I’ve learnt a whole lot about hormones through my biz collaborater and hormone expert, Naomi Judge.  As I experience all the changes which come with turning 50 her guidance and wisdom have helped to keep my hormones happy and healthy, leaving me at a healthy weight, with stable moods, increased energy and an all round feeling balanced and pretty fantastic! 

The longer we endure consistent hormonal imbalances, the more difficult it can be to correct certain issues, so I want to make sure you’re looking after your hormones like I do, and it’s easy to do with the help of Naomi who has written up her Top 5 daily habits for healthy hormones below.

Guest post by hormone-expert, Naturopath Naomi Judge

As we age hormone balance becomes even more crucial as your body begins to get into routines and rhythms, it relies on internal and external signals to tell it what to do.

For example, being in a highly stressed state through your 40’s leading into your 50’s and menopause tells your body it needs to store fat to deal with whatever is around the corner which your body thinks could be a famine (your nervous system is still in the stone age).What you were able to get away with in your 20’s is now becoming physically and emotionally noticeable to you.

The time to act is today, and by implementing small habits and hormonal balancing strategies one at a time, you can build strong foundations for another 50 years of feeling fantastic!

To get you started on supporting your hormones today you can follow these five steps:

1) Consume lots of good bacteria in the form of fermented foods, kefir and in some cases a good probiotic. Good bacteria helps to synthesize the right hormones in the digestive tract, including estrogen and thyroid hormones.

2) Consume filtered water free from chlorine and fluoride. Both of these substances have been added to tap water. Chlorine is added to kill off pathogenic organisms, but unfortunately it does not discriminate and also kills good bacteria. Fluoride has been added to prevent tooth decay, but this chemical also affects your immune cells, which are responsible for gut immunity. Too much fluoride can leave your gut open to dormant bacterias and for candida yeast to grow rampantly throughout your digestive tract.3) Increase fibre intake, you should try and eat 40 grams of fibre per day. You can add flaxmeal or chia seeds to smoothies, take pectin supplements or slippery elm, or simply increase fibrous vegetables, such as avocado, broccoli, and celery.

4) Meditation helps to balance hormones by reducing cortisol and testosterone, at the same time elevating feel good hormones such as oxytocin. Oxytocin is your best friend in hormone-land, which can also be boosted through massage and regular orgasm.

5) Change up your exercise routine. Too much intense exercise daily can reduce good estrogen levels and elevate testosterone and cortisol. Include a nice balance between light yoga, walking, strength training, intense or short burst training a few times per week.

Grab your FREE copy of my 'CALM YOUR CORTISOL' recipe book to soothe your cortisol and start your journey to high energy, fast metabolism, and feeling like yourself again!

Need to cut down phone time?

There’s an app for that!

Since compiling this list I’m convinced there’s an app to address virtually every aspect of self-care!

No matter what your definition of self care, whether it be…

Taking 5 minutes to focus on your breath each day.

Meeting a friend for coffee.

Enjoying a regular pampering session.

Whatever decisions, actions and intentions helps to refuel your mind, body, soul just make sure you prioritise them because life is tough, and looking after your wellbeing is paramount.

Using apps is an easy, convenient, and affordable way to boost your mental and emotional health. 

Below are some favourites I researched and as voted by you! 

18 of the Best Self-Care Apps you need to try

1.Insight Timer

They have a free version and it has many different options for meditation styles, depending on what you may need that day. I personally recommend listening to Sarah Blondin.

2.Headspace

This one is definitely one of the most popular meditation apps around. It’s meditation made simple in just a few minutes per day. It also teaches you how to apply mindful techniques in different areas of your life.  It has a free 10-day basic series pack.

3.Vent

Vent is a social network for people to express their feelings and connect with people who care. Vent allows you to express yourself and to listen others during tough times. A safe space to vent anything without judgement from the understanding community.

4.Shine

A daily inspiration drop to brighten up your day. Who doesn’t need a bit of that?

5.Daylio

Best described as a mobile life or mood/habit tracking journal. Daylio allows you to keep a private diary without having to type a single line. You can also add notes and keep an old school diary. Free to download. 

6.Calm

A great app for meditation and sleep. Perfect for those anxious, monkey minds who find it hard to fall asleep at night and need some help to switch off.  There’s a couple of us at least in this house. Has a free trial.

7.Habitica

Habitica is a free habit-building and productivity app that treats your real life like a game. With in-game rewards and punishments to motivate you and a strong social network to inspire you, the aim is to help you achieve your goals to become fit, healthy and happy. Love this idea.

8.Moodspace

MoodSpace is a great app for mental health. It aims to create a self-help space where you have the opportunity to experiment with different treatment methods, in the form of interactive mood workouts, to see what works for you. 

These mood workouts are designed as short, habit building, self-help exercises that can be completed on your phone, at any time you choose and every workout is based on the latest research into depression treatments.

The Three Clouds (daily gratitude journal), Mindful Meditation and the Thought Diary (which challenges difficult thoughts) are popular activities.

9.Downdog

Down Dog is a free guided yoga app, providing a studio-like yoga experience in the comfort of your home and which fits perfectly with any schedule.

Each time you practice, Down Dog creates a brand new vinyasa yoga sequence so you won’t have to do the same routine over and over again. 

10.Sworkit

Offers an easy solution to fitness with guided workouts for any schedule, has personalised plans with useful guidelines for strength , cardio, yoga and stretch training, you can select a focused workout from within that category.  Offers a fun and effective way to fit in a workout on busy days or for the gymophobes amongst us.

11.J & J Official 7 minute app

Designed by an exercise physiologist and based on science-backed routine called interval training, combines aerobics and cardio for a great session you can do at home. Short workouts that get your heart racing.

12.Perspective

A free unique journaling app that captures your thoughts, moods, interests and habits. Then prompts reflection and insight to help you make personal discoveries

13.Woebot

This app, created by a clinical psychologist from Stanford University, makes mental health accessible to everyone. It helps people examine how they react to challenging situations and to think through them with step-by-step guidance using methods from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

14.Superbetter

Powered by the science of games, positive psychology and behaviour change, Superbetter is designed to increase your resilience and optimism and help you overcome difficult obstacles.

You’ll be challenged to complete different wellness tasks each day in the form of a game. SuperBetter takes a holistic approach to help with depression, anxiety, chronic illness or pain, and PTSD. Plus, it covers a wide range of topics including divorce, workplace issues, grief, and more.

15.Space

Space is the perfect app to help you break your phone addiction and find your phone/life balance. 

If you find your phone use to be disruptive and distracting you from people and things that are most important to you, this app is for you. 

16.Plant Nanny

Plant Nanny is a simple, cute little app that reminds you to drink water. Combining health with fun to remind you to drink water regularly.

17. Grateful: A Gratitude Journal

This app was created based off of research from Harvard Medical School that shows the link between gratitude and improved health and emotions. By posting daily journal entries in the app, you’ll practice gratitude daily and get the pick-me-up you need whenever you’re having a rough day.

18. Pillow

This app helps you track your sleep. Just put your phone next to your pillow when you sleep (on aeroplane mode of  course!) and it will analyze your sleep patterns based on your movements.

The next morning, Pillow will wake you up in the 30-minute window where you’re in light sleep and you’ll get detailed statistics of your sleep quality the night before.

And while the extra suggestions below aren’t apps, they are some pretty powerful  self -care tools.

Program

Break Through! Signature Cleanse

I created this program with Naturopath Naomi Judge to help women reset their hormones, get off the blood sugar rollercoaster, reduce inflammation, improve digestion, maintain a healthy weight and feel fantastic in a body they love!

Full of delicious recipes and lifestyle advice, The 28 Day Break Through! Signature Cleanse is a great way to increase energy and transform your body from the inside out by focusing on YOU. 

YouTube

Yoga with Adrienne

Free yoga videos on her website or YouTube. The yoga sessions are very manageable, around 30 minutes. Each day, there’s a theme, starting with practicing ease, practicing intention and so on.

Facebook

Red Table Talk

Jada Pinkett Smith, her daughter Willow, and mother Adrienne – three generations of women open their home for a series of candid conversations with family and friends. 

Websites

You Feel Like Shit

This game is designed to help you get through your busy day. It’s basically an interactive flowchart to help you practice self care. 

Do Nothing for Two Minutes

The name says it all.

Podcast

LiveAwake

The Live Awake podcast helps bring you back to your grounded centre through reflection and guided meditation.

Enjoy!

Have you used any of these apps? Do you have any other faves I can add to the list?

Just let me know in the comments.

Please go ahead and share this post and spread the self-care message and remember …

“the only person who can pull me down is myself, and I’m not going to let myself pull me down anymore.” – C. JoyBell C.

Bren x

Grab your FREE copy of my 'CALM YOUR CORTISOL' recipe book to soothe your cortisol and start your journey to high energy, fast metabolism, and feeling like yourself again!

Do you feel like BURNT TOAST!?

Do you always say YES?!

As women we are socialised to feel responsible for the feelings and well-being of those around us, pushing our own well-being and needs aside.

We’ve been brought up to be people pleasers and avoid conflict.

Remember your teachers who commend you for getting along with everyone in class?

Your own parents who smother you with love when you say yes to everything they’ve suggested?

From childhood we’re taught not to defy authority so ‘yes’ becomes engrained in us.

We want to please others so that we fit in, are well-considered and liked by our peers.

We say YES because …

We want to get along.

We want to be nice.

We don’t want to hurt other people’s feelings.

We worry that saying no will break our bonds.

We don’t want to feel disapproved of.

We don’t want to be rejected.

But saying all that YES is to our own detriment and can lead to our physical and emotional needs not being met, ultimately leading to resentment, stress and burnout.

PAY YOURSELF FIRST

For most of us it is very easy to say “yes”.

But for many of us, it’s just not so easy to say “no”.

Take it from me, saying no takes training, practice and time.

Practice saying no.

By taking pause and checking in with yourself and whether what you really want to say is ‘no’.

By listening to cues that it’s time to ease off (before you collapse like a house of cards).

Or if ‘no’ is too confronting what about “not right now”?

Or, “can I think about it and get back to you?”.

Feel the fear but make the change anyway.

At first you might feel like crap for saying no.

Eventually you will feel proud… and healthier because ‘no’ is the first step in saying ‘yes’ to you.

Remember, there will be plenty more opportunities to say yes!

PAY YOURSELF FIRST

If you’ve been saying YES too often, you might find your stress hormone, cortisol, is riding high!

This can become dangerous and lead to health issues like weight gain, sleep disorders, acne, sleep disorders and impaired immune system. 

Learn to Calm Your Cortisol by saying NO and by feeding your body these cortisol soothing recipes in my FREE CALM YOUR CORTISOL ebook  >>>>>>>>

Bren x

Grab your FREE copy of my 'CALM YOUR CORTISOL' recipe book to soothe your cortisol and start your journey to high energy, fast metabolism, and feeling like yourself again!

Are they exhausted, getting sick, falling apart, over it! It’s such a tough time of year.

Last week my daughter woke up, practically slept walk out of her room with big bags under her eyes and for the first time ever asked if she could have a day off school.

She told me later that day that she was surprised that I agreed to her taking a “wellbeing day” but I explained that I could see that she desperately needed that day, a day away from addition and subtraction, all the noise and school yard politics…

She stayed home and played the piano, watched her favourite shows, ate her favourite food, read books and lazed about all day. By the time evening rolled around she was herself again, pepped up and ready for her nippers training session.

I had given my daughter permission to relax every fibre of her being and, in doing so, reclaim her fight.

And that’s something I’ve found about self-care, we often need someone else to jump-start it for us.

Giving ourselves permission — to rest, to recharge, to realize self-indulgence isn’t actually self-indulgent at all.

This is a concept I know is especially hard for women.

We ALL need to remember to exhale….we’re all pushed to do too much, we all need a break. Kids and parents alike.

We don’t want our kids to learn from us that they have to work their butts of all the time until they burn out. We want them to tune in to what they really need and grant themselves permission to take a break.

As busy mums though, how do we take time out when we don’t seem to have five minutes to ourselves from sunrise to sunset?

Let me ask you an important question.

Has your busy-ness become the thing that defines you? Has it become a badge of honour?

Our culture has decided that we need to be Wonder Women and so we believe that being busy is what makes us worthy.

We need to SHAKE THIS IDEA OFF!

Because while we remain slaves to our to-do lists and exist in get-it-done mode, we are forgetting to live a meaningful and healthy life meant to be enjoyed.

How do I shake it off though Brenda? Who’s going to get it all done for me?

Well, I suggest you take a good look at your to-do list and make some honest decisions about what’s really non-negotiable and what you can say bye-bye to. Eg: Do you really need to organise those birthday photos into a special album? Or go to that event if no one is going to get hurt by your absence?

And/or..

Find some support in the areas you feel like you could use some help, then decide who you can ask to support you in those areas. Eg: My mum comes over once every fortnight and I never say no to her bringing food for my family which usually lasts a couple days and creates some much needed time and space. Say YES to help!

I’d also love to invite you to join my FREE LIVE WORKSHOP which I host with Naturopath Naomi Judge on what we consider to be the most important topic when it comes to Women’s health and wellbeing – and that’s the importance of self care.

After all, having too little rest is a major contributor to expanding that waistline, IBS, gas, bloating, headaches, depression, heart problems, decreased sex drive ……

WHY YOU NEED TO LEAVE GUILT AT THE DOOR AND EMBRACE SELF-CARE
Learn to love, nourish and respect yourself with these 5 smart habits

In this workshop we explore: 

• Where this guilt comes from and why we feel it (so important to recognise this so you can move on).
• How lack of self-care creates stress and some serious health issues you shouldn’t ignore.
• How you can get clear on a specific, urgent WHY, your sense of purpose, your capacity to fulfil your mission and do what brings you joy.
• The telltale signs of stress (it’s not necessarily what you may think!).
• 5 easy ways to create sustainability and resilience in your life so you don’t become ill and burn out (this is gold!).
• Plus there’s a Q & A with us at the end.

Please share this workshop with your friends, I have a sneaking suspicion they’ll be thanking you later!

Bren x

Grab your FREE copy of my 'CALM YOUR CORTISOL' recipe book to soothe your cortisol and start your journey to high energy, fast metabolism, and feeling like yourself again!

It surprised me how many people hadn’t heard of it.

Burst training is basically a type of exercise that you can do anywhere, anytime and which saves you a bucket load of $$ on gym memberships or special equipment

You might know it as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

Basically, it’s working your heart rate almost to the maximum for about 30-60 seconds, immediately followed by low intensity, or in my case, resting, for a minute or two. And repeat.

My favourite form of burst training is sprints.

I power walk down to either the local oval or beach stairs, and sprint, rest, sprint, rest about 8 times.

Burst training can be done in many different ways.

For example – running on the spot, on a stationary bike, using a skipping rope, swimming ..the options are endless!

Why do I do Burst Training?

• As a busy working mum, I particularly love how time efficient it is. I’m usually done and dusted in half an hour (including the walk to and from the location). You’ve got to love maximum benefit with limited time!
• It burns fat incredibly efficiently
• It boosts my metabolism
• It reduces inflammation in the body
• It’s great for toning muscles
• It makes me feel energised
• It doesn’t put stress on my body like other forms of cardio exercise
• It balances my hormones
• It doesn’t flare up my dodgy neck and back issues
• Gets me out into nature, getting Vitamin D and helping to set my circadian rhythms
• Keeps ageing at bay

I usually aim for 2 x sessions per week, interspersed with 1 x session of weight training and power walking the rest of the days and once home, I usually follow up with a ginger, mint and green apple smoothie or this anti-oxidant smoothie.

Naturopath Naomi Judge and I talk in depth about the right type of exercise for balancing hormones and shedding stubborn weight in our Break Through! Signature Cleanse. Find out more about the cleanse here. 

Bren x

Grab your FREE copy of my 'CALM YOUR CORTISOL' recipe book to soothe your cortisol and start your journey to high energy, fast metabolism, and feeling like yourself again!

Resistant or stubborn weight is such an emotional and frustrating subject for many, due to the fact that women have been trying to lose the extra 5-10 kilos for years and are failing miserably. When something is not working, then it is time to try a different approach. If your body is in perfect hormonal harmony, thyroid, adrenals and all systems balance. You should be able to have 2 to 3 healthy meals a day, exercise moderately, and feel fantastic in a body you love.

The gist to losing that resistant weight is to stop, slow down, and listen to your body. Create the perfect environment inside and outside your body to enable it to be where it wants to be. Our bodies have the innate power to heal. Give your body and mind the tools they need, and you will get your desired outcome.

Break Through! To Feeling Fantastic in a Body You Love is a formulated program developed  by myself and Health and Lifestyle Coach , Brenda Janschek.

This e-course is aimed at helping you Break Through! your weight and health barriers. We hope to see you there.