Being a woman is no easy job. If you’re one amazing female, then you know about those days when you’re feeling out of whack or feeling annoyed and frustrated,for no reason at all. You’re probably thinking, “It’s my hormones.” The crazy fact is, you’re probably right 100 percent of the time.
Besides dealing with your monthly period, you also have to deal with these unpredictable chemical messengers roaming around inside your body. They have the ability to affect your weight, appetite, mood, sex drive and everything else.
You may be wondering where all this hormonal weirdness is coming from and feeling lost with your thoughts about the entire occurrence. No worries, not everyone is in the medical field and studies about hormones, so it is okay not to know how the whole process works. However, hormones could cause certain behaviors that are unexplainable. Here are 8 surprising ways to mess with your hormones, so you can avoid feeling badly as much.
8. Sugar Fetish
Do you have a sugar addiction? Did you know that eating foods that have too much sugar may eventually lead to weight gain? Those excessive pounds could cause your body to be resistant to insulin. Insulin is the hormone that transports sugar into the bloodstream, so that the cells can get all the energy they need.
So, if you’re noticing your sugar intake has increased throughout the years, you should probably try to lessen it.
Who in the world would want to gain excessive weight, boost up their blood sugar to an unhealthy level and mess up their hormones? The answer to that is most likely nobody.
7. Late Night Stressing Out
During the nighttime, it is normal for your cortisol, or stress hormones, to drop. This in turn helps you calm yourself down and eventually fall asleep. However, women who still feel anxious and tense during the late evening hours may have stress hormones that are going nuts, making them feel too wired up to doze off peacefully in a deep state of sleep.
Try some anxiety or stress-relieving techniques to help protect yourself from those late night dazed moments and to also prevent your hormones from going out of whack. Some stress-relieving tools you could try are listening to soothing, calming music; having a massage or taking a long, warm bath.
Just make sure that you find things to do that will calm your mind and help you stay away from tension or stress,so that you could get a good night’s sleep.
6. Late Afternoon Caffeine Runs
Are you the type of woman that enjoys her caffeine late in the afternoon? If you are, then this is surely another cause of messing up your hormones. Then again, cortisol is the main reason for this occurrence. Caffeine gives your body the notion that the stress hormone should increase in production, which will eventually make you feel tense. This will in turn keep you up throughout the night, screw with your hormones and also cause irritated and moody feelings.
Try controlling your coffee runs to no more than two regular-sized cups a day, and that is most preferably around 3 to 4 p.m. It doesn’t mean that you have to stay away from caffeine drinks all together, just make sure you learn how to limit yourself to a certain amount throughout the day.
If possible, try having a caffeine-free day or two throughout the week, also.
5. Lack Of Exercise
We all know that exercise could be a drag, especially when you’re a full-time student or employee. However, regular exercise is very much needed to help your body feel better, both inside and out.
Have you ever heard about “happy hormones?” During physical activity, your body tends to produce and release optimal amounts of endorphins, happy hormones, which in turn helps you feel giddy and blissful. Another good definition of endorphins are those feel-good chemical compounds in the brain that makes a person feel alert and positive. They also help keep your immune system functioning healthy and increase the levels of sex hormones, so that your sex drive is at its healthy state. The more your move, the more happy hormones that your body produces.
That is something you should remember when you’re just lying on the coach watching some television, get up and run around, 30 to 45 minutes will do, just three to four times a week. Any type of physical activity will be appreciated by your body, from running around the neighborhood, dancing, yoga, bike riding, swimming and more.
Just make sure to let your body recover after working out, so that you don’t overstrain your muscles.
4. Crash Diets
You know those days when you’re feeling bloated and fat, and you opt for going on a ridiculous crash diet? Well, if you didn’t know, these crash diets could also mess around with your hormones. It does make sense though.
Imagine being used to eating three meals a day, then suddenly you start reducing the meals to two,or even one, eating only small amounts of food instead. To add to that, you increase your exercise regimen to a higher intensity to help your burn those extra pounds.
As much as you may feel that you are helping your body lose weight, you might just be hurting yourself more. It could really halt your cycle, since your estrogen and blood sugar levels could decrease.
The best advice for this is to simply stay away from crash diets and just focus on eating balanced meals, increasing your intake of fruits, vegetables, protein and whole grains while fitting in three to four sessions of exercise a week. Crash diets may work for a short time, but in the long run, most individuals usually gain the weight back and even double their weight.
3. Cans
Try inspecting your kitchen for canned foods, do you have a whole stock stored somewhere? This is normal for many homes, since canned foods last a long time and are the best for emergency situations.
However, did you know that these cans are filled with bisphenol or BPA? This is a chemical found in certain types of plastics and it is known to mimic estrogen.
BPA has been linked to obesity, breast cancer, reproductive conditions, heart disease and much more.
Try staying away from eating canned foods and having too much stored in your kitchen cabinets. Plus, canned foods aren’t the healthiest choice for your body and will also lead to weight gain.
2. Eggs And Bacon
If you are a breakfast lover, eggs and bacon are essential parts of your meal. Although they are fairly safe to eat in controlled portions, the plastic containers that they are stored have been linked to being contaminated with hormone-altering chemical compounds. Such a chemical, as reported is dioxin.
Being exposed to low levels of this chemical in the womb and early on in life could after the human body, especially the hormones.
It contains carcinogens, which are linked to causing cancer. Be careful with how your eggs and bacon is stored. Try to stay away from containers that are made with plastic and opt for other storage containers that are safer.
1. Fruits
Do you enjoy eating all kinds of fruits? If so, you might want to be more aware of how they are grown and where they came from. You may ask, why would fruits be included in the list, I thought that fruits are healthy and should be included in daily meals?”
Fruits are healthy, but it really depends on how they are grown. There are some fruits that are coated with all types of pesticides.
These chemicals may cause negative effects to the human body, such as fertility problems, behavior issues and delays in brain development.
Pesticides, such as organophosphates and atrazine have been found in the United States, where scientists observed the latter turning male frogs into females. It has also been connected to delayed puberty and breast tumors.
A good tip is to be more knowledgeable with how your fruit is grown and focus on organic or farm grown fruits. You could usually tell if a fruit contains pesticides. An average piece of fruit should only be good no longer than a week, if it lasts longer then it probably has pesticides and you should throw it out.
As you can see, there are many things on the list that may be a big surprise to you, while others are just a bit of common sense. Continuing to mess up your hormones could lead to more serious medical conditions and that is the reason why you should be aware of what you do to your body and what you are eating.
This list could help you gain more knowledge about what you should stay away from, so that you could save your body from the negatives. Who knows, you may save yourself from a life of being unhealthy.