6 Simple Habits

To Naturally Optimize Your

Hormones

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 6 Simple Habits To Naturally Optimize
Your Hormones

Hormones have profound effects on your mental, physical and emotional health.

These chemical messengers play a major role in controlling your appetite, weight
and mood, among other things.

Normally, your endocrine glands produce the precise amount of each hormone
needed for various processes in your body.

However, hormonal imbalances have become increasingly common with today's

fast-paced modern lifestyle. In addition, certain hormones decline with age, and
some people experience a more dramatic decrease than others.

Fortunately, a nutritious diet, good exercise routine and other healthy lifestyle
behaviors may help improve your hormonal health and allow you to feel and
perform your best.

This pdf will show you 6 simple habits to adopt, that will help naturally optimize your
hormones.

Hormones influence every aspect of your daily life from making you feel unstoppable
in the weight room to that exercise high that comes after a great workout.

A properly designed workout and nutrition program will

optimize hormone balance, most people diet and exercise
incorrectly, which leads hormones to get out of whack.

Figuring out what’s going wrong with your hormones pretty

darn difficult. Fortunately, there are simple habits you can
use to optimize most hormones, Therefore, these tips can be
used to improve balance of some really important
hormones, such as testosterone, insulin, cortisol, ghrelin,
melatonin and more.

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First, let’s take a brief look at why these hormones are so important.

#1 Testosterone

Testosterone is a hormone found in men AND women, although men produce

significantly more than women. Its responsible for sex drive, fertility, muscle mass,
bone strength, maintaining a lean physique. Its even responsible for mood,
confidence, and a feeling of assertiveness or “manliness”. Some symptoms of low
testosterone are:
● Decreased sex drive
● Chronic fatigue (no energy)
● Weight gain
● Feelings of depression
● Low self esteem
● thinner/weak bones
● Inability to build muscle

#2 Insulin

Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas in

response to a rise in blood sugar after eating.
Carbohydrates illicit the biggest insulin response.
Insulin sensitivity is how well or poorly the body
uses insulin. If insulin sensitivity is high (good), the
insulin will shuttle the nutrients from food into
the muscle to be used for fuel. If insulin sensitivity
is low (poor), the nutrients will not be shuttled
into the muscle, but instead stored as body fat
(not good). Type 2 diabetes is full insulin
resistance (very bad).

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 #3 Cortisol

Cortisol is a hormone which becomes elevated in times of stress, be it physical,

emotional, mental, or chemical. When this happens, it causes a cascade of biological
changes throughout the body, such as a rise in blood sugar, elevated blood pressure,
increased adrenaline. This is known as the “fight or flight” state, and was vital
throughout evolution. Back in caveman days if a man was being chased by a Saber
Toothed Tiger, the body would kick in to “fight or flight” mode so the man could
either try to fight the threat, or run from it. Without the “fight or flight” response
humans wouldn’t have lasted very long. The thing is, when the caveman eventually
fought the threat off, or won the chase, the “fight or flight” response would reduce
and blood pressure, heart rate, adrenaline would all return back to normal.
Unfortunately in today's busy, highly stressed environment, humans spend most of
our time in “fight or flight” mode, which is where we run into serious health issues.
Cortisol, when chronically elevated, kill’s testosterone, increases hunger and cravings,
and is extremely bad for health and performance. It's also the cause of stubborn fat,
such as "love handles", and "man boobs".

#4 Ghrelin

Very simply, ghrelin is known as the “hunger hormone”. When ghrelin is elevated,
the feeling of hunger shows up. When dieting for weight loss, this is extremely
important to manage, so as hunger/cravings don't ruin your progress.

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 #5 Melatonin

Known as the “sleep hormone”, its produced in the

brain, and is responsible for regulation the body’s
circadian rhythm (internal body clock). It tells the
body when it’s time to sleep, and when it's time to
wake up. If the brain is not producing melatonin
efficiently, sleep quality will suffer. This has a dramatic
effect on health, body composition, testosterone
production, cortisol, and athletic performance.

Typically throughout evolution, as the sun would set, the body’s internal clock would
realise that its nearing the time of rest, and so would begin to produce melatonin in
preparation for sleep. In today's world, most of our body clocks are not working
properly as a result of the light bulb, and bright phone and laptop screens being
looked at long after dark.

#6 Thyroid

The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland that sits low on the front of the neck. Your
thyroid lies below your Adam’s apple, along the front of the windpipe. The thyroid
has two side lobes, connected by a bridge (isthmus) in the middle. When the thyroid
is its normal size, you can’t feel it. Brownish-red in color, the thyroid is rich with blood
vessels. Nerves important for voice quality also pass through the thyroid. The thyroid
secretes several hormones, collectively called thyroid hormones. The main hormone
is thyroxine, also called T4. Thyroid hormones act throughout the body, influencing
metabolism, growth and development, and body temperature. During infancy and
childhood, adequate thyroid hormone is crucial for brain development.

Ok, so that is just a very brief overview into a very complex topic as to which
hormones are the most important, and why.

Now let’s look at the 6 really simple daily habits that you can apply to optimize
your hormones.

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 #1 Sleep Better!

Optimize your circadian rhythm and get enough sleep.

Your circadian rhythm is your biological clock and it is influenced by many factors
including your genes, hormones, light exposure, and physical activity.

Here are a couple of simple things you can do to improve your circadian rhythm:

Set a consistent sleep/wake time. The body needs regular routine, so if you’re
constantly changing the times you go to bed and wake up at, it cannot regulate
your circadian rhythms.

Staying up late, and sleeping late on the weekends is not going to help you optimize
your hormones.

Get to bed before midnight. Every hour before midnight is worth 2 hours of sleep.

Ensure 7 - 9 hours of sleep EVERY night.

Expose yourself to light at the right times. Light serves as the major regulator of your
“master clock,” which controls your circadian rhythm. To “anchor” your master clock,
you want to get bright outdoor light exposure for at least 30 minutes in the
morning, preferably right after waking up.

Avoid blue light at night. Install f.lux on your devices to automatically dim screens
after sunset.Turn off all computers and phones in the hour before bedtime because
they decrease production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Dim/turn off your home
lights, get amber bulbs or candles. Blue light blocking glasses such as “Ra Optics”
work very well.

High quality, consistent sleep is the

king of hormone optimization!

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 #2 Ten Minute Walks

Taking a brisk 10 minute walk directly post meal has been shown to dramatically
improve insulin sensitivity. Its even been shown to be TWICE as effective at
managing blood sugars, which is a top priority for diabetics (or pre diabetics), than
the most popular and prescribed drug ‘Metformin’.

We’ve all heard that we should be trying to hit approximately 10,000 steps per day to
improve health.

A chinese study looked at the difference between 3 x 10 minute walks per day versus
10,000 steps per day.

The 10 minute walk group averaged only about 4,000 total daily steps but out
performed the 10,000 steps per day group on things like reduced blood sugars,
increased insulin sensitivity, improved digestion, reduction of gas/bloat, and even
weight loss.

How is this possible?

Well it seems that frequency is of major importance.

We can’t undo a day of inactivity by cramming in 1 big walk

(or workout) at the end of the day.

This is especially applicable for anyone who sits for long

periods of the day, such as office workers, or drivers.

Moving often is vital.

Every time you eat a main meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner),
immediately take a brisk, heart rate elevating 10 minute walk.

Stand at the office instead of sitting. It is the equivalent of

running 10 marathons per year!

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 #3 Workout!

Do strength training and interval workouts. Don’t overdo cardio.

Training with weights is arguably the number one best health-promoting,

hormone balancing activity you can do for the following reasons:
● it improves muscle mass, creating more insulin receptor sites.
● it reduces body fat, lowering estrogen (body fat produces estrogen and other
inflammatory markers that “act” like hormones.)
● it improves balance of hunger hormones, lowering appetite.

There are a few key points to getting the best hormone balancing results with
weight training:
● Keep workouts to under an hour because this will allow you to apply just the right
amount of physical stress for favorable adaptations, while avoiding sky-high
cortisol.
● If possible, do your lifting and intervals on different days because this will allow you
to maximize recovery.
● Use a periodized program that incorporates progressive overload so that you
continue getting leaner and stronger instead of spinning your wheels.
● Avoid overdoing excess cardio because it leads to very high cortisol levels and a
catabolic environment that promotes lean muscle loss over time.

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 #4 Manage Stress!

Meditate or perform a daily stress reduction practice.

Meditation has been found to balance cortisol with hormones involved in body
composition such as testosterone, DHEA, and growth hormone. It also enhances the
release of the hormone melatonin and can improve sleep.

Other mind-body practices that are associated with better hormone balance include
yoga, judo, and deep breathing.

#5 Nutrition

Don't go ravenously hungry. A little hunger is fine and expected if you’re dieting to
lose weight, but fasting for too long or extreme calorie deficits cause very high
cortisol.

Fasting works well for some people, so you may feel fine eating only 1-2 times per
day, but for others 3-5 meals will reduce extreme hunger and cravings. The main
thing is to eat in a way that suits YOU!

Avoid or limit added sugars and refined carbohydrates. These spike blood sugar,
which causes the pancreas to secrete insulin. Done too often over time this will
cause insulin resistance and inflammation. Diets high in sugar and refined carbs
have been shown to play a role in high cortisol. Elevated cortisol causes cravings for
high fat, high sugar, junk foods.

When cortisol goes up, you eat more and are more likely to choose poor quality food
which are more likely to be stored as fat. Another unfavourable knock on effect of
elevated cortisol is that testosterone can be reduced by as much as 25%!

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Eat a high protein diet. Protein is the most satiating food, helping you to avoid
hunger and cravings. Planning meals around protein improves blood sugar and
lowers insulin, while providing nutrients that promote optimal hormone levels. For
example, fish, red meat and dairy provide omega-3 fats, which are necessary for
insulin sensitivity and androgen balance. In addition, animal proteins provide
bioavailable zinc, selenium, and copper to support healthy testosterone levels.

Eat plenty of healthy fats.

Shunning dietary fat can compromise

hormone balance because the cholesterol
that fat contains is used to make hormones in
the body. For example, very low-fat diets have
been found to reduce androgen levels in both
men and women. In one study, men who
switched to a low-fat, higher carb diet resulted
in a 12 percent drop in testosterone and other
androgen hormones.

The solution is to eat a moderate - higher fat

diet (at least 30 percent of calories) from a
variety of sources including saturated animal
fat (to provide cholesterol), omega-3s like fish
oil (to provide balance with omega-6
polyunsaturated fats).

Be sure to avoid processed fats, in particular vegetable oils because they are highly
refined and will cause insulin resistance and poor estrogen metabolism. Trans fats—
a.k.a. hydrogenated fats—should also be avoided.

Optimize carb intake based on your goals, training, and body fat levels.

Although highly refined carb foods can negatively affect hormone levels, a complete
lack of carbs can also be detrimental.

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 For example, carb intake is important for testosterone production. The same goes for
thyroid hormone—lack of carbs can cause your thyroid to take a hit—and cortisol
can also be dysregulated form zero carb diets, particularly if you are training hard or
living a high-stress lifestyle.

Leaner and more active individuals will be more insulin sensitive, meaning they can
utilize carbohydrates more efficiently and use them for energy instead of storing
them as fat, thus can eat a higher carb intake, especially if high performance is a
priority.

If you’re carrying a lot of excess body fat, a lower carb approach will help improve
insulin sensitivity, hunger and cravings (of course a calorie deficit must still be
applied in order to lose weight)

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 #6 Supplement

Avoid nutrient deficiencies.

Minerals such as magnesium, vitamin D, and zinc are extremely important for
hormone balance.

For example, magnesium improves insulin sensitivity of cells. Vitamin D prevents the
hormone testosterone from being aromatized or changed into estrogen. Zinc
enables androgen production and acts as an antioxidant, keeping cells and DNA
healthy.

If your levels of these nutrients are topped off, they cease to be a concern, but if
you’re concerned that you may be deficient, get a blood test, and make them a top
priority.

If you are deficient in zinc, supplementing can raise levels quickly. Avoid taking zinc
chronically, though, as it can be toxic.

When supplementing magnesium, avoid magnesium oxide because it is a cheap

form that is poorly absorbed.

Daily sun exposure or supplementing with vitamin D, has been effective at

maintaining blood values. Be sure to get tested at least annually and preferably
twice a year.

End

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