Holiday hormone tips, we're going to give you seven of them to sail through this holiday in midlife and perimenopause. Hey, it's Dr. Jen. I'm going to do a solo episode for the holidays.

First of all, I just want to say Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday Jesus. I'm so excited. I just want you guys to sail through the holidays and midlife.

This is Holiday Hormones, the solo episode. So we want to sail through without burning out. Listen to this while you're wrapping presents, doing the finishing up of all the holidays and you can enjoy it because we're told to rest and that's something honestly I have a hard time with.

Recovering perfectionist, trying to always have everything perfect and that is just not what the Lord wants for us. He wants us to rest. He wants us to enjoy time with his creation and we are his creation.

So let's get some practical tips to protect your hormones, metabolism and peace. even during this busy, crazy time, okay? And especially those women in midlife because the holidays feel harder and harder than they used to.

And midlife changes how our body responds to stress. Sugar, even though sugar cookies and everything like that. Sleep loss, if you're sleeping at a hotel or somewhere where you're not usually sleeping, and even our expectations for ourselves.

So this is why holiday hormones is today's topic. So we want to normalize the fatigue and irritability, sleep disruption, weight gain, and emotional overwhelm that comes with midlife.

Because we don't need it. We are not designed for that. But we live in a super stressful, broken world. So that is why we have all those things. But you don't need to.

With the perimenopause reset, you can thrive through perimenopause, how we are designed to. So during the holidays, four hormone systems usually take the biggest hit.

That's cortisol, our stress hormone, insulin, which is our blood sugar regulation, our estrogen and progesterone, which are already fluctuating in perimenopause, which I discussed so much, and then also melatonin, which is our sleep hormone.

It's actually an antioxidant too. So what happens during holiday stress, we have more cortisol stress, which leads to worse insulin control, more inflammation, poor sleep, and then we're a little bit more emotional because of that, especially if this happens in our luteal phase.

I will not be in the luteal phase for Christmas, so that's good, but if you are, just Ramp it up, hopefully you've read the book and you know what to do.

But this is our physiology under pressure and under stress, okay? And this can happen if people, you know, family stresses them out or they have heart wounds or heart splinters that, you know, are pushing to the top or you're working through, that can make it definitely really stressful.

But why is this harder in midlife? Why? Why do you want to run in a closet and hide in midlife and before you could deal with it well? Well, progesterone is lower.

Remember, it's going down slowly during perimenopause, so it's less calming and you don't have as much of a stress buffer, especially during that luteal phase.

Our estrogen, our estradiol is erratic, so our blood sugar and mood swings also worsen because of that. our cortisol spikes are going to last longer in midlife or perimenopause, and then our recovery takes longer.

And this is especially if you are not taking care of your hormones. If you're not seeing someone that knows how to handle hormones properly, if you're not taking adaptogens, if you're not praying, meditating, you know, if you don't have peace, like this can work.

So your stress bucket used to be bigger so you could fit more in it but in midlife it feels faster and it spills sooner. So here are holiday hormone tips.

We're gonna give you seven of them to sail through this holiday in midlife and perimenopause. So we're not going to restrict, we are not going to diet, okay?

No, no, no. That is more stressful. Now, if you are in your follicular phase, you could do some intermittent fasting, okay? Because we are more resistant to stress and cortisol in that follicular phase.

Please go to your perimenopause reset book and reference that. but we're gonna eat to stabilize blood sugar. So never just eat sugar alone. So if you really want a sugar cookie, have that at the end of your meal or pair that with some healthy fats and some protein.

And then we're gonna front load our protein in the morning, earlier in the day. So that is going to help reduce craving. So have like eggs and bacon in the morning.

So if we think, blood sugar stability equals mood stability, especially during the holidays. So we talked about this. We're not going to, number two, don't skip meals to save calories.

So skipping meals during that luteal phase is going to give you a cortisol spike and worsen your cravings later. So I want you to look at your calendar and see, are you in luteal phase during the holidays, during those two weeks?

Well, yay for you, not really, but you want to eat those consistent meals. Remember, during that luteal phase, we demand more calories and it's okay because then you can do like a 24-hour fast like after when you're in your follicular phase.

So we're going to have Consistent meals, simple high protein breakfast, and make sure you have your protein or a little bit of fat with your coffee. Just don't have caffeine by itself.

Number three, protect your sleep like it's a gift. It's a gift from God. Sleep is our rest. Sleep is when our body has a lot of healing, our lymphatics in our brain are flushing out toxins.

So consistent bedtime, I want you to keep a consistent bedtime for the most part. You know, we love to go to my parents and stay up late and play cards.

Well, maybe just do that one night and then the rest have consistent. Magnesium is really good or do your usual rituals like I like to do a vagal nerve stimulator before bed and read with a red light.

So do that. And then dim lights after dinner or use a red light. But there's LED bulbs everywhere. You could have the conversation about switching it out to incandescent or light a candle.

But sleep is our hormone therapy. It really is. Sleep is going to be key to maintaining holiday non-chaos, holiday calm, not chaos. Number four, use nervous system pauses throughout the day.

We, most of us are operating in a sympathetic overload, which is not what we're designed to be at. We're designed to be in rest and digest. Our parasympathetics are supposed to be the main course.

But that is not the case, especially during the holidays where it could be stressful. So some things you can do is box breathing, inhale. Hold. Exhale.

Hold. Repeat. Our four, seven, eight breath work. Inhale for four. Hold for seven. And exhale for eight. I have both of those techniques up on my YouTube if you want to reference those.

You can go for a five-minute walk outside, ground yourself, be around nature, get off your phone. That will really help too, especially if things start to get emotional, just go for a quick walk.

And you can really tie in scripture to this. Part of that nervous system pause is scripture for me. I know it is sometimes I know the Lord is just like I want you to read that scripture It fits perfectly in my day, and I just love that because the Lord is near to us Okay, he draws close to us so Psalm 34 18 the Lord is near to the broken hearted Okay, so if you're feeling that stress heart wounds are coming up remember the Lord is there the Lord is near number five choose alcohol wisely or be strategic about it, okay, so Alcohol can worsen stress, hot flashes, it could disrupt sleep, it can hurt the gut, and it can clog up your liver.

So all the things. But it does spike cortisol and it disrupts the sleep and the blood sugar. So alcohol can make a holiday hormone chaos worse. So we just want to do it wisely.

So just fewer nights. If you have a couple of parties in a row, maybe just have one drink at each party or have two drinks at one party and none at the other and have some mocktails.

And then make sure you're hydrating between drinks, using electrolytes like Redmond or Salter. I can have my links. For those, you can use code DRGEN for those and they're just electrolytes.

Make sure you're having electrolytes, maybe alcohol, electrolyte, alcohol, or like I said, make a mocktail. But just choose it wisely. It's just going to make you feel more emotional, more chaotic if that's a problem during the holidays.

Number six, have some lower expectations for yourself, okay? I want to encourage you to have fewer commitments saying no without the guilt, okay? Choose just to have presence.

presence with your family, presence instead of performance, okay? So we really want to make sure that we are going in calm and we are giving our best, which is not a stressed out person.

You want a different pace. It might be slower this year. You might do less activities and that's okay. Pick the traditions that you want to hold with your family and go from there.

Number seven, remember this is a season and it's not a test, okay? So have compassion for yourself, especially if you're in perimenopause or midlife. Weight changes is not failure.

Fatigue needing rest is not being lazy, and having emotions about things is not a weakness. So I want to remind you that the Lord is near and with you.

So God designed your body with these rhythms, and the holidays remind us that we're not meant to carry this alone. You know, talk with family, friends about if you're struggling with your hormones, if you're struggling with something else, okay?

So if your body feels different this Christmas, that is totally normal. That happens, especially in perimenopause. You're in a new season and with the right support, the right action steps, supplements, mind-body technique, the seven tips we spoke about, go back and listen to them again.

And the season can be steadier, gentler, and even more joyful, especially if you're more aware of your body. So I would love for you all to continue listening.

I'm glad I got to share this with you for a little break to get these holiday hormone tips. If this was helpful, if this resonated you, if there was a friend that was just complaining that they were struggling with the holidays last year or if it was getting harder or they're having hormone chaos, then please send them this podcast and leave a review.

Also, please leave a review and comment if you want to hear something. If there's a guest you want to hear questions, I'd love to answer it. So I love you all.

I'm praying for you all and have a Merry Christmas.

Holiday Hormone Chaos: How Midlife Women Can Protect Their Peace & Energy

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

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