A new large-scale study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health suggests a diet high in the fiber found in fruits and vegetables can lower the risk of breast cancer in women. Breast cancer risk was 12%-19% lower for those women who ate adequate fiber during their early 20s. Eating a high level of fiber during adolescence was associated with 24% lower risk of developing breast cancer before menopause.The research authors summarized: “Sex steroid hormone levels are strongly related to breast cancer development and a diet high in fiber has been hypothesized to reduce breast cancer incidence by inhibiting reabsorption of estrogen, thus decreasing circulating levels.”What does this mean? Essentially - estrogen levels in your blood stream impact the development of certain cancers, including breast cancer. Eating fiber lowers the amount of estrogen in the blood by allowing your body to process and eliminate the excess efficiently, leaving you less susceptible to cancer. There are 4 important points I believe we can all learn from this new research and start acting on today:

1. Estrogen dominance is a primary cause of female reproductive cancers. It is also one of the root causes of PCOS, endometriosis, PMS, cramps, heavy periods, depression, and more. If you have any of these mentioned hormonal imbalance-related health issues, even if it’s just a week of bad PMS symptoms each month, then you are very likely to be at a higher risk of developing breast cancer according to the NIH’s Biocycle Study. Increasing your fiber intake as the research suggests will heal your hormones and reduce this risk. PMS in the form of mood swings, depression, anxiety, and bloating is not and never has been “normal” - it’s actually one of your body’s very loud ways of telling you something is wrong.
2. Eating enough fiber in your teen years can decrease your breast cancer risk by 24%. How we eat throughout our lives has an impact on our risk of disease in the future. Making the right choices now will ensure a smooth transition through perimenopause, menopause and into a healthy, happy old age. This study suggests what young women consume during adolescence is an important factor in their long term health. I would go one step further and say our lifetime health begins to be mapped out while we are still in the womb. I know that soon there will be more research that points to this. Preparing for pregnancy, eating well during pregnancy, and supporting our daughters in establishing good dietary habits will go a long way to helping us roll back the progress of cancers in next generations. As women we are all part of this continuum; more and more research shows that how our mothers ate, and how we eat, will affect our daughters and their daughters.
3. Show your teenager what you do to keep your period healthy and hormones balanced. A 24% lower risk of breast cancer in these times is a big deal. If you have a teen daughter, niece, sister, or goddaughter start teaching them about the importance of nurturing their hormones and living in awareness of their cycles. Many teens are now put on the Pill, which destroys the microbiome, making fiber absorption difficult and hampering the benefits of increased fiber intake (and that’s just one side effect). The Flo Living protocol works just as well for curing teenager’s heavy periods, irregular periods or cramps as it does for adult women’s cycle issues.
4. Eliminate all sources of xenoestrogens to further reduce your risk. We all require fiber to successfully eliminate excess estrogen from our blood. We can gain this excess estrogen from many sources - including the syntethic estrogens that can be absorbed through cleaning products, cosmetics, shampoos, and plastics. It takes a conscious effort these days to avoid letting your body build up a toxic level of estrogen. The first step is to not load your body with more estrogen than it needs to begin with. The second is supporting your liver with your food choices so it can work to detoxify your blood. The third is eating fiber so those excess hormones can bind in your large intestine and be eliminated quickly (ie. you do not experience constipation, storing the hormones for longer than is beneficial and increasing your exposure to the risks of estrogen dominance). Fiber works like an internal Swiffer to clear out your large intestine. Aim to include 25 grams of fiber as part of your meals, per day.

Which brings me to telling you about the best sources of fiber that you should be eating every day to lower your risk of breast cancer. These 3 foods contain a good amount of fiber as well as the other vital vitamins and minerals - such as glutathione, B vitamins, and C vitamins - you need to help your liver process the excess estrogen so that it can be transported to the large intestine and then eliminated quickly. The research study shows that the best way to get cancer-preventing fiber is through fruits and vegetables, rather than grains and beans (although these are also an important part of a healthy diet). There are other foods with higher levels of fiber per serving, but these 3 are both fiber-rich and liver-supporting and therefore work as a double, or even triple, threat to hormone-related cancers. Pro tip - all of these can be part of a delicious smoothie!

1. Broccoli (approx 5 grams per cup, cooked) - this green also contains the phytochemicals sulphorophanes, indole-3-carbinol and D-glucarate which are critical liver detoxifiers.
2. Flax seeds (approx 4 grams per 2 tablespoons) - a great source of omega-3 fatty acids (which reduce the insulin resistance that can suppress liver function) and lignans (which bind to estrogen receptors and prevent absorption of excess estrogen), as well as fiber.
3. Pears (approx 5 grams per medium fruit) - pears, and apples, contain the flavonoid phloretin which impairs cancel cell growth, along with lots of fiber.

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,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, do you have a family history of breast cancer?Second, do you suffer with PMS or the other estrogen related conditions mentioned?Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.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!

So, you’ve taken all of my advice on the best foods to boost your sex drive and long since banished your vibrator from the bedroom, now you’re all fired up and ready for the Best Sex Ever, but….your man just isn’t feeling it. Not tonight. Not this week. Not for a while.Men find themselves suffering from low sex drive for similar reasons to us ladies. Just as you have a hormone cycle that works on approximately a monthly rotation; your partner has a hormone pattern for every 24 hours. Men experiencing suppressed testosterone production won’t experience the peaks they’re supposed to and will start to feel less interested in sex, be less able to get and sustain an erection, and find sex less enjoyable. This time of year we can get overwhelmed by advice on ways to feel hotter, but I want to give you a practical, realistic, long-game solution to a flagging sex life. Especially as you and your partner get older, you will need to make a conscious effort to boost your sex drive and he needs to do the same, that is -  if you want to keep the passion burning until your 50th wedding anniversary! To help you do this I have some lifestyle tips along with a solid, one-day meal plan that will ensure when your man returns home from work that he’s feeling energized, relaxed, happy and sexy, so that you can make the most of your meticulously planned, much-anticipated date nights.

First of all, my lifestyle suggestions for you and your man:

Plan your date earlier in the week - If you only get one night to yourself per week (or per month) because of the demands of growing kids or growing businesses then instead of focusing on that big, cliched Friday Night event, schedule your date night for a time when you both are less likely to feel tired and wired from the week - Tuesday or Wednesday are my favorite days for a date night, for this reason as we still feel rested from the weekend. Also, it’s so much easier to get a great reservation and the pressure is off from the start! Get good quality sleep the night before - No different to you, your man needs good quality sleep the night before if he’s going to produce enough testosterone to feel energized and sexy the night of. We all know great sex is a great sleep enhancer, but it’s a cycle in itself - to have great sex you need to not feel fatigued, so start with the sleep. Plus low testosterone can lead to insomnia; addressing this with his diet will set you on the path to pleasure. Make sure he has a relaxing bedtime routine - devices off early, cut back on caffeine, and spot treat those sleep troubles.Jump for your love - It’s not just a great song from the 80’s! If your man comes home for work stressed out and unable to switch from work mode to home mode, get him on an urban rebounder for ten minutes. Jumping up and down on the rebounder will release and lower the stress hormone cortisol that is pumping through his body, bringing him down to a calmer place and most importantly allowing him to be stimulated by testosterone. Sexy Time Timing - Syncing your relationship to your hormone cycle has so many benefits. You create this dance of energies where each of you take on the leadership and the receptive role at different times. It’s good to be the one who’s on the receiving end of your partner’s leadership sometimes – it makes sure we stay open to receiving love and pleasure too.If you align with your hormones you’ll find there’s a right time for an adventurous date, a right time for sharing your hopes, dreams and desires, and a right time for sex...yes, that would be 3pm, in the middle of the afternoon! Afternoon delight, indeed. This concept I teach went viral in December from the daily mail to Details magazine - men wanted to know when the peak sex time is - and it turns out it’s hormonally driven - of course!BUT if that’s impossible with your work schedules - try first thing in the morning after a really good date night, instead of just before you both go to sleep. That’s when your hormones and his hormones are in perfect harmony to make it the hottest sex it can be! Now, onto that meal plan. Food is vital for sustained passion in a relationship. Feed yourself and your man in a way that supports your hormones and you’ll see and feel the benefits. Food really is the BEST foreplay!

My one-day sex-boosting meal plan for your man

Breakfast - make it a big one with both eggs and oatmeal on the menu. This will stabilize his blood sugar for the rest of the day and keep him feeling even. Try some of my breakfast ideas - but rather than just one, pick two to serve up in the morning.Lunch - pack your man a really tasty wholegrain sandwich for work, with real turkey or roast beef (not deli meat) and avocado (a natural source of bioidentical testosterone) plus some folate packed baby spinach. Throw in some snacks to keep him going through the afternoon - sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, cashews and an apple. Bonus snack that he eats to make you more attracted to him - YES - Add in some celery sticks - when men eat celery they send out a pheromone called androstenol that will make him extra-attractive to you that evening. It’s the same pheromone commonly used in colognes! This lunch will help his body to make more testosterone, stabilize his blood sugar and reduce his stress levels. Dinner - Salmon roasted with a spicy mustard sauce and asparagus on the side. Add some cayenne pepper into that sauce to increase circulation and blood flow. Asparagus contains aspartic acid which boosts libido, plus it also has a reputation as a “natural Viagra” to prevent erectile dysfunction issues.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,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, do you suffer with low libido?Second, are you getting good sleep? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Feeling Frazzled, Bloated, and Unsexy?

If you’ve noticed more distance between cycles…or some periods are light and some are super heavy…your sex drive is flat…and you’re more moody in general (anxious, depressed, or both)…and especially if you’re in your mid 30’s and up…Your hormones may be aging faster than they should. But you can start reversing this process by adding one key micronutrient that you’re likely missing.Get your free report:The Magic Missing Micronutrient to Get Your Sexy Back.

If you’re dealing with a hormonal condition like PCOS, you’ve probably tried every health trend on the planet. Juicing, fasting, low-carb, , vegan diets — sound familiar?

Your instincts are spot on. When it comes to restoring hormonal balance, food IS medicine. But the truth is that many of today’s health food fads only make hormonal symptoms worse.  If you’re “eating healthy” but still experiencing symptoms of endocrine chaos, one of the culprits might be on your plate.

In the past few years, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) has been in the public eye like never before. Thanks to celebrities like Victoria Beckham and Daisy Ridley, women around the world who are coping with the condition finally feel less alone.

As a former PCOS sufferer, I couldn’t be happier to see PCOS making headlines. I experienced everything from agonizing acne and weight gain to sleeplessness, depression, and more. It was only after years of trial, error, and frustration that I was able to successfully reverse my hormonal imbalance with one powerful tool that’s too often overlooked in conventional medicine: Food.

Why Cutting Out Dairy and Sugar May Not Be Enough to Heal Your PCOS

If you’ve been diagnosed with PCOS, you’ve probably heard over and over about the dangers of sugar and dairy. And, it’s true: these two foods are unparalleled in their ability to wreak hormonal havoc (caffeine is another nutritional villain when it comes to hormones, so it’s best avoided, too).  

To get your period back, clear your acne, stop hair loss, and lose weight  you’re wise to keep sugar, dairy, and caffeine out of your diet. But you’ll also want to take a close look at the other foods and beverages that might be sabotaging your success.  

When you’re willing to dig deeper and root out the hidden “healthy” foods that undermine hormone balance, you’ll make leaps and bounds in easing symptoms.  

Some  “Healthy” Foods May Make Your  PCOS worse

Before I made it my mission to fix my hormones and help other women do the same, I had no idea that some of the foods I believed to be "healthy" were actually making my problems worse. Now, I see how shocked my clients are when I tell them that some of the hyped-up health foods in their grocery carts might be  hindering their progress in reversing symptoms.

For women with PCOS, it’s important to know which “healthy” foods to avoid. If you’re hormonally-sensitive like I am, these foods—foods that can be healthy for others—have a stronger effect on you can make the symptoms you desperately want to be rid of even worse.

The 5 “Healthy” Foods You Have to Quit ASAP To Beat PCOS

So what are the 5 foods to avoid if you have PCOS? Allow me to play mythbuster and highlight the foods you probably never thought could have an impact on your ovaries:

1. Artificial sweeteners. The quest to give up sugar—and get off the blood-sugar roller coaster— is so important. In all the years I’ve worked with clients, I’ve rarely met a woman who is struggling with hormone issues who isn’t also struggling with blood sugar issues. But in the quest to ditch the sweet stuff, we often turn to sugar substitutes, which come with their own problems.

One cause for concern is the intensely sweet flavor of these synthetic substitutes. When we rely on them heavily, they can hijack of our taste buds and make more complex flavors, like those found in vegetables and low-glycemic fruits like berries, less appealing—and the fewer whole, real vegetables and low-glycemic fruits we eat, the more we deprive the liver of the phytonutrients it needs to function optimally. The liver processes and eliminates used hormones from the body; when it doesn’t get the phytonutrient support it needs, it struggles to eliminate estrogen and other hormones from the body, contributing to hormonal imbalance.

For some women, I include stevia in this category. It’s not artificial, but, in some traditional societies, folk wisdom holds that regular intake of stevia is a form of birth control. For women who aren’t hormonally-sensitive, small amounts of stevia probably won’t have a profound effect on their fertility or cycles. But for those of us who are hormonally-sensitive PCOS sufferers, it’s best to err on the side of caution and choose a different sweetener, especially if you’re currently heaping spoonfuls into your herbal teas throughout the day.

2. Red meat. Paleo diets have become as trendy as intense boot camp classes (exercise is a whole other important part of the equation...) in recent years. And all too often, women with PCOS are advised to eat like cavemen, subsisting mostly on lots and lots of protein-packed meat to lose weight and counteract the damaging effects of sugar. But here’s the deal: In my experience, if you have PCOS, following a Paleo diet will not bring about weight loss and it certainly won’t bring back your period.  A high protein diet causes a decrease in the production of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), which is vital to reducing testosterone levels — something that’s critical in PCOS recovery.

Plus, many women with PCOS have a specific genetic problem known as the methyl-tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene mutation. Eating Paleo when you have the MTHFR gene mutation can create too much of an amino acid called homocysteine, which can cause an increase in PCOS symptoms.

Upping meat intake is also often coupled with decreasing carbohydrates and this is a real issue for PCOS sufferers. Recent research suggests that PCOS may be connected to autoimmune thyroid disease (poor thyroid function) and your thyroid needs the glucose from good carbohydrates (like quinoa, brown rice, buckwheat rather than glutento function optimally.

3. Raw kale. When eaten raw, all cruciferous vegetables contain substances called goitrogens that suppress thyroid function (or cause hypothyroidism) which contributes to PCOS. As a rule of thumb, it’s always a good idea to cook kale, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, bok choy and cabbage before eating. One easy way technique is to saute them in a pan with a little coconut oil.Don’t worry about celery, romaine lettuce, beet leaves, and chard — you can eat those in their raw form to your heart’s content;they don’t contain this goitrogen chemical.

4. Soy. It’s pretty common for women to swap in soy for dairy when they ditch milk, but this exchange isn’t a good one. Soy isn’t your ally if you have PCOS because it contains "phyto" or plant estrogen that acts like estrogen in the body—and eating too much of it confuses your body into thinking it has enough of the real deal in supply. This sends a signal your endocrine system to slow down estrogen production, subsequently slowing the production of luteinizing hormone (LH), and effectively shutting down ovulation.

5. Cooking oils like canola, sunflower, and vegetable oils (and synthetic spreads, like margarine). Unhealthy fats are bad news for hormonal harmony. For one, eating too many unhealthy fats crowds out our consumption of healthy fats, which are important for maintaining healthy levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol. Cholesterol is a precursor to all the body’s steroid hormones, including estrogen, progesterone, and FSH. Simply put, and contrary to media reports about cholesterol in recent decades, we need cholesterol to make some of our most important hormones.

Vegetable oils and other cooking oils, like sunflower oil, are high in omega-6 fatty acids and low in omega-3 fatty acids. We need to consume both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids through diet (the body can’t produce them and we need them to live), but the problem is that the Western diet is flooded with omega-6 fatty acids—and tragically short on omega-3 fatty acids. When omega-6s are disproportionately high in the body relative to omega-3s, its a recipe for inflammation, which is the archenemy of hormonal health and overall health.

Canola oil presents its own set of problems. It’s higher in omega-6s than omega-3s, like other vegetable oils (though not by as high a margin), but the real causes for concern with canola are GMOs and toxic processing. The vast majority of the plants from which canola oil is harvested are genetically modified—and the oil is extracted by heating and crushing the plant seeds and then mixing them with hexane. In addition to being classified as a neurotoxin by the CDC , hexane and other organic solvents like it, drive up inflammation and interfere with endocrine health. .

Non-food bonus tip for hormonal balance!

BONUS:  Ditch staying up late to binge your favorite TV show or finish a work project. Food isn’t the only thing that affects hormones. Regularly skimping on sleep is a sure-fire way to throw blood sugar off balance, put your adrenal system into overdrive, and send a whole bunch of suboptimal signals to your endocrine system. Prioritize good sleep the way you do healthy eating, and your hormones will thank you.

to your FLO,

Alisa

Good things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, do you have PCOS?

Second, have you tried giving up sugar and dairy?

Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Monthly FLO: The Cycle Syncing System™

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MonthlyFLO is the first-ever woman-centric health system that syncs with your unique rhythm. It gives you the foundation for solving any hormonal issues you may have over your lifetime.

Using the principles of functional nutrition, MonthlyFLO is a specially-sequenced food therapy program that recalibrates your endocrine function. Over three months, you will be guided step-by-step to make simple, cumulative food and lifestyle changes that balance your hormones naturally.

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

You may be familiar with some of the side effects of hormonal birth control, like depression, blood clots, and weight gain. You might also know that birth control pills, which are often prescribed for things other than contraception—like irregular periods or acne—aren’t the best solution for managing symptoms. In fact, the pill ultimately makes symptoms like acne worse.But hormonal birth control has other, more far-reaching consequences. Specifically, taking the pill can wreak havoc on your love life. I know that probably sounds far out or completely made up, but the idea that hormonal birth control has real consequences for your love life comes directly from the scientific research, which I outline in detail below.

And when you think about it closely, it makes a lot of sense. The pill messes with hormone production and balance by introducing a stream of synthetic hormones to our systems—and because hormones impact how we perceive other people and how they perceive us, it stands to reason that our interactions with everyone—and specifically romantic partners— would be tipped sideways by a steady stream of synthetic hormones. In other words, hormones help us interact with the world. When we introduce a whole new set of hormones to our delicate bodies, it can shift our desires and perceptions on a fundamental biochemical level and have far-reaching romantic consequences.

How the Pill Ruins Love

Here are 5 of the ways that the pill might be messing with your love life:You like the smell of guys or girls who are wrong for you romantically. When our hormones are balanced and healthy and when (biochemically speaking) we’re on the hunt for a baby daddy (which means you! It doesn’t matter if you never want kids or if you aren’t attracted to men. If you’re ovulating, your body goes through the biochemical hunt for a good reproductive partner every month), we are primed to be attracted to men to whom we are genetically dissimilar, which lowers the chance of miscarriage and increases the likelihood of having a healthy baby. It also tends to make for more satisfying sex and happier relationships.

Studies show that if you are on the pill, you are more likely to gravitate toward men who smell like you (possibly because the pill simulates pregnancy and pregnant women are drawn toward nurturing and supportive biological relatives, or folks who smell like them). In this way, the pill acts like an anti-cupid, steering you away from your ideal romantic match. You become less attractive to the opposite or same sex. Pheromones are chemical messengers released by the body—and research shows that women’s pheromones can, quite literally, cast a spell over men and women when it comes to romance. Pheromones act as a sort of ‘love potion’ when they are released, increasing a person’s attraction to a women. But studies show that the pill stops production of these attraction-enhancing pheromones, and that might have negative consequences for your romantic and sexual life. It might make your attraction to your current partner disappear (gasp!). If you start a relationship when you’re on the pill then you may find, if and when you come off, that you’re no longer attracted to your partner. One study found that unless your mate is considered conventionally good-looking by evolutionary standards, you may then find them unattractive after you quit taking hormonal birth control. Here is what study author Michelle Russell told Time magazine in 2014:“Women who choose a partner when they’re on hormonal contraceptives and then stop taking them will prioritize their husband’s attractiveness more than they would if they were still on it. The effect that it would have on her marital satisfaction would carry more weight.”

It can suppress your sex drive. A woman’s sex drive should peak around ovulation, but the pill prevents this from happening. Not only that, but the synthetic hormones in hormonal birth control deplete your testosterone reserves, which, along with balanced hormones, is a key to your sexual desire and enjoyment. Research has linked oral contraceptives with female sexual dysfunction, including less frequent sexual activity, arousal, pleasure, and orgasm, and difficulty with lubrication. Oral contraceptives have also been linked with recurrent yeast infections—and there’s nothing like a yeast infection to sink one’s sex drive. It can lower your mood (which decreases your chances of getting in the mood).The pill has been linked to depression and anxiety, particularly in those women who may have a history of mental health issues. And many women are put on the pill for what’s actually a bad case of PMS—which can be addressed naturally—only to find that it makes their mood swings worse. For some, these mood changes manifest themselves as a bad case of the “blahs,” or just kinda feeling “meh” about everything (otherwise known as anhedonia). Women are supposed to feel a range of emotions throughout their natural cycle, and being in touch with the ebbs and flows of your feelings can actually enhance your relationship. Feeling so-so about everything all the time doesn’t lend itself to romance. When you’re feeling blah, you’d just as rather watch TV than make-out with your sweetheart. If the pill’s deleterious effects on dating are making you question the use of oral contraceptives for contraception or as a medical treatment, follow my protocol to transition off the pill. If you’re going to stay on the pill a little while longer, you can start this protocol now to ensure the switch is smooth and that you avoid seeing the return of any prior symptoms.

If you are on the pill for contraception, don’t forget about non-hormonal contraception choices. And if you want to learn more about potential side effects of hormonal birth control, including cancer risk, check out my special FREE Birth Control Rehab report.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

Last month ACOG (the American Committee of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) published a report recommending that teenage girls, their parents, and their clinicians consider the menstrual cycle as the “fifth vital sign” of health. In this landmark announcement, this group of women’s health experts suggested that teens keep track of their periods and develop cycle awareness to help clinicians with early diagnosis of reproductive health issues like PCOS, thyroid disease, and endometriosis, which can be indicated by abnormally long cycles, excessive bleeding, or lack of periods entirely. The report includes guidelines on what should be considered outside the normal range when it comes to a teen’s cycle experience - from the onset of periods, to cycle length, to duration of the flow.The ACOG report states: “By including an evaluation of the menstrual cycle as an additional vital sign, clinicians reinforce its importance in assessing overall health status for patients and caretakers. Just as abnormal blood pressure, heart rate, or respiratory rate may be key to diagnosing potentially serious health conditions, identification of abnormal menstrual patterns in adolescence may improve early identification of potential health concerns for adulthood.”HALLELUIAH!! I would have loved THAT to have been part of my conversation as a teenager with all my period issues! I’ve long known the menstrual cycle to be a signifier of our health (you can read my own guidelines on what it means to have a “normal” period here), but I also know the menstrual cycle is the key to developing and nurturing our health.

How to help the teen in your life

If you are the mother, aunt, sister, or godmother of a teenage girl, this report contains crucial information that I believe ought to be conveyed with the same importance as instructions on how to use a tampon or pad. Most of us are comfortable now with sharing the latter with teens - gone are the days when teens would be shocked and horrified by the arrival of their first period, I hope - but all of us adult women, we need to support the younger generation now beyond the practicalities. 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”). Of course, it’s a little like what they tell you in the airplane safety schpeel - “help yourself before you help others.” Or - lead by example! If you’re living in your Flo and reaping the benefits then you are better equipped to support young women in learning, appreciating, and understanding their menstrual cycles. From this position you can give the gift of hormonal imbalance to others. As the mother of a daughter, I am thrilled that this report was created by ACOG. Although I know that, when the time comes, I will teach my daughter the art of cycle tracking, cycle awareness, and cycle syncing, I am happy that now a certain standard of care when it comes to young women’s reproductive health will become the expected practice. I am glad that we are finally seeing the period as indicator of our overall health and well-being, rather than just something to be suffered through, ignored, or hidden away. That said, there’s one thing missing from this otherwise encouraging report that concerns me, and that’s how these reproductive health issues will be treated, once they are diagnosed.

When the Pill is the problem

Early diagnosis is an important step forward in how we care for women’s health. However, if the primary or only treatment offered to teen girls is the birth control pill or hormone-based IUD, then we are missing out on a huge opportunity to truly help our young women. If the teen in your life is dealing with reproductive health issues like those mentioned in the report, then consulting a doctor is an important part of getting her back on track. However, we must always question the prescription of hormonal birth control as it never treats the health issue, but only masks the symptoms. Once your teen decides to come off, and this might be years down the line, she will discover the health issue will return and possibly be worse than before. If the teen in your life is dealing with very common problems like acne or PMS then the Pill is not the answer there either. Again, it will only mask these issues, not solve them. Although it can be very tempting to reach for these drugs to put a stop to the problem, it’s important to know that doing so can set a young women up for a lifetime of side effects (such as depression, low libido, anxiety, hair loss, cancer risk, and even life-threatening blood clots) and suppressed functioning of her endocrine, metabolic, and immune systems. It really can have a serious domino effect for her health.

Finding your Flo as a young woman

The source of hormonal imbalance issues in teen girls is mainly diet, exposure to synthetic estrogens in everything from cosmetics to shampoos, and stress. While some cycle irregularity is normal during teenage years (your reproductive system does take a few years to mature) we should not be seeing the symptoms to the extent that we are in new generations. Teaching teens to be conscious of their cycles AND teaching them to live in harmony with their hormones will go a long way to saving them much suffering. Although this is not an area I detail extensively in my book “WomanCode,” teen girls can absolutely follow the exact same Flo Living diet and lifestyle plan outlined there from the time they begin cycling. As I recommend for all women, start simply by layering foods in a cycle-synced pattern and build from there. What if a girl’s first period were not only met with a care package of tampons and pads, but also a copy of “Cycle Savvy” and “WomanCode”? If you’re reading this thinking of the teen daughter who is possibly in your future, it’s good to know that the gift of hormonal balance can be given when she’s still in the womb. Prepping yourself for a healthy pregnancy will be one of the best things you can do for your daughter. But, if you’ve come to Flo Living already with a pre-teen or teen in the family, then know that it’s never too late to start living in and loving your Flo. Share your journey with her, she’ll surely thank you for it. 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,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, have you shared Flo Living with your family? Second, what do you wish you knew as a teenager? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.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!

Scientists have discovered a hormone, residing in the liver, that is responsible for controlling your sugar cravings. Go science! The hormone has the delightful name of FGF21 or fibroblast growth factor 21 and sends signals to the brain to suppress hankerings for the sweet stuff. Research has shown that administering this hormone (to monkeys and mice) has the effect of stopping a desire for anything sugary. In fact, the animals responded by reducing their intake of sugar by an impressive 7 fold. Essentially this hormone tells your body when you’ve had enough sugar and don’t need any more. We’ve known for a while that hormones have control over appetite but ‍

FGF21 is specifically safeguarding our appetite for sugar.The new findings have caused scientists to consider the possibility of creating a drug that mimics the hormone’s effect on the body - thereby assisting the diabetic and obese in regaining their health. But what should you take away from this latest research?  Well, it’s going to be a long time before that drug is created and comes to market. Not only that, but it’s my belief that for most women there is an easier, simpler and more healthful way of curing your sugar cravings and it’s something you can start on today.

Curbing your sweet tooth with food

If you want this liver-based hormone FGF21 to work for you and suppress those sugar cravings then you need to develop excellent liver function. A humming liver is going to support the work of FGF21 and naturally increase your ability to satisfy your sugar gremlins with just a healthy couple of dates or some honey in your tea. No more being overwhelmed to binge on cookies! To get to this place you need to be using food on the daily to control your blood sugar levels so that your liver can function at its best. You know, it’s actually totally normal to have some sugar cravings. Glucose is your brain’s only source of fuel so you actually need a form of the sweet stuff to keep the cogs turning. However, at the root of all hormonal imbalance issues you will find poorly regulated blood sugar. Most women I meet through Flo Living are experiencing the dramatic peaks and troughs of blood sugar mismanagement. Solving this issue is the starting point for living in your Flo. Blood sugar mismanagement means the sugar gremlins become sugar bullies and push you to seek out too much sweet stuff to keep your energy levels high and prevent crashing out. The liver and pancreas function to regulate our blood sugar levels and eliminate excess hormones and toxins. I’ve been preaching this for years. Therefore - smooth, controlled blood sugar stasis allows your liver to complete its other necessary duties, including processing excess estrogen so that you can avoid one of the main causes of many hormonal balance issues and other female diseases - estrogen dominance. If your liver and pancreas are too busy figuring out your blood sugar issues, then they won’t ever be able to concentrate their efforts on getting rid of all of the synthetic estrogens we absorb every day in the form of plastics, cleaners, beauty products and more, which lead to health problems like endometriosis, PCOS, acne, cramps, infertility, and PMS. Improving your blood sugar stasis and liver function will support the amazing FGF21 hormone in doing its important work.

My 5 step plan to make more FGF21 and beat your sugar cravings

The key to curing your sugar cravings is food. Let food be thy medicine here. You don’t need to wait for the FGF21-inspired drug (with who-knows-what side effects…)  You can use food to make more of this hormone today and fix your burning desire for the sweet stuff.

1. Eat the Right Sugar on Purpose. Even if you have stabilized blood sugar, you’re going to crave sweetness at some time or another. Not all sugars are created equal, but in the end anything that tastes sweet will have an impact on your blood sugar. You need to get smart about how you satisfy your sugar gremlins and not let them become bad-for-you sugar bullies. I have several go-to recipes for sweet treats that I turn to when I’m feeling the need. As a rule, honey and coconut nectar are my two favorite sweeteners, as, for me, they have the lowest impact on my blood sugar levels.
2. Time Your Breakfast Right. You need to eat breakfast within 90 minutes of waking up. Choose a good-size, protein rich breakfast with eggs and smoked salmon. Research has shown a big breakfast prevents hormonal imbalance issues like PCOS and infertility, as well as protecting you from developing type-2 diabetes.
3. Supersize your lunch. Your biggest meal of the day should be lunch. Incorporate a complex carb like black beans, a source of good fat like avocado and sunflower seeds and a generous helping of glutathione-heavy vegetables like carrots, broccoli, spinach or asparagus, drizzled with olive oil. Glutathione is an antioxidant that detoxifies the liver.
4. Make a Liver Lover Smoothie. Detoxing your liver doesn’t involve deprivation, in fact I want you to add a delicious smoothie to your weekly meal plan. Cilantro contains a property called linalool that helps to cleanse the liver. I have perfected a smoothie recipe that brings in cilantro plus glutathione heavy mango and apple. Blend: ½ cup mango, ½ a green apple, 1/2 cup frozen pineapple, 1/2 cup coconut water and 1 cup of cilantro.
5. Avoid Hidden Sugar. There are many hidden sugars that you might be missing, especially when it comes to picking out any packaged or supposed “health foods.” New dietary guidelines encourage limiting sugar intake of any kind to just 10% of your daily calories. Although I don’t agree with all of the new recommendations, I believe they’re spot-on with this one, but we need to be even more careful than that. 200 calories from sugar per day is a lot - more than one 12 ounce can of soda. We really should be avoiding white sugar completely. Be aware of where sugars hide - it can be  in unexpected places, like fruit-based smoothies that don’t incorporate the fruits’ fibre, which are often as bad for you sugar-wise as eating a brownie! The sugar industry has given the white stuff a lot of new names to try and baffle us into consuming more than we should. Check out the documentary Fed Up, it’s a real eye-opener.

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

How do you start your day? Do you hit the snooze button until you have to dash out the door, breakfast-less and barely awake? Or do you lay in bed scrolling through emails on your phone and getting stressed about what’s ahead? Your morning routine, or lack thereof, can have an impact on the rest of your day. If you start the day anxious, hungry, and over-caffeinated, you probably know all to well that you won’t be able to perform to the best of your abilities at work or when it comes to any of your plans. But not only that, you’re also setting yourself up for the kind of jagged blood sugar and cortisol overdrive that will inevitably trigger hormone imbalance, leaving you open to symptoms such as PMS, missed periods, cramps, bloating, acne and more. How you choose to start your day impacts your whole month in this way - one too many bad mornings can spell disaster for your period.

How to become a morning person

It doesn’t have to be this way! Mornings can be a moment of peace and sanctuary when you ready yourself for the busy day. We always hear that there are “morning people” and those who hate mornings. I think some of what goes into this is how well you sleep. Feeling energized and positive at the day’s start, of course, has a lot to do with whether you got enough rest. But, that’s not the whole picture. You can also put to waste a good night’s rest rapidly with a rushed and hectic morning. You know those women you see serenely sweeping through the office, getting it all done, then gliding home in the evening to a fulfilled, satisfied, relaxed evening? They’ve probably got their mornings handled. Changing your morning routine can be the first key step to happiness, to healing your hormonal health issues, and to getting you on the path to perfect periods. Mastering the morning is kind of a major life skill. I’d even go as far as to say that a good morning routine is life-changing!

Why I have more than one morning routine

Now, here’s where I differ. I don’t have the same morning routine for every single day. No, of course not. You are not in the same physical, mental, or emotional space every single day. You are a woman and, so, you are cyclical. To get the most out of your mornings you need to go with your Flo and not try to enforce a strict pattern that just won’t feel good all of the time. Changing your morning routine to fit your hormone cycle is like taking a regular morning routine and super charging it for the demands of modern womanhood! It also makes sticking to a routine so much easier, because the routine for that day should fit how you’ll be feeling when you wake up. Plus, being cycle-aware in regards to your morning routine provides an immediate blueprint for you to follow through. So, this means that I actually have one morning routine for the first half of my cycle and one morning routine for the second half of my cycle. It’s that simple, but it’s so effective.

My morning routine for the first half of my cycle (from post-period to ovulation)

1. I wake up and drink a tall glass of lemon water
2. I stretch out my body with some light yoga practice before I start putting together my breakfast
3. I make a smoothie with a blend of avocado, blueberries, spinach, flax, almond milk, and cinnamon
4. I then sit down at my desk and assess the to-do list I have put together the night before. In the evenings I always feel super ambitious about what I can achieve in one day, but when the morning comes I do allow myself to reality-check that list. I immediately take one or two items off the list. Doing this really feels like a relief in a way and that boosts my confidence and energy for the day ahead.
5. I take a moment to connect to my heart in some way before I start my work - this might mean a call to a friend, a cuddle with my daughter, or some meditation.

My morning routine for the second half of my cycle (from post-ovulation to the end of my period)

1. I wake up and drink a raspberry leaf hot tea
2. I stretch out my body with some light yoga before I make breakfast
3. I choose a more carb-heavy breakfast for this time of my cycle, with a grain-base like buckwheat or quinoa plus eggs and sauteed greens
4. I take some time to do a little introspective self-evaluation. I might call a friend to work through something that’s been bothering me or sit down to journal for a while. I want to get out what I’m feeling right now and address it in a way that works and feels best.
5. If I wake up feeling a little cranky and off-balance, I will write a quick 5 item gratitude list to shift my energy and feel revitalized. If this crankiness is overwhelming and hard to move past, then you should think about reassessing your diet and lifestyle and try a new way of living in your body for your next cycle.

Creating your morning routine around your cycle is a great way to start the process of cycle-syncing your life. Here at Flo Living I teach women to layer in cycle-syncing habits - from eating the right foods for your hormones, to switching your work outs, to embracing a cycle-aware outlook on your relationship - rather than trying to transform everything all at once. And, once you see the benefits to your mood, your energy, and your period health from making this change to your mornings, I know you’ll want to shape the rest of your day in the same way. 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,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, do you struggle to feel awake in the mornings? Second, what’s your current morning routine? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.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!

The start of a new year has got me thinking...perhaps we love the ritual of a new year with its resolutions, hopes and plans because it’s the one time of year that feminine energy universally takes center stage. Everyone’s energy shifts into their feminine center as we each tap into our desires to create something out of “the void,” so to speak, to set intentions and create something from nothing. We get to plant seeds into the wombs of our consciousness and connect in hope and faith with each other for the expectation of new life, new births, and new opportunities.If you’re balanced in your feminine and masculine energies then after the feminine dances with her desires for the year ahead, her call being crystal clear and strong is then able to draw out the masculine to come and see what can be done to hold her dance all year long. It’s that blending of feminine and masculine energies that allows us to see and feel what we want out of our lives and then manifest those desires into reality. We connect with what we truly want and need and then we choose to develop towards those goals If you’re not balanced with this aspect of your energy, and you overly rely on masculine energy to push through your to do list, then you may find that not only do you give up on your resolutions and intentions and plans more easily, but that you get really fried in the process of trying to achieve them.There is a better way, and it doesn’t involve giving up your beloved list making self ;) It is about learning how to engage both energies to work smarter.

How to have it all without burning out

As I’ve previously written, meeting our goals for the day, week, year, or the next five years, is so much easier if we allow our feminine energy to take its turn. A purely masculine approach is to write long to-do lists and push ourselves to acheive each item one by one without listening to our body or heart. I’ve already shown you how you can use your feminine energy to rid your life of stress and to improve your relationship, but you can also use this to reach and succeed in your career goals. Men in fact are totally on to this. In The Athena Doctrine - a brilliant book with evidence based research on why countries that engage more feminine energy traits are healthier, happier, and wealthier countries. A great example of this - Sweden just made the news by recently making universal the six-hour work day - with the express intent that people will be better able to care for themselves and therefore be more effective while at work - a concept born out of feminine energy if ever there was one! When it comes to work, a purely masculine approach is powering through every day all day to work long hours, sleep less, stay at your desk more and cut back on free time. Sweden is trying to achieve a feminine/masculine balance by allowing people more time to maintain their well-being outside of work. We all know that sitting at our desks all day is not good for our health, but it seems Sweden really listened and decided to take action!

4 daily practices to engage your feminine energy for career success

I want you to have a feel for what it means to engage your feminine energy during every work day. This powerful shift in your approach can reshape your working life in such a way that you will be fully supported by every fiber of your being to succeed in achieving your dreams.

1. Remember You Have a Body. Don’t sit down all day and push through what you need to do. Remember your amazing body trying to take care of you and give her a helping hand. Get up and stretch, take 15 minutes for a walk, eat a good breakfast and lunch, don’t sit in front of your computer and don’t stave off hunger with coffee. Channel your feminine energy to nurture the body you have so you can continue to pursue the work you want to do. It’s also about deciding how you want to feel when you’re pursuing those goals. Do you want to feel energized and happy? I hope so! The process can be about enjoying the serendipity and opportunity that comes your way or it can feel like pushing a big boulder up a hill. Engaging your feminine energy is about looking at the quality of the experience you’re having on the way to your goals as well as examining the end goals in themselves.
2. Limit Your List. All of the research into concentration and productivity at work suggest we really ought to only focus on one big project a day, but I know that’s not realistic, so let’s settle on two. Take your task list to task and use your masculine energy to project manage in an optimal way what needs to get done. Then use your mama bear feminine energy to hold the boundaries, by saying no to things that distract you and to protect the time and headspace you need to complete those tasks well.
3. Take a Daily Social Pleasure Break. Always build time into your day to connect with your community and in a way that feels good. If you just got one of those two big projects done, then go ahead and celebrate that with someone. You could call a friend or your partner, talk them through something you just achieved and why you’re excited about it. Engage your feminine energy of communication and connection to celebrate and even help bring things into fruition faster!
4. Connect with Your Heart. This can be done through meditation, a simple self-care ritual, a quick walk outside, a cuddle with your child...The more quiet, reflective time you allow yourself, the more your creative juices will flow and the more productive you’ll be when you sit back down to work. You can’t have your best ideas if you stay in your office and in your head all day long. Engaging your feminine energy this way will allow your intuition and inspiration to guide you more and more.

Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health and life choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this - the science of your body is on your side!to your FLO,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, do you feel like you overly rely on your masculine to succeed? Second, how do you engage your feminine energy and how do you plan to engage it more? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.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 think by now we all understand that weight loss is an on-going, every day commitment to a healthy diet and lifestyle and that the fads won’t fix anything. However, it sure can be hard to not get caught up in the hype of all these new year diet deals and workout wonders that come our way.

I think every single one of us has probably, at some point, gotten seduced by a new weight loss book, a new year bootcamp, a January re-commitment to the local gym, or even some late night call to buy the latest, greatest workout equipment for your home (those shaking weights! the electric shock belly wrap!).

If you’ve gained a few pounds over the holidays - heck, if you’ve gained a few pounds over the holidays on top of the few pounds you gained during the last holidays - it can cause a feeling of panic and dread. We resolve to turn ourselves around and we get strict, restrictive, and punishing with our bodies, trying to beat them back into a slender, slim shape. We deprive ourselves of food, we exercise intensely, we cleanse and skip meals, we avoid all temptation, and we feel miserable. ‍

So, we know what doesn’t work, right? But that leaves us with one burning question - if we want to lose weight, what exactly DOES work?

‍I have lost 60 lbs 2 times in my life (and in a relatively short period of time - a matter of a few months). The first time I was in my ‘20s, the second time was just recently, in 2014, after I had my daughter. Now, my friends tell me I am slimmer and younger looking than before I had my baby.  

More important though, to me, than fitting in my clothes is how good I feel in my own skin. And that doesn’t come from seeing a certain number pop up on the scale, that comes from a near 20 year relationship with my body that honors the 4 phase-centric hormonal needs of both my body and my spirit.

‍I did none of the things we are normally encouraged to do at the start of a new year to shed those pounds. In fact, during those 2 weight loss periods:  

• I did not diet and I never felt deprived of food
• My only exercise was walking

How did I do it? Good question!

Crash dieting and excessive exercising works against the hormonal science of your body - it increases and worsens hormonal symptoms like PCOS, PMS, cramps, heavy bleeding, and endometriosis. It sets you up, as a woman, for a cravings-plus-bingeing rollercoaster and a flagging, subpar metabolic system. It causes you to quit trying to lose weight before you reach your goal, because you feel awful and you can see clearly that it is not working.

All of the diets you hear about do not work longterm for women and have the potential to make your hormonal symptoms worse! Too much animal fat, diets that are protein heavy, too few carbohydrates - none of this helps us ladies to achieve lasting weight loss. You may shed the pounds at first, but you bet that same month your period will be a nightmare or you’ll have the worst PMS.

What your body wants and needs desperately is homeostasis, not deprivation. Your body craves balance and hates extremes. This means any diet that involves cutting down and cutting out or wildly fluctuating eating patterns is only going to cause your body stress - the kind sourced in your blood sugar stability and your adrenals - that will actually make your body hold on to fat for dear life, and then start signalling health breakdown with all kinds of symptoms.

So, what’s my weight loss secret?

Why, living in my Flo, of course! This lifestyle consists of 2 essential parts.

‍First - I feed my hormones what they need to keep my metabolism humming.

‍I understand what my body needs so that my blood sugar remains stable and my adrenals calmed. I know how to feel full and satisfied all day, every day and how to supercharge my metabolism. I nourish my body to make and process my hormones in a way that keeps everything humming along nicely.

The majority of diets you hear about cause out of control hormones and erratic blood sugar levels that come from their restrictive eating patterns - they rob your body and brain of the micronutrients that they need to create balanced appetite control-neurotransmitters and balanced metabolism-boosting hormone levels. Flo Living supports appetite control and boosts your metabolism, because it increases essential micronutrients and balances your hormones.

The solution you’re looking for is eating the foods your body needs for each phase of your menstrual/hormone cycle. This way you can optimize the levels of nutrients your body wants to balance the vital hormones that keep your metabolism working efficiently. You will, in fact, be revving your metabolism to keep you slim. When you eat in sync with your hormones, you will feel satisfied, less tempted by foods you should avoid, and happy to continue this “diet” (or lifestyle shift) for years to come.

‍Second - I channel my energy and health into playing a bigger game.

‍It’s not very interesting to play a continuous game of weight gain and weight loss. Of resolutions and self sabotage. You are so powerful, you are physiologically designed to create new life from the void in any way you choose. We’ve heard enough stories from the front to know that telling ourselves that we’ll be happier and live the life we dream about after our jeans are a certain size, is a lie.

The essential question to ask yourself is not how much weight do you want to lose, but what do you want to do with your life, with a body that is energized and focused on that purpose.  For me, my body is my true partner, my GPS system.

‍I allow my body to guide me on the journey of my soul, my passion, and my purpose, I’d be lost without her wisdom, support, and intuition.  

‍As a result, I’m super motivated to keep my frequencies clear so I can receive that guidance, which is so critical in playing a bigger game in my life. Health is not the destination, it’s the road you take that dictates how much fun you’ll have on the way.

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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

It’s the start of a new year and everywhere you look - TV adverts, billboards, magazines, new books, social media - it’s a fat-busting frenzy. Diets, old and new, are trying to draw you in with promises of fast weight loss. However, a myriad of research reveals that the majority of dieters (we’re talking over 90%) will inevitably put all of the pounds they lose back on and then some extra too. That’s not to say that you should feel depressed or defeated by this news. The motivation to lose weight, feel good, and take charge of your health is a good one and deserves to be congratulated. You’re feeling fired up to tackle your goals afresh, and that’s great news. Go you! I just don’t want to see you seduced by the kind of diets that don’t concern themselves with your longterm health and well-being. I want to be the voice of reason here, for a minute, and let you know that the fad diets you’ll be hearing about this month are not good for women’s hormonal needs and they simply don’t offer lasting weight loss.

The problem with dieting

Most diets involve either cutting out or cutting down dramatically on major food groups and restricting calories while simultaneously undertaking a rigorous exercise regime. The thing is that both of these strategies are highly problematic for your health, very difficult to sustain, and terrible for your hormones! Common diets like Paleo, Raw, even Macrobiotic can make hormonal health issues like PCOS, PMS, infertility, endometriosis, cramps and heavy bleeding become much, much worse. I’ve lost 60 lbs myself not just once, but twice in my life - the first time in my early 20s and the second time after giving birth to my baby daughter. So, I’m not coming out as the voice of reason here without the practical skills and experience to back it up! Believe me ladies, I’ve been there! What your body wants and needs desperately is homeostasis, not deprivation. Your body craves balance and hates extremes. This means any diet that involves cutting down and cutting out or wildly fluctuating eating patterns is only going to cause your body stress - the kind sourced in your blood sugar stability and your adrenals - that will actually make your body hold on to fat for dear life, and then start signaling health breakdown with all kinds of symptoms.

The diets that don’t work for women

Here’s a look at the kind of diets I know you’re hearing a whole lot about this month. None of these diets address female biology (most of them are even designed only with male biology in mind). All of them concentrate on a simple equation of calories in versus calories out, which, as research shows, is not sustainable for most people longterm (ie. the pounds will inevitably come piling back on). Paleo Diet - a high animal fat diet is the worst possible choice of estrogen-dominance based hormonal health issues like endometriosis. Bacon is just not good for your ovaries. Sorry! Yes, we need fat and protein, but too much and the wrong kind is hard for the body to breakdown in all of the places where estrogen is peaking. Women do need to eat fat to lose fat, but animal fats are not the way to go to achieve this. A study from Harvard researchers showed that women were 39% more likely to experience cycles without ovulation (a cause of estrogen dominance, as the body is not producing enough balancing progesterone) if they ate a lot of animal protein. However, the women who had the highest intake of plant protein were much less likely to experience a lack of ovulation (and therefore estrogen dominance issues), than those women who hardly ate any plant proteins.Ketogenic Diet – a high in protein, lower fat, no carbs diet again. While there is a lot of great research on the benefits of fasting on long term health, when you’re in the midst of a hormonal condition, this is a really tough road to go down. Having tried this out myself as an experiment I can say that although this might feel great at first, partly because you feel like you’re doing the perfect ‘proper’ diet plan, when your hormones shift mid cycle it is near-impossible to fight your impending carb cravings. You will fall off the wagon and carb-loading ensues. Any diet that is very low in omega 3 fats can also increase period cramps and heavy bleeding at the end of your cycle. While we certainly want to avoid carbs like sugar and wheat, we can choose to eat small amounts of soaked and properly prepared whole grains like quinoa, buckwheat and brown rice, which are important to our hormonal balance if we struggle with blood sugar stability (most women do) or adrenal fatigue (also very common). Vegan/Macrobiotic Diet – this diet is high in grains, higher in soy protein, with moderate fats. If you choose to be vegan for ethical reasons, I totally get that. However, you will want to do an excellent job of cooking your food and having enough soaked grains and legumes to get adequate absorbable protein, as well as supplementing for amino acids. This is a great diet for cleaning up house internally – decreasing inflammation all around. But the glycemic impact and lack of amino acids can be problematic for hormonal conditions. We need the amino acids from protein to make our hormones. Too many processed grains can create a lot of gut dysbiosis and can decrease absorption of all the key nutrients that are required for hormonal balance. And of course, if you’re insulin resistant, have PCOS, this diet can make your symptoms worse.Master cleanse/Juice cleanse based Diets - a diet that requires an extreme calorie restriction is going to cause major issues for your blood sugar stability. If your blood sugar is peaking and troughing like crazy your body is not converting sugars properly (and remember many juice cleanses are fruit sugar-heavy). Juice that you buy or make at home with a regular juicer often separate out and remove the fiber of the fruit and vegetables (which is needed for your body to better process the fruit sugars) and as such what you’re drinking, if it’s a fruit heavy juice, is just pure sugar and looks no different to your body than a glass of Coca Cola. When fasting like this, your body has none of the nourishment it really needs - protein, good fats - to make hormones or breakdown hormones. You might lose weight, but then it will come back and that fluctuation will cause your body stress and create an inflammatory response. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy a good green juice, I do! I just sync how and when I juice to my body’s needs and I never only drink juice.

So, are you ready to ditch the diets?

I have been where you are. I’ve tried all the diets and nothing worked. Once I gave up the fads and started following my hormonal patterns and feeding them what they need, everything started working. I’ve lost a lot of weight twice, and in a very short period of time. I’ve done this by following my Flo Living protocol and I have helped many other women do the same. The Flo Living lifestyle is really the only eating plan that works for women long term - it takes the weight off and keeps it off, while not compromising your health, your mood, or your overall well-being. ALL of these diets I’ve mentioned above cause out of control hormones and erratic blood sugar levels that come from their more extreme eating patterns - they rob your body and brain of the micronutrients that they need to create balanced appetite control-neurotransmitters and balanced metabolism-boosting hormone levels. Flo Living supports appetite control and boosts your metabolism, because it increases essential micronutrients and balances your hormones.But more than all of this, these diets don’t feel pleasurable. They don’t put you into a positive relationship with your body where you are eating, listening, and responding to how your body reacts to what you’re putting in. These diets are not based on your unique female biochemistry, they’re based on experiments that don’t take into account the effects on mood, energy, and appetite throughout the menstrual cycle. Ultimately, these diets are hard to stick with and they end up making you feel bad about your willpower and about your body. Enough is enough! The solution you’re looking for is eating the foods your body needs for each phase of your menstrual/hormone cycle. This way you can optimize the levels of nutrients your body wants to balance the vital hormones that keep your metabolism working efficiently. You will, in fact, be revving your metabolism to keep you slim. When you eat in sync with your hormones, you will feel satisfied, less tempted by foods you should avoid, and happy to continue this “diet” (or lifestyle shift) for years to come. You want to lose weight, feel great and take charge of your health, right? Flo Living is the only diet created for women, created 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,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, have you tried any of the mentioned diets? Second, are you hoping to lose weight this year? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.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!

As we enter a new year, we have the chance to readjust our perspective about new year’s resolutions in order to access our ability to truly evolve, transform and manifest our hopes and dreams. It’s very tempting at the start of a calendar year to look ahead at the stretched-out 12 months ahead and create a long list of items you want to achieve. And then, of course, the running joke is that we all drop these goals within weeks of working towards them. Why does that happen? I believe it’s because we’re approaching our resolutions purely from a masculine/linear point of view without any use of our own powerful feminine energy. Those long lists come from a place of pure masculine energy. There’s no balance to it, no feminine perspective, in the annual, grand to-do list. This may sound a little woo-woo at first, but stay with me. Through my work with women at Flo Living, I have discovered that both men and women are, normally, living in their masculine energy all of the time. Being a man or a woman does not give a person more or less access to masculine or feminine energy – we all have both energies within us. Learning how to balance both of these helps us to live a more physically, emotionally, and psychologically healthy and vibrant life. As a woman, your opportunity to transform, choose and curate comes through your connection body. If you’re not living in your body, aware of its cycles, and in tune with your own feelings (i.e. accessing your feminine energy), then developing new habits will feel very forced and difficult.

Use your feminine energy to start afresh

As a woman, you are cyclical and as a result, you actually get 12 opportunities every year to make “resolutions”. We can continuously transform ourselves, if we want - all it takes is accessing our body’s natural source of new year/new you energy every single month. How much farther would you go in your year ahead, if you allowed yourself to follow this cyclical rotation 12 times? A whole lot farther than if you try to push yourself straight across - from where you are now to where you want to be. That’s a masculine energy-inspired linear, long to-do list take on self actualization. And, I know that you don't need me to tell you that life - the journey of your soul and destiny - is not linear. It is, instead, part of the process and more fun, frankly, to dance around your desires as you approach ever more clearly the life of your dreams.The first half of your cycle each month should be filled with the same January 1st-style ambitious, energetic, hopeful, determined, powerful spirit. You’re more likely to feel this if you are living in your Flo. If you’ve spent the previous period week miserable and in pain then you won’t feel the freshness. There are 2 methods by which you can have that new year/new you energy every single month and achieve this ability to change, transform and refine your life.

1. Practice living in and working with your body. There are many ways you can practice utilizing your feminine energy - I have outlined the 5 ways you can incorporate this into your daily routine to be more productive and less stressed year-round.
2. Cycle sync your diet and lifestyle. For this way of life to work for you, you have to be cycle-aware. You need to be engaging with your body’s rhythm. Nourish and move your body in a way that keeps you attuned and sensitive to how you are feeling, your intuition, your desires and your needs. Your body is a divining rod, use it to navigate your journey through life.

The simplest way to access your feminine energy and harness it for the power of monthly resolutions is to get in touch with your menstrual/hormone cycle and live those 4 phases. You can start this right away and you’ll be on the fast track to feeling that new year spirit every month. Here follows exactly how you do this - but you can start by figuring out where you are in your cycle right now.

Accessing 12 months of new year’s resolutions

Your next period - feel into the main areas of your life (your relationship, work, interests, plans) - how you do feel about them and how do they make you feel? What do you desire as a result of this investigation? What do you want to transform? Do you want things to change and what exactly? (Don’t worry about “how” for now.) This is a good opportunity to journal about those feelings and desires that you wish to create. It’s all about intuitive feelings and emotions. During your follicular phase - this is when you can plan out the specific goals you want to work toward this month. This is when you get into the “how” and planning, detail, and strategizing are your super skills. You’ll have boundless energy and feel very hopeful and optimistic (and ambitious!) about the month ahead. During your ovulatory phase - this is the best time to communicate to everyone (your partner, your work colleagues, your boss) what you are working on this month. You’ll have great speaking skills right now and can be very clear and concise in your explanations. You’ll also be convincing and persuasive, while keeping a helpful level of empathy and understanding of other’s perspectives and needs. During your luteal phase - this is the point when you make sure you take action to bring those tasks toward your goals to completion. This is a great time to bring projects to fruition. You’re creatively minded, but also happy to put in the necessary heavy-lifting to get things done. Your next period - now you are in the right place to evaluate the past month’s progress and really feel into the problems you may have faced and what you have achieved. You might consider changing course or starting again with a new approach. How has this month made you feel? Do you want things to transform for you in the coming weeks? It’s a new opportunity, your own personal “new year” every single month. Imagine what having 12 opportunities to make forward progress would do in your upcoming year? I hope this new year you join me in taking advantage of the powerful momentum that your body helps you transform your life by cycle-syncing!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! Transform your year and your life in 2016!to your FLO,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, do you feel like once a year new year’s resolution are not working for you? Second, are you ready to try cycle syncing? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.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!

My biggest, best-yet, health-conscious and hormone-happy guide to giving

It’s my favorite time of year! The time I get to sit down and think of all the lovely health-conscious gifts I want to give (and receive!) this holiday season. I love putting together my gift guide, it brings me such warmth and cheer to think of all my Flo ladies spreading the message of body-love and hormone-friendly self-care far and wide to friends and family. I take a lot of pleasure in choosing the perfect gifts for my nearest and dearest. I hope this guide gives you some inspiration too of how you can live more beautifully in the FLO!

My healthy holiday gift guide

For your friends (or for yourself!) I don’t know about you, but I like to make sure I give my friends only the kinds of products I would use myself. Sometimes these gifts can act like a gateway to a whole new lifestyle! And, who doesn’t want a healthy living buddy for cycle sister support?

• Chrome Girl nail polish and Holiday Gift Set - this year saw the health hazards of nail polish hit the mainstream media. This NEW brand is free of the 8 toxic chemicals you need to avoid, plus their color range is beautiful! FINALLY! I’m obsessed with this one color! More of my favorite hormone-safe spa products here.
• Strange Invisible Perfumes - I had given up on wearing perfume all together

• because it’s all endocrine disruptive. Enter Strange Invisible Perfumes! They are made with certified organic, wildcrafted, biodynamic, and hydro-distilled essences obtained directly from trusted distillers. Limited batches are then reverently hand-blended, set into a base of custom-distilled organic esprit de Cognac, and aged for a minimum of six months. All Strange Invisible Perfumes are completely botanical

• and unfiltered. What makes these extra special is that you can pick your scent based on your or your friend’s zodiac sign! So mystically merry.
• Sakara Life Cookie Collection! Just in time for the holidays - give it to yourself and to everyone you love - raw, organic, totally nutrient dense and health promoting, there is now no reason not to give the gift of food thanks to my sisters over at Sakara Life!
• Cora monthly delivery - upgrade your bestie’s period experience with Cora. She’ll get a swish black leather clutch in which to hold her monthly delivery of all-organic, 100% cotton tampons. There’s been a lot in the news lately about the potential problems with regular tampon ingredients. Look out for your loved one’s health, they’ll love you for it. More on my natural femcare recommen

• dations here.
• Moonjuice Action Dust - For you or your smoothie loving friend who swears this year will be the year of giving up caffeine - this powder blend could actually help them to achieve that goal! I love Moonjuice, their products, their ethos, their inspirational founder. And they have gorgeous gift sets of health-boosting supplements. Introduce your friend to this new way of life!
• Naturopathica meditation oils - herbal aromas for meditation and therapy. These stunning blue bottles are there for different needs - calming nerves, inspiration... Tailo

• r your choice to your friend’s new year’s goals. Where does she need the most support?
• Not Your Sugar Mama’s raw chocolate - first of all, LOVE the name! Second - it’s organic chocolate you can truly indulge in. Not Your Sugar Mama’s organic, raw chocolate is my new obsession!An assorted pack with flavors from Pomegranate Ginger to Lavender Sea Salt makes the perfect gift for one bestie or to hand out at your annual friends gathering!

• Bon Dea baking mixes - this company was created with inspiration from Flo Living and provides gluten-free baking mixes for all ladies living in their Flo. Check out our interview with the company founder here.
• Barley and Oats gift sets - for the new breastfeeding mom in your life. This company thinks of the well-being of mom and baby and aims to smooth the transition. So thoughtful. They only just launched, but I would have LOVED receiving this gift during those newborn days!

• Love and Toast hand lotion and lip butter - because who doesn’t need some good, natural skin care in the winter months? I love this brand - I have the honey coconut hand lotion in my bag! Yummy.
• LaFace Laboratories face oil - face oils became the latest skin care craze in 2015 and I have to say, I’m hooked! This product was given to me as a gift last year and I have loved it all year-long for my post-partum skin. I use it morning and night, it’s amazing under makeup. A must try especially for those dealing with eczema.It’s organic evening primrose oil-based, safe for breastfeeding, and oh so fabulously hormone-friendly.

• Hormone balancing, love attracting, negative energy clearing mala necklace - Ever since giving birth, I have become so sensitive to stones. I love this necklace, it’s the perfect balance of energies to get your new year off to the right start! And it’s GORGEOUS.

****And of course - give a copy of the WomanCode book with each of these to complete the hormone support for you and your loved ones!****For your baby (or your friends’ babies!)As a new mom, here are some of the products I love - if you’re curious what skin care products I use on my daughter, let me know and I’ll share in another post!

• BabyLit board books - baby-versions of the big literature classics, beautifully illustrated. Moby Dick, Pride and Prejudice, A Christmas Carol - all made baby friendly. Perfect for a baby heading for a bright future - and for a new mom wanting an easy way to score 100% on those “how many classic books have you read?” Facebook quizzes!

• Chewbeeds teething necklace - these necklaces look great and they’re totally baby-safe. No one would know you’re wearing a teething necklace, except baby! Save all your friend’s best jewelry from baby gnashers.
• Burt’s Bees Baby Clothes - because who doesn’t love buying cute little baby clothes? All-organic, natural, baby-skin-safe and health-conscious, and in fun seasonal patterns too!

• Seedlings and Little Pnuts subscription boxes - if your friend’s baby is a little older (like my 4 nieces who are 4 and up) then a subscription service for monthly or bi-monthly boxed deliveries of arts and crafts projects is perfect. It makes Christmas last all year round! You no longer need watch as the toy you gifted is just placed on an ever-growing holiday season pile - this way the fun and excitement will really last.

For your manFor me this is just another opportunity to expose those I care about to healthier options and to gift them things they might not indulge in otherwise.

• A health-inspiring experience - before I started dating my husband he thought kale was a kind of fish! No kidding! He really was not aware of healthy living at all. I had to do a lot of educating! One way I got him up to speed with my way of life was gifting him healthy experiences so he could try out new things and decide for himself what he wanted to pursue. This has included rolfing sessions, chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture sessions, and massage. Some of these things we did together as a fun couple’s experience, others he explored on his own.
• Every Man Jack skincare - this organic range of men’s bathroom products is easily av

• ailable at Wholefoods. Upgrade his whole routine - from shaving to skincare.
• King Baby bracelets - I love these rock star bracelets for my hubby.
• Healthy Office Pantry - I always take time at Christmas to stock my hubby up with his favorite snacks like really good jerky and protein bars, plus some good organic coffee and stevia. He keeps them at work and never has to compromise on his health.
• Membership to Thrive Market! - The Costco for healthy pantry items -give your man the opportunity to stock up and auto-ship his favorite snacks and staples at huge cost savings! Let’s face it, he’s not getting to the store ;)

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,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, has this gift guide inspired you?Second, share your own gift ideas! Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.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!

It makes me so happy to look back and think of all the women I’ve helped to heal their hormonal issues. I’m so proud of each and every one of them! All the women who have fixed their periods, got pregnant and became mothers, got their energy back, their happiness back, their sex drive back, transformed their relationship with their bodies, lost the weight, cleared their skin, embraced pleasure, gained self-confidence, and changed their lives for the better - they inspire me everyday to keep spreading the wisdom of living in your Flo.

Stephanie Morish is a Certified Holistic Health Coach and Nutrition Consultant. Her health issues of PCOS, acne, amenorrhea and more actually inspired her to study holistic health nutrition. However, despite leading a healthy lifestyle steeped in this education about the right ways to eat, exercise and live, Stephanie found herself unable to escape her hormonal health problems.

She had come off the birth control pill over two years previously and not experienced a period ever since! Stephanie knew she must be missing something in her studies, and that’s when she discovered Flo Living.

I want you to hear her story -

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‍How did you discover the Flo Living program?

‍As a health coach and holistic nutritionist, I felt like I was doing everything “right” in terms of eating healthy, exercising regularly, prioritizing sleep, etc. but there was definitely some puzzle pieces missing for my hormonal health. Before signing up for the Flo Living Hormonal Sync System program last April, I had subscribed to Alisa’s newsletter and received her content-rich blog posts weekly. The more I read, the more I realized that I needed the knowledge, support, guidance and community that Flo Living offers. ‍

What issues were you facing at that time and how long had you been dealing with them?

‍At the time, I was dealing with amenorrhea, PCOS, bloating, and acne (small bumps, not cystic). I got off birth control pills when I was 24 and didn’t have a period for 2.5 years until I found Flo Living. As soon as I started the Flo Living program, so many lightbulbs went on in regards to how I was neglecting crucial steps in balancing my hormones - namely managing my blood sugar, incorporating self care/pleasure, stress management/nurturing adrenals, and most notably cycle syncing my life! I had never heard or read or studied anything about this principle of cycle syncing and I was absolutely blown away by how genius (and at the same time, how common sense) it was! Within about 4 months of following the program’s protocol, I had a period. Then I had another one, and another…

‍Prior to enrolling in the Flo Living program you were already health-conscious - after enrolling in the Flo Living program what was the biggest change you made to your diet or lifestyle?

As a holistic health coach I am definitely very health conscious. Flo Living taught me the importance of blood sugar balance for balancing my hormones. I’ve had blood sugar issues since I was little (getting “hangry” and shaky and foggy-headed) so I am much more educated now about how to manage my blood sugar. I started eating within 90 minutes of waking up, which was key for me! I used to just have a lemon water, then go workout and then eat breakfast after (sometimes 2.5 hours after waking up!). Flo Living also taught me about how crucial stress management is to the hormone equation. I now incorporate more pleasure into my week. I also stopped working out as long or hard as I think I was burning out my adrenals from too much exercise.Did you struggle with living in your Flo at first?Initially, I really struggled with eating within 90 minutes of waking up. I was so conditioned not to eat before working out that I didn’t feel hungry when I first woke and didn’t enjoy forcing myself to eat something early in the morning. A cup of bone broth is the perfect morning drink/pre-workout snack!

‍You were, prior to undertaking the Flo Living program, on medications for acne and cycle issues - what has been your journey with this? Did you struggle with living in your Flo at first?

‍Initially, I really struggled with eating within 90 minutes of waking up. I was so conditioned not to eat before working out that I didn’t feel hungry when I first woke and didn’t enjoy forcing myself to eat something early in the morning. A cup of bone broth is the perfect morning drink/ pre-workout snack!I was on long term antibiotics for acne when I was a teenager. When I went on birth control (around age 16), I stopped the antibiotics as the birth control helped with my skin. After coming off birth control, I had about a year when my skin was clear and then, all of a sudden, my skin broke out with lots of tiny little (skin-colored) bumps - all over my cheeks and chin area. I couldn’t get rid of them to save my life! Then I started the program, living in my Flo, and taking some liver repair herbs, and my skin cleared up! Now, I don’t have any problems.

‍Would you encourage other women you know to try a Flo Living program?

‍Flo Living is an amazing resource for women! Alisa, and the other Flo counselors, are incredibly knowledgeable and supportive to women who are dealing with any hormone issues, from PMS to PCOS to infertility. Alisa’s book, “WomanCode,” and all the content she shares in her programs and on her website is GOLD. She has created a revolutionary protocol for healing endocrine problems and living your best life.

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

To your FLO,

Alisa

A late period is usually a cause for panic - that is, if you’re not hoping to be pregnant and if you’re used to seeing your period turn up on time each month. With so many more of us tracking our periods with apps, we can become hyper-aware of a change to our cycle. Although it can cause worry and concern at first, this awareness is actually a good thing, because a late period is your body’s way of letting you know something is wrong.

If you’re not pregnant, then a longer cycle or seemingly missing period is a sign that your health is suffering. In fact, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advises that medical professionals view the menstrual cycle as a vital sign and take abnormalities such as this seriously as indicators of a health issue.

What I call the “textbook reasons” for experiencing a late period include: pregnancy, breastfeeding, menopause, over-exercising , being underweight , or having cysts on your ovaries, i.e. PCOS. You might also find that your period takes a long time to re-start after you come off hormonal birth control like the Pill, Ring, shot or hormonal IUD.

If these situations are not what is causing your cycle changes, then it’s likely down to one or both of the two issues I’m about to describe. There’s no need for panic, though, both of these issues can be totally reversed and you’ll be back on track with your periods in no time. Reset your hormones with my free Hormone Detox program or start cycle-syncing your diet with a few major, important food groups. You also pick up a copy of my book “WomanCode” to learn more. ‍

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Why Your Period Might Go Missing

‍There are two common causes that go on to create a late period - sugar and stress. Too much of either of these is going to manifest in cycle issues - whether it’s increased cramps, worsened PMS, or a late period. And of course, sugar and stress seem to exist in their own special vicious cycle - feeding off of each other. We seek out sugar when we’re stressed out to sustain our energy and make us feel good. For many women who otherwise experience regular cycles, they’ll find their period goes missing after the holiday season, in January, when sugar becomes a staple and stress seems unavoidable. You might start the new year feeling the pain of cramps, PMS and panic about your period if you’ve overindulged in either of these.

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‍Reason for Your Late Period #1: Sugar

‍Sugar elevates insulin levels and leads to blood sugar dysregulation - spikes and dips. Too much sugar can slow or prevent ovulation altogether (something to note if you are trying to conceive). When ovulation is late or doesn’t happen at all, then your period will also be late as you won’t have gone through the necessary hormonal fluctuations to trigger this biological event. When your ovary releases an egg, the egg sack then produces progesterone. The increase of progesterone in your body encourages the buildup and eventual release of the lining of your uterus (a.k.a. your period!). Without proper ovulation, low or no progesterone is produced by your body. A late period can then actually not be an official “period” as such, but more like breakthrough bleeding. There’s no biological signal for the period to start, but your uterus needs to shed its lining anyway.

‍The Flo-fix: “But, how can I avoid sugar?” I hear you ask! I get it - sugar feels like one of the hardest things to give up. There’s a difference between bad, processed sugar and the good, or much better, kinds of sugar. You can satisfy your sweet cravings without risking losing your period. Try out some better sugar alternatives by making my favorite desserts and treats.

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‍Reason for Your Late Period #2: Stress

‍An overload of stress creates a disturbance in your cortisol levels, aka the stress hormone. Stress raises cortisol levels, increases inflammatory markers in the body, and disrupts adrenal-thyroid performance. When you’re stressed and cortisol is running high, your body’s supplies of the hormone progesterone are used to produce cortisol instead of going towards triggering the onset of your period. Also, chronic stress resulting in elevated cortisol levels leads to elevated insulin levels which interrupts ovulation which sends an overarching message to your body that you are not in the right set of circumstances to carry a baby. Evolutionarily this makes sense - in the past, feeling stress meant we were in physical danger and therefore unable to care for or nourish a pregnancy. These days chronic stress can become a way of life - we are overworked and overstretched and under-rested as a norm - and so sometimes our bodies react in this way to protect us.

‍The Flo-fix: We all deal with stress sometimes, it’s unavoidable, but you shouldn’t be feeling wracked with stress every single day. If you’re getting so stressed out that your period goes missing, it’s time to take action. Practice my extreme self-care techniques and reconnect with your feminine energy. You have it in your power to have a symptom free and delightful period every month. Investigate why your cycle is off, and take the right steps to get back in your FLO.  Having those hormones balanced is the key to unlocking your most powerful self.

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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

As the winter months draw in, the evenings are darker, and the nights much longer - what does this mean? It’s baby-making time! Have you noticed how many babies arrive in those late summer/early Fall months? I definitely have. I think there’s something about the cosiness of winter that brings us closer. I also think many women make the decision to start trying for a baby around New Year when all our hopes and dreams become the focus. However, we don’t tend to associate the winter months with being at the height of our best health. This is the time when you might be more sedentary, eat less health-consciously, tackle colds and flu, and feel a little less bright. In fact, prolonged darkness due to wintery weather and seasonal shifts can cause you to stop ovulating consistently or experience changes in your cycle. All of which means that if you want to conceive it’s a good idea to really concentrate on amplifying your fertility with some targeted, intelligent diet and lifestyle choices. I have put together the 5 best ways to naturally improve your fertility, particularly at this time of year. These are just some of the things I personally did to get my own body ready for baby. Getting pregnant is about so much more than taking a pre-natal vitamin and folic acid - although, I do recommend pre-natal supplementation. I just also recommend you take control by consciously choosing to support your ovaries in succeeding in their vocation!

5 ways to naturally improve your fertility

1. Let the sun shine! Sunlight is so important for healthy fertility, but often winter means darker days with long nights and cloudy weather. That natural vitamin D3 boost maximizes your ability to conceive naturally - in fact, I took a little sunshine-heavy mini-break myself prior to conceiving my daughter. Studies have revealed that 93% of women dealing with infertility issues are vitamin D3 deficient. Unfortunately D3 supplements are just not a good enough source to counter this problem, you really do need sunshine. So, if you can, book a mini-break like me to someplace where stretching out in the sun by the pool or on the beach is the main motivation for the trip! Be sure to avoid chemical-laden sunscreens though and switch up your diet instead to protect your skin.
2. Boost your breakfast. The absolute best winter season breakfast if you’re looking to get pregnant is buckwheat and cinnamon! Good thing it’s delicious too! Hormonal balance hinges on a good, nourishing breakfast and this combination will stabilize your blood sugar and support regular ovulation.
3. Revitalize your vagina! Your vagina has its own little eco-system going on and that eco-system needs to be in balance and harmonious for your body to welcome a baby. Issues with the health of your vaginal flora in the way of “bacterial vaginosis” (which some 30% of American women likely suffer with) can lead to the prevention of fertilization of an egg, spontaneous miscarriage, and a higher risk of preterm birth. Your vagina’s well-being is sourced in your gut!! Your gut health/gut microbiome impacts your vaginal microbiome/eco-system. There are 3 supplements you can be taking to avoid or to heal bacterial vaginosis.
4. Avocuddle! You want to be eating an avocado a day when you’re trying to conceive. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health discovered that avocados contain the best kind of monounsaturated fat and the least saturated fat, making them the ideal food for boosting the health of your eggs. Avoiding saturated fat - found in the likes of butter and red meat - is equally important to making sure you’re getting those good fats from extra avocados. I love avocados for breakfast and as a snack - try some of my recipes.
5. Get a jump on! I have one piece of exercise equipment at home and that’s an urban rebounder. I jump on my mini trampoline first thing in the morning for 10 minutes to get some low-impact, lymphatic circulation-boosting, estrogen-metabolizing fun! I sometimes even jump back on during the day to take a break from sitting at my desk. It’ll bring out the kid in you and help you conceive a kid of your own!

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,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, do you hope to conceive soon? Second, have you struggled with infertility? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

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.

During holiday party season - from awkward office parties to catch-ups with long lost friends - sticking to your healthy living goals can be harder than it looks. The temptations on the buffet table, the ever-flowing punch bowl, the late nights...it can make any woman feel the need to press the pause button on her progress. But, stop! I have some tried and tested tips for sailing through this season with a smile on your face. You don’t want to start the new year with the vengeful return of all your period problems or even a worsened set of symptoms, right? I didn’t think so. We all want to start the new year fresh, not struggling to reset the mistakes of the past month. So let’s start with the party food - all those canapes, appetizers, chips and dips, pot-lucks and buffets. Oh my! We can go from there...‍

My tips for a healthy holiday party season

Flo-tip 1: Make friends with the fats and pals with the protein! As long as you stick to good fat and protein heavy snacks you’ll be fine - think of all those crab cakes, deviled eggs, meat balls, avocado dips and hummus you can indulge in to your heart’s content! Just steer clear of the pastry and dough-based items.

‍Flo-tip 2: Make your own munchies!You’ll be popular and well-prepared if you bring your own snacks. Here are my suggestions: rice paper spring rolls stuffed with fresh veggies and avocado or corn tortillas stuffed with beans, avocado and cilantro. Dates stuffed with a yummy almond mix or wrapped in turkey bacon. I also love scallops wrapped in nori - rich and decadent! You could also try my favorite roasted nut recipe - it’s perfect for any party.

‍Flo-tip 3: Fill-up before you get festive!If I know I’m heading out to a party, I always save a little of my lunch for an early dinner. About an hour before I’m due to leave, I’ll sit down and have lunch part two. It means I’ll feel full enough not to see the party food as my evening meal. If you want to have a drink, it’s best not to do so on an empty stomach. That just makes you crave salty, unhealthy foods and it will make it harder to avoid the ever-present chip bowl.

‍Flo-tip 4: Be wise with your wine.One of the best ways to keep the wine flowing and always have your glass half full as you mingle is to mix your red wine (yes, red wine is absolutely the best choice of all the alcohol options) with a spritzer.   Although I haven’t had any alcohol in the past 3 years due to pregnancy prep, pregnancy, and now breastfeeding, when I did imbibe before all that - 2 glasses of wine was my own personal limit, but they would become 4 just like magic and can last you for several hours. If there are cocktails to be had, usually there’s seltzer somewhere, seek it out and enjoy turning your water into wine! For every glass of wine spritzer you have, drink a nice tall glass of regular water to stay hydrated.

‍Flo-tip 5: Be clever with the Christmas cocktails. Although, I’ll say again, red wine is the best choice for a night out, sometimes we all fancy a festive cocktail. A hot toddy is a decent choice because you have actual apple cider and cinnamon along with a little brandy. Compared to the high sugar content of other mixed drinks, this one is a the least offensive.  But just have one of course.  Who says you can’t keep your health in mind at all times? If it’s a BYOB kind of party why not make it a bottle of pomegranate or pink grapefruit juice? My favorite non-alcoholic cocktail which we served at my wedding was pink grapefruit juice with seltzer and a swizzle stick of fresh thyme! Gorgeous. We heated up some thyme leaves with apple and pineapple juice prior and used that as our simple syrup substitute to boost the lovely thyme flavor. So elegant and delicious!  You could also just use fresh mint instead as well.

‍Flo-tip 6: Step it up before you settle down for the night.Rather than just flopping into bed when you get home, take a moment to step up your health game with a couple of easy steps. Take a B vitamin complex to restore the vitamins your liver needs to break down the alcohol and troublesome foods. Then, have a big glass of water with electrolyte enhancer (I like the Electro-Mix from the makers of Emergen-C).

‍Flo-tip 7: Be the master of the morning-after! Alcohol can really mess with your hormonal health, even in small amounts, and one night of binge drinking can have knock-on effects for months. Here’s what you need to do the next morning, even, yes, after just a few glasses of wine so you can rebalance and reset.

1. Take a B vitamin complex and take a drink of warm water with lemon to flush your system.
2. Drink coconut water to replenish your electrolytes.
3. Have three 8 ounce glasses of my favorite detoxifying juice – combine a handful of spinach, 4 stalks of cucumber, half a bunch of cilantro, one-third a bunch of parsley, half a lemon with rind, half a green apple, and a small carrot in a blender or juicer.
4. Make your workout that day a hatha yoga class to calm your adrenals. The twists involved will help detoxify your internal organs and prevent a backup of estrogen.
5. Take a shot of apple cider vinegar to emulsify those fats.

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

Of all the things that can make you put on weight, it seems so unfair that stress can be one of them. We all get that fried foods and doughy treats are going to pile on the pounds, but stress is harder to manage and more difficult to avoid. We all get stressed and what’s more stressful than thinking about how you keep gaining because you’re stressed? It’s enough to drive anyone nuts! In a study from Ohio State University, the researchers actually found that women who experienced stress burned more than 100 fewer calories than women who had not experienced stress, during the period directly after they had eaten a high-fat meal. This disruption to the metabolic process, caused by stress, builds up to the equivalent of 11 pounds potentially gained every year! Eeek. But, and it’s a big but for me (the great kind!), we women NEED more of the loving and compassionate kind of self-care based energy in our lives. We need to banish that no pain=no gain energy of the past. Just as we’ve updated our workout wardrobes from spandex and leg warmers to lululemon-like style, we also need to update our thinking when it comes to weight loss.

How stress-fat happens to good women

We just need to face the facts - stress blocks our natural ability to lose weight. It disrupts our adrenal patterns and cortisol levels, so that the fat doesn’t become useful glucose, but instead goes straight back into our cells. It doesn’t get used up, it just pads out your belly and hips. Plus, more fat in those cells equals higher levels of estrogen and estrogen dominance is the cause of so many hormonal health issues from endometriosis to infertility problems. Taking the regular route - that is restricting calories and over-exercising - just does not work. In fact, it causes more stress on your body, making it even harder to lose those stubborn pounds. In fact, if you’re stressed already, it seems pretty barbaric to me to expect yourself to go without enough food and strive for physical exhaustion to get around this problem. If you’re over 35, just had a baby, or suffering with hormonal imbalances, then it’s not only barbaric, but counterintuitive - you’ll only be increasing your appetite and your cravings. You’ll be starving, soon carbo-loading, and regretful. Your adrenals will go haywire, causing your hormones to go into panic-mode, leaving you feeling low and lumpy.

The secret to avoiding stress-related weight gain

One of the most important things you can do when you’re stressed to avoid piling on the pounds is to get good quality sleep. That’s right - don’t move more, move less - and for 8-10 hours per night. Getting decent, deep sleep calms the adrenals, rebalances your cortisol levels (avoiding the pitfalls of adrenal fatigue, and primes your body for weight loss. Good sleeps helps you to burn more calories (when you’re awake and while you’re asleep!), melt more fat, and curbs those tendencies to give in to unhealthy cravings and overeating.Those who run on too little, poor quality sleep have been found to experience an increase in levels of hunger hormone ghrelin and decreased levels of satiety hormone leptin, causing both overeating and weight gain. Five days of bad night’s sleep can cause you to add on another 2 pounds in just that short time. It makes sense, right? We get sleepy, exhausted even, and we eat more of the wrong kinds of foods to keep us going. Our hormones get sluggish, our adrenals slow, our metabolism slumps. So, the best thing you can do is to make yourself a sleep schedule that protects your body’s fat burning skills from this kind of sabotage.

5 steps to get that fat-burning good sleep

1. Give up caffeine - follow my coffee detox plan and replace your morning cup of joe with something more adrenal-soothing.
2. Get Appy - install a blue light filter on your laptop and phone to decrease the stimulating, sleep-disrupting light your devices currently give off. Try this one or this one for calmer evening times.
3. Get off - orgasms will help you fall into a deep and restorative sleep. Follow my steps to get the best solo experience of your life!
4. Get supplemented - figure out your personal sleep story to make the right choices in supplements that will see you through the night with no slip-ups.
5. Get your magnesium - a magnesium deficiency is one of the most common health issues and one of the most prominent causes of sleep disturbance, so you need to consciously supplement and sustain.

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,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, do you struggle with your weight? Second, do you feel sleep-deprived? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.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!

Did you know that there are many studies that suggest Thanksgiving is, by definition, the most healthy holiday? That’s because gratitude is so very good for you and your hormones. Grateful people have been shown to get better sleep, feel less anxious and depressed, and be better at keeping to their exercise goals. Those who keep good track of their blessings experience more feelings of true happiness than anyone else. Thankfulness even goes a long way to boosting your immunity. People who keep a gratitude journal each day also experience fewer physical symptoms. And, of course, we can all see how gratitude can benefit our relationships, which in turn benefit ourselves.

One part of my life I am exceedingly grateful for is you!

I am grateful that you found us here at Flo Living, for coming on the journey to living in your Flo with me, and for being part of the vital Flo community. I am overjoyed every time I hear from you, whether through the online program, via email, Facebook message, Tweet, Facebook like, share, comment or note on one of our blog posts here. I hear every affirmation that comes through! Thank you for taking part in this conversation and supporting my work, the work of my colleagues, other women, and yourselves! I am so grateful for your courage to share your story and to share the FLO living program and WomanCode, the book with the women you care about in your life. Every time you do that you open up the possibility for another woman to not only transform her health, but to also reconnect her to parts of herself essential for her full expression and vitality. I am so very proud of every single woman who decides to take her hormones into her own hands and make the change she knows she needs. As part of my pre-Thanksgiving thankfulness routine I’ve been going through the blog posts past, reading your comments, taking in and drawing upon your feedback, intuiting your desires and hopes, and filtering this all through to make Flo Living even better in the year to come. I was struck to see which blog posts have been the most popular and helpful to you in 2015 so far and I wanted to revisit that top 10 here, knowing this might help more women to discover the important information they’ve been searching for. If you haven’t had a chance to tell me your thoughts on what we’re up to and what we should do next - please take 2 minutes and answer the short survey questions - it would truly make my day to hear from you!

Top 10 FLO Living Blogs of 2015

I hope putting these all together in a list for you makes it easy to refer back to you if you want to reread these blogs and of course, please share this list on FB or Twitter to help women in your community begin their journey back to their own FLO.10) 5 Signs You Have A Healthy, Normal Period - this one really struck a chord with ladies who couldn’t believe they too might be able to have a perfect period! It’s true, yes you can, join me!9) 4 Smoothies That Will Balance Your Hormones - the enthusiasm for this fun post was a delight, thanks so much for joining in! 8) How I Stock My Fridge And Pantry - you all definitely enjoyed a peek in my lovely fridge! I tidied it up especially for you. 7) The One Thing You Are Doing At Work That’s Hurting Your Hormones - we spend so many hours at work, sometimes we forget it’s important to keep our health in mind even when hard at our job. Keep moving cycle sisters!6) My Favorite Energy Boosting Snacks - we all love to snack and why not keep it simple and healthy? I always love to share my secret tricks with you. 5) The One Secret Reason Women Shouldn’t Drink Coffee - I have a feeling this was a shocker! So many of you commented, the most comments all year, and some great shares of favorite alternatives and success stories of kicking the habit! 4) The Nutrient Deficiency Almost No One Has Heard Of But Almost Everyone Has - lots of comments here too! It seems that many of you were struck by the symptoms of magnesium deficiency and glad to have practical solutions.3) The 4 Best Sources of Protein For Your Hormones and The Worst Ones To Avoid - we’re all in search of the perfect protein and I think I’ve found it! A bit of myth busting here, over which many of you shared your surprise/interest.2) 4 Foods To Get Rid Of Your Symptoms In 4 Weeks - I’m so glad you liked this one as it makes for a nice gateway to the full cycle syncing protocol. Just keep folding in more foods to each phase (check out my book “WomanCode”) and you will have yourself a full Flo Living lifestyle.And…..at number 1!1) Why You Should Stop Using Your Vibrator - with a title like that how could it not win out?! Yes, I asked you to put away your sex toys, but with good reason! How are you getting on without it? Thank you, again, ever so for your community support, feedback, and energy - all of this drives us at Flo Living to improve on what we provide and to make our center THE hub for hormonal health. 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,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, what was your personal favorite blog post?Second, what are you most thankful for? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.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!

Over the years I have been living in my Flo I have developed a way of staying relaxed, present, and stress-free. I have made this practice as much a part of my life as my eating protocol or my workout routine. All three of these lifestyle elements do feed into each other, but keeping stress at bay needs additional conscious effort if you’re to protect your hormones, your health and your well-being. You need a special self care strategy.I think this is the perfect time of the year - the holiday season - to experiment with embracing true abundance. Everything becomes about the idea of “more is more” - more food, more gifts, more money spent - even if it makes us feel empty. It’s hard not to get sucked into the snowglobe of chaos - the endless events, the competitive gifting, the lavish meals, and constant treats. We (especially women) feel obliged to give, give, give - to catch up with all friends and family, to say yes to every invitation, to expend on time, money, and efforts to avoid feeling guilty or envious. Social media only seems to drive our FOMO feeling (fear of missing out). We start to think self-care is all about the socializing selfies! When we put that kind of strain on our personal bandwidth we feel stretched - emotionally, mentally, and physically. All the things that keep us healthy and sane - sleep, good nutritious food, getting active - the rest of the year, immediately go out of the window. We put ourselves last - behind taking care of our to-do list and taking care of other’s needs.

Recognize that you create your experience of time

My self-care strategy is a practical extension of my yoga or meditation practice. The more time I spend with myself, the more spaciousness I create in my experience of time during the day. During the holiday season this looks like less events, less parties, less spending, less stress, more quality time, more loving connection, more thoughtful sharing. When it comes to your biochemistry, it’s not just what you feed yourself that matters. Your whole lifestyle is tied to your health - sleeping, eating, moving, working, socializing - all that you do feedbacks to your body and can produce symptoms. The way you live your life is reflected in your body. Saying no, cutting back, reprioritizing, cleansing your life will help you to stay happy, present and stress-free. You’ll get more out of your experiences and put more back in. Your relationships, work and health will benefit from the practice of less is more. When you avoid stress, your cortisol hormone levels stay stabilized, your oxytocin levels rise, your progesterone production is pumping away and you’re ovulating, bringing all the more benefits!

Focus on what makes you feel good for family-related stress

Not over-giving emotionally can be the trickiest part of the holidays. We can reverse our spending habits, reorganize our diet, and physically stay home more often, but the holidays tend to mean spending more time with those you might otherwise choose to avoid - namely, stress-inducing family members! My tip here is to focus on making yourself feel good! Going home for the holidays can feel like watching the same movie play over and over before your eyes - each family member plays the same part, no one deviates from the script, they’re all just walking through the steps, recreating the same drama, even having the same arguments! Recognize that you can step away from the play, and focus on what you need instead. Play a new game by changing your responses and stop trying to change anyone else’s. Base what you decide to do differently this time on the concept of what makes you feel the best. Do and say things that bring you happiness, react to hurtful or difficult behavior quite simply, as though you were still a 3rd grader at school, and with as few words as possible, “That hurt my feelings” or “I don’t like it when you say that.” Don’t hold things in, don’t get over-involved and don’t get into arguments. Prioritizing your needs emotionally and physically is guaranteed to leave you feeling good, rather than drained at the end of the season.

Enjoy more with less

“Less is more” works across the board - think of how great that first cookie tastes, but then think how flavorless the last cookie of the whole box tastes, when you’ve eaten them all in one sitting? If you say yes to a party every night, you’ll soon tire of the socializing and begin to resent the obligation. Selecting a few very special gifts for super special people is so much more rewarding than stacking up present after present for every single person in your life, however you feel about them. Next time someone says they have FOMO, tell them LIM! Your ultimate destination for this abundance experiment in the coming months is to recognize that your value is not in what you do for other people - throwing events, buying gifts - your value is your presence. You are a vehicle for love and whenever you share those two things the experience is perfect in itself. No bells and whistles required. Leave room for you to really, truly, utterly enjoy yourself. That’s the secret to self-care during the holiday season and beyond and of course, by keeping cortisol low, is also a great safeguard to your overall hormonal health. 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,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, what causes you the most stress?Second, do you feel more stress this time of year? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.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’m going to share some of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes below, but first I want to explain why the holidays can be so hard on our hormones—and how you can take steps to protect yourself. Now if you read that last paragraph and started panicking because you think I’m about to tell you that you can’t have any of Aunt Julia’s famous caramel pecan pie at Thanksgiving dinner, you’re wrong! When you have a strategic plan for balancing your blood sugar, you can have the occasional sweet treat this holiday season and not feel rotten for weeks afterward. In fact, the holidays become even more fun when you know that you have a strategy for enjoying traditional holiday food without worrying about the hormonal aftermath.

What The Holidays Do To Your Blood Sugar

So what is it about holiday eating and drinking that can cause crummy symptoms for days, weeks, and sometimes months?It’s all about blood sugar. Balanced blood sugar (not too high or too low) is foundational for optimal hormonal health. When we have extra sweet treats at Thanksgiving, mulled wine all through December (alcohol is processed in the body like sugar), and even more treats (and booze) around the winter holidays and the New Year, it puts our blood sugar on an unhealthy roller coaster.  Your delicate endocrine system, which regulates your hormones, interprets mismanaged blood sugar as a stressor and signals your adrenals glands to respond by sending out a lot of cortisol (the stress hormone) and adrenaline.

Chronically mismanaged blood sugar, which is triggered by eating too many sweet treats (like we often do during the holiday months) causes your body to be in a constant state of fight-or-flight and sets your entire hormonal system off balance. What’s more, all the extra glucose in your system (and all the insulin that your pancreas releases to deal with all that glucose) disrupts ovulation and interferes with the production of progesterone. This can lead to more estrogen in your body relative to progesterone, a condition called estrogen dominance.

Not just that, but fat cells secrete estrogen. The more sugar you eat, the more fat cells you have—and the more estrogen they secrete! This adds to the estrogen overload in your body. Estrogen dominance is the root cause behind so many period problems and hormonal symptoms, including PMS, cramps, irregular cycles, acne, along with PCOS and infertility issues.

How To Have Balanced Blood Sugar On Thanksgiving Day

So how can you enjoy holiday meals without sending your blood sugar soaring?The secret is pre-planning. And that means being just as intentional about your Thanksgiving breakfast as your Thanksgiving dinner. The right breakfast will set you up for blood sugar success, whether the meal is one you’re making or at someone else’s home.

A Good Thanksgiving Breakfast

• 2 eggs in coconut oil
• AND some steel cut oatmeal
• AND steamed kale with olive oil

Pre Thanksgiving Noon Snack

Dinner usually doesn’t start until 3pm, but waiting that long to eat ensures you’ll be hypoglycemic and will trigger major carb cravings!

• Avocado smashed on Food for Life gluten-free toast with added chia seeds, sesame seeds and Himalayan salt.

Hormone-friendly, Healthy Thanksgiving Recipes

Over the many years that I have been living in my Flo, I have created go-to recipes that have become traditions for my Thanksgiving table.First up, the turkey question – I usually roast a turkey breast rolled with a stuffing of roasted chestnuts, celery, onions, and herbs.But I also usually like to prepare a lentil loaf (here’s a great recipe) and I make a mushroom gravy to go over the top (here’s an easy recipe, although use coconut or wholegrain flour instead of all-purpose).Then on to the sides – which is where I feel I really shine! Instead of the hormonally hazardous mashed potatoes and bread stuffing or sauce, I make very simple, fresh vegetable blends. I love roasted brussel sprouts and cauliflower mash, but my specialty is something I call “smashed roots.” Delicious.

Smashed roots

My alternative to mashed potatoes

• 3 large sweet potatoes peeled and cubed
• 2 turnips peeled and cubed
• 1 celery root peeled and cubed
• 1 tsp Himalayan salt
• 4 T olive oil or more!

Prepare all veggies. In a large pot place 3 inches of water and a steamer basket. Steam all veggies, one root at a time.  Smash everything together with the olive oil and salt in your serving bowl and enjoy.

Baked parsnips and fennel and green beans

My alternative to the usual bean casserole

• 2 bulbs fennel sliced into ½ inch slices
• 6 parsnips quartered
• 1 lb of green beans trimmed
• ½ tsp Himalayan salt
• 2 T olive oil

Prepare all veggies. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bring one medium pot of salted water to boil. Drop parsnips into boiling water for 5 min and place into your casserole/baking dish. In same pot of water, boil green beans for 5 min or until just tender. Finally, blanch the fennel in the boiling water for 2 minutes. Mix everything together with the olive oil and salt in the baking dish and place into the oven. Let roast for 20 minutes until everything is golden and the green beans have a caramelized look to the skin.

Cranberry sauce

I have to say, my cranberry sauce recipe is amazing - it’s the best one I’ve ever tried. Give it a go! No sugar, of course, but it tastes just as good.

• 2 cups fresh cranberries
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 tablespoon of honey

Roasted herby holiday nuts

How about avoiding the usual cheese and cracker trap with a good appetizer? I have you covered. I love this appetizer and it’s often part of what I take to a dinner at someone else’s home or a potluck or holiday party. It’s really an all-round crowd pleaser.

• 1 1/2 cups almonds
• 1 1/2 cups walnut halves
• 1 cup hazelnuts
• 1 cup pecan halves
• 1/2 cup coconut nectar or honey
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano leaves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage leaves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh savory leaves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh marjoram leaves
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• About 1 teaspoon Himalayan salt

Mix almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, maple syrup, cayenne, oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary, savory, marjoram, and oil in a 10- by 15-inch rimmed pan. Sprinkle nuts with 1 teaspoon salt. Bake in a 300° oven, stirring occasionally, until all liquid evaporates and nuts are golden under the skin (break open to test), about 45 minutes. Let cool.

Apple and cranberry fruit cobbler

No skipping dessert today. It’s the holidays, after all. Instead of pumpkin pie, I opt for a cobbler which satisfies both its sweetness and crunch.

• 4 apples, cored, sliced
• ½ bag of frozen or fresh cranberries
• juice of ½ lemon
• ½ tsp cinnamon, pinch of salt
• 2 T coconut oil
• 1 tsp arrowroot

Combine all the ingredients in a 14 inch casserole baking dish. Sprinkle gluten free/sugar free plain granola on top (Udi’s or Elizabeth’s). Cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 350 for 30 min covered. Let sit 15 minutes uncovered and cool. Serve with fresh mint and coconut yogurt or a drizzle of honey.

Being A Thanksgiving Guest

If I’m going to Thanksgiving at someone else’s home, I will bring my roasted nut appetizer with me and, usually, also the cobbler. This means I have something to snack on and a healthy dessert, so I skip the cheese and crackers and the pies. I can easily have the turkey and vegetable sides while avoiding the mashed potatoes and bread stuffing, without seeming difficult.I have been known to bring my own raw sweet potato to a party, though, I must confess, and quietly steam it prior to dinner so I have a filling, hormone-friendly carb to go with my turkey and veggies

The Flo-fix For Thanksgiving Overindulgence

Say all does not go according to plan and you need to offset your foodie indulgences…maybe you found it hard to avoid what your host was serving up.Here’s how to reset and get your hormones back in balance. If you’ve had a drink as part of the festivities, follow my tried-and-true plan here to hold down your hangover and minimize the hormonal damage. If your indulgences were only food related, then see my effective 3-step plan for the next day:

1. Eat a good breakfast (see above!) but keep it super light the rest of the day. Add some turmeric to those eggs and avo toast. This will smooth out your blood sugar and slow inflammation.
2. Have a green juice (½ cup mango, ½ a green apple, 1/2 cup frozen pineapple, 1/2 cup coconut water, 1 cup of cilantro and blend!) and a green salad with leftover turkey slices for lunch. Have a side order of a fresh apple. Add some sauerkraut to that turkey salad to get your probiotics in and further heal inflammation.
3. Take a shot of apple cider vinegar. Sip on hot water and lemon throughout the rest of the day. These will work to emulsify those fats.

Always remember, 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 you FLO,

Alisa

Do you wake up feeling groggy, like you have a hangover, but without the fun memories of the night before?You’re sure you just spent the work evening as usual, sat on the sofa binge watching every single episode of your new favorite show until late. There was popcorn involved, but no wine, this time, so why the fuzzy, heavy head and desperate desire for coffee? You could be suffering with Adrenal Fatigue. Some studies suggest up to 80% of people today have some form of this health problem. Adrenal Fatigue is an imbalance of the hormone cortisol. You are supposed to get 3 main surges of cortisol during the day, but none at night time. With Adrenal Fatigue the opposite happens, you have low cortisol in the morning, but then it peaks in the evening. You’re not tired, but wired, at the end of the day. Cortisol keeps us going, keeps us pepped and energized. When we have cortisol surges at the wrong time we find that we can’t get going in the morning and we can’t fall asleep at night.

How you know if you have Adrenal Fatigue

If even when you take the time to have a really good night’s sleep (in bed by 10pm, the full 8-9 uninterrupted hours) you still feel that hungover feeling, then it’s possible this is down to early stage Adrenal Fatigue. Heal the root causes now and you’ll save yourself a bigger headache in years to come.Culturally, we’re trained to think that we’re kind of supposed to feel tired all of the time. We keep ourselves overbooked and overextended, we stay BUSY, in order to achieve everything we set out to achieve. Our brains have totally got this handled. They can juggle work tasks, child care, meal planning, socializing, studying for a PhD, all at the same time and succeed. But our adrenals are more primitive than our brains and they cannot handle this. They get burnt out very quickly by the modern way of life. Other symptoms of early stage Adrenal Fatigue include:

• low libido
• inability to deal with stress
• problems with concentrating and memory
• getting sick often
• feeling depressed

Sound familiar?

The root cause of Adrenal Fatigue

Adrenal Fatigue is one of what I like to call the “vicious cycle” issues. It comes down to a combination of problems with the gut microbiome, the thyroid, and the adrenals. The gut microbiome is in conversation with our cortisol production system. Inflammation in the gut from issues like “leaky gut syndrome” (brought on by processed flour, sugar, dairy) causes toxic substances to leak through into your whole body and this creates an inflammatory moment, an immune response, and stresses out your adrenals. They send out cortisol like crazy until the well runs dry. With early stage Adrenal Fatigue you’re just not making enough cortisol during the day (and too much at night). With later stage Adrenal Fatigue you can stop making cortisol during the day altogether. The thyroid can become dysfunctional leading to a thyroid problem. That problem can then develop into something more severe - namely Addison’s or Cushing’s Disease. BUT you can turn early stage Adrenal Fatigue around pretty simply and easily and avoid any of these potential cascading health problems.

Adrenal Fatigue and your cycles and fertility

Disruption to the hormone cortisol has a knock-on impact on your cycles. If you’re currently suffering with Adrenal Fatigue you will likely also be experiencing these issues:

• Anovulatory cycles - you won’t be ovulating every month which will hamper your plans for achieving a pregnancy and your overall health.
• Progesterone deficiency - your body eats up progesterone when its struggling to regulate cortisol. Low progesterone lengthens your luteal phase making your cycles longer and the start of your period sluggish (you may see brown spotting and brown blood before the full flow).
• PMS - as you can imagine, the “tired and wired” scenario here is going to worsen all symptoms of PMS including the mood swings and food cravings. You’ll especially crave sugar for energy, which then disrupts the microbiome and causes more cortisol disruption. Vicious cycle!

How to heal Adrenal Fatigue naturally

The great news is that you can heal this health problem naturally - no medications involved - and your efforts will reap rewards quickly. Follow my simple 3 step plan to soothe your adrenals and start sleeping like a baby and waking up refreshed, energized and raring to take on the day. 3 things to do if you want to heal Adrenal Fatigue

1. Sleep. There are many things you can do to get a better night’s sleep, even with cortisol levels going haywire. I have a breakdown of many of my best tips here, but as an added extra for your situation, I suggest you also try a herbal sleep aid. My favorite is Hyland’s Calms.
2. Supplement. There are two types of Adrenal Fatigue - one comes with anxiety and one comes with depression. If you have anxiety, take the supplement Ashwaghanda and if you have depression take Rhodiola.
3. Schedule. Your adrenals love a regular, set schedule. They are trying to keep time in your body in relation to the sun rising and setting, so they’re all about that clockwork time keeping. They feel relaxed by regular bed times, meal times, and workout times. This can seem impossible, especially if you have multiple responsibilities, but try picking just ONE part of your life to schedule strictly - like the time you wake up or the time you eat dinner with your family.

3 things to avoid if you want to heal Adrenal Fatigue

1. Over-exercise. Don’t push yourself when you’re not feeling up to that spin class. If you have adrenal fatigue it’s better to focus on walking, yoga, pilates, instead of high cardio workouts that stress the adrenals. Exercise according to your body’s best abilities by cycle-syncing your routine.
2. Empty stomach. Eat a good breakfast every morning and don’t chug coffee on an empty stomach. Better yet, avoid coffee entirely - here’s my easy detox plan.
3. Late night. Try to rearrange your life to avoid having dinner late, binge watching until the wee hours, events that don’t start til 9pm - try to catch that sleep train at 10pm every night. This way you’ll get into bed on the tail end of the evening cortisol surge and avoid experiencing another close to midnight and then not getting to sleep until 3am, if at all.

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,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, do you think you have Adrenal Fatigue? Second, do you have low energy? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.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!

Just a quick Google of the words “women” and “exercise” reveals that, only in this last week, the news has reported that exercise can save women from breast cancer, that women need to do resistance exercises during pregnancy, that exercise is more beneficial to women post-menopause, and that, for women, walking is better than working out. One week we hear that too much exercise or the wrong kind of exercise - be it spinning, CrossFit, running - is bad for us, and another week we hear we’re all heading to an early grave because we work out too little. It’s head-spinningly confusing and it’s enough to make you want to spend another evening on the couch, watching TV, eating snacks, and feeling kind of hopeless. When it comes to our hormonal health you have probably heard both that too much exercise or working out too hard can cause irregular cycles, missing periods, endometriosis, and more. You’ve probably also heard that too little exercise brings on the symptoms of PCOS, gives you cancer, and makes your periods heavy and painful. We are overwhelmed with advice, tips, and research. So what is the perfect Goldilocks-scenario here? What is the just right amount of exercise to do and the just right kind of exercise?Wonderfully, your hormonal patterns provide all you need to figure this out. The cyclical pattern of how our bodies work sets up the perfect architecture for us to plan out what is the best workout for us. During each phase of our menstrual cycle our bodies are primed and prepared for different kinds of exercise. At certain times - luteal phase and menstruation - our stores of nutrients and hormones go into building the lining of your uterus, making enough progesterone for example. At other times we have everything at our disposal to channel into a really strong work out. Cycle awareness and cycle syncing when it comes to working out can save you from exhaustion, burn-out, hormonal imbalance-based health issues, injury and boredom!Whether you’re working out to lose weight, stay fit, or keep healthy - it’s all about having a good metabolism and your metabolism is governed by your hormones. They are sensitive to unstable blood sugar, lack of sleep, too much coffee, too much stress - and all of this can prevent your hormones and metabolism from functioning well, which turns working out from something that’s good for you into something that is either ineffective or becomes actually bad for you.

So, what’s the solution? Don’t work out hard, instead, work out smart.

For the next month try this workout routine - it’s a routine that’s in sync with your body and your hormones. It will support a robust metabolism and strike the perfect balance. Follicular phase - try something new, like the Buti Yoga trend. It’s yoga mixed with Zumba-style movement. Stretch, relax, connect to your core, and get in some cardio all in one session! Ovulatory phase - try an interval training class or gym work out, like short sprints interspersed with fast walking, or a spinning class with slow uphills and fast racing segments - Soul Cycle. First part of your luteal phase - this is when to get high-intensity with a bootcamp class and use up your renewed energy stores to burn fat and make muscle. Second part of your luteal phase - ease towards menstruation with a pilates or restorative yoga class that relieves tension. Menstrual phase - take a gentle walk and sleep, sleep, sleep! Deep, restful, uninterrupted sleep helps you to lose weight. In fact, one night of missed, deficient sleep is the equivalent to 6 months eating a diet high in bad fats. Good sleep safeguards our blood sugar stability and prevents metabolic mayhem. Take my recommended steps to sleep like a baby. To supercharge your workouts the rest of the month, take this time to incorporate other routines that support your health and fitness including dry brushing, epsom salt/baking soda baths, massages and acupuncture. All of these non-workout routines improve your lymphatic drainage, which means that when your body is primed for that bootcamp class you will see more of the benefit. If you prefer to get your exercise at home - try out these cycle synced at-home workout videos especially for women living in their Flo. I’ve also selected the best free online routines you can watch on your laptop or TV that are perfect for each phase of your menstrual cycle.

My current workout routine: For new moms

It’s been just over a year since I gave birth and to be honest, I’ve hardly exercised at all. I go for a walk 3 or 4 times a week around Central Park pushing my baby girl in her 30lb stroller! I do some nice, easy, relaxing yoga for 30 minutes at home. And, you know what? My friends and family say I am thinner now than I was before I got pregnant! When do you ever hear that? It’s because I’m eating in my Flo, living in my Flo, and respecting my post-partum hormones. I know conventional wisdom - or at least gossip magazines - tell us that after giving birth we ought to crash diet and workout like crazy to lose the weight. Well, I lost 40 lbs. worth of baby weight in 3 months without depriving myself and without working out. I know what my body needs right now. I’m producing milk for my baby and that’s an energy and nutrient-heavy process. I am healing from the massive nutrient requirements of making a tiny human and delivering one. I am sleep deprived from nursing. I know my body needs my support to be able to provide for my child and keep me healthy and happy. Many women suffer with adrenal fatigue and thyroid issues post-partum and that’s because they push themselves way too hard and get depleted of their stores of nutrients, energy, and hormones. Instead of depleting myself I am strengthening myself with nourishment - bone broth, homemade chicken liver pate, bison burgers and more. When I feel fully stronger, I will start again with my cycle synced workouts just like the plan I’ve outlined for you here. I walk the talk, ladies, and it works! 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,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, what’s your favorite workout? Second, are you post-partum trying to get your body back, what’s happening? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ;)

Need more Hormone Help?

If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.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!

From a functional nutrition standpoint, there’s a better way forward when it comes to fibroids - no pain, but also no side effect laden pills or invasive surgeries. Both short term and long term good health are possible - relief now and no fertility worries later. You can have both, if you examine the root cause of your health issues. You have it in your hands to control whether you develop more fibroids and whether the fibroids that you have become larger and more uncomfortable. Essentially, you are able to make choices that will positively impact your current situation and your overall health. If you make changes to your diet and lifestyle you, can avoid more issues down the road. And the work, starting today, to fix this problem is nothing when compared to dealing with the adverse effects of the Pill and invasive surgeries.

A new way to treat uterine fibroids

It might seem harmless - "just take this Pill and everything will be resolved." Unfortunately, the Pill does not stop the growth of fibroids altogether and it actually worsens the underlying hormonal issues that cause this problem. Eventually you’ll want to come off the Pill and the fibroids will grow back and will potentially become more difficult to deal with.

The Pill depletes your hormones and nutrients, leaving you in poor health - from low immunity to a weakened metabolism. This can then create a situation in which a hysterectomy seems like the best choice. Hysterectomy increases cardiovascular risk, among a number of difficult consequences. So it isn’t all that harmless, even if it does seem to make sense to you and your doctor right now to just stay on the Pill and sit tight.

Your internal ecosystem and genetic predisposition that is creating a fibroid condition will keep doing so until you fix that ecosystem. Just addressing the estrogen dominance alone can help turn this ship around. Unaddressed however, you can’t get free of fibroids.The good news? You can avoid all of this entirely! So, what do these necessary diet and lifestyle changes involve? It can all be accomplished in one elegant and simple solution.

There are 4 essential stages to treating fibroids naturally:

1. ‍Reduce your estrogen overload‍
2. Improve your lymphatic drainage‍
3. Reduce your gut inflammation‍
4. Improve yourliver function

Finding the heart to take action

You might not know this, but a diagnosis of uterine fibroids means that your daughter is more likely to also develop uterine fibroids once she hits puberty. Try thinking about it from this perspective -  what would you do to prevent your child from going through the pain, the heavy bleeding, the backaches and the other ensuing health issues that you have gone through? I’d imagine you’d say - everything and anything possible. I know I would. I truly believe that we need to treat ourselves like we would treat our own daughters - with the same love, compassion, and care. You in this very moment have the fierce heart of a mother to turn that love into powerful self-care for you!I meet so many women who say, “If only I had known what was coming, I would have made different choices for myself far earlier in my life.” This is especially true for women who have suffered with fibroids. You can take your health into your own hands and make a difference. To kickstart this process you need to try my 4 Day Hormone Detox Plan and then ease into the cycle syncing health-style of living in your Flo. Once you get started, it becomes second nature. I know you’d do it for your daughter, but I want you to do it for yourself. 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!

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To your FLO,

Alisa

We’ve all met those women - the ones that are quick to tell everyone that their period is totally light, quick, pain and problem-free! Like those women in the commercials, running around playing tennis and horseback riding, as if nothing were happening down there.

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We tend to think those women are just plain lucky, that it’s a happy accident of fate whether you experience an easy period or a hard period. We assume something goes on in that mysterious process that either delivers you with a life of period positivity or a life of hating your period. We think: “Maybe it’s in the genes?”

And, if that lady isn’t you - if you do suffer every month with heavy bleeding, cramps, periods that go on forever, horrible PMS symptoms like moodiness and cravings...well then it can be really annoying to hear about someone else’s great period! You might even be in the situation where you have to explain your problem periods to your boss or co-workers, friends and family, because you just can’t carry on with life when you’re bleeding.

I have a confession to make, though, I am one of those women with a great period that causes me no problems! I even went on the Dr. Oz show to tell him about how great my period is!

But, I didn’t used to be one of those women. Before I developed the Flo Living protocol my periods were a real pain in the ass. So, I get where you’re coming from.

I want to tell you what my period is like NOW, only so that you know what a normal, healthy period SHOULD be like. There is absolutely no reason you should suffer on your period. It is not necessary, inevitable, fated, or unavoidable that you currently have cramps, heavy bleeding, clots, long periods, irregular periods, or terrible PMS issues. It is not some cross women have to bear, this problem period situation. It can be fixed.

What is a normal, perfect, healthy, period?

1. Your cycle should last 26-32 days - anywhere in between is fine as long as it is regular and consistent for you.
2. Your bleed should be the color of cranberry juice from start to finish, with no clots. A nice, strong, flow that isn’t inconveniently heavy and has you running to the bathroom every hour. Your period should really start first thing in the morning, without any brown stains leading up to the appearance of that cranberry red. And it should last 4-7 days, not longer or shorter.
3. You should be able to feel your uterus in action with some slight sensations or warm feelings, but there should not be any kind of pain that might have you reaching for drugs or hot water bottles.
4. After your period, leading up to ovulation, you should see the development of cervical fluid, which is an indicator of healthy fertility and necessary for getting pregnant. You might see this in your underwear or when you wipe after using the bathroom.
5. Rather than PMS, you should notice an increase in upbeat, social energy towards the middle of your cycle, that’s post-period, and then, in the second half of your cycle, a more focused, determined energy to get things accomplished.

If you experience a period that is the opposite of this - that is “un-perfect” shall we say? - check out my guide to interpreting and treating your period - this is where I provide specific protocols for each potential period problem you might be facing at this time whether that be clots, extremely light periods, brown staining, super short cycles, cramps, or PMS.

It pains me to see the descriptions sent out with the #livetweetyourperiod hashtag on Twitter, so many of them are utterly heart-wrenchingly negative, because women are suffering. Even the founder of the campaign, Tracy Clayton from Buzzfeed, seems to have extremely problematic periods. And so many women seem to feel they have to accept it as their lot in life.

I want to shout it from the rooftops: You can have the perfect period!

‍It’s totally achievable. You can even have a better period by next month, and a period just like mine within 3 months. I’ve seen it happen time and time again with the women I’ve worked with through Flo Living. I think every woman deserves the kind of period they can truly brag about.

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!