I know you know that stress is not good for the mind, not good for the body and definitely not good for hormone balance and fertility, right.

And the more you try to not stress, the more you keep stressing, and that just heightens stress even more. But aside from the obvious emotional and mental stressors, there are underlying hidden stressors in your body that have been there fermenting for years, even decades that need to be addressed and could be offsetting your entire system.

Stress is a trigger that needs to be addressed, whether you are trying to overcome a hormonal imbalance, trying to overcome any symptoms, or trying to get pregnant in general.

So today, I'm going to break down some underlying hidden stressors that really aren't addressed when you are trying to not stress, and how they affect your body so that you can start healing, balancing and getting some relief.

Stress is a trigger.  Just like eating bad food is a trigger. Stress is a trigger that is always going to shift you into survival mode and out of reproductive mode, reproduction is not life's priority from a biological perspective, your survival is. So the more you are stressed, the more your body will protect you chemically, from creating progesterone and other fertility hormones.

Now, stress is not just being upset or being stuck in traffic. 

TOIXC LOAD
Toxins are an underlying stressor.  Toxins have been in your system, probably since you were in your mother's womb. And it's because these toxins can pass from the placenta into your tissues and stored in your glands. So over time you accumulate these toxins, you grow up in a world that's filled with plastics, pesticides, pills, antibiotics, air, you name it, the world is just toxic, and it's unfortunate, but you can't do much about it without awareness of how these impacts your body.

Heavy metals, plastics, pesticides stress your body out. They are known endocrine disruptors, that means they disrupt your hormones.

So first and foremost, you have to address your toxic load.

Toxins can be stored in the liver and other endocrine glands in the body. For example, toxins play a huge role in hypothyroidism.  Heavy metals, viruses and bacteria can be stored deep in the gland causing long term disruption.  Toxins always need to be part of your healing plan. 

BLOOD SUGAR
The other one that really offsets and creates these hormonal imbalances is skipping meals. And that's a huge stressor on your body, waiting way too long between meals and then having a really high fat meal or high carb meal. 

It's not really about having the perfect diet.  It's really about when you're eating and how you're assimilating or breaking down the nutrients to create enough hormone you need, especially for good egg quality. So if you're skipping meals, you're throwing your blood sugar off, regardless of how clean your diet is.

Skipping meals is a great place to start balancing your hormones because of insulin.  Insulin and cortisol, the stress hormone, go hand in hand. So if you're skipping meals, guess what? You're increasing cortisol which is the stress hormone. So there goes that hormone imbalance again! 

OVERTRAINING
Overtraining can deplete your delicate hormone balance.  So if you like kickboxing, CrossFit makes you happy that's amazing. But if you are trying to balance your hormones, if you are trying to get pregnant, this could be offsetting you and depleting your reserves. 

Overtraining, causes an adrenaline pump through your body. And guess what, that's the cortisol again, those are your adrenal glands. You're stressing out the body on a physical level. So the more you are pumping adrenaline, the more cortisol, you are not producing enough progesterone, which makes babies helps make babies and you're probably not producing enough of the good sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone and testosterone.

So overtraining is a big deal.

RESTFUL SLEEP
One simple thing that really stresses the body is lack of sleep. 

Whether you're sleeping too late, you wake up too early in the morning, you need to sleep before 1030. After 10:30pm you set yourself up for a second wind, because the cortisol, that stress hormone, again, it comes up after 1030! 

If you get that second wind, it sets you up for a hormone imbalance because cortisol, melatonin, all of that is through the roof when it should be really low!  So what happens in the morning?  Coffee and quick carbs to get you focused and energized because you didn't sleep well!!  

SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS
Underlying stressors cause a lot of damage to your health.  Addressing your toxic load, blood sugar, high intensity lifestyle are pieces to your success for health.  If you're ready to start addressing these underlying issues, start balancing your hormones and support your body, it's time to create a unique strategy that's specific to you. 

Set up your FREE Radiant Analysis so that you can start enjoying unstoppable energy and confidence! 

Hypothyroidism is a super frustrating condition.

If you're trying to get pregnant, it could be a known factor for infertility, or one that's still unknown.

Hypothyroidism, or thyroid conditions in general, are very frustrating because it can take a really long time to actually diagnose in terms of Western medicine.

You could be living with constant fatigue, exhaustion, weight gain, even though you've been dieting or exercising, you can have other symptoms, like anxiety, panic attacks, hair loss that go along with hypothyroidism that will not show up in the labs for a really long time.

And when they finally do, what do you get medication, because that's how far gone it will be.

And unfortunately, the medication is just a bandaid. There are a lot of complex issues that go into finally getting that diagnosis of a thyroid condition.

Today, I'm going to break down three of the most important triggers that really need to be addressed when we're dealing with a thyroid imbalance so that you can really start to heal it, which is not via medication, because that is just managing the symptoms.  

In order for you to heal, lose weight and keep it off, have more energy, and get your life back it's really important to understand these underlying triggers.  

So let's go ahead and delve into it.

ADRENAL FATIGUE
Hypothyroidism is secondary to long term adrenal imbalances, and one of the problems with medication is that, yeah,
you have to take medication to feel better for a very short period of time, especially if it's been shown on your labs that you have really low thyroid in your system.

One of the main reasons for this imbalance is long standing adrenal fatigue.  Years or decades of ongoing stress.  And it doesn't necessarily have to be because you feel stressed out all the time. These are internal stressors. Whatever stressors that have have pumped so much cortisol and so much adrenaline through your body, that eventually your adrenal glands start to burn out.

And eventually this starts to affect your thyroid, because these two glands have are connected. 

So if you don't address your stress response it can show up as a thyroid imbalance and medication can set you back. 

Because if you're this tired, that you can't get out of bed, you're gaining weight, you just don't feel good have a low libido, hair loss, it's the body's way of protecting you. It's not convenient, right?

But it's the body's way to protect you!  Telling you to slow down. And if you are not going to listen to your body, the body will force you, making you exhausted all the time so that you can just stay put and not do as much, right.

So when you look at it that way it makes sense as to these symptoms, right?

They really hinder your ability to do more and more and more.

And so what happens with medication, the medication, may get your energy back, you start to think a little better, the brain fog doesn't feel as intense.  And then what do you do, you go back and do more and more and more to get things done because you need to be productive. 

And you're back to that stressful environment that's gotten you here in the first place.

So you see how the medication can eventually set you back because you haven't addressed the adrenal fatigue, that stress response.

Adrenal fatigue is one root cause that really needs to be addressed. And when you look at this pattern, you can definitely start to make lifestyle adjustments, to start to heal this underlying trigger.

LIVER HEALTH 
Now, the second part is that all of this really comes down to your liver and your hormone imbalances. If you have a hypothyroid, or a thyroid imbalance, in general, you're going to have a hormonal imbalance because guess what, your liver breaks down all these hormones. 

If the liver is not happy, it's not synthesizing hormones optimally, nor detoxing excess estrogen. 

And so there's going to be more estrogen in the bloodstream, your liver is not breaking it down. Your liver is congested, it's stagnant, it's not working really great for you, right?

So there will be an imbalance of estrogens, progesterone too low, low thyroid, etc.  It's a domino effect.

So you have to get your estrogen in check, you have to get your liver health in check, right. These are underlying triggers that eventually have led to this condition that you may be dealing with that you may know you're dealing with, or you suspect you're dealing with.

INFECTIONS
Another trigger for thyroid imbalances is infections and levels of inflammation.  There is usually some level of infection, either viral, bacterial, toxin, parasitic or fungal that your body is struggling with. It's been fighting for a very long time, and it eventually has triggered and targeted your thyroid. So without really addressing your infection, or levels of inflammation, and just taking medication to get you through the day, you're not addressing one of the biggest triggers. 

Because if it's affecting your thyroid, it's affecting your immune system and there's a constant fight and struggle inside your body.

And guess what, if you're trying to get pregnant, dealing with infections is your body's priority to survive, not pregnancy. So you see how that can delay your chances of pregnancy.

So if you feel like you've been trying and trying for years, and you think you may have a thyroid imbalance, but it hasn't shown up on the labs, this is another way to look at the body holistically.

And so even if you're not trying to get pregnant and you have a thyroid imbalance, you have to look at everything holistically, what's going on with your immune system, are there infections? What is this medication doing to your body? What's going on with your liver, what's going on with your hormones?

These are some root causes for thyroid imbalances. 

EAT VEGGIES, EVEN CRUCIFEROUS VEGGIES
Unfortunately there are myths in the alternative community regarding cruciferous veggies.  Some people are told not to eat certain vegetables with goitrogenic properties because they'll block thyroid function. 

And that's just plain dangerous.  If you cook down your foods that really kind of throws that theory out the window, and the fact is you'd probably have to eat up to 100 pounds of cruciferous vegetables a day for it to hurt you! 

Unfortunately, when you take cruciferous vegetables out of your diet, then you are actually setting your liver back because cruciferous vegetables are exact foods that your liver needs to, hey, guess what, break down that excess estrogen and give you that sulfur and those nutrients that your liver really needs to start healing your body, especially your hormones via your liver, right.

When it comes to food, you just need to know how your body really works, and how your hormones work. So you need to eat for your hormones, and your health so that you can start decreasing your viral load, infections and inflammation that's really triggering your body.  

So I hope you understand that using medication could be setting you back.  Addressing the root causes is exactly what I do with my clients. And that's when you get your energy, libido, confidence and stamina back!  

Imagine feeling better than you did.

Imagine just being in head turning shape, that perfect weight that makes you feel good.  One that would make you want to buy clothes and make you want to just look at yourself in the mirror.

You don't want to be on medication, it's just slapping a bandaid on the situation. And in six months, even three years from then you'll probably be on another medication for anxiety, or weight gain or depression because that is the domino effect because you're not addressing the underlying triggers.

So if you're ready to do that, you've got to start addressing underlying triggers.  And if you're committed to do that, then go ahead and reach out and sign up for a FREE Radiant Analysis!  

Do you want to make sure your hormones are balanced and in flow with your fertility? 

Sleep is medicinal and can boost your fertility.

Unfortunately, women don't get enough sleep and it does affect you!

So, what happens to your fertility when you don't get enough sleep?

• In both men and women, the same part of the brain that regulates sleep-wake hormones (such as melatonin and cortisol also triggers a daily release of reproductive hormones
  
  
• Cortisol, the stress hormone, blocks production of ample progesterone (the baby making hormone).  High stress and staying up late increases production of cortisol!  
  
  
• The hormones that trigger ovulation in women and the sperm-maturation process in men may be tied into the body's sleep-wake patterns. For example, if you’re a woman, long-term lack of sleep may directly affect the release of luteinizing hormone, or LH — the hormone that triggers ovulation as part of regulating your menstrual cycle. The resulting menstrual irregularity may mean it takes longer for you to conceive.

Long term lack of sleep disrupts more than your hormone balance including: 

*Slowing down your mental alertness and response time - ever written a poorly written email (haha, yes), had a poor evaluation at work or made a wrong left turn when you were suppose to go right?

* Making you mood & irritable - It's not just PMS or declining hormones during that stage.  Lack of sleep can make you groggy and moody, which is not so good for "sexy"time with your partner.

*Poor memory or decreased ability to think creatively - Cerebrospinal fluid flushes certain toxins out of the brain and allows for memory formation. When you don't sleep enough, this function is interrupted.

* Increased stress & anxiety - Many experts believe that falling into a deep enough sleep to dream allows our mind the chance to release negative, stressful energy. That’s why advice like “just sleep on it” is so prevalent, since rest seems to give your mind a clearer perspective. When your brain doesn’t get this time, it may feel overcrowded, and you could struggle to tame your thoughts.

* Poor impulse control - It's easier to "bit your tongue" when you're well rested. Our innate "animal" instincts come out when we don't get enough sleep. You are in constant "fight or flight".  I remember this well when I had newborns and I was sleep deprived, going into mama bear mode if anyone even looked at me sideways 😭

Make sleep a priority, as well as proper preconception wellness:

• Get to sleep by 10:30pm...
• Avoid that productive second wind that keeps you up from 1-3am, especially researching Google "why you can't get pregnant"...
• Shut down electronics by 9pm.  
• Eat before 7pm, so that you're not digesting all night
• Invest in your bed and bedding, make your bed a sanctuary!
• Try acupuncture or yoga to reset the endocrine and nervous systems (if you're in my area, book your appointment!)