[Mini] 5 Hormone-Support Swaps for Shopping Season | Ep. 151

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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.

Are you thinking about the deals you're going to find on Black Friday? It's a good chance to save on some items that will support your hormone and digestive health as well. Endocrine disruptors are everywhere, and by making these 5 swaps you will be well on your way to supporting balance in your health--and hopefully will save a few bucks doing so.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Raise your hand if you've ever thought, okay, well,
I eat clean, I exercise, I'mdoing the right things, but my
period is still unpredictable.

Here's what nobody talks about: it's that endocrine disruptors (00:09):
undefined
are in everyday products andthey could be quietly disrupting
your cycle, your hormonebalance, and your digestion.
That's why today I'm sharingwhat you might want to ditch and
what you might want toprioritize if you're going to be
making some purchases on thisupcoming Black Friday.

(00:31):
Welcome to the I'm HormonalPodcast.
I'm your host, Bridget Walton, awomen's hormone coach, helping
busy, ambitious women throughpersonalized coaching and
science-backed solutions.
Whether you are working with meone-on-one or you're listening
here, my goal is the same, whichis to help you to stop guessing
about your hormone health andstart seeing real progress.

(00:53):
So let's get into it.
Alrighty, but welcome back.
This is episode number 151 ofthe podcast.
Again, my name is BridgetWalton.
I'm really glad that you joinedme here today.
This week I wanted to talk aboutendocrine disrupting chemicals
because yeah, Black Friday'scoming up.

(01:14):
I don't know if you're like me,but I will wait for six months
to buy something so I can get agood deal on it on Black Friday.
And if that's you, then my hopefor you is that you're able to
make some good choices, both foryour budget, but also for your
overall wellness and hormonebalance and your hormone health
goals.
So that's what we're gonna dotoday.

(01:36):
I've talked about endocrinedisrupting chemicals on other
podcasts more in depth.
So you can check those out ifthis is really top of mind or if
this is a new topic for you.
But at a high level, when we'retalking about endocrine
disrupting chemicals, we'retalking about any different
chemical, man-made or otherwise,that is influencing the

(01:59):
signaling of your hormones.
Okay, what does that mean?
Well, whether it's somethinglike BPA or phthalates or
something else, for example, weknow plastics have a lot of
chemicals in them.
We know different products madewith oils have a lot of
different chemicals in them, butalso perfumes, everything or a

(02:22):
lot of the things that you puton your skin, cleaning products,
those components, whether you'reingesting them, whether you're
breathing them in, putting themon your skin, those are sending
mixed signals to your hormones.
Sometimes they will kind ofconvey to your body or make your

(02:42):
body think that maybe you havehigher levels of estrogen than
you really do.
And what that can result in,symptoms of estrogen excess
would be like heavy bleeding orPMS, the many different
experiences that PMS comprises.
So that's one option.
There are also other hormones.

(03:04):
Well, not hormones.
There are other chemicals.
I'm thinking of BPA, which, forexample, is an obesogen, and
that can impact your metabolichealth, your sensitivity to
insulin.
And we know that your metabolichealth, what's going on with
your blood sugar is veryimportant for your sex hormone

(03:24):
balance as well.
So I wanted to share that toreally set the stage with you
that when you have contact inwhatever form with these
different chemicals, it's justconfusing your body.
And we don't need that any dayof the week, any month of the
year.
But also, if you are trying tobalance your hormones, and I got

(03:45):
a pretty good feeling that youare, if you're listening to this
podcast, then you'll just wantto be acutely aware of what
you're coming into contact with.
One quick suggestion for youmaybe that looks like you
sitting down with a notebook,you sitting down with your
favorite AI chat bot to say,hey, let me think through all of
the things, all of the chemicalsthat I come into contact with

(04:08):
throughout the day.
Just do an audit so you're awareof it.
Have Chat GPT or whatever askyou some questions about what
you come into contact with.
And that can be a good way tojust get familiar with what
you're coming in contact with.
You've heard me talk about thefoundations of health before,
talking about things like bloodsugar regulation, about

(04:29):
nutrition, about sleep andstress.
I have endocrine disruptingchemicals as another kind of leg
on this tripod or pentapod orwhatever it's called when we
have all of these foundationsbecause these chemicals are
exposing you to more sources ofinflammation, more disruption.
So this is a foundational areafor you to focus on too.

(04:53):
Last thought before I actuallyget into my recommendations or
suggestions here is just to knowthat this is a journey.
You're not going to overnight beable to eliminate your exposure
to all of these chemicals.
That's just not very realistic.
It's something that you willchange over time.
It will take months, it mighttake a couple of years, and

(05:16):
that's okay.
You got to start somewhere.
You got to start with babysteps, but let it be instead of
something that's overwhelming toyou, let it be an opportunity.
You have the opportunity tochoose which dominoes you want
to knock down first.
And so you can take it and lookat it through that lens of
freedom.
All right.

(05:37):
Here's the first recommendationthat I have for you.
What I want you to do first isif you're eating off of any
plastic in your kitchen, if youhave plastic food storage
containers, especially plasticsthat are getting heated up or
that you're eating hot food offof, let's swap those out this
Black Friday.
So I want you to take a look seefor glass storage containers,

(06:00):
for glass plates, glass glasses,really just taking an audit to
see what is plastic in yourkitchen and how can you get that
out of there.
I feel very optimistic.
There will be a sick deal onsome glass food storage
containers out there.
So keep your eyes peeled forthat as number one.
Now, the second recommendationthat I have for you, this is

(06:23):
also kitchen based.
If you are currently cooking onnonstick pans, let's swap those
out or consider swapping thoseout this Black Friday.
The reason for that is becausethat nonstick material, the
Teflon material, has endocrinedisrupting chemicals in it.
So every time you're cooking onit, those chemicals are leaching
into your food.

(06:44):
Now, if you swap those out forceramic, for stainless steel,
for cast iron, those will muchbetter serve you when it comes
to avoiding those chemicals.
The third swap that I want torecommend to you today is
switching from your currentperiod product if you're using
pads or tampons and switching tousing a menstrual disc.

(07:05):
You've probably heard me talkabout them before.
I love Nixitz menstrual disc.
It is a medical-grade siliconedisc.
It's not going to expose you tothe same chemicals that some
period products have, especiallyif you're using products that
are not the organic ones.
I know those are more expensive,but that's why if you switch to

(07:26):
something like Nixit's menstrualdisc, you buy it one time.
I don't know what their BlackFriday deal is gonna be, but
they're gonna have one.
I'm confident about it.
And it's a one-time buy.
It's super convenient to use,and you're not having that
access or exposure to thosechemicals.
There have been studies in thepast that have shown that, for

(07:48):
example, some women who have alot of period pain, they swapped
from using products that hadchemicals in them to cleaner
products and their period painwent away.
That's not to say that that willbe the case for every single
person out there.
But the takeaway is that some ofthose products can be more
inflammatory than others, andit's just introducing, well,

(08:11):
more inflammation to what'salready happening during your
period.
So something to consider,especially if you're
experiencing period pain.
Moving on to number four.
What I want you to consider isyour air quality.
Maybe you're able to do asearch.
You can find out online what isthe average air quality like in

(08:32):
your, I don't know if it's bySipcode or if it's by city.
Regardless, you can get somecontext there.
You already know whether or notyou have a bunch of plants in
your living space or not.
But aside from those things,investing in an air purifier is
something that I feel reallystrongly about.
Personally, I have one in mybedroom.

(08:53):
I'm spending a lot of timethere, at least eight hours
every night.
So I want the air that I breathewhile I'm asleep to be nice and
clean and pure of pollutants.
I have another one in mydownstairs living kitchen area.
And so I think it's somethingthat, you know, pick a quality
one.
That's why, again, we're lookingfor these Black Friday deals

(09:15):
because it's going to reallylast you.
And that's something that you'regoing to be grateful that you
have in the future.
So that's my recommendationnumber four, helping to
eliminate exposure to thoseairborne chemicals, those
airborne um toxins.
Fifth and final, because this isjust a shorty episode, just be

(09:38):
thinking about what yourmattress, what your sheets are
made of.
Now, I know that a mattress swabis no small deal by any mean by
any means, but some mattressesare made with like flame
retardants.
Now, this in concept is good andimportant.
We don't want our mattresseslighting on fire.

(09:58):
However, you also just want toconsider that flame retardants
are, I mean, those arechemicals, right?
So depending on what your goalsare, maybe looking into a
mattress option that doesn'thave those types of chemicals
and endocrine disruptingchemicals as a part of the
fabric would better suit you.

(10:19):
Similarly, sheets or pillows orpillowcases, if you swap those
out, then maybe that's a goodopportunity to eliminate
exposure to some irritants andchemicals that you are sleeping
on and breathing near forhopefully eight plus hours a
night.
So I hope this was helpful foryou.

(10:40):
I mean, by no means am I sayingthat you need to go out and buy
every single one of these.
So I'm sure we're on the samepage there, but just some food
for thought if you are in aposition where you can invest in
some of these things, but youlike me and you want to get a
sick deal on things.
So that's what I've got for youtoday.
I hope this was helpful.

(11:00):
I hope this got the wheelsturning.
I hope this will save you atleast a couple bucks, if not a
couple hundred bucks to thinkabout it now.
As always, I'll just remind youthat the information I share
with you here is for educationalpurposes only, not a replacement
for medical advice or diagnosis.
If anything that I covered inthe episode today really
resonated with you, if you'vegot somebody in mind who you're

(11:21):
like, oh yeah, my girl Natashais going to love incorporating
one of these this year.
I would really appreciate you ifyou would send this over to her
and help me expand the I'mhormonal community.
Thank you to all of you who havealready rated, reviewed, or
shared the episode.
And that's it for today.
Any questions, any comments onthis, you can connect with me on

(11:44):
Instagram at I'm underscorehormonal.
And I'll see you on the nextone.