How To Improve Your Digestion for Optimal Hormonal Health

The Second Step In Balancing Your Hormones

Hormones don’t just affect us once a month, it plays a role in our energy levels, mood swings, cravings, and ability to enjoy life pretty much throughout our whole cycle – our entire biology is based on hormones, that’s how important they are.

That is why, no matter your health goals, we must start with what’s on your plate. Whether you desire to lose weight, increase your energy levels, get a better night’s sleep, etc. – it all comes back to how you are choosing to nourish your body. Plus, we are only as healthy as the food we can digest, that is why it’s so important to our overall hormonal health to have a healthy digestive system.

The first step in supporting your hormones is by balancing your blood sugar levels. I share how in this post.

Not sure if your blood sugar levels are out of balance? Here is a good reference for you: if you ever feel “hangry”, feel hungry an hour after eating a meal or you constantly crave sugar in the form of sweets or carbs, your blood sugar levels are most likely not balanced.

When you achieve more stable blood sugar levels your mood is more consistent, and you feel like you have enough energy to get through all of your meetings during the day.

If you have taken the time to balance your blood sugar levels, the next step is to improve your digestion. Hopefully you have already seen an improvement just by balancing your meals with the healthy fats, proteins and fiber we chatted about last time.

But, if you are experiencing any bloating, constipation or diarrhea no matter what time of the month, it’s a sure sign that we need to support your gut health to help improve your hormonal health.

What causes digestive issues?

Digestive issues can be uncomfortable and can disrupt our daily lives. The most common reasons we have digestive issues is from a poor diet, antibiotic overuse, and chronic stress.

Depending on your diet and your hormonal health concern it will be helpful to eliminate all processed foods from your diet, including sugars, refined flours and industrial seed oils. Most of the time if we reduce the amount of processed foods, this is a big step we can take to support our gut health.

Often times in my health coaching practice I see a lot of women who have digestive issues also tend to have a gluten or dairy sensitivity. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are lactose intolerant or have Celiac disease, but when they do consume foods with dairy and gluten in them they feel bloated, tired, have headaches or gastrointestinal issues.  

Also, if you are not eating any of the foods I mentioned before, I’d like you to think about how often you are drinking a glass of wine or having a cocktail. We will chat more about that in a later post, but too much alcohol is also not great for our hormones, especially for our gut and liver health.

What Can You Eat To Improve Your Digestion?

Fermented Foods

By adding in foods that are fermented you are not only helping your digestive system but it also helps to support your immunity. Fermented foods are sauerkraut, kimchee, coconut water kefir, ginger, pickled beets and other veggies. Try adding sauerkraut with your eggs, or kimchee to a veggie stir-fry and see how this can help with your digestion. Try adding in a fermented food daily.

Bone Broth

If you are friends with me on Instagram, then you know how obsessed I am with bone broth. Whenever I start to feel under the weather and or having digestive issues I make a fresh batch of this super healing broth. It’s rich in nutrients that have a healing effect on the gut. You can try my recipe here and freeze it for when you need it the most.

Soluble Fiber

Foods with soluble fiber are super healing to the gut as well. You can cook up some carrots, yams, sweet potatoes, summer or winter squash, beets or plantains whenever your belly isn’t feeling that great. It’s better than insoluble fiber like greens, bell peppers, broccoli and cauliflower which can be harder to digest. So if you are having any digestive issues stick with the soluble fiber foods.

Try & Keep Calm

Stress is usually one of the main reasons women have digestive issues! If you are not sleeping well, have bloating and other belly aches it’s really important to find ways to reduce the stress in your life. It could mean taking a walk during lunch, watching a funny youtube video, trying this one yoga pose or adding in some deep breathing. Whatever you can do every day to feel better in your body will really help to improve your digestion. Also when you feel calmer, you tend to eat slower which also helps with digestion.

Probiotics

I take one every day! Growing up I was often on antibiotics. I had so many ear and sinus infections, by the time I was in my twenties I got sick a ton because I didn’t have many healthy bacteria left to keep my immune system strong. Probiotics help with improving your digestion, which helps with your immunity and supports your hormones better. I use the life equals one, you can try it out with my code KBR50 to get 50% off if you click the subscribe and save option.

—

I hope this post has been helpful! Now, what is one thing you can add into your diet today to help support your digestive system so you can support your hormones better? Share with us below or in our Facebook community here.