Whole Body Health

Alisa and Emily dive deep into the world of mindfulness and meditation. Emily elaborates on the topic of stress and how it can have a profound effect on our physical, emotional and hormonal health.

‍

‍

Watch now:

‍

‍

‍

Meet Emily Fletcher:

Emily is the founder of Ziva Meditation. Emily had a career on Broadway where she struggled with insomnia, anxiety, and premature aging. She began to incorporate meditation into her life, which had such an incredible effect on her that she left Broadway and went to India to become a meditation teacher. She now dedicates her life to helping people learn how to incorporate mindfulness and meditation into their lives, and has taught meditation professionally for the last 13 years.

‍

‍

What you'll learn in the video:

• Emily's journey with hormones and how they have impacted her life
• How Emily has incorporated Cycle Syncing® into her daily routine
• How mediation has transformed Emily's health and hormonal journey
• The profound impact that stress can have on our hormones and how it creates hormone imbalances
• Building a healthy relationship with the body as a whole

Alisa and Beatrice discuss societal conditioning about menstruation, PMS, mental health and more. They discuss whole menstrual care and supporting the body from first bleed to your last.

‍

Watch here:

‍

‍

‍

Meet Beatrice Dixon:

Beatrice is the CEO of The Honey Pot Company. Since launching in 2014 in her kitchen with plant-derived ingredients after experiencing chronic bacterial vaginosis for 8 years, the company has grown prominence within the wellness space, becoming a brand women trust.

‍

What you'll learn:

• Getting the right support for your hormonal journey
• Grace and discipline for a hormonal lifestyle journey
• Improving endocrine system to reduce symptoms
• New way to relate to your body, not a quick fix

Your hormones are always changing and so are we. I’m so excited to debut the NEW FLO Living!

We are proud to be celebrating just over a decade as a company, and being one of the earliest femtech brands in the world. When I first launched FLO Living in 2012, there was very little information about women’s hormones (or their cycles) within the mainstream, and it was still considered extremely taboo to mention across all media platforms.  

Through the company, the app, my best-selling books and speaking, I’ve worked to help change the global narrative around hormones by introducing a variety of concepts - from what the color of your period blood means, to the infradian rhythm, to the Cycle Syncing® Method.

We’re proud to have helped women fix their hormonal symptoms naturally over the past decade, when all else has failed them. Our vision has always been to merge evidence-based functional food and micronutrient protocols with tools, tech and products that make fixing your hormones and syncing with your cycle easy.   

We’re here for you from your first bleed to your last.

We are so excited to continue building the world’s best hormonal healthcare platform and we’re just getting started!

Love, Alisa

‍‍

Who is FLO Living & Why Did We Rebrand?

Our vision for women’s healthcare is to make hormones make sense. We believe hormonal healthcare should be easy to understand, convenient to access, natural, and effective.

We wanted our brand to reflect this evolution visually, and bring a clearer and more refined platform for our community.

And after a decade of being on the bleeding edge of natural hormonal healthcare, we wanted to celebrate with an updated look and functionality!

‍

The New FLO Living Logo

‍

‍

Our logo consists of a new gradient orb, which represents 3 things:

• The power of our cycle
• The dynamic and ever-changing nature of hormones
• The beauty of our hormones

(Did you know that when estrogen is heated and cooled it is pink?!)

New Colors for FLO Living

We’ve color coded everything to make it easier for you to get where you need to be. The colors within our brand represent four key hormonal pillars in your reproductive journey: 

• Menstruation (orange)
• Fertility (pink)
• Perimenopause (green)
• Cycle Syncing® (blue)

‍

What’s New 

At FLO Living, you can always expect a high standard of care, and in all of our offerings.

We’ve been hard at work to bring you:

‍

• A web based assessment to help you customize a care plan that’s right for your hormonal needs

• More products to support you from your first bleed to your last - through menstruation, fertility, and perimenopause 

• A new app to support you in symptom tracking, functional health management, and Cycle Syncing®

• A new hormonal healthcare web destination to understand how your hormones work and how you should care for them when they are out of balance. This is through our easy to navigate site and wealth of blog content

‍

We are changing hormonal healthcare together - thanks to you!

Our mission is simple - to build a new kind of hormonal healthcare company for women and to help as many women feel their best from their first period to their last one as possible. Because it is both a health issue and a feminist issue.

FLO Living is a company that helps end women's unnecessary hormonal suffering. And we are so grateful to our Cycle Syncing® community (130 million strong!) - for having the wisdom and courage to follow their own biology and their own timing, and the hundreds of thousands of women who have resolved their hormonal issues naturally.We take it seriously that you have trusted us for a decade to support your hormonal journey,  that you share us as a resource with your friends, and give us your constant feedback on what you want from our brand. We are grateful for your support and collaboration and are excited to be starting this new chapter with you. 

‍

Take our new assessment & receive your personalized care plan 

Your body wasn’t designed to have hormone problems. With FLO Living’s  personalized, scientifically backed food and supplement programs, you can do away with PMS and perimenopause symptoms, optimize your fertility, and finally feel your best – naturally. 

True hormonal healing is possible and it comes from nourishing your endocrine system with food and supplements. Now, we’ve created an easy way for you to experience lasting change and optimize your health.

Take our 5 minute hormonal health assessment, sharing details about your symptoms, cycle, diet and lifestyle, so we can help you understand the root causes of your hormone issues. You’ll receive a customized food program and supplement subscription designed to support exactly what you need. Then, optimize with our MyFlo app, which will give you insights based on your symptoms and help you stay on track.

Take our assessment here.

‍

New app features

We’re thrilled to introduce MyFLO 3.0 - a revolutionary app to track and improve your cycle. This is the health-supportive must-have app for your hormones! And now it is fully updated and better than ever! 

Some features of MyFLO:

• The official Cycle Syncing® App
• Access your hormone report and personalized care plan
• Track daily data, symptoms, functional health, and so much more
• Get personalized tips and facts daily to support your hormonal health goals

Download the MyFLOapp here.

Thank you for being a part of our FLO Living community, we are so excited for this next phase of our journey. Here’s to your hormonal health! 

Quick fixes don’t work, though we all wish they would. If you’ve been following FLO Living for a while (or even for a short time), you know I advocate for making good choices every day, creating sustainable lifestyle habits that last for the long term, and living in line with your infradian rhythm, or the innate 28-day hormone cycle that controls six key areas of the body, all year long. It’s an evidence based, results-driven perspective and it really works.

That said, I do recommend doing the right kind of detox — emphasis on the words “right kind” — periodically. A detox that focuses on replenishing the nutrients and minerals your body needs while reducing the amount of nutritional clutter that comes into your body (think sugar, caffeine, and the pesticides and herbicides found on conventional produce) can kickstart hormonal healing and accelerate the disappearance of period problems like heavy or irregular periods, fatigue, acne, moodiness, brain fog, bloating, weight gain, and weight loss resistance. What makes a detox healthy and supportive (versus depleting and destabilizing)? When should you detox? How can you detox safely?

In this post, I give you everything you need to know about doing a safe, hormone-supportive detox. And I share the detailed 4-Day Detox plan that I designed specifically to help you balance your hormones and erase period problems.If you’ve tried detox protocols in the past and they haven’t worked, this post is for you.

How Do You Know If You Need to Detox?

A healthy, hormone-supportive detox isn’t a daily lifestyle. It’s a short, thoughtful, nourishing protocol that you can follow a couple times a year to help rebalance your hormones ease pesky period problems. How can you tell when you’d benefit from doing a hormone supportive detox? Here are some clues your body might be giving you:

• You feel sluggish and tired most days, even after getting a good night’s sleep
• You have trouble concentrating
• You feel irritable and moody most days
• Your body feels heavy, weighed down
• You feel bloated most days
• Your PMS is worse than usual
• You’re breaking out regularly
• You’re having increased food cravings
• You’ve been relying on caffeine to jumpstart each day
• You’ve been relying on alcohol to come down at night
• You’ve gained some weight and it just won’t seem to come back off

If you can identify with the symptoms on this list, your hormones need some TLC and one of the best ways to start that process is with a detox. But not just any detox! A healthy, healing detox is NOT a crash diet, juice cleanse, or fast. If you want to feel energized, refreshed, boosted in body and spirit, as well as lose a few pounds and get glowing skin, you need a detox that nourishes and supports you, not deprives you.

Why Is Doing a Detox Important?

Modern life is hard on hormones. Here are just some of the things we are exposed to everyday that interfere with optimal hormone balance and contribute to unpleasant symptoms like fatigue, acne, depression, anxiety, brain fog, mood swings, weight gain, weight loss resistance, and period problems, like severe PMS, heavy or irregular periods, bloating, and menstrual migraines:

• Environmental toxins (household cleaning products, body care products, lawn chemicals)
• The pesticides and herbicides on conventional food
• Sugar/high-glycemic foods
• Gluten
• Caffeine
• Alcohol
• Not eating enough phytonutrient-rich foods
• Chronic stress
• Sleep deprivation

What is the Best Detox Protocol for Women?

The best detox for people with female physiology in their reproductive years is a detox that helps balance hormones, replenish missing nutrients and minerals, support the liver, and facilitate the elimination of toxins — all while allowing you to feel nourished and satisfied. Fasts, juice cleanses, and starvation diets do more damage to hormones than good!I’ve designed a simple, powerfully effective detox that accomplishes all of this. My 4-Day Hormone Detox has you eating fresh, nourishing food for 3 meals a day, plus snacks. You won’t feel hungry, hangry, or deprived. You will prep food and then you will be eating frequently throughout the day, instead of watching the clock for your next juice.

Many women have told me that the 4-Dday Hormone Detox is not something they live through but something they actually look forward to!Women who have done this cleanse have lost 10 lbs, cleared up stubborn acne, improved their energy, sharpened their thinking, solved period problems, and boosted their moods.I created this cleanse using the principles of functional nutrition and my deep understanding of hormonal biochemistry. Every meal combines foods that help support the liver and that help restore and sustain the delicate endocrine (hormone) system.

What’s more, the detox is designed to stabilize blood sugar, regulate your adrenal system, improve estrogen elimination, and engage your healing feminine energy. The protocol will also increase the micronutrients you need to manufacture the right amounts of these hormones and to signal to them to do their jobs at the right times for you.

What to Expect During and After the Detox?

The 4-Day Hormone Detox is designed to boost your energy, ease period problems, clear your skin, and improve your mood. It also resets your relationship with food, getting you back into healthy balance.More specifically, here is some of what you can expect:

Skin Benefits

The main environmental triggers of adult acne are dairy, caffeine, sugar (and high-glycemic foods, and gluten, and these are all eliminated during the 4-Day Detox. You’ll also increase the amount of skin-clearing, hormone-supportive nutrients in your diet, especially omega-3 fatty acids and B vitamins. These micronutrients also support your liver, which is responsible for clearing excess estrogen from your system. When the liver is sluggish, excess estrogen builds up and contributes to breakouts.

Menstrual Health Benefits

Because the Detox is designed to balance your hormones, you will notice an improvement in period problems, like PMS, cramps, bloating, and heavy or irregular periods.

Mood Benefits

If you’ve been experiencing anxiety, low mood, depression, or just a sluggishness and demotivation, then the 4-Day Detox can help. One root cause of mood swings and hormone instability is imbalanced blood sugar. The Detox is designed to balance blood sugar. Many women experience their worst moods (or mood swings) the week before their period, and this is fueled by high estrogen/low progesterone, which the Detox also helps correct by supporting the liver (to eliminate excess estrogen) and boosting B vitamin stores (which helps with progesterone production).

Body Composition Benefits

Bloating can get better during the detox. You’re might also  lose a few pounds, too. That’s because balanced blood sugar correlates with lower levels of insulin — and lower insulin is correlated with less fat stored around the waistline. (Insulin is an important and necessary hormone in the body, but too much of it in the body — which happens when blood sugar is high or chronically unstable — is associated with the storage of unwanted body fat.)

Emotional Benefits

During the detox, you’ll be journaling on specific topics that will expand your perspective, increase your sense of confidence and calm, and support you in connecting with your feminine energy and creativity. You’ll be having a conversation with yourself and your body that you can use to make positive changes in your life. The Detox is also designed to shift your relationship with food, encouraging you to actually engage with and enjoy what you eat.If your body and mind need a boost, I highly recommend the 4-day Hormone Detox. It is nourishing, restorative, and easy — no deprivation or punishing rules — so it can be rolled out when you need it to help you get back on track. WHEN is the optimal time to do a detox? You should do a detox during your follicular and ovulation phases only. Due to infradian changes, your metabolism is slower in the first half of your cycle and requires less calories, so you can tolerate the cleanse most easily then. Learn more about the infradian effect on metabolism here.

What Happens After You Finish the 4-Day Hormone Detox

After the 4-Dday Hormone Detox, it’s important to take small but effective steps everyday to keep toxins out of your system. You’ll want to maintain the good work you did during the targeted detox to keep your hormones healthy all year round.I recommend eating a nutrient-dense diet, full of good fats, greens, high-fiber foods, and high-quality proteins. Your liver needs the nutrients from those foods to process the excess hormones and toxins and eliminate them from your body. Specifically, the liver breaks down and eliminates toxins in four phases:

‍Phase 1: The liver breaks down toxins into smaller components by using nutrients from food such as glutathione, B vitamins, and C vitamins. These smaller components are called free radicals and they are more toxic once they’re broken down, so it’s critical to flush them from the body ASAP.

‍Phase 2: These free radicals are combined with the selenium and amino acids in the liver – again, sourced from your food – and they become harmless and water-soluble through the process.

‍Phase 3: Then these water-soluble molecules bind to fiber — yes, the very same fiber you get in food! — and are escorted out of the body.

‍Phase 4: Toxins are eliminated via your skin, your lymphatic system, and bowel movements.This is one of the reasons why food is such a core component of the FLO Protocol, and why living in line with your infradian rhythm depends so heavily on the foods you eat (and don’t eat). Optimal liver function also helps promote healthy weight maintenance and weight loss.  In short, your liver needs MORE nutrients, not less, to do its job effectively. To supply your liver with a steady stream of hormone-supportive nutrients and promote detox everyday, give the following foods a starring role in your daily diet all year round:

• Gutathione-heavy vegetables like avocados, carrots, broccoli, spinach, apples, asparagus and melon. Add two additional servings a day
• Selenium-rich foods like as oats, eggs, and Brazil nuts.
• Fiber-rich foods like nuts, seeds, lentils and peas. Add flaxseeds to your breakfast eggs and lunch salad.

You can also speed up the elimination process and get those toxins out your body fast with a couple of simple lifestyle hacks.

• Sweat – encourage your lymphatic system to get in on the game of releasing toxins by giving it a gentle movement massage. Workout in a way that makes you sweat, whether that’s a home dance workout or a hatha yoga class.
• Soak – draw yourself a bath full of epsom salts, the ancient and highly effective way to detox via your body’s largest organ – your skin.

In addition, I recommend all people with female physiology in their reproductive years take targeted, hormone-supportive supplements that insure your liver gets all the nutrients it needs to do its elimination work. Even when we eat the cleanest diet, there are factors beyond our control (like the nutrient-depleted soil our food is grown in) that make it difficult to get all the nutrients we need from food. The five formulations in Balance by FLO Living provide the essential micronutrient support that you need to balance your hormones. Think of them as your personal “insurance policy” against endocrine disruptors like stress, coffee, environmental toxins, lack of sleep, and plain-old modern life.

You no longer have to waste money on low-quality supplements or supplements that don’t target your unique hormonal profile. I’ve formulated all the essential supplements you need to heal your hormones with the highest quality ingredients. The Balance by FLO Living supplement kit is thoroughly researched, rigorously tested, and perfectly suited to meet your needs. Always remember that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you. You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

Balance Supplements

I designed my Balance Supplements specifically to help women address these key deficiencies, balance their hormones, and reclaim their energy.You don’t need to feel listless and exhausted for 1-2 weeks every month. You can reclaim your energy in as little as one 28-day hormone cycle. BALANCE by FLO Living is the FIRST supplement kit for happier periods that supports balancing your hormones. Balance Supplements include five formulations that provide essential micronutrients to balance your hormones. Think of them as your personal “insurance policy” against environmental factors that are (knowingly or unknowingly) zapping your energy every month. Balance Supplements can help you have more energy within a few weeks!

I love how social media is connecting us as women in a historic way. I love sharing everything I’ve learned over the past 15 years about female biochemistry, functional nutrition, endocrinology, and neuropsychology AND I love hearing from you. Specifically, I love your questions!Recently, I’ve been getting asked one question in particular: “Hey Alisa, I want to read your new book. Should I start with your first book WomanCode? Or should I start with your new book In the FLo?My answer is: Yes, and yes. 😊In all seriousness, I’m honored and thrilled when women read my books. I am on a mission to help move the conversation and the care forward for women for their hormones. I believe we deserve to feel better and I want that for you.These are some of the things that are possible:

• Your period problems may improve, or you may notice your periods become problem-free
• You may experience less PMS, or you may notice that your PMS improves so much that you don’t notice symptoms
• If your period has been missing or irregular, your period may come back or you may experience more regular periods
• Your skin may clear up.
• Your mood may improve.
• Your energy might improve.
• You might experience more presence and joy in your life
• Yoy might notice you are more productive at work (while putting in less effort — a win-win!)
• You might notice that your sleep is more restorative and/or that your fall asleep easier
• Your sex drive may improve.
• Your anxiety may go down.

I built FLO Living as a virtual online health center to help women solve their hormonal symptoms, and that is what my team and I do 24/7 everyday of the year. We offer a variety of programs and resources, from free guides and detox protocols to individual coaching sessions and targeted hormone-balancing supplements.   Why?  Because women deserve more from their hormonal healthcare.  It’s time to finally feel better in our bodies.I invite people with period problems to start wherever they feel most comfortable. For some, it might be a membership in one of our Cycle Syncing™ programs. For others, it might be doing some deep reading — and for that I recommend my books. You can start with either one — or both! Here is a guide to each book to help you choose the best starting place for you.

IF YOU HAVE A MENSTRUAL CONDITION:

Start with my book WomanCode: Perfect Your Cycle Amplify Your Fertility, Supercharge Your Sex Drive, and Become a Power Source if…

• You suffer from missing or irregular periods or other period problems like PCOS, Fibroids, Endometriosis, bloating, acne, PMS, severe cramps, heavy bleeding, or menstrual migraines.
• You’ve been led to believe that Western medicine is the only option you have for healing your hormones
• You’ve tried a bunch of Rxs, like prescription acne medication and hormonal birth control and they haven’t worked — or they’ve made your hormone problems worse.
• You feel off — like you’re weighed down, lacking energy, lacking vitality, stuck — and you want to feel better.
• You want to learn about functional nutrition, exercise timing, and healthy detox

Why I wrote WomanCode

I wrote WomanCode to tell my story. When I was younger, I struggled with PCOS. I weighed 200 lbs. My face, chest, and back were covered in cystic acne. I got my period twice a year. I was exhausted, depressed, and couldn’t concentrate or think clearly. And that wasn’t the worst of it, according to my doctors. I was told that as I aged, I would suffer from obesity, infertility, diabetes, and possibly cancer and heart disease. They could give me drugs, my doctor said, but it would only help with symptoms — maybe — and it would never cure me. I refused to accept this.

I knew there had to be a different way. I dove into the research and discovered that food was the most powerful drug I could use to balance my hormones and ease my symptoms. I also discovered the importance of eating and living in a cyclical pattern, or shifting what I eat and how I exercise and organize my calendar in line with my hormonal shifts throughout the month.

When I figured out the cyclical piece of the puzzle, everything fell into place. I got my period. I lost 50 pounds. My cystic acne went away. My brain fog disappeared. I had energy and less anxiety. I wrote WomanCode to tell this story and, most importantly, to share everything I learned about hormonal healing with you. Whether you have PCOS, another clinical hormonal imbalance, or chronic period problems like PMS, cramps, heavy bleeding, bloating or acne, you can use the same strategy I used to heal and remain symptom-free for the last 15 years.

IF YOU ARE BETWEEN THE AGES OF 18 AND 45

Start with my book In the Flo: Unlock Your Hormonal Advantage and Revolutionize Your Life if…

• You want to deepen your understanding of your female biochemistry and your infradian rhythm, or the innate 28-day hormone cycle that regulates six key systems of the body
• You eat a healthy diet, but you don’t seem to be getting results or what used to work for you has stopped working
• You maintain a rigorous exercise routine but you don’t see results
• You feel rushed, anxious, or exhausted much of the time
• You feel like you aren’t as productive at work as you could be (despite putting in a LOT of effort)
• Your libido has disappeared
• You want to have more energy
• You want to improve your interpersonal relationship
• You want to have a healthier period
• You want to biohack like a woman

Why I wrote In the Flo

I wrote In the Flo to introduce people with female biochemistry to the infradian rhythm. The infradian rhythm is an internal timekeeper, much like the 24-hour circadian rhythm, that is linked to the menstrual cycle. Here is just some of what the infradian rhythm does in the body:

• The infradian rhythm creates a 25% change in your brain chemistry over the course of the month
• Your metabolism speeds up and slows down predictably across the month and that you need to change what you eat and the intensity of your workouts each week in order to optimize your metabolism
• Your cortisol levels are higher in one part of your infradian cycle, so pushing yourself through an intense workout bumps up cortisol levels even further, adding to your stress and inflammation, disrupting your hormones, and making you feel anxious and unfocused
• People with female biochemistry need more sleep than men because we have a more complex brain and it needs 20 minutes longer to clean itself and reset for the cognitive day
• People with female physiology tend to need less in the way of extreme self-care practices because we have more efficient biology.

One of my most significant discoveries over the past 15 years has been that women in their reproductive years have cyclical needs — and those needs shift as your hormones shift throughout your infradian rhythm. Our bodies and brains are different during each phase of our cycle, so our food, exercise, and self-care should be different each week, too. If you’ve been living in a ‘same-thing-everyday’ way, you’re not alone. There is a widespread cultural belief that we are supposed to repeat the same rituals every 24 hours — have the same morning routine, for example, or exercise the same way each week. But this insistence on doing the same thing day-in and day-out caters to the male hormonal biological rhythm.

Men follow the same predictable pattern everyday: the 24-hour circadian clock and only the 24-hour circadian clock. People with female physiology have two clocks, the circadian rhythm and the infradian rhythm.In the Flo is all about the infradian rhythm — understanding it, living in line with it, and optimizing your self care, including your food, exercise, and time management, to leverage your unique strengths during each phase of your infradian rhythm.If you want to heal your hormones, erase period problems, and get more out of your health — and your life — read In the Flo.

Both books complement each other and you will gain that much more by reading both. But if one appeals to you more than another at this moment, start there. You can also have me read to you with the audio books.  And if books aren't your cup of tea, that’s a-okay. Check out one of our other programs, memberships, or resources. If you are suffering from period problems or hormone imbalances, we can help.

My new book In the Flo will help you achieve all this — and more

If you’re ready to harness the power of your unique female biochemistry to look and feel your best, grab a copy of In the Flo and get to look, feel, and perform your best.

Where to go from here?

In The FLO Reviews

Cia⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

"If you are a human with a womb cycle you need to read this! This book has changed my life completely, for the better. Did you know that you can only get pregnant 5-7 days out of the entire month!? This book taught me more about my female body than any health class ever has... I am so so so grateful!"

Kristen Dwyer ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

"This book is blowing my mind. Amazing, science backed information and already helping my body so much. This book should be a mandatory reading in high school!"

Jessie ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

"Total game changer in life, work, relationships and health. I love how the book is broken up into sections so that you can focus on different aspects from health to motherhood to sex, relationships, and more."

Are you suffering from sun-safety whiplash? It looks like this: You’re super woke about skin cancer (and accelerated skin aging) thanks to pretty much everyone ever telling you about the dangers of sun exposure. And they aren’t wrong. Studies suggest that most melanoma cases are caused, at least in part, by overexposure to sunlight. But lately you’ve heard rumors about the dangers of conventional sunscreens—that they are hard on the environment, that they mess with your endocrine system, that they might not protect against skin cancer as effectively as they should… and that, at the same time, they may have carcinogenic properties of their own. Oh, yeah, and some of the ingredients in conventional sunscreens may be neurotoxins. Then there’s the debate about sunscreen and low-levels of vitamin D. Some experts have suggested that the “always use sunscreen!” advice is preventing us from converting sunlight into vitamin D, which we need for optimal hormonal health, and especially for optimal fertility? It’s enough to make you want to hide out in a windowless room until science sorts it all out. But there are ways to have a fun day at the beach, get some vitamin D, and protect yourself against skin damage... without damaging your hormones. Here’s how to keep your skin AND your hormones happy while you navigate the sun safety conundrum.

The Trouble with Conventional Sunscreens

The active ingredients in most sunscreens have been linked to imbalanced hormones, premature birth, increased risk for breast, ovarian and prostate cancer, and disruption of normal endocrine function. One popular active ingredient, oxybenzone, has been shown to harm fish and damage coral reefs—in addition to human health—all while experts have raised serious doubts about the skin cancer-prevention benefits of sunscreen that contains oxybenzone.In high concentrations, ingredients like oxybenzone can have neurotoxic effects. While the concentrations of oxybenzone that have been studied and linked to health dangers are higher than what is normally found in human tissue or the environment, that’s hardly reassuring data. What’s more, the effects of repeated, long-term, and low-dose exposures to the chemicals in sunscreens haven’t been properly studied. We don’t know what using these products everyday, as we’re often instructed to do, will do to our bodies.Meanwhile, concerns have cropped up that sunscreens might not be as effective at protecting against skin cancer as once thought, and studies have shown that most sunscreen users don’t apply enough, reducing the product’s effectiveness to one quarter of what is promised on the bottle. So what’s a person to do? There are safer sunscreens on the market—and there are other ways to be sun safe, while still getting your vitamin D.

Get Your Vitamin D...While Protecting Your Skin

Exposure to sunlight prompts the body to make vitamin D, but sunscreen effectively stops this process. So many experts recommend five to 10 minutes of sunscreen-free sun exposure everyday. This can help you make vitamin D naturally, but I recommend avoiding the brightest hours (from 11:00am-ish to 3:00pm-ish) when you’re skipping sunscreen. And if you’re worried about accelerated skin aging, leave your legs or arms exposed for 10 to 15 minutes instead of your face and neck.

But many of us live in climates where—even if you go outside for a few minutes each day without sunscreen—the sun’s rays aren’t direct enough in winter to trigger vitamin D synthesis. If you live anywhere north of, say, Missouri, the sunlight is too indirect during the winter months for our bodies to make this important vitamin, which acts like a master hormone in the body. From roughly October to April, we’re cut off from our main source of vitamin D. And there’s worse news: Even direct sunshine all year round isn’t a guarantee. Studies suggest that populations who live close to the equator, where the sun is high in the sky 365 days a year, also don’t make enough vitamin D. For complicated and largely unknown reasons, vitamin D deficiency is a global phenomenon.For this reason, I recommend that women take a high-quality vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D is important for hormone balance, fertility, mood, energy, and so much more. If vitamin D is low, as it is for so many of us, it can nearly impossible to move the needle on period and fertility problems and other symptoms.

The Safest Sunscreens

If you want to protect your hormones from the endocrine-disrupting chemicals in certain sunscreens, you have a marvelous ally on your side: the Environmental Working Group (EWG).EWG is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment. The group conducts research and disseminates information on an array of commercially available products, from shampoos to lipstick to—yes—sunscreens. (In fact, I recommend that women run ALL their health and beauty products through the EWG’s fantastic Skin Deep database, which catalogues the health and safety of just about every product on the market.)Every year, the EWG publishes a guide to sunscreens. You can check out the 2019 Sunscreen Guide here. The Guide allows you to search sunscreens by brand (so you can check on the safety of products you already own); look up the safest-ranking products; and get information about potentially dangerous ingredients.

Meanwhile, here is some of my top sun safety advice, including a few of my favorite sunscreens:

‍Consider avoiding sunscreens with oxybenzone. Officially, there is “insufficient data” on the safety of oxybenzone, but concerns have been raised about endocrine disruption and systemic toxicity when it comes to this commonly used compound. (Oxybenzone is found in roughly two-thirds of commercially available sunscreens). I recommend skipping products that include oxybenzone until scientists know more. Why risk it when it comes to hormone health?

‍Higher SPF doesn’t always mean more sun protection. It’s tempting to grab a sunscreen with the highest SPF you can find, but research suggests that SPFs over 50 confer no more benefit than SPF 50 sunscreens. In fact, its been shown that very high SPF products can be more dangerous than lower SPF products because they confer a false sense of safety. People tend to think Oh, this is SPF 75! I don’t need to reapply all day! Or A little goes a long way!, when really these products function on par with SPF 50 products and have the same re-application instructions.

‍Remember physical barriers. It’s easy to forget that age-old things like sitting in the shade, wearing a hat and long sleeves, and planning around the sun’s peak hours act as natural—and 100-percent safe!—sun protection. Use these sun-safety strategies FIRST every time you’re headed outdoors.

‍My favorite sunscreens. There are many clean, mineral sunscreens on the market. Just be sure to read labels closely and opt for mineral sunscreens that use titanium dioxide and zinc oxide as active ingredients. Both titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are “generally recognized as safe and effective.” But before you buy, check a product’s safety on the EWG database.

‍Coola: This brand is mineral-based and has some excellent and versatile varieties, including beach and sport, baby, and a really silky tinted version for your face.

‍MyChelle: This brand also make a nice—and very clean—tinted face cream with SPF 50.

‍Supergoop! Makes a line of clean products for adults and kids.

‍Badger: These sunscreens can go on a touch thick, but they couldn’t be cleaner.

Anxiety is real, and it is serious. It can show up in a variety of different ways—from excessive worry about life events like work, health, and family to obsessive thinking, severe social anxiety, or full-on panic attacks. And, for women, anxiety can show up at different times of the month.
‍

Anxiety for women can actually be hormonal, and it often follows a distinct pattern within your 28-day menstrual cycle. If you notice that your anxiety gets worse the week before your period (luteal phase) or the week after period finishes (follicular phase), that means one thing: your hormones are a factor in your anxiety.

Now, anxiety has many root causes, including poor gut health, micronutrient deficiencies, and lifestyle factors like being sedentary or getting poor quality sleep—and that’s why anti-anxiety medication (which has been the only tool in the conventional psychiatric tool box for many years) has failed so many women. Medication paves over symptoms. It doesn’t treat root causes.

Happily, some psychiatrists and other experts are starting to treat the root causes of anxiety—including hormone imbalances— by using food, supplements, and lifestyle changes. And you can, too. If hormones are a root cause of your anxiety, you can make lifestyle changes that address your specific hormonal anxiety-type.

Are you ready to worry less and enjoy life more? Below are some top recommendations for women who experience ANY type of anxiety, with specific steps for easing hormonal anxiety.

‍

How to Stop Anxiety

If you’re a woman who experiences anxiety, you’re not alone. Women are twice as likely as men to wrestle with anxiety and almost 25 percent of women—that’s one in four of us—were diagnosed with an anxiety disorder in the past year. Because anxiety has many root causes, it responds best to a multi-pronged approach. If your anxiety is severe and persists for a long time, you should consult a trusted healthcare practitioner. In the meantime, try the following anxiety reduction strategies:

Reduce inflammation to reduce anxiety. Research has shown a link between inflammation and anxiety. So when you take steps to lower your inflammation—which is good for your health in so many ways—you help fortify your body against anxiety. I recommend a couple key ways to lower inflammation:

1. Take omega-3 fatty acids. These are the health-promoting fats found in high ratios in fish and some plant foods, like flax seeds, and they help lower inflammation. Eating nutrient-rich, omega-3-dense foods is important, but I recommend that all women take an omega-3 supplement because it can be difficult—if not impossible—to get healing amounts of this nutrient with diet alone. Also, many fish contain high levels of mercury and other toxins, so you don’t want to rely solely on fish for your omega-3s.
2. Avoid toxins and other hormone-harming chemicals. Hormonal anxiety is driven by hormone imbalances—and one of the root causes of hormone imbalances is exposure to everyday toxins, like the gnarly chemicals found in conventional health and body care products, household cleaning products, air fresheners, fabric treatments, lawn chemicals and pesticides, and many other places. Avoid these chemicals as much as you can to protect yourself from hormone-driven anxiety.
3. Support your body’s innate detox system. With so many chemicals in the environment, our bodies are working overtime to process and eliminate them—even when we assiduously avoid them in our homes and medicine cabinets. It’s a sad fact of modern life that our body’s detox system needs a little extra help to do its job well. I recommend plant-based antioxidants, like green tea extract and turmeric, to help your body detox.

Focus on gut health. Gut health is a factor in many mental health issues, including anxiety, so it’s important to support the microbiota that manufacture hormones like serotonin and dopamine. You can do this in a couple key ways:

1. Fiber, fiber, fiber. The importance of fiber to the microbiome can’t be underestimated. The bugs in our gut thrive on healthy, whole-food sources of fiber. Emphasis leafy green vegetables, brassica vegetables like broccoli and cabbage, flax seeds, and high-fiber fruits like pears.
2. Eat fermented foods. Naturally fermented foods (foods fermented without vinegar), like sauerkraut, kimchi, coconut yogurt, and fermented drinks like kvass, bring good bugs to your GI tract and promote an increased sense of calm.
3. Take a probiotic. Fermented foods are great, but most of us need even more gut support. I recommend all women take a probiotic for hormone balance and emotional support. The idea of feeding your microbiome to heal anxiety might seemed far fetched, but the gut-brain axis is real. A core component of good mental health is good gut health!

Understand and address hormonal anxiety. If you experience hormone-related anxiety, you don’t need the research to tell you that your anxiety gets more severe during certain times of the month. But the data is there, if you want official confirmation. Studies show that fluctuations in female reproductive hormones influence the presence and severity of anxiety. Experts think this is one of the reasons that panic disorders are more prevalent in women than in men. So the first step in addressing hormonal anxiety is understanding your 28-day hormone cycle and adjusting your food, movement, and lifestyle to match your unique needs during each week of your cycle. I call this The Cycle Syncing Method™ and if this is brand new to you, you can learn more about it here. You can also start tracking your period with the MyFLO app. Once you’ve adopted The Cycle Syncing Method™, you’ll know where you are in your 28-day cycle week to week and you can track your moods and hormonal shifts even more closely. For now, you can think of your 28-day cycle as being divided into two parts: the first half and the second half. The first half is from right after your period ends to when you ovulate. The second half is from just after ovulation through your next period. Most women don’t experience anxiety (or increased anxiety) during ovulation. (If you’re not ovulating, it’s a different story and you should work to get your ovulation back on track.)

• If you experience anxiety during the FIRST half of your cycle the cause is likely too much estrogen, which stimulates the brain to become antsy, edgy, and tense.

Natural remedy for anxiety in the first half of your cycle: Emphasize liver-loving foods and supplements during this time to help your body’s main detox organ process and eliminate excess estrogens from the body. Eat foods high in fiber and antioxidants, including cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower, flax seeds or chia seeds, and low-glycemic, high-fiber fruits like pears. Get additional support with supplements like turmeric and green tea extract.

• If you experience anxiety during the SECOND half of your cycle it could be a few factors: you might be sensitive to the drop in estrogen, but that should stabilize as progesterone increases during this phase. If you are deficient in progesterone, you might not experience that calming effect. You might also be experiencing blood sugar dips if you’re not eating enough slow-burning, whole-food carbohydrates during this phase. Finally, if you experience anxiety the day or two before your bleed begins, you may be responding to the drop in both progesterone and estrogen that happens at this time. When both hormones plummet, you may feel anxious.

Natural remedy for anxiety in the second half of your cycle: I recommend vitamin B6 to help increase your progesterone levels. B6 is vital for your body to create the corpus luteum that makes and releases all of your progesterone. I encourage all women to take a B-vitamin complex everyday, but you should also incorporate healthy, whole food sources of vitamin B6, including bananas, grass-fed beef, chicken, spinach, sweet potato, garlic, and salmon. If blood sugar is a root cause of your anxiety during this phase, try incorporating more slow-burning carbohydrates like sweet potatoes, brown rice, or quinoa.

•  If you’re experiencing postpartum anxiety, you are not alone. Research suggests that postpartum anxiety is common and that it likely has multiple root causes, including the significant drop in estrogen and progesterone that follows childbirth. Another factor is the disrupted sleep schedule you experience when caring for a newborn.

Natural remedy for anxiety after giving birth: I recommend that new moms continue their prenatal supplement routine into (and well past) the 4th trimester. This will help give you the nourishment you need for breastfeeding. I also recommend that new moms take hormone-supportive supplements to patch up micronutrient deficiencies (micronutrient deficiencies can fuel anxiety) because pregnancy often depletes the body of key micronutrients.

• If you’re experiencing anxiety related to PCOS or PMDD, you may need even more support to reduce anxiety. Both conditions can be uniquely challenging when it comes to anxiety.

Natural remedy for anxiety if you suffer from PCOS or PMDD: I encourage women with these conditions to take a concentrated, multipronged approach. Estrogen dominance is very likely a factor in your anxiety, so eating fiber-rich, nutrient-dense whole foods is key. I also recommend supplementing with liver-supportive nutrients, like selenium, green tea extract, and turmeric. The microbiome plays a key role in helping in eliminate excess estrogen, so supporting gut health with a high-quality probiotic is essential. Consider supplementing with calcium, which has been shown to help with mood disorders, including anxiety, during PMS. You will also want to eat foods that keep blood sugar balanced and use The Cycle Syncing Method™ to eat and exercise in sync with your cycle. Anxiety-proof your daily life. You can take other steps in your daily life to downsize anxiety:

1. Keep blood sugar balanced. Balanced blood sugar is one of the biggest factors in balanced hormones and stable mood. You can use The Cycle Syncing Method™ to balance blood sugar. Learn more here.
2. Ditch coffee. Caffeine makes your heart race and your head spin. It is literal fuel for anxiety. Just say no to coffee and caffeinated tea! (Plus, coffee is a nightmare for hormone balance.)
3. Consider ditching the pill. While research on the link between hormonal birth control and mood and anxiety has been inconclusive over the past half century, enough research (and anecdotal evidence) has linked the pill with depression and other mood disorders. The pill has also been shown to deplete mood-supporting vitamins and minerals like vitamin B6, zinc, and magnesium.
4. Take a magnesium supplement. Magnesium has a calming effect on the body, and having healthy magnesium levels in the body supports a healthy stress response.
5. Strengthen your vagus nerve. Experts believe that the vagus nerve is how the brain communicates with the body, and how the body communicates with the brain. Studies suggest that strengthening your vagus nerve may help reduce anxiety. You can help tone this important nerve with singing and music and laughter!

‍

Always remember that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

Attention, Coffee Drinkers! Did you know that caffeine disrupts your hormones for a full 24 hours?

That’s not all. Caffeine stays in women’s bodies longer than men’s and it robs them of essential hormone-balancing nutrients and minerals. Studies link coffee consumption with infertility and poor gut health, which interferes with your body’s ability to detox excess (toxic) hormones.

Then there’s the link between caffeine consumption and cysts in your breasts and ovaries.

In other words, coffee is dangerous stuff if you suffer from hormone imbalances… and it can be dangerous stuff in general. That’s because many people can’t tolerate caffeine and don’t know it.

So that brings up two key questions: how can you tell if you have a hormone imbalance? And how can you tell if you have a caffeine intolerance?
‍

Let’s start with signs of a hormone imbalance...

How to Tell if You Have a Hormone Imbalance

How do you know if your hormones could use a little TLC...and that caffeine might be something you should eliminate from your daily routine?

Here are some signs and symptoms of a hormone imbalance:

‍PMS

‍Severe period cramps

‍Bloating

‍Acne

‍Moodiness/depression

Anxiety

You have been steadily gaining weight for a few months or years

You can’t seem to lose weight even with a healthy diet and increased exercise

Chronic exhaustion/fatigue

Cyclical migraines

‍Sugar cravings

‍Breast or ovarian cysts

Low sex drive

Low energy

Endometriosis

PCOS

I encourage any woman who is experiencing one or more of these symptoms to ditch caffeine for good, especially if you don’t tolerate caffeine well…and research shows that only 10 percent of the population produces enough of the specific enzyme that helps breakdown and eliminate caffeine. That means 9 out of 10 of you reading this right now are caffeine intolerant, whether you suffer from hormone imbalances of not!

How to Tell If You Have a Caffeine Intolerance

As I just mentioned, caffeine intolerance is surprisingly common, but most of us think of ourselves as immune. Three cups of coffee each morning might affect my coworkers or my sister, but not me! I explain the genetics of caffeine intolerance—and why hormone imbalances and caffeine intolerance often go hand in hand—below, but first let’s take a look at the signs and symptoms of caffeine intolerance.

Almost everyone who drinks coffee or other caffeinated beverages will recognize that familiar pick-me-up feeling that caffeine brings. But if you experience any of the symptoms on the following list—symptoms that are often attributed to other conditions or physiological responses—you might be caffeine intolerant. Symptoms like:

Anxiety

Insomnia

Restlessness

Fatigue (yes, fatigue!)

High blood pressure

Poorly balanced blood sugar

Digestive distress

Feeling wired but tired

Racing heartbeat

In many cases, these symptoms are chalked up to other diagnoses, like adrenal fatigue or anxiety disorders, but the real culprit might be coffee OR the causes of your symptoms are multifactorial and coffee consumption is one of the factors.

Why Caffeine is SO BAD for Hormones

Here’s why caffeine is so problematic for women with hormone imbalances:

‍Caffeine Problem #1:

Caffeine may increase the risk of benign breast disease (BBD), and specifically a form of BBD called atypical hyperplasia, which is a marker of increased breast cancer risk. This is scary stuff! One in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime, so it is wise to take every step you can to protect yourself. Giving up caffeine is easy (and free!), and comes with a host of other benefits, like reducing anxiety and supporting better blood sugar balance.The good news? The same study suggests that taking multivitamin supplements can have a protective effect against developing BBD.

‍Caffeine Problem #2:

Caffeine consumption is linked to infertility. A woman is more likely to miscarry if she and/or her partner drink more than two caffeinated beverages per day in the weeks leading up to conception, according to research from the National Institutes of Health and Ohio State University. Women who consumed two caffeinated beverages every day during the first seven weeks of pregnancy were also more likely experience pregnancy loss.Studies suggest that caffeine consumption may delay pregnancy among fertile women. Male partners, beware! Some research suggests that caffeine consumption among wannabe dads may reduce the chances of conception. Men who drank two or more cups of coffee per day had only a one in five chance of conception through IVF. Caffeine increases cortisol levels, and high cortisol sends signals to the body that it is not an ideal time for conception. Finally, caffeine depletes the body of vital nutrients needed for ovulation and healthy fertility (including B vitamins and folate). If you hope to become a mom someday, you need optimal levels of five key micronutrients, which you will want to take in supplement form…and you won’t want to deplete them at the same time by drinking coffee! Don’t do the good work of getting your essential micronutrients and then shoot yourself in the foot by drinking caffeine.

‍Caffeine Problem #3:

If you struggle with hormone imbalances (and if you’re reading this right now, you or someone you love probably does), it can be sign that your body has a hard time metabolizing caffeine. Hormone imbalances might be a sign that you don’t process caffeine efficiently. That’s because the same process in the liver that helps metabolize caffeine is also involved in the metabolism of estrogen.Caffeine is broken down by the liver using the enzyme CYP1A2. Your ability to produce this enzyme is regulated by the CYP1A2 gene. If you have a mutation in this gene, it will affect how your liver breaks down and eliminates excess caffeine. You will also have a harder time processing and eliminating excess estrogen.Based on your gene variation, you’ll either make a lot of this enzyme (and be a successful caffeine swiller) or a little (and have a tough time with caffeine). Turns out only 10% of the population make a lot of this enzyme. That’s just one in 10 of us! So if you fall into the majority — if you’re one of the 9 out of 10 women who don’t process caffeine efficiently — you also, very likely, have a buildup of estrogen in your body. And estrogen dominance is what gives rise to a lot of the unpleasant period problems you experience.This is why getting off caffeine is such an important part of the FLO Protocol. Estrogen dominance gives rise to so many of the symptoms of hormone imbalance and you don’t want anything blocking your ability to detox estrogen.

Ready to Ditch Caffeine? Here’s How

Ready to say no to the hormone-damaging effects of caffeine, but afraid of withdrawal? Never fear! You can quit caffeine without symptoms—and without losing energy. If you follow these steps, you will feel great as you wean off caffeine and you’ll be much less likely to relapse.

1. Start to wean off caffeine during the ovulation phase of your 28-day menstrual cycle, when you naturally have the most energy.
2. Nourish your adrenals with adaptogens that help combat stress, like rhodiola, ashwagandha, and maca root powder.
3. Use magnesium to replenish your mineral reserves, balance your mood, and combat headaches.
4. Supplement with B vitamins. Make sure you’re getting B5 and B12 as part of your B complex.
5. Rehydrate with coconut water that is rich in electrolytes.
6. Do gentle exercise, like walks and yoga, but avoid heavy cardio in the week or two after stopping coffee.
7. Eat a big, healthy breakfast every morning, which will give you fuel for the whole day.

‍

Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

If you pay attention to the health headlines, you’ve probably heard about intermittent fasting - it has been linked with several important health benefits.

But fasting isn’t the same for men and women. If women try fasting but don’t do it properly, it can cause more harm than good. Why? Because women’s bodies are biologically built for fertility and reproduction. Extended periods without food tell the body that now isn’t a good time for reproduction.

You might be thinking, so what? I don’t want to get pregnant now or maybe ever. But fertility isn’t the only concern. Women need to consider that estrogen and progesterone do more in the body than simply get us pregnant. Estrogen helps us with metabolism, weight loss, mood, anxiety and stress, energy, bone density, and cognitive function, to name just a few. If you’re a woman, intermittent fasting can disrupt estrogen balance and throw a wrench in all these essential physiological processes.

But when you know how to use intermittent fasting in a way that is safe for your unique female biochemistry—that is, when you know how to bio-hack intermittent fasting to improve hormone health instead of harm it—you can reap some amazing benefits.

Keep reading. We'll walk you through the benefits, dangers, and how-to of intermittent fasting for women below.

‍Women’s Hormones & Intermittent Fasting

‍Intermittent fasting has been associated with numerous health benefits (more on that below), but it is also linked to hormone disruption in women. Here’s a close-up look at the cascade of hormone imbalances that can start with intermittent fasting.

First, intermittent fasting can disrupt estrogen balance. Estrogen imbalance may show up as:

• Low energy
• Poor glucose control
• Weight gain
• Impaired cognitive function
• Decreased bone density
• Poor muscle tone
• Reduced skin and hair health
• Poorer cardiovascular health
• Infertility

‍

A disruption in one hormone system in the body can trigger other hormone imbalances. The other major hormone considerations for women when it comes to intermittent fasting are cortisol, the stress hormone, and thyroid hormone. When cortisol is imbalanced, symptoms include:

• Anxiety
• Low energy
• Insomnia
• Feeling wired-but-tired
• Sugar cravings

‍

When thyroid hormones are imbalanced, symptoms include:

• Weight gain
• Brain fog
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Dry skin
• Dry hair
• Irregular periods
• Trouble regulating body temperature

‍

So while intermittent fasting may have some benefits, this cascade of negative health effects for women may outweigh any benefit.

‍What is Intermittent Fasting?

‍Simply put, intermittent fasting is going for short or intermediate periods of time without food. This “not eating” window can be as short as 12 hours and include sleep time—for example, you could stop eating at 8:00pm one night and not eat again until 8:00am the next morning and call it a fast—or as long as 16, 20, or 24 hours.

People fast in different ways. Some people try to go 12 or more hours without eating everyday. Others try to go 12 or 16 hours without food a couple days a week. Some people don’t eat for a full 24 hours one day each week.

Why Intermittent Fasting is So Popular

Studies have shown that intermittent fasting may help improve certain health conditions, including:

• Intermittent fasting is associated with improved insulin sensitivity. Insulin sensitivity is an important factor in hormone balance and in overall health
• Intermittent fasting has been linked to reduced body fat
• Meta-analysis also suggests that those to adhere to intermittent fasting regimens don’t compensate by overeating during their designated eating windows. In fact, studies suggest that there is a “carry over effect” of calorie reduction by as much as 20 percent on eating days
• Intermittent fasting may improve health biomarkers associated with Type 2 diabetes
• Intermittent fasting may improve cognitive function and quiet neuroinflammation in the brain
• Intermittent fasting may help dampen stress hormone production in certain situations
• Intermittent fasting may help lower the risk of chronic health conditions

‍

What Makes Intermittent Fasting Trickier For Women?

‍A woman’s reproductive function is intricately connected to her metabolic function, and vice versa. So anytime a woman’s body gets a “starvation signal” from her environment (like not eating for a stretch of time), it goes into preserve and protect mode, where it holds onto weight (to survive the famine), increases production of the hunger hormones ghrelin and leptin (so that you feel famished and rush to get food ASAP), and slows down non-essential functions like reproduction (so you can keep yourself alive and not waste energy on growing a baby).

‍

Animal studies bear this out: in one study, female rats who engaged in intermittent fasting for 12 weeks had smaller ovaries and experienced more insomnia than male mice. But the researchers found that these changes started in as soon as two weeks after the female mice started intermittent fasting.

‍‍

How Women Can Use Intermittent Fasting Safely

‍This doesn’t mean women have to miss out on the benefits of intermittent fasting. Instead, we recommend that women follow some simple rules when it comes to intermittent fasting. This will help you tap into the many benefits associated with intermittent fasting while sidestepping the risks.

• Don’t fast on consecutive days
• Instead, pick no more than two or three non-consecutive days in a week to practice intermittent fasting
• Don’t fast for more than 12 or 13 hours at a time. Going any longer can trigger a negative hormonal cascade
• Don’t do intense workouts on fasting days
• Don’t fast when you’re bleeding
• During your eating window, choose the best diet for your hormonal health
• If you give this slow and steady approach to intermittent fasting a try for a couple months and feel great, you can consider going for a longer window of time each day without eating (up to 16 hours), but pay close attention to how you feel and drop back to a smaller window—or stop intermittent fasting all together—if you start experiencing symptoms of hormone imbalance.

‍

If you start to experience symptoms of hormone imbalance while intermittent fasting, or if the hormone imbalance symptoms you already experience get worse, stop fasting right away.

‍These symptoms include:

• Your period becomes irregular or stops
• You start having problems sleeping or falling asleep
• You notice changes in metabolism and digestion
• You feel moody or experience brain fog
• You notice negative changes in how your hair and skin looks
• You’re always cold

‍

Do NOT Try Intermittent Fasting If...

• You have a history of eating disorders
• You’re pregnant or are trying to conceive
• You have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or trouble waking up in the morning
• You have adrenal fatigue
• You are currently dealing with PMS, PCOS, Fibroids, Endometriosis or other diagnosed hormonal issues

‍

Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

The secret to clear skin isn’t just in what you eat and what products you use, it’s also when you do it. That’s right, clear skin all month long is all in the timing.

Yes, other factors matter. Significantly so. Clear skin all month long depends on nutrition, skin care practices, skin care products, lifestyle choices, hydration, sleep and other factors that influence hormone balance.

But one of the key pieces is cyclical skin care, and it is a piece of the clear-skin equation that very few people, including other hormone experts, factor into their advice. As someone who struggled with serious cystic acne all over my face, chest, and back for almost a decade—and who cleared my skin by using nutrition, lifestyle, biohacking, and cyclical self-care to balance my hormones—I love sharing with women how you can balance your hormones to help your skin perform better.

The first step is understanding the skin’s changing needs during the course of your 28-day cycle. Let’s dive in!‍

Meet your 28-Day Cycle
‍During your 28-day menstrual cycle, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone levels naturally rise and fall. When your system is healthy and you’re cycling normally, these fluctuations occur in familiar patterns: during the follicular phase (which is the first days of your cycle up until ovulation) estrogen levels are naturally higher, during the ovulation phase (mid-cycle) estrogen and testosterone rise until they peak, during the luteal phase (which occurs right after ovulation and up until you start bleeding) estrogen and testosterone start to fall and progesterone rises), and just before menstruation and during menstruation phase, progesterone falls again.

‍How Fluctuating Hormones Affect Skin

‍Estrogen and progesterone levels affect the thickness of the skin differently each phase of your cycle.  During the follicular phase and especially during ovulation, high levels of estrogen boost collagen, make the skin thicker, and improve elasticity. You can thank the estrogen during this phase for that famed ‘ovulation glow’.  

Testosterone levels also rise during the luteal phase and that helps keep skin thick. But testosterone is a double-edged sword when it comes to skin. Studies show a link between spikes in this hormone and acne.

So this is the crucial point in your cycle when you either become vulnerable to breakouts or go through the second half of your cycle with clear skin. What causes some women to break out and others to barely notice a blemish? The difference is in the body’s ability to efficiently process and eliminate the excess estrogen and testosterone in the system as levels rise.

If your body isn’t processing hormones properly during your luteal phase and eliminating the excess, excess estrogen and excess testosterone accumulate and fuel acne.

This happens in two ways: the excess estrogen causes estrogen dominance and skin inflammation, and the extra testosterone triggers the sebaceous glands to produce more oil.

For women with optimally functioning endocrine systems, these hormonal peaks don’t cause a lot of problems. But for women who can’t process hormones correctly, acne is often the unwanted result.

Premenstrually and during your period, estrogen drops and your skin gets thinner, retains less moisture, and produces less collagen.  

Progesterone rising and falling in the luteal phase can worsen skin conditions if present.

This is why The Cycle Syncing Method® is so effective in addressing these fluctuations, as you'll be eating in ways that improve estrogen and progesterone imbalances.

‍

‍Signs that Acne is Hormonal

‍One sign, of course, is when you breakout during the luteal (premenstrual) phase. Hormonal acne can also be diagnosed by where it appears. Breakouts along the chin and jaw lines are a sign of hormonal acne.

Pimples on the temple are another common sign of a hormonal imbalance that stems from liver congestion due to excess estrogen. If you’ve got pimples on your forehead, it’s usually a sign of a gut imbalance.

‍

‍Your Skin Care Schedule During Your 28-Day Cycle

‍Here’s how to time your skin care routine to match your hormonal needs throughout the month:

‍Day 7-12 (follicular phase).If you get a facial with extractions, schedule it during your follicular phase. This is also the time to do any hair removal.

‍

‍Day 13-24 (ovulation/first half of luteal). Facials are still okay during this time, but it’s best to go for masks, not extractions. Dry brushing is a great way to help the lymph offload the estrogen. You don’t need much in the way of products during this phase.

Day 25-Day 28 (the second half of luteal). This a perfect time for home care with your favorite  products and using oil-based serum to reduce sebum production. Clay masks are also great during this time, and you can use products with lactic acid to shrink pores.

Day 1 - Day 6 (Bleeding). During menstruation, focus on restorative, soothing skin care. Think hydrating and calming masks, and collagen masks.  

NOTE: Don’t have any extractions or hair removal during the second half of the month when skin is thinner and increased blood flow to your capillaries means more post-extraction swelling. Save facial appointments until right after your bleed is over.

Everyday of your cycle. I take Balance Supplements every day of my cycle to make sure my hormones and skin can be at their best throughout the month. Whatever you do to optimize your micronutrients, don’t skip this step! Clear skin starts on the inside and with what we eat and how we supplement.

Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

Fall is here, with it’s cooler nights, pumpkin-flavored everything, and that back-to-school-like energy…. at least we should feel like we have ample energy from the summer to get into high gear. If you’re wrestling with hormone imbalances, that surge of autumnal energy might pass you by entirely. Fatigue is a hallmark of hormonal discord, along with other symptoms that contribute to feeling sluggish, like brain fog and insomnia, and it’s going to take more than cooler breezes to get you feeling energized.That’s because the endocrine system, which controls our hormones, regulates our energy flow — and when the endocrine system isn’t in tip-top shape, our energy isn’t optimal either.

3 Hormone imbalances that may be zapping your energy

One major factor that stresses and exhausts the endocrine system is imbalanced blood sugar. When you eat sugar or predominantly carb-based foods, your body responds by producing insulin (insulin is one of the body’s master hormones and it allows the glucose to enter your cells, where it is used for energy). But when we overeat sugar and carbs, our bodies produce an overabundance of insulin. So some of the glucose enters our cells, but all that extra glucose (and the extra insulin released to deal with it) remain in the bloodstream. That is when the hormone problems start. Overexposure to glucose and insulin send your blood sugar levels soaring and then crashing — and it’s that spike that launches a hormonal cascade that keeps you from ovulating—and not ovulating means you’re not producing progesterone, which leads to estrogen dominance and its associated symptoms, including fatigue.Another common hormone imbalance that can leave you feeling hungover and like you’re sleepwalking through your days is adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue is when the stress hormone cortisol is imbalanced.When cortisol is working like it should, we should get three main surges of cortisol during the day, but no surges at night. The opposite happens with adrenal fatigue: we have low cortisol in the morning, but high cortisol at night. Because cortisol is the hormone that gets your body ready for action, this is terrible timing to say the least. It leaves you feeling tired but wired (and unable to sleep) at night — and ready to nap all day when the sun rises in the morning.Melatonin is another of the body’s key hormones. It’s released in response to low light (as the sun goes down, melatonin goes up) and it’s responsible for that predictable sleepy feeling we get at night. Predictable, that is, if our melatonin is working like it is supposed to. A whole slew of things conspire to keep melatonin from being released when it should, from the blue light that pours out of our computer screens to not enough exposure to sunlight during the day. Then there are all the other modern-day impediments to healthy hormone balance, from stress and exposure to environmental toxins to taking certain medication (including the birth control pill), drinking too much caffeine, and getting too few essential micronutrients. So what is an exhausted, de-energized, brain-foggy girl to do—especially right now, when you want to tap into that increased fall energy?

7 Strategies to Boost Energy Naturally

Here are my secret strategies for having your most energized fall ever:Block blue light. Computer, phone, and other device screens emit blue light, which can wreak havoc on the production of melatonin. In general, bright light at night can be disruptive to our melatonin production and our sleep cycle. When possible, skip screens of any kind within two hours of bed. When you must be on a screen before bed, consider adding a blue-light blocking app to your computer or device. These apps, like f.lux, dampen the effect of the hormone-disrupting wavelengths. Get more (safe) sun exposure before noon. Getting even 10 or 15 minutes of sunlight before or around noon helps regulate your circadian cycle and promote healthy melatonin production at night. Take your morning cup of tea out to the backyard or balcony or sit in a sunny south-facing window to support circadian health. Ten to 15 minutes of sun exposure can help promote healthy vitamin D levels, too. Vitamin D deficiency is a root cause of fatigue and low energy. (But don’t go over fifteen minutes of sun exposure without applying a non-toxic sunscreen. You want to find a balance between making vitamin D and protecting your skin from the sun!). Manage stress. Yes, blue light can keep us awake at night. But so can stress. Racing thoughts at night can keep us awake for hours, which causes cortisol levels to stay high when they should be subsiding for the night. The key is to find stress management techniques that work for you, whether that’s meditation, movement, connecting more often with your most supportive friends, or making time for self-pleasure. There’s no one right way to relax. The key is to find what works for you and to make room for it in your life. Carving out time to relax will ultimately boost your energy levelsJust say “no” to coffee. Coffee raises cortisol levels, stresses the adrenals, and depletes essential micronutrients that are critical for battling fatigue and brain fog. We think of coffee as an essential energy booster when it really is the opposite. It can make you feel buzzy and productive for 20 minutes —and then leave you in a slump the rest of the day (while messing up your hormones at a deeper level and making it that much more difficult to wrestle your way out of chronic exhaustion). Nail breakfast. When it comes to using nutrition to promote hormonal harmony, breakfast is your first (and best) starting place. Eating a hearty breakfast — one that is timed to your your 28-day cycle — will set you up for stable blood sugar all day and will help keep your hormones in balance. Specifically, choosing the right kind of carbs during your luteal phase helps prevent energy dips. During your luteal (or pre-menstrual) phase, you need more nourishing and fulfilling good carbs to combat cravings for unhealthy carbsGet your heart pumping. Cardiovascular exercise can help you have more energy (even though it might be the last thing you feel like doing when you’re tired. But the research shows that regular exercise reduces fatigue.Maximize your micronutrients. Eating a diverse selection of phytonutrient-rich whole foods is the first step in getting enough of the key micronutrients that support steady energy levels. But, in many cases (and for a variety of reasons beyond our control, like the depletion of micronutrients from the soil in which our food is grown), supplementation is important. Here are some of the nutrients you should prioritize if boosting and balancing energy is your goal:

• B-complex. Flagging energy levels are a symptom of vitamin B deficiency. That’s because B vitamins are essential for so many metabolic functions. When you’re deficient, you really feel it. B6 is particularly important for optimal hormone health because it can help boost progesterone production to counteract excess estrogen relative to progesterone (a condition known as estrogen dominance). There are some great whole-food sources of the B vitamins, including grass-fed beef, eggs, and salmon, but most of us can benefit from supplementation — and it’s especially important if you are a vegetarian or a vegan.
• Magnesium. Magnesium helps promote healthy sleep and, in turn, can be essential for getting our energy back on track. Most of us tend to be low in magnesium because the soil in which our food is grown has become depleted of this essential micronutrient. (Supplemental magnesium can help greatly reduce other period problems, too, like bloating, severe PMS, and hormonal migraines.)
• Nutrients that support liver detox and estrogen metabolism. These include vitamin C, zinc, selenium, turmeric, green tea extract, and alpha lipoic acid. These micronutrients, especially when taken together, help the liver do its critical work of flushing both toxins and excess hormones from the body. The more efficiently your liver is working, the better your hormone balance will be — and the more robust your energy.
• Probiotics. A healthy microbiome is necessary for the management of all hormonal conditions, including the imbalances that lead to fatigue. That’s because, much like the liver, the microbiome helps detox estrogen from the body. A healthy microbiome is also essential for helping your body absorb the other important nutrients you need for hormone balance. You can have a perfect diet and supplement routine, but if your body can’t absorb the micronutrients from your food and supplements, you don’t get the benefit!
• Vitamin D. As I mentioned above, vitamin D deficiency is a root cause of fatigue and low energy. Without enough vitamin D in your body, it can be impossible to feel bright, alert, and energized. It’s especially important to take supplemental vitamin D as fall sets in. We make vitamin D from exposure to the sun, but as the sun’s rays become less intense during the fall and winter months it becomes harder (and in many cases impossible) for our bodies to make enough D.

I designed my Balance Supplements specifically to help women address these key deficiencies, balance their hormones, and reclaim their energy. If you’re ready to feel energized (finally!), I encourage you to use these strategies to feel like your old self again this fall. To your FLO,Alisa

Introducing the BALANCE by FLO Living Hormone Supplement Kit

You’ve been asking me for hormone-friendly supplement recommendations, and I finally have created a solution that I am so thrilled to be able to offer to you on your hormonal balancing journey:

Balance by FLO Living Supplements is a complete package that works together to keep your hormone levels healthy. They include a 2 month (2 cycles) supply of the following formulations so you’re never caught short in any phase of your cycle.When you take these 5 supplements daily, you’ll be giving your body excellent micronutrients to support healthier hormone levels. Which means that you’ll start to see your worst period symptoms get better… and even disappear after a while.

Click here to learn more about the BALANCE Bio-Hacking Supplement Kit.

Biohacking is all the rage these days. The idea that we can optimize our physiology with lifestyle and nutrition gets talked about over and over in expert health blogs and on popular podcasts. But you might have noticed that the vast majority of people who talk about biohacking are men. You may also have noticed that most of the scientific research on nutrition and lifestyle is done on men and/or male lab animals.

And that’s just fine… for men. Biohacking is the practice of using food, lifestyle, exercise, and targeted supplementation to enhance health. But men and women have different needs based on their hormones. So what works for men won’t always work as well, or in the same way — or at all — for women.

If you suffer from hormone-related health concerns—like heavy periods, severe PMS, bloating, acne, fibroids, PCOS, irritability, insomnia, low libido, infertility, irregular or missing periods, and/or hormone-related migraines — you can biohack your way to fewer symptoms and better health. But to get the best results, you have biohack for your unique female physiology.

Here are my 7 top biohacks for women who want to solve their period problems and look and feel their best.

Biohack #1: Cycle sync your food

Eating to ease period problems requires synching your weekly meal plans with your 28-day cycle. Women have unique nutritional and energetic needs during each week of the month—unlike men, who can thrive by eating more or less the same way everyday—and you will look and feel your best when you match the vegetables, meats, plant proteins, fruits, and legumes you eat to your shifting hormonal needs. Think of it this way: as your hormones change, so does your menu! If the idea of switching up what you eat each week feels challenging, start with my 4-Week Flo Food Challenge. And if you’re scratching your head (and maybe freaking out a little) because you don’t know what your hormones do or when, don’t panic! Use the MyFLO app to track your cycle and start eating cyclically.

Biohack #2: Cycle sync your exercise

To really optimize your hormonal health, you should shift your workouts to fit your cycle in much the same way as you do your diet. Your body is primed for different kinds of activity across your cycle, just as its looking for different kinds of nutrition through each of the four phases. Ready to get started? Learn what type of exercise is right for each phase of your cycle here.  

Biohack #3: Detox the RIGHT way

If you suffer from hormone imbalances and period problems, it can be tempting to do an extreme detox. The severe restrictions and big promises (Lose 20 pounds overnight! Eliminate all the toxins from your body!) sound like a relief after suffering with hormone-related symptoms for so long. But deprivation plans and strict detoxes backfire for the vast majority of women. Severe calorie restrictions tax our already overburdened adrenal and endocrine systems—and make our hormone problems worse. Don’t get me wrong: a detox can be helpful, but it must be the right kind of detox, one that focuses on clearing the body of excess estrogen. Excess estrogen in the body (relative to progesterone) contributes to everything from severe PMS to PCOS. If you want to detox estrogen, don’t do a juice fast or a cleanse. Do a gentle detox that supports the body’s elimination process by giving it all the nutrients it needs. If you want even more support in doing a safe, nourishing detox, I designed a 4-day Hormone Detox to kickstart your hormonal healing.

Biohack #4: Be very careful with intermittent fasting (if you do it at all)

Most studies on fasting have been done on men and/or have shown mixed results for women. One study found that intermittent fasting helped improve insulin sensitivity in men, but women didn’t get the same benefit. (Good insulin sensitivity is essential for balanced hormones.) At the same time, the study showed that women’s ability to tolerate glucose actually got worse during intermittent fasting. Other research shows that fasting can have a negative effect on cortisol, insulin, estrogen, and progesterone— all the major hormonal players in your body! Studies suggest that intermittent fasting can be very helpful for women (and men) with compromised cellular health (individuals with cancer and/or those going through chemotherapy), but for women in generally good health who are working to balance hormones and heal hormone-related symptoms, I don’t recommend fasting.

Biohack #5: Don’t default to the ketogenic diet

The ketogenic diet, which is a high fat-low carbohydrate diet, is all the rage these days, but research suggests that it can mess with thyroid function— and thyroid health is absolutely essential for healthy hormone balance. Here’s where this biohack becomes sex specific: thyroid problems disproportionately affect women. It’s estimated that one in five women have a thyroid issue, and many of those cases are undiagnosed. If you’re trying to bring your hormones into balance, your best bet is to eat in line with your cycle—and leave the ketogenic diet for individuals with other health issues.

Biohack #6: Ditch coffee

Bulletproof coffee can work well for men, but caffeine is a no-go for women who want to optimize hormone health. Caffeine can increase the development of benign breast disease. For women with PCOS, fibroids, endometriosis, ovarian cysts, and fibrocystic breasts, caffeine is a guaranteed way to make more cysts. Plus, caffeine mucks up hormone health in other ways, too. If you’re trying to solve your period problems, don’t fall for the Bulletproof coffee craze.

Biohack #7: Supplement like a girl

Women have unique micronutrient needs, and we can’t expect optimal hormonal health—or optimal overall health—when we follow blanket supplement prescriptions. We need supplements tailored to our unique female physiology. Specifically:

• While every woman should be supplementing with B vitamins, if you’re suffering from hormone imbalances, you’ll need to be extra aware of your intake. Research has shown that intake of vitamins like thiamine (B1) is inversely related to endometriosis. Another important type of B vitamin, folic acid, is known to be important in managing PCOS.
• Magnesium is a must for women with hormone imbalances since it improves insulin sensitivity, which has widespread implications for the entire hormone system. And if you’ve ever suffered from hot flashes (whether you’re menopausal or not even close) magnesium has been shown to significantly reduce the symptoms.
• If you’re suffering with fibroids or any hormone-related health condition, vitamin D is an absolute must. A study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that supplementing with vitamin D reduced the size of uterine fibroids. This may be especially essential for African American women since they’re 3-4 times more likely to develop fibroids and 10 times more likely to be deficient in vitamin D than white women. More generally, vitamin D acts like a master hormone in the body, which is what makes it so critical for all women with hormone imbalances.
• Probiotics are a must: one study found that in just 12 weeks, probiotics s helped significantly reduced endometriosis pain. I designed my FLO Balance supplements with women’s unique micronutrient needs in mind. They contain everything you need to supplement strategically for optimal hormonal health.

‍

Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

To your FLO,

Alisa

Not Meeting Your Goals? Here's Why

If you’ve been trying different diet and exercise plans to lose weight, or simply to feel healthier and less plagued by period problems, fantastic! Feeling better is a whole-systems approach, and a journey that involves food, movement, and lifestyle changes.

‍

But if you've been feeling like things aren't quite...working out, there's a reason. That’s because the diet and fitness industry offers well-meaning solutions, but those solutions are not universally applicable. The truth is that most of the research behind most mainstream diet and fitness recommendations is conducted on men — and women have unique biochemical needs that go unaddressed by male-centered research.

At the same time, women are the largest consumers of wellness industry products and protocols! But because women’s bodies work differently, this creates a vicious cycle, causing unnecessary stress, and depleting your time, energy and money. When these protocols are positioned in such a universally applicable way,  struggling to achieve results can feel like your fault. But it's not your fault! And we're here to set the record straight. The time is up on the gender bias in the diet and fitness industry.

As women, we’re biochemically different than men. When we adopt approaches that are designed to work with our unique biological distinctions—and stop biohacking with the boys—we will start to see results. The key to biohacking your unique female biochemistry is to understand your 28-day cycle & to match your food and exercise to your natural hormonal shifts. When you sync with your cycle, you’ll experience easier periods, less PMS, reduced bloating, get clearer skin, and see improvements in weight and body composition. By acknowledging your hormonal reality, you’ll finally be able to look and feel your best.

‍

The Science of Cycle Syncing®

Your body has different micronutrient needs during each week of the 28-day cycle, because your ovaries and uterus are doing different jobs during each week of the cycle. When you think about it, it makes sense: your body isn’t the same every day so your diet shouldn’t be either! But this isn’t just speculation.

‍Research suggests that our fluctuating hormones affect our nutrient levels—and, in turn, our nutrient levels affect our hormones (the research also shows that micronutrient deficiencies play a role in the severity of PMS symptoms). This means that we have different micronutrient needs at different times in our cycle.

All of today’s most popular diet plans— from keto and grain-free to a raw vegan diet—require eating the same way everyday, which ignores the natural interplay between micronutrients and our rhythmic, fluctuating hormones.

Add to that the fact that many nutrition and weight loss protocols emphasize calorie restriction, and you have an additional problem. Calorie restriction has been linked to thyroid hormone imbalances, which can cause sluggish metabolism, lackluster hair and skin, fatigue, and brain fog. Limiting calories also drives up cortisol production (cortisol is one of the body’s stress hormones) and high cortisol is a known factor in weight gain.

As women, we need to eat specific foods in order to make hormones. Healthy fats are especially important since estrogen and progesterone are made from cholesterol. Without enough cholesterol, we can’t adequately produce enough of these hormones to support healthy periods and fertility. We also need to eat specific foods to help break down and eliminate used-up hormones (so we don’t become estrogen dominant). Eating the right plant foods supports the liver in eliminating excess hormones and helps a specific group of bacteria in the gut microbiome, called the estrobolome, process estrogen overload.

‍

What you Can Expect When You Cycle Sync Your Diet

The Cycle Syncing® Method provides key foods at critical times to help break down excess levels of estrogen and keep estrogen and progesterone in balance. When this happens, you can expect fewer breakouts, less severe (or nonexistent) PMS, no more hormonal headaches, and less bloating. You can also expect improvements in fertility, sex drive, energy, and mood.

Another benefit of Cycle Syncing® your diet? Because you’re switching the foods you emphasize in your diet with each phase of you're cycle, you’re freed from the pressure from “sticking with a diet”. Not only is this practice more fun and satisfying, but it’s more sustainable in the long run.

‍Your big hormone-diet takeaway: You need to eat specific foods at specific times to maintain robust micronutrient levels and support hormone production and elimination. When you enjoy the right foods at the right times, you’ll experience remarkable results.

‍

Cycle Syncing® Your Exercise

This cyclical self care method extends into exercise as well.  There is a time and a place for short, intense workouts—but that’s not how you should workout all the time. When you consider your cycle, and when you look at the evidence, you’ll see that you may be able to handle the stress of intense exercise in the first half of your cycle, but doing a full-throttle workout in the second half of your cycle will sabotage your health and weight loss goals.

Here’s a closer look at why working out out hard all the time isn’t ideal: When you get your heart rate pounding, you burn through the glucose in your bloodstream (which is a good thing!). But you’re only burning glucose for about half an hour. After that, your body starts to pump out cortisol, the better to convert your fat cells into blood sugar so you have energy to keep working out.

At this point, you might be thinking, great! More energy to keep working out! But If you struggle with estrogen dominance, that excess estrogen tells your body to convert any leftover sugar back into fat. So instead of burning fat, you get stuck in a vicious cycle of burning stored fat with cortisol, only to have your high estrogen levels send it right back to all the wrong places.

Lots of women wonder if they should exercise during their period. Our answer is to listen to your body and to expand your focus to your entire cycle. Instead of just asking, "Should I workout on my period?" look further into the best times for higher intensity workouts and balance that with the best times for other types of movement.

You can use the MyFLO app to track your cycle and know what type of movement to do when, and you can look here for more on movement and exercise during each phase of your cycle.

‍

Workouts For Each Phase of Your Cycle‍

Here are the different types of exercise Alisa Vitti recommend for each of the four phases of your menstrual cycle:

Menstrual Phase

The 3 to 7 days during your bleed:

• Workout: Gentle Walking, Light Yoga - Keep your workouts relaxed, even if you’re not feeling discomfort. It’s a time to take things slowly and prioritize rest. Your hormones are at their lowest levels during this phase.
• Timing: An evening stroll is the perfect way to get some simple movement.

Follicular Phase

The 7 to 10 days after your period ends:

• Workout: Running or other cardio
• Timing: Mid-day – Your estrogen will be low and your cortisol levels will be just right for a challenging cardio burst.

Ovulatory Phase

The 3 to 4 days in the middle of your cycle, right after the follicular phase:

• Workout: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) or bodyweight circuit
• Time of Day: Early morning – you’ll have tons of energy during this time of the month, so take advantage of that natural high! Your testosterone is higher during this phase, so whatever you do, feel free to go all out.

Luteal Phase

The 10 to 14 days after ovulation and before your bleed:

• Workout: Pilates, yoga
• Time of Day: Keep it early during the first half of this phase, and then transition into the early evening in the second half. You might still feel full of energy during the first days of your luteal phase, so feel free to keep doing more intense workouts early in the day. But if you start to experience PMS symptoms in the days before your period, it’s time to tone it down and switch to Pilates or strength training in the early evening. Restorative (yin) yoga before bed can also be hugely helpful in combating issues like moodiness and bloat.

‍

What you Can Expect When You Practice The Cycle Syncing Method® With Your Exercise

You’ll deepen your intuitive sense of what type of movement your body wants and needs every day (and at every phase of your cycle). You can expect to lose weight and gain muscle more easily and sustainably, as well as prevent injury by varying your movement consistently.

‍Your big hormone-exercise takeaway: How you work out during the first half of your cycle shouldn’t be the same as how you work out during the second half of your cycle. When you sync your exercise with your cycle, you’ll experience remarkable results!

It’s a taboo topic that we need to normalize: period blood. The color, consistency, and texture of your flow can reveal way more about your overall health than you realize. It’s time to de-stigmatize this essential vital sign and start decoding symptoms.

‍

Period blood is not something we’re taught to talk about. In fact, we’re pretty much raised to hide from it. Pay attention to any maxi pad or tampon commercial and all you’ll see is the same blue liquid over and over again.

The truth is: periods matter. They matter SO much, in fact, that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has declared menstruation a vital sign.The appearance, frequency, and consistency of your menstrual blood provides invaluable clues into your overall health, and if you want to finally banish symptoms and feel amazing, it’s time to get familiar with your flow.

Think of checking your flow every month like being able to access free lab work for your hormone levels. Knowing the color tells you which hormones are in and out of balance and if your eating is synced with your hormones. Your period provides genius (and free!) biofeedback for you.

Your Guide to Interpreting the Color of Your Period Blood

Ready to recognize what’s normal and what’s not? Check out my guide to period blood:

• The color: Bright, cranberry-red
• The consistency: Like jello mix that hasn’t set (medium viscosity: not too thin, not too thick)
• The length: 5-7 days
• The frequency: Every 28-30 days

What it means: Congratulations! This is what’s considered a normal, healthy period. If you’re already cycle-syncing and eating nutrient-rich, FLO-supportive foods, keep it up. Make sure to also incorporate all the necessary lifestyle tweaks and essential supplements to ensure your cycle stays on track.

• The color: Brown
• The consistency: Thin/streaky
• The length: Varies
• The frequency: Varies

What it means: That brown stuff is old oxidized blood that didn’t make it out of your uterus during your last cycle and it’s caused by low progesterone levels. These low levels may be at the root of your period symptoms and may also cause you to struggle with regular ovulation.

• The color: Dark, purple/blue
• The consistency: Thick with clots
• The length: Longer than a week
• The frequency: Varies

What it means: This frozen blueberry color is a sign of too much estrogen. Estrogen levels that are higher in proportion to progesterone cause a lot of the typical symptoms associated with problematic periods, and potentially lead to endometriosis, cysts, or fibroids. Over the long term, excess estrogen can lead to more serious health consequences.

• The color: Barely-there pink
• The consistency: Too light to tell
• The length: 3 days or less
• The frequency: Varies

What it means: A super-short period and extra light bleeding may indicate low estrogen levels. Your hormones are made from the food you eat, so your low estrogen is likely due to vitamin and nutrient deficiencies from improper and extreme dieting as well as from adrenal burnout.

I used to deal with both depression and anxiety as a symptom of hormonal imbalance rooted in my PCOS. Cycle Syncing my diet and my lifestyle and getting in touch with the rhythms of my hormones was groundbreaking when it came to my emotional health and well-being. Not only did paying attention to my hormonal cycle help me to understand why I was experiencing anxiety, it also helped me to learn how to prevent my anxiety from continuing.

Choosing natural remedies like anxiety-fighting foods and supplements was a big part of this process, but Cycle Syncing was the foundation. It’s a practice I come back to again and again to recalibrate my emotions, refine my self-care, and listen to the feedback my body gives me every day.

As I have said in a previous post on anxiety women are 60% more likely to experience anxiety than men. There are obviously many possible real-life reasons for this, however there’s also a biological core - our hormone cycles. This is why women can experience different kinds of anxiety at different times during their menstrual cycle, triggered and perpetuated by hormonal imbalances.

As we’ve already looked at supplements to prevent anxiety and lifestyle hacks for treating anxiety, in this new post I want to focus on how your anxiety fits into your cycle and what that can tell you about what’s going on with your body and what it needs to stop you feeling anxious.

The 2 kinds of hormonal anxiety

Once you begin to Cycle Sync your life you will be able to know where you are in your hormonal cycle week to week. The follicular phase (the week after your period ends will feel different to the ovulation phase or the luteal phase (your premenstrual week) or the menstruation phase. Higher awareness and attention will give you the opportunity to understand your anxiety issues more deeply and from there know how it needs to be treated and prevented. To discuss anxiety I separate the cycle into 2 parts - the first half and the second half. The first half would include the follicular and ovulatory phases; the second half would include the luteal and menstruation phases. It is uncommon to experience anxiety during ovulation (if and as long as you’re ovulating) or during menstruation (which usually provides relief from negative emotions). Hence, here I refer to the follicular and luteal phases only.

‍Follicular phase anxiety - if you experience anxiety during your follicular phase, that is the week after your period has come to an end, then you are experiencing low estrogen levels or estrogen deficiency.

‍Natural remedy - Pomegranate seed extract is a great source of phytoestrogens that will help increase your natural levels of estrogen. I do not like to recommend well-known phytoestrogens like soy, because of the potential harmful effects caused by their processing. However pomegranate seeds are a great alternative to boost overall estrogen levels.

‍Luteal phase anxiety - if you experience anxiety mostly during your luteal phase, this is the week before your period, then you have low levels of progesterone or a progesterone deficiency. Anxiety may be part of what you see as PMS or premenstrual symptoms, along with other issues like depression or acne.

‍Natural remedy - B6 will help to increase your progesterone levels. B6 is vital for your body to create the corpus luteum that makes and releases all of your progesterone. There are B6 supplements, and I encourage all women to take a B vitamin complex daily, however you can also increase the amount of B6-rich foods that you eat, like wild-caught tuna fish, bananas, grass-fed beef, chicken, spinach, sweet potato, garlic and salmon.Throughout your cycle focus on increasing good fats and proteins in your diet - these will help your body to stabilize your hormones and keep your brain chemistry balanced. Gut health can be a root cause of many mental health problems, so it’s important to support the microbiota that manufacture happy hormones like serotonin and dopamine by eating fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut and pickles every day. Without a foundation of Cycle Syncing your eating, sourcing from a protocol of proteins and fats and hormone-balancing ingredients, your anxiety will struggle to respond to any one kind of natural remedy. But adding these super-effective natural remedies into your routine, layered on top of a holistic and hormonally-supportive diet, will do wonders for your well-being.

‍

Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this - the science of your body is on your side!

To your FLO,

Alisa

Vitamin B6 is absolutely essential for the development of the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum is a vital yet temporary mass produced in the ovary after the egg has been released, and it is what makes the hormone progesterone. Therefore, B6 is necessary for balanced hormones and preventing progesterone deficiency. Progesterone deficiency can provoke symptoms during the luteal/premenstrual phase and cause miscarriages. If you have signs of progesterone deficiency, you can supplement with B6 and increase the amount of B6-rich foods in your diet. All B vitamins help your body to metabolize the nutrients in the food you eat, as well as break down fats and proteins. However, B6 is particular important for hormonal health.

‍

Signs of B6 and progesterone deficiency

So, how do you know if you are progesterone deficient? Below are some of the obvious signs. If you have more than one of these symptoms, this could point to progesterone deficiency.

• Brown spotting before or after your period
• A short luteal phase - a normal luteal phase is between 12-15 days long; shorter than that and you may have progesterone deficiency - this could look like having too frequent periods
• PMS symptoms like moodiness, tender breasts, bloating and acne
• Infertility issues - achieving and maintaining a pregnancy - especially experiencing miscarriage
• If you take your basal body temperature each day you’ll see a very low temp rise post-ovulation and then a very fast fall before your period
• If you check your cervical fluid, you might see a lot of cervical fluid continuing through your luteal phase after ovulation

‍

There are many reasons the modern woman might be low on B6 and therefore progesterone deficient. The opposite side of this hormonal imbalance is, of course, estrogen excess or estrogen dominance. It’s not always about not getting enough B6 in your daily diet, it can be about how prepared your body is to use B6 effectively. It is very easy to become deficient in B vitamins, and that deficiency has the most profound impact on reproductive health.

Causes of B6 and progesterone deficiency

• Stress - when we’re stressed our bodies use up lots of progesterone hormone to make more cortisol, the stress hormone. So you might have enough B6 to make progesterone, enough progesterone, but then you’re so stressed you still become deficient. Lack of sleep can have the same impact.
• Over-exercising - working out too much, especially tackling hardcore cardio during the second half of your cycle can cause internal stress that has the same impact on your cortisol and progesterone levels.
• Alcohol - B vitamins are destroyed by frequent alcohol intake. Even if you supplement and eat B6-rich foods, alcohol will cause you to lose most of it.
• The birth control pill - oral contraceptives are known to deplete many vitamins, including B6. This is because the Pill prevents proper absorption of vitamins by impairing gut health.

‍

Good sources of B6 from food

You can take a B vitamin complex as a supplement and take additional B6 on top, but the best way to get B6 is from foods rich in this vitamin.

• Wild-caught tuna fish
• Bananas
• Grass-fed beef
• Chicken
• Spinach
• Sweet potato
• Garlic
• Salmon

‍

As you can see, many of the main sources of B6 are from animal proteins, which makes vegetarians particularly vulnerable to B6 and progesterone deficiency. As well as B6 supplements, if you are facing progesterone deficiency you can also consider using Vitex or progesterone cream to increase progesterone and decrease estrogen excess, and therefore rebalance your hormones.

Detox teas are trending. If you’re health-conscious, and especially if you’re interested in losing weight, you are certain to have come across the new celebrity-endorsed range of teatox brands that make claims to work miracles on your waistline, skin, hair, energy levels and more. Now, I would go as far as to say I am a herbal tea fanatic! I gave up coffee (and all caffeinated drinks) back in my 20s when I developed the Flo Living protocol. So, seeing tea trending is very exciting to me. I collect teas, I have a pantry full of different varieties - I’m something of a tea connoisseur. However, some of these new detox teas and the promises they make have me concerned.

The health benefits of tea

Tea is amazing. Tea in itself has so many health benefits. In fact tea is linked in scientific research to:

• Lower risk for depression
• Lowered risk of heart attack, heart disease and stroke
• Lowered risk of developing type 2 diabetes

The problem with trendy detox teas

The scientific evidence does not show that tea helps you to lose weight if you are overweight or obese. The way the majority of detox teas or teatox brands work is to include a laxative component like senna leaf. Senna may help you shed excess water, but it comes along with a number of side effects - especially when taken in several cups of tea a day, including stomach cramps, nausea, and diarrhea. Senna promotes excretion in your body, not calorie or fat-burning. It’s not recommended that senna be taken for longer than two weeks or in excessive amounts of the kind promoted for teatox regimes. It can cause an imbalance in electrolytes in the blood and damage the bowel function. Another ingredient that is often found in detox teas is guarana, a plant you’ll see added to some “energy” drinks. There are many unwanted side effects to guarana, related to the caffeine, which may include stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, headaches, anxiety, and increased heart rate. Caffeine is supposed to impair appetite and this is why it is seen as useful in teatox brands for those looking to lose weight. However, for women caffeine has some concerning side effects. Many detox teas or teatox brands do contain some beneficial plants and herbs like dandelion, lemongrass, ginger, peppermint, and milk thistle. These can help support the liver’s detoxification system. However, supporting your liver, losing weight and detoxing is not as simple as sipping tea. But, I’m sure you’ve guessed that already! You could drink all the teatox tea you want, but if you're still eating and drinking the wrong things for your body and your hormones, it's not going to really net a difference. The Flo Living protocol has built-in strategies for the kind of results these teatox brands promise. If you read the small print on the teatox websites you will see they declare that you will not lose weight without a healthy diet and exercise regime in place. These teas will also have no hope of helping your liver or detoxing your system (even with the beneficial ingredients I mentioned above) if your diet is otherwise overloaded with processed foods, pesticides, junky health foods, sugar, and dairy, or if you are otherwise starving yourself of crucial micronutrients and minerals with crash diets. With the FLO Living protocol, women have:

• Maintained successful, longterm weight loss
• Cleared acneic skin
• Restored luscious, beautiful hair
• Increased energy levels
• Boosted their metabolism

...by addressing the root causes of - weight gain, acne-prone skin, hair loss, low energy, insomnia, and a sluggish metabolism. The process is NOT miraculous - it’s based on supporting the systems that are designed to keep you healthy - all you have to learn is how to eat for those systems. That’s why the FLO protocol actually works and you do get the results you hope for! That’s the kind of science based process we all want. However it does, of course, involve more than tea!

My favorite teas with real health benefits

I drink tea every single day. I love it. I know that the kinds of tea I choose have long term health benefits, but I also find the ritual of making and preparing, and then drinking tea during my afternoon break, very soothing and relaxing. These teas here will support your liver, balance your blood sugar levels, and sooth your adrenals. As such, they are treating the root causes of why you may be experiencing weight gain, acne, hair loss, and low energy.

• Burdock Root tea - rich in vitamins and minerals, this tea is a good source of dietary fiber, which is essentially for your liver to detoxify from toxins and excess hormones.
• Herbal Chai tea - great with milk, this tea contains ginger, cinnamon, and black pepper, making it a great blood sugar stabilizer. Stable blood sugar supports healthy weight loss and prevents binge-eating and cravings.
• Baked Apple Cinnamon Rooibos tea - cinnamon is a weight-loss aid I do recommend readily in tea or as a supplement. And rooibos contains quercetin, which is anti-inflammatory.
• Dandelion tea - dandelion is in many of the new detox teas because it’s known to support digestion and the elimination system, so why not go straight to the source? It is rich in fiber and a good source of vitamin A, which is excellent for liver detoxification.
• Woman’s Balance tea - raspberry leaves, cinnamon, lemon, ginger, black pepper and cloves are amongst the ingredients of this wonderful tea blend.

Final FLO tea-tip - if you are looking for an immediate laxative effect perhaps due to IBS or another digestive health issue, and you know that senna is not the best choice for this - then I recommend magnesium and buffered vitamin C. Drinking a magnesium supplement in combination with vitamin C has a similar impact on the elimination system as well as lots of other benefits for your hormonal health. Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this - the science of your body is on your side!to your FLO,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, have you tried a teatox brand? Second, do you want to lose weight? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.I’ve designed a 4 day hormone detox and evaluation to help you understand exactly what’s out of whack and how you can start getting back to balance so that your hormones no longer have to suffer.Click here to get your FREE detox and evaluation!

Period Cycles & Lunar Cycles

Have you ever been around female friends and had the topic of menstrual cycles and the moon come up? This happens more than you might think! 

As women, we’re curious about our bodies, the origins of our cycles, and how they might be connected to the phases of the moon. We may notice that many, though not all of us experience cycles (all four phases of one's cycle) that last approximately a lunar month - 28-30 days. It can feel exciting to sync up with the phases of the moon!

‍

Why we connect the menstrual cycle with the moon phases

First, let’s consider the traditions and history behind this phenomenon. Which cycles of the moon are related to menstrual cycles?

• The new moon is traditionally associated with menstruation, and if you find you get your period with the new moon this is known as a White Moon Cycle.
• The full moon is traditionally associated with ovulation, but some women do get their period on the full moon and this is called a Red Moon Cycle.
• The White Moon Cycle is the kind that is more commonly experienced. Historically this is down to the impact of light on the Earth and our bodies  - the full moon is the Earth’s most fertile time because of the additional light received by plants when there is bright moonlight as well as sunlight, and this is why it is traditionally associated with the ovulation phase.
• Although the White Moon cycle is more common - that’s getting your period on the new moon and ovulating on the full moon - a Red Moon cycle has interesting traditional connotations. Women who experience a Red Moon cycle have historically been thought to be healers, wise women, or medicine women. These women could take care of the other women who were on their period at the time that they themselves were ovulating. It’s also associated with creation in realms other than getting pregnant and having children - when the woman’s focus is on creating art, a business, or a new way of life for herself and others.

‍

‍Does it matter if my period does not sync with the moon?

‍Although there are these historical and traditional links, it’s not important that you get your period on the full moon or the new moon - although it can be pretty cool when it does happen! As long as you’re having a healthy cycle that is consistent for YOU - this is what matters. That means that your cycles are regular and last a similar amount of days each time.

If your cycles are wildly fluctuating, then it is an indicator of health issues like PCOS, fibroids, or endometriosis. A consistent, regular cycle is much more likely to be symptom-free, although it is still possible to experience PMS, cramps, or bloating with a regular cycle. Ideally, your period’s arrival is predictable, but not necessarily predicated on what the moon is doing!

‍

How to Sync Your Cycle to the Moon

1. Spend time in Nature

‍If your cycle is fluctuating in length hugely from period to period, then it may also be the result of your environment - it could be because you’re not getting enough good sleep due to a bright or noisy setting and it could be down to your disconnect from stress-relieving, calming Nature as a whole.

More and more research is revealing that we need to be in Nature frequently - in the way of a park, a hike, the beach - for the good of our health, our mental health, especially. And stress can really screw up your cycles and cause them to become irregular. So, rather than focusing on the moon alone, look at your relationship to Nature in general and make a point of re-connecting with Mother Earth by getting into green spaces as much as you can.

You can do this in your backyard, your local playground, or on a walk through your neighborhood - the key is to direct your attention to those natural elements, breathe them in, and feel the well-being that comes from spending time outside.  ‍

2. Improve your relationship to light and dark

‍Part of how our cycles can sync to the moon is through our exposure to light and dark as it changes throughout the lunar month - at the New Moon we’re meant to be sleeping in darkness, and at the Full Moon, the night sky should be lit up with moonlight. However, many of us live in towns and cities now that give out light pollution. It can be hard to see the moon clearly and the moonlight is competing with office  lighting, street lamps, house lights, illuminated signs and more.

We are not as exposed to the direct light and darkness of the moon phases as we once were. Of course light (and noise) pollution can also be disruptive to our sleep patterns and make for a fitful sleep and frequent waking up during the night. This throws off the hormone melatonin, which happens to be linked directly to ovulation regulation and therefore cycle regulation.

If you want to sync with the moon, but you struggle to connect with the moonlight in a busy, 24-hour town or city, then take steps to ensure you experience good sleep by using black out blinds and a white noise machine, and employing a sleep-supportive bedtime routine. To become more aware of the moon’s phases and have the best chance of reconnecting and syncing your cycle to its changes, download a lunar phase calendar or use an app like MyMoontime - take a look every evening to see where the moon is that night in its cycle and then try to spend some time in view of the moon either meditating, reading, or just resting. More and more places now also have Full Moon hikes where women can connect with the moon and each other. If you can’t find a group, practice a ritual at home in view of the moon or start your own group!

‍3. Fix your period problems

‍To repeat - as long as you’re having a healthy cycle that is consistent for YOU - this is what matters. Monitoring your period and cycle for length with a period tracker app, looking at the color and consistency of your bleeding, and logging any symptoms you experience - from PMS to bloating to acne - is more important to your health than syncing with the moon. It’s from this place that you can start to solve and move past your period problems.

Your period should and can be regular and predictable - if it’s not, there’s a way to change that. Once you’ve got a healthy cycle that feels good for you, then you’re in a better place to start working on syncing with the moon and you’ll be better positioned to reap the benefits of this experience.  Your body is a mirror, whether or not your period comes with the full moon or the new moon. You don’t need to be bleeding with the new moon to reconnect with Nature, but connecting with the natural environment will have a positive impact on your health - including getting your cycle to be more regular, predictable and symptom-free.

Your cycle is magical, regardless of any cool moon connection you might experience. Your cycle can work magic for you, if you support it with hormone-friendly foods and a hormonally-supportive way of living. Get in touch with your own, personal, unique cycle and that’s the first step to living in your Flo with all of its benefits. ‍

I’m a strong believer in the healing and hormone balancing properties of honey. Honey is a key ingredient for stabilizing blood sugar, for promoting strong immunity, and for supporting your sex drive. It’s one of those ancient remedies that has helped women for centuries. Honey is also a wonderful addition to your diet when you’re in the midst of scaling back your intake of sugar, like candies, soda, fruit juices, that allows you to satisfy your cravings without doing your hormones any harm.

Honey is so easy to add to your day-to-day - a spoonful in your tea is just wonderful - but it’s also great for healthy juices, smoothies, and baking. It is my number one favorite sweetener and I make the most of it. As I talk you through the health benefits of honey I’m going to share my favorite recipes that highlight and showcase each of the healing properties of honey.

Honey to prevent your PMS

Honey is the perfect substitute for the white stuff (sugar). Poorly-managed blood sugar is the root of all hormonal health issues. I have yet to meet one woman suffering with PMS who had her blood-sugar levels balanced out. That’s because it’s impossible to have well-controlled blood sugar without making a conscious effort. Imagine a chart with a flat horizontal line running across. My goal is to have you, and all women, see only gentle undulations from that ideal blood sugar stasis and not the dramatic peaks and troughs that most of us will experience if we don’t keep an eye on what we eat. Those peaks and troughs are what make us soar and then crash in our moods and they spell disaster for our hormones.

Using a “softer” sweetener like honey in your tea and when baking will go a long way towards keeping your blood sugar stable. It will also satisfy the sweet cravings you may experience prior to your period. Honey is less likely to cause those peaks and troughs, but will give you the glucose that your body needs.

When I’m craving something sweet and satisfying I whip up a batch of these:

‍Chocolate Sweet Potato Brownies

‍1 raw medium sweet potato (purple skin/white flesh) – 2 1/2 cups when grated

2 whole eggs

½ cup melted coconut oi

l⅓ cup raw honey

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup raw cacao powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2½ tablespoon coconut flour

¼ tsp pink himalayan salt

Instructions:

‍Preheat oven to 375 °F

Combine wet: grated sweet potato, eggs, vanilla, honey and coconut oil oil in a large mixing bowl and stir together until well incorporated.

Mix dry: cacao powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and coconut flour.

Combine wet into dry and mix well.

Pour the mixture into a 9 inch square baking tin lined with parchment paper.

Cook for 25-30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before carefully removing the brownies from the tin.

Honey to boost your immunity

Raw honey contains an immune system-boosting living probiotic bacteria. This soothes the microbiome and in turn supports strong immunity. Your immunity is created and sourced in your gut. If you are prone to colds, honey can have immediate antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and soothing qualities that will also calm coughs and sneezing. The World Health Organization actually counts honey as a demulcent, which shows it relieves sore throats and coughs. It can also aid in the production of white blood cells, improving the body’s ability to fight infection. Honey helps to draw out the benefits and allow the body to absorb the goodness of citrus and ginger, other immunity-boosting ingredients. In the winter cold-season I like to protect myself from common illnesses by sipping this juice a couple of times a week.

‍Cold-busting, immune-boosting juice

‍3 carrots

1 beet

Juice of ½ a lemon

1 T of chopped ginger

½ cup of pineapple

Juice of ½ an orange

1 teaspoon of raw honey

Honey for your libido

Honey is an ancient aphrodisiac dating back to the times of those wise Egyptians. It contains boron, which helps regulate your hormones, plus nitric oxide, which is released naturally during arousal. It’s also a good source of magnesium which is a key micronutrient for everything hormonal balance related!  If you’re looking to feel more sexy, passionate and turned on - try my special smoothie recipe.

‍The Passion Pour

‍Avocado

Strawberries

Raw honey

Almond milk

Pinch of cayenne pepper

The best kind of honey

Now, not all honeys you find in the supermarket are the same. If it comes in a small plastic bear then it’s definitely processed honey, which is no different to refined sugar. Much of this processed honey is actually just high fructose corn syrup, which is fed to and then regurgitated by bees to make a cheap and mass-produced sweetener. It really matters what kind of honey you choose - processed, non-organic can actually harm your health. If you’ve never tasted raw honey, you don’t know how honey is meant to taste. Unstrained, raw honey is the good stuff: full of honeycomb, propolis, and pollen, every spoonful contains natural goodness. Plus, it delivers plenty of sweetness without the immediate blood sugar spike from refined sugar/processed honey.

I use Really Raw honey. The flavor of this honey is worlds above the over-processed mainstream brands and the accompanying nutritional benefits are even better. Really Raw honey is not only organic, but since it’s never processed or heated, it retains all its potential health benefits. As an added bonus: Really Raw sources all of its honey from local beekeeping operations, and every jar is packaged by hand. That means every jar tastes just like the seasonal honey you’ll find at your local farmers market.Ready to try a spoonful for yourself? Well, you’re in luck, because for a limited time, Thrive Market is offering my Flo-sisters a free jar of Really Raw honey. And if you’re an existing Thrive customer you can get in on the fun, too - you’ll also score a free jar with your next purchase over $50 by clicking here!

‍

Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this - the science of your body is on your side!

To your FLO,

Alisa

This month writer, actress and all-round bad-ass Lena Dunham announced she would be taking some time out and stepping back from promoting the fifth season of her television series “Girls,” stating ““As many of you know I have endometriosis, a chronic condition that affects approximately 1 in 10 women’s reproductive health. I am currently going through a rough patch with the illness and my body let me know, in no uncertain terms, that it’s time to rest.”Although Lena has long held my admiration and respect, with this decision she has become, to my mind, a real role model for women everywhere and an honorary Flo-sister! I am a long-time advocate of listening to your body and it is wonderful to hear someone in the public eye highlight the importance of taking time to rest, recuperate and heal. On top of that, she is also drawing much-needed attention to endometriosis and the suffering it can cause women. Lena shows us all that we can live our dream life and honor what our bodies need, as well as ask that those around us understand and support this choice. That said, it is distressing to hear that she is experiencing so much suffering from her endometriosis that she simply cannot carry on with her work when she might actually need to. It’s particularly distressing to me, because I know that you can do something about endometriosis, the pain and everything that comes along with this health issue.

Why I can relate to Lena’s experience

The thing is, I do know how she feels - although I have not experienced endometriosis myself, my PCOS came with chronic fatigue and depression that forced me to put my life on hold. When your hormones are out of whack it can have profound effects. When it was happening to me, I just knew that it should not be happening. I knew that it was not my “natural” state and instead a result of endocrine disruption from my diet and lifestyle. I knew I could change this for myself. The great news for Lena here is that like PCOS, Endometriosis is very treatable from a functional medicine standpoint. However, it does need a targeted approach that gets to the root of the autoimmune nature of this condition in order to alleviate the suffering long term. From this perspective I’d like to outline what I would love to tell Lena Dunham, if ever I got the chance to take care of her ovaries! Wouldn’t that be amazing? Here’s a very distilled version of my Flo Living protocol for endometriosis. For advice on how to talk to your doctor about your endometriosis diagnosis go here. For advice on specific food strategies to help with endometriosis go here.

The 3 things I’d like to tell Lena Dunham about Endometriosis

With access to some of the best healthcare there is available, I am certain Lena has already undertaken some necessary fundamental changes to her diet and lifestyle in order to heal her endometriosis - this includes cutting out all inflammatory foods sources such as sugar, alcohol, red meat and dairy. As well as looking at all the food she is eating as potential medicine and therapy for her health issue, Lena needs to also be hyper-vigilant about the products she uses on body (shampoos, cosmetics, moisturizers) and in her home (cleaning products, laundry detergent). We are often unaware of the amount of external estrogens (xenoestrogens) we are exposed to on a day-to-day basis, keeping this as a low as possible helps the body process and eliminate excess estrogen more efficiently, which is vital to endometriosis sufferers.

1. Endometriosis and your microbiome - the best way for Lena to get her immune system functioning the way it should be is to focus first on healing her microbiome. Probiotics are essential to rebalance the good gut bacteria. A certain set of gut bacteria and more specifically certain bacterial genes, called the estrobolome, produce an essential enzyme that helps metabolize estrogen. Your gut therefore is part of the elimination system that is vital in ushering hormones out of the body. You’ve got to feed your internal ecosystem in the way that promotes the growth of these good bacteria that are there to help take care of you. I would suggest a daily tablespoon or two of fermented foods rich in good bacteria like kimchi and sauerkraut plus a probiotic supplement such as the Stable-Dophilus formula from Jarrow.
2. Endometriosis and your liver - the other agent in metabolizing excess estrogen is your liver. Lena’s liver needs to efficiently break down estrogen that is produced by her body and the estrogen she takes in from the outside. It’s important to eat lots of liver-supporting foods that help with your body’s effort to cleanse your system of estrogen-overload. Broccoli contains the phytochemicals sulforaphane, indole-3-carbinol and D-glucarate which are critical liver detoxifiers. Beets contain pectin, which is a fiber that removes the toxins processed by the liver so they can be flushed out of the system instead of reabsorbed into the body. Dandelion greens are a diuretic that restore the mineral balance after detoxing our elimination organs. Lemon juice helps the stomach break down food, which leaves less for your liver to do, allowing more energy for estrogen elimination.
3. Endometriosis and pain - although pain killers can provide short term relief for some endometriosis sufferers, a long term effective solution can be found in essential fatty acids. Using high amounts of painkillers can put a strain on your liver that feeds the underlying causes of endometriosis. A chemical series called Prostaglandins are what stimulate your uterine muscles to contract and create discomfort. There are 3 types – PgE1,2, and 3. PgE2 is the one that causes uterine contractions and pain. Leave it to the genius design of your body to have only one that does that and two that counteract it – PgE1 and 3 are antispasmodic – natural pain killers! The essential fatty acids found in evening primrose oil and flax seeds increase the production of the two prostaglandins that can prevent contractions that cause the pain.

Help me to help Lena by sharing this post and tagging Ms. Dunham! She is an honorary Flo-sister and I would love to help her get back in her FLO. Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this - the science of your body is on your side!to your FLO,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, do you have endometriosis? Second, have you already cut out red meat, sugar, alcohol and dairy from your diet? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.I’ve designed a 4 day hormone detox and evaluation to help you understand exactly what’s out of whack and how you can start getting back to balance so that your hormones no longer have to suffer.Click here to get your FREE detox and evaluation!

If you’re dealing with a hormonal condition like PCOS, you’ve probably tried every health trend on the planet. Juicing, fasting, low-carb, , vegan diets — sound familiar?

Your instincts are spot on. When it comes to restoring hormonal balance, food IS medicine. But the truth is that many of today’s health food fads only make hormonal symptoms worse.  If you’re “eating healthy” but still experiencing symptoms of endocrine chaos, one of the culprits might be on your plate.

In the past few years, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) has been in the public eye like never before. Thanks to celebrities like Victoria Beckham and Daisy Ridley, women around the world who are coping with the condition finally feel less alone.

As a former PCOS sufferer, I couldn’t be happier to see PCOS making headlines. I experienced everything from agonizing acne and weight gain to sleeplessness, depression, and more. It was only after years of trial, error, and frustration that I was able to successfully reverse my hormonal imbalance with one powerful tool that’s too often overlooked in conventional medicine: Food.

Why Cutting Out Dairy and Sugar May Not Be Enough to Heal Your PCOS

If you’ve been diagnosed with PCOS, you’ve probably heard over and over about the dangers of sugar and dairy. And, it’s true: these two foods are unparalleled in their ability to wreak hormonal havoc (caffeine is another nutritional villain when it comes to hormones, so it’s best avoided, too).  

To get your period back, clear your acne, stop hair loss, and lose weight  you’re wise to keep sugar, dairy, and caffeine out of your diet. But you’ll also want to take a close look at the other foods and beverages that might be sabotaging your success.  

When you’re willing to dig deeper and root out the hidden “healthy” foods that undermine hormone balance, you’ll make leaps and bounds in easing symptoms.  

Some  “Healthy” Foods May Make Your  PCOS worse

Before I made it my mission to fix my hormones and help other women do the same, I had no idea that some of the foods I believed to be "healthy" were actually making my problems worse. Now, I see how shocked my clients are when I tell them that some of the hyped-up health foods in their grocery carts might be  hindering their progress in reversing symptoms.

For women with PCOS, it’s important to know which “healthy” foods to avoid. If you’re hormonally-sensitive like I am, these foods—foods that can be healthy for others—have a stronger effect on you can make the symptoms you desperately want to be rid of even worse.

The 5 “Healthy” Foods You Have to Quit ASAP To Beat PCOS

So what are the 5 foods to avoid if you have PCOS? Allow me to play mythbuster and highlight the foods you probably never thought could have an impact on your ovaries:

1. Artificial sweeteners. The quest to give up sugar—and get off the blood-sugar roller coaster— is so important. In all the years I’ve worked with clients, I’ve rarely met a woman who is struggling with hormone issues who isn’t also struggling with blood sugar issues. But in the quest to ditch the sweet stuff, we often turn to sugar substitutes, which come with their own problems.

One cause for concern is the intensely sweet flavor of these synthetic substitutes. When we rely on them heavily, they can hijack of our taste buds and make more complex flavors, like those found in vegetables and low-glycemic fruits like berries, less appealing—and the fewer whole, real vegetables and low-glycemic fruits we eat, the more we deprive the liver of the phytonutrients it needs to function optimally. The liver processes and eliminates used hormones from the body; when it doesn’t get the phytonutrient support it needs, it struggles to eliminate estrogen and other hormones from the body, contributing to hormonal imbalance.

For some women, I include stevia in this category. It’s not artificial, but, in some traditional societies, folk wisdom holds that regular intake of stevia is a form of birth control. For women who aren’t hormonally-sensitive, small amounts of stevia probably won’t have a profound effect on their fertility or cycles. But for those of us who are hormonally-sensitive PCOS sufferers, it’s best to err on the side of caution and choose a different sweetener, especially if you’re currently heaping spoonfuls into your herbal teas throughout the day.

2. Red meat. Paleo diets have become as trendy as intense boot camp classes (exercise is a whole other important part of the equation...) in recent years. And all too often, women with PCOS are advised to eat like cavemen, subsisting mostly on lots and lots of protein-packed meat to lose weight and counteract the damaging effects of sugar. But here’s the deal: In my experience, if you have PCOS, following a Paleo diet will not bring about weight loss and it certainly won’t bring back your period.  A high protein diet causes a decrease in the production of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), which is vital to reducing testosterone levels — something that’s critical in PCOS recovery.

Plus, many women with PCOS have a specific genetic problem known as the methyl-tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene mutation. Eating Paleo when you have the MTHFR gene mutation can create too much of an amino acid called homocysteine, which can cause an increase in PCOS symptoms.

Upping meat intake is also often coupled with decreasing carbohydrates and this is a real issue for PCOS sufferers. Recent research suggests that PCOS may be connected to autoimmune thyroid disease (poor thyroid function) and your thyroid needs the glucose from good carbohydrates (like quinoa, brown rice, buckwheat rather than glutento function optimally.

3. Raw kale. When eaten raw, all cruciferous vegetables contain substances called goitrogens that suppress thyroid function (or cause hypothyroidism) which contributes to PCOS. As a rule of thumb, it’s always a good idea to cook kale, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, bok choy and cabbage before eating. One easy way technique is to saute them in a pan with a little coconut oil.Don’t worry about celery, romaine lettuce, beet leaves, and chard — you can eat those in their raw form to your heart’s content;they don’t contain this goitrogen chemical.

4. Soy. It’s pretty common for women to swap in soy for dairy when they ditch milk, but this exchange isn’t a good one. Soy isn’t your ally if you have PCOS because it contains "phyto" or plant estrogen that acts like estrogen in the body—and eating too much of it confuses your body into thinking it has enough of the real deal in supply. This sends a signal your endocrine system to slow down estrogen production, subsequently slowing the production of luteinizing hormone (LH), and effectively shutting down ovulation.

5. Cooking oils like canola, sunflower, and vegetable oils (and synthetic spreads, like margarine). Unhealthy fats are bad news for hormonal harmony. For one, eating too many unhealthy fats crowds out our consumption of healthy fats, which are important for maintaining healthy levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol. Cholesterol is a precursor to all the body’s steroid hormones, including estrogen, progesterone, and FSH. Simply put, and contrary to media reports about cholesterol in recent decades, we need cholesterol to make some of our most important hormones.

Vegetable oils and other cooking oils, like sunflower oil, are high in omega-6 fatty acids and low in omega-3 fatty acids. We need to consume both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids through diet (the body can’t produce them and we need them to live), but the problem is that the Western diet is flooded with omega-6 fatty acids—and tragically short on omega-3 fatty acids. When omega-6s are disproportionately high in the body relative to omega-3s, its a recipe for inflammation, which is the archenemy of hormonal health and overall health.

Canola oil presents its own set of problems. It’s higher in omega-6s than omega-3s, like other vegetable oils (though not by as high a margin), but the real causes for concern with canola are GMOs and toxic processing. The vast majority of the plants from which canola oil is harvested are genetically modified—and the oil is extracted by heating and crushing the plant seeds and then mixing them with hexane. In addition to being classified as a neurotoxin by the CDC , hexane and other organic solvents like it, drive up inflammation and interfere with endocrine health. .

Non-food bonus tip for hormonal balance!

BONUS:  Ditch staying up late to binge your favorite TV show or finish a work project. Food isn’t the only thing that affects hormones. Regularly skimping on sleep is a sure-fire way to throw blood sugar off balance, put your adrenal system into overdrive, and send a whole bunch of suboptimal signals to your endocrine system. Prioritize good sleep the way you do healthy eating, and your hormones will thank you.

to your FLO,

Alisa

Good things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, do you have PCOS?

Second, have you tried giving up sugar and dairy?

Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Monthly FLO: The Cycle Syncing System™

Put your period symptoms into remission. Discover how to live in your FLO and get it all done with embodied time management.

MonthlyFLO is the first-ever woman-centric health system that syncs with your unique rhythm. It gives you the foundation for solving any hormonal issues you may have over your lifetime.

Using the principles of functional nutrition, MonthlyFLO is a specially-sequenced food therapy program that recalibrates your endocrine function. Over three months, you will be guided step-by-step to make simple, cumulative food and lifestyle changes that balance your hormones naturally.

Click here to learn more about the life-changing Monthly FLO Program

I think by now we all understand that weight loss is an on-going, every day commitment to a healthy diet and lifestyle and that the fads won’t fix anything. However, it sure can be hard to not get caught up in the hype of all these new year diet deals and workout wonders that come our way.

I think every single one of us has probably, at some point, gotten seduced by a new weight loss book, a new year bootcamp, a January re-commitment to the local gym, or even some late night call to buy the latest, greatest workout equipment for your home (those shaking weights! the electric shock belly wrap!).

If you’ve gained a few pounds over the holidays - heck, if you’ve gained a few pounds over the holidays on top of the few pounds you gained during the last holidays - it can cause a feeling of panic and dread. We resolve to turn ourselves around and we get strict, restrictive, and punishing with our bodies, trying to beat them back into a slender, slim shape. We deprive ourselves of food, we exercise intensely, we cleanse and skip meals, we avoid all temptation, and we feel miserable. ‍

So, we know what doesn’t work, right? But that leaves us with one burning question - if we want to lose weight, what exactly DOES work?

‍I have lost 60 lbs 2 times in my life (and in a relatively short period of time - a matter of a few months). The first time I was in my ‘20s, the second time was just recently, in 2014, after I had my daughter. Now, my friends tell me I am slimmer and younger looking than before I had my baby.  

More important though, to me, than fitting in my clothes is how good I feel in my own skin. And that doesn’t come from seeing a certain number pop up on the scale, that comes from a near 20 year relationship with my body that honors the 4 phase-centric hormonal needs of both my body and my spirit.

‍I did none of the things we are normally encouraged to do at the start of a new year to shed those pounds. In fact, during those 2 weight loss periods:  

• I did not diet and I never felt deprived of food
• My only exercise was walking

How did I do it? Good question!

Crash dieting and excessive exercising works against the hormonal science of your body - it increases and worsens hormonal symptoms like PCOS, PMS, cramps, heavy bleeding, and endometriosis. It sets you up, as a woman, for a cravings-plus-bingeing rollercoaster and a flagging, subpar metabolic system. It causes you to quit trying to lose weight before you reach your goal, because you feel awful and you can see clearly that it is not working.

All of the diets you hear about do not work longterm for women and have the potential to make your hormonal symptoms worse! Too much animal fat, diets that are protein heavy, too few carbohydrates - none of this helps us ladies to achieve lasting weight loss. You may shed the pounds at first, but you bet that same month your period will be a nightmare or you’ll have the worst PMS.

What your body wants and needs desperately is homeostasis, not deprivation. Your body craves balance and hates extremes. This means any diet that involves cutting down and cutting out or wildly fluctuating eating patterns is only going to cause your body stress - the kind sourced in your blood sugar stability and your adrenals - that will actually make your body hold on to fat for dear life, and then start signalling health breakdown with all kinds of symptoms.

So, what’s my weight loss secret?

Why, living in my Flo, of course! This lifestyle consists of 2 essential parts.

‍First - I feed my hormones what they need to keep my metabolism humming.

‍I understand what my body needs so that my blood sugar remains stable and my adrenals calmed. I know how to feel full and satisfied all day, every day and how to supercharge my metabolism. I nourish my body to make and process my hormones in a way that keeps everything humming along nicely.

The majority of diets you hear about cause out of control hormones and erratic blood sugar levels that come from their restrictive eating patterns - they rob your body and brain of the micronutrients that they need to create balanced appetite control-neurotransmitters and balanced metabolism-boosting hormone levels. Flo Living supports appetite control and boosts your metabolism, because it increases essential micronutrients and balances your hormones.

The solution you’re looking for is eating the foods your body needs for each phase of your menstrual/hormone cycle. This way you can optimize the levels of nutrients your body wants to balance the vital hormones that keep your metabolism working efficiently. You will, in fact, be revving your metabolism to keep you slim. When you eat in sync with your hormones, you will feel satisfied, less tempted by foods you should avoid, and happy to continue this “diet” (or lifestyle shift) for years to come.

‍Second - I channel my energy and health into playing a bigger game.

‍It’s not very interesting to play a continuous game of weight gain and weight loss. Of resolutions and self sabotage. You are so powerful, you are physiologically designed to create new life from the void in any way you choose. We’ve heard enough stories from the front to know that telling ourselves that we’ll be happier and live the life we dream about after our jeans are a certain size, is a lie.

The essential question to ask yourself is not how much weight do you want to lose, but what do you want to do with your life, with a body that is energized and focused on that purpose.  For me, my body is my true partner, my GPS system.

‍I allow my body to guide me on the journey of my soul, my passion, and my purpose, I’d be lost without her wisdom, support, and intuition.  

‍As a result, I’m super motivated to keep my frequencies clear so I can receive that guidance, which is so critical in playing a bigger game in my life. Health is not the destination, it’s the road you take that dictates how much fun you’ll have on the way.

‍

Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this - the science of your body is on your side!

To your FLO,

Alisa

Two in the bush is worth one in the hand? What the heck does that mean anyway? I don’t know, but what I do know is we want our hair below our hairline to be ladylike and we want the hair on our head to be lioness-like.  The issue is that your hormones can make this situation can be more scary-hairy than lady godiva-esque. As a former sufferer of PCOS, I know what it’s like to feel like you’re always getting waxed and always brushing out too much hair.  I want to share my secrets for maintaining my locks over the years and why I’m not freaking out about the post-partum hair fall.  

Whether you’re dealing with hair loss from your head or overgrowth of unwanted hair on your face and body, I’m going to explain why this is happening and how to fix it, without using strong side effect-laden prescription medications.

At a time when we are bombarded with pop stars hairy armpits on one side plus pressure to stay entirely hairless from head to toe on the other, it can be hard to maintain a good perspective when it comes to our own naturally hair-covered bodies. The occasional stray hair somewhere unexpected or a day or two of more hair in your hair brush than normal is no reason to freak out. However, it can be very distressing to experience rapid hair loss from the head or unwanted hair growth on your face. This is not to be taken lightly, as I know it can cause anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.

The good news is the root cause of both of these issues is the same and so is the natural treatment protocol - so wherever you are on the hair loss to hirsutism spectrum I have the answer for you.

The roots of hair loss and hirsutism

The root cause of overgrowth of unwanted hair or hair loss from the head is your sensitivity to testosterone plus the amount of testosterone your body is producing. Usually these are not stand-alone problems and you will also find you are simultaneously dealing with problematic menstrual periods.

‍Hair loss

How: Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is a derivative of testosterone. Testosterone converts to DHT with the help of the enzyme Type II 5-alpha reductase, which is held in your hair follicle's oil glands. Hair loss from the head is triggered by the level of DHT binding to receptors in scalp follicles. DHT shrinks your hair follicles, making it more difficult for healthy hair to survive. High levels of DHT can be provoked by estrogen dominance and high cortisol levels from the adrenal glands.

‍Why: This hormonal imbalance in the body can be brought on by use of the birth control pill and other hormonal contraceptives like the Mirena IUD, hormonal shifts in pregnancy, the post-partum period, perimenopause or as a part of poor thyroid function.

‍

‍Hirsutism

How: You don’t have to have PCOS to be suffering with hirsutism, but it is one of the common consequences of that hormonal health problem. Excessive growth of coarse hairs is also caused by testosterone overproduction and conversion. It is one of the most common endocrine health issues with approximately 10% of women experiencing this at some time in their lives. The kind of hair produced is called “terminal” and is different in thickness and feel. Growth is caused by the level and duration of exposure to dihydrotestosterone, the alpha-reductase enzyme activity on the hormone, and the sensitivity of your hair follicles to dihydrotestosterone, which determines whether regular fine body hair (or vellus hair) becomes terminal hair.

‍Why: PCOS is certainly a common root cause, but also behind this issue can be Cushing’s syndrome, genetic conditions that cause overproduction of cortisol and testosterone, some medications such as those used to treat endometriosis, and obesity.

Natural treatment protocol

In the short term - it’s better to go with frequent waxing or laser hair removal than using chemical products like Nair on your excessive hair growth as sensitive areas tend to be the most open to absorbing nasty chemicals. Castor oil treatments are highly praised for encouraging thick, strong, glossy head hair regrowth. In the long term - Using a combination of these foods and supplements on a daily basis should show improvement of your hair loss or hirsutism in a matter of months. Stick with this protocol for at least six months before looking for another solution.

1. Stinging nettle in the form of nettle leaf tea
2. Omega 3 fatty acids from egg yolks and salmon
3. Saw palmetto herbal supplements
4. Evening primrose oil
5. Foods high in phytosterols such as fermented soy, wheat germ, brussel sprouts, olive oil and rye

‍

Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you!  You can do this - the science of your body is on your side!

To your FLO,

Alisa

I don’t know about you, but I think that by the time you hit 35 you’ve just got to start being kind to yourself. Many of us spend our 20s feeling anxious and less than confident about our bodies. All that stress is so bad for us! The truth is however that as you get older, you start to make less hormones, e.g. your metabolism slows down, and the hormones you have are telling you to store fat and not burn it for fuel. The solution is not to restrict, it’s to eat more micronutrients that increase the production of youthful hormonal patterns.

Break the cycle

We are trained to view weight loss as an effort in control and restriction. We’re told that it’s a simple matter of eating less and so we starve ourselves. When we don’t see the results we are promised we get depressed. Then we binge on comfort food to feel better! It’s a vicious cycle.This kind of eating pattern does real harm to your hormones, especially as you get older. It puts stress on the body, which causes an inflammatory response. This inflammation creates an imbalance of your hormones and leads to functional issues like PMS, problem periods, and acne. I see at Flo Living how these kinds of health problems can make women feel really down on themselves, and so they are triggered to eat in a way that soothes them in the short term, but does more damage in the long term. I’ve been there myself, I know what it’s like! In addition, we also try working out really hard, and we do it without consideration for our hormonal patterns - we literally work against our fat burning system! (Click here to learn how to workout with your cycle.)

Calorie restriction, depression, and fat

The out of control hormones and erratic blood sugar levels that come from restrictive eating or extreme dieting rob your body and brain of micronutrients that they need to have balanced appetite control neurotransmitters and balanced metabolism boosting hormone levels. Your mood is going to take a hit, your metabolism is going to slow and you’re not going to fit into your skinny jeans.I always like to put dietary theory to the test, so just for fun, I recently decided to see what it would be like to follow a ketogenic diet, which is a high fat, but low carbohydrate protocol that is recommended for weight loss. After just two days I woke up in the worst state of hypoglycemia I’d ever experienced. I was shaking, sweating, feeling faint - it took me about 5 hours to recover. My body reacted poorly to me choosing to cut out carbs like the quinoa, oatmeal, and buckwheat I usually eat every day. Eliminating food groups like carbs and fats doesn’t give you access to key micronutrients that boost hormone production and can keep stubborn weight right where it is.The solution of course is to start eating the foods for each phase of your cycle to optimize the levels of nutrients your body needs to balance these hormones that keep your metabolism working properly!

Focus on how foods make you feel to lose weight faster

Food should make you feel AMAZING, vibrant, vital, energized, clear, and happy. If you eat things that make you feel anything but the above, try eliminating those items from your diet. I promise you, you’ll see the weight melt off. The foods that dampen your energy and mood are likely foods that are creating inflammation in your gut, preventing good micronutrients from being absorbed, increasing binge eating, disrupting your hormonal balance and not helping you achieve your ideal weight. Eating from a place of pleasure and enjoyment, rather than anxiety and restriction, will also boost hormones like oxytocin that help heal the adrenals from stress overload. We strive for mindfulness in many areas of life these days, and yet we still seem to have such a difficult relationship with food. Women who eat for their FLO know how food makes them feel and how they feel about food is all-important in a healthy eating plan.

4 days to transform your eating

I want you to experience what it’s like to eat foods that help you boost these micronutrient levels, balance your hormones, and make you feel amazing. If you’re ready to ditch diets forever, then download my FREE 4-Day Hormone Detox. This is the one that’s in my book, WomanCode, that women have been using for years to lose weight the right way, like me! As well as simple recipes and meal plans, I include a “Self-care reset” protocol that addresses how you feel. I encourage journaling and vision boarding to get in touch with your emotions, hopes, desires, and dreams. You need to take care of the body and the mind, together.My Flo Living grads report feeling lighter, energized, and even blissful after just a few days of following this transformative protocol. Not only that, but they have lost up to 15 lbs pounds! The results you want and a complete change of mindset. Isn’t it about time?Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this - the science of your body is on your side!to your FLO,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you

First, are you finding it harder to lose weight after 35? Second, did you try my 4 Day Detox? Share with me your experience! Third, you know every one you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social by clicking the buttons below :)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.I’ve designed a 4 day hormone detox and evaluation to help you understand exactly what’s out of whack and how you can start getting back to balance so that your hormones no longer have to suffer.Click here to get your FREE detox and evaluation!

What’s this essential fertility nutrient? It’s Vitamin D - which is actually a hormone made from your skin’s exposure to the sun. Most foods, fortified or not, do not have therapeutic levels of this nutrient and most women are massively deficient in Vit D3.Studies have shown that 93% of women dealing with infertility issues are vitamin D3 deficient. We also know that most women suffering with PCOS have this deficiency. Scientists have discovered that women with higher vitamin D3 levels are 4 times more likely to conceive via IVF than women with low levels.The core issue here, from a hormonal health standpoint, is that a low concentration of vitamin D3 causes estrogen dominance. This hormonal imbalance contributes to a whole range of reproductive health problems for women (like endometriosis, for example) as well as the development of common estrogen-sensitive cancers.When working with women here at Flo Living, I spend a lot of time helping them figure out if they are experiencing a deficiency and developing strategies to boost their levels. I know that because of where and how we obtain our D3, it can often be the most neglected of the vitamins, even for women who are otherwise fastidious about their healthy diet and lifestyle.Vitamin D3 deficiency has actually reached epidemic levels in recent years and I believe this to be one of roots of many women’s struggles with fertility and fertile health.

The 5 ways vitamin D3 supports your fertility

1. Higher D3 levels help the body regulate blood sugar levels. Imbalanced blood sugar impacts whether you ovulate or not every cycle.
2. D3 supports the body’s immune response. Most infertility has autoimmune disturbances at it’s core. Vit D3 tells your body not to attack itself.
3. D3 supports a healthy gut microbiome and vaginal microbiome which improves your chance of conceiving and maintaining a pregnancy.
4. There are vitamin D3 receptors in all of your female reproductive organs - showing that the entire reproductive system requires D3 to function healthily.
5. D3 boosts progesterone levels which helps you to get and stay pregnant.

PLUS - for your partner - D3 is absolutely vital for maintaining his high sperm count and sperm motility. It takes two to make a baby so it’s always important for your man to keep an eye on his health too!The early sign of vitamin D3 deficiency many don’t spot As I mentioned already, if you struggle with infertility or PCOS, it is likely that you are D3 deficient. Other signs include a diabetes diagnosis and any gut troubles from IBS or Crohn’s Disease. However, there’s one early sign of a growing deficiency that is actually used by medical professionals to diagnose this problem in babies, that is:Excessive head sweating! Seems strange, but it’s true. So if you or your child wake up each morning with a soaked pillow, it might be time to take a vitamin D3 test and work on increasing your levels.How to test for vitamin D3 deficiencyAsk your doctor to give you a 25(OH)D test (aka a 25-hydroxyvitamin D test). The optimal level for vitamin D3 in your blood is now considered to be between 50 and 70 ng/ml. If you find you have a deficiency, don’t panic, you can change this number quite simply with modifications to your diet and lifestyle. The Flo Living way of life can boost, protect and maintain your vitamin D3 levels.

The best way to get your vitamin D3

The Sun! Lots and lots of sunshine is key. That’s why vitamin D3 is often called the “sunshine vitamin” - it is truly the best way for your body to raise your levels of this vital nutrient. In fact, I was so aware of this factor in my own fertility that during the winter I was hoping to conceive I booked myself and my husband a special romantic break in the sun, away from the New York City snowstorms and grey skies. We arrived at our destination on the last day of my period and spent my follicular week soaking in the sunshine. We conceived just after we returned home, by which time I was ovulating.I recently wrote about the dangers of sunscreen and how to safely protect yourself in the sun - click here to read more.Why D3 supplements aren’t good enough Unfortunately, it’s really very hard to get enough vitamin D3 with supplements alone. You would need to be taking in 8,000 IUs per day to be making a real difference to your health. As I don’t live in a very sunny area of the country and I am breastfeeding, I currently take 5,000 IUs per day, but I also try to get outside as much as I can for walks in the park with my husband and baby girl without wearing sunscreen.Getting plenty of sun, along with avoiding nutrient-zapping diet and lifestyle choices like too much coffee, alcohol or processed foods (as I recommend to my Flo Living ladies), should be sufficient action to get your vitamin D3 levels in the healthy zone.Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this - the science of your body is on your side!to your FLO,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you

First, do you think you have vitamin D3 deficiency? Second, in what ways have you tried to increase your vitamin D3 levels?Third, you know every one you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social! ?

Are You Trying to Conceive?

If you want to do everything in your power to improve your chances of becoming a mom—then we want to help you optimize your fertility.Whether you are just starting to think about having a baby, or have already tried naturally or have been trying with IVF, our Fertile FLO Program will help improve your chances of conception.Click here to download my FREE guide, The 5 Health Foods to Avoid to Get and Stay Pregnant.