In the exercise for hormone balance scheme of things you are not a textbook exercise prescription. Progesterone is a trick to figure out sometimes. The signs can be similar to adrenal fatigue, premenstrual syndrome, or just the chronic fatigue you’ve learned to tolerate. This episode I dive into exercise for hormone balance and how it relates to progesterone.
What it is and what it does:
- Anti-inflammaty hormone
- Calming, soothing effect
- Raises serotonin levels in the brain
- Helps cope with depression and insomnia
- Tiredness
- Irritation
- Anxiety
- Weight gain
- Bloating
- Depression
- Headaches
- Body not functioning well, more seriously, cancer
- Spotting before your period should start. That can be caused by other things so you may want to check with a physician about the reason.
- High estrogen
- Lack of physical activity and unhealthy nutrition
- Insulin resistance
- Chronic stress
- Medications – hormone therapies and steroids, oral contraceptives, and some other medications block production of progesterone.
- Age – between 35 and 50 estrogen levels drop by 35 percent but progesterone levels plummet by as much as 75 percent.
- Stomach pains
- Hot flashes
- Mood swings
- Weight gain
- Eat more foods with zinc, selenium (brazil nuts), magnesium (details below)
- Herbal remedies
- Vitamin supplements – especially B and C
- Rest to deal with stress – focus on yoga, restorative exercise to replace all or most of your high intensity training. Shorter and fewer bouts of HIIT and short but effective weight training along with nurturing walks, restorative yoga, and rest is best.
- No foods contain progesterone but you can eat foods that help your body increase progesterone levels.
- Eat foods that help reduce excess estrogen.
- Reduce your stress levels and you naturally increase progesterone.
- Body fat produces excess estrogen, so losing fat is a focus, but avoiding high stress means of doing it is key.
- Magnesium: dark leafy greens, pumpkin seeds, fish (mackerel), brown rice, dark chocolate
- Vitamin C: kiwi, dark green leafy veggies, yellow peppers, broccoli
- B6: sunflower seeds, pistachio nuts, fish, turkey
- Zinc: cooked oysters, lean beef, pumpkin seeds, cashews
- L-Arginine: turkey, chicken, pumpkin seeds, chickpeas
- Vitamin E: almonds, sunflower seeds, shrimp, olive oil
- Sugars
- Sweeteners
- Preservatives
- Artificial colorings
- Plastics – including bottled water, plastic wrap on food, never microwave food in them or leave water bottles in the car exposed to sunlight and redrink, Just sitting for a long time plastics start to break down and the chemicals leech into foods. Store your foods in glass rather than plastic.
- Hormone-laden meat Buy hormone-free meat and organic foods whenever you can. When something is “huge in size but very cheap and potentially if you’ve tried it, has very little flavor, it’s been treated with hormones and pesticides.
- Onions
- Garlic
- Egg yolk
- Spinach
- Brussels sprouts
- Lemons
- Limes
- Alcohol impacts your estrogen metabolism. If you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, here is:
- So does coffee.
- Walk /hike
- Yoga
- Garden
- Spring Clean your house (oddly- the act of doing this is exercise AND organizing your environment helps you reduce clutter mentally too)
- Screens
- Processed food, sugars, artificial sweeteners
- Plastics
- Your bedtime routine
- Take responsibility and plan your actions.
RIGHT NOW… FIT U is 50% off