Hormone Health Conscious Women Own These Things
Welcome to the SYNC Your Life podcast episode #10! On this podcast, we will be diving into all things women’s hormones to help you learn how to live in alignment with your female physiology. Too many women are living with their check engine lights flashing. You know you feel “off” but no matter what you do, you can’t seem to have the energy, or lose the weight, or feel your best. This podcast exists to shed light on the important topic of healthy hormones and cycle syncing, to help you gain maximum energy in your life.
In today’s episode, I’m discussing the items that hormone health conscious women own. Everything from foods we eat to supplements we take and products we wouldn’t leave home without. You’ll want to tune into this one and grab what you don’t yet own to biohack your hormone health.
In this episode, I discuss:
Cooling Towels — https://amzn.to/3svgEem
Dumbbells — https://amzn.to/34mJjtT
Resistance Bands — https://www.teambeachbody.com/shop/d/9-inch-and-12-inch-resistance-loops-ResistanceLoops
SYNC Scope — https://jenny-swisher-hormone-health.myshopify.com/products/ovuscope
Magnesium Glycenate — https://amzn.to/3GB2lKa
FourSigmatic Coffee — jennyswisher.com/foursigmatic
LifeBoost Coffee — jennyswisher.com/lifeboost
Rael Organic Nontoxic Tampons — https://amzn.to/3Jc35H8
Barukas Nuts — https://barukas.com/
Cycle Tracking Apps I Use —
FitR Woman
MyFlo Tracker
Hello Clue
If you feel like something is “off” with your hormones, check out the FREE hormone imbalance quiz at sync.jennyswisher.com.
To learn more about the SYNC Digital Course, check out jennyswisher.com.
Let’s be friends outside of the podcast! Send me a message or schedule a call so I can get to know you better. You can reach out at https://jennyswisher.com/
Enjoy the show!
Episode Webpage: jennyswisher.com/podcast
0:05
Welcome to the SYNC Your Life podcast. I’m your host, Jenny Swisher, certified personal trainer, nutritionist, hormone, health expert and girl mom, I believe all women should be able to understand how our bodies are designed to feel. And I teach you how to sync your lifestyle to your cycle to reach maximum energy. You deserve to feel your best. And this podcast is going to teach you how let’s dive in!
0:34
This podcast is sponsored by the SYNC Digital Course, to take the free hormone imbalance quiz to see what your symptoms could mean about your health. Visit sync.jennyswisher.com. That’s sync s y n c dot Jenny swisher.com.
0:59
Good morning, good afternoon. Good evening, wherever you are listening from Welcome to the show. I’m excited to be with you guys again today to really, again, just dive into the topic of hormone health, it is so under discussed, and we’re really going to dive deeper today. I feel like most of our topics so far have been very high level. And very, you know, just very general. And so today we’re going to take it a little bit deeper now that we know that we have a general understanding of what our menstrual cycle should look like we’ve discussed even you know, the overprescribed-ness of birth control, we’ve really kind of just touched the surface, really, there’s so much more we can do when it comes to bringing up these topics and really diving deeper. So what I really like to talk about what I kind of nerd out about is the whole concept of syncing with your cycle. This is what I teach in my digital course, it’s what I live through for myself, just really teaching women how to take advantage of those phases of their cycle, what to eat during the different phases to really boost energy and really optimize hormone health. And also what exercise style to use during your cycle in different phases. So this is something that I’m really hoping that we can kind of dive deeper into over the course of time. It’s something that I’m hoping that I can educate you about here via the podcast. But today that’s going to be that’s really going to be our focus is really taking a look at what do hormone health conscious people own, like what are some things that are just in their home, that it’s a part of their daily life, it’s something that they take very seriously. And so we’re going to talk about like specific products and things that hormone conscious women own, I think it’s a really great way of sort of seeing, you know, well, these are things that I’m already doing, or these are things that I need to really work on or look into. And so we’re going to just dive right in and dive into that subject today.
2:45
So the first thing that I want to mention is, you know, we’ve talked about this before, but it’s so important that you’re working with a functional medicine practitioner, I mean, it’s so valuable for you to have someone who can understand how to really do the right testing and get to the root cause of any imbalances that could be going on for you if you’re somebody who’s struggling with irregular cycles, or heavy periods, painful periods, migraine headaches, low energy, like crazy bad sleep, I hear that all the time from women how bad they sleep, or how they they really wish they could sleep better or deeper. If these are issues that are popping up for you, I always like to say you know, your check engine light is flashing and maybe you’ve been ignoring it. Please, please don’t wait any longer. Find a functional medicine medicine practitioner, you can go to ifm.org to search a practitioner that can work with you in your area. But really, you know, getting to the bottom of your specific imbalances always going to be number one. So the first thing the sort of the caveat to this entire podcast is saying each, each woman is going to have different types of supplements that she needs for her body and for her deficiencies to really help her optimize her health. But we’re not going to talk a lot about supplements, we’re going to be talking a lot more about like just things around your home that you can really be using and incorporating into your life to really start syncing with your cycle and to be more hormone health conscious. But it starts really with seeking out Functional Medicine and seeking out your imbalances to know what’s going on with you.
4:13
Okay, so let’s talk about some things I know that I own in my house that are things that I recommend to my course takers that I know they now own. The first thing that I want to mention, and it might sound really simple, it’s called a cooling towel. And some people like to call it a frog towel. I think there’s a specific brand called Frog towel. But basically it’s like this. I don’t even know what kind of material it is is sort of like this squishy material, workout towel that you can run under the faucet or I think some of them you can even freeze like some women like to have a just an ice temperature. But it’s a cooling towel that allows you to sort of wrap it around your neck and really reduce your body temperature during your luteal phase especially when you’re in high intensity workouts. So if you’ve taken my course if you’ve listened to my content Before you know how we really focus on strength training in the first half of our cycle, and then once ovulation occurs, if it occurs, then during the luteal phase, we really sort of dial it down, we do a lot more active recovery and a little hit training cardio. So what happens in the luteal phase is our body temperature actually rises totally makes sense when you think about the you know, sort of the protection of a potential pregnancy, right, like if your egg were fertilized, and your progesterone is rising, your body temperature is also rising. And so we see that in the second half of our cycle. And so as a result, women sometimes have an issue cooling their body temperature down during that luteal phase, it can, it can sort of pop up as a super red face. I know for me, I look like a tomato face during my luteal phase when I’m doing cardio. So using a cooling towel can really during your workout especially can really make a difference. I recommend this to my ladies in the course I know I use one myself, just you know, pausing after the warm up pausing halfway through the workout, wrapping that towel around my neck, or, you know, dabbing my face with a or my core like my, my actual stomach and my core, really trying to bring down my body temperature so that I can maximize those workouts. So a cooling towel is something that is definitely something that hormone health conscious women own. I have a couple different brands, I can link them to you in the show notes, a couple of different brands that I really like myself.
6:26
So since we’re on the topic of fitness, it goes without saying that, you know, women who are really cognizant of their hormone health are also they’re also owners of dumbbells, and resistance bands and resistance loops. So if you followed me for a while, you know that I really, really endorse strength training, it is the best thing that a woman can do when it comes to exercise. There are too many women out there who are just like going ham on the elliptical or the treadmill or they’re pounding the pavement outside and running every day. And while that’s okay, and it’s definitely a form of exercise strength training is where you’re going to get a lot of physique changes, that’s where you’re going to get a lot more strength as your muscle atrophies over time. You know, as our estrogen starts to decline as well, it’s just super important for us to be lifting heavy weights and doing it often. So especially like I mentioned before, in the follicular phase, when estrogen is on the rise, it’s a great time to take advantage of that and to use your dumbbells. So in my home gym, I have my cooling towel sitting over on a rack with some foam rollers. And then I also have some dumbbells and resistance bands. And that’s all aside from a pull up bar. That’s all I own. I don’t have a treadmill, I don’t have an elliptical, I use my bodyweight. And I use resistance training to my advantage. I personally you know, it’s fine if you own a lot of fitness equipment. For me personally, like even when we owned our gym for a handful of years, like the equipment that we had in the gym was we had a wall of pull up bars, we had power block weights and yoga mats. And that was it. We did not have weight machines we did not have you know treadmills or or bikes or anything like that. Because what I wanted to really teach people was how to really handle their own bodyweight, how to create resistance, how to kind of balance their lifestyle with a mixture of yoga and stretching and flexibility, mobility, with cardio and strength training. So those are two things for sure. That hormone health conscious women own cooling towel in some form of resistance dumbbells or straps for for strength training.
8:33
Also, the SYNC Scope, the SYNC Scope, is a pocket sized microscope, it looks like a little lipstick container. And when you open up the lid, it actually is a teeny tiny little microscope with a green light. This is basically the one and only way for you to accurately track your ovulation. If it’s happening, how strong it is. Sure, you can check basal body temperature you can be you know, that is a super accurate way of doing that as well if you’re into charting, but saliva patterns are really the most accurate way to look at what your cycles doing every single month. I know for me personally, I was using those urine test strips like those over the counter ones. When my husband and I were seeking fertility seeking pregnancy. And they never worked for me. I was at a super low body fat percentage at the time that I was using those. And after two years of using them. Our fertility specialist looked at me and said, Oh yeah, those aren’t very accurate, especially for women of low body fat percentage. And I remember thinking, well that would have been nice to know before now, because I am literally like, I’ve kind of been counting on this and it’s not been super accurate. So a SYNC Scope, which is actually a product that my husband and I have sourced is such an amazing game changer. It just fits in your pocket. I recommend that women use it days eight through 21 of their cycle unless they see ovulation occurring before day 21. As soon as you see the fern patterns, you can have stop using it for the month because you know that you are in ovulation phase. But your patterns are going to change on that scope and your scope is going to be able to tell you what your body’s doing. So if you’re just seeing bubbles, nothing’s happening. If you’re starting to see a snowflake pattern, you know that your estrogen is rising, your LH is is surging, and you are preparing for ovulation, you’re in transition. And if it shows a ferning pattern, sort of like a big jungle fern, or a palm leaf, that’s when you know that you are really in peak ovulation preparations. So you are definitely in ovulatory phase. So this is valuable because we know that everything hinges on the health of our ovulation. Are we ovulating? How consistently are we ovulating, and most women think they know but they don’t. So most women think oh, I have a 28 day cycle, I must ovulate around day 14. But then when they start using the scope, they find, maybe they haven’t every other month pattern. Maybe they have one ovary that’s working better than the other one. Maybe that maybe they’re ovulating later in the month. And they have some sort of luteal phase dysfunction happening with low progesterone. So SYNC Scope is a game changer as well, it’s going to help you track your cycle. I like to use it in conjunction with an app of some kind. So there’s lots of different flow tracker apps out there. So I’m not going to tell you necessarily which ones I like the my flow tracker. I like several others. I’ll link them in the show notes. But it doesn’t matter if you’re a pen and paper person or an app person, use the scope and somehow track your cycles so that you know what your body is doing your body. I assure you your body is not doing textbook cycling. So know what your body’s doing.
11:38
Also something that hormone health conscious women own number four is magnesium supplements. Yes, magnesium supplements. So regardless of sort of your unique testing to your body, magnesium is something that most humans could benefit from as a supplement. 99% of humankind is magnesium deficient. And so there are different forms of magnesium. I know that my doctor specifically recommended magnesium glycinate I was on magnesium oxide for several years actually under the direction of a neurologist and I never saw any benefit. In fact, I kind of had some digestive issues with it. But as soon as I made the switch to magnesium glycinate I started to see more regularity in my bowel habits. I started to see a reduction in my headaches, a little bit more of a sense of calm, I had better sleep at night. It’s funny because at the recording of this podcast, we are still living through the COVID pandemic almost two years later. And my mom recently came to me and said that she was really struggling with some anxiety and trouble sleeping. And I recommended that she tried magnesium. So she went to our local little Whole Foods grocery store and picked up a bottle of magnesium. And within a week she was just said it was such a game changer for her she was sleeping so much better. She’s She felt so much better. So magnesium can really be amazing. It’s it rescues hormones in a variety of ways. And like I said it just it can help with sleep and anxiety and all that. So magnesium supplements are definitely something that hormone health conscious women own.
13:10
And then of course, it goes without saying that I’m a huge coffee fanatic. So I have to mention this. I’ve actually found that most women that I talk to are huge coffee drinkers. I think it’s probably pretty common that especially women dealing with adrenal fatigue are people who are sort of addicted to coffee or addicted to their Starbucks every day. So but I’m here to kind of advocate for clean coffee Four Sigmatic or LifeBoost coffee are my two favorite brands. I actually don’t own any other brands of coffee in my house. I used to buy flavored coffees from like Dunkin Donuts and other Target finds, I guess you could say, but they made me feel bad. They gave me the jitters. They gave me headaches, they gave me brain fog. And I just it wasn’t worth it to me anymore. And so I started investigating clean coffee and I made the switch it is a little bit more expensive. But it is so worth it for the way that you feel it’s better for your adrenals it’s better for your digestive system. So if you haven’t made the switch to clean coffee, you can check out jennyswisher.com/lifeboost coffee for more information.
14:13
And then of course, the last thing that’s really sort of a household thing would be organic tampons or pads. If you are someone who’s using traditional conventional brands for your feminine products when it comes to your bleed each month. You’re just sort of exposing yourself to environmental estrogens and possible toxins right in your lady parts. So I’d like to recommend that people investigate some organic options or some non toxic options. My favorite brand is I don’t know how they pronounce it. I think it’s right real, but they spell it r-a-e-l. You can find them at Target or on Amazon. Again, I’ll link them in the show notes. But I find that they are very sturdy and very I haven’t had any issues with them as far as leakage or anything but they are very, very toxin free. And so I love that they’re also certified organic.
15:05
So finally, the final thing I guess it’s sort of a list. But the final thing that hormone health conscious women own are a variety of foods in their refrigerator and pantry. So I’m just going to briefly touch on these, because obviously there’s a variety of things that I could mention here but cruciferous vegetables have to be in your vegetable drawer. Like if you are not hoarding like broccoli, cauliflower, rice, brussel sprouts, leafy greens, now’s the time like those are the foods that are really going to help you detoxify estrogen, they’re really going to help you, you know, balance your hormones and get sort of more into a balanced lifestyle. So cruciferous vegetables are a huge difference maker microgreens These are like the teeny tiny little sprouts that you can sometimes find at the supermarket. I have better luck with them at like local grocery stores or farmers markets. I love broccoli microgreens there is such a nutrient punch when you can consume broccoli microgreens even just a couple tablespoons of them a day are a huge nutritional boost to your system. Nut butters are another thing I have a variety of nut butters in my pantry I have barucas butter. I have almond butter, I have cashew butter, I have some sort of mixed nut butter that has multiple kinds of nuts in it, including Brazil nuts. The one that I stay away from though is peanut butter. Because peanut butter a lot like coffee actually contains a lot of mycotoxins and mold. So I don’t like to consume peanut butter. I noticed that my body my digestive system doesn’t do as well with that. But nut butters are our healthy fats and they can really help you fuel your healthy cholesterol which of course is where all your hormones come from. So I mentioned barucas butter but barucas nuts. They are amazing. They’re my favorite bedtime snack you can find the ones that are cocoa covered which are delicious. They’re high in protein, high in fiber high in antioxidants. I’ll have those linked up in the show notes as well. wild caught fish. My freezer has nothing in it except lean turkey 93% ground lean turkey 100% grass fed beef and wild caught fish wild caught salmon especially. So make sure you’re you’re utilizing the best quality meats when you’re consuming meat, it really does make a huge difference. And that’s a topic for another day that we can dive deeper into extra virgin olive oil, or healthy oils like avocado oils getting rid of sort of like the filler oils like canola oil out of your pantry. Those are definitely good healthy swaps.
17:29
So all of these things are really just small steps, small things that you can add to your home gym, you can add them to your pantry to your refrigerator, to your bathroom closet, you know wherever it goes. But they can make a huge difference when it comes to thinking with your cycle and feeling your best. So I want you guys to get the most possible energy out of syncing with your cycle. And so these are products that I know I have around my house. These are products that I endorsed to the women who are in my course and the women who have trusted me with with advice. So check them out, check out the show notes, show notes, check out the link some of them will even have some promotional opportunities and discounts so make sure you hit those notes to check those out. So thank you guys so much for tuning in today. I hope this is a topic that is relevant to you and that will help you learn how to sync your cycle. Until next time, I’ll talk to you soo!
18:28
Thanks for listening to this episode of the SYNC Your Life podcast. Hope you found value from today’s episode. If you did, please share it out to your friends or leave a review. Remember your cycles are your superpower and by aligning with them you can live your life with all the energy needs to be a mom, Wife, Daughter and friend to those you love. Until next time!