Many females agree that sometimes it can be hard to balance our hormones. Scientifically speaking, our monthly cycles are meant to help balance our hormones, yet it isn’t always guaranteed and sometimes our cycles can bring on more imbalances (hence all the mood swings)! So, we’ve compiled a list of five simple and effective ways to balance hormones that can allow for more control of mood swings and even less hormonal acne!
#1 : Eat The Right Foods
For the most part, foods from the ground should be your best friend. These foods cover the “vegetables and fruits” section of the food pyramid, giving you the necessary metabolism-boosting nutrients that can help not only in balancing your hormones, but also in digestion. This is a win-win considering how gut health is the leading cause of many health issues and is, therefore, all the hype these days! For some more science-backed information on how foods can impact our hormones, check out this article.
#2 : Drink The Right Drinks
We all know that water is the best thing you can drink for your body, but studies have shown that green tea also helps balance hormones. Feeling extra sleepy or extra agitated today? Have yourself a glass of green tea because it could just be your saving grace! Dr. Oz raves about it, so why not give it a try, right? Green tea boosts your metabolism (much like incorporating fruits and veggies in your diet), and it has an amino acid called “theanine” which is said to reduce cortisol levels (stress hormones) in the body. Lastly, green tea is high in antioxidants, which reduce inflammation. Inflammation has many severe, short-term effects including flares of acne, bloating, and even severely painful and/or irregular period cramps during that time of the month.
#3 : Exercise Often
Exercise helps raise our dopamine levels (happy hormones) while simultaneously reducing cortisol levels (stress hormones). With that said, my biggest advice would be to start at 10-15 minute intervals of moving your body in a way that gets you sweating. From following along to a workout video on YouTube to even taking your dog for a walk, the goal is to start somewhere small and have one goal in mind: to feel better (stronger, healthier, etc.). From there, you can turn your 10-15 minute exercise into 30 minutes and then an hour once you’ve found an exercise that you enjoy doing and that helps you attain this goal.
#4 : Get Enough Sleep
All you could need to help you prioritize sleep every night is in this article.
To keep it short, adults need at least eight hours of sleep each night, but with our constant exposure to blue light from our phones, laptops, and other technology, our sleep cycle gets interrupted. Therefore, it becomes harder to fall asleep and get the full eight hours that our body needs, which could result in a hormonal imbalance (like high cortisol levels). My advice would be to set an alarm that is at least eight hours before the time you need to wake up the next morning. Don’t snooze it, just stop whatever you’re doing, and only have in mind that you need to get some sleep in the next 10 minutes or so. Who knows, that alarm might just make you work and study more productively throughout your day if it’s a method that works in prioritizing your sleep cycle. Another hack could be investing in comfortable bedding (if you can afford it); this way you can at least know that there’s some physical comfort in sleeping! If, however, sleep becomes a bigger issue where nights have gone by without adequate sleep, don’t refrain from seeking professional help because that too will allow for your body to feel more recharged and balanced.
#5 : Recharge Your Battery
Not to be confused with the previous tip for balancing hormones, recharging your battery entails taking time away from your responsibilities and the people around you (no matter how much you love them), and doing something that you enjoy doing. This can be reading, journalling, knitting, taking pictures… literally anything that leaves you feeling more energized! Taking time alone where you’re away from all possible stressors could just be the thing you need to gain peace of mind.
final words
That concludes the five ways we found best helped us gain control of our hormones. We hope that if you too experience hormonal imbalances, you find this article to be helpful. If so, pass along the five ways above to others who could maybe use some guidance!