The overwhelming majority of us out there today are – quite literally – digging their own graves with their teeth!
The foods we eat and the habits that we have aren’t doing our short or long-term health any good. The standard UK diet is devastating on our body in ways that most couldn’t have ever expected or anticipated. We eat way too much sugar, way too many fats, and not nearly enough protein or clean sources of fibre as we should or could be.
Thankfully though, we seem to be waking up to this reality faster than ever before and taking the necessary steps to clean up their diets to overhaul hormonal imbalances. Balanced hormones help you lead a much more enjoyable and healthy life, not only improving your gut health but also repairing common gut problems, fighting back Father Time, and so much more!
Here are 15 things you can do right now to lower inflammation, balance out your hormones, and rejuvenate your gut health almost immediately.
- Eat more green vegetables
Right out of the gate, choosing to eat more green vegetables will overhaul your gut health completely and help you even out a lot of common gut problems you may have otherwise been dealing with. Important nutrients are found in green leafy vegetables, and the fibre in these kinds of foods can help you, too.
- Eliminate inflammatory food
Different foods are going to cause different levels of inflammation in different people, but the more you can do to figure out what causes inflammation in your body – and eliminate it as much as possible from your daily diet – the better off you are going to feel.
- Increase your healthy fat intake
Stay away from trans fats and saturated fats that will devastate your body, but instead turned to quality fats – healthy fats – from nuts, for example that will even out your hormones, reduce inflammation, and clean up any hormonal imbalance you may be dealing with.
- Reel in your cortisol levels
Chronically elevated cortisol levels are going to wreak havoc on your body, not only causing hormone imbalance issues throughout but also sapping your energy, your strength, and quite literally aging you prematurely. By getting your cortisol under control (cleaning up your diet and sleeping better and longer each night) your life will get a whole lot better.
- Stop over caffeinating your body
It’s really easy to over caffeinate your body, causing a hormone imbalance to occur by elevating your cortisol levels and slowing down your thyroid. Common gut problems are going to flareup when you are flooding your body with coffee, too – and that’s never something you want to deal with. You don’t have to give up coffee forever, but you should cut back to only a couple of cups each day.
- Supplement with vitamin D
A lot of people are unaware of the fact that vitamin D is a hormone, and one of the most important hormones at that. Vitamin D triggers a positive GI reaction throughout your gut, helps to even out and level hormonal imbalance issues, and can dramatically improve your physical and mental health with regular supplementation.
- Banish endocrine disruptors once and for all
Endocrine disruptors (plastics, air fresheners, laundry detergent, toothpaste, and more that include parabens and other BPA like products) will devastate your body with overexposure, which is why you want to make sure you are doing everything in your power to eliminate from your daily life as much as you are able to.
- Fall in love with interval training
Long-time cardio sessions aren’t just to terminally boring and really easy to overdo, but they also actually cause a negative impact on your thyroid function while at the same time increase your cortisol levels and inflammation. Skip the hour-long session on the treadmill and instead go for interval training with high-intensity and you’ll get better results while looking and feeling better, too.
- Increase your adaptogen levels
Herbs – especially maca, rhodiola, and ashwagandha – have all been conclusively proven to help your body better adjust and adapt to daily life and all the stress and pressure it brings to the table. You’ll be able to improve your overall resistance to stress with supplementation of these herbs, which will inevitably help you to even out your gut health, eliminate common gut problems, and better balance your hormones at the same time.
- If you’re a woman, think about getting off of the pill
Ladies that are on the pill are going to find their hormone levels all kinds of jacked up and running wild, sometimes in ways that medical researchers and experts couldn’t have expected or anticipated. Your thyroid function, your hormones, and your overall health and wellness can be messed up completely with extended usage of the pill so you’ll want to find alternatives if you have the opportunity to.
- Give up on carbohydrates as much as possible
Carbohydrates will wreak havoc on your body in ways most people couldn’t have expected or anticipated. The more you can do to cut down on your carbohydrate intake – especially simple carbohydrates – the better off you are going to be.
- Meditate more often
It’s amazing to think that meditation can have a dramatic impact on a hormone imbalance, but research shows time and time again that those who meditate have much lower levels of hormonal imbalances and are able to more effortlessly bring their hormones back to balance when they get out of whack.
- Get higher-quality sleep each night
Most people simply aren’t getting enough sleep each night to have balanced hormones, and those that are getting plenty of sleep aren’t getting plenty of high quality sleep which is just as bad. Try to get at least six hours of high quality sleep if possible and ideally get even more than that.
- Take advantage of essential oils
Essential oils can address gut health problems, hormone imbalance issues, but can also help to improve your overall physical and mental well-being in ways you might not have expected or anticipated. It’s well worth looking into these kinds of solutions if you’re serious about clearing these issues up.
- Clean up any nutritional deficiencies
Nobody has a picture-perfect diet, and no one sticks to a fantastic diet each and every single day. But you’ll want to do as much as you are able to in an effort to cover up for any nutritional deficiencies you may be dealing with on a regular basis – either through supplements or through changing up your daily diet to improve the results.
Karen Boyle is interested in Functional Health at Amchara (Somerset, UK & Malta) which has been voted ‘Top 10 wellbeing retreats in the world-2017” by CNTraveller.com & ‘Top 10 retreats for health in the world-2016” by Telegraph.co.uk. Amchara Health Retreats have been featured in: VOUGE, INDEPENDENT, PORTER, MARIE CLAIRE, HEALTH & FITNESS, CHANNEL 4 and more.
Follow her on Instagram @amcharahealth
