Cavewomen Don't Get Fat (5 page)

Estrogen is actually the name of a class of hormones. The three major estrogens produced by women are estriol, estradiol, and estrone. Estrogens are steroid hormones that are responsible for sexual development in girls, an increase in body fat during development, and helping to keep bones strong. This delicate hormonal ecosystem helps a girl's body prepare for menstrual cycles and carry children down the road.

Progesterone is also a steroid hormone. The ovaries produce the majority of progesterone, but only when ovulation occurs. As we approach menopause, our progesterone wanes. This deficiency is responsible for many of the symptoms associated with menopause, such as sleep disruption, weight gain, foggy thinking, and joint and bone inflammation. When our progesterone levels drop, our bodies become estrogen dominant. The Paleo Chic diet helps correct this imbalance.

To understand how we women produce and store fat, you need to know what happens hormonally during our monthly cycle. During the first fourteen days, estrogen levels peak and then fall. Progesterone lies low for this first half of the cycle, and then spikes up and crashes back down during the second half. So the first half of the cycle is estrogen heavy, while the second half is progesterone rich. Knowing this and eating to keep estrogen and progesterone in
balance will help you make healthy food choices that will keep your weight and the rest of your metabolism on an even keel. Here's how:

• During the first fourteen days of your cycle, known as the follicular phase, you can increase your carbohydrate intake ever so slightly, as long as you also up your cardiovascular activity. Why? Estrogen increases insulin efficacy, and so your body processes sugar more efficiently and is predisposed to retain muscle mass. This means that you're likely to burn, rather than store, fat during this two-week part of your cycle. And that's just what you want to do! Don't go crazy, but it's okay to fan that estrogen fire by increasing your healthy carbohydrate intake slightly. (Think an extra half of a sweet potato here.)

• During the second part of your cycle, the luteal phase, things get a little trickier. As your estrogen levels drop off, your insulin efficiency decreases. Now it's time to cut back on those carbs and cardio, while increasing the amount of protein you eat and do some strength training to reinforce the muscle building that the first half of the month brought.

Women who adjust their diets around the hormonal phases of their cycle report fewer PMS symptoms and less bloating. I personally find that doubling up on protein during the premenstrual phase kicks my cravings to the curb and boosts my energy and mental clarity.

Once you get your period, estrogen and progesterone levels both drop steeply. This is a time when you can be prone to all kinds of crazy cravings, as the drop in our female sex hormones can trigger the neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), to misbehave. Stay the course, my Paleo Chic sisters, and you will ride through all of this with ease.

As mentioned above, I find that upping my protein intake at the start of my cycle helps me stay in balance for the entire month.
Adding 2 to 4 ounces of lean meat or fish, an extra egg, or an additional 2 tablespoons of nuts and seeds to each meal will nip those gnarly PMS symptoms in the bud. Increasing your protein consumption will also curb your cravings for carbohydrates and sugars. Protein subdues the hunger center in the hypothalamus—the area of your brain that communicates with your digestive system—while also steadying your blood sugar level.

I'm a believer that chocolate can cure anything, especially the PMS blues. The compounds found in cacao (I'm talking about organic, unsweetened cocoa powder, ladies, not a candy bar) contain phenylethylamine, a substance that controls moods. Phenylethylamine (PEA) mimics the neurotransmitter dopamine and imparts a feeling of well-being and peacefulness. It also contains serotonin, the neurotransmitter that is known to be crucial in keeping depression at bay. So if you get those chocolate cravings at the onset of your cycle, put a heaping tablespoon of organic, unsweetened cocoa powder into a cup of hot water and enjoy.

Upping your physical activity is always a good idea (and very Paleo Chic), but especially when your cycle starts. Exercise tamps down your body's sense that it is under stress, allowing cortisol production to take a breather. Getting any kind of physical activity during this time, be it a leisurely walk, a swim, or a rousing game of tennis, will not only prime your muscles and trip your fat-burning wires, it will clear your head, help you rest, and calm down your hormones.

At some point, we will all hit that time of life when we no longer ride the hormonal roller coaster of the monthly menstrual cycle. However, menopause brings its own hormonal challenges. Once we stop ovulating, progesterone production drops dramatically. At first, we're still producing estrogen, and so this imbalance manifests
with a host of symptoms that, on the face of it, look a lot like the symptoms of PMS, but they're not.

Moving into this stage, which tends to be estrogen dominant, we experience hot flashes and night sweats. As our estrogen levels continue to fall, our resistance to insulin increases as our cortisol levels creep up too. This is enough to make any girl cry! You've been thin and glamorous all of your adult life, you do your cardio at the gym, you watch your calories, and all of a sudden your good behavior and habits no longer work for you. Why the change? Because you've always had estrogen and progesterone in your corner diligently working on your behalf. Now, as you become more insulin resistant and more prone to the effects of stress, you find yourself gaining weight. What's a menopausal mama to do? Become a Paleo Chic glamour girl. That's what you do.

If you're postmenopausal and have been eating Paleo but aren't seeing results, you need to work harder to lower your insulin levels. If your current diet includes foods such as sweet potatoes and a lot of fruit and you're not losing weight, it means those foods are no longer working for you. Even healthy starches can prompt insulin overproduction in our bodies, and too much insulin without adequate estrogen is a recipe for fat storage. This is why a high-protein, low-carb Paleo diet will help reset your hormones and get you lean.

“If I go on a low-carb diet, won't I lose muscle?” Although insulin is a fat-storing hormone, it also builds muscle. So if you increase your dietary protein and incorporate a bit of weight training (more on this later) into your regimen three to four times per week, you will not only sustain muscle mass but build it too.

There is nothing more harmful to healthy hormone production and function than stress. And most of us are under so much stress from one thing or another that we're not even aware of how stressed out we are.

The presence of stress in our lives causes our hormones to push us into a “hyperalert” state, and our systems become flooded with all kinds of mixed messages. The net result is that our endocrine system goes into overdrive, and while it starts pumping out certain hormones to combat stress, other hormones become diluted and depleted. The net effect is that we feel crazy and out of whack, which manifests as anything from uncontrolled PMS, to debilitating symptoms of menopause, such as lethargy and brain fog. When one hormone is overproducing, others literally get drowned out and can't do their jobs. When this happens, our whole system suffers.

Paleo Chic women want no part of this system overload. We're not interested in “having it all” if it means we have to get fat, have lousy skin, lose our sex drive, and feel crazy and depressed in order to do so. The Paleo Chic woman knows that to look and feel good, she has to put her stress-busting cavewoman moves to work.

While clean eating will support your brain biochemistry and fight mood swings and depression, these other lifestyle changes below will take care of the rest. Try one new tension tamer each week to combat stress, which is critical to your overall health. You can also incorporate relaxing activities such as restorative yoga, tai chi, and leisure walking, all of which lower cortisol. While these activities won't burn a lot of calories, the benefits of lowering cortisol will help keep your entire system balanced and set you up to shed fat more easily and effectively.

• Put yourself in a time-out. I'll never forget the time my mother had had enough of my two brothers and me. She looked us all square in the eye, told us she was leaving, got in her car, and drove away. Thankfully, she came back, and when she did, the message was clear: she had been mad as hell, and she wasn't going to take it anymore! Women are wired to overprovide for others; that's just how we roll. But it doesn't mean that we can't take time for ourselves and recharge our batteries. Send the message to your family or those around you and slap a tiara on your head to signal that this is
your
time to check out and to leave you be for the next twenty minutes.

• Boost your oxytocin. Spending time with friends floods your body with oxytocin, a powerful brain modulator that helps you feel happy and calms you down. Oxytocin is also released during breast-feeding and orgasms and helps you mellow out. A girls' night out with your BFFs is a great way to let loose and bond with your fellow cavewomen.

• Take a bath. Light some candles and dump two cups of Epsom salts and ten drops of lavender oil into your bath water. Climb in and read a trashy magazine. Loll, doll! Soak your stress away and take some deep breaths.

• Have a vitamin cocktail daily. The following protocol will help lower your cortisol, promote restful sleep, and keep your energy grooving throughout the day (as a reminder, always consult your nutritionally oriented health care provider before introducing supplements to your diet):

Omega-3: take two teaspoons (this should be equivalent to 2,000 milligrams [mg]) once a day with food, preferably before you work out.

Rhodiola rosea: take 200 mg twice a day with food.

Phosphatidylserine: take 400 mg at bedtime to promote restful sleep.

Vitamin C: take 2,000 mg immediately following a workout to normalize cortisol.

Chaste tree: take 1,000 mg twice a day of 6:1 extract to balance the endocrine system and support normal progesterone levels. Chaste tree can also restore normal menstrual cycles, especially if you are amenorrheic and have stopped menstruating.

• Eat wild fish. Wild Alaskan salmon is my favorite. A 6-ounce serving has almost 700 IU (international units) of vitamin D and about 2 teaspoons fish oil per serving. The fats found in omega-3s boost and sustain serotonin levels in the brain and reduce the vascular inflammation associated with heart disease. Plus, wild Alaskan salmon contains the powerful antioxidant astaxanthin, which contains a natural sun protection factor (SPF) of 5, and the neurotransmitter DMAE (dimethylaminoethanol), which helps maintain the gorgeous contours of your face and muscles. Aim to eat cold-water fatty fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, Chilean sea bass, trout, and anchovies at least three times per week.

• Vitamin O. Let's talk about sex. If you have a secret lover undercover and are out there having fun, then you know the joys of spontaneity. A little afternoon delight or sex on the fly can be quick and dirty and just plain fun! If you are married or in a long-term relationship, there are benefits, too: statistics show that married people have more sex than single people do. But what kind of sex are we talking about here? Is it mercy sex? Two-pump-chump sex? A-quickie–before-the-kids-wake-up sex? I'm all for a quickie, but we need to do better for ourselves. Long, luscious orgasms have been shown to decrease cortisol levels and raise the good estrogen (estradiol), and make your thyroid more efficient. You've got to use it or lose it. I always tell my husband that it's TV or me. Television can wait, and that's what the DVR is there for. Break up your routine and schedule sex around nine at night,
before you and yours are exhausted and too tired to get it up. Or even better, get into bed before you go out on a date—that way, if you stuff your face at dinner, you don't have to worry about getting aroused with a bloated belly afterward!

• Ditch the booze. Grain-based alcohol, beer in particular, increases estrogen and progesterone and decreases testosterone in both men and women. As little as one glass per day can upset your hormonal balance and overall metabolism. If you can't live without your booze each night, have a 4-ounce serving of Pinot or Merlot or a Spanish wine. These wines are rich in resveratrol, which has been shown to inhibit the aromatase enzyme that turns testosterone into estrogen, ultimately lowering estrogen levels.

• Give thanks. I practice gratitude daily and try to instill it in my family members as well. In fact, the mantra in our house has become “A little less attitude, a little more gratitude.” Keep a log next to your bed and before you hit the pillow, take two minutes to record three things you were grateful for in your day. Or project gratitude for the beautiful night's sleep you're about to enjoy. Appreciating the beauty of even an ordinary day can naturally lower your anxiety and cortisol levels and end the day on a positive and peaceful note. It will also help you become a happier and kinder person. Remembering just how good we have it can help us keep a healthy perspective on what's important versus what I like to call “high-class problems.” Focusing on our blessings frees us up from worry about less important things.

According to the American Sleep Institute, 60 percent of Americans say they don't get enough sleep each night. Well, no wonder! We live in a 24/7 society, with our iPads and smart phones on our nightstands. We can shop, be entertained, work, or communicate every minute of every day. A television and a brightly lit clock in the bedroom shut off the body's ability to produce the hormone melatonin, which controls circadian rhythms at night.