Page 30 of Big Girls Do It Stronger

Chapter 16

Hormones, Chocolate, Wine, Supplements, and Other Things That Just Popped into My Head

Being a woman is amazing, but sometimes it really sucks. I can’t tell you how many times I’m downright green with jealousy when my husband’s body changes faster than mine, or that he doesn’t have to contend with the five pound weight gain in the middle of the month, or that he doesn’t have crazy carb and chocolate cravings, or pimples, or hot flashes. It just isn’t fair!

Every month is an up and down battle between me and my hormones. My mom started “the change” when she hit 40 and, since I’m am overachiever, I’m pretty sure I’m riding the red bridge over there right now at age 37.

My mid-month weight gain and bloating, with the carb and chocolate cravings two weeks later, is enough to drive me insane. I probably won’t ever have peace with this. It will always suck, but the good news is that the longer I’ve been on this journey and the cleaner and healthier I eat, the better my body seems to be with my monthly cycle. I often had horrible, painful periods that would last a full week, which would make my nutritional issues worse and, in turn, would necessitate iron infusions just to keep me from feeling horrible. I would become weak, lightheaded, and tired. It wasn’t fun. As I continued to eat better, however, I found my periods only lasted three to four days, five at most. This was a wonderful side effect of my better food choices.

Most months I still have the carb and chocolate cravings, but instead of lasting for days, it’s usually a few hours at night. I deal with it by snacking on some dark chocolate and healthy popcorn. This happens almost every month like clockwork—it never fails. The funny part is Jack knows right when this happens, and he always has the necessary supplies ready for me.

I’ve learned to embrace this, now. There are going to be weeks during the month when my weight will go up because of hormones, and it’s okay ... it’ll drop back down. There are going to be days when I need chocolate ... BADLY. There are going to be days when I’ll need an extra glass of wine, also totally okay. Please don’t let those weeks, days, or hours be an excuse to give up—in fact, those can be days to celebrate.

Here’s my best advice on when this happens:HAVE A SAFTEY NET! If you don’t have healthy safety net foods in your house, or close by, it’s easy to cave and eat something that you’ll feel bad about later, causing a guilt spiral. I’ve seen this over and over again in my group. Listen to me, ladies: this is normal and 100% OKAY! I am done fighting my body. I am going to listen to the cues it gives me and embrace how it works. So if I’m a bit bloated or crabby I’m still going to put on my BIG GIRL exercise pants and work my body and fuel it well.

Another important thing I’ve learned this year is that I’ve been suffering—probably for a very long time—from severe adrenal fatigue. My doctor is actually the one who told me she wanted me to try an adrenal support supplement after I told her I was having more difficulty managing stress than usual.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I think women today are just at higher levels of stress than ever before in the history of womanhood. Heck, life is exhausting, right? The same signals our body would have triggered if a dangerous animal was chasing us are now being triggered all day long. We’re constantly in survival mode. We’re depressed, stressed, and always at the end of our rope, and that isn’t a stress our bodies were designed to sustain long-term.

I’ve usually been pretty good at dealing with stress—I manage motherhood, work, and marriage. Yes, sometimes I have bad days, but I’d never felt like my brain was shutting down when an especially stressful situation arose. In fact, I was at the point that I worried something else was going on. Was it just anxiety? A deeper level of anxiety?

The first day I took my adrenal support pills, I felt different. My brain was clearer, I slept better, I had better focus. I read a review on the herbal Gaia supplement I take that said if they ever won the lottery they would buy these for every single person they know, and I honestly have to say I can understand that. Now, I’m certainly not saying that EVERYONE in the world has adrenal fatigue, but I would guess many of you reading this right now might have it to some degree.

If you google adrenal fatigue you’re going to get all sorts of contradictory information about it, but what my research has revealed is this: if you’re dealing with lack of energy, anxiety, sudden and strong food cravings, allergies, difficulty in performing daily tasks, difficulty focusing, depression, difficulty sleeping, intense sensitivity to cold and/or dizziness then this might be something to talk to your doctor about. (BTW, this is theshortlist, people; there are countless other issues linked to adrenal fatigue.)

When I looked into it, I decided trying the support supplement was worth a shot, just to see if any of these conditions improved. I have to say that it has been a huge relief to be able to manage these symptoms by taking the supplement. I take them daily in addition to my ACV, multivitamin, and probiotic. They’ve been a literal miracle for my mind. We are still doing collagen and MCT oil too; collagen usually goes into our post-workout shakes as we’ve found that is the easiest way to get it in; MCT is great in our morning coffee.

Figure out what works best for you. I know some people have told me they mix the collagen, MCT, stevia drops, and cream all together in their morning coffee, and others put the MCT or collagen in soup or tea. Any way you can get those in will be good for your body. I can’t tell you how much my hair, nails, and skin has changed because of those small doses of collagen in my shakes and smoothies. It’s a big wow. Don’t believe me? Just try it for 30 days and see what you think. I get comments almost daily about how young I look, and I truly believe the fountain of youth comes from what we are puttinginour bodies.

Speaking of the fountain of youth, I want to update you about my skin care. I am still using the vitamin C serum faithfully—I really feel this has helped with the overall condition of my skin. We’ve also really tried to find products for bath and body that are as clean and organic as possible. When I first looked at those products during a trip to Whole Foods, I was shocked by the prices. Now you can find good, high quality, organic products at much better prices, especially on Amazon if you do the subscribe-and-save option; 15% off and sent right to my door whenever I want it. Sounds like a great idea to me! The Art Naturals and Beauty by Earth products are awesome, and Puracy has been a great bath care line for my kids. There are so many great, reasonably priced natural and organic products out there now. If you can get those for the same cost as the chemical-filled brands, why not buy the natural and better-for-your- body-ones? Your skin is your body’s largest organ, so don’t neglect it! If you wouldn’t put it on your skin, don’t put it in your mouth, and if you wouldn’t put it in your mouth, don’t put it on your skin.