Start Your Day with Protein
Your first step to boost your metabolism and balance hormones is by starting your day with the right protein sources and in the right amount. No matter whether you fast through breakfast and start your day with lunch or you eat in the morning.
You need to make sure you are starting your day with protein, not carbohydrates. When you wake up in the morning your cortisol is elevated, which is why you are awake, but along with elevated cortisol comes elevated blood glucose. Your body taps into your glucose stores for energy in the morning to get you going. So, you don’t need any more glucose to start your day.
You need protein to fill you up and keep you satisfied so you aren’t snacking throughout the day. Keeping your insulin low and your blood glucose stable throughout the day is going to help all other hormones remain in check as well. When you eat excess carbs or snack frequently you will be hungrier throughout the day, experience more fatigue and energy crashes throughout the day and your cortisol will likely be elevated. When your cortisol is chronically elevated it will down-regulate your sex hormones, progesterone, testosterone, and estrogen, as well as drive down Thyroid hormones.
A good meal to break your fast would be whole eggs + egg whites, avocado, breakfast meat of your choice, maybe some greens, and possibly a protein shake. If you can’t have eggs you could always have a protein shake or Greek Yogurt with protein in it. Protein has the highest TEF (thermic effect of food), this is another reason to eat more of it and eat it in the morning. It literally causes your body to burn calories simply through digestion.
Ditch Sugar and Processed Foods
The second step to boosting your metabolism and balancing your hormones is by going through your pantry and refrigerator and doing a purge! Read all of the labels on your pre-packaged foodstuffs and get rid of anything that contains these oils: Soybean, Canola, Corn, Vegetable, Safflower, Sunflower, Cottonseed, and Grapeseed oils. You may not be cooking with these, but they are in almost all packaged foods. Replace your dressings and condiments with either homemade or Primal Kitchen brand products. And get used to reading labels before you buy things.
These oils are toxic, highly inflammatory, and oxidative. They cause a massive amount of oxidative stress and inflammation in your body. This is an easy stressor to remove from your life that will pay off the most.
Next, stop eating processed sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and food dyes. Added sugars and dyes mess with our hormones more than any other food ingredients out there. Processed foods like ice cream, cookies, goldfish, fruit snacks, pop-tarts, cereals, cakes, bagels, etc., are wreaking havoc on your body. They contain absolutely no nutrition and serve no purpose except to damage everything they touch inside of our body.
Eat foods that are nutritious. Our hormones run on what we feed them. In order to make hormones we need vitamins and minerals. Eat the rainbow of fruits and vegetables, don’t drink your calories (yes this includes booze), and eat a variety of all food groups.
Don’t Eat Before Bed
The last tip to boost your metabolism and balance hormones is a pretty simple one. Don’t eat after dinner, and make sure you aren’t eating dinner right before you go to bed. Ideally, you want to eat your last bite of food 3 hours before bed, preferably 4 hours. You also want to make sure you are done eating by 8 pm at the latest. Our digestion slows down at night & it’s on a circadian rhythm.
When the sun goes down our bodies naturally start slowing down to prepare for sleep. The last thing you want to do is go to bed on a full stomach when your body is trying to slow down so your brain can clean up and get ready for tomorrow.
I recommend eating no later than 6 pm if you want to get a good night’s rest and get a good fast overnight. Eating and drinking before bed increase acid reflux, frequent bathroom trips, and night sweats. If you are experiencing any type of hormone dysregulation, ladies going through menopause I am talking to you, this one small change is going to help tremendously.
These three things, when practiced with consistency, will pay off by increasing the calories burned throughout the day and regulating your hormones. But the details behind each habit usually need to be tailored to each person depending on their health status and goals. This is where a professional comes in handy. If you need help getting started book a FREE call Here!
