At one time I was very overweight at 200 lbs. Slimming down and losing those pounds was an emotional process for me as I was also, as part of that, figuring out what was wrong with my hormones and creating the protocol that has become the foundation of the Flo sisterhood.

When I got pregnant I was absolutely overjoyed that my 17-year-long investment in eating a pro-hormonal diet allowed me to beat the prognosis of infertility and naturally conceive on the third try! However, when the second trimester hit and my scales started edging higher and higher towards those bigger numbers and my previous weight, I must admit that I got triggered.

Even though I knew the science, I’ll be honest, I got really worried that my body wouldn’t bounce back.

Losing the baby weight without losing out

A few days before I gave birth I hit 210 lbs. That was more than I’d weighed at my heaviest before I changed my lifestyle and my life. By that time I had made peace with the process and I trusted my body to do what it needed to do to give me a healthy baby girl and keep me healthy too.

Post-baby girl, at the end of the fourth trimester (3 months after I’d given birth), I was 40 lbs lighter already. And now, six months after giving birth, I have lost all of the baby weight - all without having to deprive myself of good and tasty foods (or do any significant exercise!). I’ve been feeding my hormones well and the weight has just melted off.

‍The same diet that got me pregnant is the one that has helped me recover post-partum. I love the elegance and simplicity of that!

‍If you’re breastfeeding as I have done you’ll find you burn 300-500 calories a day as a consequence, which certainly supports the weight loss.

My first six months with baby were spent in the very snow and very cold New York city and so I had the best excuse to create quality time and not worry too much about working out. Cuddling and carrying your baby is really the best strength training you’ll ever need at this time!

Right after you’ve had a baby is the worst time to try and deprive yourself of food or force yourself to workout.  Why?  Because those choices spike up cortisol and program your fat cells to stick around.  Instead, you need to be nourishing your body, your baby, and enjoying your time together. By following the Flo living meal plan you can trust in the innate process of your hormones and know your body will bounce back.

‍A Pro-Hormonal Sample Meal Plan post-baby for easy and healthy weight loss

‍Remember that when you’re breastfeeding you won’t be having your period, especially if you also nurse at night, but you will still be able to ovulate and so you are fertile. So, at this time you’ll be less focused on eating for your hormonal phase and more focused on just getting in lots of super nourishing foods that are rich in amino acids, vitamins and EFAs. Everything you put together should be cooked and warming and organic.

‍Breakfast - Steel cut oats with black sesame seeds, coconut oil, goji berries

‍Snack - Hard boiled egg

‍Lunch - Salmon and quinoa with steamed kale and olive oil

‍Snack - Avocado on black rice bread

‍Dinner - Bison burger with broccoli and sweet potato baked ‘fries’

‍Snack - 2 Dates with 3 Squares Dark Chocolate with Mother’s Milk Tea

Of all the nutrient deficiencies we read about on a regular basis - vitamin D and Omega-3 spring to mind - there’s one we rarely consider that is vitally important for our hormonal health, and that the majority of women reading this post right now will be suffering from - and that’s magnesium deficiency.

That’s right, most women do not take in enough magnesium and that lack is the root of many, many health issues.

Magnesium governs our pituitary health, and without it we produce less of the hormones like FSH (follicular stimulating) LH (luteinizing) and TSH (thyroid stimulating). These hormones signal other glands in your endocrine system to perform at their best. Low levels of those foundational hormones can cause irregular ovulation and thyroid function issues, which can be at the root of your bigger hormonal conditions.‍

Magnesium: the Flo-essential mineral

Boosting your magnesium levels can help heal PMS, PCOS, adrenal fatigue, menopausal symptoms, and all other hormone-cycle related health problems. The great news is that once your magnesium levels are sufficient, the positive changes happen fast. It’s really the wonder mineral for your hormonal health, and maintaining a good daily intake should always be at the forefront of your mind. Without magnesium, even your best efforts in other areas of your diet will fall short.

‍The science of magnesium

‍I want to share with you some of the amazing ways that magnesium supports your hormonal balance and overall health. This mineral really is one of the pillars of living life in your Flo. In fact, it is essential to succeeding in the first two steps of our Flo Living protocol - stabilizing your blood sugar and nurturing your adrenals. Magnesium plays an important role in approximately 300 bodily processes. Here are just a few of the ways it works for you:

1. Cortisol regulation - magnesium calms your nervous system and prevents the creation of excess cortisol, the stress hormone. When your stress hormone system is in balance, your levels of progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, FSH and LH will follow suit.
2. Blood sugar balancing - magnesium helps to control insulin production and as a result reduces sugar cravings, thereby preventing blood sugar spikes. This is absolutely vital when it comes to healing hormonal issues like PCOS.
3. Thyroid support - magnesium helps the production of the thyroid hormone and, as an anti-inflammatory, prevents thyroid disease.
4. Sleep aid - magnesium will make sure you get to sleep and stay asleep through the night. It also prevents the chronic urination that can be a sleep interruption.
5. Hormone creation - magnesium actually makes your hormones progesterone, estrogen and testosterone, so if you’re getting into perimenopause or are just off the Pill and your levels are low, it can be your best friend.

Signs of Flo-blocking magnesium deficiency

‍Although most of us do have a deficiency, and we should assume that we do, I want to share some of the cycle-related signs that you need to increase your magnesium right away.

1. Very noticeable symptoms of PMS such as depression or anxiety

2. Bloating (See myYahoo Health Article about Bloating here)

3. Fatigue and insomnia (I discuss this health issue in more detail here)

4. Muscle cramps or facial tics

5. Headaches or migraines

6. A lack of magnesium is also one of the culprits behind chronically low sex drive - click here for my tips on how to combat this problem specifically with this mineral and other supplements

‍The 4 best foods for boosting your magnesium levels

‍So, what might be some easy and highly effective ways to start upping your magnesium levels today? Well, I’m here to tell you!

1. Chocolate - good quality organic dark chocolate with low or, even better, no dairy or sugar is a powerful and yummy source of this mineral. Click here for my tips on using  chocolate to combat PMS cravings and to get a great recipe for Chocolate Buckwheat Pancakes!
2. Sunflower seeds - these pack a punch of magnesium in a small serving along with a bunch of other essentials like vitamin B and E. Snack on a handful, add to salads, or add as a soup topping.
3. Fish - make at least one dinner a week fish-based. All of the fish I recommend to eat throughout your cycle on the Flo Living eating plan are high in this mineral, but especially salmon, halibut and cod.
4. Leafy greens - try to fit a portion of collard greens, spinach, kale or swiss chard into every meal. You can keep it very simple - just add to your rice, beans or scrambled eggs or have a steamed plate with olive oil on the side.

The best way to supplement

‍That all said, some people have trouble absorbing enough magnesium through foods alone due to gut health issues and, sadly, many of our foods now lack in this natural mineral because the soil itself in which they are grown has been depleted and drained of nutrients. Therefore, it’s also important to consider a more direct approach to supplementation. Here are a couple of ways you can tackle this:

1. Epsom salt baths - studies have shown that a good soak in a warm bath with epsom salts increases the body’s levels of magnesium safely and effectively. Add two cups worth to a bath taken two to three times a week. This will also decrease your stress levels, which is also important for maintaining magnesium.
2. Transdermal supplement - I recommend Ancient Minerals topical magnesium oil, which can be applied to the skin or added to a bath. How about getting your partner to give you a magnesium oil massage? Relaxing and beneficial to your hormonal health!

Magnesium-depleting lifestyle choices

‍There are also some lifestyle changes that can have an immediate impact on your magnesium levels. The following behaviors actually deplete your resources of magnesium or block absorption of the mineral, so even if you’re actively supplementing, you also need to be conscious of your day to day choices.

1. Drinking carbonated beverages - the phosphoric acid that makes these drinks tangy actually depletes magnesium and blocks your body from absorbing the magnesium you are trying to take in.
2. Eating sugar - sugar requires magnesium to be processed in the body, so every time you eat sugar in something sweet your body is wasting vital magnesium.
3. Caffeine - studies have shown that caffeinated drinks force your body to excrete vital minerals including magnesium.
4. Dehydration - when you’re working out intensely, make sure you are also drinking a lot of water. And of course drinking soda, coffee or alcohol all produce a dehydrating effect along with all the other ways they're bad for your hormones!
5. Stress - both psychological and physical forms of stress, which means anxiety, but also surgery or illness - depletes magnesium. Depleted magnesium causes a heightened stress response. So if you’re under pressure, be sure to take at least ten minutes out of each day to sit still, meditate or just rest.

We need protein to make the amino acids that manufacture our hormones. Without protein women can’t be hormonally healthy.However, so many of the new and popular diets are either extremely protein-heavy or they ignore protein altogether. We do need protein, just not as much as you might think.A lack of protein causes us to age prematurely, both in how we look and feel and in terms of our biological age - our eggs and fertility.Different bodies need different kinds of protein and at different times of the cycle. You have to experiment to find your perfect protein prescription.The vegan dilemmaMy friend, Alex Jamieson, author of the new book Women, Food and Desirewas vegan for 13 years before she realized that, for her personally, avoiding meat and animal products entirely was doing harm to her health. Her book is all about how listening to your body can lead you to feeling great. Alex found her hormonal health issues were down to a lack of protein and her body told her to remedy this by eating meat again. She did, and she felt much better for it.If I could be vegan, personally, I would for ethical reasons. But my body just can’t absorb the amino acids in vegan protein sources very well. This is true for a lot of us. If you do choose to be vegan for ethical reasons, I totally get it. However, you shouldn’t do it to try to lose weight. There are plenty of understandable ethical reasons to be vegan that I respect and it is certainly possible to find non-animal sources of protein to fill this gap (more later!) if that’s the lifestyle you choose. However, if you have been trying to be vegan as a health experiment, excellent - you just may need to keep experimenting with protein until you find the combination that makes you look and feel amazing, vital, and gorgeous!Finding your perfect protein prescription - it’s about your hormones not dietary theories!I have tried everything! I’ve tried being vegan, raw, and I’ve also tried just eating eggs, only cutting out red meat, and eating only fish. I experimented for a long time with proteins before finding a way of eating that worked. I played around with the protein in my diet to find a good match. The thing is, different bodies absorb protein differently. But more importantly, it was my cycle that led me to understand finally how to balance the protein equation once and for all! You see, we women need to eat protein in different types and quantities at different times of the month!Women come to FLOliving.com after having tried being all sorts of the big diet theories for their PCOS, PMS, Fibroids, and Infertility. Often times they report that they may initially feel good, but then their symptoms come back and they don’t understand what they’re doing wrong.Let’s look at some common diet configurations and their protein guidelines and my personal experience with them:Ketosis Diets - high in protein, low in carbs, moderate in fats - my experience is that this feels great at first - because you feel like you’re doing the perfect ‘proper’ diet plan - and you get excited to lose weight, but then when your hormones shift mid cycle - it’s impossible to fight your carb cravings and major falling off the wagon, binge carbing ensues.Paleo - high in protein, high fat, no grains, emphasis on carb substitutes like coconut flour breads, etc - has so many great elements - eating all whole, real food - love all the gluten free baking options! Super high calorie, and all the fat and protein becomes challenging to break down in parts of the cycle where estrogen is peaking.Vegan/Macrobiotic - high grain, low protein, moderate fats, high legumes. Great for cleaning up house internally - decreasing inflammation all around. But the glycemic impact and lack of amino acids can be problematic for hormonal conditions.Fundamentally, what’s wrong here is that none of these diets fluctuate based on your hormonal patterns. You see, you’re supposed to eat their way daily without any regard for the fact that you have different nutritional, digestive, micronutrient, and hormonal needs each week of the month.FLO Diet - vegan, fish, egg proteins first half of month, poultry, bison, lamb second half of the month - based on what your body needs, when it needs it! Pause for collective sigh of relief by dieting women and their ovaries everywhere! ;)When it comes to protein, the best way that I have found is to base it on where you are in the cycle. So you get the best of all of the diet configurations but you keep your hormones at the center of your food choices.Random Fun Fact:I’m completely obsessed with wartime England and their national food program. It was developed because people got so sick left on their own during the first world war that the government wanted to ensure a healthier population and workforce for the second. They were meticulous in their research on the most appropriate balance of nutrition for everyone. During World War II, as I’m sure you know, food was rationed within the UK. The people who ate this limited diet ended up being the healthiest population to ever live in the country. That generation went on the live far longer than previous and future generations.One of the cornerstones of this diet was the small amount of protein that was available on a weekly basis. The rations included just one real egg per week, but powdered egg every morning. There would be fish, some liver, and some tongue for animal protein. Then there were highly coveted, very limited good fats in good quality lard or butter. But the bulk of the rations were made up of barley, oats and whole wheat, root vegetables of all kinds, and hearty leafy greens. It was primarily a vegetarian diet. The following generation launched into processed food consumption and precipitously suffered greatly from a diet of processed food and increasing amounts of protein.The real deal with eggsAs outlined by Blue Zonesone of the common denominators between populations with longevity around the world is the consumption of eggs. People who live good long lives tend to be eating a good lot of eggs. That’s because eggs are the most easily assimilated bio-available protein source. This means they’re a great source of protein for every body!Watch this story of Ernestine Shepard, 77, the oldest female body builder and how many eggs she eats a day!Despite the myths we hear, eggs do not cause high cholesterol. It’s actually sugar that does that. The high quality fat in an egg actually protects you from heart health problems.A two whole egg omelette or scramble a couple of times per week will give you a sufficient amount of protein. Make sure to put that good protein to work. Excess consumption of protein does eventually convert into sugars - so make sure you exercise to get the most benefit from your protein.The three best vegan protein sourcesIf you are vegan, here are my three favorites:

1. Pea protein - this is a complete protein that provides all of the amino acids you need. Other plant proteins do not supply the complete set of amino acids. Pea protein can keep you feeling fuller for longer and give you a boost of energy for workouts.
2. Sacha Inchi - this plant grows in the Amazon rainforests in Peru and is rich in not only protein but also Omega-3 fatty acids (important if you don’t eat fish or eggs). Also known as the mountain peanut, it can be eaten as a snack or used in oil form on salads.
3. Hemp protein - another great source of amino acids and omegas and fiber!

What about RICE,  WHEY, and SOY protein powder? I don’t recommend these ever as so many women are lactose intolerant estrogen dominant, and hypoglycemic and with these protein powder options that can make your symptoms worse.Good things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, what’s your favorite protein source?  Which one didn’t work for you?Second, what are your favorite ways to eat eggs? Share your recipes with us! Third, you know every one you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social by clicking the buttons below 

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!

Flo Living grad Diane shares her remarkable journey with Alisa.

At 41 years-old Diane decided she wanted to have a baby. Despite her pretty healthy lifestyle and good genes, her tests showed a natural conception would be near impossible.Feeling discouraged, Diane came across WomanCode accidentally at her local bookstore. She soon signed up for the Flo Living protocol. Within 90 days she had changed the course of her life.Diane managed to get pregnant naturally and quickly, to the shock and surprise of her medical practitioners. Not only that but she sidestepped all concerns about the usual risks of pregnancy over the age of 35.She now has a 3 month old, a new lease on life and an exciting budding career!

Click hereto watch Diane's video interview or keeping reading for the full story.Alisa: I’m joined today by Diane from California. Tell us about your remarkable journey.Diane: I was 41 years old when my husband and I started talking about having kids. He suggested I go get tests done at the gynecologist to see if everything was okay. I didn’t believe I needed to get anything tested because my grandmother had my uncle when she was 46 and I figured my eggs were fine, I’d always been totally normal my whole life, with my cycle and everything.But I go to the gynecologist and she tells me that from my age and the statistics she knows already what my hormone levels are going to be. I couldn’t believe she would know that, as I knew I was eating really well and assumed I would have perfect levels. We got the test results back and I had a FSH level of 15, which is not horrible, but it means your ovaries are barely producing good eggs and you have a 5-8% chance of conceiving naturally.This came out of nowhere for me, I didn’t even know what an FSH level was. It was all very curt and very scientific and heavy. She gave me the name and number of the local IVF guy. I couldn’t even get a word in. I was so bombarded with this news. I already felt like she didn’t know what she was talking about. I had overcome things before, I had horrible acne in my 30s and I figured that out on my own.I did some research and called her back. I asked her if I might be able to change the levels. She said that it could not be changed. I half believed it. Here’s this trained doctor telling me I’m done, I waited too long. I’m 41 and it’s over. All I had at that time was my pop culture knowledge, all these celebrities who had had children at my age or older than me. She tells me they’re all having twins and there’s a reason for that, they’re having IVF.I didn’t know anything about my cycle. I knew there was the menstrual phase and that I ovulated, that was it. I did some simple research online and found this woman who has a fertility cookbook. It tells you all of the things you can’t do, tells you to eat really plain foods, eat lots of avocados. It wasn’t very scientific. I’m an insane Virgo and I need to know why everything is happening and I need to know the facts.For a year though, I’m just going about my business. I live in an area of Southern California with great craft beers so every weekend was full of beer for me. I was eating a lot of meat and a lot of cheese. This was on the backburner. I wasn’t taking control over my diet in a real way.Around the end of August in 2013 I was at the local bookstore and I see the purple cover of WomanCode. For whatever reason, because I was supposed to buy it, I grabbed it, and I started reading the fertility section. I just decided I had to buy it right then. I burned through it.Okay, I see what I have to do. I decided to try this. I loved the testimonials inside. I knew it had to be true. It was such a friendly approach that I didn’t believe it could be real. I got rid of the sugar, the cheese, the gluten. Now I’m making amaranth pasta with no cheese. I got rid of all the wine and all the beer. By the time my birthday came around and I turned 42, I decided to do it exactly as written for 90 days.I went back to the same gynecologist after those 90 days. I decided to ask to see a midwife. I asked to get my levels checked again. She didn’t want me to get my hopes up because it was a year later then. I got that. They have people who are hopeful, but they don’t know what to do or change. I told her I was doing this diet specifically for my cycle. I told her I was eating with my cycle, I’d gotten rid of all the inflammatory foods, and I had been eating fertility boosting foods. She didn’t understand what I was talking about.She takes my blood, she calls me two days later. She says, “You need to hear this. It looks like I’m looking at the results of a completely different person. Well, your FSH is 7.5. That’s the normal level of a healthy 33 year old. You’re 42. This shouldn’t have happened. What did you do exactly? And what’s the name of the book?”Alisa: I have to ask for those of us entrenched in this story now - can you stand up and show us the results of that 7.5 FSH level….one hot, hot, hot pregnant mama. It happened! The good old fashioned way at home with your husband, right?Diane: This is what happens!It happened naturally.It wasn’t completely easy sailing, though. So now I’m arrogant, I’m calling all my friends and telling them my results. I told everyone with fertility issues to do this diet and that it works. You know it’s working. Four days into the initial cleanse, I felt significantly lighter, it was like after I had done a juice cleanse. I knew I was doing something right. It was clear that I was ovulating. I knew it was happening.Alisa: Yes, and we teach you how to track when you’re ovulating. I think it’s so valuable to know exactly what is going on with your body, how to work with it, how to use food to make it do what you want. What’s so exciting about your story is we have this belief that after a certain age women cannot conceive naturally. That’s becoming an epidemic because women are eating and living in a way that’s causing them to age prematurely. You had the ovaries of someone older than your biological age. You were able to decrease your biological age by a decade. That’s the exciting news. We’re going about thinking about fertility all wrong. We need to be thinking about how can I promote hormonal youth in my body?You played that game to success, you’re fit to burst any day now. Having recently transitioned into motherhood, I’m so excited for you to transition imminently.How does your partner feel about you living in your Flo?Diane: My husband has told his whole family. They’re from Rome, Italy. I’m sure his parents thought it was pretty hokey. He knows I’m determined though. The second I came back with my results they were floored. Four months after that I’m pregnant.But I wanted to add - back then, so I’m at 7.5 and I’m thinking I’ve got it in the bag. I wasn’t thinking that seriously about having children until I was told it would be very difficult and that I’d have to have IVF and end up with triplets. I started crying. It was real and going to happen.To show you how sensitive our bodies are, I started having some bread and one beer a week. In January, I’m not pregnant. I decided to get myself tested again. I was still eating in the phases and eating buckwheat, avocados, brazil nuts, putting cinnamon on everything and making brown rice and turmeric and loading it with vegetables and everything, but that one beer a week…well, my FSH went up to 9.8.Alisa: Women are hormonally sensitive, much more so these days. We’re in this perfect storm now and there’s been no precedent for it - we have pesticides in our food supply, we live a lifestyle that’s taxing on our endocrine system, and we’re delaying motherhood. This trifecta makes for frustrations with our fertility, sex drive, energy. You also just don’t feel good when your hormones are off. I’m sure you felt better when you were following the protocol. So I bet you were right back on track once you realized.Diane: I was right back in gear and two months later I was pregnant.But also - within 3 months I realized I had depression or rage before my period. If you cut me off I would verbally assault you at that time. Prior to this I would get so depressed I would get into a dark, dark place. I was in denial that this was PMS. I knew I needed help. The second I got on the cleanse my PMS disappeared. No more cramping. I didn’t have any bloating anymore. It was like I was 16 again. I just had my period and it was done. It was no problem. I felt so good.Alisa: That’s so important for you to share. You and I are technically in perimenopause. It technically begins at 35. You were able to improve your perimenopausal experience. We’re talking about reversing this rapid hormonal aging process that everyone’s going through. It’s not just women in their 30s and 40s, it’s also women in their 20s. It can happen to anyone at anytime and you can reverse that process in 90 days with the Flo protocol at any stage.You have this. No one can take this away from you. You know how to feel good. You can program your body for optimal health.Diane: People were asking me what I was doing. They thought I had gone vegan. Everyone was wondering why I looked so good. I was telling everyone. I’m living proof. You have to get this book! Who doesn’t want to feel their best all of the time?Alisa: In the protocol we talk about embracing your potential. You shared with me that you were keeping yourself back in terms of your career. You’re about to transition into motherhood and with your career. You are taking on your true soul’s calling and stepping into the spotlight as an Opera singer! You become such a clear channel for your own soul’s voice. The effort becomes effortless. Taking action becomes pleasurable.Diane: There’s no blockage. It’s to do with getting rid of all the inflammatory food. I’m not gluten sensitive to my knowledge. But when I was on the protocol my singing was crystal clear. My tone was clean. Because my body was clean.I got rid of all the cleaners I had. My beer wasn’t the last thing to go. I got this cream, a moisturizer, from this place in New York. I didn’t want to throw it away. It was full of sulphates. I spent $50 on this big tub. I wanted to give it away. But I knew it was an endocrine disruptor and I couldn’t give it to someone knowing what it could do.Alisa: That’s not a good regift! Luckily these days there are great natural options. You do have to start shopping in different places and making different choices, slowly, step by step. It’s not all at once.What would you say to someone who is listening to this and is thinking about doing the protocol and is maybe feeling overwhelmed like it might be too much or too difficult for them?Diane: We can do anything. We can do anything as women. If you look at the whole protocol you might panic. Get rid of the inflammatories one by one. Cut them out one by one. With cheese you’ll see what happens to your skin immediately. We’re all vain. Get rid of the cheese. See what happens to your skin. What did Valentino say... women want to be beautiful! Once you start with the cleanse, you’ll know immediately that you are on the right path. You see the results right away so you want to keep doing it.Alisa: I love that Valentino is now on our site, he does make fabulous dresses!Diane: So, they make you do all this genetic screening when you’re 42 (or from 35 up) and hear what chances you have of having a Downs Syndrome child and so on.Alisa: There’s a lot of negative and fear-based things. It’s true because we’re not taking care of our diet and the youthfulness of our eggs, those statistics do reflect women’s health. It’s scary, but good for you to see that once you took charge of your diet and lifestyle those things are no longer a concern.Diane: They’re no longer a concern at all. When we got the results back they were expecting horrible results. When we crunched the numbers this one woman who was really negative, she couldn’t believe what she saw. She said, you don’t even need an amnio with these results.Alisa: That’s great! I’m so glad.Diane: She said, a healthy 16 year old would have the same results as you! The genetic testing doesn’t factor in once you’ve done the protocol. And I’m hearing angels singing hallelujah! Now I’m this crazed woman telling everyone about it!Alisa: Me too! It’s just great, take one step at a time, I love that advice. It’s never a bad time to get started for your ovaries, your sex drive, your fertility, your moods, your soul’s passion, whatever you’re thinking about changing. It’s worth the experiment to see what it might do for you.Thank you for sharing your beautiful story! We want baby pictures! Wishing you good vibes for the birth and let’s stay connected.Good things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, have you been struggling with fertility issues? What have you tried?Second, have you followed the Flo Living protocol and regained your fertility? Let us know!Third, you know every one you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social by clicking the buttons below

Are You Trying to Conceive?

If you want to do everything in your power to improve your chances of becoming a mom—then we want to help you optimize your fertility.Whether you are just starting to think about having a baby, or have already tried naturally or have been trying with IVF, our Fertile FLO Program will help improve your chances of conception.Click here to download my FREE guide, The 5 Health Foods to Avoid to Get and Stay Pregnant.

Are you in a Kale and Broccoli rut? Do you keep meaning to try new greens but you don’t know where to start? Do you struggle with the symptoms of excess estrogen: acne, bloating, irritability, fatigue, insomnia, low libido, infertility, and period problems?

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If your answer is yes, it’s time to take the 4 week FLO Food challenge!

‍One of the great things about the WomanCode diet is that it truly simplifies your food shopping experience. By cutting down on waste and streamlining your weekly meal plan, eating in your Flo will also shrink your spending dramatically.

Most people expect any major lifestyle change to be both costly and time-consuming. Flo Living is the opposite, especially when it comes to my diet protocol. I created this for women just like me who are busy building businesses, families, and having fun.  

Give yourself time to get used to this new way of thinking, eating, and shopping. It won’t be second nature right away, but it won’t take long.

‍Click here to check out how other successful women organize their pantries and shopping lists.

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Here’s how it works:

Each phase of your hormone cycle (a phase is usually one week in length give or take, so it's perfect for scheduling your regular weekly grocery run) correlates to a new set of meats, grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, and seafood for your menu. I want you to start with just ONE change. And I want this one change to make a BIG difference in your health!  

So, the 4 week FLO Food challenge was born! It’s totally easy - pick a few veggies from the lists below based on where you are in your cycle and eat them that week. Change the veggies for each of the 4 weeks. That’s it!I created a handy reference for you to shop the produce aisle or farmer’s market so you get more GREENS in during the right times of your cycle! Most symptoms that occur from hormonal imbalance issues are the result of excess estrogen. These foods here support the metabolization of estrogen through your elimination organs and the removal of that unwanted excess from your body.  By incorporating these greens at these specific times, you enhance your body’s ability to metabolize estrogen and your symptoms will disappear.

‍The big question: Do I always have to eat with my cycle? Actually, no.(I bet you weren’t expecting that answer!)I just want to get you started eating in your FLO or Cycle-Syncing as I call it. I know how powerful it is, and even trying just the veggie piece of this will change your health for the better! So, take this guide with you to the supermarket or farmer’s market and as long as you make sure the majority of what you buy is in alignment with your cycle phase you’ll be feeling great in no time! You can add in foods from the other phases depending on what you want and what’s in season. All of these foods are healthy and hormonally supportive.

‍What if my Cycle is Off? The majority of women have a cycle that is too long or too short.  All the more reason to start cycle-syncing your diet to get back into proper FLO time!However, if you don’t know where to start because you are not sure where you are in your cycle right now for whatever reason, you have 2 options:Beginner - just start this week as your follicular week and continue on from there.Advanced - google the moon phases for this month and follow accordingly (the full moon indicates the ovulatory phase, new moon is menstrual, waning moon is luteal, waxing moon is follicular).

Your 4 Week FLO Food Challenge Shopping Guide

Follicular phase (before you ovulate, after your period) Artichoke, broccoli, carrot, parsley, green peas, string beans and zucchini

‍Ovulatory phase (when you’re ovulating) Asparagus, brussels sprouts, chard, escarole, scallion, spinach

‍Luteal phase (before you have your period) Cauliflower, collard greens, daikon, onion, parsnip, radish, squash, sweet potato

‍Menstrual phase (your period) Beet, kale, kelp, mushrooms

So, you’ve decided to stop taking the Pill? You’ve just made a huge step towards getting in your Flo and embracing all the benefits of hormonal health!

I’ve supported thousands of women in coming off the Pill successfully and I’m going to share with you the steps they take to make this a smooth transition.

‍

Coming off cold-turkey, as it were, can be tough. Your body suddenly has to manage and balance it’s own hormones plus any symptoms of hormonal imbalance the Pill was suppressing can, and usually will, come flooding back.

However, I’ve developed a tried-and-tested strategy.

‍Jen is one of those women I’ve helped. Here’s her story:“

After coming off the Pill, I was not getting my period and experiencing cystic acne.  I was put on the Pill by my gynecologist years before, when I was told I had PCOS and was not ovulating.  I knew that prescription didn't feel right, but I was young and had no other options at the time.It was within the first 2 months of following the Flo Living protocol that I actually got a period.  So, that certainly was a positive change! Other smaller changes started happening sooner.  It was great having the support while coming off. I had tried other times to do so before this experience and when it got difficult, I resorted back to the Pill. So, having that support and encouragement to continue was helpful immediately.Learning things like the benefits of honoring my body through it's changes were important keys to my personal balance.  I am coming up on my 3rd anniversary next month and I’m happy to report that I am getting my period regularly!”Why is the Pill harmful to your health? Let me give you a rundown here.

The best way to tackle this transition

First thing of course, is talk to your doctor!  Let him or her know that you want to come off the pill.  Then before you actually stop taking the pill, start following the Flo Living protocol. Cycle-synching your diet and exercise while you’re actually still taking the Pill can make this transition so much gentler on your endocrine system and save you a lot of the post-Pill side effects women report like acne, insomnia, mood swings and irregular cycles.

Your body can begin the process of detoxification and recalibration, readying for a Pill-free lifestyle. The Pill depletes your body of vital vitamins and minerals, eating in a hormonally-supportive way will help correct this.

While on the Pill, you don’t have a follicular phase and you don’t ovulate. Get in your Flo anyway by assuming your “period” (or withdrawal bleed when on those sugar pills) is your menstrual phase, the next week is your follicular, then ovulatory, then luteal and so on.

I hope you’ll see how much better you feel and be excited rather than nervous to take the next step when you will reap the opportunities your natural hormones can give!Once you’ve been in your Flo for a few months it’s time to trash those Pill packets:

Step one: Track your periodIf your periods return quickly and they become regular, great! If not, then it’s likely that there is an underlying health problem that I recommend you address naturally with food changes. Many women do find it takes months for their period to show up and then it is sporadic. Getting in your Flo before you stop the Pill and using my eating plan during the transition will help you avoid this.

Step two: Re-establish gut flora!The Pill has ravaged your internal microbial eco-system. The longer you’ve been taking it the worse the impact on your body. When you’re on the Pill eating good, clean, healthy foods is the best way to start the healing process. Continue nourishing your body in this way as you come off and you’ll heal quickly. Supplements alone won’t help enough as they’re not as easy to absorb when you’re suffering with the intestinal inflammation the Pill creates.  But there are two that really can help improve gut flora and reduce inflammation.The first is a good probiotic - I like Jarrow.The second is a combo of NAC and L-Glutamine. This will help to heal your intestines and so improve absorption of all the great nutrients you’ll be getting from eating in your Flo.

Step three: Make more of your own hormones!

1. Start taking a really good B vitamin complex right now. It’s the one vitamin that will make a difference in a large dose even when you’re still on the Pill. When you come off it will smooth out the inevitable mood changes that follow. You can also mix a lot more buckwheat, quinoa and oats into your daily meals.

2. Eat lots of good quality fats and amino acids - this is what hormones are made from and what your body needs to start making more of its own and fast. If you can and do eat animal protein have fish and organic poultry as well as pasture-fed eggs (including their yolks). Olive oil and avocados too!  You must eat fats in order to stabilize hormones.

Here’s a tip: there are more amino acids in bee pollen than steak!

3. A lot of women deal with estrogen dominance after the Pill. Leafy greens are the absolute best way to combat this problem. Tuck into kale, chard, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and more (and at every meal if you can!).

Don’t forget! Unless you’re trying to get pregnant, for contraception you’ll need to combine an intimate knowledge of your cycle with using one or two barrier methods (and maybe add in a natural spermicide) every time you have sex. I love L-condoms!!

I hear far too often from women that there are several days out of the month when cramps really sideline them from their lives. They are popping the Advil, Midol, or Aleve and they are on the couch until it passes.I myself struggled with cramps and of course I needed to know WHY this was happening. Not just little polite cramps. No, I had cramps that were actual labor-like contractions - that turned me green and sheet white, came in waves and knocked me out. You know me, I have to fix my hormonal imbalances, it’s my way of life I just can’t help myself - I have to understand what is going on EXACTLY with my body, so I can choose the best possible course of action to take care of myself. I, of course, want you to know the science too so you can be properly informed.Tweet: Once you take the mystery out about how your hormones work, then it’s a straight line to feeling optimal!So I learned about the 2 causes of cramps and of course then proceeded to figure out what to do to make the pain stop. I want to share this with you so you can have pain free cycles and so you can pass the goods on to your girlfriends who are likely cramped out in cramptown with you.You don’t have to put up with period pain. Not today and not next month. You can alleviate those cramps right now while at the same time laying the foundation for a future that is free from menstrual discomfort of any kind.As women, we’ve all developed our own quick fixes for those days when you just can’t get off the couch.For many of us, we were prescribed the Pill or another kind of hormonal birth control way back when we were teens. For some this medication has put a stop to the pain, for others it has not. But again, for many of us, the side effects mean we’d rather not have to rely on this common daily medication to manage our monthly woes.The good news is that there are natural alternatives and they work!Here’s what you can do to alleviate your current cramps and what will, over the course of three months, change your period for the better.

Why do you have cramps?

There are 2 causes for cramps - one is chemical and one is functional.A chemical series called Prostaglandins stimulate the uterine muscles to contract. There are 3 types - PgE1,2, and 3. PgE2 is the one that causes uterine contractions and pain. Leave it to the genius design of your body to have only one that does that and two that counteract it - yup - PgE1 and 3 are antispasmodic - natural pain killers!Tweet: Your body makes twice as much natural cramp relief than cramps!The more PgE2 you make, the more crampy you feel. To boot, they also play a part in the vomiting, diarrhea, and headaches that come with your cycle.On the functional side - pain can be caused by any of the following conditions: endometriosis, fibroids, infections, IUD, ovarian cysts, narrow cervix, or a retroverted (tipped) uterus. That tipped uterus, turned out to be what I had along with elevated PgE2 levels!Below are my best strategies for you to leave cramptown for good and become a permanent resident of FLO ;)

Short-term solutions

• If you’re reaching for the painkillers, know that long term these can worsen the problem by putting strain on your liver and exacerbating hormonal imbalances. If you must, take ibuprofen at the lowest dose and try to take it ahead of when you normally get cramps. So if you normally get pain the first day of your period try to plan to take the dose first thing in the morning. Preventative use of ibuprofen will also stop you needing more and higher doses later on.
• Consider switching from tampons to pads. The insertion of the tampon can makepain worse for those who are sensitive to cramping. You can always swap back when the pain has subsided for that month. And absolutely make sure they are organic - just say no to pesticides and bleach in your vag!
• Clary sage essential oil rubbed into the skin above the pubic bone and below the belly button, where your uterus is situated, has been shown in several studies to relieve cramps and even childbirth contractions. You can also diffuse this oil to aid with anxiety and stress or add a few drops to an Epsom salt bath.
• An old-fashioned hot water bottle on your abdomen will work wonders. You can even wrap it with an oversized scarf around your waist if you can’t sit still or lay down for long.
• Apply counter-pressure to the sciatic nerves in your lower back with your thumbs pushing inward toward the spine and down toward your feet will help take the intensity of cramps down. You can also apply the hot water bottle to your lower back as well. Trust me this works - I used this technique to get me through 20 hours of natural labor - it’ll totally help your cramps.
• Instead of Advil - pop some almonds! A few days before your period take a high dose of vitamin E and magnesium and continue this protocol two days into your menstruation. Almonds and hazelnuts are good sources of vitamin E, along with leafy greens like collard greens for the magnesium.
• Click here to try some yoga poses that alleviate pressure and calm the nervous system.

Long term solutions

• Boost Omega 3 Fatty Acids -To really clear up cramps for good, you’ve got to lower your PgE2 levels and boost your PgE1 and 3 levels. This of course is connected to what you eat and drink throughout your cycle as well as your general, overall health. The facts show that dairy and saturated animal fats up that gnarly PgE2 series. So start by cutting those out. To increase the PgE1 and 3 series, you have to get your linoleic acid up, so load up on salmon, sardines, flax, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds.
• Do less running around the day before your period starts - Stress hormones can make menstrual cramps worse. If you can start loosely planning your schedule to accommodate your period, you’ll alleviate some of the stress about what you can’t do when it come around. This doesn’t mean you must be confined to bed for three days every month, only that you may benefit from easing off on unnecessary activities and appointments. Try being super selective with your period day plans for three months and see if you feel better for taking some time out.
• Massage your uterus! - To address the tipped uterus – Learn the practice of Mayan Abdominal Massage! I loved doing this form of self massage to restore the uterus to it’s right position and even if your uterus is not retroverted, this massage can be helpful for many health issues associated with the reproductive organs since we all tend to lead very sedentary lives which cause general stagnation in this area – just like knots in your back hurt because they lack proper blood flow, your pelvic region suffers with poor circulation as well. You can look for a class in your local area or teach yourself self-massage via the Arvigo book series.

Now, we want to hear from you!

Share with us on Facebook and Twitter (or Pinterest and Instagram!) the ways in which you deal with menstrual cramps at home (#curecramps) – we’d love to hear about them.

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!

If you’re dealing with period problems like PMS, PCOS, fibroids, cysts, heavy bleeding, infertility, low sex drive, and more, you’re actually more susceptible to weight issues.While this can sounds like a bummer, there’s also a big opportunity here for changing the game for yourself!When you understand these 2 key aspects behind why your hormonal imbalances are contributing to your weight issues, you’ll shift your mindset and learn how to shift the pattern!

#1 - The Scientific Reason:

At the root of all period problems, there’s an imbalance with estrogen. Most often, estrogen dominance is in play, meaning that your estrogen levels are way too high in comparison to progesterone. In addition to causing the period problems, high estrogen levels are connected to water retention and weight gain.Bottom line: You need to get your estrogen levels balanced in order to really be able to lose weight.

#2 - The Practical Reason:

Aside from all the hormonal implications occurring behind the scenes, let’s be honest -When your hormones are out of whack and your period is suffering, you are practically not able to implement any kind of weight-loss routine. You might start out with noble efforts in the beginning of your cycle, but once that second half of your cycle starts - the luteal, pre-menstrual phase - you are doomed to failure!If your period is symptomatic, you’re going to crave sweets and salty stuff and all the things you don’t want to be eating for weight loss. You’ll also be way too tired to work out, so any exercise efforts will fail.Bottom line: consistency is a big challenge when your hormones are not balanced. Address your period problems first, and the weight loss will come easily.

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!

Launching into a vigorous exercise routine in January might seem like a good idea. The fresh start of the new year and the pricing specials that many gyms and programs offer make it really enticing to whip your booty back into shape.But if you jump into it that way, you’re not taking into account your hormonal reality!The stress and excess sugar intake you will experience over the holidays are both putting your adrenal glands in a compromised position. This will thwart your weight-loss efforts and do more damage to your adrenals and entire endocrine system.I see this all the time at FLO Living, women decide to train for a marathon or triathalon, or to start doing long 90min workouts at the gym or at home. Their intention is to get in shape and lose weight, but because they don’t understand how to work with their hormones, they end up gaining up to 20 lbs!

What gives? Why do your adrenal glands matter?

When you exercise, after you burn through the glucose in your bloodstream - which takes about 30 minutes - you then start tapping into your adrenal reserve. You force the adrenals to pump out cortisol to get your fat cells to convert into sugar for the blood stream.This seems like a good thing, you want the fat to melt right?The problem is, when you have estrogen overload due to unresolved period and fertility issues, the estrogen tells you to store any circulating sugar as fat. So you have this vicious cycle of trying to burn stored fat with cortisol and then estrogen putting it right back on your butt! And this is assuming your adrenals are performing optimally!As if that weren’t bad enough, there is an additional layer of complexity here: your stress levels and diet and how those affect your adrenal health. When we have too much going on (um, hello holidaze!) and when we eat too much sugar and alcohol (again, holiday madness) we are left perfectly vulnerable for our adrenals to start underperforming.So you produce less cortisol throughout the day and during your workouts you can produce none at all! You know you have this adrenal fatigue going on if you find yourself dragging yourself out of bed in the morning and totally drained after your workout and needing a while to recover your energy.In this scenario, you hormones are programming you to be an excellent storer of fat. And any time you workout too hard, too long, you reinforce that messaging.

Where exercise comes in

If you’re feeling drained after the holidays, the antidote is not to pump up the jams and do a zillion jumping jacks - that will actually wear out your adrenal glands even more!In fact, exercising for more than 30 minutes at a time puts undue stress on your adrenal glands by causing cortisol to rise at first, mixing with your estrogen keeping fat on. And if you start this regime already in a state of adrenal fatigue, you’ll gain weight faster than you did from Halloween to New Years!In addition, during the 2nd half of your cycle this all gets worse if you have any of the conditions we treat! At this point - your luteal phase - estrogen is out of balance with progesterone, making you more fatigued and putting further strain on your adrenals.Trust me, having been 200lbs myself, and having tried for years to lose weight before I cracked my WomanCode, I know how frustrating this can be. And of course this is typically when we give up on our new year’s resolutions.

What’s the solution?

Instead of setting yourself up for failure, ease back into a balanced exercise routine!Try 20-minute sessions of cardio or weight training, and longer sessions of more gentle movement like hatha yoga or walking. Definitely do the right exercise for the phase of the cycle you’re in!Tracking your body throughout the month is also really helpful. You’ll get to know how YOUR body functions at different points in your cycle which can help you choose the right kind of exercise for your hormonal phase.

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’ve probably seen natural supplements like Sam-E and St. John’s Wort that claim to treat depression. Maybe you’ve even tried them yourself.While there can be some benefits if they are taken the right way, here’s what you need to know:You can’t spot-treat your mood.Even when the treatments are “natural,” just taking one supplement and expecting a change is a lot to ask your body. There are complex and connected systems involved with your mood and hormones that require a more holistic and well-rounded approach to be fully effective.I’m going to be bold and say that if you don’t have a clinically diagnosed mental illness, the issue is not in your brain, it’s in your endocrine system. (And if you’re uncertain about whether or not you do, be sure to read this.) What it boils down to are:

3 specific underlying causes to your depression and mood issues

1. Micronutrient Deficiency: Your mood is determined by your gut. 90% of the serotonin your body makes is actually produced in your gut! From Vitamin D, to Vitamin B to Iron to Essential Fatty Acids...if you’re not eating for maximum exposure to these nutrients, you can’t make enough mood-stabilizing neurotransmitters. Also if your gut flora is out of balance, you aren’t absorbing nutrients, which causes inflammation, which increases your risk for dementia and mood issues.

2. Hormonal Imbalance: In the right balance, estrogen makes you feel good and social, while progesterone makes you feel motivated to get things done. When these are imbalanced, however, it can lead to feeling foggy, lethargic, anxious, moody, or tearful. If you’re having PMS and experiencing these symptoms, the likelihood that you’re having a significant mood issue is high. You don’t need Prozac for this - you need to get your period sorted out!3. Not Living Cyclically: If you’re constantly out of sync with your natural flow, you’re going to be more stressed and anxious. You have to learn how to play to your neurochemical strength to minimize the stress that can lead to mood issues.The Cycle Syncing Method® is the only diet and fitness program based on the women's hormonal cycles, or our infradian rhythm. We're not the same throughout the 4 phases of our menstrual cycle - there are changes in our metabolism, brain, stress and other systems. We have different calorie, fitness and nutrient needs depending on which phase we are in. The Cycle Syncing Method® guides you to eat, work, and live in alignment with your infradian rhythm across the different hormonal phases of your cycle. It changes the game when it comes to productivity, success, and making most of life in a female body. Just recently, an article in Vogue said every woman should know about this method!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

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!

If You're Also struggling with Anxiety, Check out My Recent Live Video:

How to Fix Hormone Driven Anxiety

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45OeHH-1bgM&t=3s[/embed]

Many women dismiss their periods as annoying and disruptive. They just want them to go away, no matter their age. But your period is an important indicator of your overall health. The menstrual cycle is considered a vital sign, just like your blood pressure and your pulse, and to ignore it or wish it gone is to do your whole body a disservice.

Whether you’re in your 20s, 30s, 40s, or 50s, the real issue isn’t having a period. The issue is having period problems and, despite what you’ve been told, period problems aren’t normal. When your hormones are balanced, your periods will be symptom-free. When you’re living in sync with your cycle, you won’t dread your period every month because you won’t experience acne, bloating, fatigue, irritability, PMS, heavy or irregular periods, or severe cramps.

Instead, you will feel great AND you will be able to tap into the unique strengths of each phase of your 28-day cycle. A healthy hormone cycle means that some weeks you’re predisposed to being creative and generative, some weeks you’re set up to be focused and productive, some weeks you’re primed to be a tip-top communicator. When you tap into this rhythm, not only will you not want your period to disappear… you will welcome it as a superpower.

But how to keep your hormones healthy changes as you move through different phases of your life. What worked for you at age 23 may not work as well at age 33 or 43.

Today, I’m going to explain how to optimize your hormonal health during each decade of your menstrual years so you can feel, look, and perform your best at every age.

The 7 Different Life Phases of Female Reproductive Hormones

Here are the seven different hormone phases women move through during adulthood. You will know where you are by your age or your life experiences (or both), but I also recommend taking my Period Type quiz to assess your hormone health and cycle status. I recommend re-taking the quiz time every time you enter a new phase. This will help you get in touch with what your cycle is telling and how to best take care of yourself during each new phase of your life.

‍1. Puberty (9-21 years old)

‍This is a time where you might notice irregularity with the menstrual cycle. It takes time for the body to build up enough of a hormonal concentration for you to ovulate and menstruate regularly. This is worth reiterating: some irregularities with your menstrual cycle during this time are normal. As a culture, however, we’re quick to assume that these normal fluctuations need to be regulated with medication, i.e. the birth control pill. This means that so many young women are—needlessly and often harmfully—put on the hormonal birth control.

The better route to managing the normal ups and downs of this hormonal phase is to support adolescent girls and young women with food and lifestyle choices. You can work with your daughter or niece (or your own body) during this phase by limiting exposure to endocrine disruptors (everything from chemical-based shampoo to pesticides in her food) and making sure food is working in her (or your) favor.

The birth control pill only masks reproductive health issues and delays proper treatment and care. A great book to help start a teen on this journey is Cycle Savvy by Toni Weschler (who wrote the comprehensive cycle knowledge bible Taking Charge of Your Fertility).

‍2. Adult Menstrual Years (21 – 35 years old)

‍This phase of life brings with a lot of stressors—some of the bad, but many of them good, don’t get me wrong! There’s moving to a new place, going to graduate school and/or finding your first job, having caffeine and alcohol for the first time, and more. Whether the life change you’re experiencing during this phase is exciting or just straight-up stressful, it will affect your hormones. This is when you are likely to notice new period problems or a continuation of the symptoms you experienced in puberty.

Addressing hormonal imbalances in this phase requires the same attention to diet and toxin exposure as the puberty phase. But you will likely need even more focused support during this phase, when regular caffeine consumption may be depleting key micronutrients and a sedentary lifestyle (thanks to the demands of internships or entry-level jobs) may be making hormone problems worse.

During this phase, you will want to pay attention to replenishing key micronutrients and syncing your exercise with your cycle.

‍3. Pregnancy (age varies)

‍The degree to which you're hormonally sensitive in this phase indicates the degree to which you did or didn’t address your hormonal symptoms in the adult menstrual phase. You should and can feel great during pregnancy, but it usually needs some preparation. I suggest women prep their bodies with diet and lifestyle changes at least 3 months prior to trying to conceive, but preferably a year prior. If you’re a hormonally-sensitive person like me, then it’s even more important to prep for pregnancy as the surge of pregnancy hormones is more likely to lead to health issues.

‍4. Post-Partum  (age varies)

‍What you’ve been eating for the decade leading up to having your baby will leave you vulnerable to developing postpartum issues. This is something you want to prevent, but if it’s happening there’s still a lot you can do by engaging in phase-based self care. I’ve shared my postpartum food choices after giving birth to my baby girl—a daily diet that helped me to breastfeed for the next two years, lose the extra baby weight quickly, avoid the mood swings that can arise from my hormone sensitivity, and get my period back at the right time.

‍5. Perimenopause Phase One (35-45 years old)

‍This hormonal shift starts at 35 no matter what! You shouldn’t have to feel symptoms during this phase if you’re healthy. You should be ovulating and menstruating regularly and have good muscle tone, skin quality, energy, and sex drive, i.e. still making enough hormones to feel vital and youthful.

It’s key to really pay attention to what your body is telling you in this phase so you can adjust your diet and lifestyle accordingly. It’s very likely that because your hormones are changing, your body will be giving you insight into the underlying problems that need addressing. If you’re not healthy, your body will let you know. Difficulty with fertility, vaginal dryness, wrinkles in skin, and drying of hair are not to be solved at a spa or a salon. These are messages that your hormones need attention—especially before you get into the next phase of perimenopause. You can avoid the effects of premature hormonal aging with the right foods and supplements.

‍6. Perimenopause Phase Two (45- 55 years old)

‍This should be a relatively smooth process where FSH levels rise to the point where you no longer ovulate. But for women who have hormone imbalances in phase one of perimenopause, stage two can be unnecessarily rocky—with symptoms and problems starting as early as one’s early 30s!

When hormones are in balance during this stage, the body will manufacture slightly less, though still a balanced amount, of estrogen and progesterone and testosterone. If you’re having hot flashes, night sweats, no libido, etc., you can adjust your diet and lifestyle to ease symptoms and feel better.

Perimenopause is an amazing opportunity to check in with your body, make sure you are doing everything you can to keep your hormones happy and healthy, and to set yourself up for healthy aging.

‍7. Post-menopause (55 +)

‍In this phase, FSH levels are now at their new, permanent elevated levels (between 20 and 30) and your estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone should be at stable concentrations, which will be lower than they were in your menstruating years, but still in balanced ratios. If you’ve been eating and taking care of yourself during the previous hormone phases, you should have enough micronutrient building blocks to make this phase symptom-free. Continuing to focus on diet and lifestyle in this phase is key. It’s also a good time to support your digestion and ability to absorb nutrients, which can be compromised with age.

When you care for your hormones with diet, lifestyle, and micronutrient support at every stage of life, you will feel better now—and all down the road.

Today I have news that might be shocking to you: it’s time to turn off the vibrator.

Using vibrators to self-pleasure might seem like the easiest, quickest way to reach the big O, but there are a few very important reasons why it’s not doing your entire body justice.

To help explain why, it’s important to know the 4 stages of sexual response, as originally outlined by scientists Masters & Johnson in the 1960s. You might also recognize them from Chapter 8 of my book, WomanCode: Initial Arousal: 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: a continuation of arousal, when tissues swell and breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure continue to rise. You may even make a moaning sound at this point.

‍Orgasm: vaginal lubrication increases, muscles in the 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’re skipping a large part of the Plateau stage and moving right into climax. This means you’re also missing out on some of the most hormonally-healthy, natural chemicals your body produces during this Plateau phase! For instance, one of these chemicals, nitric oxide, is what Viagra is manufactured from. The more you can generate it naturally, the more you’ll experience its anti-aging benefits, increased sexual response, as well as adrenal health which you’ll read more about below.

Especially if you’re working on your fertility, trying to get your sex drive back, or managing your periods, having a bigger Orgasmic Plateau phase is the way to help.

‍

Here are 3 ways vibrators impact you:

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.

‍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. Bummer.

‍3. You deprive your body of the stress-reducing benefits. The bigger and better the orgasm you experience, the more cortisol gets flushed out of your system. Cortisol, if you don’t remember, is one of our body’s main stress hormones that contributes to adrenal burnout, blood sugar whackiness and that extra layer of belly fat that doesn’t seem to go away.

When you skip the orgasmic plateau, you lose out on the stress-relieving, waist-slimming benefits of sex!

“So what do I do without my vibrator, Alisa?” So glad you asked!

First of all, be sure you’re setting aside at least 20 minutes for your self-pleasuring sessions. This might seem like a lot, so make sure you’re getting into bed a little bit earlier or doing what you need to do to make it possible.

Next, be sure to use lubricant - Aloe Cadabra is the only one I use and recommend. When you’re using your hands to get the party started, you’ll need to be lubricated. I think you’ll be amazed at what happens to your orgasmic experience when you go au natural.

So you have PCOS and you want to get pregnant? You may have already googled the saddening statistics about infertility rates amongst women with PCOS. I myself was told that I would probably never conceive naturally, but here I am 5 months pregnant at 37 years old -- and it happened without any kind of fertility treatment, other than my diet and lifestyle! Now even though I got pregnant easily, I’d be lying if I said that the fear-based mentality around infertility didn’t cross my mind from time to time prior to conceiving. With all the common rhetoric that tells you how hard it is to get pregnant with PCOS, it’s hard to completely shake it off, even when you know what you’re doing. But being able to conceive at an age that is challenging for many women - with or without PCOS - is confirmation that living this lifestyle really does make a life-changing, life-giving difference. It was the best outcome I could’ve asked for from a terrible diagnosis. So what does this mean for you? If you’re trying to conceive and are having doubts or difficulties because of your PCOS, there’s actually a lot you can do and it would be my honor to help you get there. The surprising fact you should know is that PCOS gives you the blessing of naturally prolonged fertility. Why? Because you’re not ovulating regularly, you end up having more egg reserves for a longer period of time. What a relief - right? But this doesn’t solve all your problems. You still need to manage and address the underlying causes of your PCOS so that you can use that time wisely! This means you need to :

1. Get off the birth control pill or other hormonal contraceptives
2. Get your weight stable and get your blood sugar balanced
3. Restore regular ovulation
4. Do the right kind of exercise for your body type
5. Help your body efficiently eliminate estrogen and naturally raise progesterone levels

And I share all my best tools for exactly how to do this in my popular audio class, Conquering PCOS: My Secrets to Success! Stop wasting money on things that don’t work and join me in making PCOS a thing of the past :)

Are You Trying to Conceive?

If you want to do everything in your power to improve your chances of becoming a mom—then we want to help you optimize your fertility.Whether you are just starting to think about having a baby, or have already tried naturally or have been trying with IVF, our Fertile FLO Program will help improve your chances of conception.Click here to download my FREE guide, The 5 Health Foods to Avoid to Get and Stay Pregnant.

It’s time to take our next step into the spring detox conversation, so I figured we’d start from the outside and work our way in.

Where is the outside, you ask? Your skin!

Your skin is a way in to the deeper workings of your hormonal system and internal organs of elimination, i.e. your liver, large intestine, and lymphatic system.

If any of those are out of balance, it’s bound to show up in the form of acne, cyclical breakouts, redness, dry or flaky skin, overly oily skin, cystic acne, or other frustrating symptoms.

Your diet is a huge factor in clearing up these issues – and we’ll get into a more in-depth discussion around diet in next week’s webinar!

So in the meantime, I wanted to help you detox your skin care regime so that we can be sure everything you’re putting on the outside is just as good as what you’re eating. After all, anything that touches your skin enters your bloodstream, so if you wouldn’t put it in your mouth you certainly shouldn’t be putting it on your body or face!

Here’s my list of the Top 15 Skin Care Ingredients to Avoid:

1. Aluminum Chloride: in all antiperspirants – aluminum build up in the brain is linked to Alzheimer’s

2. Ammonium Xylenesulfonate: in nail polish - inhalation can cause central nervous system damage and coma

3. Benzalkonium Chloride: a germicide – toxic if taken internally, skin allergies

4. BHA/BHT: a preservative for packaged dry foods and skin care products made from petrochemicals – causes benign and malignant tumors

5. Butyl Alcohol: in clear shampoos – causes dermatitis, breathing problems, dizziness, drowsiness and headaches

6. Diazolidinyl Urea/Disodium EDTA/DMDM Hydantoin: a preservative, made from formaldehyde a known carcinogen

7. Ethanol: in acne products and skin toners gives cool feeling, perfumes – ingestion can cause nausea, stupor, coma, and death

8. Ethylene Glycol: in many shampoos, aka antifreeze- can cause respiratory problems

9. Imidazolidinyl Urea/Urea: a preservative synthesized from known carcinogens

10. Lithium Chloride: used in soap and long life batteries – very toxic to kidneys

11. Methylene Chloride: nail polish remover – skin irritant, narcotic when inhaled and carcinogenic

12. PABA: in sunscreen – causes allergic eczema, skin rashes, swelling

13. Phenoxyethanol: a preservative derived from poisonous Phenols

14. Poly Quaternium 7, 10, 11, 15 : the American Academy of Dermatology lists this as a skin irritant and combines with natural body substances to form potent carcinogens called nitrosamines

15. Talc: implicated in causing ovarian cancer

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

I want to hear from you!

First: What toxic products and ingredients are you trashing today?Second: Share your #Flobeauty experience with us!Third: You know every one you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social by clicking the buttons below

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 might have heard us talk before about the underlying causes of hormonal problems and how it’s so crucial to address your symptoms from the root of the issue, rather than putting a band-aid solution on top of them.

When you mask your symptoms with a band-aid to create a temporary quick fix, you’re just suppressing the issues, which are bound to pop up with a vengeance at a later date.

In today’s blog post, we discuss the most powerful underlying cause, estrogen overload, and how you can properly detox the excess estrogen from your system to create lasting health.

Estrogen can be a wonderful hormone, but in excess it causes everything from PMS and fibroid growth, to infertility and low libido.

When you want to clear out excess estrogen, a detox sounds like a good idea – right?

Yes, but not all detoxes (also known as cleanses) are created equal. Most detox programs actually strip the body of the micronutrients needed to break down and eliminate estrogen. So while just drinking juice for 10 days might sound like a good idea theoretically, it can actually be quite harmful for the female system – especially if you’re already prone to hormonal sensitivities.

The real goal in doing a detox or cleanse should be to support the liver in its ability to breakdown estrogen, as well as other hormones and toxins. It should move the hormones and toxins through the bloodstream and into the digestive tract in an efficient way so that the body can clear them quickly.

In order to do this properly, certain micronutrients must be present for the liver. These include vitamin C, the B vitamins, and selenium.

How do you ensure you’re getting what you need?

By 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!

If you’re a new mom and dealing with unstable moods or a lacking libido, you’re not alone.Unfortunately, the more I hear from hot mamas around the world, the more I hear the same complaints and concerns. Women tell me:

• “I have no energy, no sex drive, and I can’t lose weight!”
• “I’m trying to fake it, but inside I feel MISERABLE! Not in the mood for much of anything…”
• “My baby is 8 months old and I still have no sex drive. Is it the breastfeeding? What can I do?”

Ladies, I hear you! As a mom of a 2 year-old toddler, I have now experienced the postpartum shift for myself and felt, firsthand, how your hormones evolve and change with this huge transformation. After years of helping other women overcome the sex drive downturn, mood swings, and more that can come after motherhood begins, I got the chance to put my teaching into practice for myself and I can say, it truly works!

If you’re ready to change this reality, keep reading because I have great news: the way to get your sex drive back is through sugar – but not in the way you might think! Right now I know you might be turning to sugar (the white stuff) to boost your energy, stay awake, feel up and peppy, and even just for comfort. But I’m no fan of the white stuff and how it wreaks havoc on your hormones and health.

What I actually mean by “sugar” here is that you can improve your sex drive by 50-75% within 2 months by making sure your blood sugar is stable throughout the day and taking the following recommendations. More is outlined in my book WomanCode on stabilizing blood sugar every day and long-term, but I hope this post gives you the head-start you need.

Motherhood & Food

Before I talk about supercharging your sex drive and balancing your moods, let’s talk about why this is all happening in the first place, why exactly you have these concerns and complaints about how you feel as a new mom.

When you’re pregnant, your body is mostly concerned with supplying essential nutrients to your growing baby. If your diet is not adequate during that time, it’s likely that it won’t keep you fully stocked on all the essential nutrients that you need beyond what your baby needs.

As you breastfeed once baby is born, nutrients continue leaving your body if your diet is not restocking them quickly enough. They’re all going to baby, which isn’t leaving enough for you to feel good.

Therefore I would strongly advise you to work on your diet first and foremost. Not only will it keep your cycle regular, but it will protect your bones, your mood, your sex drive, and keep perimenopause progressing slowly. Basically, focusing on eating the right foods and enough of them is going to fix your symptoms short term and benefit your long term health goals.

Synthetic hormones, like the birth control pill or Depo shot, or any of those other hormonal contraceptives women are often offered postpartum to prevent pregnancy and mask symptoms of hormonal imbalance, will not reset you or heal the underlying cause of your issues here, but science shows that food will!

First and foremost, you’ve got to get your blood sugar stabilized throughout the day. Grazing on snacks here and there just will not do. Prioritizing meals for yourself with the right balance of protein and carbohydrates is essential. That means 3 meals per day plus snacks.

This is what I was eating postpartum. It may sound like a lot, but it revved my metabolism, allowing me to lose all my baby weight (60 lbs. of it) within 6 months. Within just 3 months, I’d already lost 40 lbs. So you don’t need to deprive yourself after baby is born, and in fact, if you do - you’ll only suffer with the physical and mental side effects of your body’s deprivation of nutrients.

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Breakfast – Steel cut oats with black sesame seeds, coconut oil, flax, cinnamon, goji berries

Snack – 2 eggs scrambled in coconut oil with turmeric

Lunch – Salmon and quinoa with lentils and fermented sauerkraut

Snack – Avocado on black rice bread

Dinner – Bison/lamb/beef burger with green beans and sweet potato baked ‘fries’

Snack – 2 Dates or dried figs with 3 Squares Dark Chocolate with Mother’s Milk Tea

Snack – Macaroon or gluten-free lactation cookie

Snack – Bone Broth with black rice bread and chicken liver pate

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In addition to changing how and what you eat, I would encourage you to do the following:

• After you eat anything, walk around the block once or up and down a flight of stairs for 5 minutes after a meal. This will turn OFF the fat storage program in your body and cause you to start using calories for fuel. Lowering body fat will absolutely help reduce estrogen dominance issues that are contributing to your low libido. We all know babies like a bounce in the stroller so it’s a good excuse to get out of the house too!

You likely won’t get your period for some time after you give birth - especially if you’re breastfeeding. However, if you’re worried about where your period has gone, eating these Flo-centric foods, will bring it back when it’s the right time.

Motherhood & Moods

Here’s another reason why nutrient-dense food is essential postpartum: You need to give your brain the building blocks for mood-stabilizing neurotransmitters.

• Protein, complex carbohydrates and good fats are essential during this time.
• Calcium and magnesium, B vitamins, and Omega 3’s are safe supplements to take while breastfeeding.

Although clinical postpartum depression can be a real problem for some women that requires treatment by a doctor, there are mood changes across a spectrum that impact yet more women - including mild and subclinical postpartum depression and anxiety.

Focusing on food and getting the necessary micronutrients in your body will help prevent many of the most common mood changes that occur postpartum for the majority of women. Of course, other factors can be compounding - poor sleep, lack of childcare support, work demands etc - but you will be better prepared to face these challenges if you have a strong food foundation.

I highly recommend the book “The First Forty Days”  as an excellent resource on postpartum nourishment to enhance your health, physical and mental, as well as that of your baby. I like to call this approach an “active recovery” – instead of assuming and hoping your body will spring back or assuming and hoping that once you’re physically healed that the work is done, know that you have to be active in your post-birth recovery every single day. Don’t see it as an additional responsibility, see it as something you’re doing to take care of yourself and, as such, excel at taking care of your child.

Motherhood & Sex Drive

Sex drive is complex in women, but it can be broken down into elements that you can improve and boost to get the libido you want! First is the hormonal component: the estrogen/progesterone/testosterone blend. Then there’s the adrenal component. Both of these elements can be improved with food and some strategic supplements.To get you started, take these recommendations:

• Begin taking daily a B-complex vitamin and vitamin C – both help heal the adrenals.
• Try to eat poached eggs a few times a week – the yolk helps boost progesterone levels naturally and this can offset higher levels of estrogen that might make you feel less in the mood.

The other issue of course is the reality of motherhood, the strain on your time, the free space in your mind, and your own relationship with your changed body.

• I would definitely recommend one session per week of self pleasuring (no vibrators!) – give yourself 20 minutes to feel pleasurable touch as it boosts oxytocin and nitric oxide levels both which can help you recover your libido. Try my 5Cs of self-pleasure to get yourself there.

Remember to feed yourself super nutrient dense foods and spend a little time with yourself and you WILL get your sex drive turned back on in no time.

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‍Here’s a little mama blessing for you and for your new baby: ‍

All is Well. Everything is conspiring for your highest good. Only good things are coming to you now. You are safe. You are loved.

‍

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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

Do you wish your “monthly curse” would just go away for good?

Does it cause you pain and interfere with your life?

Are you ready for a solution how to stop your period?

Well I’m glad you’re here. The answer I share might not be the answer you expect, so brace yourself ;)

How I stopped my period

Years ago, when I was in thick of my hormonal health condition PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), my period stopped on it’s own.There’s something about not having a period that makes you feel less like a woman and a little bit alienated from your female friends. Girls in school would complain about their monthly visitors and I would either pretend to have mine or make no comment.

Yes, it was freeing in some ways – not having to worry about having it at the beach or not having to deal with buying pads and tampons – but I would trade all of that just to feel like I was part of the clan.

Fast forward to now, thanks to FLO Living, I’m menstruating regularly and have discovered that having a period gives me much more than I had even hoped for. Not only do I feel like a woman, but I’m more connected to my intuition and my creativity than ever before. I’m dancing and writing again after years of feeling blocked.

Being in line with my own cyclical rhythm and knowing I’m deeply connected to the greater cycles in the world around me makes me much happier and freer.

That’s what I want for you.

If you’re reading this, chances are you either hate your period because of how painful and annoying it is, or you’re similar to how I was and aren’t getting it regularly.

If you want to stop your period, here’s what you need to know:

There actually are medical ways to stop your period. You can take birth control continuously so that you skip the bleeding week, or get the Depo Provera shot, which simulates menopause in your body. Neither option comes without risks.

When you take external hormones like the ones listed above, you may feel temporary relief but may be contributing to longer term issues. Weight gain, depression, and migraines are a few of the regularly occurring side-effects of these drugs.

Interrupting your natural hormonal cycle is confusing to your delicate endocrine system and when the time comes that you must come off of the medication, your body will be left even more confused than it was. (Not to mention, you might be 20 lbs heavier and dealing with a load of new symptoms.)

Rather than jumping into hormonal medications, I’d like to suggest taking a more natural approach that will balance your hormonal patterns and eliminate the annoying period symptoms you’re experiencing.

Start with food.

What you eat changes your biochemistry.

I didn’t realize this until I physically experienced it. When I first came to FLO Living, I thought I was pretty healthy but then started making changes with Alisa’s recommendations and experienced dramatic shifts in my moods and physical symptoms.

I’ve worked with enough clients to know this has universal effectiveness. I’ve watched women eliminate cramps and pain, get pregnant naturally, and learn to actually love their periods. No joke.

The same is possible for you.

Address your mindset.

In addition to food, it’s important to look at your relationship to your womanhood. Yes, this might sound a little “woo-woo” but I can assure you it’s relevant.

If you inherited beliefs from your mother or other ladies that said anything like this:

“It sucks being a woman.”

“Women always get the short end of the stick.”

“It’s not safe to be a woman.”

…then chances are you’ve adopted some unconscious beliefs that make you not want to be a woman, and therefore want to stop your period.

Sometimes the negative woman beliefs are subtle, so if you’re unsure if you have any, I suggest doing some writing on this topic and see what comes up for you.

If you’re constantly pushing to get ahead and exhausting your body in the process, your body will rebel in the form of menstrual cramps. Or painful periods. Or moodswings. Or other annoying symptoms.

It’s totally possible to get out of this mindset, and when you do you’ll see drastic changes with your periods. Start by having conversations about this with your friends, and surround yourself with women who are supportive, like the ones on our online community here.

What you can do now:

At FLO, we are here for you. If you want to stop hating your period and learn to use it as a tool for your happiness and success, join us.

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Here’s the scenario:

Girl meets boy.

Girl is already on the pill and stays on it.

Girl and boy continue dating and get serious.

Girl and boy get married.

Girl gets off pill when they want to start a family.

Girl has a quarter life crisis as she starts to find conflict in her relationship now that she is off the pill.

What happened?

Of course this is an extreme example, and we’re not suggesting that it’s the only option that could happen, but the point is that your hormones do play a factor in your relationships.

If you remember from earlier studies we shared, when given a sampling of sweaty mens t-shirts to choose from, it was proven that women on the pill were drawn to partners whose pheromones do not genetically compliment their own. On the other hand, women who were not on the pill chose partners with genetic compatibility. This suggests that being on the pill can have an effect on the kind of partner you are attracted to, and would explain why the Girl above ended up in her quarter life crisis.

Among other side effects of the pill could be low libido or depression, which can obviously have an effect on your relationships, too.

If you’re on the pill and sensing that something is off in the love department - perhaps you’re not quite feelin’ the one you’re in, or having trouble finding the right partner - it could be a great time to experiment with getting off the pill. Rather than quit cold turkey, taking part in the WomanCode System will prep your body for the transition off and help your hormones adjust to their natural cycle.As we gear up for the month of February, here at FLO we want to do everything possible to ensure it’s as love-filled as possible. And we know that happy hormones = a happy love life.Click here for more guidance on love, relationships, and hormones in my webinar, where I address:

• How to improve your bad moods and lagging sex drive so you feel happy, sexy, and receptive to love all month long
• The ideal time of day for you to have the most mind blowing orgasm with your partner
• What to feed your man so his moods and libido are ideal for you

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,AlisaNeed 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!

I believe your body is magic. I do.

You are continuously cycling through the neurohormonal phases that facilitate birth, growth and renewal. All you have to do is channel this kinetic energy into whatever area of your life you want to create change in, and allow the magic to happen.You can create new things in your life because of your body.This past year has been full of change and I have my body to thank for making it all possible: launching my book WomanCode 10 weeks early, my menstrual history-making appearance on Dr. Oz, going on a multi-city book tour, moving to a new home after superstorm Sandy, and my first year of marriage.

I’m so grateful for all that has happened with such grace and all along the way, you have been there with me cheering me on and encouraging me with your stories of reclaimed health through your experiences of my work. I want you to know this holiday season that I’m so thankful for you, your support, your emails, and our shared belief that our bodies are magical.

Since I spent so long living the WomanCode lifestyle on my own, it’s incredible to know that I have sisters living it with me now, all over the world. It’s been amazing meeting you at events and seeing you share the WomanCode message with your sisters and friends. Thank you to each of you who came out to show your support and bought books for your friends and coworkers. And to all of you who tagged us, tweeted us and let your community know about us - thank you thank you! It’s been a joy to think about future travels to different cities, knowing I can reach out and connect with more of you! I imagine us having a chat over a healthy lunch or taking a yoga class together, gathering with other women to share our stories. As I look at my 2014 speaking schedule I’ll look forward to meeting more of you soon!

I hope you’ll share my book WomanCode as a gift for the women who are most special to you this year. Sharing this message is about opening up a woman you care about to a new possibility for great things to happen in her life - because of her body, not inspite of it.I’m looking forward to another year with you and bringing you more of what you need to feel good in your bodies and thrive in your lives.

Of course everything that this company has become is based on this conversation that I’ve been having with all of you over the years. Thank you to each of you who have connected us with companies and doctors to partner with. I welcome all of your ideas to help us reach more women. I read your emails so keep em coming!

I believe that aligning with our hormonal patterns is the single most important thing a woman can do for herself and her success. I believe our power to continuously change is our greatest power as women. Not only for our own health but for our lives and the world around us.I believe in you.Thanks for being with me on the journey.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Love,

Alisa

P.S. Everything happened so fast with my book launching early this spring that I wanted also to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported me during my book launch not only the 4 city tour but also online. A big thank you to the following people for making the online launch and each of those nights possible:

1. Selena Soo for working her magic with all of the media coverage of the book. And toRuth Tewkesbury for getting me all the amazing UK press and event support.

2. Rachel Goldstein and Agent of Change for organizing the most amazing book launch parties in NYC and LA and for making miracles and doing the impossible when my book launched 10 weeks early.

3. DKNY NYC and LA, Pigment Studios in SF, and Eileen Fisher London for hosting me and my guests in their gorgeous spaces and providing hot men and champagne for everyone.

4. To my photographers, JJ Ignotz in NY, Manali Sibthorpe in SF, Sidney Bensimon in LA, and Vanya Melnik in London for capturing all the love and joy during these celebrations.

5. To my amazing hosts:

NY - Meggan Watterson, Melanie Notkin, Melisse Gelula

LA - Sophie Chiche, Elisa Hallerman, Ashley Turner, Robyn Youkilis

SF - LiYana Silver and Sarah Jenks

London - Janet Thompson and Jelena Petrovic

I am so blessed to call you sisters and to have been showered with your loving words at these events.

6. To my support at each of the events - Jemma Lester, Heather Reinhardt, Susan and Stephanie Papa, thank you so much for making everything FLO!

7. To all of our wonderful sponsors, Rawpothecary Juice, Flat Belly Bakery, Mylk Man,Zico and Mariposa Bakery and to Somaly Mam foundation for being the beneficiary of a portion of the proceeds from our events.

8. To Well & Good, Organic Avenue, ABC Home, Stonehenge, Soho House, Hay House for hosting me at various events - thank you for having me be a part of the family.

9. To all the writers who featured us in blogs and in articles, everyone who shared the book, posted on FB, tweeted, emailed their communities - thank you for throwing me a virtual book baby shower - I am so lucky to have been so loved up by each of you and your words.

10. Some special love to Kris Carr, Nitika Chopra, Alexandra Jamieson, Jennifer Kass, Colleen Wachob, JJ Virgin, Michael Fishman and Nisha Moodley for lending your magic.

11. My incredible team at FLO Living for building a new website in 10 days before my Dr. Oz episode aired - Jessica Grippo, Brandi Hand, Stefanie Torrieri - i love you ladies!

12. My amazing husband Victor Russo for being the best cheerleader a woman could have!

I'm sure there are people I forgot to thank, forgive my memory lapse and please know you have my love and gratitude!!

Peak through all the photos and leave a comment on the blog….

Give the Gift of FLO!

If you want to support your lady friends in finding their FLO, without the anxiety of any awkward conversations, Woman Code is a wonderful gift idea this holiday season and does all the talking for you!

Order a copy HERE!

Have you ever gotten a well-intentioned gift that just wasn’t usable because it contained products you don’t use or food you don’t eat?

Let’s be proactive and start giving healthy holiday gifts we would want to receive - gifts that are hormone-supportive and FLO-friendly!

Everything on this list has been personally tried and tested by me, Alisa.

From my family to yours…

Here are my top picks for healthy holiday gifts!

1. For the Product Junkie: beauty products that are NOT endocrine-disruptive and amazing:

• John Masters Organics: blood orange & vanilla body milk (my favorite!)
• Red Flower: revitalizing sea salt scrub
• PritiNYC: - organic nail polish

2. For the Foodie: luxury pantry items we can’t get enough of:

• Pink Himalayan Sea Salt: “the purest salt on earth”
• Bee Raw Honey: supports family-owned apiaries and the sustainability of our planet
• Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Coconut Oil
• Vosges Chocolate Black Pearl and Chuao Chocolate Spicy Maya

3. For your friends with epic pinterest pages of interior design: eco-friendly, hormone-friendly hostess gifts:

• Infusion Organique: organic candles
• Sister Bliss: aromatherapy spray (formula 19) good for your room, sheets, and you!
• Soma: eco and hormone healthy replacement for your Brita pitcher/filter

4. For your friend who needs to see herself in a more beautiful light: self care is sexy

• Journelle: my favorite lingerie store

5. For Every Woman: the ultimate guide to your body, hormones, and vitality

• WomanCode: the book

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In recent years, the chemical BPA, or bisphenol A, has caused quite a stir.

In 2010 the FDA deemed it as being possibly hazardous to the health of young children and infants, and now a more recent study is linking BPA exposure to miscarriage.

In high doses BPA acts as a hormone disrupter, which explains why it could contribute to miscarriage in those who are already hormonally sensitive or genetically prone.

What does this mean for you, WomanCoder?In this week’s Hormonal Health Challenge, read through the following list and minimize your BPA exposure as much as possible. Whether or not you’re trying to conceive, your hormonal balance will benefit big-time from these small changes!Your BPA-free checklist:

• Don’t put hot foods or liquids in plastic containers! This goes for microwaving, too -- always use glass containers.
• Check to be sure your reusable water bottles and baby bottles are BPA-free. (Most will have it clearly labeled.)
• Reduce your use of canned foods, but if you must, make sure to store them in a relatively cool area.
• Support your liver in daily detoxification by increasing your intake of fiber, vegetables, and fresh water.

Reducing your exposure to endocrine disruptors is one step on the path of hormonal health. If you’re ready to follow a tried and true method of natural balance, optimal fertility, and vibrant energy, get your copy of WomanCode today and join us in our growing online community!

While saying goodbye to summer is always bittersweet, it helps to have delicious home-cooked meals to look forward to!

This week I’m thrilled to share with you a few of my favorite recipes that are especially delectable when the fall season falls upon us.

Read, cook, enjoy, and share your recipes with us in the comment box below!Autumn Detox Salad

Mix any or all of the following in a bowl:

romaine lettuce, celery, fennel, escarole leaves, radishes, watercress, cucumbers

Add one of the following dressings of your choice:

Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette: olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, and coriander

Apple Cider Vinaigrette: apple cider vinegar and olive oil

Asian Vinaigrette: toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar

Millet-Cauliflower Mash

Rinse 1 1⁄2 cups millet.

Dry roast in a large pot, then add 5 cups water.

Add 1 tsp salt and 1 head of cauliflower, chopped up into small pieces.

Add more water if needed to cover cauliflower.

Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 2 hours or until it becomes a mashed potato-like consistency.

Walnut-Onion Gravy

Heat olive oil in a skillet.

Add 1 chopped onion and 1 tsp tarragon.

Sautee over medium-low heat until onions are nearly tender.

Add 1 cup chopped walnuts and raise heat to medium-high.

Add 3 tbsp arrow root powder or buckwheat flour, or a mixture of both.

Continue cooking and stirring. Remove from heat and add 1 cup water slowly.

Cook for another minute or two until mixture thickens.

Add 1 tbsp tamari and mix.

Sweet Squash Rings

Preheat oven to 450 and cover cookie sheet with parchment paper. Slice 1 delicata squash into thin rings, removing the seeds from the inside of each circle.

Lay squash rings out on cookie sheet and season lightly with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Roast for 20-30 minutes, until juices bubble and the rings brown on the bottom.

Carrot Ginger Soup

Heat olive oil in a large pot and add 1 chopped onion and 4 inches of chopped ginger root. Sauté until onion begins to soften.

Add a whole bag of chopped carrots (about 20 carrots) and 1 quart of vegetable stock.

Add some water if needed.

Bring to a boil and then simmer covered for a half hour or until carrots become soft.

Remove from heat and puree with a hand blender.

Ready for more food support?

Don’t forget that recipes like these are only one part of an entire system designed to help you eat in sync with your cycle all month long!Stay in the loop and get more recipes like these by subscribing to our complimentary weekly women’s health newsletters:[gravityform id="3" name="Get on the road to hormonal health!" title="false" description="false"]

Alisa introduces…

The Hormonal Health Challenge of the Week!

Every week, it’s my intention to provide you with one action step to take that will boost your hormonal balance and get you closer to conquering the menstrual, fertility, and energy issues you might be struggling with.Today’s challenge focuses on your skin care. If you’re on the east coast like me, you’ll know that the change to colder weather can be a nightmare for sensitive skin. But no matter where you are located, it’s still important to be proactive (no pun intended!) in this area.

Is your moisturizer impacting your flow and affecting your fertility?

Step 1: Inspect the ingredient label on your daily moisturizer. Check for any of the following: petroleum, mineral oil, propylene glycol, artificial colorings or fragrances. If you see any of those, it’s time to ditch that product!For a more comprehensive list of endocrine disrupters, check out Chapter 2 of WomanCode!Step 2: Replace it with a natural alternative. For dry skin, coconut oil, jojoba oil, or a combination of the two work really well. Just pull it right out of the jar and lather on! For oily skin like mine, my favorite go-to is aloe vera gel. Make sure it’s 100% aloe vera and apply to your skin after washing.Good things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First: Which step are you taking today?Second: Share your #Flobeauty experience with us!Third: You know every one you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social by clicking the buttons below

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 quiz 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 quiz!

I often get the question, “What foods can I eat to boost my fertility?”

While there certainly are key foods - like avocados, buckwheat, asparagus, and more - that will provide your body with essential nutrients for optimal fertility, I also encourage women to look at the big picture. It’s not only what you’re eating, but it’s how you’re eating throughout the day.If you’re starting the morning off with a green juice, having a salad for lunch, and sushi for dinner, it might feel really healthy but it’s definitely not ideal if you’re struggling with hormonal imbalances or fertility challenges.Why?Blood sugar management is one of the main underlying causes to hormonal imbalance, especially for conditions like infertility and PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome).Some women might just have sensitive blood sugar levels or hypoglycemia, while others might be dealing with the more severe cases of insulin resistance. In either case, when you eat very light meals throughout the day, you are causing a red flag to go up in your brain because of the lack of sugar, or glucose, that is coming in. Not enough glucose streaming through your blood, and your brain will call on stress hormones to fill in the gap. Stress hormones are never good in excess!But don’t just take my word for it. This recent study by Professor Daniela Jakubowicz in Tel Aviv proved that having a larger meal at breakfast was related to a reduction of insulin resistance in women with PCOS. Not only does this help with fertility, but it also can help manage other symptoms associated with the disorder, such as unwanted body hair, hair loss, and acne, as well as protect against developing type-2 diabetes.

Now, it's your turn:

FLO Hormone Challenge of the Week!

So ladies, this week your challenge is to eat a hearty breakfast in the morning. Especially if you’re one who waits to eat your biggest meal at dinner, try this out! With breakfast as your big meal, you will be less inclined to over-indulge in the evening which will do wonders for your blood sugar and hormonal management.Try these examples and let me know how it goes!

• Raw sprouted buckwheat granola with cinammon, sunflower seeds, flax, and unsweetened almond milk.
• Smoked salmon omlette with sweet potato hash or gluten-free toast

Add in a steaming hot cup of rooibos chai tea for extra pleasure!

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 quiz 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 quiz!

I am so grateful for the wisdom, support and love I have felt since joining the FLO living community last year! Nearly a decade of disordered eating and neglect had resulted in amenorrhea that lasted for over five years, and many doctors said my cycle would not return without birth control pills to "jump-start" my flow.I could barely hear my intuition at that point, but I followed its whisper and signed up for the hormonal sync system instead of taking the pills. I figured it was worth a try!Wow, during the first video session I learned more about my body and cycle than any previous books I'd read or courses I'd taken. The most surprising and inspiring part of the FLO journey was homework of adding pleasure back to my life - I had been taking myself so seriously and my life had become an overwhelming project.After two months of learning, experimenting, and making changes with lots of support from the FLO coaches and women in the program, I started to doubt whether I was doing the program "the right way" and my inner critic told me to stop being stubborn and just take the pills.Jess was leading a support call that day and I showed up and heard many women share similar stories of being stuck, and Jess loved us up and encouraged us to take the next step forward without shaming ourselves.The next morning after that call, my cycle returned after five years of being absent. I have now been back in the flow for 8 months in a row! FLO living helped uncover who I am so I can speak my truth and live in a way that honors my natural rhythms!I love that this program honors women and puts them in control of their health.Every woman will benefit from WomanCode and FLO living, and every woman deserves this gift of knowledge, empowerment, and community. Thank you, Alisa, Jess, and all of the FLO coaches and ladies on this path. I am so grateful for you!Love,Emily KoehlerHolistic Health Coach