I feel like we’re all on this quest for hormone balance and I have decided 2024 is the year of hormone health. So naturally I’m going to bring you along and share what I learn.

The first book up on my reading list was The Hormone Cure by Sara Gottfried.

I love a book with a questionnaire in it.

And according to her my focus areas should be dysregulated cortisol, low progesterone or progesterone resistance, low estrogen, and low thyroid.

Not saying I “have” all of those issues and meet the markers to be diagnosed with the issues, but one thing she said that stuck with me was:

“I had been trained to identify the weeds and dead plants, but not to look for the early and subtle signs of ailing to come.” (p. 12)

Modern Western medicine does a great job of fixing what’s broken, but in my opinion, lacks preventative care. Yes, you might not reach the levels to be low in progesterone or still fall within the range of a normal thyroid but that doesn’t mean your body can’t be out of whack and on its way to hitting those levels.

Why not start fixing the problem now before it gets worse?

Another interesting thing I learned was, “After giving birth, about 7 percent of women develop what’s called postpartum thyroiditis, when the immune system attacks the thyroid, causing mood swings, lethargy, thinning hair, and difficulty with weight loss.” (p. 240)

This is interesting because I swear my thyroid was out of whack last year.

But anyway, let’s get into the 5 simple changes I’m making to help my hormone health.

1. Less sugar – I’m starting with my worst one. But I have made progress. Things like no longer using creamer or sugar in my coffee, And putting way less brown sugar in my oatmeal. I love sugar so I have a ways to go.

Here are a few passages from The Hormone Cure to point toward less sugar:

high/low cortisol recommendation: “Although it may be appealing to treat excess stress with sugar and coffee, I consider these ‘fake’ energy boosts that ultimately undermine your hormonal progress.” (p. 100)

low progesterone recommendation: “Women with PMS consume 275 percent more refined sugar than women who don’t have PMS. I advise women to eliminate sugar and caffeine from their diets for 90 days when they have PMS.” (p. 147)

low progesterone recommendation: “I abhor white bread, white sugar, and white rice for many reasons, but one important reason is that they reduce progesterone and worsen estrogen dominance.” (p. 165)

2. Cut alcohol – I got into a bad habit of pouring a glass of wine while I made dinner which helped me romanticize cooking dinner while listening to music and drinking my little glass of wine. You can picture it, right? While that might sound harmless it adds up over the week and is way more than you should be consuming. I’ve drastically cut down on my alcohol intake since Xmas, not including a couple of glasses of wine on a post-Xmas trip and then a few mixed drinks during another vacation in January. I think I’m at a month straight of no alcohol.

Reasons from her book to cut down on alcohol:

high/low cortisol recommendation: “Alcohol raises cortisol, and the effect persists for 24 hours in men — probably longer for women.” (p. 101)

low progesterone recommendation: “Alcohol intake is associated with premenstrual anxiety, mood problems, and headache.” (p. 135)

She recommends avoiding alcohol or keeping it to less than 3 glasses a week.

3. Wean off caffeine – Well almost. I switched out my normal coffee beans for decaf, which does still have a teeny amount of caffeine but nowhere near normal coffee. We’re talking just 2mg vs 95mg a cup. I weaned off it over two or three days to not get the headaches and it’s been an easy switch. I enjoy the act of drinking a cup of hot coffee more than the caffeine so because I let myself keep “coffee” it’s been painless.

Quotes from the book:

high/low cortisol recommendation: “Caffeine…directly induces the adrenocortical cells to produce more cortisol…If you suffer from insomnia, anxiety, or bruxism, which is clenching or grinding your teeth at night, I suggest you wean off caffeine.” (p. 101)

low progesterone recommendation: “One of the first steps I recommend in treating low progesterone is weaning yourself from caffeine. Caffeine boosts energy temporarily by raising cortisol, but as we’ve seen, high cortisol can block progesterone receptors…two studies have linked caffeine with PMS symptoms.” (p.135)

low estrogen recommendation: “Both caffeine and coffee have been shown to lower estradiol levels in premenopausal women.” (p.188)

4. Start a gratitude journal – This one is for cortisol but also just good practice in general. I want to fit back in Morning Pages as well.

high/low cortisol recommendation: “Gratitude practices have been shown to help change traits such as pessimism and worry.” (p. 103)

5. 10,000 steps a day – Another one I struggle with, but spring is just around the corner so let’s do it. Also, I want to make it routine to just go for a morning walk between 6:30-8:30 because that’s best for your sleep cycles.

Ways to get to that 10,000-step mark:

take breaks throughout the day to walk - bite-size chunks rather than one long walk
walk on a treadmill while you work or watch TV
use a standing desk
cleaning your house counts
take the stairs
park further away
make a habit of post-meal walks
walk while taking phone calls
take more trips - unloading grocery bags, carrying laundry upstairs and putting it away – we want to carry as much as possible and do as few trips as possible but in this case less is more
(Up on my list of books is Eat Sleep Move, which the little review blurbs say oh you’ll be moving a lot more after reading this book.)

Now, I’m currently reading Sleep Smarter, which I know will also have a positive impact on my hormone health, so keep an eye out for something on that.

Those are the simple lifestyle changes, but there are supplement recommendations that I’m going to look at adding in after focusing on lifestyle stuff first.

If your hormones are out of whack I invite you to come figure them out with me this year.

Watch the full YouTube video here.