Have you got the energy and joy to live life the way you want to?
That’s great if you do – and hopefully having a yummy bowl of our muesli’s helping you start your day healthy and happy.
But what if your energy’s lacking and your joy’s gone on holidays?
If this is more like you then it may be worth thinking about what might be taking its toll on your health.
And out of balance hormones are something that may be adding to your energy and joy deficiency.
Set your hormones in motion
If love makes the world go round, then it’s hormones that make our bodies keep working. Even the word ‘hormone’ means ‘to set in motion’.
As everything that happens in our body is powered by oxygen, water or food it makes sense that what we eat (and drink) can affect our hormones.
Hormone helpers
When hormones work properly our body is like a well-oiled machine. Hormones can turn on our appetite (grehlin) or turn off our appetite (leptin). Hormones can store fat (insulin) or change how much energy we use (thyroxine). They can control how we react to stress (cortisol and adrenaline) or make us happy (serotonin and dopamine).
Helpers on strike
Hormone balance can be influenced by many things – including stress, gut bacteria, what we’re eating, our age, time of the month, environmental factors and genetics. When our body tells us to release too much, or too little hormones, or we don’t have the right nutrition for our body to make hormones then our health starts to fade.
We can start to put on weight, feel sluggish, be overwhelmed with fatigue, experience a constant state of anxiety or stress and not be able to wind down. We might experience fertility issues (yes, men too not just the ladies here), hair loss or depression.
A balancing act
Because hormones are made from the nutrients we get from our food, choosing from a balanced, varied range of foods is important. But hormones can also change how we feel about eating, what we want to eat, and whether we have the motivation to make these healthy choices.
Ladies, I know you may get this – our chocolate or sweet cravings at part of PMT can be controlled by hormones. The change in hormones at certain times of the month can drop blood sugar levels, making us crave sweet foods.
Changes in oestrogen (fertility hormone) can also drop our serotonin (our happy hormone) levels meaning we crave chocolate – a food high in antioxidants and serotonin. We don’t need to bow to the cravings, but will-power takes more effort at these times.
But if our mood is low, caused by life or hormones being out of balance, then we’re more likely to choose processed foods, high energy comfort foods, or even to stop eating.
Missing meals through stress (and over active stress hormones) is another thing that may change what we choose to eat – eating a quick take-away or high energy snack rather than a protein-packed meal.
All these things set our body’s up to not get the right nutrients to get our hormones back in to balance.
How to help your hormones
Getting clever with what and how we eat can help power our body by giving it all the right nutrients to help make those hormones in just the right amounts. Keeping us happy, healthy and hormonally balanced.
Here are our three top tips on keeping you and your hormones happy
1. Eat regular meals.
Start the day with a healthy breakfast (oh, did I hear you say muesli?!) full of wholegrains and protein. Then follow this up with lunch and dinner focusing on whole foods, real ingredients and enjoyment. Make this a routine and you’ll find your hormones love you for it in the long-term.
2. If you can’t cut the stress then manage it.
Stress is a killer on hormones, and also on what we eat. Make sure you’re regularly taking a few minutes each day just to breathe, relax and contemplate. Paying attention to where your stresses are coming from may help you pick one thing you can do to reduce the stress-impact on your health.
3. Try our new hormone balancing muesli mix
We’ve combined the best and tastiest muesli ingredients with maca powder for hormone-balancing.
Our wholegrain oats pack a punch as well to help balance your hormones by giving you long lasting energy, B vitamins and magnesium.
Chia seeds are a great source of omega 3 and fibre which can help digestion, nurture great gut bacteria and reduce inflammation (all great news for being able to have happy hormones).
The nuts and seeds we’ve chosen for you are high in magnesium, manganese, protein and fibre, all supporting your body produce the right hormones.
