If your sex life leaves you wanting, you’re in good company. A 2015 study found that over half of all women described their sex life as unfulfilling, and Americans — specifically young Americans — are having less sex than previous generations. I talk with women everyday, both clients and friends, who describe low libido and trouble with orgasm like it is a fact of life. Why are Americans, and particularly women, experiencing such dissatisfaction in their sex lives? The reasons are many, from relational problems to the demands and stresses of modern life (which have only increased during the pandemic), and the solutions are just as wide-ranging. Sometimes it requires working on our relationships; sometimes it requires looking at our work-life balance. Often it requires both.

But a big contributing factor for women in their reproductive years is lack of knowledge about the infradian rhythm, or the 28-day hormone cycle we experience each month. The infradian rhythm modulates sexual desire and response across the menstrual cycle. The more you know about the infradian rhythm, the better sex you can have. Women also experience four distinct stages of arousal, and the more you know about each stage, the better orgasms you can have.  For a deeper dive, check out chapter 8 of In the FLO.

There are two steps to biohacking your orgasm:

‍Step 1 - Learn how to get and stay in orgasmic plateau for as long as possible

‍Step 2 - Identify which phase of the cycle you're in so you can provide yourself with the hacks you need to achieve orgasmic plateau in each phase successfully.

Here’s what you need to know:

Understanding the Stages of Arousal

The first step in having a more fulfilling sex life is understanding the mechanics of the arousal process. When you understand the four distinct phases of arousal, you’re better able to biohack your sexual response and experience better, more consistent pleasure. ‍

The first stage of arousal: Tumescence

‍The first stage of arousal is called tumescence. It’s when you experience the tingly sensation of wanting to have sex. Here’s what’s happening inside your body during tumescence: your heart races and blood rushes to your clitoris. You also experience vaginal lubrication and increased blood flow to the breasts and nipples. During certain phases of your cycle, including this one, it can take longer for this initial arousal process to kick in (which we will talk more about in a minute), and you can take extra steps to help your body along during those phases.

‍The Second Stage of Arousal: Orgasmic Plateau

‍Levels of dopamine and epinephrine increase and the pleasure centers in your brain light up like  a Christmas tree. Meanwhile, activity goes down in the brain regions associated with anxiety. Your clitoris becomes more sensitive and your brain sends signals to your muscles telling them to contract. Climax is where your body is headed, and your body is getting ready for that. But don’t rush the process. Extending the orgasmic plateau helps your body release stress hormones and triggers other health benefits, like improved immune function. Spending more time in the plateau stage can also lead to a more powerful orgasm. I recommend trying to spend close to 20 minutes in this stage once or twice a week.

‍The Third Stage of Arousal: Climax

‍This stage is brief but powerful! It’s when your brain produces a rush of feel-good neurochemicals that make your whole body tingle. If you are having sex with a partner, those same chemicals will increase your feelings of connectedness with that person. Your muscles contract and relax This lasts a short time, but it electrifies the nerve endings in your clitoris and feels fantastic.

‍The Fourth Stage of Arousal: Refractory Period

‍This stage is when your body starts to come back to baseline. Your physiological systems slow back down and most people feel relaxed and connected.

How to Sync Your Orgasm with Your Infradian Rhythm

The next step in biohacking your way to more pleasure is to understand how your hormones change over the course of your infradian rhythm, or the 28-day hormone cycle your body moves through every month. As your hormones shift and change each month, it affects your cognitive function, energy, mood, and libido, as well as how you experience the four stages of arousal. Many women think that, if it is taking them longer than usual to climax or to get in the mood, there is something wrong with them. That’s not the case! How long it takes for your body to feel ready for sex depends on which phase of your cycle you’re in. The more you know about the phases of your cycle, the more you can work with your body to experience more pleasure.

Here is what you need to know about the 4 phases of your cycle:

FOLLICULAR

• Duration: 7–10 Days
• Cyclical Focus: Novelty
• Hormonal happenings: Low hormone levels during this phase, but your estrogen is rising.
• Body: Dry phase. Vaginal dryness is normal.
• Desire focus: You need to engage the biggest sexual organ in the body — your brain — to get in the mood.
• Practical: Use lubricant during this phase and take your time getting to the orgasmic plateau.

OVULATORY

• Duration: 3–4 Days
• Cyclical Focus: Receiving
• Hormonal happenings: You get your biggest surge of estrogen during this phase, and testosterone comes on the scene.
• Body: Wet phase. Lots of cervical fluid during this phase provides natural lubrication.
• Desire focus: Ovulation stimulates your desire to procreate, so you will be more in the mood physically during this phase.
• Practical: You likely won’t need lube during this phase and you can achieve orgasmic plateau more easily with clitoral stimulation.

LUTEAL

• Duration: 10–14 Days
• Cyclical Focus: Clarity
• Hormonal happenings: Estrogen and progesterone arrive on the scene, and testosterone is still present in the first half of this phase.
• Body: Wet phase. Self-lubricating.
• Desire: In the first half of this phase, testosterone will increase libido. During the second half of this phase, you might be less interested in sex than normal as your hormone levels start to wane.
• Practical: Focus on lots of foreplay during this time — and take your time. Don’t rush toward the orgasmic plateau.

MENSTRUAL

• Duration: 3–7 Days Cyclical
• Focus: Recharge
• Hormonal happenings: Your hormones are at their lowest levels during this phase. Body: Dry phase (menstrual blood is not lubricating).
• Desire focus: It can be normal not to feel desire at all during this phase, but the increased volume of the uterus can add pleasurable pressure to your g-spot, reminding you that sex might feel good right now.
• Practical: Use lube and focus on the clitoris.

If your sex life has become lackluster, or if you’ve always suspected that you could be experiencing more sexual pleasure, use this cyclical knowledge to biohack your orgasm. Orgasm is good for your health: it helps balance hormones and flush the stress hormone cortisol. It is also good for your quality of life. And if you want to learn even more about sex and your cycle, check out my latest book In the Flo.

Always remember that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

Did you know your brain changes by 25% over the course of your cycle?Do you know when your metabolism naturally speeds up and slows down in your cycle?Do you know how to leverage your hormonal advantages to get more done with less stress?Did you know that all of the research done on fitness and nutrition is done on men?Did you know doing self care out of sync with your cycle gives your more period problems?Knowing all that… why would you eat, exercise, or create in the same way day after day, when you change week over week?Your body needs a health and lifestyle program that is tailored to your unique biological rhythms. That’s why I created The Cycle Syncing Method™ over a decade ago. I used it to put my period problems into remission. Today, it is the cornerstone of the Flo Protocol.The Cycle Syncing Method™ is all about living in line with your natural rhythms. The protocol is designed to leverage your strengths during each phase of your 28-day hormone cycle—and, when you put it into practice, it changes everything.

How I Created The Cycle Syncing Method™

I created The Cycle Syncing Method™ to solve my own hormonal issues. I was suffering from a hormonal imbalance called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, or PCOS. At my worst, I weighed 200 pounds, had severe cystic acne on my face, chest, and back, and I was deeply depressed. I had my period about three times a year. My health suffered profoundly. So did my quality of life.I visited many different experts (who ultimately put me on birth control pills and caused me even greater harm). On my own, I tried every lifestyle, eating, and exercise program you can imagine. Nothing worked. In many cases, I felt worse.If you’ve tried different eating protocols and lifestyle programs and you still have symptoms, maybe you can relate. You know how expensive and time consuming these programs are, and how much more discouraged you are when they fail.When I began to understand women’s unique hormone cycle and the power of hormonal timing, everything changed.I started eating, moving, and living in sync with my 28-day hormone cycle—giving my hormones what they needed when they needed it, instead of forcing my body to do the same thing day in and day out. My decision to engage in this type of phase-based self care transformed my life. Doctors had told me that my symptoms were irreversible, but now my skin cleared, my periods became regular, and I lost 60 pounds.Here’s what else I discovered: phase-based self care didn’t just change my body. It changed my life. I had better communication in my relationships. I was more productive (and happier) at work. My creativity went up and so did my sex drive. I was as busy as always, but suddenly it felt like I had more time for self care and relaxation.Once I understood the science of the female hormone cycle, I put my knowledge into practice—and it changed my life. I want the same thing for you.

What is The Cycle Syncing Method™?

Eating the same things, doing the same exercise, and planning the same activities day after day is a pattern that works for well for men, who have a different hormonal pattern than women. But adopting the same routine everyday pits women against the natural ebb and flow of their hormones. It works against our bodies—and it fuels symptoms.The Cycle Syncing Method™ is the practice of tailoring your food, movement, relationship, work, and lifestyle choices to your unique strengths, weaknesses, and needs during each phase of your 28-day hormone cycle.That might sound like a lot of adapting and changing, week after week. But once you start tracking your cycle and getting an embodied sense of what each phase looks and feels like in your body, the tweaks you’ll make will become intuitive.In fact, once you get the hang of The Cycle Syncing Method™, the practice feels so natural that you won’t believe there was a time when you didn’t engage in it.But I know getting started can feel daunting. I also know that ANY change we make in life is easier with support, guidance, and community.That’s why, this week, I’m opening the doors to Flo28, a monthly membership that gives you a tailored diet program for each phase of your cycle, weekly workouts for each phase of your cycle, and time management planners so you can schedule activities each week that play to your natural strengths. Flo28 takes you step-by-step through the small but powerful changes you can make to your nutrition, fitness, and time management that will revolutionize your life.If you’ve gone through the MonthlyFlo program, you’ve built a strong foundation for healing your hormones and improving your life—and Flo28 is the next step. If you haven’t done MonthlyFlo, you will still benefit significantly from Flo28.As part of Flo28, you’ll discover:

• How to become stronger, fitter, and leaner by shifting to phase-based workouts
• What to eat to support your brain and body during each phase
• When you’re at your best for socializing and when to schedule your “me-time”
• How to shift your work schedule to maximize your time and get more done
• How to turn up the heat in your relationship and have better sex
• How to be in your creative zone

...and as a member of Flo28, you’ll get:

• Phase Specific Recipes: Know what to eat during each phase of your cycle with weekly recipes delivered each month
• Workout of the Week: Stay energized and strong with exercise videos tailored to each phase of your cycle
• Cycle Syncing® Scheduling Guide: A guide to plan your day, week, and month our according to your biological clock
• Monthly Master Chats: Get advice directly from Alisa in exclusive monthly Q+A sessions and learn how to apply this to business, relationships, motherhood, and more
• Supportive Community & Events: A Facebook group dedicated to learning how to Cycle Sync,™ daily posting guide, first access to in-person events, and opportunities to connect with other amazing women

If you suffer from any type of period problem—from bloating and acne to heavy or irregular periods and severe PMS—or you want to improve your fitness, relationships, work performance, or overall health, Flo28 is the program for you. I hope you will join me (and an amazing community of women!) to discover how much better your life can be when you understand the science of your hormones.And if you don’t want to wait to get started, go here to get a sneak peek of what it looks like to engage in phase-based self care in all aspects of your life—and what you can expect when you do.Always remember that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

Monthly FLO: The Cycle Syncing System™

Put your period symptoms into remission. Discover how to live in your FLO and get it all done with embodied time management.MonthlyFLO is the first-ever woman-centric health system that syncs with your unique rhythm. It gives you the foundation for solving any hormonal issues you may have over your lifetime.Using the principles of functional nutrition, MonthlyFLO is a specially-sequenced food therapy program that recalibrates your endocrine function. Over three months, you will be guided step-by-step to make simple, cumulative food and lifestyle changes that balance your hormones naturally.

Click here to learn more about the life-changing Monthly FLO Program

That exhausted, depleted, frazzled feeling you have every Friday night (or every night) after work)? Its burnout. And it’s a real, diagnosable condition.That’s according to the World Health Organization (WHO), who last month declared burnout a legitimate occupational phenomenon. Burnout is a result of “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed,” said the organization, and it negatively influences one’s health.The condition is characterized by three things:

1. Feeling depleted or exhausted
2. Feeling cynical or negative about one's job, or feeling increased mental distance from one’s job
3. Being less effective and productive on the job

This news will come as no surprise to anyone with a demanding job or other workplace stressors, like a difficult boss, unsupportive co-workers, an unhealthy work environment, a long commute, and/or the expectation of “being on” 24-hours a day. As the speed of work picks up, and as more of us work around-the-clock, burnout has become a way of life.But women have a key advantage when it comes to battling back against burnout. We can tap into the natural rhythms of our 28-day hormone cycle and use our natural strengths during each phase to work more efficiently, be more productive (without feeling overburdened), and find more satisfaction—and less stress—in our jobs.

The Hormone-Burnout Connection

The idea that your hormones could help you have an easier and less stressful experience at work might seem far-fetched, but I’m not making this up!Research shows that our hormone cycles have a direct influence on our mood, energy, creativity, and worldview. So when we plan our activities in accordance with the natural flow of our hormones, we can be top-performing, high-achieving women with energy left over at the end of the day—no to-do list app necessary. (Though we benefit greatly from knowing where we are in our cycle, which is what I designed the MyFLO app to help you do.)If, however, we ignore our hormonal patterns and force ourselves to work in a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week time construct (one that works for men because of their more quotidian hormonal patterns), we’re more likely to experience burnout—and, as women, that chronic stress shows up in our our cycles, fertility, sex drive, and mood. In other words, working the same way, with the same rhythm, day in and day out makes period problems worse… and that prevents us from taking advantage of the solution, which depends on a healthy cycle!It’s a bit circuitous, I know, but that is exactly what it is: a vicious cycle. When we don’t practice The Cycle Syncing Method™, our hormones fall deeper into imbalance—and that makes it harder to use our cycle as a powerful tool for escaping burnout. As women, our strengths, desires, talents, and behavior shifts with our changing hormone patterns each month. Having female hormones does not mean you lose a week a month to PMS and your period. It just means that by noticing these shifts and then working with your hormones, you can make your hormones work for you.

Heal Workplace Stress By Learning To Work With Your Hormones

To harness the power of your hormones, first you need to know what your hormones are doing and when. That’s where the MyFLO app comes in. It allows you track your cycle and tune into which phase you’re in at any given time. Once you’re familiar with your cycle, you’re ready to practice The Cycle Syncing Method™, which is the method I developed for engaging in phase-based self-care. The Cycle Syncing Method™ involves working with food, movement, and time management to feel and perform your best (you can learn more about every aspect of the practice here), but for today I’m going to focus on how you can engage The Cycle Syncing Method™ specifically to battle workplace burnout.Here are the four phases of your 28-day hormone cycle and how you can harness your natural strengths during each one to perform better at work, while stressing less!Follicular Phase

• When: The week after your period ends
• What’s happening hormonally: Estrogen is on the rise
• What to do: Set your intentions for the coming weeks, clarify your vision and purpose at work, organize what you want to accomplish next. Get moving on new projects. This is a time to really lay the groundwork for what comes next.

Ovulation Phase

• When: Mid-cycle for 3–5 days
• What’s happening hormonally: Estrogen is at its highest point
• What to do: Share your intentions with colleagues, collaborate with like-minded folks, schedule meetings, connect with others, brainstorm to find solutions. This is a time to bring others on board with your vision and to work as a team.

Luteal/Premenstrual Phase

• When: About 10–12 days before your period begins
• What’s happening hormonally: Progesterone is at its highest point
• What to do: This is your ‘get it done’ time! You are at your most organized during this phase and you love getting granular about the details. Make this phase all about accomplishing the activities and goals you outlined during your follicular phase.

Menstrual phase

• When: The days when you are bleeding
• What’s happening hormonally: All of your hormones are at a low point
• What to do: Slow down, reflect on what’s happened over the last month, and practice gratitude for all the good things you’ve accomplished. Think back on any areas of your work life that feel less than optimal or that need more attention and use them as a starting point for setting intentions during your next follicular phase.

I guarantee that if you start to prioritize projects at work in line with your cycle, you will experience less stress and greater productivity. Burnout will no longer be a way of life. And if you really want to transform your work life, you’ll engage the other aspects of The Cycle Syncing Method™ in combination with the changes you make at work. This involves food, movement, supplements, and self-care. If you put all these changes into place, you will be unstoppable at work — and in life!Always remember that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you. You can do this—the science of your body is on your side!

COACH CONSULT

Get Actionable Advice in a FLO Coach ConsultationWe believe that no woman should suffer simply because she has a period. And we also know that it’s not always possible to get access to functional and holistic healthcare solutions — sometimes they’re too far away and most of the time they are way too expensive. That’s why we offer phone and Skype consultation sessions with our FLO coaches. In your consultation session, your coach will go over your health history and symptoms, get feedback on any health changes you’ve implemented from our resource library, review your hormone test analysis if applicable, and help you develop a plan of action to solve your symptoms.

[Book Your Session]

Ladies, It’s time to take masturbation into your own hands...literally!

Yep, that’s right, today we’re talking about how you give yourself self pleasure—and why that matters so much for your hormonal health.

Now you might be thinking, Alisa, c’mon! How much difference can masturbtion really make in solving my period problems?! I mean, I believe in supplements. I know nutrition matters, but how I self pleasure? I’m skeptical.

‍Well, get ready to become a true believer! Yes, food, lifestyle, and supplements all play a big role in hormonal health, but so does orgasm—specifically the slow-build orgasms you can have when you use your hands to get yourself off.

Let’s get this self-pleasure party started by looking at the research on orgasm. I’m not lying when I say that the science is solidly on your side when it comes to having more orgasms. After I lay out all the juicy science on the benefits of orgasm, I explain why using your hands for self pleasure—and skipping the vibrator—will net you even bigger health benefits.

The Benefits of Orgasm

Some of the studies cited below involved partnered sex, but they speak to the general health benefits of sexual activity and orgasm. (And in the next section, I’ll get into the specific benefits of manual masturbation.)

• Women who engage in sexual activity at least once each week are more likely to have regular menstrual cycles.
• Sexual activity can help grow new brain cells and reduce anxiety. (In other words, sex can make you smarter and calmer!)
• Sexual activity supports a healthy immune system
• Regular sexual activity helps you look younger. Research suggests that getting it on three times a week in a can make you look 10 years younger.
• Sexual activity may help ease migraine headaches.
• Orgasm can boost lymphatic circulation, helping your body’s natural detoxification process to improve digestion and mood and support optimal immunity. (This study was done on men, but women may experience the same increase lymphatic circulation.)
• Sexual activity may help protect women from cardiovascular risk later in life.
• Sexual activity Increases levels of the hormone oxytocin, which is linked to passion, intuition, and social skills—the hormone of bonding and success!

But Not All Orgasms Are Created Equal...

...and that’s why it matters how you give yourself pleasure.

Using vibrators to self-pleasure might seem like the easiest way to reach orgasm, but these powerful sex toys rob you of some of the benefits of orgasm. Sure, they can feel good and get the job done fast, but you will miss out on some major health benefits.

To understand why, it’s important to know the four stages of sexual response first identified by pioneering scientists Masters & Johnson in the 1960s. I outline them in detail in my book, WomanCode, and here’s a quick review:

‍Initial arousal: This is the excitement phase, lasting anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. Sex organs become engorged with blood and glands in the vaginal walls secrete lubricating liquid to make you feel wet.

‍Plateau: This is a continuation of arousal, when tissues continue to swell and your breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure continue to rise.

‍Orgasm: At the moment of orgasm, vaginal lubrication increases, muscles in vaginal wall constrict, and overall pleasure increases. If you climax (which is not always a given), you’ll experience quick cycles of contractions in your pelvic floor muscles.

‍Resolution: After climax, your muscles relax and your body releases from its aroused state.When you use a vibrator, you skip most of the Plateau stage and move directly to climax. This means you’re also missing out on some of the most hormonally-healthy chemicals your body produces during this Plateau phase! So what exactly are you missing out on when you use a vibrator?

1. You miss the benefits of nitric oxide and oxytocin. Using a vibrator forces your body to bypass a large part of the plateau and orgasm phases, which cuts down on your exposure to oxytocin and nitric oxide. These natural chemicals provide you with better immunity, improved cervical mucus, and regular ovulation patterns. They also have anti-aging benefits!
2. You limit your orgasmic potential. Quick, vibrator-induced orgasms lengthen what we call the refractory period between orgasms. This means the sensitive nerve endings get fried by the strong vibrations, so you have to wait longer until you’re ready again for your next orgasm. Essentially, this means you can only have one orgasm at a time, maybe two if you’re lucky.
3. You don’t get as much stress reduction. A big benefit of sex is stress relief, but when you skip the orgasmic plateau, your body doesn’t get a chance to fully flush the cortisol from your system. Cortisol is your main stress hormone, but it also plays a big role in blood sugar regulation and fat storage. That means the more cortisol in your body, the likelier you are to experience big blood sugar swings and store excess fat around your waist.

A better way to Self Pleasure

So, Alisa, what do I do without my vibrator?

‍So glad you asked!

First of all, be sure you’re setting aside at least 20 minutes for your self-pleasuring sessions. You need the gift of time to maximize your pleasure. What we see in pornography of instant climax is not based on any biological reality. You deserve not only to have great orgasms, but to take all the time you need to achieve them solo or with a partner.

To make this even easier, time your sessions during ovulation and the first half of the luteal phase to take advantage of your estrogen and testosterone peak for a pleasure boost.

Next, be sure to use lubricant – Aloe Cadabra and Sustain lube are my favorites. When you’re using your hands to get the party started, you’ll need to be lubricated, but you don’t want to put liquid plastics (silicone based lubes) on your lady parts.

Then take it slow, use your hands, and let them go wherever feels good. Think of your pleasure potential on a scale of 1-10, 10 being climax. Explore getting yourself to an 8 and hang out there for as long as you can to build all the nitric acid and oxytocin you can. It’s this phase that is the most health beneficial and the part that is typically bypassed when using vibrators.

I think you’ll be amazed at what happens to your orgasmic experience when you go au natural.

But, Alisa, Help! I Don’t Feel Like Getting Off At All—Even By Myself

So you want to get the health benefits of orgasm, but your sex drive has disappeared? Even solo, you just never feel in the mood?

You’re not alone. Sex drive can disappear at any age for any number of reasons: a stressful job, emotional stress, exhaustion (from taking care of a new baby or just from life), the onset of perimenopause, or taking the birth control pill (yes, the pill can zap your sex drive).

Restoring sex drive requires a multipronged approach, starting with nutrition and lifestyle. It’s also important to take stock of your relationships and the emotional aspects of low energy and low libido. But when your sex drive has disappeared completely, you need tools that will fasttrack your healing. Getting initial relief from symptoms will keep you motivated to make the other important self-care choices that will bring your sexy back.

‍Supplements are a brilliant way to kickstart your libido and start noticing changes fast. Here are the five you should have on hand to help get you in the mood:

1. B Vitamins prevent the breakdown of too much dopamine and serotonin during stressful times, leaving enough for you to remain buoyant and energized.
2. Zinc helps boost testosterone production — and testosterone boosts sex drive.
3. Magnesium makes it harder for your testosterone to bind onto proteins and allows for more of it to remain “free” in your bloodstream...which is exactly how you want it to be for a higher sex drive. More free testosterone means more desire. Magnesium also combats anxiety and may help with mild depression.
4. Omega-3 fatty acids help balance out your progesterone and estrogen levels, which in turn will increase dopamine—which will, in turn, help you produce more nitric oxide. This is absolutely essential for the dilation of blood vessels and tumescence that leads to bigger and better orgasms.
5. Probiotics may not directly affect your sex hormones, but they do impact your mental health, which—as you already know—directly affects your sex drive. Studies have linked psychiatric disorders like depression to imbalanced gut bacteria and probiotics can help restore microbiome balance.

Spring has sprung! The warmer weather and longer days mean you’re getting out of the house more, which is great...that is, if you feel like being social. Acne can make you feel anxious about skin revealing clothing. I would know. I suffered from severe cystic acne for years until I resolved it using lifestyle, nutrition, and a specific skin care routine. You don’t have to hide out this spring. You can clear your skin in as little as three months with simple lifestyle, nutrition, and supplement strategies. Here’s everything you need to know about getting glowing, radiant, ACNE-FREE skin in 2019.

Why Acne Happens in your 20s, 30s, and 40s

Your skin shouldn’t sabotage your self-esteem. By learning why acne strikes adult women—and what you can do about it—you can regain control of your beautiful face and body. You can love your skin again. Adult acne is hormonal. That’s why you’re likely to notice breakouts at certain times of the month, in particular when you’re moving from the ovulation phase (mid-way through your cycle) to the start of your period. That said, the four phases of your menstrual cycle are normal, natural, and inevitable… but breakouts aren’t. If you’re breaking out at certain times of the month, it signals a hormone imbalance. You may have too much estrogen relative to progesterone (called estrogen dominance) or high levels of androgens (male hormones). Why do sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone affect skin in the first place? Research suggests that the oil-producing glands in the skin can act as their own independent endocrine (hormone) organs, responding to messages from hormones like estrogen and testosterone. When those hormones are in balance, they send an “all clear” message to your oil glands. When they get out of balance, that clear skin message goes sideways…and you’re left with unwanted breakouts.

Natural Remedies for Hormonal Acne

Here’s are the remedies I recommend for clear skin. These are the exact steps I took to heal my severe cystic acne:Natural Remedy #1: Food. Clear, glowing skin starts with what you eat and when you eat it. That’s because hormonal healing starts on the inside. When you use the Cycle Syncing Method™ to align what you eat with your 28-day menstrual cycle, you can see changes in your skin in three months from just this step alone. Flax and cilantro are particularly good to help the liver and large intestine flush out excess hormones. Natural Remedy #2: Exercise. The same phase-based self-care strategies that work for food also work for exercise. When you line up up how and when you move with the four phases of your menstrual cycle, your skin will glow even more. Natural Remedy #3: Customize your skin care routine. Your skin goes through natural shifts in elasticity and oiliness/dryness every month, and how you take care of your skin during each phase of your cycle should reflect and support where your skin is at. Here is a week-by-week guide to skin care. This routine is a crucial step in putting an end to hormonal acne. Day 1 – Day 6 (Bleeding). During menstruation, focus on restorative, soothing skin care. Think hydrating and calming masks, and collagen masks.  Day 7-12 (follicular phase). If you get facials with extractions, schedule one during your follicular phase. This is also the time to do any hair removal.Day 13-24 (ovulation/first half of luteal). Facials are still okay during this time, but it’s best to go for masks, not extractions. Dry brushing will help the lymph offload the estrogen. You don’t need much in the way of products during this phase.Day 25-Day 28 (the second half of luteal). This a perfect time for home care with your favorite products and using oil-based serum to reduce sebum production. Clay masks are also great during this time, and you can use products with lactic acid to shrink pores. NOTE: Don’t have any extractions or hair removal during the second half of the month when skin is thinner and increased blood flow to your capillaries means more post-extraction swelling. Save facial appointments until right after your bleed is over.Natural Remedy #4: Maximize your micronutrients. Make sure you are getting the essential micronutrients you need to support healthy skin. I take Balance Supplements every day of my cycle to optimize my hormonal health. Remember, clear skin starts on the inside. You can have the healthiest skin care routine in the world, but you won’t banish acne without considering what you eat and how you supplement.…. and if you don’t have any idea where you are in your cycle, start tracking it now with the MyFLO app. You can only practice cyclical self-care when you know which phase you’re in!Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

BALANCE by FLO Living Hormone Supplement Kit

Because you've asked for hormone-friendly supplement recommendations, I created a solution that I am so thrilled to be able to offer to you on your hormonal balancing journey:Balance by FLO Living Supplements are a complete package that work together to keep your hormone levels healthy. They include a 2 month (2 cycle) supply of the following formulations so you’re never caught short in any phase of your cycle.When you take these 5 supplements daily, you’ll be giving your body excellent micronutrients to support healthier hormone levels. Which means that you’ll start to see your worst period symptoms get better… and even disappear after a while.Click here to learn more about the BALANCE Bio-Hacking Supplement Kit.

If you’ve been following FLO Living, you know that eating and exercising in sync with your cycle is the key to getting rid of period problems and achieving the body and the life you want. (If you’re new to FLO Living, I’m so excited you’re here!). But did you know that you can align your life with your cycle in ways that extend beyond food and exercise—and when you do, you will:

• Look and feel better
• Improve body composition
• Experience fewer period problems, problems like bloating, acne, PMS, cramps, and heavy or irregular periods
• Help optimize fertility
• Help ease symptoms of PCOS and endometriosis
• Enjoy greater productivity at work and in life
• Have an easier time achieving work-life balance
• Feel more connection and support in your romantic relationships
• Have more energy

I developed The Cycle Syncing® Method over a decade ago to help women live in line with their natural, 28-day hormone cycle. Practicing The Cycle Syncing® Method changes everything. I know, I know...that sounds like a fantasy. It’s not. When you work with your body and your natural 28-day hormone cycle, rather than against it, you will notice benefits in every aspect of your life.

‍If you’ve tried different eating plans, exercise routines, time management programs, and other strategies for successful living and NOT gotten the results you want, I hope you’ll try this intuitive, simple, and profoundly effective practice. Now you might be thinking, “Engaging in phase-based self care… What does that even mean?” Or, “Shift my whole life to match my cycle? That sounds like a full-time job!” But the practice is straightforward, the changes simple and intuitive, and the rewards profound.

Keep reading for a closer look at what it means to put The Cycle Syncing® Method into practice in every area of your life.

What Does it Mean to Sync With Your Cycle?

Good question. On the surface it sounds like something really technical and complicated, guaranteed to take up time and effort. In practice, however, The Cycle Syncing® Method is simple. To sync with your cycle—or, as I call it in practice, to engage in phase-based self-care—is simply to know which of the four phases of your 28-day menstrual cycle you are in at any given moment and then tailor your food, movement, relationship, work, and lifestyle choices to your unique strengths, weakness, and needs during that phase. That might sound like a lot of adapting and changing, week after week. But once you start tracking your cycle and getting an embodied sense of what each phase looks and feels like in your body, the tweaks you’ll make to your food, movement, and life will become intuitive. Once you get the hang of it, phase-based self-care feels so natural that you won’t believe that there was a time when you didn’t engage in it.

Food and movement are two key components of syncing with your cycle, but they aren’t the only ones. You can bring this practice to every area of your life and experience even greater results. Starting this week, I’m opening the doors to a program to help you do just that. It’s called Flo28 and it’s designed to revolutionize your relationship with fitness, nutrition, and time management. Flo28 will help you simplify the phase-based self care, support you in the process, and allow you to achieve optimal health and happiness. But I don’t want you to have to wait to get started. Here’s a peek at what it looks like to engage in phase-based self care in all aspects of your life—and what you can expect when you do.

These are the topics and strategies that we will focus on in Flo28:

‍Food.

‍When it comes to food, phase-based self care is all about what to eat during each week of your cycle to best support your brain and body. If you’ve ever noticed that you’re hungrier during certain weeks of the month or that you tend to buy more food (in particular more sugary food) during those times, you’ve felt your body’s shifting nutrition needs. You already know, on a deep cellular level, that your body and brain will run their best when you eat the key micronutrients and essential macronutrients you need during each phase. Start matching your food to your hormone phase right away with my four-week food challenge. Do a deep dive into eating for your cycle with Flo28. (And if even the idea of tracking your cycle is new to you, use the MyFLO app to track your natural hormone shifts.)

‍Exercise.

‍When you tailor your exercise to your 28-day hormone cycle, you will get more of the results you want with less effort. That’s because doing intense workouts in some phases of your cycle will work with your reproductive hormones—and doing high intensity workouts in other phases works against them. In other words, high-intensity training at the wrong time each month will sabotage your weight loss and body composition efforts. Stop shooting yourself in the (exercise) foot. Start syncing your exercise routine with your cycle for more results, faster, and with less effort.

‍Productivity.

‍As women, we will excel at different tasks and responsibilities at different times of the month at work (and with life logistics) because of our shifting hormones. Now let me be clear, this does NOT mean we are less capable than men. Far, FAR, from it. It simply means we are primed to be even better at certain things at specific times each month. We’ll be better at communication certain weeks, for example, and better at detail-oriented tasks other weeks. What this means is that you can use your hormone cycle to consistently bring out your strengths at work, experience greater success at work, and achieve greater work-life balance.

‍Sex Drive.

Turns out you’re not supposed to be in the mood all the time! It’s normal to feel peaks and dips with desire and that’s ok and healthy.  The challenge is that when we’re hormonally imbalanced, we can start to experience consistent lower libido. When you start to eat, move, and live according to your unique hormonal needs each week, you can experience a profound and positive shift in your hormonal symptoms, including low libido. I consider syncing with your cycle the first, best thing you can do to balance your hormones and bring your sex life back to life.

‍Relationship.

‍You can leverage your strengths during each phase of your cycle to improve communication and connection in your primary relationship. The Cycle Syncing Method™ can help you reduce relationship tension, decrease fights, and make communication easier.

‍Manifesting your dreams.

‍Yep, syncing with your cycle and engaging in phase-based self care can even help you manifest your dreams. Our bodies move rhythmically through a creation cycle 12 times each year—and, knowing that, we can harness “new year/new you” energy all year long to achieve even more of our dreams.

Many women fear perimenopause, that time in life when a woman’s reproductive hormones start to downshift.

Indeed, perimenopause has gotten a bad reputation because it can be accompanied by a raft of unpleasant symptoms, including weight gain, mood swings, severe period problems (like heavy or irregular, bloating, and PMS), feeling tired all the time, lackluster skin and hair, thyroid issues, non-existent libido, and infertility.

But here’s what most women don’t know: these symptoms aren’t inevitable. ‍

Yes, the hormonal shifts during perimenopause are real, but the symptoms are optional. When you adopt a phase-based self-care routine, you can sidestep the unpleasant symptoms of perimenopause.

And don’t stop reading if you’re in your 20s and perimenopause is the last thing on your mind! If you’re experiencing any type of period problem or hormonal imbalance right now, your symptoms are a harbinger of things to come… and not in a good way. If you feel crummy now and you don’t take steps to balance your hormones, you stand to feel even worse during perimenopause.

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What is Perimenopause?

Perimenopause means “around menopause” and it starts for most women around age 35 and lasts until menopause (your very last bleed). Symptoms can crop up during perimenopause because of the inevitable hormonal shifts that happen as the body starts to move out of its childbearing orientation. More specifically, perimenopause is characterized by uneven swings in estrogen, progesterone and androgens. These hormones follow a more or less even pattern during your 20s and early 30s, but they start to behave more erratically as you enter your late 30s and 40s and, as you get closer to menopause, they start to trend downward. Environmental Factors Make Perimenopause Symptoms WorseNow add in the fact that life in one’s late 30s and early 40s can be full of unique stressors: raising young children and teenagers, working long (often stressful) hours at the peak of one’s career, navigating busy family schedules, and caring for aging parents. This can send the stress hormone cortisol on its own frenzied roller coaster, so now in addition to shifts in reproductive hormones, a woman might be facing the symptoms of high cortisol, like feeling tired-but-wired all the time, never sleeping, intense sugar cravings, and imbalanced blood sugar. Your level of exposure to endocrine disrupting toxins also makes a difference in how well you’ll navigate perimenopause. Today there are more endocrine disruptors in the environment than ever before, and these chemicals can overwhelm the body’s detox system (which is in charge of getting rid of used-up hormones as well as toxins) and wreak a special kind of havoc on the thyroid, which is very sensitive to chemical exposure.

The Two Phases of Perimenopause

Perimenopause happens in two phases: Phase 1 and Phase 2. Today I’m going to focus on how you can ease symptoms and engage in cyclical self-care during Phase 1, but it’s important to understand both phases.Phase 1 (35 to 45 years old)This phase is when reproductive hormone production starts to shift and become less consistent. That said, if you’re in good hormonal health and you’re engaging in cyclical self-care (see my advice below) you shouldn’t feel symptoms during this phase. You should be ovulating and menstruating regularly and have good muscle tone, skin quality, energy, and sex drive. In other words, you should still be making enough hormones to feel vital and youthful. If you are experiencing symptoms like difficulty with fertility, vaginal dryness, accelerated skin aging, or dry hair (or all of the above), these are signs that your hormones need some TLC...ASAP!Phase Two (45 to 55 years old)During this phase, FSH levels rise to the point where you no longer ovulate. And while that sounds dramatic, this phase will be relatively smooth sailing if you’ve taken care of your hormonal health during Phase 1. However, many women let the symptoms they experience in Phase 1 go unaddressed and that compounds their symptoms in Phase 2.But as I said earlier, extreme symptoms aren’t inevitable during perimenopuase. You can use targeted strategies in each phase to ease symptoms and feel your best.

Phase 1 Perimenopause: Symptoms & Solutions

I recommend that all women follow the same core food, supplement, and cyclical self-care strategies in Phase 1 to minimize perimenopause symptoms. Then, if you still don’t feel your best, you can customize the protocol by taking specific steps to address your unique symptoms. Here are my three core strategies for every woman in perimenopause, followed by steps you can take to address specific, lingering symptoms.

The 3 Core Strategies for a Symptom-Free Perimenopause

Strategy #1: Practice Phase-based eating. The first essential strategy for having a symptom-free perimenopause is to eat specific foods each week of your cycle, changing what you eat in each phase to support optimal hormone balance and metabolism. This phase-based approach to eating provides the most variety of micronutrients to support overall hormonal balance. It also ensures that you’re getting key foods at critical times to break down the excess levels of estrogen that can cause breakouts and PMS. Not to mention that this approach will improve the quality of your bleed, support fertility, and boost sex drive, energy, and mood. You’ll enjoy a wide variety of cuisines when you start eating cyclically – macrobiotic, raw, ketogenic, Mediterranean, some intermittent fasting and not ever get stuck doing one day in and day out. Phase-based eating is the true differentiator for the FLO protocol. Everything about your diet and lifestyle should be relevant to your female biochemistry, and the FLO protocol ensures that. ‍

Strategy #2: Engage in phase-based exercise. The cyclical nature of your 28-day menstrual cycle provides the perfect architecture for planning how to work out and when to work out. During each phase of your menstrual cycle your body is primed for different kinds of exercise. At certain times—during the luteal phase and during menstruation, for example—the nutrients and hormones in your body are directed toward building up the lining up of your uterus, so you won’t have all the internal resources you need to work out at full capacity. During the other phases, however, your body can channel all its resources into a really strong workout.By engaging in phase-based exercise, you will save yourself from exhaustion, burn-out, and unpleasant perimenopause symptoms. Get my recommendations for what type of movement to engage in and when right here.

‍Strategy #3: Maximize Your Micronutrients With Perimenopause Supplements. If you’re eating a whole-food, phase-based diet and you’re exercising in sync with your cycle, do you need to take supplements to have a symptom-free perimenopause? Yes!Supplements are non-negotiable for keeping hormones balanced and stable as you enter Phase 1 perimenopause. Food should always be your first strategy. To heal your hormones, you have to feed your body a micronutrient-rich diet of hormonally-supportive foods in a cycle-syncing pattern. There’s no single supplement that can make up for bad or inconsistent food choices. But supplementing with specific micronutrients gives the body the extra support it needs during times of hormonal transition. This is why we created the EASE supplement kit—to help you prolong youth with healthier hormones. Here are the micronutrients you'll find in EASE, and how they will support your perimenopause journey:

• Melatonin: Supports slow hormonal aging by increasing egg quality and chances of conception and promoting deeper sleep and rest. Also helps support a healthy sex drive and may support healthier bones.
• B vitamins, Saffron, and Scelectium: This combination supports healthier, more regular ovulation, boosts energy and clears stress, increases mental focus, reduces hot flashes and stress, and supports moods.

In addition to EASE, you may want to consider a probiotic. A healthy microbiome is essential for managing hormonal conditions—and this is especially true as you enter perimenopause. Women aged 35 to 45 need optimal gut health in order to absorb the key micronutrients they get in their food and supplement. Good gut health also means a healthy estrobolome, or the community of bugs in the gut that help metabolize excess estrogen.

Specific Strategies for Lingering Perimenopause Symptoms

Once you’ve put my 3 core strategies in place, you will start to feel better. But you may still need additional support in certain areas. That’s normal. Here are some of the common symptoms unique to perimenopause and additional steps you can take to help ease them:

‍Irregular, heavy, or painful periods.

Try taking Vitex, also called chasteberry. It has been shown to support regular ovulation and healthy progesterone levels. But proceed with caution if you have PCOS. In some women with PCOS, certain reproductive hormones are already high and Vitex may raise those hormones even further, which you don’t want.

‍PMS/PMDD.Studies also suggest that Vitex, also called Chasteberry, may help improve symptoms of PMS and PMDD. One study even found that Vitex outperformed fluoxetine (generic name for Prozac) for easing symptoms of PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder).

‍Fertility struggles. By supporting regular ovulation and healthy hormone levels, Vitex can be a great choice for fertility support during perimenopause. Research that looked at a proprietary blend of herbs that included Vitex found that the supplement supported fertility without negative side effects. (Don’t combine Vitex with fertility drugs, however, because that can lead to over stimulation of the ovaries) CoQ10 has also been shown to help improve egg quality. Depression and irritability. Try taking maca powder, which studies suggest may help improve symptoms of depression. Some animal research also suggests that maca may help with cognitive function and concentration.

‍Weight gain. Try alpha lipoic acid, which helps support healthy blood sugar and insulin balance and, in turn, healthy weight loss and healthy weight maintenance. The compound may also guard against bone loss. ALA also helps support and nourish the liver and optimal liver function is essential for getting rid of excess estrogen and keeping reproductive hormones balanced. Alpha lipoic acid is one the key ingredients in the my Balance Detox supplement. Dull skin and hair. A high-quality omega-3 supplement will help nourish dry skin and hair. Also, an obvious tip, but one that often gets overlooked and under-appreciated: stay hydrated! This works wonders for skin and hair.

‍Low sex drive.Studies suggest that maca may help boost sex drive in menopausal women, and other research found that maca may act as a “toner of hormonal processes” in early post-menopausal women. Additional research has shown that maca may help with low libido as a side effect of taking SSRI antidepressant medications in menopausal women. The adaptogenic herb ashwagandhamay also help support sexual function in women.

‍Stress and anxiety. Taming stress requires a multipronged approach, one that includes lifestyle modifications, exercise, and more. But adaptogenic herbs can be a powerful part of your stress-reduction arsenal. I recommend ashwagandha, which research suggests is a safe and effective way to build up resistance to stress and improve self-reported quality of life. Holy Basil is another great choice for stress and anxiety support, according to research.

‍Coming Off Birth Control to Conceive. If you’re coming off birth control after many years on the pill, I recommend several important steps for hormone healing and fertility support. But one of the best things you can do is prioritize eating leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts. These foods help support estrogen metabolism in the liver and bring your hormones back into balance after years of hormonal birth control.

‍Thyroid issues. With thyroid concerns, your first best bet is always to consult a trusted healthcare practitioner. You’ll want to run thyroid lab tests and discuss next steps with a licensed professional. But you’ll also want to make it a top priority to avoid endocrine-disrupting chemicals as much as possible. The thyroid is uniquely sensitive to endocrine disruptors. I recommend ALL women take steps to protect themselves from these environmental chemicals, but it is especially critical if your are working to heal your thyroid.

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Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you!  You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

You have a new baby and you’re ecstatic! You’re also….. exhausted. Sure, you’re tired from waking up multiple times a night to nurse or bottle feed, but you can feel in your body that something more is going on. You feel depleted in a different and deeper way. And that is perfectly normal. YOU are exactly where you should be. Don’t let the culture tell you otherwise. I wanted to share my personal strategy and game plan for recovery with you for this special postpartum time - the first 9 months after you give birth is an important opportunity for you to heal short term and set yourself up for long term hormonal health. As self care can be confusing and overwhelming, I always like to project plan out what to do and what I should expect. It makes me feel centered and calm when big transitions are happening.New moms are barraged with messages about getting their body back after baby. We’re fed advice on reclaiming our energetic, happy, and in-the-mood selves ASAP after delivery. But the truth is that being pregnant and nurturing another life for nine months is a full-time, energy-and-nutrient-consuming job for the body. And the body’s work isn’t over after giving birth. You’re caring for a newborn around-the-clock and, if you’re breastfeeding, your body is very likely still losing essential micronutrients faster than you can replenish them.So if you’re experiencing low energy, low mood, and low libido after pregnancy, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you, especially if you’ve given birth in the last three months. In fact, I like to think about the nine months after giving birth as having its own trimesters—just like during the nine months of pregnancy—and each three-month period of time postpartum comes with its own experiences, expectations, and self-care rituals.I’ve written before about self-care and nutrient support when you’re trying to optimize fertility, when you’re pregnant, and when you’re postpartum. Today I want to dig deeper into the specific steps you can take during each of the “postpartum trimesters” to support your body and take care of yourself during this unique time in your life.

Your Month-By-Month Guide to Postpartum Healing

In the West, we’ve been trained to think of delivering a baby as the end of the process. The hard work is done, we’re told, and now everything can return to normal. We’re encouraged to get back to our busy lives, running errands, hitting the gym, cleaning the house—in other words, overextending ourselves—while we’re simultaneously not getting enough sleep and, potentially, letting our nutrition needs slide.In Chinese culture, the time period right after birth is considered special and unique. Women follow a traditional “cocoon” protocol, where they stay tucked inside with baby for 30 days and eat specific foods to keep their bodies balanced and healthy.I think this Eastern perspective gets a few things right, namely the need to treat the period of time right after birth as special for both mom and baby—a time when it’s important to nourish your body, practice deep self-care, and connect with the new human in your life. I encourage new moms to continue tailoring their self care to their unique needs after the 30-day mark.Here’s what I recommend for nourishing your body, balancing your hormones, and reclaiming your energy in each “postpartum trimester.”

The First Three Months Postpartum

Your goals during this three-month window are to use food and supplements to replenish the micronutrients your body used during pregnancy; keep pace with your increased micronutrient needs during breastfeeding (or if not breastfeeding, recovery in general); and guard your precious time and energy—saying yes only to the things that feel supportive and good for your body. First Postpartum Trimester (Months 1 to 3 After Giving Birth)Food: During pregnancy, your body’s primary task is to supply nutrients to your growing baby. In fact, your body’s nutrient demands are so great during this time that it can be hard for even the most conscientious eaters to get optimal nutrients during pregnancy. This can leave you with a low-level nutrient deficiency when the baby is born. Then, if you opt to breastfeed, you will continue to share nutrients with your newborn—and further deplete your own nutrient stores. The worst culprit however is the pressure to “get your body back” after baby. Dieting and overexercising are hormonally disruptive during this time and can make you feel worse. If you’ve just had a baby, you need to heal and recover and food can help you do that. I advise women who have just given birth to set have three primary nutrition goals:

1. To use food to keep blood sugar balanced. Blood sugar balance is essential for steady, consistent energy and for restoring your body’s delicate hormone balance. You’ll want to prioritize healthy, whole foods that keep your blood sugar steady during this time. These include healthy sources of fat, like olive oil and avocados; nourishing sources of protein, like pastured meats (if you eat meat), and beans and lentils; and whole-food sources of complex carbohydrates, like brown rice and sweet potatoes.
2. To use food to replenish lost nutrients. Micronutrient deficiencies—like being low in B vitamins, magnesium, vitamin D, and omega 3 fatty acids—deprive the endocrine system of the essential support it needs to stay balanced and healthy. When your body is in a micronutrient deficit, you can experience low energy, low mood, low libido, and the symptoms of hormone imbalances, including bloating, skin issues, irritability, and brain fog.
4. To eat enough food. Finally, women who are postpartum and breastfeeding need to eat enough food. This is what I ate after the birth of my daughter, and it might seem like a lot, but you cannot shy away from food during this time. Your body needs the calories because your baby needs the calories. When I adopted this protocol during breastfeeding, I lost all my baby weight (50 lbs. of it) within six months. Within just three months, I’d already lost 30 lbs. So you don’t need to deprive yourself after baby is born. In fact, if you do, you’ll only suffer more.

There’s a great cookbook for new moms. It’s called The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nurturing the New Mother and I strongly recommend it for the first month postpartum. If you are breastfeeding, eat this way until you stop breastfeeding. If you aren’t breastfeeding, eat this way for the first month postpartum and then transition back to your regular hormone-supportive diet. You may also need fewer snacks during this time period than new moms who breastfeed.Supplements: I recommend taking key supplements during this window of time—no matter how well you are eating and how much you are eating. If you are breastfeeding, continue taking your prenatal vitamins, and add (or continue with) a fish oil supplement and a probiotic. Taking supplements is key to help rebalance your hormones and replenish key micronutrients.Your exercise goals in the first postpartum trimester: None. In the first month, sleep when the baby sleeps. In months two and three, listen to your body. Very short walks with baby are okay, but enlist the support of a postpartum physical therapist to help you work out your abs, lower back, and hips. This will help stabilize your body for the long term. When it comes to mood, energy, andsex drive in these first three months, know that this is a period of major hormonal downshifting from all the estrogen and progesterone that was coursing through your body during pregnancy—and your mood, energy, and sex drive are along for that (downshifted) ride. If your mood, energy, and libido are lower than normal, that’s perfectly normal. During this time you’re also going through a process called matrescence, a profound rewiring in the brain that happens during the transition to motherhood. It is a lot like adolescence, only experts believe the chemical shifts during matrescence are even more profound than the changes during puberty. So, in many ways, you are becoming a new person—and you are getting to know yourself as a new person. This is a process, so don’t judge. Just observe yourself with a loving eye. And make sure you have a trusted health practitioner to call on if you experience any postpartum anxiety or depression. It is also normal for vaginal births to lead to some vaginal trauma, which can make penetration less appealing during this time. If you’ve had a C-section, you will need even more time for recovery. If you or your partner are interested in sex during this time, it is absolutely okay for your vagina not to be involved. You and your partner can find other ways to be intimate. Be clear and direct with your partner about what will work for you during this time, and what is off the table for now.

Second Postpartum Trimester (Months 3 to 6 After Giving Birth)

Food: If you are breastfeeding, I recommend keeping up with your first trimester eating routine. If you’re not breastfeeding, you can eat more normally. And if your period has come back, you can begin to eat cyclically again, making sure you don’t skip meals (or you will dig yourself into an energy deficit).Supplements: If you’re still breastfeeding, it’s critical to continue with your prenatal supplements, including probiotics, fish oil, and prenatal vitamins, if you’re not breastfeeding continue with the Balance Supplements, (or to start them if you didn’t take them during the first three months after giving birth!). Your body is still working hard to provide for you and your baby and you can use all the extra support you can get.Exercise: Now is the time to think about adding more movement back into your daily life. More walking, more yoga, some strength training. Your body should be able to handle a bit more now, and during this time exercise should feel more energizing than depleting. Mood/Energy/Sex drive: As I mentioned, giving birth can sidetrack your sex drive for a while. Even if your baby is sleeping through the night during this phase, you probably still have a sleep deficit from the first postpartum trimester.Or you’re in the unlucky (albeit temporary) position of having a baby who is experiencing sleep regression. This is when baby starts waking up multiple times a night or refuses to fall asleep after previously sleeping well… and there is nothing like this special torture to raise your cortisol, throw a wrench in your melatonin production, and make you feel edgy, irritable, tired, and, oh yeah, not in the mood for sex.But if you’re feeling ready to support your libido during this phase, I recommend a couple strategies:

1. First, be aware that sex drive is complex and can be affected by many physical, emotional, and relationship factors. Be gentle with yourself if you’re not feeling as libidinous as you did before giving birth. This remains a unique time, and it is normal for it to take time to feel interested in sex again.
2. Second, feel empowered to ask your partner for more foreplay and more direct clitorial stimulation. You may need more time to get in the mood; that’s normal. And if your vagina is still healing after giving birth, stick to clitoral stimulation and save penetration for a later time. And due to the shift in your hormones, especially if you’re breastfeeding, ALWAYS assume you need to add lubricant before you start any activity.
3. Third, be realistic about your expectations. You’re likely to get interrupted by your baby at some point, so count any sexy-time activities you engage in—whether a quick cuddle or a full-blown roll in the hay—as a win. Don’t have an all-or-nothing approach during this time. The more little bits you get in the habit of doing, the more it will continue to prime your desire and physical response for more activity.

Third Postpartum ‘Trimester’ (Months 6 to 9 After Giving Birth)

Food: It’s likely that your period has returned by this point. If so, you can begin to eat cyclically again. If you’re breastfeeding, continue to make sure you are getting enough calories each day to nourish yourself and baby.Supplement: If you’re no longer breastfeeding, stay on the Balance Supplements. If you’re breastfeeding, it’s imperative that you continue the prenatal trifecta - prenatal, probiotic, fish oil, regime, both for yourself and your breast milk quality. Taking herbs that help with breast milk supply is great as well. Exercise: Exercise cyclically and focus on getting strong and flexible. Any extra weight you are carrying will take care of itself.Mood/Energy/Sex Drive: This is a great time to check in and evaluate how you’re doing with your health overall. Schedule a session with a FLO coach or take stock of energy, mood, libido, and other concerns with your OB/GYN to see if anything clinical is needed. If you’ve taken good care of yourself with nutrition, supplements, and targeted exercise in the first two postpartum trimesters, you’re apt to feel more like your sexy self again. In fact, you should feel your sex drive roaring around ovulation. Continue to ask for the type of physical intimacy that suits your needs, and if a penis is involved make sure you use condoms. You can absolutely get pregnant even if your period hasn’t returned.If your sex drive hasn’t returned, there is no reason to think that anything is wrong with you. Instead, use this time to evaluate any physical, emotional, or relationship factors might be cropping up for you and continue to be gentle with yourself. Consult a doctor, therapist, or physical therapist if you feel you need more support.I also recommend prioritizing self pleasure. I recommend one session per week of self pleasuring (no vibrators!). Give yourself 20 minutes of pleasurable touch. This will boost oxytocin and nitric oxide levels, both which can help you recover your libido. Try my 5Cs of self-pleasure to get yourself there.Your mood and energy should feel more cyclical as you return to your non-pregnancy hormonal patterns. One final note: synthetic hormones, like the birth control pill or Depo shot, are often prescribed postpartum to prevent pregnancy and “cure” symptoms of hormone imbalance, like low energy and low libido. But these drugs don’t cure anything, they just mask symptoms and prevent your body from doing the underlying repair and healing that needs to happen to ultimately feel your best. So if you’re on the pill or other hormonal birth control and you’re not feeling great, consider alternative birth control methods and remember to return to food as a first-line strategy for reclaiming your energy and sex drive postpartum.Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

BALANCE by FLO Living Hormone Supplement Kit

Because you've asked for hormone-friendly supplement recommendations, I created a solution that I am so thrilled to be able to offer to you on your hormonal balancing journey: Balance by FLO Living Supplements are a complete package that work together to keep your hormone levels healthy. They include a 2 month(2 cycle) supply of the following formulations so you’re never caught short in any phase of your cycle.When you take these 5 supplements daily, you’ll be giving your body excellent micronutrients to support healthier hormone levels. Which means that you’ll start to see your worst period symptoms get better… and even disappear after a while.

Click here to learn more about the BALANCE Bio-Hacking Supplement Kit.

For many women, the new year means one thing: changing how we eat. After the indulgences of the holidays, we often feel pressure to clean up what’s on our dinner plates and reset our health with food. So we jump on whatever food fad is trending this month, whether it is a “hot” new diet, a detox regimen, or eliminating a whole group of macronutrients (“No more carbs!”).

We’re determined to undo holiday damage. But do any of these approaches actually work?

Every diet that crosses your social media feed this month will promise to transform your life, but the only approach that will actually give you results is the approach that matches your unique hormonal needs during each week of your 28-day cycle.

If you struggle with any hormone-related symptoms, including weight loss resistance, severe PMS, irregular or heavy periods, PCOS, fibroids, hormonal acne, or impaired fertility, it’s imperative that you understand your hormone cycle and how to match what you eat to your shifting hormone needs throughout the month.

Why THESE Popular Diets Don’t Work for Women with Hormone Imbalances

Let’s take a close-up look at why some of today’s most popular eating plans don’t work for most women.

The Ketogenic Diet & Women

This low-carb plan is intended to put your body into ketosis, which occurs when you restrict glucose and start burning fat as a fuel source. People on this diet get 85 percent of their calories each day from fat, 10 percent of their calories from protein, and 5 percent from carbohydrates. The diet is used as a medical intervention for children with epilepsy and it is being studied as an adjuvant therapy for certain cancer patients. While studies suggest that the diet may have health-promoting potential, the protocol restricts carbohydrates so severely that most experts recommend doing it only with medical supervision. No one, whether you wrestle with hormone imbalances or not, should undertake a ketogenic diet lightly or without trusted medical support.

• The potential upside: People who follow a ketogenic diet tend to feel full for a long time after each meal (because fat is so satiating) and this can lead to eating fewer calories overall. It also means most junk food is jettisoned from your diet because almost all packaged foods have more than the allowed limit of net carbohydrates.
• The hormonal downside: There is conflicting information on how the ketogenic diet affects of thyroid health, with studies suggesting that it might negatively affect T3 production. The thyroid is one of the master glands of the endocrine system and for optimal hormone health women need optimal thyroid health. The very low number of carbs on the ketogenic diet can also put stress on the adrenal system. Adrenal fatigue is, by definition, a hormone imbalance. And it is best to avoid any diet has the potential to contribute to an existing hormone imbalance.

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Eating Raw Vegan & Women

Eating an abundance of rainbow colored vegetables and fruits, whether cooked or raw (or a combo of both, is a major win for health and hormone balance. But a true raw diet consists only of plant-based foods that haven’t been heated over 104-118 degrees F, and that can come with some drawbacks. The diet also dictates that nothing you eat is pasteurized, refined, or processed. Advocates of raw veganism believe cooking food destroys important enzymes and reduces their nutritional content.

• The potential upside: Loading up on organic, fiber-rich vegetables and fruits is always a good idea. An abundance of these phytonutrient-rich foods can improve digestion, enhance heart health, reduce inflammation, support cellular health, and have anti-aging benefits. 
• The hormonal downside: Studies have linked strict raw food diet to amenorrhea. If your gut microbiome is out of whack (perhaps because you have a history of taking synthetic birth control), your body will not be able to absorb the important nutrients in raw foods. As many functional medicine practitioners say, “We aren’t what we eat. We are what we can digest and absorb.” Nutrient deficiencies can compromise your entire hormonal system and show up as a host of symptoms, from missing periods to mood issues to weight gain.

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Eating Grain-free & Women

Gluten, which is the main protein in wheat, has gotten a particularly bad rap in recent years, and for good reason: it’s not good for your hormonal health, which is why I recommend removing it from your diet when you follow the FLO Living protocol. But many diets advocate removing all grains as a way to lose weight and optimize health.

• The potential upside: If you cut all grains and replace them with healthy fats, proteins, and complex, phytonutrient-rich carbohydrates, you may lose weight in the short-term. Some people also report a reduction in brain fog. 
• The hormonal downside: If you struggle with cravings and binge eating, going grain free can set you up for major cravings and make you vulnerable to moments of binging carbs, which can lead to blood sugar and insulin spikes—and turbulent blood sugar and insulin can interfere with ovulation and wreak havoc on metabolism and fat loss.  

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Intermittent Fasting (IF) & Women

Intermittent fasting is going for short or intermediate periods of time without food. This “not eating” window can be as short as 12 hours and include sleep time—for example, you could stop eating at 8:00pm one night and not eat again until 8:00am the next morning and call it a fast—or as long as 16, 20, or 24 hours.People fast in different ways. Some people try to go 12 or more hours without eating everyday. Others try to go 12 or 16 hours without food a couple days a week. Some people don’t eat for a full 24 hours one day each week.

• The potential upside: Studies suggest that intermittent fasting may help stabilize blood sugar and promote weight loss. 
• The hormonal downside: Intermittent fasting has been linked to hormone disruption in women. Specifically,  intermittent fasting can disrupt estrogen balance and estrogen imbalance may show up as:
• Low energy
• Poor glucose control
• Weight gain
• Impaired cognitive function
• Decreased bone density
• Poor muscle tone
• Reduced skin and hair health
• Poorer cardiovascular health
• Infertility

A disruption in one hormone system in the body can trigger other hormone imbalances. The other major hormone considerations for women when it comes to intermittent fasting are cortisol, the stress hormone, and thyroid hormone. When cortisol is imbalanced, symptoms include:

• Anxiety
• Low energy
• Insomnia
• Feeling wired-but-tired
• Sugar cravings

When thyroid hormones are imbalanced, symptoms include:

• Weight gain
• Brain fog
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Dry skin
• Dry hair
• Irregular periods
• Trouble regulating body temperature

So while intermittent fasting may have some benefits, this cascade of negative health effects for women may outweigh any benefit.

The Best Way for Women to Eat

These disparate diets do have some benefits, but none of them fully support a woman’s hormonal health. The cyclical nature of female biochemistry isn’t supported by eating the same way day in and day out. We must shift what we eat each week to support our unique micronutrient needs that specific week...which is something that none of these plans take into account. Your body isn’t the same every day and your diet shouldn’t be either! I created my phase-based eating concept 15 years ago to support each stage of a woman’s cycle.

Women are the biggest consumers of health-industry products and protocols—and we’re especially susceptible this time of year, when New Year’s fitness routines promise to burn off pounds and build lean muscle in no time.But here’s the dirty secret that no one is talking about this time of year (or ANY time of year): most of the research on optimal health and wellness is done on men, and because women’s bodies work differently—and because these differences are something most experts in the health space rarely talk about (I’m here to change that!)—we are left to try everything, be disappointed, and then try some more. It’s a cycle that costs us stress, energy, money, heartache, and sanity.If you’re tried any of these fitness routines, you already know on some level that they don’t work. Maybe you made progress for a while, but then it stalled. Maybe you never made progress or, worse, your symptoms got more severe when you started a new health and fitness routine. This phenomenon is all too common. I’ve worked with so many women who started a new health protocol—like eating Paleo and doing short, intense workouts—and seen their symptoms get worse. The thing to remember is that women are biochemically different than men and we need to adopt health-promoting strategies that work for our unique female biochemistry.In other words, we need to biohack like a girl. So what does that look like? The first step is to understand your 28-day cycle and then match your food and exercise to your natural hormonal shifts during those 28 days. When you sync your cycle to your food and movement routines, you’ll experience easier periods, less PMS, reduced bloating, clearer skin, and improvements in weight and body composition. By acknowledging your hormonal reality, you’ll finally be able to look and feel your best.

Your Exercise Needs Change With Your Cycle

Here’s an interesting catch-22: historically women have been excluded from nutrition and exercise research because of how our 28-day menstrual cycle affects our metabolism. (Researchers assume it will mess up the data and so instead of designing tests for us, they just leave us out.) But it is precisely because of those hormone changes that we need research into how we should eat and move.So the research on menstruation and exercise is limited, but not completely non-existent. We know a few things! First, research suggests that women in the luteal phase (the second half of the 28-day cycle) fatigue faster during workouts and need more time to recover. This is one reason to do higher intensity workouts during your follicular phase (the first half of your cycle) and save gentler movement practices, like yoga, for the luteal phase. We know from another study that a woman’s resting metabolic rate (also known as our basal metabolic rate) decreases during the follicular phase, hitting its lowest point one week before ovulation. So doing high intensity workouts during this phase serves as a counterbalance to a slower metabolism. … which brings us to a key biohacking takeaway for women: since your metabolism is naturally slower during the first half of your cycle, you have the power to speed it up — and lose weight and gain muscle! — by doing high intensity exercise during this time.Other research has found that insulin sensitivity is higher during the follicular phase and lower during the luteal phase. A separate study found that the body uses carbohydrates more efficiently during the follicular phase. What does this mean when it comes to exercise? It means that during the first half of your cycle you need less insulin to keep blood sugar stable and keep your body supplied with energy… and that makes it the ideal time to high intensity workouts like strength training and HIIT workouts. As estrogen and testosterone drop during the luteal phase, your energy for doing high intensity workouts will wane, too. And while a woman’s calorie needs go up during the luteal phase, her resting metabolic rate also rises. In other words, you will eat more in the last half of your cycle, but you will burn more, too. As your energy slows in the luteal phase, allow your workouts to slow down, too. Shift from high intensity bouts of exercise to activities like yoga, walking, and easy bike rides. Not only will these types of movements match your energy level (and you won’t be fighting your natural hormonal rhythms, which is counterproductive and unhealthy) but you will get better results, too. If you experience estrogen dominance (and almost every woman with period problems does), exercising hard all the time can backfire (I wrote more about why that happens here). In the end, the biggest takeaway is that a woman can’t exercise the same way every day and expect to see results. When you align your exercise with your menstrual cycle, you can finally look and feel your best.

What You’ll Get When You Start Exercising With Your Cycle

You can expect to lose weight and gain muscle more easily and sustainably, as well as prevent injury by varying your movement consistently. When you sync your exercise with your cycle, you’ll experience remarkable results. You’ll will also deepen your intuitive sense of what type of movement your body wants and needs every day—and at every phase of your cycle. Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

Secrets of Cycle Syncing™

Did you know that you have optimal times each month for exercise, going on a date, asking for a raise, starting a creative project, and for tapping into your intuition? The secret is coded in your monthly cycle! Let me show you how to leverage your cycle to optimize your energy, productivity and happiness! In this masterclass you’ll discover:

• How your hormones shift and their effects on your mood, energy, and cravings
• Using your cycle to optimize your energy for your work and social schedule
• And how to cycle sync™ for better relationships and more love

Download "Secrets of Cycle Syncing™

Whether you’re a FLO Living veteran (thank you! we love you!) or brand new to our group of empowered and hormonally savvy women (welcome! we love you!), we hope you’ve had a wonderful, happy, and hormone healthy 2018. We’re so grateful to have been part of your journey, wherever you are on the path, and we plan to bring you SO MUCH MORE in 2019. We have a lot of wonderful new content in store. We’ll be covering topics that will help you speed up your hormonal recovery and feel better, faster. Meanwhile, we’ve gathered together our most-read articles of 2018. These are the posts that women found most valuable over the course of the year and that they returned to again and again. We hope you’ll take advantage of this list as a go-to resource that you can refer to whenever you need support. And if FLO Living has made a difference in your life this year, or ever, please spread the love and share this post with anyone you feel might benefit from our blog and programs! And please, please, PLEASE leave a comment below (or over on Instagram) to tell me what kinds of hormonal health topics you’d like me to cover in 2018.

Our Top 10 Must-Read Articles of 2018

1. How To Get Clearer Skin and a Flatter Tummy in Time for Summer (May 22, 2018)

When summer hits, it seems like every magazine, blog, and social media post is trying to sell you a fad diet or new fitness craze to get you ready for swimsuit season. But buying into deprivation diets or crazy workout plans that ignore the importance of cycle syncing your exercise will only hurt your chances of true hormonal healing and the benefits that come with it: clearer skin, less bloating, and steady, sustainable weight loss. Looking and feeling your best is all about biohacking.

2. Why Your Hardcore New Year's Workout Plan is Failing You—And What To Do Instead (January 25, 2018)

Have you ever launched enthusiastically into a high-intensity regimen only to find yourself feeling drained, depleted, and somehow up a pant size? What gives? The key to making exercise work for you instead of against you is to understand your hormones and tailor the intensity and the timing of your workouts to your shifting hormonal needs each week.

3. The Connection Between Women's Hormones and Intermittent Fasting (October 23, 2018)

Intermittent fasting is all the rage. But fasting isn’t the same for men and women. If women try fasting but don’t do it properly, it can cause more harm than good. At the same time, when you know how to use intermittent fasting in a way that is safe for your unique female biochemistry—that is, when you know how to biohack intermittent fasting to improve hormone health instead of harm it—you can reap some amazing benefits.

4. Five Acne Cures That Actually Make Your Skin Worse (July 23, 2018)

I suffered from severe cystic acne for many years and I went to my doctor desperate for answers. Not only did their “solutions” not work, they made my acne — and my other symptoms — even worse. Don’t make the mistakes I made: address the real root cause of your acne and get the clear skin you deserve.

5. The Real Reason Behind Your Period Problems (April 5, 2018)

Have you ever wondered about the cause of your hormonal problems? The underlying issue affecting your weight, skin, fertility, health, and happiness? What if I told you that no matter what kind of hormonal dysfunction you’re dealing with — be it endometriosis, PCOS, PMS, or something else — you’re almost certainly struggling with one single cause? And that all it takes to overcome your issues once and for all is to understand how to outsmart the problem?

6. The 5 Supplements You MUST Have To Boost Your Sex Drive (February 7, 2018)

When it comes to healing hormonal dysfunction, food is always your best ally. But supplements can add critical extra support. Think of them as tools that will fasttrack your healing so you feel motivated, empowered, and in the mood.

7. Suffering From Adult Acne? The 5 Secret Fixes You Need (April 25, 2018)

Hormonal acne can accompany natural shifts in the menstrual cycle—for example, when you’re moving from your ovulation phase into your pre-menstruation phase. It can also be triggered by high levels of androgens (male hormones), chronically high insulin levels, and stress. But there are powerful lifestyle strategies you can use to address these root causes and heal your skin.

8. The 5 Ways Stress Affects Your Period (March 3, 2018)

Stress wreaks havoc on hormonal health. Here’s what’s happening to your hormones when you’re chronically stressed, and how you can take steps to address it.

9. Three Secret Reasons Women Shouldn't Drink Coffee (March 28, 2018)

If you have PMS, are trying to conceive, or have a diagnosed menstrual issue, you shouldn’t be drinking coffee or caffeine in general. Here’s the inside scoop on coffee’s corrosive effect on female reproductive hormones.

10. The 5 Healthy Foods That Are Secretly Sabotaging Your Hormones (April 11, 2018)

Before I made it my mission to fix my hormones and help other women do the same, I had no idea that some of the foods I believed to be “healthy” were actually making my problems worse. Now I see how shocked my clients are when I tell them that some of the hyped-up health foods in their grocery carts might be hindering their progress in reversing symptoms.Please leave me a note below and tell me what hormonal health topics you’d like me to cover in 2018. What would you like to know more? What symptoms are you experiencing? Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

Is Your Period Healthy?

How do you know if your hormones are healthy? The answer is in your 5th vital sign – your period.The color of your flow, frequency of your period, and symptoms you have each month can tell you a lot about your health. There are 5 different V-SIGN TYPES, and knowing which one you have will help you get healthy now and prevent disease in the future.Click here to take The V-SIGN TYPE™ Quiz NOW

It’s a taboo topic that we need to normalize: period blood. The color, consistency, and texture of your flow can reveal way more about your overall health than you realize. It’s time to destigmatize this essential vital sign and start decoding symptoms. Period blood is not something we’re taught to talk about. In fact, we’re pretty much raised to hide from it. Pay attention to any maxi pad or tampon commercial and all you’ll see is the same blue liquid over and over again.The truth is: periods matter. They matter SO much, in fact, that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has declared menstruation a vital sign. the appearance, frequency, and consistency of your menstrual blood provides invaluable clues into your overall health, and if you want to finally banish symptoms and feel amazing, it’s time to get familiar with your flow. Think of checking your flow every month like being able to access free lab work for your hormone levels. Knowing the color tells you which hormones are in and out of balance and if your eating is synced with your hormones. Your period provides genius (and free!) biofeedback for you.

Your Guide to Interpreting the Color of Your Period Blood

Ready to recognize what’s normal and what’s not? Check out my guide to period blood:

• The color: Bright, cranberry-red
• The consistency: Like jello mix that hasn’t set (medium viscosity: not too thin, not too thick)
• The length: 5-7 days
• The frequency: Every 28-30 days

What it means: Congratulations! This is what’s considered a normal, healthy period. If you’re already cycle-synching and eating nutrient-rich, FLO-supportive foods, keep it up. Make sure to also incorporate all the necessary lifestyle tweaks and essential supplements to ensure your cycle stays on track.

• The color: Brown
• The consistency: Thin/streaky
• The length: Varies
• The frequency: Varies

What it means: That brown stuff is old oxidized blood that didn’t make it out of your uterus during your last cycle and it’s caused by low progesterone levels. These low levels may be at the root of your period symptoms and may also cause you to struggle with regular ovulation.

• The color: Dark, purple/blue
• The consistency: Thick with clots
• The length: Longer than a week
• The frequency: Varies

What it means: This frozen blueberry color is a sign of too much estrogen. Estrogen levels that are higher in proportion to progesterone cause a lot of the typical symptoms associated with problematic periods, and potentially lead to endometriosis, cysts, or fibroids. Over the long term, excess estrogen can lead to more serious health consequences.

• The color: Barely-there pink
• The consistency: Too light to tell
• The length: 3 days or less
• The frequency: Varies

What it means: A super-short period and extra light bleeding may indicate low estrogen levels. Your hormones are made from the food you eat, so your low estrogen is likely due to vitamin and nutrient deficiencies from improper and extreme dieting as well as from adrenal burnout.

So now what?

Whether your period is the perfect shade of cranberry-red or a different less-than-ideal color of the rainbow, it’s crucial to know which foods, supplements, and lifestyle habits will support your menstrual health and your overall well-being. Start small: take my free V-Sign Quiz to confirm your period type and get a lot more information about what the color, consistency, and more mean for you. Then be sure to download the MyFLO app to immediately start troubleshooting your issues today. And when you’re ready to kick your healing into high gear, stock up on the supplements every woman needs to keep her hormones balanced, and find the FLO Living program that will help you squash your symptoms, reclaim your sex drive, and optimize your fertility. Menstruation matters, so let’s stop the secrecy and get real about periods! By paying attention to the clues that your brilliant, beautiful body is giving you, you’ll have all the clues to overcome hormonal issues once and for all and look and feel your best.

Introducing the BALANCE by FLO Living Hormone Supplement Kit

You’ve been asking me for hormone-friendly supplement recommendations, and I finally have created a solution that I am so thrilled to be able to offer to you on your hormonal balancing journey:

Balance by FLO Living Supplements are a complete package that work together to keep your hormone levels healthy. They include a 2 month (2 cycle) supply of the following formulations so you’re never caught short in any phase of your cycle.When you take these 5 supplements daily, you’ll be giving your body excellent micronutrients to support healthier hormone levels. Which means that you’ll start to see your worst period symptoms get better… and even disappear after a while.

Click here to learn more about the brand-new BALANCE Supplement Kit.

If you rarely feel in the mood, you’re not the only one. Studies overwhelming show that Americans, and especially young people, are having less sex than they were even a decade ago. Experts say we’re in the middle of a sex recession.

That’s right, we’re in the middle of a full-blown, nationwide slowdown in doing it.

Now, I’m the first to admit there are likely many (many, many) reasons why we’re having less sex, from the screens that go with us everywhere (including bed) to emotional problems in our intimate relationships that pave over our desire to be intimate. There are even very, very positive reasons we might be having less sex: young women (and men) are feeling more empowered to say no or to set better boundaries around what they want—and what they don’t—in the boudoir.

But, for many women, low libido is directly related to imbalanced hormones—a fact that this recent article on the sex recession completely ignores. Hormone dysfunction is at epidemic levels, thanks to common environmental triggers and lifestyle choices. And if we don’t address these underlying hormone issues by adjusting our environment and lifestyle, we will never be able to reclaim our libidos.

So if you’re having less sex than you would like to—if you’re never feeling “in the mood”—the fix starts on the inside. Yes, a whole bunch of factors might be at play, and they all need to be addressed, but the starting place for women with low libido is hormones—and the very first step every woman should take to balance her hormones is by changing what is on her dinner plate.

From the Kitchen to the Bedroom

Sex is often the first thing to get de-prioritized in our busy lives. I think that’s a shame because not only is sex fun, it’s also great for your health. Sex and orgasm play important roles in regulating your cycle and sustaining your fertility.

You’re not always going to feel like tearing your partner’s clothes off, of course, because sex drive and desire ebb and flow with your natural 28-day hormone cycle. When you are tracking your cycle and paying attention to the changes you notice each week, you’ll find that you have natural shifts in how you feel about your partner, how interested you are in sex, and how much energy you have for gettin’ it on. This is to be expected! You’re likely to notice more desire during the first half of your cycle. That usually peaks at ovulation. Then during the second half of your period, desire slowly wanes until you find yourself less interested during your period.

But if you’re interest in sex during the first half of your cycle has disappeared, or if your desire during this time is lackluster at best, you can reclaim your sex drive by cycle syncing what you eat and when you eat it.  Matching your food to your unique needs during each phase of your cycle will support hormone health and boost sex drive.

Click here to find out which foods to eat (and when) to help reclaim your sex drive, and for more help with cycle syncing your diet in general click here. New moms who are struggling to reclaim their libido can find support here.

Although a new, so-called “female Viagra” was released a couple years ago (with much fanfare), prescription numbers have stayed low—and thank goodness. That’s because we know women’s sexuality is not as simple as taking a pill—and that any kind of pill that wants to mess with our libido is going to have a lot of unwanted side effects. What women need doesn’t come in a bottle. We need to be nourished from the inside out, and that starts with what’s on your dinner plate.  

Food is the single best way to reset your hormones and rediscover your sex drive. Make hormone-friendly eating your first step on the path to a more libidinous life.

The Best Supplements for Boosting Sex Drive

Supplements offer fantastic support for hormone balance and overall hormonal health, but supplements alone, without any other lifestyle changes, will have limited impact. That’s why I never recommend supplements in isolation. Food first, and then if you need more support, you can look to herbs, adaptogens, and essential micronutrients.

Here are the supplements I recommend if you are looking for more support in addition to your nutrition changes:

‍The 4 best supplements to boost your sexual health

(1) Rhodiola

• How you feel now: You have symptoms of adrenal fatigue with moodiness, PMS, and low-level depression.
• How rhodiola helps: Rhodiola supports the adrenal glands by preventing the breakdown of too much dopamine and serotonin during stressful times, leaving enough for us to remain buoyant and energized. A bonus benefit of rhodiola? It can work fast to change your energy levels (in as little as 30 minutes), so take one if you sense a romantic interlude in your near future!

(2) Zinc

• How you feel now: You are experiencing symptoms of estrogen dominance, which include weight gain, severe PMS, cramps, bloating, acne, infertility, fibroids, cysts, and irregular or heavy periods.
• How zinc helps: Zinc helps to boost your testosterone production and blocks the enzyme that turns testosterone into estrogen.

(3) Evening Primrose Oil

• How you feel now: You may feel sexual desire, but the sex itself doesn’t feel as good as it used to and you’re not getting big orgasms like you did before.
• How evening primrose oil helps: Evening primrose oil will balance out your progesterone and estrogen levels, increase dopamine, and help you produce more nitric oxide. This is absolutely essential for the dilation of blood vessels and tumescence that leads to bigger and better orgasms.

(4) Magnesium

• How you feel now: Symptoms of magnesium deficiency include muscle cramping, facial tics, restless legs, migraines, poor sleep, fatigue, and PMS. You can ask your doctor for a test for your magnesium levels.
• How magnesium helps: Magnesium makes it harder for your testosterone to bind to proteins and allows for more of it to remain “free” in your bloodstream—which is exactly how you want it to be for a higher sex drive. Higher levels of free testosterone make for more desire. Magnesium also combats anxiety and promotes a positive mood, helping you enjoy yourself more. Magnesium promotes good sleep, too, and studies show that getting enough high quality sleep is essential for healthy sexual desire and genital response.If your magnesium levels are very low, I recommend taking 360g a day in the form of a supplement. If your levels are within the optimal range, keep them there with a daily serving of dark chocolate (!) and greens.

Share this Sex-Boosting Advice With the Men in Your Life

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Literally! Men can benefit just as much from these supplements as women do, especially magnesium and evening primrose oil. In fact, these two supplements can help men with issues like premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction.

‍Bonus! What Food to Remove From Your Diet for Better Sex

‍All this talk of what to add to your nutrition and supplement routine brings me to the opposite: what you should remove from your diet right away.

‍For Women:

Canola Oil. It’s in everything and it raises your levels of omega 6 fatty acids, which crowds out room in your cells for health-promoting omega 3 fatty acids.  Studies suggest that boosting omega 3s can increase sexual desire and response in women. So stick to clean fats like olive oil and coconut oil and you’ll feel sexier pronto!

‍For Men:

‍Soy. Soy is full of phytoestrogens, which can dampen male sex drive. An ex-boyfriend and I experimented with this when he decided to become vegan. He ate and drank soy products for a month and by the end of that time he had zero libido. Within two weeks of stopping all soy, he was back to normal.Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

If you’re a young woman in your 20s or 30s and your sex drives is low (or missing altogether), you might feel like an outlier. Why?Because social media, TV and movies, and other cultural cues suggest that youth is synonymous with wanting to get it on. And that’s not fair, because everyone’s sex drive is different.But the truth is that when we’re young (and even when we’re older)—and if our hormones are in balance—we should have times when, in the immortal words of 1970’s rock band Bad Company, we feel like makin’ love. So if you’re a young woman with a low (or missing) sex drive, what gives?Where the &#*!&! did your sex drive go? Your Not Alone: Low Sex Drive is Common in WomenFirst things first, if your sex drive is low or completely absent, you are not abnormal—and you are not alone. Studies suggest that one in four women of reproductive age have low libido. Other research shows that Americans are having less sex now than they did a decade ago, and that fewer heterosexual women are having orgasms than any other demographic.Not to sound alarmist but...young women are living in a sexual state of emergency! At the same time, many women with low sex drive—and many of the doctors they talk to about it—don’t treat the issue with urgency. And that’s a mistake because a missing sex drive can be a sign of serious hormone imbalances that can wreak havoc on overall health. It’s also a mistake to ignore low libido because having a sex drive—and, specifically, having orgasms, is critical to hormone health and overall quality of life. You need orgasms to improve hormone health, and you need good hormonal health to want to have orgasms! So what is a girl with a missing sex drive to do? The first step is to understand the underlying factors that might be contributing to your missing urge to make out. 6 Factors That Affect Low Sex DriveThere are many factors that can contribute to low sex drive and some of them are emotional and relational. These can include your relationship status, how you feel about your relationship, how you feel about your body (body image), your historical experience of sex, and any history of trauma or sexual abuse.Other factors can be psychological and environmental, like high levels of stress and anxiety, feelings of depression and low mood, or an extremely pressure-filled work environment or the stress of raising young children or taking care of aging parents. If any of these factors are part of your experience of low sex drive, I recommend working with a therapist or working with another healing professional to tend to these complex issues.Some of the other factors that contribute to the low sex drive are physical, which means you can make lifestyle changes to address these factors. Here are some of the physical roadblocks you might be running into on your way to rediscovering your sex drive:

1. Taking hormonal birth control. Low libido can be a side effect of taking hormonal birth control (HBC) or of having taken it in the past. That’s because HBC works by decreasing the production of testosterone in your body (and testosterone plays an important role in sex drive in both men and women) and because the Pill makes it harder for your body to use the testosterone that you are still making (HBC locks up the testosterone so your body can’t use it).
2. A history of low-fat dieting. The body makes sex hormones from a precursor compound in the body. And guess what that precursor is? Cholesterol. That’s right, the compound so long villainized in the health headlines is actually necessary for producing enough estrogen and testosterone in the body.
3. A history of taking antidepressants. These medications can be critically important for some women in maintaining mood, but they can come with side effects—and a notorious one is lower libido. Luckily, some herbs can help with this side effect. (More on herbal strategies for SSRI-related low libido below.)
4. Hormone imbalances. If you suffer from symptoms like acne, severe PMS, painful or heavy periods, irregular periods, bloating, migraines and/or hormonal headaches, it’s likely that you’re living with an underlying hormone imbalance (one that you can take steps to heal by using key lifestyle and biohacking strategies). This imbalance is also likely contributing to your low libido.
5. You’re not getting enough exercise. A raft of research has shown that exercise can help improve sexual desire and arousal.
6. You’re low on iron. Iron deficiency has been connected to low libido. If you’re never in the mood, you might want to get your iron checked and ask your healthcare provider about taking iron supplements or maximizing the iron you get through whole foods.

How to Get Your Sex Drive BackYou can take some simple but powerful steps to reclaim your hormonal health—and rediscover your sex drive. Here’s what I recommend:

1. Start cycle syncing. You can use certain lifestyle strategies to bring your hormones back into balance naturally, and one of the most important is syncing your life to your 28-day menstrual cycle. When you start to eat, move, and live according to your unique hormonal needs each week, you can experience a profound and positive shift in your hormonal symptoms, including low libido. I consider cycle syncing the first, best thing you can do to balance your hormones and bring your sex life back to life. If the idea of even tracking your cycle is new to you, use the MyFLO app to track your natural hormone shifts.
2. If you’ve ever taken birth control, run some labs. Consult with your healthcare provider about running some blood tests. Specifically, I suggest looking at your testosterone levels and your SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin). The pill can wreak hormonal havoc in general, but it is especially rough on these two biomarkers—both of of which are important for having a healthy sex drive.
3. Do a detox.The pill can cause a flood of excess hormones in the body. And even if you don’t have a history of taking HBC, you might be estrogen dominant, which can cause system-wide symptoms including low libido. So you will also want to do a gentle, natural detox in order to get excess hormones movin’ on out—and your sex drive movin’ on up!
4. Embrace healthy fats. Healthy fats—like the kind found in avocados, coconut oil, olive oil, nuts and seeds, and small oily fish like sardines—help support healthy levels of good cholesterol in the body. You need good cholesterol to manufacture sex hormones—and you need healthy levels of sex hormones to… want to have sex!
5. Consider taking Maca. Studies suggest that the South American plant maca may be beneficial in boosting libido, perhaps especially for women who take a selective serotonin uptake inhibitor.
6. Get moving. Make healthy movement a part of your everyday life. Exercise can be helpful in boosting libido. Just don’t forget to match your movement to where you are in your cycle. When you move can be just as important as how and how often you move.
7. Patch up micronutrient deficiencies. Getting enough iron can be especially important for sex drive, but you’ll want to make sure you have healthy levels of all the key micronutrients that support hormonal health. If you think you’re low in essential micronutrients, ask your doctor to run some labs and consider taking a high quality supplement.
8. Don’t discount the emotional, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions to low libido. Remember that it isn’t just physical factors that affect sex drive. If something else is weighing on you—relationship dissatisfaction, an intensely crazy workload, unremitting stress, etc.—carve out time for self-care and consider talking with a therapist or other professional. In our crazy-busy mody culture, stress recovery can take a village.

Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.I’ve designed a 4-day hormone detox and evaluation to help you understand exactly what’s out of whack and how you can start getting back to balance so that your hormones no longer have to suffer.Click here to get your FREE detox and evaluation.

You may have come to believe that hot flashes, weight gain, and a nonexistent libido are inevitable parts of getting older. Same with with regular ovulation, easy periods, and balanced hormones. But these extreme symptoms are not the norm—and they are NOT what you should expect at this age.

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‍Forget what you’ve seen, heard, and believed up until this point about entering your mid-30s and beyond. Your body does not have a set-in-stone expiration date for producing sex hormones, in fact recent New York Times reported research shows we can delay menopause with food!

‍You don’t need to fear perimenopause. But you do need to understand what your body is biologically programmed to do during perimenopause and how you can take care of yourself NOW to make this hormonal transition as seamless as possible. (You’ll also want to pay attention to the hormonal transitions happening during this phase if you want to get pregnant in your mid or late 30s or beyond.)

‍How to Have Easy Perimenopause

‍The first thing to know? Perimenopause begins much earlier than many women realize: around age 35 and lasts for the next decade or more. And how you experience perimenopause—whether it’s easy for you or riddled with devastating symptoms—is largely determined by the hormonal health you’re in when you hit your mid-30s.That is, if you’re experiencing period problems now—symptoms like severe PMS, painful periods, irregular periods, bloating, acne, fibroids, and heavy bleeding—your hormonal health is compromised and it doesn’t bode well for your next 10 or 15 years. I don’t mean to scare you, but you might be facing some of the horror stories you’ve heard about perimenopause.

‍On the other hand, if you’re taking care of your hormonal health right now—if you’re engaging cyclical self-care and the key biohacks for balancing and healing your unique female physiology —your transition into perimenopause can be smooth sailing.

‍So what can you do right now to reclaim your hormonal health and transform perimenopause from a transition to be feared to a milestone that should be celebrated—and barely noticed, at least symptom-wise?Let’s start by taking a close look at what happens during perimenopause.

‍Perimenopause 101

‍Let’s clearly define “perimenopause.” It’s a term that refers to the time between your reproductive years and your very last period.  It takes a long time, and even though it sets off old-age alarms for many women—when, as I mentioned above, this phase starts much earlier than most women think it does AND there is nothing shocking, abnormal, or bad about going through this hormonal transition (or about aging in general, but that is for another blog post a different day).

What’s more, so many women are getting pregnant naturally and having children in their late 30s and early 40s. The word “perimenopause” conjures up images of old maids, when in fact many women are waiting until perimenopause to start a family.

Natural hormonal changes DO happen during this time, so it’s important to know what’s going on.

In a nutshell, perimenopause is when a woman’s ovaries begin to move from ovulating like clockwork to not ovulating anymore. This is accomplished by the slow and steady rise of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and fluctuating estrogen levels. Over time, these fluctuating hormone levels become waning hormone levels and they stop signaling the process of ovulation all together (menopause). Think of this as a kind of reverse-puberty.

This era of shifting hormone signaling in the body is why good hormonal health is so important when you’re about to enter this phase of life. If your hormones are out of balance and causing difficult symptoms before you’re in perimenopause (when they should be be having), the addition of the natural hormone fluctuations that occur during perimenopause will not make symptoms any better. Far from it. Your symptoms are likely to get way worse.

‍Perimenopause can be divided into two phases:

Phase 1 (35 to 45 years old)

This phase is when reproductive hormone production starts to shift and become less consistent. That said, you shouldn’t feel symptoms during this phase if you’re in good hormonal health. You should be ovulating and menstruating regularly and have good muscle tone, skin quality, energy, and sex drive. In other words, you should  still be making enough hormones to feel vital and youthful. If you are experiencing symptoms like difficulty with fertility, vaginal dryness, accelerated skin aging, or dry hair (or all of the above), these are huge messages that your hormones need some TLC. To add insult to injury, these are symptoms that women don’t expect to experience until much later. Dealing with them as young as your mid-30s can put a major dent in your quality of life and indicates you are aging biologically faster than your chronological years.

Phase Two (45 to 55 years old)

During this phase, FSH levels rise to the point where you no longer ovulate. And while that sounds dramatic, this phase will be relatively smooth sailing if you’re taking care of your hormonal health. However, many women let the symptoms they experience in Phase 1 go unaddressed and that compounds their symptoms in Phase 2.

You can use targeted strategies in each phase—before perimenopause, during perimenopause Phase 1, and during perimenopause Phase 2—to heal your hormones and erase pesky perimenopausal symptoms.

‍If you’re NOT in perimenopause yet… Begin cyclical self-care, stat! The first step is to track your period.The next step is to eat, exercise, and make lifestyle choices in line with your cycle. This is especially important if you’re experiencing any period problems like severe PMS, irregular periods, heavy periods, bloating, acne, fibroids or hormonal migraines. You’ll also want to make sure your liver and detoxification system are in tip-top shape. One of the best ways you can support detox everyday is by eating cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, and Brussel sprouts. If you’re on hormonal birth control, you may want to consider other options. A history of being on the Pill can make perimenopause worse.

‍If you’re in Perimenopause Phase 1… You’ll want to stick to your cyclical self-care routine, and liver health becomes even more important during this phase. Continue to emphasize phytonutrient-rich vegetables and drink warm water with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice in the mornings. Tending your adrenal health is critical in this stage of life, so you will want to prioritize rest and relaxing activities, but you might also consider taking adaptogens, including:

Maca powder. I recommend maca powder as part of a wider hormonally-supportive diet when you’re age 35 or over and experiencing symptoms of perimenopause. Maca can help with:

• Low energy levels
• Low sex drive
• Brain fog and poor focus or concentration
• Mood swings and depression
• PMS symptoms

Ashwagandha. This well-researched herb has been shown to reduce oxidative stress (the internal process that contributes to cell damage and accelerated aging) and support a healthy stress response. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, ashwagandha was shown to improve stress resistance and participants’ self-assessed quality of life. When it comes to hormones, ashwagandha has been shown to safely improve sexual function and low libido for some women (perhaps because it supports healthy testosterone production). I recommend ashwagandha if you struggle with anxiety and/or if you’re wrestling with low libido.

Holy Basil. This herb supports a healthy adrenal response as well as helping stabilize blood sugar, which is essential for healthy hormone balance. Research also suggests that holy basil can help protect the liver and support liver function. I recommend holy basil if stress and anxiety are an issue and/or if you wrestle with imbalanced blood sugar. If you have a history of taking over-the-counter or prescription medications, you may consider taking holy basil for liver and detox support.

Reishi mushroom. Reishi is a powerful adaptogen that is also full of antioxidants. The antioxidant benefits of reishi are well-studied, and when it comes to hormones studies show that reishi (and other cordyceps mushrooms) may help ease hormone-related symptoms by exerting an anti-androgenic effect in the body.

If you’re in Perimenopause Phase 2…Phase 2 is when FSH levels rise to the point where you no longer ovulate. Because many women experience accelerated hormone aging in Phase 1, they have a rough time in Phase 2. But when hormones are balanced entering this phase, your body should adapt relatively seamlessly by manufacturing slightly less, but a balanced amount, of estrogen and progesterone and testosterone. If you’re having hot flashes, night sweats, no libido, etc., then you likely have unbalanced levels of these hormones.

Take D3 and Evening Primrose Oil. These two supplements are especially helpful in the second phase of perimenopause. Evening primrose oil is a source of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), an essential fatty acid that influences prostaglandin synthesis and calms perimenopausal symptoms. Vitamin D is foundational for hormone balance and overall health at every stage of life. You can read more about D3 here.

Increase your Zinc intake. Zinc is critical for the production of testosterone production. Having enough testosterone eases the perimenopausal transition. Zinc is bountiful in beans and seeds. You can also supplement with 50mg a day.

Eat enough healthy fat. Cholesterol (yes, the very substance that has been demonized for many years) is what our body uses to make our hormones. You need enough healthy fat in your diet to have enough cholesterol to support adequate hormone production. Your body is slowing down hormone production at this stage, so it’s critical to make sure you have enough of this key building block.

Getting Pregnant in PerimenopauseIf you’re planning to get pregnant after age 35, you have nothing to fear. Even though you’ve entered this new hormonal phase, with the right hormone support can increase your chances of getting pregnant easily and naturally. For my definitive guide on getting pregnant after 35, click here. And if you are in your mid-30s and thinking of starting a family or already trying, consider adding the following supplements:

Vitex. This herb, also called Chasteberry, supports regular ovulation, healthy progesterone levels and robust levels of FSH.

CoQ10. This has been shown to improve egg quality.

Getting pregnant right now might be the last thing on your mind. Or maybe you’ve started to think about having a baby in the next couple years. Or maybe you’re ready!No matter where you are on your journey, it’s important to make nutrition and lifestyle choices to protect your future fertility. One in ten women in the United States have trouble getting or staying pregnant — and while some factors are beyond your control, research shows that you can improve your chances of getting pregnant in the future by making the right food, supplement, and lifestyle choices now.If you start researching today’s escalating infertility rates, you’ll learn that many doctors consider the causes “unknown.” But there are some real and modifiable lifestyle components to the fertility puzzle—components that are especially important to consider if you suffer from period problems like irregular periods, heavy bleeding, severe PMS, cramps, or hormonal acne. These symptoms are signs that your hormones are out of balance and that getting pregnant (whenever you’re ready) might be more difficult.Maybe you’re thinking Why wouldn’t I believe the doctors? If the causes are unknown and there is nothing I can do….I understand how you feel. I was told I would never get pregnant naturally—or even with IVF— when I was 20 years old. My PCOS was that severe. But I got pregnant naturally at age 37, after only three tries at home. I know that if I hadn’t been eating, supplementing, and living in a hormone-supportive for the past 15 years, I wouldn’t have gotten pregnant so easily.Today I want to share some of the fertility-enhancing strategies I used to get pregnant naturally at an ‘advanced maternal age.’ My story can be your story. Here’s what you can do today and tomorrow to preserve your fertility for next month, next year, or in 10 years!

Foods for Fertility

Here are some specific food choices you can make to optimize your fertility:Emphasize healthy, high-quality sources of fat. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat—the kind of fat found in foods like avocados, nuts, seeds, and small, oily fish (like anchovies and sardines)—help reduce inflammation and stabilize blood sugar, two conditions that are important for fertility. And if you haven’t done so already, say no to all trans fats! These sneaky little devils drive up inflammation.Opt for complex carbs (but DON’T go no carb). High or mismanaged blood sugar has been associated in the scientific literature with ovulatory infertility. So fertility-focused eating should emphasize complex carbs that take time to be digested (which keeps blood sugar more stable). Think non-starchy vegetables, whole fruits, and beans. But don’t cut out carbs all together. Very low or no carb diets can make the body think that not enough food is available in the environment and trigger survival mode. When the body is in survival mode, it de-prioritizes non-essential functions, like getting pregnant. After all, how would you care for a child on the ancient savannah if there isn’t even enough food for yourself!Eat your iron. Getting enough iron in your diet, either through food or supplements, has been shown to enhance fertility. High-iron foods include beans, beets, pumpkin, spinach, and tomatoes.Skip the skim. If you’ve read the FLO blog before, you probably know that I don’t recommend dairy products when you’re trying to achieve hormonal harmony, but if you’re interested in protecting and enhancing your fertility, you should be especially wary of low-fat options, like skim milk. Studies have linked consumption of low-fat dairy with reduced fertility. If you tolerate dairy and you allow yourself a bit here and there, make sure it is of the full-fat variety.Skip the soda. Studies show that soda drinkers have reduced fecundity.Skip the coffee. Whether or not caffeine and/or coffee inhibits your chance of getting pregnant (this is widely debated in the scientific community, with some research suggesting it does and other research suggesting it has no effect), research does show a link between coffee consumption and not being able to carry a child to full term. Don’t risk it!

Supplements for Fertility

There are some baseline support supplements that every women who is trying to conceive (or who wants to conceive one day) should consider taking. Here are the fertility supplement basics that I recommend. Every women who hopes to become pregnant one day, whether next week or in the next decade, should consider taking these supplements:

1. Vitamin D3. Vitamin D is critical for healthy endocrine function and, more specifically, it has been associated with improved success rates for women going through IVF. Optimal vitamin D levels might also help with PCOS and endometriosis, two conditions that can increase infertility.
2. Fish oil. The omega 3 fatty acids in fish oil drive down inflammation and promote healthy hormone balance. Also, once pregnant, adequate consumption of fish oil is vitally important for normal fetal development.
3. Probiotic. The importance of a healthy gut can’t be overstated, both for overall health and enhanced fertility.

If you’re experiencing specific hormone-related symptoms, you’ll want to consider additional supplements. Hormone symptoms act as warning signals that your body might not have all the nutrients it needs to conceive and sustain a healthy pregnancy. Here’s what I recommend:Symptom: Low progesterone (irregular cycles, weight gain, hormonal acne, hormonal migraines)Supplement: vitamin B6Function: Helps the ovary make more progesteroneSymptom: Elevated estrogen (severe PMS, swollen breasts, fibrocystic breasts, heavy menstrual bleeding)Supplement: Calcium D-glucarateFunction: Helps the liver metabolize estrogenSymptom: High Cortisol (unremitting stress, excessive thirst, increased urination, changes in libido, accelerated skin aging, high blood pressure)Supplement: B5Function: Gets your adrenals making the right ratio of cortisol to DHEASymptom: Irregular Ovulation, PCOSSupplement: InositolFunction: improves ovulation regularitySymptom: Insomnia, Fatigue, Bloating, ConstipationSupplement: MagnesiumFunction: Miracle micronutrient, essential for over 300 reactions in the bodySymptom: Poor Egg QualitySupplement: CoQ10Function: improves egg qualityAlways remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!Supporting your Fertile FLO, Alisa

Introducing the BALANCE by FLO Living Hormone Supplement Kit

You’ve been asking me for hormone-friendly supplement recommendations, and I finally have created a solution that I am so thrilled to be able to offer to you on your hormonal balancing journey:

Balance by FLO Living Supplements are a complete package that work together to keep your hormone levels healthy. They include a 2 month (2 cycle) supply of the following formulations so you’re never caught short in any phase of your cycle.When you take these 5 supplements daily, you’ll be giving your body excellent micronutrients to support healthier hormone levels. Which means that you’ll start to see your worst period symptoms get better… and even disappear after a while.

Click here to learn more about the BALANCE Bio-Hacking Supplement Kit.

Biohacking is all the rage these days. The idea that we can optimize our physiology with lifestyle and nutrition gets talked about over and over in expert health blogs and on popular podcasts. But you might have noticed that the vast majority of people who talk about biohacking are men. You may also have noticed that most of the scientific research on nutrition and lifestyle is done on men and/or male lab animals.

And that’s just fine… for men. Biohacking is the practice of using food, lifestyle, exercise, and targeted supplementation to enhance health. But men and women have different needs based on their hormones. So what works for men won’t always work as well, or in the same way — or at all — for women.

If you suffer from hormone-related health concerns—like heavy periods, severe PMS, bloating, acne, fibroids, PCOS, irritability, insomnia, low libido, infertility, irregular or missing periods, and/or hormone-related migraines — you can biohack your way to fewer symptoms and better health. But to get the best results, you have biohack for your unique female physiology.

Here are my 7 top biohacks for women who want to solve their period problems and look and feel their best.

Biohack #1: Cycle sync your food

Eating to ease period problems requires synching your weekly meal plans with your 28-day cycle. Women have unique nutritional and energetic needs during each week of the month—unlike men, who can thrive by eating more or less the same way everyday—and you will look and feel your best when you match the vegetables, meats, plant proteins, fruits, and legumes you eat to your shifting hormonal needs. Think of it this way: as your hormones change, so does your menu! If the idea of switching up what you eat each week feels challenging, start with my 4-Week Flo Food Challenge. And if you’re scratching your head (and maybe freaking out a little) because you don’t know what your hormones do or when, don’t panic! Use the MyFLO app to track your cycle and start eating cyclically.

Biohack #2: Cycle sync your exercise

To really optimize your hormonal health, you should shift your workouts to fit your cycle in much the same way as you do your diet. Your body is primed for different kinds of activity across your cycle, just as its looking for different kinds of nutrition through each of the four phases. Ready to get started? Learn what type of exercise is right for each phase of your cycle here.  

Biohack #3: Detox the RIGHT way

If you suffer from hormone imbalances and period problems, it can be tempting to do an extreme detox. The severe restrictions and big promises (Lose 20 pounds overnight! Eliminate all the toxins from your body!) sound like a relief after suffering with hormone-related symptoms for so long. But deprivation plans and strict detoxes backfire for the vast majority of women. Severe calorie restrictions tax our already overburdened adrenal and endocrine systems—and make our hormone problems worse. Don’t get me wrong: a detox can be helpful, but it must be the right kind of detox, one that focuses on clearing the body of excess estrogen. Excess estrogen in the body (relative to progesterone) contributes to everything from severe PMS to PCOS. If you want to detox estrogen, don’t do a juice fast or a cleanse. Do a gentle detox that supports the body’s elimination process by giving it all the nutrients it needs. If you want even more support in doing a safe, nourishing detox, I designed a 4-day Hormone Detox to kickstart your hormonal healing.

Biohack #4: Be very careful with intermittent fasting (if you do it at all)

Most studies on fasting have been done on men and/or have shown mixed results for women. One study found that intermittent fasting helped improve insulin sensitivity in men, but women didn’t get the same benefit. (Good insulin sensitivity is essential for balanced hormones.) At the same time, the study showed that women’s ability to tolerate glucose actually got worse during intermittent fasting. Other research shows that fasting can have a negative effect on cortisol, insulin, estrogen, and progesterone— all the major hormonal players in your body! Studies suggest that intermittent fasting can be very helpful for women (and men) with compromised cellular health (individuals with cancer and/or those going through chemotherapy), but for women in generally good health who are working to balance hormones and heal hormone-related symptoms, I don’t recommend fasting.

Biohack #5: Don’t default to the ketogenic diet

The ketogenic diet, which is a high fat-low carbohydrate diet, is all the rage these days, but research suggests that it can mess with thyroid function— and thyroid health is absolutely essential for healthy hormone balance. Here’s where this biohack becomes sex specific: thyroid problems disproportionately affect women. It’s estimated that one in five women have a thyroid issue, and many of those cases are undiagnosed. If you’re trying to bring your hormones into balance, your best bet is to eat in line with your cycle—and leave the ketogenic diet for individuals with other health issues.

Biohack #6: Ditch coffee

Bulletproof coffee can work well for men, but caffeine is a no-go for women who want to optimize hormone health. Caffeine can increase the development of benign breast disease. For women with PCOS, fibroids, endometriosis, ovarian cysts, and fibrocystic breasts, caffeine is a guaranteed way to make more cysts. Plus, caffeine mucks up hormone health in other ways, too. If you’re trying to solve your period problems, don’t fall for the Bulletproof coffee craze.

Biohack #7: Supplement like a girl

Women have unique micronutrient needs, and we can’t expect optimal hormonal health—or optimal overall health—when we follow blanket supplement prescriptions. We need supplements tailored to our unique female physiology. Specifically:

• While every woman should be supplementing with B vitamins, if you’re suffering from hormone imbalances, you’ll need to be extra aware of your intake. Research has shown that intake of vitamins like thiamine (B1) is inversely related to endometriosis. Another important type of B vitamin, folic acid, is known to be important in managing PCOS.
• Magnesium is a must for women with hormone imbalances since it improves insulin sensitivity, which has widespread implications for the entire hormone system. And if you’ve ever suffered from hot flashes (whether you’re menopausal or not even close) magnesium has been shown to significantly reduce the symptoms.
• If you’re suffering with fibroids or any hormone-related health condition, vitamin D is an absolute must. A study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that supplementing with vitamin D reduced the size of uterine fibroids. This may be especially essential for African American women since they’re 3-4 times more likely to develop fibroids and 10 times more likely to be deficient in vitamin D than white women. More generally, vitamin D acts like a master hormone in the body, which is what makes it so critical for all women with hormone imbalances.
• Probiotics are a must: one study found that in just 12 weeks, probiotics s helped significantly reduced endometriosis pain. I designed my FLO Balance supplements with women’s unique micronutrient needs in mind. They contain everything you need to supplement strategically for optimal hormonal health.

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Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

To your FLO,

Alisa

A healthy microbiome is essential for managing hormonal conditions. Specifically, there’s a group of bacteria in the gut known as the estrobolome that metabolizes and eliminates estrogen from the body. It’s critical that the estrobolome is in good health if you want to heal your hormones.It would be lovely if the balance of good and bad bugs in the gut took care of themselves if they just stayed healthy and in balance on their own. But a lot of unavoidable everyday things can throw a wrench in our internal microbial universe, from taking a necessary course of antibiotics to exposure to certain chemicals or eating a diet high in the white stuff (sugar, flour, dairy).So we have to tend the health of our microbiome (in order to care for our hormones) and this is where probiotics come in. The probiotics in supplements and in certain foods, like sauerkraut and kimchi, help keep the microbiome humming along. But there’s another key factor that supports a healthy microbiome: getting enough of the right micronutrients. Today I’m going to explain the why the microbiome is so important for hormone balance and how you can support a healthy microbiome by getting the right nutrients (in addition to taking a high-quality probiotic).

Microbiomes & Hormones

Your microbiome is the main player in regulating your hormones, especially your estrogen levels. Estrogen-dominance as a result of a poorly functioning microbiome can contribute to all the different symptoms of hormone imbalance, including infertility, PMS, low libido, cramps and heavy bleeding, and PCOS. Plus, it can make you far more susceptible to estrogen-led cancers like breast cancer.Approximately 5 lbs of bacteria live inside of you and the quality of their ecosystem— how diverse and well-balanced the bugs in your gut are – governs your health in many ways. Poor microbiome health has been linked to depression, anxiety, cancer, poor blood sugar balance and diabetes, and many other chronic conditions. Most significantly, when it comes to hormones, an under-functioning bacterial ecosystem caused by bad diet, exposure to chemicals, chronic stress, and micronutrient deficiency, will suppress the good bacteria, promote the bad bacteria, and lead to a toxic build up of hormones as well as other signs of systemic inflammation.Research shows us that addressing the microbiome holistically is the only way to get your immune system, digestive system and endocrine system working smoothly. That means making sure you’re getting enough pre- and probiotics in your food (and via supplements), as well as maximizing your micronutrient intake.

How do I know if I my microbiome needs help?

The term practitioners use to describe an imbalanced microbiome is “dysbiosis.” Here are some key symptoms of dysbiosis:

1. Bloating and gas
2. Acne
3. Funky pooping
4. Brain fog
5. Headaches
6. Frequent illness – from colds to yeast infections
7. Difficulty losing weight

That’s right: dysbiosis can lead to stalled weight loss. Gut flora is linked to your appetite, digestion, and how easily you feel full. Studies have shown that individuals with obesity have a less diverse microbiome than those who are slimmer, and as people who are obese slim down, their gut flora changes. You need healthy gut flora to break down fats and sugars and get them in transit out of your body, just like you need your gut flora to eliminate excess hormones.

The Micronutrient-Microbiome Connection

You know by now that probiotics are essential for microbiome health. But the microbiome needs micronutrients, too. There’s increasing evidence that sufficient micronutrient intake is important for the health of the gut flora and that micronutrient deficiency and malnutrition has a negative effect on the gut flora. Here’s what the research says about some specific nutrients:Vitamin B12 plays an important role in shaping gut microbial communities.Magnesium deficiency changes the amount of bifidobacteria in the gut.Vitamin D deficiency changes the microbiome in ways that can trigger inflammation.Zinc deficiency is associated with a less diverse microbiome and less bacterial activity.Selenium sufficiency is associated with increases in bifidobacterium in the gut.Malnutrition in children is associated with less healthy microbiome.These important micronutrients, which are essential for gut health and overall health, are part of my Balance Supplements. And even if you eat a healthy diet rich in these nutrients, you might not have optimal levels of the vitamins and minerals you need to promote gut health. Environmental factors beyond our control, from the mineral-depleted soil in which most of our food is now grown to shifts in growing practices that have reduced the number of vitamins and minerals in various foods, can leave us eating a perfect diet and still deficient in certain micronutrients.I include a probiotic in my Balance Supplements, too, because gut health is SO vital to your overall health. And I designed the Balance Supplements in the first place because the supplement industry has very little oversight and I saw so many women waste money on supplements that at best didn’t work and at worse contained dangerous ingredients. The supplement kit contains five formulas, rigorously tested, thoroughly researched, and perfectly suited to meet your gut and hormone health. After years of research, I’ve determined that these are the five essential micronutrients that women need in order to balance hormones, reverse symptoms, and look and feel their best. If you’re ready to feel energized, detoxed, replenished, harmonized, and gutsy, I encourage you to take your micronutrient needs seriously with food and supplements. You deserve to look and feel your best and make sure you’ve optimized your micronutrients is a key part of that equation. To your FLO,Alisa

Introducing the BALANCE by FLO Living Hormone Supplement Kit

You’ve been asking me for hormone-friendly supplement recommendations, and I finally have created a solution that I am so thrilled to be able to offer to you on your hormonal balancing journey:

Balance by FLO Living Supplements is a complete package that works together to keep your hormone levels healthy. They include a 2 month (2 cycles) supply of the following formulations so you’re never caught short in any phase of your cycle.When you take these 5 supplements daily, you’ll be giving your body excellent micronutrients to support healthier hormone levels. Which means that you’ll start to see your worst period symptoms get better… and even disappear after a while.

Click here to learn more about the BALANCE Bio-Hacking Supplement Kit.

Adaptogens are all the rage these days. You’ve probably read about these ancient herbs, like ashwagandha and reishi mushroom, and how they can benefit our overworked adrenal glands. The adrenals regulate the fight-or-flight response by producing hormones (like cortisol) and responding to (and being influenced by) other hormones in the body (like insulin). Optimal adrenal health is essential for optimal hormonal health. And research does show that adaptogens have a protective effect when it comes to calming the stress response and promoting adrenal health (and, hence, promoting hormonal health). But there are some important things to consider before you dive headlong into using adaptogens as a panacea for all your stress. Let’s take a closer look at how these herbs work, what you need to consider before taking them, and what you need to know about a few of the most popular adaptogens.

How Adaptogens Work With Your Endocrine System

The magic of adaptogens is that they don’t just do one thing. They can sense what your body needs when faced with a stressor and help balance your stress response. (They’re like the ‘smart’ devices of the plant world, able to read and interpret your needs and help meet them.) That means, generally speaking, that adaptogens help lower your body’s need to produce cortisol in response to stress.In other words, adaptogens are an outside source of stress support that don’t cause any strain on your body. That’s what makes them different from cortisol, which is produced to help us deal with stress but which (when produced in abundance) ages your endocrine and immune systems and negatively affects brain, sex drive, menstrual and reproductive health, and skin elasticity.  When you take adaptogens, your endocrine system is freed from having to make cortisol and can instead produce more progesterone, estrogen, testosterone and human growth hormone.  Cortisol can simply protect you from stress rather than harm you. Your whole endocrine system will work better, you’ll have healthy periods, fertility, and sex drive and won’t age prematurely internally or on the skin.

Two Cautions When it Comes to Adaptogens

One: some adaptogens are phytoestrogenic and some increase testosterone production, so if you are struggling with fibroids, endometriosis, cysts, pcos, you can certainly use them in short courses, but you may want to experiment with one at a time to make sure you don’t have any adverse reactions and take breaks as you feel you are in a less stressful period of time.  Two: Adaptogens are a great tool in your stress-fighting arsenal, but they may not be the best first step if you’ve been stressed for a long time and your inner reserves are really depleted. When your tank is running on empty, your first best step is to make space in your life for self-care that promotes deep healing: eating the right diet for your body,getting 8 or more hours of high-quality, consecutive sleep every night; finding places in life to build better boundaries and practice saying “no” to things that don’t serve you; and tracking your natural, 28-day cycle and learning how to care for your hormones in each distinct phase of your cycle. Adaptogens can be wonderful—they can be a great addition to your hormonal biohacking strategy—but they’re not a substitute for deeper healing and hormone balancing, which is all about self-care and cyclical nutrition and exercise.

The Lowdown on 4 Common Adaptogens

If you’re thinking of trying an adaptogen, you’re probably considering one of these popular herbs. Here’s the skinny on how these four herbs influence your hormones.Maca powder. You may have heard that maca can solve all your period problems, but rarely is one herb or food (even when it is dubbed a superfood, as maca often is) a miracle cure for your hormonal woes. But maca root can help your body adapt to stressful life situations that might otherwise deplete your body’s hormone production and cause symptoms. I recommend maca powder as part of a wider hormonally-supportive diet in three situations (1) after coming off the birth control pill, (2) if you’re age 35 or over and experiencing symptoms of perimenopause and/or you are post-menopause, and (3) after you’ve had a baby and you’re done breastfeeding. In these three situations you might be experiencing several hormone-based issues that maca can help with, including:

• Low energy levels
• Low sex drive
• Brain fog and poor focus or concentration
• Mood swings and depression
• PMS symptoms

Ashwagandha. This well-researched herb has been shown to reduce oxidative stress (also known as the internal process that contributes to cell damage and accelerated aging) and support a healthy stress response. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, ashwagandha was shown to improve stress resistance and participants’ self-assessed quality of life. When it comes to hormones, ashwagandha has been shown to safely improve sexual function and low libido for some women (perhaps because it supports healthy testosterone production). Other studies suggest that this herb can dramatically slow down cell division in estrogen-receptor positive breast cancers. I recommend ashwagandha if you struggle with anxiety and/or if you’re wrestling with low libido. Holy Basil. This herb supports a healthy adrenal response as well as helping stabilize blood sugar, which is essential for healthy hormone balance. In fact, I consider blood sugar balance one of the first and most important steps in solving period problems and easing symptoms like acne, PMS, fibroids, bloating, and hormone-related migraines. Research also suggests that holy basil can help protect the liver and support liver function. The liver detoxes excess hormones from the body and helps prevent estrogen dominance. For healthy hormones, you need a healthy liver. I recommend holy basil if stress and anxiety are an issue and you also wrestle with imbalanced blood sugar. If you have a history of taking over-the-counter or prescription medications, you may consider taking holy basil for liver and detox support. Reishi mushroom. Reishi is a powerful adaptogen that is also chock full of antioxidants. These mushrooms have been lauded for their anti-tumor, anti-androgenic, anti-aging, and immune-boosting effects. I don’t believe in superfoods as such — no one food or single intervention can be a miracle cure on its own — but if any plant comes close to deserving the title of a super food, I’d nominate reishi mushrooms. The antioxidant and chemopreventive benefits of reishi are well-studied, and when it comes to hormones studies show that reishi (and other cordyceps mushrooms) may help ease symptoms of PCOS, hirsutism, and acne by exerting an anti-androgenic effect in the body. I recommend reishi mushrooms if you’re struggling with acne, unwanted hair growth, or symptoms related to PCOS. Taking adaptogenic herbs is a generally safe practice that can ease symptoms and improve quality of life. But herbs should only be part of your stress-reduction and hormone-balancing strategy after you’ve addressed some of the bigger lifestyle factors that drive hormone issues, like sleep deprivation, exposure to chronic stressors, exposure to toxins, and being out of touch with your natural hormone cycle. If your tank is running on empty, and has been for a while, start with the big stuff. When you’ve made progress in those areas, it might be time to consider an adaptogen. Remember: Once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that work for you.Love and Ovaries,Alisa

Introducing the BALANCE by FLO Living Hormone Supplement Kit

You’ve been asking me for hormone-friendly supplement recommendations, and I finally have created a solution that I am so thrilled to be able to offer to you on your hormonal balancing journey:

Balance by FLO Living Supplements is a complete package that works together to keep your hormone levels healthy. They include a 2 month (2 cycles) supply of the following formulations so you’re never caught short in any phase of your cycle.When you take these 5 supplements daily, you’ll be giving your body excellent micronutrients to support healthier hormone levels. Which means that you’ll start to see your worst period symptoms get better… and even disappear after a while.

Click here to learn more about the BALANCE Bio-Hacking Supplement Kit.

Not Meeting Your Goals? Here's Why

If you’ve been trying different diet and exercise plans to lose weight, or simply to feel healthier and less plagued by period problems, fantastic! Feeling better is a whole-systems approach, and a journey that involves food, movement, and lifestyle changes.

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But if you've been feeling like things aren't quite...working out, there's a reason. That’s because the diet and fitness industry offers well-meaning solutions, but those solutions are not universally applicable. The truth is that most of the research behind most mainstream diet and fitness recommendations is conducted on men — and women have unique biochemical needs that go unaddressed by male-centered research.

At the same time, women are the largest consumers of wellness industry products and protocols! But because women’s bodies work differently, this creates a vicious cycle, causing unnecessary stress, and depleting your time, energy and money. When these protocols are positioned in such a universally applicable way,  struggling to achieve results can feel like your fault. But it's not your fault! And we're here to set the record straight. The time is up on the gender bias in the diet and fitness industry.

As women, we’re biochemically different than men. When we adopt approaches that are designed to work with our unique biological distinctions—and stop biohacking with the boys—we will start to see results. The key to biohacking your unique female biochemistry is to understand your 28-day cycle & to match your food and exercise to your natural hormonal shifts. When you sync with your cycle, you’ll experience easier periods, less PMS, reduced bloating, get clearer skin, and see improvements in weight and body composition. By acknowledging your hormonal reality, you’ll finally be able to look and feel your best.

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The Science of Cycle Syncing®

Your body has different micronutrient needs during each week of the 28-day cycle, because your ovaries and uterus are doing different jobs during each week of the cycle. When you think about it, it makes sense: your body isn’t the same every day so your diet shouldn’t be either! But this isn’t just speculation.

‍Research suggests that our fluctuating hormones affect our nutrient levels—and, in turn, our nutrient levels affect our hormones (the research also shows that micronutrient deficiencies play a role in the severity of PMS symptoms). This means that we have different micronutrient needs at different times in our cycle.

All of today’s most popular diet plans— from keto and grain-free to a raw vegan diet—require eating the same way everyday, which ignores the natural interplay between micronutrients and our rhythmic, fluctuating hormones.

Add to that the fact that many nutrition and weight loss protocols emphasize calorie restriction, and you have an additional problem. Calorie restriction has been linked to thyroid hormone imbalances, which can cause sluggish metabolism, lackluster hair and skin, fatigue, and brain fog. Limiting calories also drives up cortisol production (cortisol is one of the body’s stress hormones) and high cortisol is a known factor in weight gain.

As women, we need to eat specific foods in order to make hormones. Healthy fats are especially important since estrogen and progesterone are made from cholesterol. Without enough cholesterol, we can’t adequately produce enough of these hormones to support healthy periods and fertility. We also need to eat specific foods to help break down and eliminate used-up hormones (so we don’t become estrogen dominant). Eating the right plant foods supports the liver in eliminating excess hormones and helps a specific group of bacteria in the gut microbiome, called the estrobolome, process estrogen overload.

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What you Can Expect When You Cycle Sync Your Diet

The Cycle Syncing® Method provides key foods at critical times to help break down excess levels of estrogen and keep estrogen and progesterone in balance. When this happens, you can expect fewer breakouts, less severe (or nonexistent) PMS, no more hormonal headaches, and less bloating. You can also expect improvements in fertility, sex drive, energy, and mood.

Another benefit of Cycle Syncing® your diet? Because you’re switching the foods you emphasize in your diet with each phase of you're cycle, you’re freed from the pressure from “sticking with a diet”. Not only is this practice more fun and satisfying, but it’s more sustainable in the long run.

‍Your big hormone-diet takeaway: You need to eat specific foods at specific times to maintain robust micronutrient levels and support hormone production and elimination. When you enjoy the right foods at the right times, you’ll experience remarkable results.

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Cycle Syncing® Your Exercise

This cyclical self care method extends into exercise as well.  There is a time and a place for short, intense workouts—but that’s not how you should workout all the time. When you consider your cycle, and when you look at the evidence, you’ll see that you may be able to handle the stress of intense exercise in the first half of your cycle, but doing a full-throttle workout in the second half of your cycle will sabotage your health and weight loss goals.

Here’s a closer look at why working out out hard all the time isn’t ideal: When you get your heart rate pounding, you burn through the glucose in your bloodstream (which is a good thing!). But you’re only burning glucose for about half an hour. After that, your body starts to pump out cortisol, the better to convert your fat cells into blood sugar so you have energy to keep working out.

At this point, you might be thinking, great! More energy to keep working out! But If you struggle with estrogen dominance, that excess estrogen tells your body to convert any leftover sugar back into fat. So instead of burning fat, you get stuck in a vicious cycle of burning stored fat with cortisol, only to have your high estrogen levels send it right back to all the wrong places.

Lots of women wonder if they should exercise during their period. Our answer is to listen to your body and to expand your focus to your entire cycle. Instead of just asking, "Should I workout on my period?" look further into the best times for higher intensity workouts and balance that with the best times for other types of movement.

You can use the MyFLO app to track your cycle and know what type of movement to do when, and you can look here for more on movement and exercise during each phase of your cycle.

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Workouts For Each Phase of Your Cycle‍

Here are the different types of exercise Alisa Vitti recommend for each of the four phases of your menstrual cycle:

Menstrual Phase

The 3 to 7 days during your bleed:

• Workout: Gentle Walking, Light Yoga - Keep your workouts relaxed, even if you’re not feeling discomfort. It’s a time to take things slowly and prioritize rest. Your hormones are at their lowest levels during this phase.
• Timing: An evening stroll is the perfect way to get some simple movement.

Follicular Phase

The 7 to 10 days after your period ends:

• Workout: Running or other cardio
• Timing: Mid-day – Your estrogen will be low and your cortisol levels will be just right for a challenging cardio burst.

Ovulatory Phase

The 3 to 4 days in the middle of your cycle, right after the follicular phase:

• Workout: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) or bodyweight circuit
• Time of Day: Early morning – you’ll have tons of energy during this time of the month, so take advantage of that natural high! Your testosterone is higher during this phase, so whatever you do, feel free to go all out.

Luteal Phase

The 10 to 14 days after ovulation and before your bleed:

• Workout: Pilates, yoga
• Time of Day: Keep it early during the first half of this phase, and then transition into the early evening in the second half. You might still feel full of energy during the first days of your luteal phase, so feel free to keep doing more intense workouts early in the day. But if you start to experience PMS symptoms in the days before your period, it’s time to tone it down and switch to Pilates or strength training in the early evening. Restorative (yin) yoga before bed can also be hugely helpful in combating issues like moodiness and bloat.

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What you Can Expect When You Practice The Cycle Syncing Method® With Your Exercise

You’ll deepen your intuitive sense of what type of movement your body wants and needs every day (and at every phase of your cycle). You can expect to lose weight and gain muscle more easily and sustainably, as well as prevent injury by varying your movement consistently.

‍Your big hormone-exercise takeaway: How you work out during the first half of your cycle shouldn’t be the same as how you work out during the second half of your cycle. When you sync your exercise with your cycle, you’ll experience remarkable results!

Summer’s almost here and it seems like every magazine, blog, and social media post is featuring images of the “perfect” bikini body—and trying to sell you a fad diet or new fitness craze to get you ready for swimsuit season.But buying into deprivation diets or crazy workout plans that ignore the importance of cycle syncing your exercise will only hurt your chances of true hormonal healing and the benefits that come with it: clearer skin, less bloating, and steady, sustainable weight loss. For women, feeling confident, sexy, and slim is not simply calories in and calories out. It’s about the way your body uses fuel based on your hormones, food, sleep, stress, toxin exposure, supplements, and unique genetics. Understanding how to manipulate these variables gets you the body and health you want. Looking and feeling your best is all about biohacking. You deserve to feel sexy and stunning this summer! Here’s what you need to know to biohack your way to feeling great all summer long.

Problem 1: Bloating

Bloating has several root causes and one of the most common is a compromised microbiome. When the microbiome—the bacteria that live in your gut—are off balance, your digestive system starts to react to certain foods, stops being able to absorb certain nutrients, and becomes inflamed and—you guessed it—bloated. But that’s not all. The bacterial colonies that make up the microbiome promote health in an almost endless number of ways, including helping the body process and eliminate excess hormones. Specifically, there’s a colony known as the estrobolome that metabolizes estrogen and helps maintain a healthy balance between estrogen and progesterone. When the estrobolome is off balance, so is the balance of estrogen and progesterone in the body—and that can be a recipe for fluid retention.Stress can also cause bloating. Having too much of the stress hormone cortisol puffs you up due to its antidiuretic function, causing your body to retain sodium. Nutrient deficiencies can contribute to bloating, too—specifically magnesium deficiency. That’s because the human body is like a battery that runs on a special electricity derived from four key electrolytes: calcium, sodium, potassium, and, magnesium. If you’re coming up short — which so many women are — your body might respond with unpleasant symptoms, including bloat. If you’re low on magnesium, you can find magnesium in the FLO Living Balance Supplement Kit.

Solution 1: Probiotics

So how do you de-puff in time for summer? The key is to nourish your microbiome. When you start to have symptoms like a low libido, acne, trouble losing weight, cramps, heavy bleeding, or bloating, it could mean your microbiome is compromised. Probiotics are the good guys you want in your gut bacteria. The formulation in the Balance Supplement Kit helps balance gut bacteria and offers support for balanced moods and improved digestive function and nutrient absorption. If you suspect stress and magnesium deficiency are also involved in your bloating consider giving up coffee for the summer. You can read more about the dangers of drinking coffee here.

Problem 2: Acne

Acne is usually triggered during shifts in your monthly cycle, for example when you’re moving from the ovulation phase to pre-menstruation phase. It can also come when your hormonal patterns change as you age from your 20s to your 30s. The good news is hormonal acne is super responsive to treatment and healing (and then prevention) using natural supplements. The right use of natural supplements can see your acne gone in just a couple of months!

Solution 2: Patch up nutrient deficiencies

The major players when it comes to skincare supplementation are magnesium, omega-3s, zinc, B vitamins and, once again, probiotics:

• A lack of magnesium causes skin inflammation; supplementing with it can lower the amount of C-reactive protein in your body. C-reactive protein is a marker of inflammation in the body.
• Omega-3s help promote clearer skin, as well as stronger hair and nails, in just a matter of days.
• Zinc deficiency is a very common issue for many women, and when we’re deficient, our pores become easily irritated by bacteria and show redness.
• A common symptom of a damaged and depleted microbiome is acne and other skin issues like rosacea. That’s why it’s so important to heal your gut with the help of a high-quality probiotic.
• Your skin needs B-vitamins to regenerate and renew as they provide the energy all of your cells need for fuel. Taking a good B-complex every day that includes a high level of B6 will target hormonal or premenstrual acne. B6 prevents skin inflammation and overproduction of sebum (the oil your skin produces that can create acne issues).

Problem 3: Weight gain and heavy periods

The hormonal problem I see most often in my practice—the same one that fuels some of the most quality-of-life-diminishing symptoms—is estrogen dominance. It is a main factor in weight gain and heavy periods (both of which can interfere with summer fun) and it occurs when there is too much estrogen in the body relative to progesterone. Estrogen dominance is the result of a perfect storm of environmental factors, including eating non-organic food, using toxic health and body care products, experiencing unrelenting stress, and being exposed to everyday chemicals, like those found in everything from upholstered furniture to nail polish. Pair these toxic exposures with a sluggish liver (which is the body’s key detoxification organ) and a compromised estrobolome (which means we’re not getting rid of estrogen efficiently) and it’s a recipe for estrogen overload.

Solution 3: Do a safe detox

Detox diets are incredibly popular just before summer, but deprivation plans and strict protocols can be seriously bad news. They can do more hormone damage than good. But that doesn’t mean a detox is a bad idea — it just has to be the right kind of detox. Many health issues – including fatigue, depression, anxiety, brain fog, mood swings, weight gain, and acne can be helped by doing a gentle, hormone-supportive detox. Detoxing your body of excess estrogen has many immediate and long-term benefits. I designed a special 4-Day Hormone Detox that’s packed full of cleansing foods to support your body’s elimination system, which includes your liver, intestines, and lymphatic system. During the four days of the hormone detox, you’ll eliminate triggers like dairy, soy, caffeine, sugar, and gluten. You’ll also increase the amount of hormone-supportive nutrients in your diet—especially the vital omega-3s and B vitamins. This 4-day reset is a great jumpstart to overcome weight loss resistance, ease severe PMS, and feel healthier overall for summer. Bonus! If you’re particularly prone to acne around your ovulation days or before your period, this detox can work wonders. To really kick your hormonal healing into high gear, add the Detox formula in the Balance Supplement Kit to the 4-Day Detox: it offers liver support for overall detox function, supports healthy detox of excess estrogen, contains nutrients that combat inflammation-promoting free radicals, and helps support healthy weight loss.to your FLO,Alisa

Introducing the BALANCE by FLO Living Hormone Supplement Kit

You’ve been asking me for hormone-friendly supplement recommendations, and I finally have created a solution that I am so thrilled to be able to offer to you on your hormonal balancing journey:

Balance by FLO Living Supplements is a complete package that works together to keep your hormone levels healthy. They include a 2 month (2 cycles) supply of the following formulations so you’re never caught short in any phase of your cycle.When you take these 5 supplements daily, you’ll be giving your body excellent micronutrients to support healthier hormone levels. Which means that you’ll start to see your worst period symptoms get better… and even disappear after a while.

Click here to learn more about the BALANCE Bio-Hacking Supplement Kit.

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.I’ve designed a 4-day hormone detox and evaluation to help you understand exactly what’s out of whack and how you can start getting back to balance so that your hormones no longer have to suffer.I’ve designed a 4-day hormone detox and evaluation to help you understand exactly what’s out of whack and how you can start getting back to balance so that your hormones no longer have to suffer.Click here to get your FREE detox and evaluation.

Stress: it’s something everyone seems to suffer from, but no one knows how to overcome. Is it just a part of “normal” life? Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you struggle with sleep at night worrying about anything and everything?
• Do you get overwhelmingly anxious when faced with a work deadline or big social event?
• Do you have panic attacks?

If so, you’re not alone: Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in America, affecting 40 million adults in the United States or 18.1% of the population every year. And women are hit particularly hard by issues related to stress: Women are more likely than men to report having a great deal of stress, and almost half of all women say their stress has increased over the past five years (compared 39 percent of men). Unfortunately, to address these issues, conventional doctors often turn to pharmaceuticals, prescribing stressed-out women powerful medications that come with a host of serious side effects. Thankfully, drugs are not the only option and there are in fact natural ways to alleviate stress.Many of us do deal with extremely stressful times at some point in our lives (from what I call “external” stressors). But we should not be feeling stressed every day or even every week. When you start to feel like you’re constantly living on the edge regardless of your circumstances, it’s time to address your physical health (or “internal” stressors) in order to support your mental health.The fact is that stress is a hormonal reaction in your body that has some serious side effects that are endocrine disruptive. Maybe you’re trying to improve your period, fertility or sex drive. Unchecked stress is a real obstacle in achieving those health goals. Stress and anxiety are unfortunately common — particularly in women — but you shouldn’t just sit and take it - there are ways to help your body and hormones respond to stress more effectively!

The Damage Stress Does To Your Hormones

Stress, in all its various forms, does a number on your hormones: it forces your adrenal glands to pump out adrenaline, and then churn out cortisol in order to protect itself from the damaging effects of too much adrenaline. It’s a natural process, and in rare instances of extreme danger, it’s a useful one. But when this happens over and over again all the time, triggered by everyday stressors like deadlines instead of life-or-death threats, it can actually deplete your cortisol reserve, prompting your adrenals to begin responding poorly to stress and becoming fatigued. This has a lot of negative effects on your health. Here are the dangerous ways stress damages your hormones and negatively affects your well-being:

• It disrupts your blood sugar. When your blood sugar levels soar and crash (courtesy of too much sugar/alcohol/coffee/carbs, and/or inadequate sleep) your adrenal glands perceive the rollercoaster as a stressor and churn out cortisol in response. Disruption to cortisol has a domino effect on your hormones: it forces your body to eat up progesterone, lengthening your luteal phase, and making your cycles longer and the start of your period sluggish (you may see brown spotting and brown blood before the full flow). You’re also more likely to experience anovulatory cycles and killer PMS. That’s I have some advice on getting a good night’s sleep and how to avoid the pitfalls of alcohol, coffee and sugar.

• It causes vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Excess cortisol from stress depletes your body’s nutrient stores, which are essential for keeping your cool. B vitamins, magnesium, and omega-3 fatty acids are especially crucial for this purpose, and if you’re stressed, you’re undoubtedly robbing your body of these important players, which actually help prevent the hyper-production of cortisol by your adrenals (and perform a host of other functions like thyroid support and blood sugar regulation).

• It messes up your gut. Ever used birth control pills? Then it’s almost a guarantee your gut is in need of some serious TLC. Every week there’s more research on the gut-mental health connection. A set of gut bacteria, more specifically bacterial genes, called the estrobolome, produce an essential enzyme that helps metabolize estrogen. Your gut is part of the elimination system that is vital in ushering hormones out of the body. A gut flora imbalance can cause everything from bloating and gas to acne and frequent illness.

• It can disrupt ovulation and compromise your fertility. Stress can have a powerful effect on our hormonal health and fertility. In fact, during periods of high anxiety your body is likely to stop you from ovulating. That’s because your body winds up using progesterone to churn out cortisol when you’re stressing out instead of putting that progesterone toward the hormonal harmony you need to be fertile. Evolutionarily, your body “knows” when you’re anxious and can decide that it’s a bad time to make a baby. Even low level constant feelings of anxiety can potentially throw off your hormonal balance.

The 3 Supplements To (Finally) Kick Stress to the Curb

1. Magnesium: This powerful mineral calms your nervous system and prevents the creation of excess cortisol, otherwise known as the stress hormone. When your stress hormonal system is in balance your levels of progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, FSH and LH will follow suit. Magnesium also helps to control insulin production, which reduces sugar cravings and blood sugar spikes, and it helps you get a great night’s sleep.
2. B5: Also known as pantothenic acid, this vitamin is crucial to the health of your adrenals, the glands responsible for pumping out cortisol. Studies have shown that supplementing with B5 helps stimulate adrenal cells, which in turn, helps regulate your body’s stress response.
3. Omega-3s: Research has shown that omega-3 fatty acids go a long way in reducing perceived stress levels and they can have a significant mood-boosting effect.

How to Help Yourself De-Stress With Supplements

If you’re ready to stop living with daily, debilitating stress, then it’s time to seek out natural solutions that will support your adrenals, balance your mood, and empower you to take on everything life throws your way. You can’t always control the external stressors around you, but you absolutely can better manage your internal responses. Why not arm yourself with the most effective, safe, and natural tools available? Stop spot-treating your symptoms and white-knuckling through your anxiety: Order the Balance Supplement Kit and get the daily dose of essential vitamins and minerals you need to kick stress to the curb, once and for all.Love and ovaries,Alisa

Introducing the BALANCE by FLO Living Hormone Supplement Kit

You’ve been asking me for hormone-friendly supplement recommendations, and I finally have created a solution that I am so thrilled to be able to offer to you on your hormonal balancing journey:

Balance by FLO Living Supplements are a complete package that work together to keep your hormone levels healthy. They include a 2 month (2 cycle) supply of the following formulations so you’re never caught short in any phase of your cycle.When you take these 5 supplements daily, you’ll be giving your body excellent micronutrients to support healthier hormone levels. Which means that you’ll start to see your worst period symptoms get better… and even disappear after a while.

Click here to learn more about the BALANCE Bio-Hacking Supplement Kit.

Have you ever wondered about the cause of all your hormonal problems? Every thought about the origin of the miserable symptoms affecting your weight, skin, fertility, health, and happiness? What if I told you that no matter what kind of hormonal dysfunction you’re dealing with — be it endometriosis, PCOS, PMS, or something else —you’re almost certainly struggling with one single cause? And that all it takes to overcome your issues once and for all is to understand how to outsmart the problem?It’s true: The most typical root cause of hormonal dysfunction is a poorly understood (overwhelmingly common) condition called estrogen dominance. Everything from an inadequate intake of micronutrients to an abundance of stress to uncontrollable environmental toxins can throw your hormonal balance off. And when that delicate system is disrupted, estrogen often dominates, causing just about every hormonal problem you can think of. I see it all the time: Women of all ages, histories, and “official” diagnoses complaining of the exact same symptoms. Whether they’re dealing with ovarian cysts, fibroids, or conditions like PCOS or endometriosis (or they don’t know what they’re dealing with), they’re battling the same hormonal issues every day — from PMS and hormonal acne to crazy periods and weight gain, and more. Does any of this sound familiar? If so, you’re unfortunately in good company and you’re dealing with an unbelievably common, root cause of hormonal dysfunction called estrogen dominance.

What Is Estrogen Dominance?

You probably know that estrogen is the female sex hormone and it’s mainly produced in the ovaries thanks to your fat cells and the adrenal gland. It’s a super important chemical messenger that — when in balance — helps regulate your period. It also plays a big role in pregnancy, bone formation, blood clotting, and more.So yes, estrogen is a beautiful thing when it’s in balance with your other hormones. But when too much of it builds up in the body or there’s too much in relation to progesterone, it results in a condition called estrogen dominance. There are lots of reasons your levels of estrogen can be tipped in this way, including stress, poor sleep, the use of synthetic estrogens like the birth control pill, pesticides in your food, and chemicals in your environment. And even if you do your best to ensure absolutely stellar self-care, you may still be exposing yourself to all sorts of excess estrogens because we’re all constantly surrounded by endocrine disruptors – in everything from our furniture to our nail polish. Scary, right?

Why Is Too Much Estrogen Bad For You?

Again, hormones are all about balance. When your levels are thrown off in any direction, it inevitably initiates a dangerous chain reaction that can have devastating effects on your health and happiness. In the case of estrogen dominance, the imbalance can cause all kinds of unpleasant symptoms like irritability and fatigue, but it’s also been linked to major, permanent problems like infertility and even cancer. if you have estrogen dominance, there are long-term health effects for those struggling with this hormonal imbalance. Over the years and decades, a persistent estrogen overload increases the risk of many diseases and health issues including:

• Female cancers, particularly breast cancer
• Hypertension
• Diabetes

Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance

Once you discover the symptoms of estrogen dominance it’s hard not to see the signs all around you – in your own cycle experience and the difficult, uncomfortable PMS and period symptoms of your friends. That’s because many, many women are experiencing estrogen dominance, because their bodies are not equipped to cope with the incoming estrogen overload. Here are some of the signs of estrogen dominance:

• PMS – premenstrual symptoms from moodiness to bloating
• Fibroids
• Ovarian cysts
• PCOS
• Endometriosis
• Weight gain
• Infertility
• Heavy periods
• Irregular periods
• Early onset puberty (before 12 years of age) in yourself and/or your daughter(s)

How Estrogen Dominance Happens and Why It’s Happening to You

Women simply aren’t taught to properly care for their delicate hormonal ecosystem. As a result of inadequate micronutrient intake, a disrupted microbiome, and an inability to deal with unnatural levels of toxins, many women are operating with a subpar elimination system that simply can’t process and eliminate excess estrogen efficiently. A body nourished with nutrient-dense and hormonally-supportive foods has a better chance of coping with and managing the synthetic estrogens we’re surrounded by, but many of us are not eating in a way that supports and bolsters our elimination system. This leads to a toxic build up and hormonal soup swimming around your body – throwing your delicate hormonal balance out of whack and triggering symptoms.The other side of this coin here is progesterone deficiency – if you have too much estrogen in your bloodstream, your progesterone levels will be low in comparison.

What Your Doctor Can Do To Treat Estrogen Dominance

There’s a reason your doctor hasn’t told you about estrogen dominance and why this may be the first time you’ve ever heard about it: The condition really only has one medically-approved “treatment” and that’s birth control. When you visit an OB/GYN, they don’t often tell you exactly why you’re experiencing these symptoms — and when it comes to how to deal with these symptoms, their answer will always be birth control.Of course, the path to you getting better begins with understanding why this is happening in your body. Even if you now know (or you’ve long known) that you have estrogen dominance, the most helpful part of naming the problem is knowing that you now need to take immediate action to address the root causes. Addressing the root causes is the key to moving past symptoms and feeling better. And birth control does not address the root causes. It is only a Band-Aid for those symptoms — it may help to stop some symptoms or manage them some of the time, but when you eventually come off it will leave you even more sensitive to excess estrogen, setting you up to experience the same problems and potentially at worsened levels. Still not convinced? There are a slew of other reasons you should quit the pill ASAP and—if you’re a longtime user—watch this to learn how to deal with something called Synthetic Birth Control Syndrome.

Men Deal With Estrogen Dominance Too

These days we also see a lot of men dealing with the symptoms of estrogen dominance. They’re exposed to the same environmental factors as us and their bodies are often no better equipped to deal with the excess estrogen and eliminate it efficiently. For men, this brings about low testosterone levels (instead of low progesterone levels). You may have seen ads on TV for “Low-T” treatments for men. Men dealing with high estrogen and low testosterone will also gain weight, experience moodiness and irritability, get bloated…all of those issues we usually associated as only “female” in nature! Men also need to nourish their bodies so that their elimination system works at an optimum level and to increase their testosterone levels (especially as they age).

3 Natural Ways To Overcome Estrogen Dominance

The natural treatment for estrogen dominance is also the most effective and the longest lasting. This is because it gets down to the root cause, changes your hormonal ecosystem, and supports your elimination pathways. Following the Flo Living protocol sets your body up to combat all that incoming estrogen and helps it to deal with some of the unavoidable sources that inevitably come your way.

1. Eat more fiber. There are three foods that contain a good amount of fiber as well as the other vital vitamins and minerals – such as glutathione, B vitamins, and C vitamins – that you need to help your liver process the excess estrogen so that it can be transported to the large intestine and then eliminated quickly: Broccoli, flax seeds and pears.
2. Support your microbiome. A set of good gut bacteria and certain bacterial genes, called the estrobolome, produce an essential enzyme that helps metabolize estrogen. Your microbiome is part of the elimination system that is vital in ushering hormones out of the body. Eat fermented foods daily like kimchi and sauerkraut and take a probiotic. And be sure to add a trusted probiotic to your daily regimen, like the one found in the FLO Living Balance Supplement Kit.
3. Love your liver. Eggs, glutathione-heavy vegetables like carrots, spinach and asparagus, plus cilantro are all great liver detoxifiers and boost the whole elimination system’s function. Try my special cilantro-based juice once a week. The Detox formula in the Balance Supplement Kit also provides liver support for overall detox function and supports a healthy, natural detox of excess estrogen.

Cycle Syncing™ Is the Ultimate Key To Overcoming Estrogen Dominance

In addition to nourishing your body with all the necessary nutrients, you need to establish a cyclical lifestyle that supports your endocrine balance. The foolproof way to do this: cycle syncing. By not only eating in a way that encourages optimal hormonal production and elimination at each phase of your menstrual cycle, but also tailoring everything from your workouts to your work activities to perfectly complement and enhance the assets of each phase of your cycle, you ensure you’re doing everything to keep elevated estrogen in check.  It’s a must-do holistic approach to completely overcoming estrogen dominance, and it works. One major consequence of estrogen dominance that so many women struggle with is weight gain. Many of my clients at FLO Living come to me with this issue – and these are women who see themselves as healthy living, conscientious about eating right, and who exercise regularly. But there’s a piece missing to their method. They are not tackling the estrogen dominance head on and it’s stalling their weight loss efforts (and sometimes even exacerbating the issue). Cycle syncing is the way to beat the root cause of unwanted weight gain and here’s why:

• Your body demands different kinds of workouts at different times of the month. Rather than doing hardcore cardio all month long, change how you work out to match what your hormones are doing. This means choosing different kinds of exercise depending on if you’re in your follicular, ovulatory, luteal or menstrual phase. High intensity workouts during your luteal and menstrual phases can lead to estrogen dominance, because of the stress put on your adrenals.
• Your nutrient needs change from phase to phase. Counting calories doesn’t help a woman who’s is gaining weight because of estrogen dominance. Fasting, cutting calories, and dieting as deprivation will actually worsen estrogen dominance and cause you to put on more pounds. You need to feed your body the micronutrients it needs to process the excess estrogen and manage the xenoestrogens that contribute to the overload. You need to support and bolster your liver and microbiome, these are your friends in combating the toxic soup of estrogen dominance. The best way to do this, long-term, is to cycle sync your diet.
• Your self-care routine shouldn’t be static. Unless you’re engaging in self-care that takes your cycle into account, you won’t get all the benefits you’re looking for, and in some cases, you may even be making your estrogen dominance worse. That’s because while certain times of the month call for smoothies and super intense workouts, these same activities at other times of the month could mess with your blood sugar, jack up your cortisol, make a mess of your hormones, and subsequently, result in too much estrogen. That means the very things you think you’re doing to feel your best could be impeding your success.

If you’re ready to overcome estrogen dominance once and for all and put your period condition into remission naturally, stop spot-treating the symptoms and start healing the root cause of your issue. Sign up for Monthly FLO to get an easy, accessible plan for cycle syncing your diet, download the MyFLO period tracking and cycle syncing app,  and order your Balance Supplement Kit to ensure you’re supporting your brilliant body from top to bottom all month long.Love and ovaries,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you

First, what is the consistency of your period like?Second, is your period problematic – how so?Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ?Need more Hormone Help?If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.

When you purchase Balance by FLO supplements this week, you’ll get the 4 Day Hormone Detox free!

Clear out estrogen and support your liver with a spring cleanse and Balance by FLO supplements. They’re 5 formulations working together to help your body have healthy hormone balance.

•    B vitamins give you more energy and adrenal and cortisol support
•    Probiotics balance your microbiome for healthier digestion and mood-boosting
•    Magnesium helps you flush cortisol, sleep more deeply and relax
•    Omega 3’s offer healthy, mood-boosting support
•    Vitamin A + C and other antioxidants detox you from excess estrogen

I’ve designed a 4-day hormone detox and evaluation to help you understand exactly what’s out of whack and how you can start getting back to balance so that your hormones no longer have to suffer. The 4 Day Hormone Detox includes recipes, a shopping list, menu plan, and complete instructions for feeling better in just 4 days! Get your free gift with purchase here!

Have you ever felt like something’s missing from your life but you can’t quite put your finger on it? Everything looks fine on paper, but your purpose, your drive, your direction feels fuzzy, or unclear? You’re trying to bring your A game but something’s not clicking? Self-careDo you have a tough time trusting your intuition?Do you struggle to start or complete things?Are you facing a vague feeling of dissatisfaction in your life and you want to know once and for all how to address it?The real deal is this: while soul-searching and self-improvement is extremely valuable, if your hormonal health is suffering, it’s compromising your capacity to flourish.

Why Your Self-Care Routine Isn’t Working For You

So often we’re motivated to do self care to bring relief from symptoms and of course that is a great place to start. What if however, the right self care practice could give you access to true creativity, freedom of expression, and your most authentic self on top of symptom resolution?Have you been seeking a connection to something bigger? Have you dabbled in yoga? Pored over your horoscope? Whipped up an endless array of Instagram-worthy kale smoothies? All in hopes of finding your path and feeling your best? Are you still struggling with your period, fertility or sex drive?The missing piece in your self-care strategy is this: cyclical awareness. What does that mean? It means feeding your body exactly what it needs at the right times of the month, nourishing your endocrine system with the right micronutrients so that you can rebalance, recalibrate, and reclaim your life. Without this critical structure as the foundation, all your self care, done at the wrong time, could actually be what’s sabotaging you.Self-care without cyclical awareness doesn’t give you access to all the benefits you’re looking for, and in some cases, it can actually exacerbate your hormonal imbalances. Why? While certain times of the month call for smoothies and super intense workouts, these same activities at other times of the month could mess with your blood sugar, jack up your cortisol, make a mess of your hormones, and subsequently, throw off your hormones, mood, and energy. That means the very things you think you’re doing to feel your best could be impeding your chance for a deeper connection to your body’s innate creative process; an integral aspect of your feminine soul.

Self Care That Supports The Female Mind Body Hormone Connection

Let me assure you: this is not all new-age, woo-woo, it’s actual science based approach to working with the body you have. Ancient traditions often reference the chakra system, which are energy centers in the body. The second chakra, otherwise known as your sacral chakra, is ruled by the principal of pleasure. It represents the womb, it’s your source of money, sex, creativity, and the feminine center. Sometimes this space is actually called the “low heart” (the clitoris, after all, does have a pulse!). But even if you’re not a chakra believer, there’s no denying the scientific fact that when your hormones — estrogen, progesterone, thyroid, insulin, testosterone, cortisol, etc. — aren’t functioning at their optimal levels, their dysfunction has a direct impact on your serotonin and dopamine, the neurotransmitters that dictate your mood and that impacts what thoughts your thinking, how you view the world around you and your desires and creativity. Your endocrine system is powerful and it’s at the root of your mind-body connection. By dismissing the signs and symptoms of your period problems, you’re not just doing a disservice to your health; you’re effectively undermining your power as a woman to be happy, creative, and powerful. These aren’t trivial details — making smoothies at the wrong time of the month can significantly disturb your insulin levels, eating the wrong foods at the wrong time in your cycle can deprive your endocrine system of the right micronutrients, and working out at the wrong time in the wrong way can set off a dangerous chain reaction of hormonal chaos. This kind of ill-timed self care or doesn’t take your female biology into account, and it is endocrine disruptive. That means your mind-body connection, your ability to create, and all the things you’ve been soul-searching for are being blocked by improperly caring for your unique, female body.

Your Body’s Biofeedback and Self Care

So what's all of your self-care really for if it’s not to kick your life into high gear in every way possible? Aligning your self care choices with your cycle is precisely the way for you to ground it in something that honors you and the sacred feminine energy that creates everything. Maybe you’ve heard of the “Flow State,” popularized by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It’s the concept of being “in the zone,” and it occurs when you’re skill level and the task at hand are equal. Tony Robbins has talked about this concept as well, in relation to athletes: elite performers need to meet their needs in order to flow. Cyclical self-care is the only way for women to tap into this type of flow-based peak performance. Without the cyclical aspect, your self-care is keeping you from achieving your flow state, creatively, and health-wise. You’ll know if you’re not in your flow (or FLO!): your body will tell you loud and clear. If you have PMS, period disturbances, a serious endocrine disorder — those are all specific types of biofeedback from your body that your current lifestyle and self-care practices are not supporting your endocrine system and therefore your ability to perform at your peak. If your hormones are out of whack, that’s your starting point. Your ultimate goal should not be to do more elaborate acts of self-care more often; it should be to give your body what it’s asking for in the right way at the right time — then everything will open up for you.If you’ve been dedicating this month to self-love and self-care, then do yourself the biggest favor possible: set yourself up for success by getting back on track with your hormones, reclaiming your body, and getting realigned and ready to be the brilliant badass you know you can be. Not sure where to start? Take the V-Sign Quiz and discover what the state of your period says about your overall health. When you’re ready for more, sign up for Monthly FLO and Balance Supplements and download the app MyFLO to elevate your efforts and fast track your progress.Love and ovaries,Alisa

Monthly FLO: The Cycle Syncing System™

Put your period symptoms into remission. Discover how to live in your FLO and get it all done with embodied time management.

MonthlyFLO is the first-ever woman-centric health system that syncs with your unique rhythm. It gives you the foundation for solving any hormonal issues you may have over your lifetime.Using the principles of functional nutrition, MonthlyFLO is a specially-sequenced food therapy program that recalibrates your endocrine function. Over three months, you will be guided step-by-step to make simple, cumulative food and lifestyle changes that balance your hormones naturally.Click here to learn more about the life-changing Monthly FLO Program

When I launched FLO Living over a decade ago, I knew it had the potential to change lives. After all, I’d lived through my very own hormonal transformation as a direct result of the protocol I was now ready to offer women all over the world. I went from weighing 200 lbs, covered in cystic acne, and suffering from all the emotional and physical turmoil of a PCOS diagnosis to living a healthier, more vibrant, and fulfilling life than I ever thought possible. I shed the weight, fixed my skin, and most importantly, recalibrated my endocrine system through a sustainable method I knew millions of other women could benefit from.I’ve been humbled and inspired by the countless accounts from women throughout the world about how FLO Living has healed their hormones and completely changed their lives. These personal success stories are what fuel the mission of FLO Living and motivate our team to continue establishing a new ‘normal’ of womanhood: a reality where easy periods, a juicy sex drive, a halted aging process, and tons of energy are par for the course.

What You Don’t Know is Holding You Back From Healing Your Symptoms

If you’re considering starting your own hormonal healing journey, you’re in the middle of your process, or you know someone who needs a nudge, the personal accounts of FLO Living graduates are the best sources of inspiration you’ll find. Maybe you’re curious about the program but you don’t really believe anything like this is possible. You may be on the Pill (or IUD or ring) and you’re scared of the long-term consequences of hormonal contraception...but you’re even more scared to suffer the rumored side effects of quitting. Perhaps you’re worried about your fertility now or in the future, or you’ve been struggling for years with a condition like PCOS, endometriosis, or fibroids and you’re sick and tired of sinking your hopes into “treatments” that continue to fail you. I want you to know that above all, your body is designed to perform optimally. It’s not luck—it’s science. You weren’t pre-programmed for endocrine dysfunction simply because you’re a woman. And when it comes to your period, you absolutely can get your body to perform better naturally. That’s why it’s so important for you to see and hear the stories below—because you’ve been conditioned to believe your body is broken, your period is a painful sentence, and there are simply no solutions for the burdens of being a woman. These are total lies that not only unnecessarily prevent you from achieving total health, but they also keep you from realizing your full potential. Now that we all recognize the menstrual cycle as a fifth vital sign (as important an indicator of your health as your blood pressure is), it’s time to take charge and correct the hormonal dysfunction you’ve been taught to silently accept. Beyond signifying your baseline health, your healthy cycle powers your overall wellbeing, your creativity, your productivity, and more. You want to smash the patriarchy? Fix your period.

How Do You Actually Get Rid of your Period Symptoms Naturally?

How do we do this at FLO Living? The FLO Protocol as described in the book, WomanCode, and detailed in the premier digital program, MonthlyFLO, works to address the root causes of your symptoms, whatever they may be. And because in my research, I uncovered the correct sequence of approaching the endocrine system to turn it’s self correcting mechanisms on and the micronutrients it absolutely needs to function optimally, the protocol works regardless of your symptoms or your diagnosed condition. What FLO treats is the endocrine system, not the symptom — this is why it’s so effective for so many women with totally different symptoms and diagnosed menstrual conditions. In order for your symptoms to resolve, you have to address your blood sugar, your stress, your estrogen overload, your micronutrient deficiencies, and your lifestyle. Once you start supporting your hormones with the right foods and self care, within two to three cycles you can expect to see shifts in your symptoms.One of my most significant discoveries I made in my years of research was the fact that you and your body have cyclical needs. They shift as your hormones shift in your regular cycle. And they shift as you move from your teens to your twenties to your thirties and forties and beyond. In order for you to live at your most vibrant level at any stage, you have to feed yourself the things that nurture and protect what makes you uniquely female — your hormones. Everything that’s inside allows you to manifest outside. There’s absolutely no reason you should suffer needlessly with hormonal imbalances.

Here's What Happens When You Put Your Conditions and Symptoms Into Remission Naturally:

For years, women have written to me detailing the most incredible, permanent, lasting improvements to conditions they were told were “incurable:” PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, and more. Women who’ve struggled for years with irregular periods, debilitating cramps, intolerable mood swings have told me they’re symptom-free. And I truly, wholeheartedly believe this kind of full hormonal recovery is possible for every woman. If you’re still skeptical, read to the stories below....You can quit the pill without any crazy side effects. “Flo Living was my birth control rehab. I looked you up and bought your book. I read it, but I needed more of a step-by-step, hold-my-hand, and give me feedback experience and that’s why I signed up for Monthly FLO. It worked completely. I dropped the NuvaRing. I quit and my skin stayed completely clear....I think if I could go back and tell myself anything it would be to do this program 7 years ago instead of hiding and medicating the problem using birth control. I would have done it earlier.” - Shawna...You can overcome infertility and become a first-time mom. “In reading Alisa’s book the WomanCode, immersing myself in the program (January-March 2016) and using much of the info that was given to me I was able to get almost a normal 28 day cycle...The combination of it all finally led to me writing you to let you know I got pregnant at 38 years old!! I’m so excited that after a little over 3.5 years of hoping, my dream for me and my husband has come true!! I only hope this story can inspire others to know that your body is amazing and that it has so much power to heal. Many blessings on all of your journeys!!” - Cortney...You can beat “incurable” diagnoses like PCOS. “I was diagnosed with PCOS three and a half years ago. I had horrible cystic acne that kept getting worse no matter what I did. I couldn’t seem to lose the 5-10 lbs of weight after my last pregnancy. My periods were always irregular and I had strong pelvic pain in my left abdomen. I felt trapped because every book I read said that there was no cure for PCOS and that other than taking strong medications certain symptoms would not be relieved. In Monthly FLO, I surprised myself by not only meeting all the goals that I wanted to achieve, but also accomplishing things I never expected. My skin cleared up, my ovarian pain diminished, I lost the rest of my baby weight, and most importantly I found an amazing sense of peace in my life overall – peace with body image, having another child, my work. My sexual relationship with husband has blossomed. I feel more productive in my life – even in everyday chores. Life is more fun! I am completely letting go and couldn’t feel more free and light about doing so!” - Alexandra...You can put your endometriosis into remission. “The past 5 years have been utter misery for me because of endometriosis. There were times that the pain was so intense that I could not walk. I came to fear and despise my period, my entire cycle. I was on birth control pills the whole time (trying all kinds until I found the least damaging one) and they didn’t help at all. I couldn’t predict what kind of period I would have, couldn’t understand what was going on in my body, didn’t even want to start trying to understand… And this made me sad, even depressed. I’ve been on the FLO protocol for the past 6 months, after coming off birth control… I FEEL PERFECT. And by perfect I mean, not only have my endometriosis pains vanished almost completely (once in a while when I’m ovulating I feel a 1 or a 2 out of a scale of 10 for pain), but I am truly aware of what is going on in my body all the time. I am 95% of the time acne-free, bloating-free, PMS-FREE, refreshed and energized and when I do have these symptoms, even a little bit of them, I immediately know what caused them.” - Natalia...You can learn how to sync with your body. “Before FLO Living, I never paid attention to my body. I bought tampons, and that was the extent of it. I never had very extreme periods before so I didn’t think about it. Now I am really paying a lot more attention. I’m in the luteal phase right now and I feel a little less sociable. I know I can take a few minutes of silence for myself. I am careful not to eat sugar. It’s really cool to recognize what’s going on inside.” - Ashley...You can ease your perimenopausal symptoms. “Not only did I learn not to fear my body during this process, I also learned that I could have a transition that leaves me better than before! I’ve lost weight, my periods are over, my sex drive is the highest it has ever been in my life, and I’m excited about my life again.” - Lori

What’s Your Story

The stories I read every day from FLO Living graduates confirm the gut feeling I had all those years ago when I founded the company: building a place where women can get information, support, answers, and effective care for their period problems. These stories are what make all the work we do at FLO Living worthwhile. Sharing your story with us keeps us going and lights us up. If you have a story of FLO transformation, I’d love to hear it. Share it in the comments below. If you know someone who is struggling with her period and hasn’t heard the good news that you can recover from menstrual issues naturally, share this article with her! You taking the time to share could help motivate someone who’s struggling or unsure of her next step. If you are someone struggling with your period, now you know that change is possible! We’d love to hear what you’re struggling with and we’d love to help. Email us at [email protected] to connect with us for a consultation. You’ll get symptom analysis and feedback and direct, actionable tips to take your hormonal healing into your own hands. Love,Alisa

We believe that no woman should suffer simply because she has a period.

And we also know that it’s not always possible to get access to functional and holistic healthcare solutions — sometimes they’re too far away and most of the time they are way too expensive.That’s why we offer phone and Skype consultation sessions with our FLO coaches.All of our expert FLO coaches have been trained by Alisa on top of being certified health coaches and licensed acupuncturists. And they are all qualified to help you find the right next step for you in getting out of hormonal chaos and into your FLO. Work with a FLO Coach and find your customized plan to solve your period symptoms.

Click here to book your counselor consultation