October 16, 2025 • 22 mins
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I'm Bridget Walton, a Women's Hormone Coach helping ambitious women ages 25-40 naturally restore hormone balance, fix irregular periods, feel confident in their fertility, and resolve gut health issues without restrictive dieting.
If you struggle with missing periods, PCOS symptoms, bloating, or unpredictable cycles, this women's health podcast will teach you how to support your hormones through strategic nutrition and lifestyle changes that actually fit your busy life.
On I'm Hormonal, you'll discover natural solutions for period problems, learn how gut health impacts your hormones, and get practical hormone balance tips from a functional nutrition perspective - no more guessing what your body needs.
In this episode, you'll learn the three solutions to focus on if you've dialed in your clean eating yet you find your progress plateauing. Bridget walks you through the gaps that she sees her clients missing before starting to work with her. Understanding how to repair the gut lining, support stable blood sugars, and mitigate stressors may be key to restoring your hormone balance.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
If clean eating alone was able to fix your
hormones, you would probablyalready be back to one hundo,
wouldn't you?
So either you're doing it wrong,or maybe clean eating isn't
actually the all-in-one solutionthat you thought it would be.
Let me show you which one it is,because in this episode, I'm
talking about where clean eatingalone falls short and what else
(00:22):
you want to consider.
Welcome to the I'm HormonalPodcast.
I'm Bridget Walton, a women'shormone coach helping busy,
ambitious women throughpersonalized coaching and
science-backed solutions.
Whether you are working with meone-on-one or listening here, my
goal is the same to help youstop guessing about your hormone
health and start seeing realprogress.
(00:42):
If this is your first timemeeting me, your first time
listening, then a specialwelcome to you a little bit more
so you can get to know me.
I am based out here inCalifornia on the West Coast.
I am a cat lady.
I'm basically 100 years old onthe inside.
But when it comes to what I dohere and what we're talking
(01:04):
about, I'm a certifiednutritional therapy
practitioner.
I also have training as amenstrual cycle coach, as a
functional hormone specialist,and I bring that all together to
support clients one-on-onethrough my work, through my
company, I'm hormonal.
So that is a little bit aboutme, just to set the stage.
And you will hear me talk aboutmy experience working with
(01:27):
clients, what I've learned fromclients, and I share that with
you to help you A know thatthere is hope for you, no matter
how long you have been trying tofigure out your hormones, trying
to figure out your gut health.
Girl, I've got you.
You're not by yourself in this.
And because I want you to walkaway from these episodes, having
(01:49):
really practical recommendationsor changes that you can start to
implement.
Yes, certainly at a point,you're gonna want a more
specific set of guidance anddirections.
But maybe you're somebody who isa little bit earlier in your
troubleshooting journey and youwant to get a better grasp of
what are the factors thatinfluence my hormones or my gut
(02:11):
health, then you are also in theright place.
With that being said, if you'relike, wait, okay, yes, I am
listening for the first time andyou've already mentioned gut
health a few times, why are wetalking about gut health when
we're really here to talk abouthormones?
Amazing question.
And I cannot understate itenough.
(02:32):
Wait, no, it is understated.
I can't overstate it enough howimportant gut health is for your
hormone health as well.
If there's something going onwith your hormones and there's
something going on with yourgut, you need to address what is
going on in the gut first.
What that could look like inreal life is if you were
(02:54):
somebody who has a lot ofbloating or stomach pains, maybe
you're not having regular dailybowel movements, that is gonna
be a little flag for you to knowthat, hey, I need to get that
part of my health in line sothat then you can really focus
on balancing your hormones andsee the movle, the needle move
(03:15):
that much more when you do makethose hormone-focused changes.
Now, bridging that back into thetopic for today, talking about
clean eating.
And let me talk to you about agal who I know she is 29.
She has had gut problems foryears, along the same lines of
(03:36):
what I mentioned.
She's had a lot of bloating,she's had a lot of stomach pain.
She's had irregular periods foras long as she can remember.
She's been on birth control fora lot of her adult life and
really never had like aconsistent, kind of good
quality.
I'm doing air quotes over here,like easy period.
(03:57):
And so through theseexperiences, she realized that
she needed to get her gut healthfigured out first.
And she made a lot of changes tothe way that she was eating.
She's eating all organic, she'seating basically everything
homemade.
She, you know, started to avoidall of the processed foods
(04:19):
naturally.
And she even decided to do acarnivore diet for a couple of
months to get some relief fromall of the discomfort that she
was having.
Despite all of this, and whilesome of those interventions did
result in improvements for herand her having a better
experience, it didn't alone fixwhat was going on for her.
(04:45):
So I'm gonna be talking moreabout what I want you to
consider.
If you feel like, like what Ijust said, you're like, Bridget,
yes, that is me.
Where do I go next?
Then this episode is for you.
Let's dive into what are the topthree next steps that I want you
to consider if you are at thispoint.
(05:05):
And again, if you feel likeyou've been making these changes
to your diet, but your progresshas stalled or plateaued, then
this is going to be a good onefor you.
Super quick, before I talk aboutthe three next steps to
consider, let me clarify what amI actually saying when I say
clean eating?
You probably have an idea, anidea in your head of what that
(05:29):
means for you.
And I think that there certainlyare a million different ways
that clean eating could look.
I'm not being overlyprescriptive in this.
When I'm referring to cleaneating throughout this episode,
I really am just talking abouteating in a way that minimizes
or totally eliminatesconsumption of processed foods,
(05:52):
probably opting for 100% organicproduce, or if not close to
100%.
And overall, being aware of andavoiding foods that are
irritating, maybe avoidingcertain food groups like dairy
or gluten, if that's somethingthat you notice irritates you.
(06:12):
But this is all to say by cleaneating, I mean that you're
really making changes toeliminate foods that you've
recognized cause irritation,cause problems for you.
So let's not overthink thedefinition of clean eating here.
It's okay if the way that youeat clean is a little bit
(06:33):
different from how I'mexplaining it.
I think overall the messagingand the guidance here will still
be helpful for you.
Number one on the list here thatI want you to be aware of is
supporting blood sugar stabilitybecause it is very possible to
be eating clean, to be removingall of these sugars, added
(06:55):
sugars from your diet, but stillhave dysregulated blood sugar.
If you are, for example, you'rewaking up in the morning, you
are doing a tough workout firstthing, maybe before eating
anything, then you are havingyour coffee with your organic
collagen, and then you have asmoothie that is, you know, a
(07:18):
fruit smoothie, maybe you putsome chia seeds in it.
While those things individuallyare not bad, right?
Those are good options, or atleast much better than some
other alternatives, that canstill contribute to blood sugar
spikes, which then results in,you know, more steep blood sugar
(07:38):
drops.
When your blood sugar isdysregulated, is a little bit
chaotic like that, that is goingto contribute to stress,
potentially to more inflammationin your body.
And so it could be that stressand inflammation that is
negatively impacting yourhormones.
I'll explain this in a slightlydifferent way to help it make a
(07:59):
little bit more sense.
If you are eating really well,you're eating clean, you're
eating all organic, but maybebecause of that, you don't
realize or you don't think abouthow many, uh, you know, how much
sugar is actually in a date.
Is a date a better option than aSnickers bar?
In my opinion, yeah, very tasty.
(08:20):
But maybe you don't realize,okay, actually this date is
still spiking my blood sugar.
And so that can bedysregulating.
Let's talk about a couple otherthings aside from just food that
impact your blood sugar as well.
One of those things would be alack of sleep.
If you're not getting your solidseven to eight plus hours of
(08:45):
sleep, then that will beinherently destabilizing for
your blood sugar.
If you have a solid high amountof muscle mass on your body,
that's going to be supportive ofyour blood sugar stability.
So on the contrary, if you maybehave low muscle mass, then that
could be less stabilizing foryour blood sugar as well.
(09:07):
Another thing I'm thinking of isif you, let's say you are 30,
I'm 32, and I grew up in theMidwest.
I joined the Marine Corps aftercollege, I was not eating the
best.
I was eating a lot of processedfood.
I was really going big on thoseBaskin Robbins brownie Sundays.
And so eating that way for somany years, right?
(09:30):
Multiple decades, that had acertain impact on my metabolic
health.
And because you start eatingwell, even if you eat and move
and sleep in a way that reallysupports stable blood sugar
levels, it can still take alittle bit of time, or for some
people, maybe a lot of time, tosee the changes in your
(09:52):
metabolic health and overallstabilize your blood sugar.
And remember, that's not a badthing.
This is just information so thatyou can decide how you want to
move forward.
But just know that, like manyareas of your health, it might
take a hot minute to really seethe benefit of what you are
doing, but that's okay.
(10:13):
Because when you are makingchanges for your health to get
closer to your best health,you're doing it with the long
term in mind.
You're not doing it because youthink that tomorrow life is
going to be different.
So just remember you're in itfor the long run and supporting
more stable blood sugar levels.
While you can do something rightnow or in your next meal, to
(10:34):
avoid a glucose spike or atleast a significant glucose
spike, it still could takemonths to see the overall
progress that you really want tosee.
And blood sugar, we know Imentioned causes stress.
It can cause inflammation orcontribute to it.
And that can be an issue when itcomes to your psycho regularity
(10:59):
and your sex hormone balance.
So that's how right blood sugaris tying in directly to what's
going on with your sex hormones.
Moving on to step number two, oritem number two that I want you
to consider if you're like,dang, I've been doing all this
clean eating, or maybe you werelike my friend who I mentioned,
who even did a carnivore dietfor a while.
(11:21):
But when she started toreincorporate plants or just
other foods that she would havebefore that didn't irritate her
before she did the carnivorediet, she was even more
sensitive than she ever was.
And she's like, oh my gosh,shoot.
Well, I thought that, you know,I once I started eating the
carnivore diet, or maybe foryou, it's once you eliminated
(11:42):
all of these inflammatory orprocessed foods, or maybe
certain oils, that inflammationwent down.
You didn't have the samesymptoms in your gut health, you
were feeling a lot better.
Huge win.
And what happens, let me breakdown what's happening in the
body for you during that time.
You're giving your immune systema break, right?
(12:02):
Because whereas before, maybethere was some food particles
that were leaking out throughfrom your intestines into your
blood, right?
Maybe you've heard the termleaky gut or intestinal
permeability.
What's happening there is thatteeny tiny particles of food are
getting out, and that is whatyour immune system is responding
(12:25):
to and reacting to that cancause inflammation.
So back to this, you know,context of this situation.
You eliminate a lot of thosefoods, you're feeling a lot
better.
But then great, you start eatingblueberries again, and your
immune system, your immunesystem says, Hey, I remember
you.
I am attacking you now.
And it's a bigger response thanbefore because your immune
(12:48):
system has, you know, had theopportunity, has the bandwidth
to mount a larger response.
So, so what was the part, whatis the part that was missing?
And what do you need to doinstead?
This second thing I want you toconsider is incorporating a step
that is actually helping torepair the lining of the gut,
(13:11):
right?
If you eliminate theinflammatory foods or
ingredients, great first step,necessary first step for sure.
But you can't neglect toactually do the healing and
repair step to support yourintestinal lining, to allow you
to reintroduce those foodssuccessfully.
(13:32):
So there are certain um vitaminsor herbs right off the top of my
head, thinking of vitamin A,vitamin E, incorporating things
like aloe or marshmallow root,um, incorporating something like
L-glutamine or quercetin.
I don't want to offer somethingsuper specific for you because
(13:53):
depending on your healthsituation, the amount of each of
those or which one of thosenutrients or supplements you
select will really depend onyou.
But those are just a couple ofideas for context of what might
that phase look like.
And it might look like spendinga couple of weeks or a couple of
(14:14):
months incorporating thosesupplements in order to heal up,
not heal up, but like to supporttighter junctions in your
intestinal lining and restorethat intestinal integrity.
I'll mention here that this isone of the huge reasons why I've
recently started using foodsensitivity testing with my
(14:37):
clients.
And we'll use this inconjunction with a GI Map, which
is a gut panel that helps us toinform, okay, what's going on
with inflammation in your gut,but also getting so specific on
what foods are irritating you.
Because there can be veryhealthy, perfectly, you know,
good foods that we would onaverage like to include in our
(15:00):
diet.
But maybe that's something thatyour body is sensitive to
because you've been, let's say,blueberries again.
Maybe you've been havingblueberries every day because
they're good for you.
They're full of antioxidants,they're tasty.
And because you've been havingthem so much, your immune system
recognizes them and has thisreaction to them because they've
(15:21):
eked, leaked into yourbloodstream so much.
That is for sure oversimplifyingthis explanation.
Hopefully that suffices to giveyou a little bit more of a
visual.
But what I want to say here isreally just that there, I would
bet for all of us, are foodsthat are healthy and that you
(15:43):
will want to ultimatelyreintegrate into your diet, but
maybe that right now are causinginflammation, are causing an
immune response.
So when you can get super clearon what are those specific foods
to temporarily remove from yourdiet while you are working
through a gut protocol and whileyou are incorporating those
(16:03):
nutrients and herbs that aregoing to support the repair of
your gut lining, that canabsolutely speed up the
transformation of your guthealth and therefore of your
hormone health as well.
This is so important.
This is so important.
Maybe I should have made thisnumber one because it's the part
where you support the intestinallining that really makes such a
(16:26):
difference here.
Let's move on to number three.
The third thing that I want youto keep in mind here is that
even though maybe you're eatingreally clean, you're eating
really well, you are so focusedon what you are eating, what's
your stress like?
Because even if you're eatingabsolutely perfectly, everything
(16:47):
is looking good, everything isorganic.
Maybe you are doing a great jobof supporting stable blood sugar
levels by the way that you'reeating and the way that you are
moving, but you still have theseother stressors in your life,
whether it's mental oremotional, maybe it's
overexercising, undereating canalso be a stressor.
(17:08):
And as we know, your stresshormone will impact blood sugar
stability, coming back to numberone, but it can also have an
impact on your estrogen levels.
It can either prevent as muchestrogen from being released and
prevent ovulation, or in thesecond half of your cycle, let's
say you did ovulate, well, itcan keep estrogen levels um
(17:32):
relatively high.
And that's when you experiencePMS.
That's when you experience heavybleeding.
And so it can go one of twoways, right?
Just kind of depends on you andall the other factors
influencing um your health andyour hormones.
But this is all to say we gottaget serious about stress because
(17:54):
it really has a huge impact on alot of your hormones.
And that's, I mean, that makesit sound very calm.
If you've listened to thepodcast before, you're like,
yes, Birjo, we get it.
Stress is a big deal.
But stress is a huge deal.
It's gonna impact your estrogenlevels, which will in turn
(18:14):
impact your progesterone levels.
Very important if you want toconceive.
It can also increase yourandrogen levels, which are your
hormones like testosterone,which can impact your skin.
A couple more honorable mentionshere.
Stress will likely negativelyimpact your ability to produce
(18:34):
stomach acid, which then opensyou up to potential overgrowth
or infection, right?
Because you don't have the rightamount of acidity to kill off
some of those pathogens that youdon't really want introduced
into the rest of your system.
I want to mention or come backto undereating, because this is
(18:57):
something I know I say this allthe time too.
So if you've been listening fora while, you've heard this.
But at least half, at least 75%of the clients that I work with,
when we do a food and moodjournal, they they're like, wow,
I didn't realize that I'mactually undereating.
And perhaps you fall into thatcategory as well, especially if
(19:21):
you are focused on clean eating.
And there are so many foods thatyou are not including in your
diet.
So just making sure that you'regetting all the nutrients that
you need, you're getting all theprotein that you need, you're
getting all the fat that youneed.
Because if you're not gettingenough fat in your diet, well,
cholesterol is the basicbuilding block for many of your
sex hormones, also your stresshormone.
(19:43):
This is so important to take abeat, to do an audit of the
stressors that are in your life,whether they are mental or
emotional, whether they'rephysical through exercise,
whether it is related toinflammation, in the in terms
of, you know, what chemicals areyou coming into coming into
contact with through what you'rebreathing, what you are putting
(20:06):
onto your skin, what you areingesting, and more.
So as a quick recap here, if youare doing an excellent job of
eating clean, first take anaudit, check out the show notes,
I'll I'll link up previousepisodes where I talk more about
blood sugar stability.
(20:28):
So focus on blood sugarstability.
Two, if you don't have a lot ofuh clarity on how you're going
to support the repair of yourgut lining, focus on that as
well.
As to A, remember thatcatalyzing this process to
(20:49):
repairing your gut health can bedone by doing food sensitivity
testing, by doing stool testingto really get a clear picture of
what's going on inside yourbody.
And then third and final, do anaudit of your stress.
Come back to me.
Like, let me know what is yourspecific plan.
Let your best friend know whatis your plan, let your partner
(21:11):
know what is your plan to helpbring things back to a better
baseline because A, I want lessstress for you.
And also in terms of yourhormone health, I want less
stress for you.
A quick reminder for youeverything that I share here in
this podcast is for educationalpurposes only and not a
replacement for medical advice.
(21:32):
But if we if what we coveredtoday uh resonated with you and
you feel like, you know, you'vealready tried everything, then
let me know what you thought byheading over to Instagram.
You can find me at I'munderscore hormonal and let me
know what you think.
All right, thanks so much forlistening.
I'm Bridget Walton, a women'shormone coach, and I will see
(21:54):
you on the next one.
If clean eating alone was able to fix your
hormones, you would probablyalready be back to one hundo,
wouldn't you?
So either you're doing it wrong,or maybe clean eating isn't
actually the all-in-one solutionthat you thought it would be.
Let me show you which one it is,because in this episode, I'm
talking about where clean eatingalone falls short and what else
(00:22):
you want to consider.
Welcome to the I'm HormonalPodcast.
I'm Bridget Walton, a women'shormone coach helping busy,
ambitious women throughpersonalized coaching and
science-backed solutions.
Whether you are working with meone-on-one or listening here, my
goal is the same to help youstop guessing about your hormone
health and start seeing realprogress.
(00:42):
If this is your first timemeeting me, your first time
listening, then a specialwelcome to you a little bit more
so you can get to know me.
I am based out here inCalifornia on the West Coast.
I am a cat lady.
I'm basically 100 years old onthe inside.
But when it comes to what I dohere and what we're talking
(01:04):
about, I'm a certifiednutritional therapy
practitioner.
I also have training as amenstrual cycle coach, as a
functional hormone specialist,and I bring that all together to
support clients one-on-onethrough my work, through my
company, I'm hormonal.
So that is a little bit aboutme, just to set the stage.
And you will hear me talk aboutmy experience working with
(01:27):
clients, what I've learned fromclients, and I share that with
you to help you A know thatthere is hope for you, no matter
how long you have been trying tofigure out your hormones, trying
to figure out your gut health.
Girl, I've got you.
You're not by yourself in this.
And because I want you to walkaway from these episodes, having
(01:49):
really practical recommendationsor changes that you can start to
implement.
Yes, certainly at a point,you're gonna want a more
specific set of guidance anddirections.
But maybe you're somebody who isa little bit earlier in your
troubleshooting journey and youwant to get a better grasp of
what are the factors thatinfluence my hormones or my gut
(02:11):
health, then you are also in theright place.
With that being said, if you'relike, wait, okay, yes, I am
listening for the first time andyou've already mentioned gut
health a few times, why are wetalking about gut health when
we're really here to talk abouthormones?
Amazing question.
And I cannot understate itenough.
(02:32):
Wait, no, it is understated.
I can't overstate it enough howimportant gut health is for your
hormone health as well.
If there's something going onwith your hormones and there's
something going on with yourgut, you need to address what is
going on in the gut first.
What that could look like inreal life is if you were
(02:54):
somebody who has a lot ofbloating or stomach pains, maybe
you're not having regular dailybowel movements, that is gonna
be a little flag for you to knowthat, hey, I need to get that
part of my health in line sothat then you can really focus
on balancing your hormones andsee the movle, the needle move
(03:15):
that much more when you do makethose hormone-focused changes.
Now, bridging that back into thetopic for today, talking about
clean eating.
And let me talk to you about agal who I know she is 29.
She has had gut problems foryears, along the same lines of
(03:36):
what I mentioned.
She's had a lot of bloating,she's had a lot of stomach pain.
She's had irregular periods foras long as she can remember.
She's been on birth control fora lot of her adult life and
really never had like aconsistent, kind of good
quality.
I'm doing air quotes over here,like easy period.
(03:57):
And so through theseexperiences, she realized that
she needed to get her gut healthfigured out first.
And she made a lot of changes tothe way that she was eating.
She's eating all organic, she'seating basically everything
homemade.
She, you know, started to avoidall of the processed foods
(04:19):
naturally.
And she even decided to do acarnivore diet for a couple of
months to get some relief fromall of the discomfort that she
was having.
Despite all of this, and whilesome of those interventions did
result in improvements for herand her having a better
experience, it didn't alone fixwhat was going on for her.
(04:45):
So I'm gonna be talking moreabout what I want you to
consider.
If you feel like, like what Ijust said, you're like, Bridget,
yes, that is me.
Where do I go next?
Then this episode is for you.
Let's dive into what are the topthree next steps that I want you
to consider if you are at thispoint.
(05:05):
And again, if you feel likeyou've been making these changes
to your diet, but your progresshas stalled or plateaued, then
this is going to be a good onefor you.
Super quick, before I talk aboutthe three next steps to
consider, let me clarify what amI actually saying when I say
clean eating?
You probably have an idea, anidea in your head of what that
(05:29):
means for you.
And I think that there certainlyare a million different ways
that clean eating could look.
I'm not being overlyprescriptive in this.
When I'm referring to cleaneating throughout this episode,
I really am just talking abouteating in a way that minimizes
or totally eliminatesconsumption of processed foods,
(05:52):
probably opting for 100% organicproduce, or if not close to
100%.
And overall, being aware of andavoiding foods that are
irritating, maybe avoidingcertain food groups like dairy
or gluten, if that's somethingthat you notice irritates you.
(06:12):
But this is all to say by cleaneating, I mean that you're
really making changes toeliminate foods that you've
recognized cause irritation,cause problems for you.
So let's not overthink thedefinition of clean eating here.
It's okay if the way that youeat clean is a little bit
(06:33):
different from how I'mexplaining it.
I think overall the messagingand the guidance here will still
be helpful for you.
Number one on the list here thatI want you to be aware of is
supporting blood sugar stabilitybecause it is very possible to
be eating clean, to be removingall of these sugars, added
(06:55):
sugars from your diet, but stillhave dysregulated blood sugar.
If you are, for example, you'rewaking up in the morning, you
are doing a tough workout firstthing, maybe before eating
anything, then you are havingyour coffee with your organic
collagen, and then you have asmoothie that is, you know, a
(07:18):
fruit smoothie, maybe you putsome chia seeds in it.
While those things individuallyare not bad, right?
Those are good options, or atleast much better than some
other alternatives, that canstill contribute to blood sugar
spikes, which then results in,you know, more steep blood sugar
(07:38):
drops.
When your blood sugar isdysregulated, is a little bit
chaotic like that, that is goingto contribute to stress,
potentially to more inflammationin your body.
And so it could be that stressand inflammation that is
negatively impacting yourhormones.
I'll explain this in a slightlydifferent way to help it make a
(07:59):
little bit more sense.
If you are eating really well,you're eating clean, you're
eating all organic, but maybebecause of that, you don't
realize or you don't think abouthow many, uh, you know, how much
sugar is actually in a date.
Is a date a better option than aSnickers bar?
In my opinion, yeah, very tasty.
(08:20):
But maybe you don't realize,okay, actually this date is
still spiking my blood sugar.
And so that can bedysregulating.
Let's talk about a couple otherthings aside from just food that
impact your blood sugar as well.
One of those things would be alack of sleep.
If you're not getting your solidseven to eight plus hours of
(08:45):
sleep, then that will beinherently destabilizing for
your blood sugar.
If you have a solid high amountof muscle mass on your body,
that's going to be supportive ofyour blood sugar stability.
So on the contrary, if you maybehave low muscle mass, then that
could be less stabilizing foryour blood sugar as well.
(09:07):
Another thing I'm thinking of isif you, let's say you are 30,
I'm 32, and I grew up in theMidwest.
I joined the Marine Corps aftercollege, I was not eating the
best.
I was eating a lot of processedfood.
I was really going big on thoseBaskin Robbins brownie Sundays.
And so eating that way for somany years, right?
(09:30):
Multiple decades, that had acertain impact on my metabolic
health.
And because you start eatingwell, even if you eat and move
and sleep in a way that reallysupports stable blood sugar
levels, it can still take alittle bit of time, or for some
people, maybe a lot of time, tosee the changes in your
(09:52):
metabolic health and overallstabilize your blood sugar.
And remember, that's not a badthing.
This is just information so thatyou can decide how you want to
move forward.
But just know that, like manyareas of your health, it might
take a hot minute to really seethe benefit of what you are
doing, but that's okay.
(10:13):
Because when you are makingchanges for your health to get
closer to your best health,you're doing it with the long
term in mind.
You're not doing it because youthink that tomorrow life is
going to be different.
So just remember you're in itfor the long run and supporting
more stable blood sugar levels.
While you can do something rightnow or in your next meal, to
(10:34):
avoid a glucose spike or atleast a significant glucose
spike, it still could takemonths to see the overall
progress that you really want tosee.
And blood sugar, we know Imentioned causes stress.
It can cause inflammation orcontribute to it.
And that can be an issue when itcomes to your psycho regularity
(10:59):
and your sex hormone balance.
So that's how right blood sugaris tying in directly to what's
going on with your sex hormones.
Moving on to step number two, oritem number two that I want you
to consider if you're like,dang, I've been doing all this
clean eating, or maybe you werelike my friend who I mentioned,
who even did a carnivore dietfor a while.
(11:21):
But when she started toreincorporate plants or just
other foods that she would havebefore that didn't irritate her
before she did the carnivorediet, she was even more
sensitive than she ever was.
And she's like, oh my gosh,shoot.
Well, I thought that, you know,I once I started eating the
carnivore diet, or maybe foryou, it's once you eliminated
(11:42):
all of these inflammatory orprocessed foods, or maybe
certain oils, that inflammationwent down.
You didn't have the samesymptoms in your gut health, you
were feeling a lot better.
Huge win.
And what happens, let me breakdown what's happening in the
body for you during that time.
You're giving your immune systema break, right?
(12:02):
Because whereas before, maybethere was some food particles
that were leaking out throughfrom your intestines into your
blood, right?
Maybe you've heard the termleaky gut or intestinal
permeability.
What's happening there is thatteeny tiny particles of food are
getting out, and that is whatyour immune system is responding
(12:25):
to and reacting to that cancause inflammation.
So back to this, you know,context of this situation.
You eliminate a lot of thosefoods, you're feeling a lot
better.
But then great, you start eatingblueberries again, and your
immune system, your immunesystem says, Hey, I remember
you.
I am attacking you now.
And it's a bigger response thanbefore because your immune
(12:48):
system has, you know, had theopportunity, has the bandwidth
to mount a larger response.
So, so what was the part, whatis the part that was missing?
And what do you need to doinstead?
This second thing I want you toconsider is incorporating a step
that is actually helping torepair the lining of the gut,
(13:11):
right?
If you eliminate theinflammatory foods or
ingredients, great first step,necessary first step for sure.
But you can't neglect toactually do the healing and
repair step to support yourintestinal lining, to allow you
to reintroduce those foodssuccessfully.
(13:32):
So there are certain um vitaminsor herbs right off the top of my
head, thinking of vitamin A,vitamin E, incorporating things
like aloe or marshmallow root,um, incorporating something like
L-glutamine or quercetin.
I don't want to offer somethingsuper specific for you because
(13:53):
depending on your healthsituation, the amount of each of
those or which one of thosenutrients or supplements you
select will really depend onyou.
But those are just a couple ofideas for context of what might
that phase look like.
And it might look like spendinga couple of weeks or a couple of
(14:14):
months incorporating thosesupplements in order to heal up,
not heal up, but like to supporttighter junctions in your
intestinal lining and restorethat intestinal integrity.
I'll mention here that this isone of the huge reasons why I've
recently started using foodsensitivity testing with my
(14:37):
clients.
And we'll use this inconjunction with a GI Map, which
is a gut panel that helps us toinform, okay, what's going on
with inflammation in your gut,but also getting so specific on
what foods are irritating you.
Because there can be veryhealthy, perfectly, you know,
good foods that we would onaverage like to include in our
(15:00):
diet.
But maybe that's something thatyour body is sensitive to
because you've been, let's say,blueberries again.
Maybe you've been havingblueberries every day because
they're good for you.
They're full of antioxidants,they're tasty.
And because you've been havingthem so much, your immune system
recognizes them and has thisreaction to them because they've
(15:21):
eked, leaked into yourbloodstream so much.
That is for sure oversimplifyingthis explanation.
Hopefully that suffices to giveyou a little bit more of a
visual.
But what I want to say here isreally just that there, I would
bet for all of us, are foodsthat are healthy and that you
(15:43):
will want to ultimatelyreintegrate into your diet, but
maybe that right now are causinginflammation, are causing an
immune response.
So when you can get super clearon what are those specific foods
to temporarily remove from yourdiet while you are working
through a gut protocol and whileyou are incorporating those
(16:03):
nutrients and herbs that aregoing to support the repair of
your gut lining, that canabsolutely speed up the
transformation of your guthealth and therefore of your
hormone health as well.
This is so important.
This is so important.
Maybe I should have made thisnumber one because it's the part
where you support the intestinallining that really makes such a
(16:26):
difference here.
Let's move on to number three.
The third thing that I want youto keep in mind here is that
even though maybe you're eatingreally clean, you're eating
really well, you are so focusedon what you are eating, what's
your stress like?
Because even if you're eatingabsolutely perfectly, everything
(16:47):
is looking good, everything isorganic.
Maybe you are doing a great jobof supporting stable blood sugar
levels by the way that you'reeating and the way that you are
moving, but you still have theseother stressors in your life,
whether it's mental oremotional, maybe it's
overexercising, undereating canalso be a stressor.
(17:08):
And as we know, your stresshormone will impact blood sugar
stability, coming back to numberone, but it can also have an
impact on your estrogen levels.
It can either prevent as muchestrogen from being released and
prevent ovulation, or in thesecond half of your cycle, let's
say you did ovulate, well, itcan keep estrogen levels um
(17:32):
relatively high.
And that's when you experiencePMS.
That's when you experience heavybleeding.
And so it can go one of twoways, right?
Just kind of depends on you andall the other factors
influencing um your health andyour hormones.
But this is all to say we gottaget serious about stress because
(17:54):
it really has a huge impact on alot of your hormones.
And that's, I mean, that makesit sound very calm.
If you've listened to thepodcast before, you're like,
yes, Birjo, we get it.
Stress is a big deal.
But stress is a huge deal.
It's gonna impact your estrogenlevels, which will in turn
(18:14):
impact your progesterone levels.
Very important if you want toconceive.
It can also increase yourandrogen levels, which are your
hormones like testosterone,which can impact your skin.
A couple more honorable mentionshere.
Stress will likely negativelyimpact your ability to produce
(18:34):
stomach acid, which then opensyou up to potential overgrowth
or infection, right?
Because you don't have the rightamount of acidity to kill off
some of those pathogens that youdon't really want introduced
into the rest of your system.
I want to mention or come backto undereating, because this is
(18:57):
something I know I say this allthe time too.
So if you've been listening fora while, you've heard this.
But at least half, at least 75%of the clients that I work with,
when we do a food and moodjournal, they they're like, wow,
I didn't realize that I'mactually undereating.
And perhaps you fall into thatcategory as well, especially if
(19:21):
you are focused on clean eating.
And there are so many foods thatyou are not including in your
diet.
So just making sure that you'regetting all the nutrients that
you need, you're getting all theprotein that you need, you're
getting all the fat that youneed.
Because if you're not gettingenough fat in your diet, well,
cholesterol is the basicbuilding block for many of your
sex hormones, also your stresshormone.
(19:43):
This is so important to take abeat, to do an audit of the
stressors that are in your life,whether they are mental or
emotional, whether they'rephysical through exercise,
whether it is related toinflammation, in the in terms
of, you know, what chemicals areyou coming into coming into
contact with through what you'rebreathing, what you are putting
(20:06):
onto your skin, what you areingesting, and more.
So as a quick recap here, if youare doing an excellent job of
eating clean, first take anaudit, check out the show notes,
I'll I'll link up previousepisodes where I talk more about
blood sugar stability.
(20:28):
So focus on blood sugarstability.
Two, if you don't have a lot ofuh clarity on how you're going
to support the repair of yourgut lining, focus on that as
well.
As to A, remember thatcatalyzing this process to
(20:49):
repairing your gut health can bedone by doing food sensitivity
testing, by doing stool testingto really get a clear picture of
what's going on inside yourbody.
And then third and final, do anaudit of your stress.
Come back to me.
Like, let me know what is yourspecific plan.
Let your best friend know whatis your plan, let your partner
(21:11):
know what is your plan to helpbring things back to a better
baseline because A, I want lessstress for you.
And also in terms of yourhormone health, I want less
stress for you.
A quick reminder for youeverything that I share here in
this podcast is for educationalpurposes only and not a
replacement for medical advice.
(21:32):
But if we if what we coveredtoday uh resonated with you and
you feel like, you know, you'vealready tried everything, then
let me know what you thought byheading over to Instagram.
You can find me at I'munderscore hormonal and let me
know what you think.
All right, thanks so much forlistening.
I'm Bridget Walton, a women'shormone coach, and I will see
(21:54):
you on the next one.
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