My Hormonally Challenged Journey
For the past few weeks, I’ve been talking about hormone challenges. Here is my hormonally challenged journey and how far I’ve come.
Hormones – Ugh!
We all have hormones running through our bodies but the balance of those hormones are what are most important. With an imbalance, we become ‘hormonally challenged‘. This causes us to have multiple symptoms like:
- Brain fog hormone imbalance
- Acne
- Weight gain
- Migraines / headaches
- Unusually heavy periods
This is why I decided to go on this hormone journey. I was tired (literally and figuratively) from feeling this way. Life is hard enough and when you’re constantly tired, foggy, get recurrent headaches (migraines for me) and start having physical symptoms like acne and weight gain, it just gets too much. Add to that the heavy periods and you just want to throw in the towel. Between the abnormal uterine bleeding and the migraines, my quality of life was diminishing – and FAST. Knowing that it didn’t have to be this way started making me think I should do something about it. But, what?
Putting 2 and 2 together
It took me a while to understand what was happening in my body. I had a list of symptoms that I put a band-aid on. Read more about this here. I had no idea that everything was interconnected or that it had something to do with my hormones. Further, I had no idea that what I was putting on my body or in it could cause these problems. When I started to pay attention, I realized what I needed to do.
My journey thus far
Recently, I’ve been doing the following:
- Eating more whole foods, especially organic.
- Drinking plenty of water and less alcohol intake
- Adding probiotics to my diet – such as kombucha
- Getting enough sleep
- Watching what I put into my body and how much (if I’m going to have a snack that I know isn’t good for me, I don’t have to eat the whole darn bag!)
- Paying attention to ingredient labels on my skin care products and staying away from toxic substances
- Exercising on a regular basis, ensuring to get more cardiovascular exercise in, along with weight training.
- Meditation
The list may seem long and perhaps overwhelming. But, I want to assure you that it didn’t happen overnight or at one time. Since I started learning about the consequences my habits were having on me, I woke up. I realized that I needed to make some changes so I did it gradually. Once I knew better, I could do better, right?
How I feel today, compared to 6 months ago
- My mind feels ‘clearer’
- Less bloating
- I feel happier
- I’m definitely more calmer
- My periods are normal – (for the past several months, the very heavy bleeding has stopped – hooray!)
- I’m getting less migraines
Conclusion
I know I still have a ways to go because I know there are still some areas where I can cut carbs out of my diet. But, I wanted to share my journey thus far. My hormonally challenged journey may or may not be similar to yours but I hope that you can come away from this knowing that you can make some minor, yet significant, changes in your life that can help you feel better.
