February 2, 2012

Addicted to Hormones–Part One

(photo courtesy of Google Images, not Kari’s photo album)

Okay, so maybe not like a she-man or a female version of Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Although the fact that he has bigger, um, boobs, then me is upsetting – I guess since he never had kids permanently attached to his breasts for 30 months sucking everything out of you like I have…But, I digress.

Hormones.

I’m addicted to these little suckers in a good way.  I’ve been learning about hormones semi-extensively for the past 2 years and I’ve been sucked into the topic.

I’m trying to figure out how I can make this short enough where people will want to read it, so I think I’ll start with some basics today, then I can get into more detail.  Without a foundation – the other info won’t make much sense.

(huh?)

 

First.  When you think of metabolism, you most likely think of people who can lose weight easily or gain weight easily.  How many can agree that most of us are in the latter category – and all that weight gain gets blamed on our ‘slow metabolism’? 

Well, that’s half true.  The whole weight thing is an ‘expression’ of what our metabolism does.  A definition of metabolism from Jillian Michaels is:

“Metabolism is like a chemistry lab.  It is the combo of all the molecules, hormones, and brain-, gut-, and fat-cell messenger chemicals that regulate the rate you burn calories.”

In short:  HORMONES CONTROL YOUR METABOLISM

Some other definitions were way too long and confusing, so I liked this the best.

I also liked that she mentioned:

“Our metabolism is dynamic, not static, and it can be changed!”

This means that everything we put into our bodies (through food, drink, products and air) will affect how our bodies function.  I always knew food was important and that we needed to be eating ‘living foods’, but I didn’t know the explicit details as to WHY. 

Now I do.

I have also learned and continue to learn that WE are able to change these unbalances naturally, without forcing our bodies to change through synthetic drugs.

One phrase we should get into our thinking is:

“MY HEALTH IS PRICELESS”

And – it is.  My thought is that if you take the time to PREPARE by being proactive with your health now, then you won’t have to REPAIR later down the road.  Food is medicine and the majority of us are being poisoned by our ‘diets’.

A few thoughts:

- Your body cannot function properly when one or more hormones are out of whack and unbalanced.

- Your hormones regulate various functions in your body (think weight, sleeping patterns, food metabolism, cell repair, etc .)

- Your hormones are affected by what you eat, drink, put on your body, breathe in the air, our lifestyle, our activity level and stress.

- When one hormone gets unbalanced, the other hormones get ‘confused’ and try to solve the unbalance and end up causing more bad than good.

- Weight gain is not just about calories.

- You can begin to balance out your hormones simply by changing your eating habits, exercise and being more conscious of what is going INTO and ONTO your body.

- The onslaught of the majority of the health problems we see today began in the mid 1900’s when the United States became industrialized and processed food made it’s way into our stores and homes.

- Our bodies don’t recognize processed food and chemicals, so when we eat them, it wreaks havoc on our hormones.

- The AMA and WHO have released studies and guidelines that are actually causing more sickness than better health. 

- The food pyramid provided by our government changes every couple of years.  This ought to tell you that they don’t have the right answers if they keep having to change it.

This is getting to be lots of info, so I’ll end PART 1 right here.  In future posts I’ll go into information about:

-  the different foods that affect different hormones

-  menu plans that you can use to eat ‘healthy’ but still be eating real food

-  how we have been misled on the good and bad fats and cholesterol sources and how their ‘substitutes’ are actually bad for your overall health

-  how by changing your diet and balancing out hormones, you can see changes in your body in the areas of: depression, moodiness, weight gain, headaches, fragile hair and nails, sagging skin, sleeplessness or extreme fatigue, energy levels, sugar cravings and so much more

- how we can protect our children from early-puberty due to all the hormones found in our foods, skin care products, plastics and packaging, drinking water and the air we breath

I promise you, if your health and overall quality of LIFE is important to you and you want to see positive changes in your physical body where you feel as if you’ve turned 180 degrees in the area of good health – then stick with me for the rest of these posts on hormones.  I think it could change your life, because it is already changing mine!

(all images taken from Google Images)

 

OTHER ARTICLES YOU MAY BE ITERESTED IN:

Feeding Your Hormones: Thyroid & Insulin

Glowing Mama: Safe Skin and Body Care

The Truth About Real Butter

 

-This post is linked to Sunday School at Butter Believer!

live.laugh.love.and.celebrate.life.

“I have my hormones balanced. Most doctors are giving women synthetic hormones, which just eliminate the symptoms, but it’s doing nothing to actually replace the hormones you have lost. Without our hormones we die.”

Suzanne Somers

1. Carrie Vasquez says:

   February 3, 2012 at 9:25 am

   Hey Kari, I’m enjoying reading your blog. I’m interested to know more about how to regulate hormones. Your graphics and information you have is amazing!! I’m glad to hear that when I tell my doctor that my hormones are out of whack and they look at me strange, that I’m really not losing my mind! LOL!!

   Reply
   1. knewsom says:

      February 4, 2012 at 5:51 pm

      Hi Carrie! Most people don’t know this, but at least as of 2010 the amount of hours a medical student spends learning about hormones is 4. Yep, 4 hours is dedicated to teaching medical students about hormones, so when we tell our doctos stuff like this they usually just laugh it off – since they actually don’t have any idea that you’re right! In upcoming posts I’ll go into more how you can regulate and balance hormones with diet. It’s so fascinating to me )

      Reply