E281: Things You’re Doing To Decrease Progesterone And Make PMS Worse Without Knowing It

What if your progesterone problem has nothing to do with your hormones, and everything to do with your alarm clock? Stay with me. Your body steals progesterone to make cortisol every time you're stressed, physically or emotionally, and it does this without asking your permission, often before you've even gotten out of bed.

In this episode, I'm going rapid-fire through a list of everyday habits that are quietly draining your progesterone production. This isn't a beginner list, and I admit I’m guilty of some of these too! These are the sneaky, "literally everyone does this" kind of habits that feel so normal you'd never think to question them, but your body absolutely notices every single one. So, if you get through this whole episode and somehow find that you don’t identify with any of them, please message me, because I will be genuinely shocked.

And this matters even if a baby isn't on your radar right now. Building good progesterone today is basically how you bank yourself a smoother perimenopause later, and that's a season I'd love for you to walk into feeling like yourself.

Here's what I'm breaking down for you:

• Why your phone in the morning is priming your nervous system to be stressed for the rest of the day, and yes, switching to email counts just as much
• The real cost of always needing something in your ears, and what I noticed when I finally let myself sit in silence for five minutes
• What it actually means if you're waking up to pee at night, because "I drink a lot of water" probably isn't the full answer
• Two light habits almost everyone gets wrong, one in the morning, one at night, and what they're quietly doing to your cortisol and progesterone
• The way you're eating lunch that's messing with your hormones, and it has nothing to do with what's on your plate
• Why eating less can slow your metabolism and raise your cortisol, and why discipline has nothing to do with it

Some of this stuff is so woven into our daily lives that it feels impossible to even question. My husband legitimately cannot understand why I bought an actual alarm clock instead of just using my phone, and I get it, it sounds a little extra. But once you hear why I made that switch, you'll probably want to make a couple of these same "extra" swaps too. Same goes for the friend who insists she sleeps fine even though she's up to pee twice a night, or the one who can't sit in her car for a five-minute drive without a podcast playing. We've all just normalized so much that our bodies are quietly screaming about it, and a lot of it has nothing to do with food or supplements at all.

Here's the thing about progesterone: your body treats it like a luxury hormone. The second you're under any kind of stress - physical, mental, emotional, doesn't matter - your body will steal the raw materials meant for progesterone and use them to make more cortisol instead. So, if a few of these sound a little too familiar, that's not a coincidence. That's your body trying to tell you something.

You do not need to overhaul all of these at once; please don't, that never sticks for anyone. Pick the one that hits you the hardest, give it a few consistent weeks, and just watch what shifts. Progesterone doesn't respond to perfection; it responds to consistency, and that's actually really good news.

This episode is your permission to question the things you've just always assumed were part of being a busy woman. Hit play, and let's get into it.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

PMS TO PEACE Private Podcast 

E279: These Emotional Patterns Are Keeping Your Hormones Stuck

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