PCOS

Why haven't i gotten my period this month? Why would my period be late if I am a virgin? Is it bad if I didn't get my period in 2 months? Why did my period stop? What does it mean if I menstruate 2 times in 1 month? I'm not pregnant how can I get my period back? 

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If your cycle is irregular or your period is late or missing, know that you are not alone! We get so many questions about missing and late periods! It can be frustrating and anxiety-producing, especially if you want to conceive someday. Unfortunately, many women suffer from missing periods. It may be comforting to know that this inconsistency within your menstrual cycle is actually a common issue. But it doesn’t have stay that way!

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What does it mean when you miss your period? 

A missing period is an indicator that you are not ovulating. This is obviously a worry if you want to get pregnant, but it should also be a concern even if you have no pregnancy plans in the near future.

‍Ovulation is the key to female health and vitality. Not ovulating does not only lead to missing periods, but also to all PMS symptoms, acne, moodiness, weight gain and more.

There are different reasons for not ovulating including:

• pregnancy
• breastfeeding
• menopause
• over-exercising
• being underweight
• having cysts on your ovaries (PCOS)
• progesterone deficiency
• estrogen dominance

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PCOS, Progesterone Deficiency or Estrogen Dominance? 

There are several kinds of PCOS that women can experience on a PCOS spectrum, with specific root causes and specific natural treatments. Your period might be missing because of one of these reasons, so it’s important to rule those out as contributing factors.

The next step is to take a look at your hormonal balance - specifically progesterone and estrogen.

Progesterone deficiency and estrogen dominance/overload are the two main root causes of missing periods, when other factors are not on the table. Your body needs nutritional support via the right foods to create enough hormones, use those hormones, and then process and detoxify excess hormones. This will maintain hormonal balance and ensure your body is able to trigger ovulation. Once you are ovulating, your period will naturally follow. Your body wants to ovulate, that’s what it’s designed to do, but it just needs the right fuel and foundation.

Our FLO Living protocol has helped thousands of women bring back their period, including Ashley who didn’t have a period for 3 years and Stephanie who was missing her period for 2.5 years.

Get started by Cycle Syncing® one part of your diet - like the greens you eat and then layering in the rest of your weekly meal plan. Once you have that down, you can start detoxing your home and your cosmetics bag of endocrine disrupting synthetic hormones. We recommend tracking your ovulation signs - for most women your period will follow approximately 10-14 days after you ovulate - and with the MyFLO app you can track your cycles, even when they are irregular, and get personalized advice on how to regulate them and bring your period back.

Following the Cycle Syncing® Method could make your period return sooner than you think. A combination of changes to your diet, your exercise regimen, and your self-care can make all the difference in rebalancing your hormones, restoring ovulation, and bringing back your period.

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At this point you’ve probably heard the story of my healing journey, and so you’ll know that I suffered for years with cystic acne all over my face, chest, and back. It was not pretty and it certainly didn’t make me feel good to look in the mirror or go out in public without caked-on layers of makeup.

I spent lots of money and time trying to solve this issue, until I finally discovered how to naturally clear up my skin by addressing my diet and hormones.

And that lesson is exactly what I’m going to share with you today!

In this video I’ll take you through the essentials of skin care, the FLO way:

• what products you’re putting ON your body that are contributing to your breakouts
• what foods you’re putting IN your body that affect your skin
• the 3 key micronutrients essential for clear skin

Check out the skinny on your skin here:

Good things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First: Have you struggled with acne?Second: Share your #Flobeauty experience – follow the steps and let us know how you feel.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!

Today I touch on a topic that will apply to you now if you’re considering getting pregnant. But if now’s not the time for you, I’m sure it’s something you’ll be able to share with your girlfriends at weekend brunch or save for later when you might want to start a family. Conversations and questions about fertility treatments like IVF (in vitro fertilization) are becoming more and more the norm, and it’s often an area that can instigate fear. If you have ever had a procedure like IVF or other ones like these, or if you are considering having one done, allow me to interject some important information. The best cure for fear, I find, is knowledge! Arm yourself with information and you will feel more confidant and secure in your options. I think pro-active healthcare is so important for women. So walk into that appointment knowing exactly what you need and why. Watch my video to start your education.

If you’re only considering IVF at this stage, download my report packed with information on whether IVF will be the right choice for you.In this video above I share the one food you must eat during your IVF procedure, plus 2 key nutrients to be consuming before, during, and after the process. Because yes – what happens after the process is just as important as everything leading up to it!This one could save you big bucks, lots of worries, and most importantly a not-so-often-mentioned after effect of IVF procedures. IVF isn’t just something that you have done to you it’s also something you can actively participate in, by supporting your body and boosting your body’s ability to react well to this process.You can work to get your body in balance prior, during, and after an IVF procedure. It will increase your success rates, help you feel good throughout, and help you get over the after-effects faster.Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health monitored the fat consumption of 147 women undergoing IVF treatment and discovered that those who ate the highest amounts of monounsaturated fat were 3.4 times more likely to have a child after IVF. They concluded that avocados contain the best kind of monounsaturated fat (and the least saturated fat, which was found to decrease the amount of “good eggs”).What secret does this study reveal? It shows that what you consume has a direct impact on your fertility and your dietary choices affect your IVF outcomes. Knowledge is definitely power here!The other two foods I mention in this video, aside from avocados, are watermelon and brazil nuts. These will give you good doses of glutathione to support your liver and selenium to enhance your fertility. So, while the IVF process can feel a little out of your control, there are elements you can certainly control to help your body through the process and hopefully get the baby you want. You can work as a team with your medical practitioners to ensure your IVF cycle has the optimal opportunity to bring you a baby. It’s not about overriding the advice of medical professionals, it’s about using the science to take a proactive stance when it comes to your health and fertility.You just have to hear the amazing story of this wonderful 43-year old woman who came to work with me on the FLO Living program. She was told her chance of conceiving was very low, but within months she’d turned it all around and got the baby she so badly wanted. How did she do it? We worked together to make changes to her diet and lifestyle that prioritized her fertility. She couldn’t believe how quickly she saw results. I have many more fertility-boosting food recommendations, as someone who was told I would have a hard time conceiving with a PCOS diagnosis who went on to conceive at 38 naturally, I’ve done my research and I am more than happy to share it all with you. I love to empower other women to feel empowered themselves, rather than fearful, anxious, or out of control. You can also watch my second video in which I explain my thoughts on preparing your body for conception a full 3-9 months before you try for a baby. 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

What Period-Type are you?

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

Have you ever wondered how being on the pill - or any kind of hormonal contraceptive - can affect your fertility?

Well if you haven’t thought about it, then I suggest you start getting curious. Really curious.

I’ll reveal a few key reasons here, as described in WomanCode, to help with this essential piece of cracking the fertility code.

Reason # 1 the pill messes with your fertility:

Especially for women who are already dealing with hormonal sensitivities - like PCOS, PMS, cysts, fibroids, etc. - you might be bleeding less and feeling less symptomatic when on the pill, but it’s a false sense of security because you are only masking the underlying causes for your symptoms. When you get off the pill, they are going to come right back. And then you may have less time to address these problems simultaneously while you’re trying to get pregnant. If you want to have a smooth transition off the pill, begin the necessary steps we outline in the WomanCode protocol while you’re on the pill so that you are not symptomatic when you come off and that you don’t have to take valuable time clearing up those symptoms which can impeded your fertility when you want to get pregnant.

Reason #2 the pill messes with your fertility (this one might shock you):

Being on a hormonal contraceptive can give you a false sense of security with sex. If you are not using condoms during sex - and many women who are on the pill are not - you are making yourself more vulnerable to bacterial exposure which has been shown to affect your fertility. And this goes for women in monogamous relationships as well as women with multiple partners (although having multiple partners greatly increases this risk).

Any woman - on or off the pill - needs to take responsibility for her body and her fertility.

And guess what - the manual you’ve been waiting for is finally here. Get my bookWomanCode today and get started. It’s never too late to get informed and take charge of your future.

To your fertility,

Alisa

Low libido? What to do if it’s happening to you!

While it’s been a few years since we’ve seen formal studies on low libido in young women, we are seeing more and more social studies coming out that suggest young people (women included) are having less sex.

A new study from the Archives of Sexual Behavior showed that people are having far less sex now than they did even ten years ago. Another recent study from the same journal showed heterosexual women are having fewer orgasms than any other demographic.

Although our culture is becoming more “sex positive” and embracing sexuality as a healthy, essential part of our lives, it seems that we’re still having less sex and not always enjoying the sex we have to the fullest. Although our sex lives is a complex issue with many impacting factors, low libido or lack of sex drive is definitely one of the drivers behind this trend.

More and more women are coming to FLO Living reporting that their sex drive barely exists whether they are single or coupled, with or without kids. Having no to low libido is a common symptom that sometimes stands on its own, but more often than not is accompanied by other factors: fertility struggles, menstrual difficulties, adrenal fatigue and/or low energy.

If you can relate, then listen up. I’m calling this a silent epidemic, but don’t worry, help is at hand.

I believe that you have the power to shift this trend by making simple dietary and mindset changes. And we believe it because we’ve seen it. Women who follow the Sexy FLO program report incredible changes in their libido and energy, and we want to see the same happen for you. To start, let’s identify what could be the cause of your lack in sexual energy.

Main underlying causes of low libido in women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s:

• Over-working. Keeping up with insane work schedules in addition to other personal obligations adds up to a common result: burnout. In some countries they’ve had even to implement laws around when employees can and should check email in order to ease the work/life imbalance. Constant connection to the office via our smartphones can mean we’re never not working. Too much stress and too much demand on your mental and physical energy results in the depletion of your poor little adrenal glands, the powerhouse glands that are responsible for the output of your stress hormones and most of your testosterone, which is where that desire for sex comes from. Increased output of stress hormones means decreased output of juicy sex hormones. Stress can delay your period and make you gain weight - all because of how it impacts your hormone balance.

• Birth control or other medications. If you’re on the pill, anti-depressants, or other medication, this something very important to consider when it comes to your sex drive and your hormonal balance, as very often a side-effect is a low libido. We encourage you to talk to your doctor about this potential and partner with other practitioners to find the right kind of support and wean off what is not necessary for you. The birth control pill has a lot of side effects including several that directly impact your love life. And anti-depressants have been shown to negatively affect a woman’s fertility.

• Masculine energy dynamics. When I developed the FLO Living protocol to treat my PCOS, I launched into research on the masculine and feminine energies. This might sound a little woo-woo at first, but stay with me – it’s actually a strong, vital element of Traditional Chinese Medicine practices. It’s not about telling women to speak softly and be submissive or teaching men to be tough and aggressive – as you might expect – in fact, it’s quite the opposite. As a result of the demand on women to perform well in business, to sometimes be the primary breadwinner of the family, and to compete with the go-go-go energy of much of the working world, there has been a tendency for many women to get locked into that kind of “masculine” energy, which can be counter-productive when it comes to getting intimate in the bedroom. We all know that getting turned on is not as simple as pushing a button. The fear and anxiety producing part of the brain – the amygdala – needs to be turned off in order for a woman to get turned on, as Dr. Louann Dr. Brizendine, author of The Female Brain, explains in this article with Oprah and Dr. Oz. “It requires turning off the worrywart circuits in the female brain to have an orgasm,” Dr. Brizendine explains. We all need to balance our masculine and feminine energies - both women and men - as they are in us all. Once we lean too far to the masculine, we can suffer with the side effects.

What you can do to naturally improve a low libido

Now that you’ve identified what might be causing your low libido, let’s talk about practical tools you can begin using now to get your sexy back.

1. Support your adrenal glands. Especially if a demanding work schedule is a reality for you, you’ll need to take extra good care of your body and in particular your adrenal glands to avoid symptoms of adrenal fatigue. Taking Jarrow’s Adrenal Optimizer is one way to begin this process of adrenal support. You can also add these researched aphrodisiacs to your daily routine to supercharge your sex drive.

2. Make pleasure part of your job. Don’t just survive through your day, thrive within it. Adding pleasure to your day in simple non-sexual ways can greatly improve your ability to feel pleasure in the bedroom. Try bringing flowers to your desk or playing music you love during your morning commute. Indulge in body lotions or perfumes (organic, of course!) that make you feel beautiful. Get regular massages. Check out the ideas of our favorite pleasure revolutionary, Mama Gena. You can bring more feminine energy into your working day in some easy, simple ways. I have 4 daily practices I use to ground myself in my feminine energy and make my busy schedule work for me.

3. Take matters into your own hands. You need to ask for you what you want, but first you need to know what you want. Make time to research your sexuality and the underlying causes of your low libido. Read tasteful erotica and see what turns you on - take a wander around Literotica.com. Read about your anatomy and the physiology behind turn-on, and get to grips with the 5 Cs of self-pleasure. Once you know yourself better, don’t be shy to ask for assistance or experimentation from your partner. No partner? No problem. Then you can really take matters into your own hands more often, if you know what we mean. But give vibrators a miss, they’re actually limiting your pleasure.

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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

The heart is multi-faceted: both the the center of our circulatory system and the center of our emotional system. We feel things with our hearts, we connect to other people with our hearts, we love from our hearts, and when we follow our hearts, we follow our dreams.But how often do we actually do these things?As women, our hearts should not be overlooked, although they often are. With heart disease being the number one killer of women, we at FLO take it as a sign that even more attention should be on protecting the heart. And the best place to start is by balancing your hormones. Let us explain:What most don’t realize is that mismanaged blood sugar is at the root of heart disease. Elevated sugar in the bloodstream causes triglyceride levels to rise and plaque in the arteries to build up - all to counteract the acidic effects of too much sugar streaming through the blood.On that same note, it’s not a coincidence that most women with hormonal imbalances are dealing with blood sugar imbalances as well. PCOS is one of the more common examples of this connection, but it’s also a factor in other conditions such as PMS, PMDD, ovarian cysts, fibroids, endometriosis, and infertility.Not being aware of your blood sugar is a common form of body-disconnect in women. If you often skip meals, power through your work day without thinking about your body, or find yourself reaching for sugar and carbs often, chances are this is an area that you could use support with!It’s an act of self-love to feed your body in a way that keep your blood sugar balanced, and when you have this foundation you’ll be that much more able to give and receive love freely with others in your life. You’ll also be around for much longer, since how you treat your body in your 20s, 30s, and 40s is a big indicator of how you will age and feel in the future.So do yourself - and your loved ones - a favor and learn how to attend to your hormones as a foundation for heart health!Here are a few ways you can started.3 tips for heart and hormonal health:

• Don’t skip breakfast! It truly is the most important meal of the day. Not eating breakfast - or eating breakfast that is high in sugar - will set you up for sharp spikes and falls in your blood sugar balance throughout the day. It will not end well. ;)
• Take a calcium/magnesium supplement at night. The powdered ionic form is best - we love the Natural CALM brand. Studies have shown that magnesium deficiency can lead to high blood pressure, and that supplementing with magnesium can decrease risk of death from heart disease. In addition, both calcium and magnesium are essential for hormonal health and period regulation. Your heart and your ovaries love each other - so help them do their jobs!
• Connect to your heart daily. Notice the distinction between how you feel and how you are thinking about something. Choose to go with your heart twice a week, for starters! If you need help tapping inwards, a simple meditation we love is to place one hand on your heart, one hand on your belly, and take 3 deep breaths - feeling your belly and chest expanding with each inhale.

We also invite you to check out our WomanCode System if you are someone who’s dealing with hormonal issues and a blood sugar imbalance. We delve deep into sustainable blood sugar management, as well as other key facets of hormonal health. Download our PROGRAM GUIDE to find more about how it all works and what it could do for you!

PCOS Research - What You Need to Know!

For the past ten years, FLO Living has been the premier advocate for the natural treatment of hormonal imbalances for women in their reproductive years. In this article, we wanted to put a particular focus on Polycystic Ovarian Sydrome (PCOS) since 1 out of 4 women suffer from it, and the statistics are even higher when you include all of the women who have been misdiagnosed or have just not discovered it yet. It is a major health problem for those affected and one of the leading causes of infertility.In Western medicine, PCOS, along with most other hormonal conditions, is considered incurable. Symptoms include all or some of the following: irregular or absent periods, obesity, acne, facial hair, insulin resistance, depression, etc. The most common "treatments" include the birth control pill, Spironolactone for body hair, and Metformin, an insulin-regulating pharmaceutical typically prescribed to diabetics. What do these solutions have in common? They focus on masking your symptoms without getting to the root of what is causing the issue. For those of you reading who have this condition and have tried common therapies, you can also attest to how frustrated most women with PCOS feel about this type of treatment.At FLO Living, we understand the intricate relationship between a woman's hormones, her diet, and her lifestyle. We understand how simple it is to manage your own hormones without having to rely on drugs, once you have the information you need. And we want you to learn this information too, since we feel it is every woman's right to understand her body and know what her options are.A study done by doctors at the University of Naples highlights the fact that "treatment of PCOS and its complications should not solely be based on pharmacological therapies..." but rather states the following:"Taking into consideration the patients' young age and the devastating effects of PCOS on hormonal and metabolic pattern, this complex and multifaceted disease requires a comprehensive approach in order to achieve concrete beneficial effects for PCOS patients."They recommend "Multidisciplinary programs, including dietary and educational counseling, exercise training, stress management and psychosocial support" as the "gold standard" for treatment of PCOS. Doctors are now supporting what we've been saying and teaching for years!

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 your period isn't coming, it is time to connect the dots, find help, and make some changes. Do not stress and worry if your period isn't coming, but you should take time to research and inform yourself as well as talking to your healthcare team about your missing periods. It is part of any healthy hormonal cycle, a key measure of a woman’s overall health, and a symbol of our vitality and creativity. Plus, the symptoms we get when we don’t ovulate are no fun.If you’re experiencing infertility you might be all too aware that you are not ovulating, but the best way to keep tabs is to track your ovulation signs.

Why isn't My Period Coming?

There are 5 ways to track your ovulation signs, including tracking your hormonal symptoms. A great way to do this is with the MyFLO app, which makes it easy and educational.Think of your hormonal cycle as a chain reaction–if one stage does not occur properly, the following stages will not receive the correct triggers. When your ovary releases an egg, the ruptured egg sack produces progesterone.

The increase of progesterone in your body encourages the build up and eventual release of the lining of your uterus (bleeding!). Without proper ovulation, low or no progesterone is produced. Communication between your ovaries, uterus, and pituitary gland (the hormone pump in your brain) goes awry.When this chain reaction loses a link you get symptoms that show up in your period or at another time in your cycle. Ovulation every cycle is the key to avoiding these health issues. To ovulate, your body needs the right nutrients and the right kind of care.

Some of the symptoms you’ll get may not even seem like symptoms to you - in the case of light periods. Other symptoms might be what you consider your norm - like late periods every other month. Your body is indicating what you need to do to get back on track. Please be aware the textbook reasons for not ovulating include: pregnancy, breastfeeding, menopause, over-exercising, being underweight, or having cysts on your ovaries (PCOS). There are several kinds of PCOS that women can experience on a PCOS spectrum, with specific root causes and specific natural treatments.If none of these apply to you, both you and your doctor might be baffled as to what’s happening and exactly why your period is missing.

But - I know why. I have helped thousands of women bring back their period, regain ovulatory cycles, and banish their symptoms. As I say in the video, one woman came to me who had not had her period in 13 years! After 3 months following my FLO Living protocol she got her period back.It can happen for you, too.

Common reasons for women with a hormonal imbalance

If you are sure that you are not pregnant, and your period isn't coming, there are several explanations. Here are some of the most common cases for abnormal periods for women with a hormonal imbalance:

Light Periods

Your uterine lining not getting the signal to thicken properly.

Lengthy Spotting after Predicted Ovulation Time

Your uterine lining not getting the signal to stay put!

Late/Irregular Periods

These bleeds are usually not officially “periods” at all but breakthrough bleeding instead, which is when your uterine lining builds up, lacks proper signal to release, and eventually breaks through.

Severe Cramps

Cramps indicate not enough progesterone (the “soothing” hormone) produced to balance out high estrogen levels.

Missing Periods

Your period isn’t coming at all. in some cases, lack of ovulation shuts down the entire menstrual process. As you heard in the video, this can happen after you’ve used hormonal birth control, if you have PCOS, or for other reasons.Ovulation can be skipped by your body for a number of reasons - the root cause for women is often stress which, when chronic enough, can throw off your cycle. Other potential factors at play are imbalanced blood sugar and poor sleep.

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How to Restart Your Late or Missing Period

The powerful mix of stress and poor sleep is the reason for many women’s period problems.Trying to do it all and have it all leaves us stressed out, overworked, over-caffeinated, sugared up and fatigued. Our high-stress lifestyles take a toll on our kidney/adrenal organ system.In modern terms, this is our stress management system.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), it is the heart of the body–the source of our basic vitality and creative energy. The kidney system supports all reproductive organs (uterus and ovaries) and activities (sex drive!). If you’ve got adrenal fatigue or “burnout” from doing too much and resting too little, your body may have no energy to produce an egg, hence why your period isn’t coming.

To get ovulation going, you need to rebuild energy in your kidneys. At your local health food store you’ll find plenty of herbal remedies and supplements for building kidney energy, but your body won’t effectively process the delicate herb essences if your diet and lifestyle do not also support you.Luckily, FLO Living’s natural hormone-balancing protocol is designed to simply and effectively solve this issue through implementing the proper food and lifestyle plan for your unique female body - Cycle Syncing. You can start Cycle Syncing today by downloading the MyFLO app to get cycle phase-to-cycle phase advice on the right foods, exercise options, self-care techniques, and other activities to bring back your period, make your cycles regulate, and get you ovulating!

To your FLO,

‍Alisa

A study from the National Institute of Health suggested the majority of women will develop uterine fibroids at some point during their lifetime. These benign uterine growths can range from the size of a pea to that of a melon, and symptoms can vary from none at all to heavy or painful periods, bleeding between periods, pain during intercourse, and lower back pain, to name a few.A diagnosis of uterine fibroids can often mean just one thing: a prescription for the birth control pill as a way to control the growth of the fibroids and symptoms.

This treatment does not get down to the root cause of this health issue or actually address it long term. Hormonal birth control comes with a raft of side effects and can actually exacerbate hormonal imbalances. The other option is often surgery. And most of us, quite rightly, want to avoid invasive surgery as much as possible. The good news is that these are not the only two paths available to most women with fibroids. You can treat fibroids naturally, thus reducing the size of those you have now, preventing the growth of more, and reversing the problem. Understanding what causes uterine fibroids is the first step to treating them.

What causes uterine fibroids?

According to Western medicine, no one knows for certain what causes uterine fibroids. What we do know is that they seem to be affected by our hormones. In other words, excess estrogen in the body seems to make them grow, and they will often decrease in size after menopause (when overall body estrogen is lower). The root cause is estrogen excess or estrogen dominance in the body’s ecosystem. To treat fibroids and alleviate symptoms you need to make food and lifestyle choices that support your body in processing and eliminating this excess estrogen as efficiently and rapidly as possible. You need to create a low estrogen environment in your body. You may have heard that women with fibroids should specifically avoid meat and dairy products from animals treated with synthetic hormones. This is because synthetic hormones (another example is the birth control pill) are unnecessary and powerful estrogens that can create estrogen dominance and provoke fibroids to grow. But, just as some foods are bad for fibroids, some foods are very good for fibroids and can do the opposite, making them shrink and eventually disappear.  Part of the fibroids puzzle is also genetics. If you have fibroids, it’s quite likely your mom or sisters also have this health issue. It’s also more likely that a daughter of yours will be at higher risk of developing fibroids in her teens and 20s. You can of course stop this domino effect in its tracks by ensuring you address the estrogen excess that is the source of the problem.

How to treat fibroids naturally

For decades, here at FLO Living, we’ve offered an alternative to drugs and surgery that has been so effective in minimizing the growth and painful symptoms of uterine fibroids. What makes our approach unique is that we get to the underlying causes of this issue—the estrogen dominance and hormonal imbalance—thus decreasing the likelihood of recurrence.The FLO Living protocol inherently decreases excess estrogen and elevates progesterone levels to bring the hormones in balance. It’s about food choices, but it’s also about eliminating sources of synthetic estrogen from your life like pesticides, chemical-based beauty products and cosmetics, and even generic household cleaners.

There are 5 stages to treating fibroids naturally:

1. Reduce your estrogen overload with changes to your diet and daily routine
2. Improve your lymphatic drainage through movement, sweating, and self-care
3. Reduce your gut inflammation and support your microbiome with fermented foods and probiotics
4. Improve your liver function to encourage elimination of excess estrogen
5. Eat more of these 5 hormone balancing foods and take FLO Living's RELEASE supplement (read more below!)

The emotion-fibroid connection

At FLO Living, we understand that our mental health and physical health are connected. Stress and unprocessed anger can play a role in developing that toxic internal environment where problems like fibroids thrive. Traditional Chinese Medicine points to a connection between the emotional state and fibroid growth. Fibroids are specifically indicative of the energy of the Sacral Chakra or Second Chakra in this practice. Abuse, trauma, blocked creativity,and  resentment can all act as blockers that need to be worked through. More and more research indicates how stress can impact our physical health. Stress weakens the immune system and suppresses the overall optimal function of the body.

An increase in cortisol, the stress hormone, causes an imbalance in progesterone, creating progesterone deficiency and estrogen dominance. Our bodies have a feedback loop and the impact of stress and anger on our physical health can be profound and extend far beyond raised blood pressure. Investigating your relationship with stress and anger and finding healthy outlets for their expression can be a key component in your healing journey. This can mean managing daily stress levels, prioritizing self-care, and elevating the amount of pleasure in your life. Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this – the science of your body is on your side!

The best supplements for uterine fibroids

We've created a supplement kit that contains micronutrients and enzymes to promote healthy hormone balance so that you reduce your uterine fibroid symptoms naturally.Our brand new RELEASE supplement kit contains:

• Sulforaphane: Provides protection against fibroid growth
• N-Acetyl-L-Cystine (NAC): Antioxidant support to fight inflammation, Can reduce the size of ovarian cysts
• Diindolylmethane (DIM): Assists the body in removing excess estrogen, May improve hormonal acne, May reduce long periods (longer than 7 days)
• Calcium-D-Glucarate: Supports the liver in breaking down and removing xenoestrogens

Yes! It is possible to heal your hormonal symptoms with food.“But I tried raspberry leaf tea and it didn’t work!”“I don’t believe there’s a magic food that can actually shrink my cysts.”We hear you, sisters!And you’re totally right.Standing alone, raspberry leaf tea is probably not enough, and there is no one magic food.We have a news flash for you:When it comes to healing your hormonal symptoms with food (which is totally possible, by the way) it’s not about spot-treating your cyst or cramps or low libido or fill-in-your-compliant-here by eating a magical substance that will make it go away.On the contrary, it’s about looking at how EVERYTHING you eat is affecting your delicate hormonal system. Specifically, there are 3 underlying causes of most hormonal imbalances that you must be aware of.The 3 underlying causes of your hormonal symptoms are….

1. Mis-managed blood sugar. Do you feel that afternoon dip in energy? Crave sugar or carbs throughout the day? Need a nap after meals? Those are all signs your blood sugar needs help!
2. Burnt out adrenal glands. Are you stressed out? Have trouble waking up in the morning? Rely on caffeine to keep you going? Chances are you’ve been putting your adrenal glands into over drive which will wreak havoc on the rest of your hormonal system.
3. Slow detoxification and elimination. Are your bowel movements irregular or slow to move? (i.e. less than twice a day, every morning and afternoon) Do you have acne, eczema, or rosacea? Looks like your liver and digestive system could use a bit of support. After all, your liver is responsible for breaking down the excess hormones in your bloodstream, and your digestive tract is how those hormones get eliminated from your body. If they aren’t working properly, those hormones will continue circulating in your bloodstream and contribute to the symptoms you’re experiencing!

Our WomanCode System helps you get to the bottom of all of these, PLUS puts additional emphasis on the energetic and emotional barriers that might also be contributing to your symptoms.Empowerment starts with education. Learn about how your body works before you start feeding it random potions hoping for a magical solution. ;)Get started here.Still not sure if the program is right for you? We invite you to a complimentary FLO Focus Session with one of our expert counselors!View the schedule and book your appointment here!

Alisa Vitti Natural Health UK Article

I hope you enjoy this article from Natural Health UK. If you would like to read it, just click on the photos and zoom in until you can read the type. Enjoy!!!

This video includes testimonials from clients. Share YOUR stories with me and let us co-create the next wave of women's health care together! Leave a comment or question below.If you want daily tips and inspiration, follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Thanks for watching our video! We hope you're excited about taking control of your feminine health. Do you have any questions for us? Post your question in the comment section below.If you desire more engagement with Alisa and the FLO Living team, check us out on Facebook and Twitter. xoxo!

Notes from a Flo Counselor: Carol Fiorito-Borowsky

A little while back my shoulders were feeling like rocks and aching - I really had a pain in the neck! Of course, this was partially due to a heavy bag carried on one shoulder, and wearing tops that tie behind the neck, but I realized there was also another component: all the mental weight I was putting on myself to perform and be a Supermom.As a mother there's tons of pressure to raise kids who are perfect sleepers and eaters and polite social creatures. We "should" be cautious, but not overbearing, and find the ultimate so-called balance for ourselves between family life, career life and alone time. Or so it may seem glancing through the average Mom's magazine.For 10 years I've consciously chosen to release the tendency to take on the societal picture of what my life should look and feel like, and after being a mom now for 15 months I've been taking some time for self reflection on how I'm doing, and where I can further support myself.The conclusion I reached? After dropping a few parenting techniques and work related projects that weren't working for us as a family, I turned my focus to my self-care.Here are some ways my self-care choices have evolved this summer:

• Me and my family have been taking long weekends in NJ and my exercise is walking in the woods and swimming and stretching in the pool.
• I've turned down multiple invitations to BBQ's and nights out, and instead choose to have friends around where I'll already be.
• At the end of the weekend I accept my mom in laws care packages of food and ease into Monday knowing that there's food already prepared.
• At the heart of it I feel is the tendency to notice when my thoughts and actions have turned to striving and struggling for perfection and I've come back now to acknowledging the perfection that already is present in each moment.

It's a very feminine way to approach things, and that has been a tremendous weight off my shoulders!!;- )I love to support fellow mom's who are raising the next generation so much that I designed an exclusive program called the Hot Mama Stay-cation this summer!I’d love to hear from you mom’s out there and get this conversation rockin!XO,Carol

Alisa was recently featured on lifebyme.com. Life By Me is a really amazing project. Sophie Chiche, the founder of Life By Me, asks one question of the people she interviews: "What is most meaningful to you?" Then, she sits back and listens, she really listens. One original answer is featured every day on the website. We love this website (and Sophie)!So when Alisa was asked what is most meaningful to her, I know you won't be surprised when she answered "aligning with what's uniquely female about my body."Here's an excerpt of the interview (below) - to read the entire interview, and to explore the rest of the Life By Me site, CLICK HERE.I've derived my life's purpose and joy, my understanding of myself, connections and collaborations with others, and magical serendipitous opportunities from aligning with what's uniquely female about my body.It took getting slapped around by health issues to recognize my body's magic. When I was 19, my body broke down completely, from a hormonal standpoint. I weighed 200 pounds, was covered in acne, was severely depressed, and got my period twice a year, if I was lucky. At the time, I was studying at Johns Hopkins to become an OB/GYN. One night, I decided I couldn't take it anymore and spent the night in the medical library. I finally found a tiny article and a likely diagnosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, which turned out to be confirmed by testing. My body had given me a clear, meaningful direction and I'd followed it.I asked my doctor, "Now what do we do?" Her answer was, basically, nothing. I'd be medicated and get used to dealing with things like diabetes, infertility, heart disease, and increased likelihood of cancer. But the cells of my body screamed a big NO at me. I said, "Thank you. I'm going to take my expensively trained mind and go figure this out." She chuckled and said, "Okay, well, when you need the meds, let me know."Over the next years, I explored alternative therapies and apprenticed myself with naturopaths, acupuncturists, applied kinesiologists, underwater basket weavers - you name it --- to read more CLICK HERE

Notes from a Flo Counselor: Stacey Nussbaum

Ladies, I have to share the recipe for the delicious pancakes I made this past weekend. They are too good to keep them from you! And they can be made as a gluten free meal : )How can these delicious flap jacks promote your fertility?This is no short stack of pancakes - they are chock full of protein (eggs and tofu/cottage cheese) and balanced with complex carbohydrates (rolled oats). This is the perfect balance of protein to complex carbohydrates you need in each of your meals and snacks to help lower insulin stimulation and increase your fertility!Not to mention, you can never get enough oats in you diet! They improve resistance to stress, help stabilize your blood sugar and support you being in a healthy state of balance.Who says you can't have your (pan)cake and eat it too!?!?

Pancake recipe for fertility:

Ingredients:3/4 cup rolled oats1/4 cup buckwheat flour (or an additional 2T oats)3/4 cup organic tofu or cottage cheese3 eggs1 T vanilla1/2 t cinnamon1/4 t nutmeg1 t almond butter1 t saltolive oilMix all the ingredients (except olive oil) in a food processor or blender until smooth.Heat frying pan to medium high and add olive oil to coat pan.Add batter to pan and cook until both sides are lightly browned.Serve with fresh or frozen berries and / or maple syrup!Are you looking for more ways boost your fertility naturally? Check out my special summer fertility program created just for you!Click here to preserve and maximize your fertility!You will enjoy many more delicious recipes like this one and learn all the ways to improve your fertility forecast naturally!- Stacey

The defining moment for me came 12 years ago, when I decided to go on the pill at the age of 20. I was suffering from a hormonal imbalance called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, or PCOS. At my worst, I weighed 200 pounds, I had severe cystic acne on my face chest and back, I was deeply depressed, and I had my period only about three times a year. It was quite traumatic.

I didn't even know what I had for quite awhile. Doctor after doctor suggested that maybe I had a slow thyroid, or an endocrine problem, or even candida, but all their tests came back inconclusive. I finally diagnosed myself with PCOS after tremendous research on my own. And that's when I was hit with even worse news: PCOS is considered incurable by Western medicine.

The one thing my doctors agreed on, after finally performing the right diagnostic testing with my guidance, was that I should start taking oral contraceptives. They all believed that artificially regulating my hormone levels would reduce my unpleasant symptoms, even though they didn't know what the cause was. The pill never felt like the right option to me. But after saying no repeatedly, and not getting any other answers, I realized I had to take a scientific, experimental approach to my situation. I had to admit that, having never tried the pill, I didn't know how it would affect me. So I went ahead and tried it.

Less than two weeks later, I knew my original intuition to say 'no' was absolutely right. I was having ocular migraines, which caused me to lose my vision temporarily, in addition to the searing migraine pain, fluctuating body temperature, and heart arrhythmia. I realized that my body was not reacting to the artificial hormones in the pill the same way it would to hormones produced naturally in my body. The simple solution prescribed by all my doctors just wasn't going to work for me.

In that defining moment, I finally realized that it was up to me to empower my own healing process. If I had had access to the best medical thinking on these issues, as I was myself planning to be a GYN while studying at Johns Hopkins University, then what were women to do who didn't have my access for this condition and other GYN castaway conditions?

So that's what I began to do. I started studying everywhere and anywhere I could. I felt that there were answers available outside of Western medicine, so I apprenticed myself to alternative healthcare practitioners. I studied the whole gamut of herbology, naturopathy, homeopathy, acupressure, elimination diets, and tried everything. I used myself as a guinea pig to see what could be done.

During these experiments, I found that the only thing that worked on powerfully impacting my own body chemistry was food. When I found the right combination of medicinal foods to heal hormonal imbalances, I saw tremendous positive changes in my health. I lost 60 pounds, my skin cleared up, and my depression lifted. Best of all, I have had regular menstrual periods for the last decade. Out of all of this experimentation came an understanding of what the true underlying causes of hormonal imbalances are and the discovery of what has become my 5 step healing protocol and foundation of my company.

After completing my studies in Integrative Medicine and Nutrition, I formalized my protocol and opened up my center Laughing Sage Wellness, now FLO Living - in midtown manhattan. At first I began reaching out to other women with PCOS to let them know that their condition was not incurable. In those early years of my practice, I realized something very critical - the underlying causes of hormonal imbalances are very similar, and my protocol was effective for all the GYN castaway conditions.

Fast forward to today, I have a 10 year old center in Columbus Circle Manhattan, I have worked with many hundreds of women in the US and in four continents to heal naturally from these conditions, I educate ten thousand readers weekly through the LSW Newsletter, I hire and train other health counselors to deliver this protocol, and my company is poised on the precipice of major expansion.

The protocol I designed, which uses the science of food (nutrigenomics) to manipulate a woman's hormonal biochemistry, is now the study of a year long clinical trial spearheaded by a brilliant reproductive research scientist and physician from Columbia University in conjunction with the Sher Institute for Reproductive Medicine. It should be noted that the lead physician for this study spent 10 years in his lab researching the effects of turmeric on the vascular health of ovaries!

I have been a woman on fire with a mission for a long time and now my vision for revolutionizing the way women's healthcare is delivered is coming to fruition. FLO Living was founded to treat women with chronic GYN issues such as PCOS, PMS, Fibroids, Cystic Ovaries, Thyroid Issues, Adrenal Fatigue, IBS, Amenorreah, Dysmenorreah, and HPV. If you've gone to the GYN and have discovered one of these issues and you've heard the following options given to you: drugs, surgery, or we'll see you in 6mos - then you need to know about what's possible for you at FLO Living.