8 Things That Might Be Throwing Your Hormones Off
If you’re tired, bloated, moody, craving sugar, sleeping poorly, or just generally feeling off, it can be really tempting to assume you need some complicated hormone protocol. Sometimes that’s true. But honestly, there are also a lot of very basic things that can make a huge difference in how your hormones are functioning and how you feel day to day.
And no, this isn’t about being perfect. It’s about getting curious and looking at the bigger picture.
🥚You’re skipping breakfast
Breakfast is very controversial, odd but true. There was a time that eating breakfast wasn't healthy, then it was and then it wasn't - right now we're in the phase of it is healthy to eat breakfast. So if you’re waking up, drinking coffee, running around, and not eating until noon, that can be a lot for your body, especially if you’re already stressed, sleeping poorly, or not eating enough overall. Starting the day with protein, healthy fat, fiber, and carbohydrates can help support steadier blood sugar and energy instead of setting you up for a crash later in the day.
⬇️You’re not eating enough
This is a big one. You can eat the cleanest diet in the world and still not be giving your body enough energy. I see this all the time with women eating salads, smoothies, lean protein, cutting carbs, fasting, and genuinely trying so hard to be healthy. Your body needs adequate calories, protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals to make hormones, support your thyroid, regulate your cycle, and recover from stress. Food is not the enemy. Your body actually needs it.
🍩You’re eating too much sugar without much else
I am not here to tell you sugar is poison or that you can never have dessert again. Please eat the chocolate. But if most of your snacks and meals are heavy on sugar and refined carbs without much protein, fiber, or fat, you may be riding a blood sugar roller coaster all day. That can look like cravings, irritability, energy crashes, headaches, and feeling hungry again an hour later. Pairing carbohydrates with protein, fiber, and fat can make a huge difference.
🍸You’re drinking a lot of alcohol
I used to close down bars. Now I close down at 9 p.m. 😂 I am not anti-fun, but alcohol can affect sleep, blood sugar, liver function, mood, and energy. Even if you tolerate it well socially, it’s worth paying attention to how you actually feel afterward. How do you sleep? How is your energy the next day? Are your cravings worse? Does your anxiety go up? Your body gives you a lot of information if you actually listen to it.
🏃🏻♀️You’re barely moving
You absolutely do not need to destroy yourself in the gym six days a week. In fact, for some women, overtraining while under-eating and stressed can make things worse. But being completely sedentary isn’t great either. Walking after meals, strength training, stretching, gardening, taking the stairs, and just moving your body regularly can support blood sugar, insulin sensitivity, circulation, sleep, digestion, and overall metabolic health.
💄You’re exposed to endocrine disruptors constantly
This does not mean you need to panic and throw away your entire house. But we are exposed to chemicals through plastics, fragrances, personal-care products, cleaning products, food packaging, and our environment, and some of these can interfere with hormone signaling. Start small. Don’t heat food in plastic. Switch out heavily fragranced products when they run out. Use glass or stainless steel more often. You do not have to overhaul your whole life in one day.
💊You’re on hormonal birth control and no one ever explained what it does
Hormonal birth control can be incredibly useful, and there are plenty of reasons women choose to use it. But it also changes your natural hormone patterns, and depending on the method, it can suppress ovulation and alter estrogen and progesterone signaling. That does not automatically make it bad. It means you deserve to understand what it is doing in your body, what benefits it offers, what side effects you’re experiencing, and what your options are. I am very big on informed decisions, not fear.
🤺Your nervous system is living in fight-or-flight
Nervous system. Nervous system. Nervous system. I know I sound like a broken record, but I’m okay with that. You can eat incredibly well, take all the supplements, exercise, and drink your water, but if your body constantly feels like it is under threat, that stress can affect sleep, digestion, blood sugar, appetite, mood, and reproductive hormones. Sometimes supporting your hormones looks less like adding another supplement and more like teaching your body that it is safe to slow down.
The biggest thing I want you to take from this is that you do not need to fix all of these things at once. Pick one place to start. Eat breakfast. Add more protein. Take a walk after dinner. Drink a little less alcohol. Go to bed earlier. Ask better questions. Your body does not need perfection. It needs support.
And once you start understanding how blood sugar, stress, nutrition, movement, sleep, and your cycle all work together, it becomes a lot easier to stop guessing and actually support your body in a way that makes sense for you.
This is exactly the kind of thing I teach inside Hormone Harmony
Walk into any health food store or scroll through social media for five minutes and it can feel like you need an entire cabinet of supplements just to be healthy.
Magnesium. Vitamin D. Probiotics. Greens powders. Electrolytes. Adaptogens.
But do you really need all these supplements?
The short answer is: maybe. But taking more supplements doesn’t automatically mean better health.
Why Food May Not Always Be Enough
I’m a big believer in a food-first approach. A balanced, varied diet gives your body important vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and other nutrients that support energy, digestion, hormone health, and overall wellness.
However, our food may not always provide the amount of nutrients we expect. Farming practices, soil quality, transportation, food storage, and cooking methods can all affect the nutrient content of the foods we eat.
Your individual needs matter too. Certain factors may increase your risk of a nutrient deficiency, including:
- Chronic stress
- Pregnancy or breastfeeding
- Digestive issues
- Restrictive diets
- Certain medications
- Health conditions
- Genetics
- A lack of variety in your diet
In these situations, targeted supplementation may provide helpful support.
More Supplements Don’t Always Mean Better Health
It’s easy to fall into the trap of adding a new supplement every time you feel tired, bloated, stressed, or “off.” But symptoms can have many different causes, and randomly taking supplements may not address the actual problem.
Some nutrients can also interact with medications or build up in the body when taken in high amounts. That’s why it’s important to avoid assuming that every supplement is safe or necessary simply because it’s available over the counter.
How to Know Which Supplements You Need
- Before starting another supplement, I recommend looking at the full picture:
- What symptoms are you experiencing?
- What does your typical diet look like?
- Are you taking medications?
- Do you have any diagnosed health conditions?
- Have you had recent lab work?
- Are your basic nutrition and lifestyle foundations being supported?
Ideally, supplements should be selected based on your symptoms, health history, individual needs, and lab results—not because someone on Instagram said everyone needs them.
The Bottom Line
Supplements can be incredibly helpful when they’re used intentionally. But they aren’t a replacement for balanced meals, adequate protein, quality sleep, stress support, movement, hydration, or a healthy digestive system.
I
always recommend starting with food and the foundational habits that support your body. From there, targeted supplements can help fill specific gaps.
Because supplements should supplement what you’re already doing - not replace the foundations.
Blood sugar gets talked about all the time lately. But how do you actually know if your blood sugar might be swinging more than you’d like?
First, a quick refresher: when you eat carbohydrates, your body breaks them down into glucose. That glucose enters your bloodstream and provides your body with energy. Insulin then helps move glucose from your blood into your cells where it can be used.
Your blood sugar rising after you eat is completely normal.
The issue is when you experience repeated spikes and drops that leave you feeling like you’re riding a tiny metabolic roller coaster all day.
Common Signs of Unstable Blood Sugar
While symptoms alone can’t diagnose a blood sugar problem, there are a few things worth paying attention to:
* Feeling shaky, weak, lightheaded, or irritable when you haven’t eaten
* Getting extremely hungry shortly after a meal
* Intense sugar or carbohydrate cravings
* Feeling tired or sleepy after eating
* Brain fog or difficulty concentrating
* Feeling like you need caffeine or something sweet every afternoon
Here’s the important part: these symptoms don’t automatically mean your blood sugar is unstable.
Sleep, stress, hydration, hormones, medications, and other health conditions can cause similar symptoms.
Instead of focusing on one symptom, start looking for patterns.
How to Support Balanced Blood Sugar
Pay attention to how you feel throughout your day.
Can you comfortably make it from breakfast to lunch? Does your breakfast keep you satisfied? Does eating a carbohydrate-heavy lunch leave you desperately wanting a nap an hour later?
One simple way to support healthy blood sugar balance is to build your meals around protein, fiber-rich plants, healthy fats, and carbohydrates.
And yes, carbohydrates can absolutely stay on your plate!
Pairing carbohydrates with protein, fat, and fiber can help create a more balanced meal while still giving your body the energy it needs.
Blood Sugar Balance Isn't About Perfection
Your goal isn't to create a perfectly flat blood sugar line or become afraid of carbohydrates.
It's about getting curious about the signals your body is giving you.
If you're regularly experiencing concerning symptoms or have risk factors for diabetes, talk with your healthcare provider. Testing such as fasting blood glucose or A1C can provide much more useful information than symptoms alone.
Bottom line: Your body is communicating with you all day long. Learning to recognize those patterns can help you make simple, sustainable choices that support your blood sugar, energy, and overall hormone health.
Okay, coffee lovers, nobody panic. I am not here to take away your morning coffee. 😂 Because hello it's something I really enjoy too!
But one question that comes up a lot is whether coffee is “bad for your hormones,” and my answer is: coffee itself usually isn’t the whole story. How you’re drinking it matters (and eventually I'll get into how much the type of coffee you're drinking matter too, but one thing at a time)
If your morning looks like waking up already stressed, grabbing coffee on an empty stomach, running out the door, and then realizing at 11:30 that you haven’t actually eaten anything that’s where I want us to pay attention.
Caffeine can temporarily increase cortisol, one of the hormones involved in your stress response. That isn’t automatically a bad thing as cortisol naturally rises in the morning, and we actually need it to. The goal isn’t to avoid cortisol; it’s to support your body’s natural rhythm rather than constantly piling extra stimulation on top of it. If you’re waking up, immediately drinking coffee on an empty stomach, rushing out the door, and already feeling stressed, you may be adding another stress signal when your body is naturally experiencing its morning rise in cortisol.
But caffeine can also make some people feel more jittery, anxious, wired, or uncomfortable, especially when they haven't eaten.
Then there’s the bigger issue: coffee isn't breakfast.
If coffee is replacing food for hours, you’re missing an opportunity to give your body protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and actual energy. By afternoon, that can look like low energy, feeling ravenous, stronger cravings, irritability, or reaching for another coffee just to keep yourself going.
And suddenly we're blaming our “hormones” when our body may also be saying, Hi, could you please feed me? 😂
Instead of immediately giving up coffee, look at the routine around it:
✔️ Eat a real breakfast, or at least something with protein, fiber-rich carbohydrates, and healthy fat.
✔️ Hydrate in the morning instead of making coffee your first and only fluid.
✔️ Pay attention to how caffeine makes you feel: energized and focused? Or anxious, shaky, nauseous, and wired?
✔️ Notice how much you're drinking and how late in the day you're having it. Caffeine too close to bedtime can interfere with sleep and sleep absolutely matters for metabolic and hormonal health.
You don't need to fear coffee or create another arbitrary wellness rule that says you can never drink it before exactly 9:37 a.m.
But if your current breakfast is coffee + stress + running out the door, that's a morning routine worth looking at.
Sometimes supporting your hormones isn't about removing another food or drink.
Sometimes it's about making sure you're actually nourishing your body first.
Let’s talk about that little bottle of Progessence Plus.
Because if you’ve been around the wellness world for more than five minutes, you’ve probably heard:
“It has wild yam, and wild yam helps your body make progesterone.”
Wellllll, not exactly.
And this is where it gets interesting.
First: wild yam is NOT literally progesterone.
Wild yam contains a plant compound called diosgenin. And yes, diosgenin can be used to make progesterone.
BUT that conversion typically happens in a lab.
Your body does not appear to have its own tiny pharmaceutical factory saying, “Oh! Wild yam! Let me whip up some progesterone real quick.” (usually)
Research using wild yam cream by itself has not shown a meaningful increase in women’s progesterone levels.
But Progessence Plus is different.
Look at the ingredient list and you’ll see:
USP-grade progesterone (from wild yam extract)
Read that again.
It doesn't just contain wild yam and hope your body figures out what to do with it.
It contains actual progesterone.
The wild yam is used as a starting material to manufacture the progesterone. By the time it’s in that little bottle, your body isn't being asked to turn wild yam into progesterone.
That job has already been done.
So can progesterone be absorbed through your skin?
Researchers have studied topical progesterone, and there is evidence that progesterone can be absorbed through the skin.
But because hormones apparently LOVE making everything complicated, measuring that absorption isn't always straightforward. Blood, saliva and capillary measurements don't necessarily tell exactly the same story.
Translation?
Hormones are complicated little divas that we love so much!
And that's also why I'm not going to tell you that X number of drops will raise your progesterone by X amount. We don't have evidence that allows me to make that promise (however I will say that over the years of being around essential oils and using this one myself, women have mentioned that they have seen their usage of this raise their progesterone to levels that help your body run optimally)
Now THIS is where Hormone Harmony comes in.
I don't want you blindly throwing things at your hormones because somebody on Instagram told you progesterone was the answer to every problem you've had since 2007 (but maybe it is?🤣)
But let’s go back, your body gives you clues.
Your cycle. Your sleep. Your energy. Your cravings. Your mood. Your stress. Your digestion.
Clues and more clues.
Progesterone can be an important part of the hormone conversation but it isn't the *entire* hormone conversation.
And Progessence Plus isn't magical wild yam juice that somehow convinces your ovaries to start pumping out progesterone.
It contains USP-grade progesterone manufactured using wild yam as its source material.
That distinction matters.
Because Hormone Harmony isn't about hormone perfection or another 47-step wellness routine (but wouldn’t it be kind of fun if we had time for that?!).
It's about becoming a woman who understands her body a little better than she did yesterday.
Come join us in Hormone Harmony!
