Ditch Your Sunglasses For Happy Hormones

NUTRITION
Recipe Of The Week

High Protein Ice Cream Bites
Approx Macros: 4g P/ 13g C/ 6g F

Ingredients:
16 Oz Cottage Cheese ( I chose full fat for extra creaminess!)
¼ Cup Honey
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Tbsp Almond Butter
1 Scoop Level-1 Ice Cream Sandwich Protein
3 Cups Dark Chocolate Chips
2 Tsp Coconut Oil
1 tsp Coarse or Flaky Sea Salt

Directions:
1. Add cottage cheese, honey, vanilla, almond butter, and Level-1 to a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Pour the mixture between the mini muffin tins.
3. Freeze the mixture for 1 hour or until hard and frozen.
4. Melt together chocolate chips and coconut oil in 30 second intervals in the microwave, stirring after each interval until smooth.
5. Dip each ice cream piece in chocolate to fully coat it. Right after dipping, sprinkle with sea salt.
6. Add each bite to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Freeze for 5 more minutes or until the chocolate is set.
7. Serve and enjoy or store them in the freezer for later!

Recipe Credit: Jenny Young, 1st Phorm

FITNESS
20 Min AMRAP (as many rounds as possible)

Set a timer for 20 minutes and complete as many rounds of the following exercises as possible!

1. 10 Burpee to overhead dumbbell press

2. 20 Reverse Lunges

3. 20 Renegade Rows

4. Rest 1:00

HEALTH/WELLNESS
Are Your Sunglasses Causing Your Hormone Issues?

Hormones and hormone balance is often a hot topic for women, young and old. When things like diet, food sources, exercise, stress, and our monthly cycle all effect our hormones, it’s no wonder learning to balance our hormones is top of mind for many women.

But ladies listen up…. your sunglasses might be a factor in why your hormones are off!

In fact… you will not be able to properly balance your hormones without prioritizing time spent in the sun WITHOUT sunglasses 😎

Let’s take a quick look: In terms of hormone balance, sunlight is crucial for:

☀️ Vitamin D Production: Sun exposure triggers the production of vitamin D in the skin. This essential vitamin regulates calcium and phosphorus levels, which are vital for hormone production, particularly in the parathyroid glands. Adequate vitamin D protects serotonin levels and helps regulate the production of adrenaline, noradrenaline, and dopamine in the brain. Additionally, sufficient vitamin D can decrease estrogen levels, addressing common issues of estrogen dominance in women.

☀️ Serotonin: Sunlight exposure increases serotonin levels in the brain. Serotonin, a neurotransmitter, regulates mood, appetite, and sleep. Higher serotonin levels are linked to a positive mood and a calm, focused mind.

☀️ Melatonin: Natural light helps control the body's circadian rhythm by regulating melatonin production. Melatonin, the hormone that manages sleep-wake cycles, is better regulated with daytime sunlight exposure, ensuring healthy melatonin levels at night.

☀️ Cortisol: Morning sunlight exposure can help regulate cortisol levels, the stress hormone crucial for overall health. Balanced cortisol levels support testosterone production, which is important for libido, energy, and mental clarity. High cortisol levels can lead to estrogen dominance due to the pregnenolone steal effect. Balanced hormones, especially sufficient progesterone, are essential for overall well-being.

Happy hormones means happy sunlight exposure! Sunglasses block melatonin production and cortisol regulation among others. Now…don’t go out staring directly at the sun, but safe morning or evening sun exposure can make a world of difference for your health!

MINDSET
“I Was Self-Sabotaging Before I Even Started”

Last week, I was supposed to start an 8 week fitness challenge with my team. I’ve done these quarterly for years. But I could barely get myself started this time, truthfully, I was trying to avoid it.

During the challenge, I have to hold myself more accountable. I have to show my team my daily meals and my workouts. Which means I have to be a little more regimented than I am on a daily basis. And deep down, it makes me feel restricted and a little uncomfortable, especially in a busy time of my life where I am just trying to stay active and stay on top of my work and home life.

Have you ever felt that way when starting a new diet or fitness program?

Although these challenges align with my mission and deeply resonates with me, and I LOVE how they make me feel and the community I build with my team, I still talked myself out of it for an entire week.

All I had to do was take some mediocre progress pictures, but I wouldn’t do it.

I came up with all sorts of excuses. My brain started justifying the excuses for me. “You have so much going on, it would be too much on your plate anyways…”, ..”you’re pregnant, your team wouldn’t expect you to finish it anyways..”.

I was self sabotaging before I even gave myself a chance.

Have you ever wondered why when we are trying to make a GOOD and SUPPORTIVE change for ourselves that we only last so long before we crawl back to our same programming and patterns and fill our minds with our bad old narratives?

Creating new and supportive habits are so hard to sustain. Hint: It’s not just willpower.

Our subconscious mind’s job is to keep us SAFE. This can get really twisted because something that can consciously be judged as "good', for example, like trying to feed your family healthier food is, in nature, good...but it can actually depend on your beliefs and past programming if it is flagged and coded as UNSAFE.

This happens because when we set off to do something new, it feels scary and it pushes us outside our comfort zone. Like implementing a new recipe, or trying to follow a new meal. If this is all NEW to you, and it's overwhelming to your nervous system - you might get a red flag from your subconscious programming as UNSAFE.

And on the flip side, something we can judge as being bad like eating unhealthy or an abundance of junk food, can be coded as SAFE. This happens because at some point in our life, we used junk food as a way to cope with life (which is widely taught in our society!) when it felt out of control.

So, all that to sav... What gets coded as safe or unsafe will be different for each person since it's all a matter of subjective life experiences and beliefs that will decide what is considered 'good' or 'bad' according to each of our subconscious minds.

So just a friendly reminder to go slow with changes or upgrades in your life!
Make yourself Better Today.