As a wife and mother of three, and owning my own business, you can image that my body has been through the ringer with not enough sleep, eating on the go, lots of stress, and not to mention the two cesarians! Despite these outside obstacles I’ve always felt like my body was hangin in there and doing what I needed it to do. That was, up until about two years ago. I had been working out religiously with a personal trainer and trying different meal plans and I began to lean out and tone all over except my midsection. My trainer noticed as well and asked me if I had ever gotten my blood work done because lots of times in women when they are unable to work through belly fat, it can correlate to a hormone issue.
Well very long story short, I did a ton of research about food sensitivity and hormone imbalances and how that affects your weight, your mood, your energy and more. So then I started playing with foods and discovered what my body had a more difficult time processing vs what made me feel good! Breaking down my foods definitely helped, but still my energy was so so low, I still had belly fat, I had extremely high anxiety, and I used to call myself the Hulk because I was “at a low rumble” all the time and it didn’t take much to make me upset!
About a year later I finally decided to take the plunge and get with a naturopath and get my blood work done! Ten viles later I finally had some answers! Thankfully not a bunch of things were wrong but the few things that were horribly off directly correlated to my symptoms! I thought I would share with you everything that I have been taking for the past 5 months and explain how its helped me so if you are feeling similar maybe you could add a few to your regiment!
Every supplement regiment starts with a quality multivitamin. In the past I’ve usually had a hard time not having an upset stomach with these but that was until I switched to a Vegan Multivitamin and I also prefer a once a day option.
For myself I had always been told to take a fish oil and I always found it so confusing to know how much to take and which Omegas I actually needed. I discovered that as women we not only need the Omega 3’s but we also need Omega 6, 9 , and 12 as well! These essential Omega Fatty Acids aid in weight loss but also immensely helps with improving your mood. My Favorite one is THIS ONE by New Chapter!
This next one is SUPER important! Iron is such a keystone micronutrient that when your body isn’t getting enough, and I’m not saying only if you are anemic but also just low at all, it is shocking how many ways the symptoms can manifest. The way I knew that I was potentially low on iron is that I was tired ALL THE TIME. Pretty much as soon as I sat down anywhere I would doze off and that included behind the wheel! I also had weird cravings and had major hair loss! I have noticed the effects of low iron in so many of my clients that now if someone is experiencing a lot of hair loss I always suggest to start taking a supplement. If you aren’t consuming much meat or iron dense foods then you are most likely low. Iron can be tough to absorb in pill form so I prefer this Liquid Iron supplement instead!
A lot of my struggles had to do with stress and my mood, so naturally, I could use more Vitamin D in my life! This vitamin has so many benefits regarding your immune system so whenever myself or my kids are fighting a sickness we always ramp up on our Vitamin D to help boost our immune system. In general most people need around 600IU and usually, these supplements are very small in size so taking a few is pretty easy! My Favorite is THIS ONE!
Last but not least this supplement has been a GAME CHANGER for myself and so many others I’ve shared this with. Our bodies produce testosterone (the happy, fat burning, get up and go hormone) on the coat tail of our Adrenal Glands working properly. When our adrenal glands start to fail then our lack of adrenal support dominos into our Cortisol hormone going haywire. What does cortisol do for our mind and bodies? Cortisol is our stress regulator which of course affects your level of anxiety. I don’t know about you but I have STRUGGLED, like majorly struggled with anxiety literally my entire life. It has put me on edge and paranoid and pessimistic for a very long time and unfortunately I had no idea that I could feel any other way. My brain would be going constantly and if there wasn’t a problem then I would think up a potential problem and start worrying about that! I was so on edge with my kids and husband and quite frankly it almost ruined my marriage. On top of all that, it directly holding on to belly fat. Needless to say this is where I suffered the most as well as saw the most change. This Cortisol Supplement from NOW is Amazing! I initially was taking 2 in the morning and 2 by 1pm and now I’m weening off to three a day.
After the first couple days I realized that I had gone a whole day without getting upset with my kids or my husband. I realized I could actually sit down and be calm. I was so much happier just in general and it was like my brain slowed down enough that I could think clearly and process things much more productively. If any of this sounds like you I would highly suggest giving these a try.
I could honestly go on and on about how much making these changes have made a massive difference for me in my life in so many ways ! I encourage anyone to get their blood work done regularly to see where you are at and also take it to different people if you aren’t getting the answers you are looking for. I found myself finding lots of answers in my naturopath because she was thorough and gave me so much of her time as well as insight on how my food, vitamins and daily patterns affected all of these deficiencies. If you feel like you could be feeling much better than this is a great place to start!
