[Mini] 5 Hormone-Support Swaps for Shopping Season | Ep. 151

I'm Bridget Walton, a Women's Hormone Coach helping ambitious women ages 25-40 naturally restore hormone balance, fix irregular periods, feel confident in their fertility, and resolve gut health issues without restrictive dieting.

If you struggle with missing periods, PCOS symptoms, bloating, or unpredictable cycles, this women's health podcast will teach you how to support your hormones through strategic nutrition and lifestyle changes that actually fit your busy life.

On I'm Hormonal, you'll discover natural solutions for period problems, learn how gut health impacts your hormones, and get practical hormone balance tips from a functional nutrition perspective - no more guessing what your body needs.

Are you thinking about the deals you're going to find on Black Friday? It's a good chance to save on some items that will support your hormone and digestive health as well. Endocrine disruptors are everywhere, and by making these 5 swaps you will be well on your way to supporting balance in your health--and hopefully will save a few bucks doing so.

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👉 Have some questions? Not sure if we're a good fit yet? Book a free 15-minute chat at imhormonal.com/start
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Chapters

• 0:00 Why Clean Habits Aren’t Enough
• 0:20 Endocrine Disruptors 101
• 3:40 Make An Exposure Audit
• 5:20 Mindset: Small Steps Over Time
• 5:37 Swap #1: Ditch Kitchen Plastics
• 6:20 Swap #2: Replace Nonstick Pans
• 6:33 Swap #3: Choose A Menstrual Disc
• 8:23 Swap #4: Purify Indoor Air
• 9:34 Swap #5: Mattress And Bedding Materials
• 10:57 Final Reminders And How To Share

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Raise your hand if you've ever thought, okay, well, I eat clean, I exercise, I'm doing the right things, but my period is still unpredictable. Here's what nobody talks about: it's that endocrine disruptors are in everyday products and they could be quietly disrupting your cycle, your hormone balance, and your digestion. That's why today I'm sharing what you might want to ditch and what you might want to prioritize if you're going to be making some purchases on this upcoming Black Friday. Welcome to the I'm Hormonal Podcast. I'm your host, Bridget Walton, a women's hormone coach, helping busy, ambitious women through personalized coaching and science-backed solutions. Whether you are working with me one-on-one or you're listening here, my goal is the same, which is to help you to stop guessing about your hormone health and start seeing real progress. So let's get into it. Alrighty, but welcome back. This is episode number 151 of the podcast. Again, my name is Bridget Walton. I'm really glad that you joined me here today. This week I wanted to talk about endocrine disrupting chemicals because yeah, Black Friday's coming up. I don't know if you're like me, but I will wait for six months to buy something so I can get a good deal on it on Black Friday. And if that's you, then my hope for you is that you're able to make some good choices, both for your budget, but also for your overall wellness and hormone balance and your hormone health goals. So that's what we're gonna do today. I've talked about endocrine disrupting chemicals on other podcasts more in depth. So you can check those out if this is really top of mind or if this is a new topic for you. But at a high level, when we're talking about endocrine disrupting chemicals, we're talking about any different chemical, man-made or otherwise, that is influencing the signaling of your hormones. Okay, what does that mean? Well, whether it's something like BPA or phthalates or something else, for example, we know plastics have a lot of chemicals in them. We know different products made with oils have a lot of different chemicals in them, but also perfumes, everything or a lot of the things that you put on your skin, cleaning products, those components, whether you're ingesting them, whether you're breathing them in, putting them on your skin, those are sending mixed signals to your hormones. Sometimes they will kind of convey to your body or make your body think that maybe you have higher levels of estrogen than you really do. And what that can result in, symptoms of estrogen excess would be like heavy bleeding or PMS, the many different experiences that PMS comprises. So that's one option. There are also other hormones. Well, not hormones. There are other chemicals. I'm thinking of BPA, which, for example, is an obesogen, and that can impact your metabolic health, your sensitivity to insulin. And we know that your metabolic health, what's going on with your blood sugar is very important for your sex hormone balance as well. So I wanted to share that to really set the stage with you that when you have contact in whatever form with these different chemicals, it's just confusing your body. And we don't need that any day of the week, any month of the year. But also, if you are trying to balance your hormones, and I got a pretty good feeling that you are, if you're listening to this podcast, then you'll just want to be acutely aware of what you're coming into contact with. One quick suggestion for you maybe that looks like you sitting down with a notebook, you sitting down with your favorite AI chat bot to say, hey, let me think through all of the things, all of the chemicals that I come into contact with throughout the day. Just do an audit so you're aware of it. Have Chat GPT or whatever ask you some questions about what you come into contact with. And that can be a good way to just get familiar with what you're coming in contact with. You've heard me talk about the foundations of health before, talking about things like blood sugar regulation, about nutrition, about sleep and stress. I have endocrine disrupting chemicals as another kind of leg on this tripod or pentapod or whatever it's called when we have all of these foundations because these chemicals are exposing you to more sources of inflammation, more disruption. So this is a foundational area for you to focus on too. Last thought before I actually get into my recommendations or suggestions here is just to know that this is a journey. You're not going to overnight be able to eliminate your exposure to all of these chemicals. That's just not very realistic. It's something that you will change over time. It will take months, it might take a couple of years, and that's okay. You got to start somewhere. You got to start with baby steps, but let it be instead of something that's overwhelming to you, let it be an opportunity. You have the opportunity to choose which dominoes you want to knock down first. And so you can take it and look at it through that lens of freedom. All right. Here's the first recommendation that I have for you. What I want you to do first is if you're eating off of any plastic in your kitchen, if you have plastic food storage containers, especially plastics that are getting heated up or that you're eating hot food off of, let's swap those out this Black Friday. So I want you to take a look see for glass storage containers, for glass plates, glass glasses, really just taking an audit to see what is plastic in your kitchen and how can you get that out of there. I feel very optimistic. There will be a sick deal on some glass food storage containers out there. So keep your eyes peeled for that as number one. Now, the second recommendation that I have for you, this is also kitchen based. If you are currently cooking on nonstick pans, let's swap those out or consider swapping those out this Black Friday. The reason for that is because that nonstick material, the Teflon material, has endocrine disrupting chemicals in it. So every time you're cooking on it, those chemicals are leaching into your food. Now, if you swap those out for ceramic, for stainless steel, for cast iron, those will much better serve you when it comes to avoiding those chemicals. The third swap that I want to recommend to you today is switching from your current period product if you're using pads or tampons and switching to using a menstrual disc. You've probably heard me talk about them before. I love Nixitz menstrual disc. It is a medical-grade silicone disc. It's not going to expose you to the same chemicals that some period products have, especially if you're using products that are not the organic ones. I know those are more expensive, but that's why if you switch to something like Nixit's menstrual disc, you buy it one time. I don't know what their Black Friday deal is gonna be, but they're gonna have one. I'm confident about it. And it's a one-time buy. It's super convenient to use, and you're not having that access or exposure to those chemicals. There have been studies in the past that have shown that, for example, some women who have a lot of period pain, they swapped from using products that had chemicals in them to cleaner products and their period pain went away. That's not to say that that will be the case for every single person out there. But the takeaway is that some of those products can be more inflammatory than others, and it's just introducing, well, more inflammation to what's already happening during your period. So something to consider, especially if you're experiencing period pain. Moving on to number four. What I want you to consider is your air quality. Maybe you're able to do a search. You can find out online what is the average air quality like in your, I don't know if it's by Sipcode or if it's by city. Regardless, you can get some context there. You already know whether or not you have a bunch of plants in your living space or not. But aside from those things, investing in an air purifier is something that I feel really strongly about. Personally, I have one in my bedroom. I'm spending a lot of time there, at least eight hours every night. So I want the air that I breathe while I'm asleep to be nice and clean and pure of pollutants. I have another one in my downstairs living kitchen area. And so I think it's something that, you know, pick a quality one. That's why, again, we're looking for these Black Friday deals because it's going to really last you. And that's something that you're going to be grateful that you have in the future. So that's my recommendation number four, helping to eliminate exposure to those airborne chemicals, those airborne um toxins. Fifth and final, because this is just a shorty episode, just be thinking about what your mattress, what your sheets are made of. Now, I know that a mattress swab is no small deal by any mean by any means, but some mattresses are made with like flame retardants. Now, this in concept is good and important. We don't want our mattresses lighting on fire. However, you also just want to consider that flame retardants are, I mean, those are chemicals, right? So depending on what your goals are, maybe looking into a mattress option that doesn't have those types of chemicals and endocrine disrupting chemicals as a part of the fabric would better suit you. Similarly, sheets or pillows or pillowcases, if you swap those out, then maybe that's a good opportunity to eliminate exposure to some irritants and chemicals that you are sleeping on and breathing near for hopefully eight plus hours a night. So I hope this was helpful for you. I mean, by no means am I saying that you need to go out and buy every single one of these. So I'm sure we're on the same page there, but just some food for thought if you are in a position where you can invest in some of these things, but you like me and you want to get a sick deal on things. So that's what I've got for you today. I hope this was helpful. I hope this got the wheels turning. I hope this will save you at least a couple bucks, if not a couple hundred bucks to think about it now. As always, I'll just remind you that the information I share with you here is for educational purposes only, not a replacement for medical advice or diagnosis. If anything that I covered in the episode today really resonated with you, if you've got somebody in mind who you're like, oh yeah, my girl Natasha is going to love incorporating one of these this year. I would really appreciate you if you would send this over to her and help me expand the I'm hormonal community. Thank you to all of you who have already rated, reviewed, or shared the episode. And that's it for today. Any questions, any comments on this, you can connect with me on Instagram at I'm underscore hormonal. And I'll see you on the next one.