E222: 4 Simple Routine Shifts For Happier Hormones & Less PMS this Fall

A question for all my amazing mamas out there: Are you ready for the fall routine? It's fine if you're still figuring it out! Just a gentle nudge to remind you that now is the perfect time to shift some of that focus back onto yourself, not just the kids or everyone else in your life.

I get it. Summer feels like this beautiful blur - slow mornings, late nights, kids everywhere, and routines flying out the window. Then suddenly, school is back, mornings feel like a sprint, and your hormones are like, “Cool, here’s some PMS and random mood swings, enjoy!”

I’ve been there, and I promise it doesn’t have to stay that way! That’s why in this episode, I’m sharing four simple routine shifts that I personally rely on to feel grounded, energized, and less moody. These are small changes, but they send powerful “you’re safe” signals to your body, which is exactly what your hormones need to do their job. 

Here’s what you’ll get:

• [4.42] Easy morning and evening tweaks to calm stress and help you sleep better
• [6.52] A no-excuse breakfast plan so your energy stops crashing before lunch 
• [8.40] The best times of day to work out for balanced hormones and steady energy
• [14.02] Small detox habits that keep PMS, bloating, and “ugh” days from taking over your life

Grab your coffee, step out on the porch if you can, hit play, and let’s chat about how to make this next season feel lighter on your body and your hormones. Think of this episode as your little seasonal reset. I’m right here cheering you on as you try them.

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Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine.

This podcast is for women and moms to learn how to balance hormones naturally in motherhood, to have pain-free periods, increased fertility, to decrease PMS mood swings, and to increase energy without restrictive diet plans. You'll learn how to balance blood sugar, increase progesterone naturally, understand the root cause of estrogen dominance, irregular periods, PCOS, insulin resistance, hormonal acne, post birth-control syndrome, and conceive naturally. We use a pro-metabolic, whole food, root cause approach to functional women's health and focus on truly holistic health and mind-body connection.

If you listen to any of the following shows, we're sure you'll like ours too!
Pursuit of Wellness with Mari Llewellyn, Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, Found My Fitness with Rhonda Patrick, Just Ingredients Podcast, Wellness Mama, The Dr Josh Axe Show, Are You Menstrual Podcast, The Model Health Show, Grounded Wellness By Primally Pure, Be Well By Kelly Leveque, The Freely Rooted Podcast with Kori Meloy, Simple Farmhouse Life with Lisa Bass

Chapters

• 4:42 Easy morning and evening tweaks to calm stress and help you sleep better
• 6:52 A no-excuse breakfast plan so your energy stops crashing before lunch
• 8:40 The best times of day to work out for balanced hormones and steady energy
• 14:02 Small detox habits that keep PMS, bloating, and “ugh” days from taking over your life

Transcript

Leisha: [00:00:00] As you're starting to think about fall and shifting it back to school, I have four routine shifts that are going to make it easier for you to have happier hormones and less PMS in this next season.

Today, this is for the mamas who have been in the summer routine. And let's be really honest, I live still in the south. It's not gonna be fall for another month or two. Two probably, but I know that so many of us have kids who are going back to school in the next few weeks, which is crazy to me.

We need to start thinking about those routines again. We need to start thinking about how we are going to shift and take care of ourselves better, differently, more realistically as we shift into a new season. As you're thinking about these things for everyone else in your family, I also want you to think about it for you.

 today I am gonna focus on four easy routine shifts that are going to help you really step into happier hormones more. Balance stress hormones and blood [00:01:00] sugar, which will turn into less PMS, less painful periods and higher libido. So let's get right to it.

I'm gonna start with a little premise that will help you understand why these things are gonna help you, because otherwise I think they'll feel a little bit random or outta the blue, or even just and why would they work?

When we're looking at hormone balance and we're looking at wanting to have the right amounts of estrogen and the right amount of progesterone, you need to be able to do two specific things. You need to be able to, number one, make hormones well. what that means is your brain needs to be getting signals that your body says things are fairly safe and there is not a dire emergency at every turn so your brain can tell your ovaries, Hey, it's safe to ovulate. It's okay to make enough estrogen to ovulate. It's okay to make enough progesterone to [00:02:00] keep your cycle stable, to not have spotting, to not have PMS breast tenderness painful periods. It's safe to keep that progesterone as progesterone and not steal it to make more cortisol, and it's safe to keep your cycle regular.

You really want those signals of safety coming in to be able to make hormones well. some of the routines that I'm gonna talk about are going to be about creating that safety to make hormones well. And then some of the steps are gonna be focused on the second piece of hormone balance, which is detoxing hormones well.

When I look at making hormones well and detoxing hormones well. This is almost everything that we do inside of nourish your hormones. When you come into coaching, I am going to help you figure out your specific things that need to be pinpointed to make hormones well and detox hormones. Most of my clients come in needing help with both.

Some of them come in needing help specifically with one, and that is absolutely my specialty that I can help figure that out for you, help you [00:03:00] pinpoint so that this can all be so much. Easier. if you are ready for the full experience, if you want someone to hold your hand, if you want someone to look at your hormones for you, look at your labs for you, look at your lifestyle, your food, your cycle, your history, all of it, and not just give you a like, that's nice.

Take some birth control, or I'll give you one thyroid lab and tell you everything is fine. Here's some medication for your anxiety if you want. The actual full picture, and you wanna really look at everything that nourish your hormones. Coaching is for you. And if you are still in the place where you're like, I wanna just keep listening, I want a little adjustment here and there.

I wanna keep working on it on my own. Then I'm gonna share that with you in this episode, and I will see you in coaching when you're. Step two, detoxing hormones. I have a couple of routine shifts for that as well, but both of those things are incredibly important to be able to have those happier hormones and less PMS.

[00:04:00] I'm gonna go through it and give you those easy routine shifts right away. Number one, routine shift for happier hormones and less PMS is. working on your morning and your evening routines. This sounds harder than it is, I promise. But the one shift that I would want you to make without changing anything else first is with your morning and your evening routine.

Prioritizing. Appropriate light exposure. What I mean by that, the easiest way to do this is go outside as soon as you can in the morning without contacts or glasses and just be out there for at least a few minutes if you can get up and you can take a blind walk. That is great. That would be ideal. Take a 10 minute walk.

Get your body moving a little bit, give your brain a little bit of space to wake up, think, pray, reset, and get that morning sunlight before you start your day. That would be 10 outta 10 ideal. If you can step on your [00:05:00] back porch for. Two minutes and just again, let your brain reset for a second. You can eat your breakfast out there.

You can sit out there with one of your kiddos while they're waking up. Whatever it is that you need to be doing, if you can spend a few minutes doing it outside first thing in the morning, you are going to be really. Starting to create that signal of safety for your brain, to tell your body that your hormones are okay for the day.

This is gonna show up as happier sex hormones like I talked about, but it's also gonna show up as better digestion, less anxiety, better sleep, better mood. this one is really important and it's literally free. So you can't really fight me on that one other than just maybe it sounds too easy and I don't have time.

That's your morning shift. The other part of this number one is evening shift, and it's the same thing. It's really thinking about getting some outdoor light exposure around sunset if possible, and then really working hard to keep your screen [00:06:00] time off or down. So that you're not getting more artificial light in your eyes after you've gotten that sun exposure.

It makes a huge difference for circadian rhythms in sleep, which creates a lot of safety in the body. So number one is totally free. Number two is breakfast. As a non-negotiable. This is something you've heard me say before if you've been here more than about one episode. But breakfast is huge, even if you don't have a huge appetite, even if you have to modify this, prepping your breakfast as a non-negotiable.

So there is nothing that you can say about, I don't have time for breakfast. It's too hard to get a good breakfast. I'm going to the drive-through. Or I'm just gonna skip it. I'm gonna have a, something that is the size of a toddler breakfast versus like a grown woman breakfast. It has to be a non-negotiable.

Sometimes that means you need to prep something ahead of time. Sometimes that means you just need to know what you need to have in the house. Sometimes that means you need to use a tool [00:07:00] like some protein powder to make it more doable for you. But what I always recommend is. Really understanding what that nutrient dense breakfast looks like for you with carbs and protein.

This is something that we will help you specifically modify for you in nourish, your hormones. Coaching. I don't have a an across the board answer for everyone until I know your story, but some sort of breakfast within that first hour isn't non-negotiable and you can get bonus extra points. Gold stars from me if you can eat that breakfast outside.

When you are, first waking up in the morning, that would be ideal. Finding a way to prep your breakfast as a non-negotiable, think about those busy mornings that you might be having as you go back to school or work schedule changes, or maybe everything's gonna be the same as it has been but if this is an area you are struggling, think about how you can make it better and more nourishing, or even just more interesting if you've been really bored with your routine.

So number two is breakfast. Number three and four are going to be [00:08:00] more on the detox side, but number three is really both. And so number three is timing your movement appropriately. We not only need to talk about if you are moving consistently, if you're moving your body well, if you are moving it effectively for you.

That is a whole conversation that can be more personalized for sure. But. When I am thinking about it in the realm of routines, thinking about when you are, timing your movement throughout your day is really important. Especially based on your symptoms. Let's say for example, that you have fatigue in the afternoon where you are struggling with fatigue throughout your day and you are not moving.

You're doing a lot of sitting, you're really not getting a lot of exercise in. Then adding some movement is going to be really ideal. And that may seem obvious. I laughed because it seems obvious, right? But then, sometimes we just get stuck in the seasons that we're in that are really busy.

And even if we're [00:09:00] like chasing a toddler around. It might be surprising to you how many steps you are not getting. Because a lot of times we're just in more of an enclosed space or we're just not moving as much. So prioritizing some sort of movement is going to help with that energy, but timing your movement appropriately is really important as well, especially for those of us who are pretty good and consistent with our movement.

But the timing may not be ideal. I actually really like a mid-morning or noon-ish workout if possible, or even afternoon sometime between ideally like eight to three for a workout versus an early morning workout or an evening workout for safety in the body and. For hormone balance. And the reason why is when you are waking up in the morning and doing a super early morning workout, especially one that is fasted, you are going to be a.[00:10:00] 

Kind of just spiking your cortisol a little bit too soon in the day. Ideally, we would have a cortisol spike within a couple hours after we wake up, but not just immediately on waking. Especially if you're doing a more intense workout, it's not as ideal to do it right away in the morning. So let's talk about if you are like me, and sometimes that's just what you can do.

And you wanna get that movement in, it feels good. You need to get it done right away. Some ways that you can mitigate the stress on the body from that would be number one, eating before you work out. Making time for that, figuring it out with your sleep. Prepping something ahead of time, like I talked about before, drinking it on the way there.

Spending five minutes out on your porch having something to eat before you start your workout in your living room or your garage, whatever that looks like for you. The timing of that is gonna be really helpful. If you have that before you out, it tells your body that you have something in the tank, that it's not an emergency, that you're not starving before.

You give it that stress signal. [00:11:00] That is a healthy stress signal of working out. But if you are noticing specifically that you have a crash within a couple hours of your workout, it may be a timing issue or it may be a fuel issue. So think about that timing for sure. If you can do a workout more like mid-morning, afternoon, that could be ideal and it's important to be fueling before.

As well. So thinking about that, if you are working out in the evening really consistently, the things that I would want to ask you are. What is your energy looking like in the evening, but even in the late evening, are you having a big energy spike prior to bedtime? Do you have trouble going to sleep as soon as you should?

Do you feel like you're tired, but wired? All of those things can come from having a cortisol spike to late in the day, and that is something that can affect not only sleep, but also mood, also fertility, also being able to wake up the next day and do the things you need to do. So sometimes that.

Evening workout is not as ideal. And I [00:12:00] also think just like the super early morning cannot be as ideal either. thinking about the timing with your movement, if you are just taking a walk, if you're just doing some stretching, the timing isn't gonna matter as much. I would actually advocate for getting up and taking a walk right away in the morning or taking a walk before bed.

Those things are gonna be ideal. And go back to number one. So those are not the things I'm talking about. I'm talking about lifting heavy. I'm talking about doing more of an intense workout. Doing it more in those . Midday waking hours would be ideal if you have the ability to switch that.

And that is going to help create that safety in your body, help with appropriate cortisol levels for appropriate times of day, as well as help support detoxification because when you're moving and sweating, you are going to be detoxing better. And just another little side note on this actually does not specifically speak to the point that I'm making, but if you are exercising and you are not sweating.

That is not a great sign. It is a sign that your body is not [00:13:00] detoxing as well as it could be. you can do a couple things to help support that. Sauna use is one of my favorites, if that's available to you. It just gets your body used to sweating better. You can start practicing sweating and then you should be able to sweat better during a workout.

But you can also do some lymphatic support to help keep that drainage open and that can help with sweating too. Just another little side note and that. It brings us into point 4, or maybe it was part of point 4 originally for me, but point 4 is prioritizing detox. this is something that you can fit into your routine on a regular basis without it taking a ton of time or effort.

But if we're not thinking about it, it's so easy not to do the detox portion again, is something that I personalize for my clients, and so this is gonna be a more general recommendation and you can see what works for you. But some of my favorite ways to detox are supporting the lymphatic system that can look like.

Really a lot of things. It can look like rebounding. It [00:14:00] can look like walking, just moving, moving is supporting the lymphatic system. But so many of us need more than that, not just like general movement. We need some specific movement. So there are tapping routines. One is called the big six to open up the lymphatic pathways.

You can do dry skin brushing. You can use a GU jaw stone on your face and neck to open up the lymphatic drainage pathways in your face and your neck. All of those things can be so helpful and so important. You can get a lymphatic massage. That is all really important for detoxification because the lymphatic system is a passive detox system and most of the time it really does need support, and that's gonna help us bring down toxins in the body, bring down histamine levels.

It can help balance estrogen and progesterone levels just because there's less toxic load and creates more safety, even though. We are, talking about the detox phase, it all is, goes so hand in hand. So lymphatic support, prioritizing that. It can look like a few times a week just doing one of those things or two of those things.

And so looking for a spot in your routine where you could do that or where you can [00:15:00] just add that to like right before you take a shower, you dry brush for five minutes or. Using something like a prana mat or a sauna or red light, all of those things can be helpful too. just figuring out where that could fit in your routine.

You're gonna be killing a few birds with one stone, which is beautiful. And then of course, I'm always gonna talk about the liver and gut when it comes to detox. If you notice. That you're having a lot of hormone symptoms. So much of the time, the liver and the gut are both a culprit because they work together.

 supporting the liver can look like so many different things. It can be herbs, it can be teas, it can be physical support like castor oil packs, but. When your liver needs help detoxing your gut often needs help detoxing as well. So optimizing gut function and making sure you are not constipated, you are not really inflamed in your gut, you're not having a lot of gas and bloating.

All of those things are gonna be really important for detoxification as well. Have you kind of like made it through the other points and you're like, okay, getting some sunlight. I'm eating [00:16:00] breakfast, my movement's pretty good, but you come here and you're like, Ugh, detox, I'm really not doing anything for that.

Then that's where you need to focus because so much of the time, this is a piece that I see is a detox is missing and our bodies are just not naturally doing it very well because we're not giving them the support that they need to be able to do it well. So prioritizing, detox is really important.

It is. The fourth routine shift for this podcast today, and I just want you to know that there's so much of this that you can work on your own, and I see people, make changes that way a lot. But if you're feeling overwhelmed, if you're feeling confused, if you're like, what the heck? This is just another thing.

I don't know what's the most important for me. I don't know where to start. Then that's where you can just reach out. You can book a call with me, we'll talk about it. We'll help you decide if coming into coaching is the right next step for you. But I hear again and again, even with women who have listened to my podcast for a very long time, who have [00:17:00] seen some results on their own or have done a lot of the research on their own, that it is just.

Really game changer to have that support and to have someone looking at it with you so that it just like the weight is off your shoulders. And even that, to be honest, creates safety in your body when all of the weight just isn't on you to figure it out. I love working with my clients. I would love to invite you in when you're ready.

I also hope that this episode today really helps you just take stock of what you're doing, what might need to shift. And even in the midst of actually still hot summer where we're thinking about fall coming it gives you a little boost in your next season. Okay. If this episode was helpful to you, make sure you send it to a friend.

It helps so much to be able to spread the word of the podcast. Send it to a friend, send it to five friends. Be my best advocate. And also make sure you have left a five star rating that takes about two seconds. Or a review on the podcast, it really makes a difference as [00:18:00] well. And I just like to hear from you when I'm sitting here behind the mic by myself.

I love to hear that the podcast is getting to people, that it's helping you and that it is changing your hormones for the better. I'll see you next time.