The Happy Hormone Guide Read online

  Copyright ©2019 by Shannon Leparski

  Published by Blue Star Press

  PO Box 8835, Bend, OR 97708

  [email protected] | www.bluestarpress.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

  Photography by:

  Shannon Leparski: Cover 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

  and Sara Hilton: 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30

  Cover Design: Amanda Hudson

  Hardover Interior Design: Amy Sly

  ISBN 9781944515836

  Ebook ISBN 9781950968046

  DISCLAIMER:

  This book is for informational and educational purposes. Please consult your healthcare provider before beginning any healthcare program.

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  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Introduction: My Journey to Happy Hormones

  PART ONE: REDISCOVERING YOUR BODY

  CHAPTER ONE: Your Endocrine System

  CHAPTER TWO: Toxins and Detoxification

  CHAPTER THREE: Birth Control

  CHAPTER FOUR: Plant-Based Nutrition

  CHAPTER FIVE: Supplements and Healing Herbs

  PART TWO: THE HAPPY HORMONE METHOD

  CHAPTER SIX: Lifestyle Action Steps

  CHAPTER SEVEN: Get Ready to Cycle

  CHAPTER EIGHT: The Four Phases

  CHAPTER NINE: Phase One: Menstrual Phase

  CHAPTER TEN: Phase Two: Follicular Phase

  CHAPTER ELEVEN: Phase Three: Ovulatory Phase

  CHAPTER TWELVE: Phase Four: Luteal Phase

  Bonus Recipes

  Resources

  Acknowledgements

  Index

  About the Author

  SOMETIMES LIVING IN A WOMAN’S BODY CAN feel like riding a roller coaster in the dark. It’s a shaky, loopy journey and you can’t always tell where you are heading next. I vividly remember my stomach doing somersaults after coming home from school in the seventh grade to find I had started my first period. After quickly calling my mom to tell her the news, she congratulated me with so much excitement and enthusiasm that I thought she had lost her mind. Why should I be excited about bleeding every month for the next 40 years! While my sweet mom was trying to make it a positive experience (which I now appreciate), I couldn’t help but dread everything having to do with periods and puberty.

  My unpredictable body was taking me for a ride, and I was clueless about what was happening.

  HELLO, HORMONES

  A few months later, PMS came knocking. Her grand entrance was a little too obvious. First came the debilitating cramps that felt like someone was chopping up my insides and made me want to curl up in a ball and never leave my bed. Next came the excessively oily skin and hair, to the point that I was showering and shampooing my hair twice a day (which I now know only made it worse). That was followed by a long list of equally lousy symptoms like severe acne that lingered for months, dramatic mood swings that scared my parents, mild depression, cyclical weepiness, brain fog, cravings, painful bloating, constipation, severe breast tenderness, fatigue, and insomnia. The worst part was, as much as those symptoms sucked, I thought they were completely normal—and so did everyone around me. I was now a woman with a period, and this is what was supposed to happen. “It’s just hormones,” everyone said.

  The problem is that hormones can make your life downright miserable if they aren’t fluctuating within optimal ratios. Hormones control more than most people think; they act as the master switches for growth, reproduction, mood, metabolism, weight, energy, brain function, libido, and the appearance of your skin, hair, and nails. From a young age, women are fed an abundance of ideas about hormones. PMS symptoms are normal. Most hormonal conditions are incurable. Hormonal chaos is “part of being a woman.” The two options we have are to suck it up or take the birth control pill.

  The belief that hormones can only be tamed through medication is false, and these ideas are severely outdated. If we provided young girls with the tools, resources, and education to understand the ride of womanhood—fluctuating hormones and all—it would encourage a more positive connection to their bodies from the beginning. It would help eliminate the confusion, negativity, and sense of helplessness that I once felt, and so many young women feel, as their bodies start—and continue—to change.

  Sure enough, by age 16, I had had enough and asked my mom if I could go on the pill—mostly because I yearned for clear, beautiful skin, and a life without cramps. It felt like my oily, acne-ridden and makeup-covered face was all anybody could see, which sucked my confidence dry. I’ve blogged about my journey with acne numerous times, but my biggest insecurity was always my skin. I would marvel at any girl with clear, radiant skin and wonder what on earth I was doing wrong. Since many of the girls in my high school were already on the pill for their periods and skin (and probably for other reasons, too), I wanted to join the club. Easier periods, clear skin, and pregnancy prevention? Um, yes, please! Going on the pill couldn’t have been easier. While many of my symptoms lessened while on the pill (we will get into why and how this happens in chapter three), my skin was still acting out. A dermatologist prescribed six months of a harsh medication that was popular at the time.

  GOING VEGAN

  The medication cleared up my skin fairly well for the rest of high school and throughout college. At age 25, green juices sparked my interest in holistic health and nutrition, and I began to question everything I was putting in and on my body. Then, on a cold Friday night in February 2014, I had a life-changing experience while watching a documentary called Vegucated. In an hour, everything I thought I knew about our food system blew up in my face, and I was left standing at a crossroads. While sick to my stomach, tears and mascara running down my face, I decided to go vegan right then and there. I knew nothing about the lifestyle at the time, but it felt like the universe closed the door on my previous life, and I had to move forward as a vegan. I know what you’re thinking. This girl is dramatic! But it felt right, and everything about the vegan lifestyle instantly resonated with me.

  This major lifestyle change prompted the start of my vegan recipe and lifestyle blog, The Glowing Fridge. That April, my little creative corner of the internet was born. One year later, blogging turned into my full-time career.

  I wrote this book to be inclusive of all women. You do not have to be vegan or plant-based to follow the Happy Hormone Method. I purely wanted to create a space where that is possible. You can thrive with happy hormones and be vegan or plant-based, as long as you take the right precautions (which I will address), stay on top of your health by getting a full blood and hormone panel done every six months, and make adjustments as necessary.

  Note: I use the terms “‘vegan” and “plant-based” interchangeably throughout the book. Technically, vegan refers to an animal-free lifestyle, while plant-based refers only to an animal-free way of eating.

  Two months into my vegan journey, I quit the pill, and my skin went haywire—in the worst way possible. Just like that, I was back at square one and had acne as an adult. Eating whole plant foods helped to heal my skin as I eliminated many of the inflammatory foods I had been eating (like dairy and processed junk), but it remained far from clear. Deep
down, I sensed my skin issues were hormone-related but felt lost as to what steps to take to heal from within. By age 27, two years into my vegan journey, I had lost all hope for ever having clear skin or a regular period without severe PMS symptoms.

  DISCOVERING THE WOMAN CODE

  At one point, a book on hormone health called Woman Code, written by Alisa Vitti, started popping up on blogs I was following and in my social media feeds. I took it as a sign and ordered the book. After reading the first chapter, a new fire ignited inside my soul.

  From that moment on, all aspects of my life shifted again. How I approached PMS symptoms, how I cared for myself and my emotional health, how I ate and exercised, as well as my social life and my focus on my blogging career. I had a newfound sense of purpose, and a drive to learn everything I possibly could about hormone health and how to balance them naturally, without medication.

  Woman Code acted as a handbook for many of my hormone-related issues and laid the foundation for my knowledge of hormones. Alisa is one of the reasons I’m writing this book. She taught me that every single PMS symptom I’ve ever dealt with is not normal and should not be expected, but instead taken as an indication of an internal imbalance. She taught me how to balance my blood sugar and eat cyclically to nourish my fluctuating endocrine system. She taught me that my body does not just have one setting like that of a man’s, but rather many settings that are constantly moving through the four phases of my monthly menstrual cycle. She even taught me that doing intense cardio exercise in the second half of my cycle can actually increase my chances of weight gain. Her greatest gift was providing me with the permission I needed to pay special attention to my body instead of writing it off as broken as I had done for most of my life.

  For me, Alisa normalized what being a woman is all about. I learned to accept and embrace my period, which was the opposite of what I used to do. I learned never to feel ashamed for talking about periods or blood or cervical mucus or anything that society labels as “taboo” or “gross” because all of these things are normal, healthy experiences for every woman. They are far from gross, and it’s about time to empower and educate women by talking about periods and hormone health more openly.

  I began studying hormone function and the very complex endocrine system (although the learning process never ends). From there, I experimented with different eating and lifestyle programs for my fluctuating hormones, while staying true to my plant-based vegan lifestyle. This became the most challenging part, as most programs included animal foods. My goal was to create a community and plan that would accommodate women who follow a vegan or plant-based lifestyle and are also interested in balancing their hormones naturally. Over time, my very own accessible program for living with happy hormones was born.

  EXPERIENCING HAPPY HORMONES

  I experienced noticeable improvements as early as the second month of my program with less cramping, bloating, and acne, as well as an increase in energy and motivation. My cycle started to balance out, going from 42 days down to a normal length of 28–30 days. I started sleeping better and felt less moody and depressed in my luteal phase (also known as the PMS phase, more on that in chapter 12). After six months, I felt incredible but was still experiencing breakouts along my jawline. It wasn’t until I quit sugar and worked on my gut health that my hormonal acne completely disappeared for good.

  Now that I know the ins and outs of my cycle, what is normal for my body, and have experienced how amazing life can be on the other side, I want to help others feel the same way.

  Living with balanced hormones provides a powerful and deep connection to your body.

  In this book, I’ll teach you about the endocrine system and how to leverage its predictable functionality with your life each month, while syncing it with your career, social life, sex, food, workouts, beauty regimens and more. I’ll also teach you how stress affects hormonal balance and share different ways to manage real-life stressors, along with why ovulation is the most important part of your menstrual cycle, how to identify different types of cervical mucus to track ovulation and how to promote ovulation. You’ll learn how to view your period blood as your internal health report card, bring your period back if it’s gone missing, and make the bleeding phase of your cycle more enjoyable.

  You will discover why PMS symptoms happen and how to prevent them or eliminate them with food, herbs, and supplementation. Find out which nutrients, vitamins, and minerals are imperative for hormone balance, and which cycle phase to eat them. Not only will this book help you gain a deeper understanding of your menstrual cycle and fertility, but it will also amplify an intuitive connection with your body that lives within you, just waiting to be discovered.

  Hormone imbalances don’t happen overnight; they come from your daily choices.

  A SETBACK

  In April of 2018, right around the time I started writing this book, I intuitively knew something was wrong. I began to feel like I couldn’t get out of bed in the mornings and my mind turned into a very dark, depressing place that made it hard to concentrate or feel happy. I got my hormones tested and found myself on the verge of hypothyroidism due to hypothalamic-pituitary axis dysregulation (also known as HPA-axis dysregulation or “adrenal fatigue,” which you’ll learn about in chapter 1), on top of low progesterone levels.

  I knew it was my endocrine system’s way of responding to too many life changes and too much stress. I brought my hormone lab results to a gynecologist, and her response was very disheartening. Regarding my low progesterone levels, she told me that I only need progesterone if I’m trying to get pregnant. Immediately I knew we were on different planets. That’s like telling a man he only needs testosterone when he’s trying to get a woman pregnant. Men would never accept that answer, so why should women? The fact that the gynecologist believed women’s hormones are only useful for making babies represents a sad misconception in our culture (and is an issue I could write a whole other book about). She didn’t even think to test my nutrient levels, find a possible underlying cause of my low progesterone, or ask me any relevant questions about my overall health.

  After that, I decided to meet with a naturopath who spoke the same language and looked to treat my body as a whole. Sure enough, she found that my vitamin D levels were low, and my cortisol levels were out of whack, both of which affected my HPA-axis and hormone production. We came up with a plan consisting of new stress management skills, a better sleep routine, meditation, reduced caffeine intake, and new supplementation, as well as adding more sea vegetables to my diet (like kelp and dulse because they contain high amounts of iodine) and adding sea salt to my lemon water to help replenish lost mineral stores. In a couple of months, I was feeling better than ever.

  The point of sharing this experience is to show you that the Happy Hormone Method can’t outwork a stressful lifestyle. Following this program may force you to hone in on the hard stuff and go against the way you’ve always done things. But that’s the beauty of it—and how you bring about change. Whether it’s your addiction to working too much, pushing your body too hard at the gym, scheduling more than you can handle, staying in a toxic relationship, or whatever it may be, every stressor needs to be evaluated as part of this program. Of course, we will always have some amount of stress in our lives, but if you want to provide a strong foundation for your body to achieve optimal hormonal health, it’s important to establish new ways of coping with stress. If you find this is too difficult to manage on your own, I highly recommend talking to a therapist or mental health professional or meeting with a naturopath to help navigate you through the initial steps. They can provide powerful tools and resources, so you don’t have to wade through difficult or stressful situations alone.

  THE POWER OF DAILY CHOICES

  Although this experience was frightening, disheartening, and made me question everything, I archived it as a wake-up call that my body can only handle so much at one time. I was reminded once again that thi
s is an all-encompassing lifestyle. I had to dig deeper and make some big changes to my attitude, sleep, caffeine consumption, workouts (I had to stop doing intense gym workouts and switch to a home routine using bodyweight training, resistance bands, and ankle weights) and how I handle day-to-day stress. The body works synergistically. One night of inadequate sleep can affect your eating habits, which can create imbalanced blood sugar levels that can spiral into a week of eating junk or drinking too much alcohol and throw off your menstrual cycle and ovulation. Every system in your body works together.

  The sooner you can wrap your mind around the huge impact your daily choices have on your endocrine system and fertility as a whole, the better off you will be. So, while this program may not be a quick overnight fix, it is a lifestyle that keeps on giving at every stage of your life. The longer you stick with it, the bigger the payoff, especially during times of major hormonal shifts (like pregnancy and perimenopause).

  FIND YOUR “WHY”

  Think about your goals for your present self and future self. Whether your goal is to feel more connected, open the lines of communication with your inner guidance system, balance your hormones for future fertility, feel better overall and more like yourself, find your cyclical rhythm, lose weight, clear up your skin, or follow a unique female-focused monthly routine, it’s all about what matters to you. To get the most out of this book, you must find your why.

  My ultimate goals were to have clear skin throughout the whole month and abolish all PMS symptoms (which I achieved). In the first couple of months, all I could handle was adding in a few of the recommended foods because, at the time, I was very set in my routine ways of eating and exercising. Each cycle phase felt unfamiliar and new (except for the menstrual phase, of course). As I kept with it and introduced new aspects of the program while tracking my fluctuating signs and symptoms, each cycle phase started to feel more familiar and empowering.