Kylie: [00:00:00] Welcome back to episode of the Hormone Hub Podcast, where we talk all things perimenopause, menopause, and have the conversations no one else is having. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode. 

Kylie: Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Hormone Hub podcast. I’m your host, Kylie Pinwill, and today I’m going to walk you through how we balance your hormones. So which hormones we need to pay attention, how we can sort of get to the point where we’re having lots of hot flushes where we’re gaining weight, where we’re feeling tired, where we’re not sleeping and how we sort of get to that point and also what we can do about it as well, because I’m a big believer and this is what we do sort of with all of our clients in the Hormone Code is once you understand what’s happening in your own body, you’re in so much more control over it.

Kylie: So I’m just going to give you, like a bit of background on your hormones and, you know, how they control the way we [00:01:00] look, feel, think, and behave. So there’s four big influences on our hormones. So these are what we do on a daily basis, the choices we make. The thoughts we have and how they affect your hormones and how they work.

Kylie: And if you know how your choices affect your life, you’ve got the power then to change things. We look at what you should ditch in your diet yeah, let’s say goodbye to the low fat mantra. How your gut and your liver are connected to your hormones and why it’s so important that your gut and liver are working well as well.

Kylie: So I’m going to sort of pull it together and we’ll have a look at sort of like a four step process that we use with all of our clients. So you can ditch that weight that’s been hanging around on your body clapped on for dear life. Get your energy back. Balance out your moods and clear your brain fog.

Kylie: So you definitely need to get your head in the right place before you even start with your body. And then we want to be able to [00:02:00] maintain this long term with good habits for life. Okay, so if we think about four biggest hormones that influence how we feel, how our energy, you know, every sort of aspect of our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.

Kylie: So we have progesterone and estrogen, so obviously they’re the big ones that are impacted during perimenopause and menopause. We also have testosterone as well, but you know, for the purpose of today, we’ll stay out of the testosterone rabbit hole. We’ve got cortisol. Which is our stress hormone, which is a big, big influence on how we feel.

Kylie: Diets or insulin is our next one and thyroid, which is the master of our metabolism. So our hormones are incredibly sensitive. So they do react very quickly and very dramatically as well to outside influences on a daily basis. So, in a positive way, as well as in a negative way. [00:03:00] So when we tend to have lots of symptoms, they’re reacting to like the negative sort of things that are going on.

Kylie: So we want to have a look at what nutrients they’re getting, what stress levels your hormones are being exposed to, what environmental toxins they encounter, what kind of movement is your body doing? And the good news is if you’re doing enough of the right things, your hormones can rebalance really quickly.

Kylie: So we’re going to have a look at the top four diet and lifestyle hormone saboteurs that you need to be aware of. Okay. So diet is number one for very good reason. So, you know, and I’m not a nutritionist for the fun of it. So hormones need to have a steady stream of nutrients for them to work well. And it was crazy.

Kylie: I had a conversation a couple of weeks ago with a woman who she had been a Weight Watchers consultant for a hundred years. So she was telling me that nutrients didn’t [00:04:00] matter. At the same time, she’s telling me that she is 20 kilos overweight, that she is pre diabetic, that she has yeah, low thyroid, you know, so yeah.

Kylie: If we think of like Weight Watchers packaged food, like it’s just processed garbage. Like there’s zero, when you’re counting points, you’re not looking at nutrition. So yeah, needless to say, she and I had very different ideals and in the end, and she was arguing with me that diet didn’t matter.

Kylie: And then in the end I had to say to her, well, how’s that working out for you? Now, clearly not that well. Okay. So often, are your hormones getting the nutrients that you need? And often like in a modern diet, when we’re eating the wrong things or the wrong balance of things, we’re just not getting the building blocks we need for our hormones to work properly.

Kylie: So we 100 percent need adequate protein. This is to transport our hormones to keep our lean muscle mass. We need vitamins and [00:05:00] minerals to help them metabolise and break down. We need healthy fats for our hormones to work well. We need antioxidants and phytonutrients to protect the cells in our body.

Kylie: We need good forms of carbohydrates. We need fiber and we need plenty of clean water to move all of our hormones through our body and detoxify. Typical diets can be missing plenty of these nutrients in the form of, you know, not enough veggies, protein, good fats and water. But even if you’re eating the best diet possible, you can still have problems digesting and absorbing the nutrients.

Kylie: If you’ve got poor gut function, if you’ve got an imbalance in your gut bacteria or inflammation in your digestive tract, so if you’ve got chronic constipation or diarrhea or reflux or you feel nauseous all the time. That’s a pretty clear sign that your digestive system isn’t happy.

Kylie: When you’re not getting the right balance of nutrients, you [00:06:00] start getting symptoms of hormone imbalance. So this is where we see fatigue kicking, weight gain, sluggishness. And, it’s our natural instinct to go for a fast fix. If we’re feeling tired, it’s easy to grab the carby sugary, bad fats to pick us up, but it actually makes our symptoms even worse.

Kylie: Let’s have a look at how our diet influences all these hormones. When we look at cortisol, for instance, what we eat or what we don’t eat can be a stress on the body. And when our body is stressed, it releases cortisol. So this is where I see, women who are in perimenopause, who are stressed to the eyeballs and fasting, or, you know, maybe they’re not, not even consciously fasting, maybe just skipping breakfast.

Kylie: Your body is wondering where the food comes from, so it becomes more stressed, so it holds on to more weight. And when we get that cortisol release, day in, day out, all of that cortisol takes a [00:07:00] toll on our weight, our energy levels, mood, brain, and our general well being. So when we look at what foods are likely to be potential stressors, so fasting, so not, not eating.

Kylie: Eating processed foods, eating sugar, eating refined carbohydrates. So basically anything in a packet. All of our vegetable and seed oils food chemicals. So all of the ingredients that you can’t pronounce when you look at the packet. Things like alcohol, caffeine and foods that your body might be sensitive to.

Kylie: So this is how diet triggers cortisol. 

Hormone Hub episode is sponsored by our free hormone help call book in your call today with one of our experienced advisors, and we’ll give you some clarity around what’s causing your symptoms and some simple steps you can use straight away to improve your menopause experience. If you’re ready [00:08:00] to take the next step book in a call and find out more about how we can help you have a smoother transition through perimenopause and menopause, let us help you balance out your hormones, reset your metabolism, and get your confidence back so you can live the life you’re meant to.

The link with all the details is in our show notes or over at kyliepinwill.com/hormonehelpcall.

Kylie: When we look at insulin, so insulin is one of our other big fat storage hormones. The wrong foods can definitely spike our blood sugar. This makes us overproduce insulin which is again, our fat storage hormone. And as we As I just said, insulin not only sort of tells our body to store fat, but it also increases, other things, our risk of other things.

Kylie: Diabetes, dementia, heart disease as well. Definitely when it comes to our thyroid, the wrong food [00:09:00] choices can stop our thyroid from getting the nutrients it needs. to work well. So our thyroid loves iron. It loves zinc. It loves B12, which all come from animal proteins. Our thyroid also loves brain’s gone dead.

Kylie: selenium and iodine as well. We need those nutrients for our thyroid to be working well. So if you’re already low in ferritin, which tells us how much iron is stored in your body. If you’re already low in ferritin, then, your thyroid is already struggling. Okay. So we need to be mindful of it.

Kylie: I see it a lot in vegan and plant based diets, because. It is harder to get iron and zinc and impossible to get B12 from a vegan diet. So it’s just, I’m not anti vegan necessarily, but I am saying, you do need to be mindful and you do need to work a lot harder. As [00:10:00] vegan or plant based to make sure you’re getting those nutrients into your diet.

Kylie: And estrogen. So let’s have a look at how diet can play a role in our estrogen production. So if you haven’t got enough protein, healthy fat or nutrients, then definitely our sex hormone production is impacted and it puts our body under more stress as it tries to sort of rebalance everything.

Kylie: So you can kind of see, you know, how it sort of throws everything out. Diet is directly related to our hormones. So unfortunately, modern day Western diets, our fast paced lifestyle, our love of convenience the food industry sort of takes advantage of this.

Kylie: And definitely, there’s so much, manufactured, easy, fast foods that are perfect for busy lifestyles. So we’ve got, pre prepared meals, pre done sauces, packets and tubs of all things easy and quick. So instead of food being a pleasure you know, it, [00:11:00] Food becomes a convenience. So we really need to sort of rethink about cooking from scratch.

Kylie: So if we sort of think about, what sort of foods we need to avoid, so definitely like all of our trans fats. So these are our fake fats. They use cheap industrial vegetable oils. You know, they do the job, but they’re not good for our health long term. So they go rancid on heating. They turn into trans fats in the body that the body doesn’t know what to do with.

Kylie: So these are all like your vegetable oils, sunflower oils, safflower even rice bran canola, all of those. oils that we want to stay away from. Sugar is the next kind of big bleh in our diet, and the best thing that you can do for your health is two things, the best ultimate thing to do for your health is to stop smoking.

Kylie: Okay. And we all know that. Now, the next thing is to give up sugar. Okay. [00:12:00] Particularly in the form of soft drinks, because that is the easiest way for you to get maximum amount of sugar into your body. Diet soft drinks still no good because we, you’re getting, your brain registers sweet and your body still has an insulin response.

Kylie: So sugar, obviously sugar and fat is added to food to make it taste good. And it’s nothing like that combo to bring out the addict in us as well. So, the combination of sugar and fat definitely lights up our dopamine receptors. But it. you know, sends out insulin response crazy, that blood sugar.

Kylie: Think of a doughnut as the perfect example of a, what you don’t want in your body. It’s sweet fat essentially. And then, processed foods, you’ve got salts and the chemicals. So all of our body wasn’t designed to process. Thickness, emulsifiers food colors, food flavors, like all of those [00:13:00] chemicals that go into our, processed foods.

Kylie: Anything in the health food aisle is a processed little packet of garbage. Seriously. And because the thing is like, we have a food industry that is not interested in health. And we have a health industry, AKA the health food aisle, that’s not interested in food. So I hope that sort of gives you a good sort of indication of how stress, sorry, how foods can impact our hormones. So just to wrap it up our diet can be a source of stress on our body. Okay. So we’re not eating the right things if we’re not eating enough or if we’re fasting and not eating at all. Our hormones definitely need the right nutrients to be produced, transported, and metabolised in our body.

Kylie: Stress disrupts all of our hormones. Lack of sleep is directly impacting our energy moods. food, weight, health, and long term [00:14:00] health. We did it, I didn’t really touch on endocrine disrupting hormones, but these are found in things like our plastic containers, fragrance, Skincare products.

Kylie: So all of these can impact our hormones as well. Not getting enough sunlight and of course smoking and sugar. I hope that helps. I’m pretty sure the lady from Weight Watchers has unsubscribed from me and what I have to say about her crappy food choices. I’m sure I did it in a nice way, but yeah, she didn’t take it well.

Kylie: So I just wanted to clarify for anyone else out there. There is a hundred percent, a link between what we eat. And how we feel. And yes, the first place we start in the Hormone Code program is getting the foundations of what you are eating, right? We all know what healthy eating looks like, but it’s just getting the balance, right?

Kylie: So I hope you found this helpful and I will see you in the next episode.

[00:15:00] Thank you for taking the time to listen today. You can head on over to the show notes at kyliepinwill.com/podcast where you’ll find all the links. Now, before we go, it would mean the world to me if you’d head on over to your favorite podcast channel, subscribe and leave a review. Don’t forget to share it with your friends.

Then stay tuned for next week’s episode and I can’t wait to see you then.