Lifestyle Practices & Hormonal Balance- Part 2

A woman’s lifestyle and her hormone balance are directly related to each other, this is what we understood in our last article. Our lifestyle is the major foundation of our health. But most of us do not realise what lifestyle actually means or what constitutes a good lifestyle and this why I was a little too excited to write this article in the first place. Because I feel it’s my utmost responsibility to enable all my sisters in gender to take care of their health without relying on anyone or before they fall sick

What Constitutes a Good Lifestyle?

First thing firsts, the important aspects of our lifestyle are the ones we usually ignore. For instance our nutrition, fitness, our skincare, sleep pattern, the stress levels etc. Our lifestyle is pretty much defined by the way we lead our lives and most of us lead a busy scheduled and on-the-go life, with stress levels flying all over the place which ultimately leads to the imbalance in the hormones. This hormonal imbalance is the reason behind many uncomfortable and bothering symptoms like irregular periods, painful sex, unhealthy vaginal discharge, heavy bleeding etc and lifestyle disorders like PCOD, Endometriosis, Fibroids, etc. 

Most of us indian women, even working independent women, are at the front line of managing their careers and family together and in doing so their health takes a back seat. Owing to this most of us Indian women do not have the habit of being proactive about our health, like getting yearly routine checkups. 

Key Lifestyle Components For a Well-balanced Health

Even though you’re someone who follows a very strict diet and fitness program, you may still be overlooking some key health indicators, which are vital for monitoring your overall health. 

So what are these lifestyle components, which are required for you to stay on top of your health at every stage of your life? 

Nutrition:

The first and foremost is nutrition. Our diet, the food we eat is a very important source for our energy and our sustenance. Food provides the basic building blocks required to keep us alive and forms a major part of our lifestyle too. But most of us often go by our taste buds or ease of cooking while choosing what to eat. Than the nutritional value of the food that we eat.  

And when it comes to losing the excess weight, which we gained through our diets and habits, it's equally tough. And we subject ourselves to those punishing diets that do us more harm than good. 

Your nutrition should involve everything that is naturally provided by mother nature. Water, vegetables, fruits, grains, seeds, beans, poultry, meat, seafood etc. These foods provide the four basic macronutrient that provide us the energy: Protein, carbohydrates, fats and water. 

Macronutrients

The sustenance structure of of our body the muscles, hormones, antibodies and enzymes are all made from amino acids. Proteins are the primary source of these amino acids. A healthy diet has 25-30% of protein of your total daily calorie intake. Protein keeps you feeling full for a longer period of time and helps you to avoid binge eating and cravings. Poultry, fish, meat, dairy, soy, nuts & seeds, beans, legumes, lentils are all a very rich source of protein. 

Carbohydrates are the major source of energy for the body and the brain. Carbs should make around 40-45% of our daily calories intake. Low carb diets can actually have detrimental effects on your health. And besides its the simple and refined carbs like white rice, maida, white bried, packed food, pastas etc that has harmful effect on your health. So, maybe restrict them in your diet. 

If you’d like to maintain a a good skin, eye and hormonal health, you must not refrain from fats. Fats have got a bad reputation as being the main culprit behind weight gain and obesity but that is not entirely true. Its the saturated fat that causes weight gain and obesity. Unsaturated fat, infact is very vital for our overall health, even our appearance. Fats should make 20-25 % of your total daily calorie intake. Some of the rich sources of unsaturated fats are, clarified butter or ghee, avocados, nuts and seeds. 

The most important of all the nutrition macronutrient is water, which makes up around 45-75% of our total body weight. It is the key transporter of nutrients, regulates internal body temperature, is vital for internal bodily functions and cognitive performance. 

Did you know: A loss of even 1% of the water in the body can lead to loss of cognitive performance and affect your ability to think, focus and concentrate. 

You should drink upto 8-12 glasses of water every day. Dehydration can also lead to cravings and may lead to binge eat unnecessarily contributing to weight gain. 

Fitness

Most of us think fitness as an extra something which we must do and there usually is a motivation behind those workout scenes like a perfectly toned summer body, but that’s so not true. Moving your body and having a fitness routine should be an important part of your lifestyle because exercising is just as important as nutrition in maintaining our overall health. 

Having a robust fitness routine is important because exercising helps our body and mind in the following ways: 

• Protects us from various diseases and disorders like Cardiovascular diseases, PCOD, Diabetes etc. 
• Maintains and boosts our energy levels
• It reduces symptoms of PMS and menstrual cramps
• Improves mood and helps with depression
• It also helps in sleep issues. 

You must spend atleast 15-20 min of your day in doing exercises. Start with basic exercises and challenge yourself to push more with each passing day. 

Skincare

Our skin is the largest organ of our body and requires proper streamlined care to stay healthy. Your skincare doesn’t end after washing your face and putting on face lotion. Your lifestyle and habits also define your skin health. Consider making changes in the following factors while creating a skincare routine for yourself according to your skin type:

• Towel and bedding hygiene: The pillowcases, towels and bedheets are all filled with dead skin, sweat and saliva may irritate the skin. Thats’s why it’s recommended to wash your pillowcases and towels atleast once a week. 
• Nutrition: Nutrition and water intake a play a vital role in maintaining healthy skin. If your diet has excessive amount of sugar, salt, alcohol, dairy and caffeine, it may wreak havoc on your skin. So it’s important to follow a comprehensive diet, which fulfils our body’s complete requirements like maintaining good skin health. 
• Sleeping in makeup: Crawling straight to the bed after a long day, without removing your makeup is another reason why your skin may get irritated and break out. 
• Stress: Stress is one of the major precursors to many skin concerns in women. It not only releases a cocktail of stress hormones, which not only affects the skin but other vital organs as well. If you are often stressed out consider taking deep long breaths and sitting down for a 10-min meditation or watching a sunset. 

Mental Wellbeing

Our mental health is another very important of our aspect that often takes a backseat for care or mostly not talked about openly, which has paved the way for many social stigma and misunderstanding surrounding a woman’s health. But having a solid mental health regime is key to every woman’s overall good health. Mental health is a conscious effort to care for your mind, follow these simple steps to set a basic foundation for your mental wellness:

• Spend time with loved ones
• Helping friends
• Cultivating creative hobbies
• Meditation
• Having pets

There will always be those reasons to worry and stress in life, but if you don’t change that behaviour soon, you will fall in the habit of putting your health and happiness in the later, which ultimately is the cause for more misery. 

Following a health regime that addresses all these lifestyle components, will help you in staying fit and healthy. Apart from this proactive behaviour like tracking and assessing your symptoms time to time will help you detect any health abnormality at the time and gives you a chance to address them before they cause any problem.