Over the years I have read several books and many articles online about tips for improving hormonal health that seem to make things overly complicated, in my opinion, and potentially, when followed, end up doing more harm than good. These protocols advocate for eating only a very specific list of foods in addition to suggesting very specific forms of exercise and other life habits for each phase of your cycle. While I think there is some truth to these suggestions (for example, basic principles like eating iron-rich foods like red meat and doing lower intensity exercise when you are on your period) that can be helpful, I generally think extensive, black-and-white protocols like this way overcomplicate things, adding unnecessary stress, rigidity, and confusion. This is the LAST thing you want if you are having hormonal problems, as the root of a lot of hormonal imbalance issues is unhealthy stress (in any and all forms – physical, mental, emotional, environmental etc.).

SO… in the spirit of making things LESS complicated and hopefully MORE effective, I have for you in this post ten of my top tips for hormonal health. Between an eating disorder, recovering from an eating disorder, lots of other life stress throughout college and beyond, and genetic predispositions to certain hormonal issues, I have (unfortunately in many ways!) plenty of experience dealing with hormonal imbalance myself. NOT FUN as hormones affect basically everything.

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