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What stress means for your hormones & how to fix it.



What you’re going to learn in this blog:

-What is stress

-How it affects you as a female

-10 ways to reduce stress that don’t involve meditating


How do you find yourself stressed today?


My story with stress:

When I think of times of stress it’s usually about how it physically manifested in my body.


For instance:


-back in my 20’s when I didn’t know I had lyme & no one could tell me what was wrong. I swear it made me sicker. I got better once I found answers as to why I was feeling the way I was


-when our dog was run over and we had to drive 2 hours to an ER vet


-times leading up to our wedding


-work/big life events and more


The problem with stress and especially when it manifests physically is once it starts, it takes some WORK to keep under control.


Physical stress for me feels like a ball bunched up in my lower back. That’s when I know it’s gone past mental to physical and it’s time to make getting it under control the utmost priority. Which is something that feels stressful unto itself. More on that in a min...




HORMONES & STRESS


You know I have to talk about hormones, if you’re a female reading this and you don’t find that important LISTEN UP! Because our hormonal health is our 5th vital sign, keeping our hormones healthy means less disease, weight loss, avoiding cancer and STRESS.


This is what happens to your hormones on stress:

  • Fucks up your blood sugar: and if that's off it could show as PMS, acne, bloating and more

  • Lowers progesterone: why does that matter? Because most women are walking around with too much estrogen in their body (which is another culprit of PMS, acne, weight gain, cancer and more). Progesterone is needed to keep a happy balance, so you want to promote a healthy level of it with less stress

  • It can delay ovulation which is important if you want kids or not

  • It can delay or remove your period completely

  • Disrupts your vitamin, minerals and gut health which is correlated to how we feel on a day to day basis


SO yeah reducing stress is IMPORTANT!


But what do we end up doing when we’re stressed? For me it used to be drinking wine nightly, eating sugar constantly throughout the day, staying up way to late on the gram or tiktok etc.


And did any of that make me feel better? No.



The common problem with stress is:

-we only have so much control around the external factors that are giving us stress such as work, kids, relationships


AND/OR


-we know what things to eliminate to have less stress but for a LOT of us the mere thought of doing an overhaul on our habits is super overwhelming, so we don’t do anything at all.


What I’ve found is instead of getting rid of my vices or habits that may not be AMAZING, is to instead try and tie some practical habits to my existing ones (some call this habit stacking) and in turn, I become more consistent and keep my cortisol at bay. I’ve also included tips that don’t require a huge amount of effort.


ARE YOU READY TO HEAR THEM, tell me below:


  • Pair your sugar & caffeine: these are the two main culprits for creating stress, pumping cortisol & shaking up your blood sugar. Pair them with a meal: protein, fat, carb. I’ll be talking about this more in my signature course, Feed Your Phase about how important it is to stabilize your blood sugar and hacks to do so.


  • Ask yourself this: will this matter in the long run? Will this be something talked about in my obituary? Take inventory of the lasting effect of this problem or stressor. It may be that important or it may not. If it IS that important, remind yourself that the universe or God wouldn’t give you something you couldn’t handle.


  • Social Media clean up: unfollow/mute anyone who makes you feel behind, comparison, or judgmental.


  • Think about your future self & do something they will thank you for: when I think of this it helps me to realize I don’t need to do ALL the things but just ONE thing future self will thank you for. It could be not spending excess money, or drinking that bottle of wine so you can get good sleep, or prepping lunch for the week so it's one less thing to worry about. How can you help her out?


  • MOVE: but with a caveat! Something I teach in Feed Your Phase is that if your hormones are off balance, going HAM in your workout is NOT your BFF. In times of stress we're in fight or flight mode and if you start pressing play on Insanity intensity workout, your bod will literally think it's running from a lion. Not only does this not help your stress hormones but it will promote storing fat because your body is in survival mode While you're in a turmoil ball of emotion try walking, yoga, pilates or barre for 30 min or less. This doesn’t have to be forever, but while you heal.


  • DO SOMETHING FUN: this seems simple enough but we aren’t scheduling it in our day. I've experienced times of physical stress that were easily lessened by having friends in town, putting my phone away and doing something out of the normal routine!


  • Go into airplane mode: if you look at your phone first thing in the AM this is for YOU! It may not be a bad thing to look at IG if you cleaned it up, but this is more so for if you wake up and have a million notifications. Turn OFF notifications. Keep your phone in airplane mode for EMF’s and so that you’re not in defense mode with emails/texts/ etc.


  • Set up some boundaries babe: there are people around you who are an energy suck. Friends that gossip: find something else to talk about. Family members that prod and poke: make different plans or tell them. Coworkers: simply don't engage outside of your times of communication. Children: I don't feel comfortable giving advice on this, I can only say that prioritizing self care with the time you do have is of the utmost importance. Easier said than done but start taking inventory and being aware of who is sucking your energy and adjust your plans accordingly.


  • Create an arsenal for stressful times: Refer to this blog on which supplements help aid the calmness I need in times of stress. Most are herbs or tinctures. Those are helpful in addition to sauna, 10 min yoga or breathing before bed (no i don’t meditate), skincare routine which includes an Office Ladies podcast and gua sha, Netflix and foam roll, BUT AVOID STRESSFUL SHOWS. Don’t watch Yellowstone while you’re having a panic attack for christ sake.


  • Lastly: work WITH your female energy instead of against it: the reason women feel 10x more stressed than men is because we are trying to keep up with THEIR biological clock.


Females & Stress

Did you know females have a second clock? It's 28 days and its called the infradian rhythm. It includes 4 phases, each phase requires different levels of energy given (as well as foods and workouts which I teach in Feed Your Phase).


Who remembers the term GIRL BOSS? Or trying to be like Gary V & hustle? In my hay-day with Beachbody I was always going for more more more! If I couldn’t muster up the energy to complete the workout on my program calendar- I considered myself a failure. If I was trying to promote this supplement but all I wanted to do was reflect and regroup-I was a failure. And this was all because I was working AGAINST my cycle! Little did I know this caused more stress, painful periods and a slew of other ailments I didn’t even know could happen. I just kept thinking it was ME.


So I found out more about cycle syncing, began aligning my outside world of work/socializing/food & fitness to match as much as I could with what phase I was in on the inside–and now my stress is MINIMAL with the occasional hiccup that I can now get under control with the tips I mentioned above!

In my opinion, learning how to incorporate my phases into my day to day lifestyle is the BIGGEST factor in reducing my stress. I’ve never felt more confident and I want YOU to feel that way to love.


Want to learn how to track where you are in your cycle, how to SIMPLY sync your food + fitness to it and create a mindset where you cycle is priority so you have less painful periods, no PMS & physical results?! Check out my 4 week signature course: Feed Your Phase by clicking here.

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