The only Guide You wil l Need:

24 Hours to Happier Hormones

Set the Stage for A Happy Hormone Day

BE POSITIVE

Starting your day with gratitude is the best way to set the intention

for the day. The only thing any of us have is THIS MOMENT

RIGHT NOW… It is the present moment that counts. How we are

being in the present will affect the future.

One of my patients once said to me, “The Gift is in the Present.” I

LOVE the double play on words but gosh, how true this is!

I start most days with gratitude. At some point in the first hour of waking, I throw my

arms wide and say, “I am open to receive the good and joy in the Universe, thank you life!”

Then, when I am looking in the mirror brushing my hair or doing my makeup, I say some-

thing like “I love and accept myself exactly as I am. I embrace whole health now. I intend

health, wealth, and love for my family.” You can say whatever feels good to you. The idea

here is to be grateful and set a positive intention. This helps keep you grounded when life is

happening.

When you set the intention for your day, it shifts your mind from fear to trust. When

you come from a place of trusting that everything is happening in your best interest, even

things that you do not understand, then your response to things is calmer and more easy

flowing. You begin to look at things as opportunities instead of obstacles. Your life flows

more smoothly.

This is important because how you respond to life affects your hormones. Having a fearful,

knee-jerk reaction to life prematurely depletes your hormones. Depletion of some hormones

leaves an imbalance of others, and ultimately upsets the whole apple cart. It’s such a small

thing to start your day with gratitude and it has so many positive benefits in many areas of

your life.

What to Eat for Happy Hormones

1) Start Your day with 16oz of room temperature water. When you sleep you

slowly dehydrate. Drinking water on waking plumps up your cells and gets fluids moving.

This also helps with bowel movements and having an good elimination is good for your

hormones. Your water goal for the entire day should be 2 liters.

2) Breakfast of Champions. I’m not talking about Wheaties here or any cereal to be

certain. I’m talking about a hearty well-balanced breakfast that has fat, protein, and com-

plex carbs. Something to use as your launch pad as you hurtle into your day full speed.

Any of these will keep your blood sugar balanced and your mind sharp all the way until

lunch. Here are some examples:

- Scrambled eggs with veggies, topped with pico de gallo, side of coconut kale or

steamed veggie of your choice drizzled in olive oil, and Ezekiel toast.

- Black beans and avocado with side of spaghetti squash pesto.

- Chicken sausage with steamed broccoli drizzled in olive oil and sea salt, with mashed

butternut squash.

- Rolled oats with 1 tsp coconut oil, 1 tsp ground flax seeds and 1/4 cup blueberries

mixed in.

- Green smoothie of cucumber, celery, lettuce, spinach, pear, and 1 tsp coconut oil.

3) Energizing Lunch. The best choice is a salad with protein in it. My definition of a

salad is something with mixed greens, not just romaine or iceberg lettuce. Protein

choices could be beans, lentils, fish, poultry, steak, avocado, nuts and seeds. You could

also choose protein and a vegetable. Such as:

- Chili on a bed of lettuce

- Chicken sausages with sautéed peppers and onions

- Turkey burger with a side of grilled veggies

- Burger wrapped in lettuce with a side of veggies or salad

What to Eat for Happy Hormones

4) Protein Rich Snacks. Some of my favorites are:

- Apple slices in no-sugar peanut butter

- Well-balanced protein bar with good quality ingredients

- Avocado sprinkled with sea salt

- Handfuls of raw pecans and dried figs

- Individual packet of Trader Joes Go Raw trail mix

- Chia Pod (coconut milk chia pudding)

- Low fat or full fat Greek yogurt with flax seeds

(For more snack ideas, you can see my section on getting an afternoon boost)

5) Dainty Dinner. Dinner should be protein, complex carb or starch, and a vegetable.

Sometimes I forego the starch and pair a carby veggie with a green veggie. This should

NOT be a huge meal. This should be dinner, eaten ideally between 4-7pm. No later.

Your should sit down to eat your dinner preferably make it a family tradition that every-

one eats together. This can be hard with kids and busy work schedules. In order to di-

gest properly, you need to be relaxed. Eating on the go or in your car or on the soccer

field is not the best for your digestive system. Here are some examples:

- Rotisserie chicken with green beans and mashed cauliflower

- Meatballs with brown rice

- Veggie burger with side of steamed swiss chard and roasted sweet potato fries

- Grilled steak with arugula and roasted beet salad.

Here’s the Scoop

Eating well-balanced meals keeps your blood sugar steady. This is important for women because the

more balanced your blood sugar, the better you can organize your thoughts, respond to stress, and man-

age your emotions. Eating dinner early and in a relaxed way will help your digestion and allow you to

have better sleep. You do not want your dinner to interfere with your sleep. Eating protein throughout the

day helps to nourish your adrenals. Going long periods without eating or eating in an unbalanced way

stresses out these little glands and leaves you deficient.

Grocery Shop for Happy Hormones

I know it sounds crazy, but what you buy at the grocery store affects your hormones. Simple

sugars and carbohydrates cause unwanted blood sugar spikes and crashes. These leave

you feeling out of control and craving more sugar than ever before. Here are a few tips to

keep you on track:

1) Eat before you go shopping. Shopping while you are starving is a disaster for your

shopping cart and ultimately for your pantry. When you are hungry, your blood sugar

drops and EVERYTHING looks good. You can’t think straight because your brain has

no glucose so you make poor decisions that affect your hormones for many days to

come.

2) Stick to your list. What do you really need? I always start in the produce department,

then I move onto the meat department, eggs, butter, and around the horn I go. I used to

tell my patients to shop the periphery of the grocery store but then they moved the

bread and baked goods to the periphery, Dang! They’re on to me… For the most part,

the periphery is still healthier than the aisles.

3) Salt is better than sugar. If your going to buy a snack item, remember that salt is

better than sugar. For example, tortilla chips are a better choice than chocolate covered

cookies, roasted and salted nuts are better than oatmeal raisin cookies. Sugar lowers

your immune function. Most sugary baked goods also have partially hydrogenated

fats, and other chemicals/preservatives that are processed. Overall salt is a better choice

than sugar.

4) Read the labels. Ingredient lists should be short and sweet. If you cant pronounce it,

don’t recognize it, or know that it is artificial, then it shouldn't be in there. Soup shouldn't

have extra ingredients like wheat and yeast, there shouldn't be synthetic dye in your kids

juice drinks. Single ingredient foods are the best.

Supplements

Nutritional supplements should be part of your day. Specific supplementation can be rec-

ommended for your individual needs by a trained practitioner. Most women need some-

where between 2-6 supplements to support hormone balance.

You do not need a kitchen sink of supplements to be healthy. Most of your nutrition should

be coming from food. Your vitamins, minerals, and herbs are there to give you extra support

in areas you need it most.

Here are a few categories that you should consider when looking to optimize your hormonal

status:

Supplements to offset stress and provide energy:

B-Complex

B-12 Chewable

Supplements to support adrenal function:

Adrenal herbs or glandulars

Vitamin C

Supplements to support nervous system function:

Magnesium

Calcium

Potassium

Fish Oil

Vitamin D3

Supplements to balance your digestive system:

Probiotics

Digestive Enzymes

Exercise

Have you ever thought of exercise as a way to balance your hormones? Well it is, so add it

to the long list of exercise benefits!

As women, we have weak upper bodies and that’s where we tend to get injured. I have nev-

er met a woman without back, neck, or shoulder pain. The amount of women walking

around with frozen shoulders is staggering. Just think of your day lifting and carrying chil-

dren, car seats, groceries, lifting luggage up into overhead compartments, oversized purs-

es, pushing a vacuum, doing yoga. All of these things require a certain amount of upper

body strength. Learning how to use your bigger muscles instead of your joints prevents inju-

ry. Strengthening your neck and back is the way to prevent these injuries and keep you

strong. But this is just one of the PHYSICAL benefits of exercise…

Now on to what exercise can do for your hormones… Check it out…

Exercise normalizes brain hormones, balances blood sugar, dissipates stress and

pumps oxygen and blood to all of your cells. That means that after just 20 minutes of

exercise, your brain chemistry, hormones, and stress level have all shifted dramatically.

In addition to all of that, you can give yourself a little pat on the back and check it off your to-

do list. That in itself boosts your self-image.

Here’s a tip on how to keep exercise on your calendar for good:

1) Get a Plan. Figure out when you can realistically workout each week with plenty of

time so you are not rushed. I recommend at least 3 days per week. You want to establish

a consistent routine. Less than 3 days is not a strong enough commitment. It could be a

combination of things for example: Gym 2 days a week, Yoga 1 day a week. That gives

you 3 consistent days. You should announce your plan to your family or spouse. That

way they know that exercise is important to you and they respect it.

Exercise

2) Schedule It! If it’s not on your calendar, then it doesn't exist. As Yoda says, “Do or do

not, there is no try.” Please do not “try to exercise”, that is just pathetic. Read this and

recognize it’s importance or do absolutely nothing. There is no try.

3) Choose Things You Enjoy. In the first few weeks of setting a routine I want you to

be excited about your new plan. Once you are in the routine then it becomes part of your

schedule. The goal is to have exercise be a part of your life. That’s how the benefits

keep rolling towards you.

I have a girlfriend who has exercised all her life, she just keeps doing new things to keep

it fresh. Each Christmas, her family members buy her something for her workouts. One

year it was a mountain bike, another year it was TRX bands, one year it was a balance

board. Each year she starts with a new program to motivate herself.

I want exercise to be something you want to do, something you look forward to, some-

thing you do for yourself. That is so important for us as women.

Get More Out of Your Shower

I know you might be thinking, “My shower?!” But showering is

something that most of us do everyday. What if there was one

little trick to make it that much more effective and invigorating for

you?

There is something you can do right at the end of your

shower to really get your blood flowing…

A hot shower is one of those comforts that is absolutely yummy

and delicious. In fact most of us have dreamed about a nice hot

wake me up and heat me up kind of shower. When we take a hot shower, it increases your

circulation and sends the blood out to the tips of your fingers and toes. Then we want to

move that blood back to your vital organs, your heart, brain and lungs. The way to do it is to

turn the faucet to COLD.

That’s right, COLD. Right at the end of your shower turn the faucet to COLD.

All you need is 20 seconds on the front and 20 seconds on the back of your body to shunt

the blood back to your heart, lungs, and brain.

When you do this at the end of each shower, you will start your day having pumped your

blood around your body and pumped it back. This little trick increases your vitality, pro-

motes circulation, and boosts your immune function.

Go ahead, give it a try!

Your Products– Good or Junk?

What you put on your body is as important as what

you put in your body.

Don’t be fooled by flashy ads and glamorous models advertising

c**p products. Just because its expensive doesn't mean it’s bet-

ter for you. I care about the ingredients, not the price tag.

Think about it for a minute. How does the nicotine patch work?

You absorb nicotine on slow release through your skin into your

blood stream. That means that other things work the same way.

Anytime you put something on your skin it goes into your blood. Then it travels to your

liver to be processed and may or may not get deposited inside your cells.

Many of the chemicals used in makeup and body products are hormone disruptors.

Yup, I said it, hormone disruptors. That means they interfere with your own natural hormone

balance. Some of the biggest ones are fragrances, the fake ones, and parabens found in

makeup.

Also consider this, the skin on your face and neck is some of the most delicate on your

whole body, why would you rub in toxic chemicals on a daily basis?

How about body lotion? Your skin is your largest organ, if you smear it with body lotion filled

with chemicals and artificial fragrances, they all travel into your blood stream.

Everyday when I get out of the shower, I rub my whole body down with coconut oil. The kind

you eat. I figure it it’s good enough to eat, then it’s good enough to go on my skin.

I’ve moved to essential oil based fragrances and use mineral makeup. Start reading your

labels and begin the transition over to natural body products.

An Afternoon Boost

Looking for an Afternoon Boost?

Here are some of my favorite Go-To’s. They will keep your energy up and your mind active

for those mid-afternoon hours:

1) Grab a Green Tea. Hot or iced work for any season. Want a little more flavor? Choose

an unsweetened green tea or add a few drops of liquid flavored stevia. I use lemon fla-

vored stevia, a few drops go a long way. This helps with sugar cravings.

2) Take a few Deep Breaths. This works the best if you are able to step away from

your desk and ideally outside. Take a deep breath in through your nose and exhale out

through your mouth with a big sigh. This gets the oxygen flowing to your brain.

3) Pop a B12 Chewable. Vitamin B12 is nature’s little energy boost in a bottle. Most of

us are deficient in Vitamin B12 since it is used up in many cellular reactions. The bottles

are small so you can keep one in your purse and one in your desk drawer for those slug-

gish moments. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel.

4) Craving Chocolate? If it is “that time of the month” you may actually be progester-

one deficient. I help women correct this problem all the time. However, the best choice to

satisfy those chocolate cravings is 70% cacao dark chocolate. Have a few squares, take

the time to really enjoy them. Then put the bar back in your desk for another day.

5) Hungry? Your body doesn't know the difference between thirst and hunger.

Reach for 12 oz of water first before you reach for the snacks. After drinking the water,

wait 5 minutes to see if you still feel hungry.

6) Still Hungry? Reach for a protein packed snack. Here are a few of my favorites: Big

juicy apple with no-sugar peanut butter, a mix of raw, salted and smoked almonds with

an avocado, a protein bar that has at least 7g of protein.

Give me More of that Feel-Good Hormone

Did you know you have a feel-good hormone? It’s called Oxytocin.

Oxytocin is a hormone that is released by your pituitary gland. Actions that promote emo-

tional messages of kindness, caring, and love help to release the hormone oxytocin and

make you feel good.

Oxytocin helps you relax, reduces blood pressure and lowers cortisol levels. Oxytocin

is also the hormone that allows you to orgasm. When the oxytocin is flowing you feel more

connected to your partner and invite more intimacy into your life.

You probably figured out that your happiness increases when your stress levels go down.

A release of oxytocin will decrease stress, and allow you to feel more connected and

loving to those around you. Sometimes this involves spending time with those you love

and sometimes it involves you giving some TLC to yourself.

Generally, I feel more relaxed and loving with my family when I have done something for

myself. This could be going for a workout, having lunch with a girlfriend, going to a beauty

appointment, or catching up on some reading. When my gas tank is full I have more to give

to those in my life. This is the same for all women. Give to yourself and then you have

more to give.

It’s the giving game.

Daily Tasks That Boost Oxytocin…

1) Take a hot bath– Get some “You Time” as you soak in the hot suds.

2) Say I love you– This opens your heart and releases oxytocin.

3) Touch someone. Give more hugs, get a massage, get your hair or nails done, Touch is

soothing and boosts oxytocin.

4) Perform random acts of kindness. Give a gift, volunteer, make someone smile, all of

these will boost your oxytocin.

Give me More of that Feel-Good Hormone

Daily Tasks That Boost Oxytocin Continued…

5) Pet a dog– If you’re a dog person, this will make you feel calmer. Pets transmit uncondi-

tional love and we sense it.

6) Do something without time constraints. Feeling like your up against a time clock is an ox-

ytocin crusher. It’s really hard to relax (or orgasm) under the gun.

7) Anticipating a nice event. Getting dressed up for a nice dinner, or packing for a vacation,

shopping, all of these boost oxytocin.

Sleep

If you want to feel your best, and have a Happy Hormone Day, then getting a

good night’s sleep is important.

Think of it like this… If you start your day sleep deprived you are already dipping into your

savings account of vitality, energy, nutrients, and hormones. Going on day after day with

sleep deprivation ultimately makes too many withdrawals from the savings account and

leaves you hormonally bankrupt.

There is no way I can get a woman more energy if she is sleeping poorly. In order to have

more energy you need to be sleeping.

Without good sleep you rely on stimulants for energy, these can be coffee, caffeine, sugar,

salt, chocolate, you know the deal. All of these provide artificial energy to your body. They

come from the OUTSIDE not the INSIDE.

There is this amazing hormone cascade that happens at night typically around 9:00PM. You

want to think of it like dominoes. One hormone triggers the next and the next and the next

and so on until about 2:00AM. When you stay up past midnight or have trouble with sleep

you miss the launch of the dominoes and confuse your body. Then your body will try again

to release the cascade at 4:00AM. This is the reason that after a restless night of sleep

many women fall into a deep sleep again only to be startled by your alarm an hour or two

later.

If you are unable to sleep then most likely you already have a hormone imbalance

that may be the cause.

We are programmed to sleep with the sunset and rise with the sunrise. I call this “going to

bed with the chickens.” An ideal bed time is before 10:30PM, with a good night’s sleep an

ideal rise time is 6:00AM. When you are sleeping well and your hormones are balanced,

then you should be waking up at 6:00AM with energy.

Birth C ontrol Scoop

Maybe you are on birth control, maybe you are not. Most women

at some point in their lives have been on birth control. Most birth

control methods involve hormones. Some do not. The birth control

I’m talking about here is the hormone kind.

More than half the women on birth control today are on it to

suppress an underlying hormone imbalance, the rest of the

women on it are taking it for birth control. If you are taking birth

control FOR birth control, I am NOT talking about you. If you are

taking birth control to correct or diminish symptoms of a hormonal

imbalance. I AM talking about you.

Birth control is synthetic hormones, NOT natural. Birth control does not fix anything. Birth

control suppresses symptoms by shutting down your ovaries and putting them on vacation.

Depending on the type of birth control you choose, this may or may not effect your uterus

and your period or if you even have a period.

When you decide to go off birth control all the same problems you had before you

went on it will all come screaming back. For some women who have been on birth con-

trol for over 10 years, your ovaries may decide not to wake up after having been sup-

pressed for such a long time. This means no eggs will be dropping.

For other women who meet their partner later in life, they go off birth control to find that their

clock is ticking. They do not have the time to correct the underlying hormonal imbalance

and want to get pregnant right away. This leads into the land of fertility clinics.

If you know that you are on birth control for the wrong reasons and want to be a mother

some day, I suggest that you find an integrative practitioner who you can work with. You will

need to get to the underlying cause of your hormonal problem and fix it so that every-

thing is working as nature intended when you are ready to be a mother.

How to Know Your Hormones Need Attention

1) Unexplained Mood Swings. Are your ready to jump down someone’s throat at the

drop of a hat? Feeling prickly and overall sensitive? Crying at Kleenex commercials?

Your hormones could be the problem. A woman’s hormones change every 5 years so

having a hormone “tune-up” every few years is a good idea to check those levels with

your doctor.

2) Inability to Multi-Task. Are you failing miserably at multi-tasking? Unable to juggle

things and make decisions like you used to? It could be your hormones. One of the signs

of a hormone imbalance is having a hard time managing things in your life when you

could before. If you prided yourself of managing your life and now you can’t, get your lev-

els checked.

3) Feeling Pre-Menstrual? Contrary to popular belief you do not have to suffer with

PMS. Just having PMS means that something is hormonally out of balance. Your PMS

can go away for good if you want it to. Most women struggle with the second part of their

cycle. The second part of the menstrual cycle is when all the PMS symptoms hit; mood

swings, binge eating, sugar and chocolate cravings, body bloating, cramping, sleep dis-

ruptions, etc. What if your period just came and your life was completely normal for the

whole month? Would that be a game changer? I know it was for me. Imagine feeling

good the WHOLE month not just for a few weeks.

4) CRS Brain (Can’t Remember S**t) You are not developing dementia or Alzhei-

mer's, it’s your hormones. Have you ever walked into a room and forgotten what you

were doing in there? How about your keys? One of the biggest peri-menopause and

menopausal symptoms is short term memory loss. Balance your hormones and get your

brain back.

This starts to happen to women after pregnancy and during peri-menopause. Notice that

both of these are major hormone change periods in a woman’s life. Peri-Menopause can

start anywhere between 35 and 50 years old.

How to Know Your Hormones Need Attention

5) Sleepless. Was there a point in your life when you took your sleep for granted? How

long has it been since you enjoyed beautiful deep restful sleep? There is a very good

chance that you can start sleeping again if you get your hormones balanced. The most

common complaints I hear from women involve either falling asleep or staying asleep.

It’s usually one or the other that makes good quality sleep so elusive. Combine that with

a few night-sweats if you are in menopause and then sleep really suffers. There are a

number of hormones at play when it comes to sleep. Some of the ones to consider in-

clude; Estrogen, Progesterone, Cortisol, Thyroid and Melatonin.

6) Anxiety/Depression. Hormones are directly related to our moods. Most women in

menopause who suffer with depression are estrogen deficient. It makes sense then to

optimize hormones and correct depression naturally instead of taking an anti-depressant

medication. Many women with anxiety have trouble regulating their blood sugars. Other

may have excess cortisol resulting from an adrenal imbalance. Some women struggle

with anxiety during the 2nd part of their menstrual cycle. This can be a progesterone de-

ficiency.

7) Hot Flashes/ Night Sweats. If you have hot flashes and night sweats then meno-

pause has crept up on you. Your hormone levels are fluctuating and that can be a bumpy

ride. The best strategy for menopause is making sure all of your supporting glands are

optimized. This means supporting your adrenals and thyroid. The average age of meno-

pause is 55 but women can begin with symptoms as early as 40. These uncomfortable

symptoms can affect your sleep, moods, brain, bones, and a whole host of other things

so it’s best for you to get to your doctor for a strategy so you can feel your best. Depend-

ing on your overall health, hot flashes can last anywhere from 6 months to 10 years. I

know, 10 years, YIKES!

Testing Hormone Levels

I tell my patients that hormones are like a spider web. Plucking one strand causes the whole

web to tremble. You are the web. Adjusting one strand can affect your whole body.

Often women have more than one thing going on. Simply addressing on hormone with-

out looking at the complete picture will not get you the results you desire. This means

that it is important to test all of your hormones at the appropriate times of the month to get

accurate results.

Sadly, most conventional doctors miss the boat on this one. Yes, even Endocrinologists…

Depending on your age bracket (pre-menopause, menopause) and your menstrual status,

certain levels need to be checked at specific times of the month.

Let’s look at what’s really happening…

Hormones cycle. They do no stay the same all month long. Testing at certain times allows

more insight to your actual levels and leads to a more accurate treatment plan. Ideally, a

treatment plan that will help you reach your goals.

Hormones can be tested in blood. Hormones can be tested in saliva. Depending on your

unique situation, one way may be more beneficial for you.

Your adrenals should always be tested via saliva. Your thyroid should always be tested via

blood. Sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and DHEA can be tested

via either method.

A complete thyroid panel includes: TSH, FreeT3, FreeT4, TPO antibodies, Anti-

thyroglobulin antibodies, and RT3.

A complete sex hormone test includes: Estradiol on day 12-14 of your cycle, Progester-

one on day 19-21 of your cycle, Free and Total Testosterone, DHEA-s, Di-

HydroTestosterone– not cycle dependent. FSH or LH may also be included and can be cy-

cle dependent based on your age bracket.

Testing Hormone Levels

Here’s the Scoop:

In order to get the best recommendation your symptoms have to be considered with your

hormone test results. Your hormone test results will only be accurate if they are done

at the correct time in your cycle. Sadly, women don't get answers due to improper testing

and follow-up care. With both of those things combined I can develop a solid treatment plan

for you.

It really takes an integrative practitioner who listens and who understands

the nuances of women’s hormone balance to bring it all together.

Women’s health is complicated because women are complicated. Many women are told that

they are fine by their conventional doctor even though they know in their heart that some-

thing is wrong. Listen to your heart.

You are the most important person in your world, there are people who love and rely on you

for all the beauty you have inside.

If you are internally suffering with moods, energy, weight, sleep, and motivation it could be

your hormones. Getting to the right practitioner who takes the time to listen and can put to-

gether a good treatment plan for you is the way to better health. You are not alone, lots of

women go through tough times, but this time you don't have to push through it alone. I

have spent the last 13 years of my life helping myself and other women like you. Ask for

help, you'll be glad you did.

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