way of looking at it is our body goes, oh, cortisol, adrenaline? We’re in danger! You know, maybe there’s a famine coming. So we’ll just pack that bowl of pasta that she just had for dinner. We’re just gonna stash that around her middle.

Ooh. Okay. Now we’re at the gym. We’re working really hard. We’re working out really hard. Maybe she’s training to run from a tiger. So, you know, we’ll just hold on to everything she ate in the last 24 hours and [00:05:00] let’s just put it on her back. Okay. You know, everyone loves a bit of back fat. So it’s common sort of scenarios like this and you know, this is a 30 second snapshot of how stress can block our weight loss. You know, our body’s trying to keep us safe, protect us. So hang on to what we’re eating. So the next hormone we need to have a look at is insulin. And you know, what’s going on with our blood sugar.. So as we head towards menopause, our body produces less estrogen.

So we naturally lose that protective sort of coding that estrogen gives us for insulin sensitivity. So we might start to notice, a change in our cravings. We might, you know, it might be those sugary carby kind of cravings that we’re having. And, you know, when our blood sugar is sort of spiked high, what goes up must come down.

So, when our blood sugar crashes, that’s when we get the cravings. So we [00:06:00] eat the thing that we’re craving our blood sugar goes up again and it crashes down again. So this constant spiking and crashing of our blood sugar causes our insulin response to slow down because it’s exhausted. Let’s face it.

And this is what’s known as insulin resistance. So, you know, in our body, insulin is another fat storage hormone. So when we’ve got that surge of insulin and then it comes down again, you know, our, our body just kind of gets lazy, you know? So that insulin, that excess insulin that’s floating around our blood stream is signaled then to store fat.

Okay. So what happens, you know, you see, you can be eating, you can cut your calories right down. You can restrict the calories, you can cut out your carbs. You can flog yourself at the gym. You can do all of that. But if we’re not regulating our blood sugar, if we’ve got too much insulin floating around our body’s going to start after a while, [00:07:00] sending that insulin straight to our fat cells.

So then what we’re doing from a diet and exercise point of view just isn’t enough. So what we need to do is make sure we’re managing our blood sugar and really sort of making sure that blood sugar response is working the way it should do. S o first up we had cortisol and then we’ve got insulin.

So this is a real double whammy that blocks our weight loss. And, you know, promotes fat storage as well. So next hormone we need to consider is, you know, what’s going on with our thyroid hormones. So our thyroid, as we talked about a couple of episodes ago is our little gland that sits on our neck.

And, you know, we have thyroid receptors in every single cell in our body. So if our thyroid is not working well, if our thyroid hormones aren’t being produced the way they should do it affects every single thing going on in our body. So a lot of women might notice first up [00:08:00] hair loss, you know, so if your hair starts falling out, all of a sudden, or, you know, weight gain is a really common one, you know, things slow down, your metabolism slows down. You might notice your digestion slows down. So constipation is a bit of an issue or bloating and, you know, you might have trouble regulating your body temperature. So cold hands, cold feet, dry skin, you know, all of these things are signs that your thyroid’s, you know, need some support.

So, you know, just with the thyroid, like we talked about a few episodes ago, even though your blood results might come back normal and you don’t have a diagnosable thyroid condition. Which is great because we really don’t want one, but it doesn’t mean that our thyroid is not compromised. So we really need to just be aware of it and look after our thyroid.

 Then the next hormone, you know, we sort of need to consider our sleep hormones. So if we’re sleeping well, that means our [00:09:00] circadian rhythm is ticking along nicely. And if we’re not sleeping well, if we’re waking up in the night and you know, we’re awake for 2, 3, 4 hours in the night, and I know a lot of you are, this has a knock-on effect to our blood sugar regulation, our appetite hormones – so the hormones leptin and ghrelin that keeps us full and lets us know when we’re hungry, you know, they’re out of whack as well. So our ability to regulate our appetite is also out of control. So they’re kind of like key hormones, just to sort of give you a, a snapshot of what’s going on. So when it comes to, you know, hormone balancing, what does that mean? 

Okay. So we need to, you know, it’s all well and good to say, we need to balance them and we need to get them under control. But today I sort of wanted to give you an idea of what that actually looks like. Okay. So when we look at you as a whole person, where do we start? Okay. So first up and you know, this is what I do in the well-balanced woman program.

And the ladies I’ve worked with, the very first thing that we do is we get the right balance of foods. So this means [00:11:00] that, you know, it could be, if you’re already eating quite well, it could be that we just need to tweak that balance. So we want to make sure we’re getting the right balance of foods.

So a, you’re getting the nutrients you need, but also that we’re supporting your energy levels. We’re supporting your moods and we’re supporting your blood sugar because if we’ve got those foundations right, we’re going to avoid those big spikes and crashes. Next up, we look at your digestive system. So we really want to make sure that the food that we’re eating is actually being absorbed by our body.

So you could have the world’s most perfect diet. You could be taking a hundred million supplements, but if you’re not absorbing the nutrients we’re missing the mark. So if you’ve got any bloating, constipation, diarrhea, reflux, anything like that, going on, it’s a fairly good indication that our digestive system’s not working properly.

So, you know, what do [00:12:00] we need to do to get that working? Are we getting enough fiber? Are we getting enough water? Do we have food sensitivities that we need to address? So certainly that food sensitivity. Testing is a key part of the program. Now linked to our digestion and linked to our gut is our liver.

So this is responsible for clearing out our hormones. So it’s likely that if you have any sort of blood sugar issues, if you have any cholesterol issues, if you’re struggling to lose weight, you know, we need to look at what our liver’s doing. So if we think of our liver like a vacuum cleaner filter, so if the filter’s full, we can still kind of do the vacuuming.

So we’ll go around the house, we’ll pick up some of the stuff, you know, it’s not great, you know, they might leave some crumbs, but it kind of does the job right. For the most part it whooshes around and the floor looks better than before. So our liver is the [00:13:00] same. It’s always going to do its job. It’s always going to take out the toxins that are harmful for us, because if not, we would probably die.

So, but if you think of, you know, imagine we give that filter a really good clean. We give it a really good clean out. We go back to do the vacuuming and we’re like, whoa, doesn’t that make a difference? You know? Vacuuming with a full filter versus vacuuming on a, on an empty filter. So if you think of our liver as the same.

So, when our liver is functioning well, the rest of our bodies functioning well, so all the excess hormones, excess cholesterol, supporting our blood sugar, making our red blood cells. So we’ve got the energy we need and our liver also converts our inactive thyroid hormone over to our active thyroid hormone.

So, you know, our liver’s busy doing a lot of things, to keep us well and keep us healthy. So, you know, if our liver’s working well, it means our [00:14:00] hormones are balanced, our metabolism’s working well, our blood sugar’s stable. It means our skin’s looking clearer, our head is clearer. So that brain fog that, you know, head fatigue, I call it, you know, wading through mud, that’s gone. It’s processing the junk that we want out of our body, not sending it back into our cells. So that means too, that our ability to break down body fat and get rid of it is easier and it makes it easier to lose weight. So if you have a clogged up liver, if you’ve got a sluggish digestive system and a sluggish sort of detox pathways, you know, this is going to work against your best weight loss efforts.

All right. So this is how we sort of like pull it all together in the well-balanced woman program. So, when we work systematically through our bodies and you know, we work on you as a whole person, so what you’re eating, are you eating the right balance of foods? Are you actually [00:15:00] digesting those foods then are you eliminating those foods? And then incorporate, how well we’re sleeping, how well we’re managing our stress. So very much, you know, we work on giving you the tools that you need, to be able to do this. So rather than just, oh, here’s a diet or here’s a supplement, you know, it goes way beyond just diet, exercise, and supplements. It’s, it’s about learning how to systematically, you know, reset your body. So your hormones are balanced and we’re supporting your metabolism as well. Long-term health over a short-term fix every single time, ladies. That’s what’s going to give you the results.

All right. If you want to find out more about the well-balanced woman program, head on over to our website, there’s the link there. You can book in a hormone help call, completely free, and we can have a chat about what’s going on for you. You know how you’re feeling in your own body. And we can put a bit of a plan [00:16:00] together. Also there’s more information about the program over there. So yes. Think about, you know, what sort of hormones, what’s resonated with you today, and you know, where can we start supporting your body? All right, everyone. Thanks for listening. And I will see you in the next episode.