The alarm goes off, not once, not twice but several times that suddenly your mornings become almost like playing a game of whack a mole. Mornings are hard, they’re a rush and coffee is your greatest ally. Weight is packing on no matter what you do and you suspect your thyroid is off despite being told that, “everything is normal.” As someone who has Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune thyroid condition which affects 97% of those with hypothyroidism, I can tell you that if you’ve got (or suspect that you have) thyroid issues, you can’t JUST treat the thyroid or you will be perpetually treating symptoms. You MUST work with someone who can address the causative factors behind your thyroid issues – one of which being adrenal fatigue (or more aptly referred to as HPA dysfunction). It’s why in this new newsletter video I’m addressing the following:
How to overcome adrenal fatigue and thyroid issues.
This is one of the areas I cover in my free Adrenal and Thyroid Masterclass – so if you haven’t seen it yet, grab your spot and do so now.
The impacts of chronic stress on thyroid health
Now while you may have tried every supplement or green smoothie to improve your health, the one area I find women struggle with the most is changing up their lifestyle. In fact, this involves some serious reparenting. Most women I work with in Sexy Lady Balls, my hormone membership program have chronic stress that’s mismanaged. And this chronic stress impacts the digestive system and contributes to a leaky gut. The immune system will plummet making an individual more susceptible to viral infections and thyroid hormone production will go down the shitter. It slows down the conversion of T4, your inactive thyroid hormone to T3, your active thyroid hormone.
So what can be done?
Reparenting tip #1: Set boundaries
The topic of boundaries have been spoken about a lot however an area that I feel hasn’t been covered that is crucial to this equation is: accountability. If you aren’t taking accountability for your role in the resentments you currently have, you will (in my opinion) be setting up fake boundaries.
Pissed off at how much you’ve done for a family member? Do you feel that they’ve taken advantage of your generosity? Ask yourself this:
Do I keep giving knowing the outcome?
I know I’ve been guilty of giving while knowing that the person I was giving to, wouldn’t reciprocate my generosity despite hoping otherwise. So what did I do? I took responsibility and set boundaries with them. I communicated my boundaries with love and not with anger. I also took responsibility for the fact that I never communicated how I previously felt, so I had no right to simply blow up because my expectations were never met due to my lack of communication.
Reparenting tip #2: Get your ass to bed.
This was the hardest for me to implement and I see this reflected in the women I work with. Most of us have a drop-dead time we NEED to wake up. But few of us have a hard fast, healthy time when we NEED to go to bed.
We’ve all heard that you should go to bed before 11pm, but in my opinion, this is still too late. I actually feel we need to be fast asleep by 10:30pm which means:
- Your head should hit the pillow by 10pm
- Which means you should be in bed without any electronics by 9pm
- Which means that by 8pm latest, lights in your home should be dimmed to signal to the pituitary gland, “it’s time to sleep!” And you should consider getting blue blocker glasses to block out any blue lights that can and will disrupt your sleep. I love my Swanwick glasses. Get yours here with a 15% coupon code: SEXYBLUEBLOCKERS
It’s important for me to mention that a healthy sleep routine isn’t just about your sleep routine, it’s also about resetting your circadian rhythms. For example, when you wake up, you should blast yourself with light. I normally go into my bathroom which has the brightest light. Doing this will tell the body “it’s time to wake up!” I’ll drink a litre of water with 1/2 tsp of Redmond Real Salt too and take a shower ending with a minute of ice cold water. I also spend 15 minutes in front of my Joov near infrared/red light which has been shown in studies to improve thyroid function. Then at night, lights are dim and I take a hot shower an hour before bed as well. Doing this helps to manage cortisol levels and is crucial if you have an autoimmune condition like myself.
If you’re like the many women I come across who are sleep deprived, you cannot expect to stay on a plan and not crave carbs. Sleep deprivation adds stress to the body and will increase your insulin levels leading to weight gain and more thyroid dysfunction. This continual sleep deprivation simply adds to the chronic stress which sets off inflammatory immune cells called cytokines which is bad news bears for your thyroid, especially if you have an enlarged thyroid or nodules.
Struggle with estrogen dominance AND thyroid issues too?
This isn’t uncommon because high estrogen levels impede the conversion of T4 (your inactive thyroid hormone) to T3 (your active thyroid hormone). But here is where reparenting MUST come into play.
If your stress levels are mismanaged (and yes woman, you have way more power to change this than you think), then your progesterone levels will inevitably decline. While progesterone levels do dip while we age, this will be expedited with chronically elevated levels of stress. And when progesterone levels are bottomed out, you’ll probably experience the progesterone blues.
Now if you’re unaware of this, progesterone and estrogen play a balancing act together. So if progesterone levels are bottomed out, your estrogen dominant symptoms (heavy periods, painful PMS, fibroids, etc) will become so much worse. Progesterone is also needed to support thyroid function as well.
So as you can see reparenting is not only important but a non-negotiable if you’re trying to fix any of this.
Here’s the reality…
If you’re looking to improve your hormones, please stop asking me for the magic supplement to fix your fibroids, thyroid issues or bad PMS. That’s simply not how natural medicine works. To address any of this, a holistic approach is demanded that includes daily movement (rev and rest baby when needed and ADJUST accordingly, you don’t have to kill yourself with high intensity!), SLEEP, boundary setting, supplementation, clean food, and hydration.
I have way too many women who are looking to fix their issues without laying the foundational groundwork first and expecting a quick turnover. Look back at your life and really take accountability for how long it took you to get here because it won’t take a day to get out of it. This isn’t to discourage you but to rather set realistic expectations that this is going to require that you show up differently to truly make a lasting impact on your hormones.
Looking for more? Well, you’re in luck. I’ve created a free masterclass all on adrenal and thyroid issues that will blow ya’ damn mind. Grab your spot now and let’s roll up our sleeves and get this show on the road.
Big hugs for now,
Melissa