I’m no stranger to struggles with weight loss. I first started dieting and exercising to change my weight when I was 16 years old, although if I had my way I likely would’ve started earlier- even though I was a slim girl, I never saw myself that way. Just because I was one or two pant sizes bigger than the other girls in my class, I thought I was huge. 

I also didn’t have good role models growing up- the women in my family were constantly hating on their bodies and always dieting. I thought that if I didn’t have a flat tummy, toned arms and a “thigh gap”, I was unworthy of being called “beautiful”.

Throughout the next several years, I dieted on an off basically all the time, usually by restricting my fat intake, lowering my calories and doing loads of cardio and attending bootcamp exercises classes at the local rec centre. 

It always worked temporarily, until I was in my early 20s and was diagnosed with PCOS. Calorie counting didn’t work, and when I went back to the treadmill, I gained even MORE weight. I couldn’t understand what the fuck was going on, and I felt like a failure. 

Although doctors and various “experts” over the last several decades have heavily promoted long cardio sessions and hardcore bootcamp classes as being the best for weight loss, this is a total MYTH, and a myth I’m super excited to BUST for you today. 

The Bad Science

First of all, let’s talk science. 

The thought process behind using cardio for weight loss centres around calorie expenditure. For instance, 1 pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. So, if you want to lose 1 pound per week, you need to burn an extra 500 calories per day according to this theory. 

Doctors and others may suggest that doing an hour on the treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike daily with some calorie restriction on your food will get you there. But what happens at the end of the week when you’ve burned all these calories and the scale still doesn’t budge?

Part of this has to do with heart rate. When you do cardio, it’s at a steady pace for the entire time. Generally, this is inefficient at burning fat, as variations in heart rate (like in High-Intensity Interval Training) become more effective partly by “keeping your body guessing” and putting yourself into that fat burning zone. 

Also, doing long, drawn out cardio often leaves us tired and hungry. So we eat more. Or, if we have the willpower to stick with the 1,200 calories a day we’ve chosen for our weight loss diet, we aren’t giving our bodies the proper fuel to recover from this exercise, which creates a mess in your body. We’ll talk about this more in the next section. 

Your Body On Cardio and Bootcamps

To help you understand WHY these forms of exercise are inefficient for weight loss, you must understand HOW your body reacts when you participate in these activities. 

For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to use jogging as an example. 

You go out for a run, hoping to shed those pounds. You slowly work your way up to longer and longer distances. 

As you are running, a stress reaction starts in your body. Cortisol, your main stress hormone, is released. While this is a good thing if you’re literally running for your life, chronically high levels of cortisol (i.e.: from long distance running), tells your body to make and release more sugar into the blood so your body can make more energy. 

Higher levels of blood sugar is one of the simplest ways your body packs on the pounds. Plus, this leaves you feeling ravenous. The sugar and carb cravings will be yelling at you and guess what- you’ll likely eat and average of 100 more calories after you’re done than you burned off during the exercise!

Additionally, doing this type of exercise (or other cardio and bootcamps), causes your body to burn muscle instead of fat. Less lean muscle mass slows your metabolism, and it becomes even harder to burn those calories to get the weight off. Plus, you’ll become weaker, more tired and more irritable. And your hormones will start screaming at you. 

High levels of cortisol and imbalanced blood sugar mean hormonal hell. Your body steals building blocks (like pregnenolone and progesterone) to make more cortisol, leaving you deficient in progesterone. Low progesterone isn’t able to keep estrogen in check, so estrogen dominance can result. 

Estrogen dominance then starts a STORM in your body of weight gain- especially in the hips, thighs, belly and back- and moodiness, anxiety, depression and of course- bad periods. 

Many women with hormonal imbalances with estrogen dominance at the root (like PCOS, Endometriosis, PMS, and heavy, painful or irregular periods) feel the worst when they do cardio and bootcamps because it increases their symptoms- even if during the exercise they feel fabulous. 

You can read more about Estrogen Dominance to see if this hormonal imbalance is part of your inability to lose weight and improve your emotional state by clicking here. 

What Can Be Done Instead

So that’s all great- but what can you actually do to effectively burn fat without losing muscle and creating hormonal imbalances?

First, correct your hormonal imbalances with food. 

You cannot out-exercise a bad diet ladies.

It’s just not possible. No matter how long you stay on that treadmill or how many bootcamp classes you attend, if you’re scarfing down a bagel for breakfast and eating take out for dinner every night, the scale is going to climb. 

Second, switch your exercise to the fat-burning kind. The de-stressor kind. Think High-Intensity Interval Training for 20-30 minutes max, and some yoga to balance it out.

There are so many different reasons our bodies may be suffering, trying to figure it all out can be dizzying. Hormone imbalance is really a hot topic these days in the wellness sphere, and for good reason. 

Millions of women everywhere are suffering needlessly with hormonal imbalances. Busy, stressful lives, widespread toxicity, poor diet and sedentary lifestyle are contributing to these imbalances which seem to plague us. 

As you may be aware, I have hormonal imbalances myself. I have PCOS as well as an underactive thyroid gland. I deal with adrenal insufficiency as well. All of these issues seem to be connected, and the hormone estrogen is one of those connections. 

If you’re struggling with weight gain in the hips, thighs, belly and back, or are dealing with mood problems and bad periods, I urge you to read on. What you will discover may be the lightbulb moment you need to begin taking targeted and natural action to smooth your symptoms and allow you to LIVE again. 

What Is Estrogen Dominance?

First of all, let’s get this out of the way. Educating yourself about WHAT is going on in your body and WHY (this comes below) will give you the direction you need to keep going. 

Estrogen dominance is a term that’s become quite popular, but many don’t truly understand what it means. Often we think “dominance” must mean too much, but this is not the case.

Estrogen dominance is simply an imbalance in the ratio of estrogen to progesterone, in favour of estrogen. This could mean that:

(1) You have excessively high levels of estrogen

(2) You have normal estrogen and low progesterone

(3) You have low estrogen and extremely low progesterone

Therefore, it is possible for women of all ages (even through and beyond menopause) to be estrogen dominant. There are 3 main estrogens, (1) estradiol, (2) estriol and (3) estrone. For the purposes of this article, I’m talking about estradiol- the estrogen that is most important throughout our lifespan. On the flip side, estriol is highest in pregnancy, and estrone becomes the dominant estrogen post-menopause. 

What Are The Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance?

There are so many different symptoms or complaints of estrogen dominance, and I’ll outline them below based on the 3 possible variations of estrogen dominance we discussed above. 

(1) Excessively high levels of estrogen and low progesterone

• Sore, swollen and tender breasts
• Breast growth beyond puberty
• Swelling in the hands/fingers, legs and ankles
• Menstrual cramps
• Heavy menstrual flow
• Impatience 
• Being called “too bossy”

(2) Normal to high estrogen and low progesterone

• Absent periods
• Irregular periods
• Menstrual flow clotting
• Sore, tender breasts
• Water retention/swelling
• Fibrocystic breasts
• Fibroids
• Endometriosis 

(3) Low estrogen and extremely low progesterone

• Memory loss
• Depression 
• Hot flashes or night sweats
• Vaginal dryness
• Low libido
• Chronic fatigue
• Insomnia
• Sagging breasts
• Quick weight gain
• Bloating 
• Absent or irregular periods

Other, more general symptoms and signs of estrogen dominance include:

• Accelerated aging
• Hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) – feeling “hangry” between meals
• Premenopausal bone loss
• Thyroid dysfunction
• Uterine cancer and fibroids
• Breast cancer
• PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)
• Ovarian cysts
• Anovulation 
• Low progesterone and/or luteal phase defect
• Cervical dysplasia
• Hair loss
• infertility
• irritability
• Mood swings
• PMS or PMDD
• Sluggish metabolism
• Fat deposition in the hips, thighs, belly and back
• Gallbladder disease

How You Get Estrogen Dominance

So how did we get here? What happened in our lives that brought on estrogen dominance and all these bothersome symptoms?

Toxicity 

First and foremost, we must chat about toxicity. There are infinite sources of toxicity in our environment, and we cannot escape it. This sometimes makes us feel like giving up- because if we don’t have control, what’s the point? The truth is we do have control.

The main sources of toxicity we can’t control are:

• Air pollution
• Use of chemicals in clothing, furniture, cars, etc

Sources of toxicity we can control:

• Food and water
• Household cleaning products
• Indoor air environment
• Makeup
• Personal care products such as deodorant and shampoo

As you can see, a lot of the control is in our hands. This is really important, as toxins can disrupt proper estrogen and hormone metabolism (endocrine disruptors) contributing to any or all of the symptoms listed above. 

Specifically, it’s important to watch out for xenoestrogens, man-made estrogens found in many places, including:

• Commercially-raised meat and dairy products like chicken, beef, pork, and all dairy
• Non-organic foods with high levels of insecticides and pesticides
• Tap water
• Shampoos, lotions, soaps, toothpastes, cosmetics, deodorants, etc
• Soft plastics (BPA is a popular xenoestrogen here)
• Artificial food additives, including artificial sweeteners and MSG
• Non-organic soy and soy derivatives like soy protein isolate
• Dryer sheets
• Birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
• Disposable menstrual products like tampons and sanitary pads

The problem with these xenoestrogens is that they mimic the function of our natural estrogen, but in a much stronger or more powerful way. Beyond giving our bodies too much estrogen, they will also disrupt that delicate estrogen-progesterone ratio, the definition of estrogen dominance. 

Poor Diet

Diet is one of those areas where we do have control, and ignoring this is detrimental to our health. As you can see from the above list, five of the ten sources of xenoestrogens mentioned are food-based. 

This makes logical sense then that dietary xenoestrogens are contributing to estrogen dominance. You can also see that these foods aren’t healthy choices either, so eliminating them from your diet is the easiest way to ditch 50% of the xenoestrogens you come into contact with. 

Beyond dietary xenoestrogens, other dietary problems can contribute. For example, if you eat a diet high in refined carbs (think bagels, bread, muffins, noodles, donuts, crackers, etc), your blood sugar and insulin balance will be upset. 

When this happens, insulin messes with your ovaries, changing up estrogen and progesterone balance. Additionally, insulin resistance and blood sugar imbalance create more opportunity for your body to store extra fat and to be anxious, depressed, irritable or down right moody. 

Birth Control and Hormone Replacement Therapy

Medications are another branch of toxicity worth it’s own section. Many women today are on some form of hormones birth control, like the pill, shot, IUD or patch. Other peri- and post-menopausal women are given synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT). 

All of these drugs push high amounts of synthetic estrogen into your body. Because the lab-made estrogen doesn’t look or at the exact way our natural estrogen does, it often binds to receptors first and has the same powerful and harmful action as other xenoestrogens. When women using hormonal birth control pee, the hormones are left in the water system, ending up in tap water. Local filtration systems just aren’t enough to remove the hormones from the water. 

The good news is that there are many non-drug ways to have contraception, or hormone support, depending on your needs. For example, the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) can be used to prevent pregnancy or enhance fertility, depending on your goals. 

Estrogen Dominance and Weight Gain

So what’s the connection between having estrogen dominance and weight gain? It’s pretty simple. 

Estrogen is partly responsible for keeping our metabolisms in good shape. It also helps to maintain fat loss in proper levels. Having too much can slow metabolism, as can having too little. So, you’re more apt to gain weight, especially in the hips, thighs and back, as well as the belly. You might notice you started out as a pear shape, and have gained weight and now have an apple shape, with much of your weight in the belly area as time goes on. 

Beyond this, estrogen dominance negatively interferes with thyroid hormone. The thyroid is the main controller of our metabolism, and of estrogen dominance is slowing our thyroid, our metabolism will slow and we will gain weight. 

Many women with estrogen dominance also have some level of thyroid dysfunction. 

Estrogen Dominance and Mood Problems

Beyond weight gain, mood disturbances are a big light bulb that estrogen dominance may be contributing to your issues. 

When estrogen is in balance, we feel sexy, strong, confident and ready to take on the world. We are uplifted and pleasant to be around. 

When estrogen dominates over progesterone, this can lead to anxiety (progesterone is a calming hormones) and depression, which may be seen even with low estrogen levels. 

Additionally, excess estrogen may have you feeling super irritable, or people may begin calling you bossy because of the way you act. 

These things don’t have to be cause for using anti-depressants, but rather are a signal to bring estrogen and progesterone into balance naturally to restore your moods. 

Estrogen Dominance and Painful, Heavy and Irregular Periods

Another big sign of estrogen dominance is period issues. Specifically, heavy, painful and/or irregular periods.

Having too much estrogen in relation to progesterone can stall or halt ovulation altogether. No ovulation = no period. 

Excessive estrogen also builds up the lining of the uterus more than normal, and often results in heavy periods accompanied by clotting. Pain and menstrual cramping may also be severe with estrogen dominance.
 
 

Growing up, my breakfast was almost completely made up of breakfast cereals. But, my mom would only let my sister and I have the “healthy” cereals- Cheerios, Special K, and more. She would let us choose a sugary cereal for special occasions only- Christmas and Birthdays. Fruit Loops and Captain Crunch were my favs. She thought she was giving us the healthy choices on a daily basis- little did I know at the time that ALL breakfast cereals (yep, all of them) are crap. Crap for your health, crap for your hormones.

Maybe you have a similar story of using cereal, toast, bagels, muffins and other flour-based and sweet tasting products as your daily breakfast food. I get it- it’s tasty, it’s fast and really- who gives a fuck? It’s just some fuel to get you going, right?

Or perhaps you’re of the skipping breakfast camp. Too busy in the morning, or eating food first thing makes you want to puke your guts up. 

My job is to tell you the truth, and sometimes that means bursting your bubble. Eating a sugary, carb-heavy breakfast, or not eating breakfast at all, is totally unacceptable. 

Before you get huffy and close this page, please read on. I know you’ll understand by the end of this article and you’ll have some concrete examples of WHAT is in the perfect breakfast.

Why Your Current Breakfast Strategy Sucks

Breakfast is important. Skipping breakfast or eating a high carbohydrate breakfast like what I’ve mentioned above is seriously detrimental to your hormone balance, weight loss and energy-increasing efforts. Here’s why.

Cortisol, that stress hormone you’ve heard about, is highest first thing in the morning. Part of the reason for this is to get you up and out of bed, regulating your circadian rhythm or sleep-wake cycle. This is totally natural and normal, but problems can arise when a proper breakfast doesn’t follow the getting-out-of-bed. 

Cortisol is a hormone that stimulates the formation of new sugars to be released in the bloodstream. Often, cortisol will break down muscle and use your muscles to create the sugar. This is bad news for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you want sexy, lean muscle on your body because it burns more calories at rest than fat does. Second, if you use up all of your muscles, you will become very weak, your bones might be negatively effected and your hormones and nervous system will suffer. 

So, when cortisol is high in the morning, it’s important to eat a healthful breakfast to stop it from breaking down muscle to create sugar to keep you going. By eating breakfast, you tell your body you have nutrients and sugars, and can keep your precious muscle. 

This is What Happens in Your Body When You Eat a Sugary Breakfast

Let’s say you enjoy having the breakfast cereal Special K for breakfast. Or maybe another cereal, or toast, muffins or bagels. For our purposes, let’s stick with Special K. This cereal is promoted heavily as being a “healthy” breakfast option for women wanting to keep trim, and stay healthy. The main way the people at Special K pass this crap off as “healthy” is because it’s low calorie, and low fat. Neither of which are doing your health or hormones any favours. 

When you eat that cold, crunchy cereal first thing in the morning on an empty stomach (or with a BIG coffee, which will intensify all the effects), your body gets a sugar hit. Sorry Not sorry to say that even if the cereal doesn’t actually have “sugar” in the ingredients, the processed nature of it makes it almost indistinguishable from sugar in your body.

So, you get the sugar hit, and there’s no fibre, healthy fats or proteins to slow it down. Even if you have it with whole milk, this is still a mess. Your body receives that sugar rush, and so your blood sugar rises rapidly. In response to this huge lift in blood sugar, your pancreas releases insulin, your blood sugar regulating hormone, to get that sugar out of the blood and into the cells to make energy. 

So far, not too bad.

The problem arises when this cereal is more than a one time thing. Eventually, your body will make more and more insulin, and your cells will become desensitized to it. So, you can’t get the sugar in the cell and are left with high sugar and high insulin levels. Eventually, about an hour or two later, your body will crash. Blood sugar levels will dip drastically, as there’s no fat or protein to keep everything stable, and this is where the problems begin.

When that sugar dips, likely you’ll be feeling super hungry, and headed to the vending machine for chocolate, the corner store for a coffee or anything else that’s carb-loaded and sugary you can get your hands on for more quick energy.

Before you reach that ravenous state about an hour or two after breakfast, you’ll likely experience some crazy mood swings. Like WHO the fuck does she think she is, or I can’t BELIEVE hubby hasn’t done the dishes AGAIN after I’ve asked him a million times, or GAH I’m so ugly and fat, I can’t go on anymore. 

As you go through your day, now on this blood sugar roller coaster, you’ll be cravings carbs and sugars, having crazy, embarrassing mood swings and feeling like a zombie without a brain as you move from one thing to the next.

And guess what happens when your insulin and sugar are chronically out of whack?

FAT storage.

Yep, insulin turns into a fat storage hormone instead of a blood-sugar regulating hormone when there’s a lot of it, and when your body has become desensitized to it’s blood-sugar regulating abilities. 

And you know where the fat goes?

Your BELLY. 

So what’s the moral of this story? Eat breakfast.

And make it a good one.

Three Parts to a Hormone Balancing Breakfast

There are three parts to any hormone-balancing breakfast. As you create breakfasts for your own life, be sure to include all three parts, and you’ll know with confidence you’ve created a healthy breakfast for yourself. 

Protein

Protein is the first thing a hormone-balancing breakfast should have. Protein as you’ve learned above helps to build and maintain lean muscle, which is super important for your hormones. Protein helps to slow the blood sugar spike with a meal, as it digests more slowly than carbs. Also, if you notice low energy, weak nails, poor skin quality and hair thinning, you may not be getting enough protein, or you might not be absorbing it well. 

How much: Aim for 20-30g at least of protein with each meal.

Sources: (Choose organic and/or grass-fed sources) Chicken, Turkey, Lamb, Bison, Beef, Salmon, Cod, Herring, Mackerel, Sardines, all other fish, Crab, Oysters, all other seafood, Protein Powder (non-dairy), Collagen Hydrolysate Protein Powder (like Great Lakes), Nuts and Seeds like hemp and chia, Legumes like chickpeas, black beans and lentils

Fat

Fat is the #1 most important macronutrient you need in your breakfast (and all meals). Did you know that FAT (specifically cholesterol) is used to make ALL steroid hormones? That’s right, you use fat to create estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol and other hormones. Also, each of the billions of cells in your body has a membrane made mostly of fat. If you don’t get enough, your cells won’t function well and your hormones will be bat-shit crazy. 

Fat is also the slowest digesting marconutrient, and it stimulates some digestive processes as well. This means that fat will drastically reduce the sugar spike of any meal you eat. 

However, the TYPE of fat you eat matters. Don’t take this as permission to go to the local McDonald’s and grab a huge burger and milkshake because there’s fat in it. That just doesn’t cut it. 

Including healthy sources of fats, and removing rancid fats like vegetable oils, fried foods and packaged foods which are loaded with inflammatory trans fats are a good place to start. 

How much: Aim for 1-2 tbsp (at least!!) of ADDED fats to each meal

Sources: Coconut meat, milk and oil, Avocados and their oil, hemp seeds and oil, chia seeds, all other nuts/seeds and their oils or butters, pastured lard, grass-fed butter, organic ghee (clarified butter), extra virgin olive oil, fats naturally occurring in meats like chicken skin, MCT oil

Fibre

Fibre is the final component of a good hormone-balancing breakfast. Fibre is also the only nutrient I would say is optional some of the time. If you have bowel issues, the fibre is NOT optional. Fibre of course comes from plant foods that also provide us with carbohydrates. Please note that I do not consider carbs to be the enemy, and in fact believe that a long-term extremely low carb diet is detrimental to your hormone healing. 

Fibre, like protein and fat, helps to slow the blood sugar spike when we eat. It also helps us to excrete excess hormones that have been metabolized through the liver and come out in our poop. Fibre helps to keep our digestive system clean by gently “brushing” the sides of our intestines and keeping everything moving properly. Fibre also helps to feed good bacteria in our gut. 

How much: Aim for 35g to 45g as a daily total. If you are trying to conceive or have ovulation difficulties, shoot for the lower end. 

Sources: All fruits and veggies, especially leafy greens (kale, collards, chard, spinach), broccoli, cabbage, apples, pears, berries, brussels sprouts, avocados, lentils, black beans, flax, chia and hemp seeds, all other nuts and seeds, gluten-free whole grains like quinoa and millet

Hormone-Balancing Breakfast Examples

Here are a few breakfast ideas to use as examples.

Note that PRO = protein, FAT = fat, and FIB = fibre

• 2 eggs (PRO, FAT), cooked in 1 tbsp coconut oil (FAT), served with 1 cup kale (FIB) sauteed in 1 tbsp coconut oil (FAT)
• Smoothie: 1 serving protein powder (PRO), 1 cup non-dairy milk, 1 tbsp cashew butter (FAT), handful swiss chard (FIB), 1/3 cup berries (FIB), and 2 tsp coconut oil (FAT)
• Porridge: see recipe below

Hormone-Balancing Breakfast Recipe

Hello gorgeous!

Are you fed up with never being able to lose weight?

Do you exercise all the time and follow strict diets only to GAIN weight?

Do you wake up in the morning still tired and pissed off?

Does your family know not to talk to you until you’ve had your morning coffee?

Does your gut instinct tell you it’s your hormones. . .

Then I have the answers you’re looking for!!

Join me on Thursday, July 21st at 7:30PM Eastern Time for a transformational, LIVE online workshop:

3 Steps to Banish Acne, Balance Mood + Slim Down in Just 21 Days!

By saving your seat at the workshop, you’ll discover:

1. The #1 Mistake Hormonally-Imbalanced Women Make When Trying to Lose Weight
2. Three “Healthy” Foods That are Secretly Wrecking Your Hormones
3. The 3 Phases of an Effective Hormone Diet and How Long You MUST Stay in Each Phase
4. My Top 3 Long-Term, Happy Hormones Maintenance Tips
5. BONUS: Join LIVE and receive my free 5 Happy Hormones Swaps mini recipe book to replace those “healthy”, hormone-wrecking foods with new, easy-to-prepare favorites!

Save your seat at the workshop today!