REBALANCE: DETOX
Dry brushing is great for detoxing your mombody.
I love helping my lymphatic system any way I can. It thrills me to no end to know I can help clear out the toxins in my body and also support my liver by making greener, cleaner choices in the first place. This also means I can help clear out the excess estrogen in my mombody too. When you have too much estrogen, you feel anxious. When you have too little estrogen, you feel depressed. If you have the right amount, you feel amazing.
But women in this day and age are suffering from too much estrogen. Why is this happening to so many women?
The short answer is: we use toxic cleaning and beauty products that are messing with our mombody hormones.
About ten years ago I heard a lecture called “Is your skin care making you fat?” This title caught my attention and it’s really when things started to click for me. Our world is filled with fake estrogens that confuse our mombody (which can show up as weight gain!). It leads to estrogen dominance and it’s so prevalent these days for two reasons:
We live in a toxic environment and the products we use on our bodies create xeno-estrogens (a fancy term for fake estrogen that makes your estrogen to progesterone ratio off balance). The non-organic, gmo-filled food we eat can also throw off this balance.
Momlife is stressful and when stress levels rise you have something called the “progesterone steal” happening in your body. Your body pumps out cortisol as a normal stress response and it’s your body’s job to think making cortisol is more important than making progesterone. IF you are stressed all the time, you can almost guarantee your body isn’t making enough progesterone because it is too busy making cortisol.
So, how do you know you are estrogen dominant?
Estrogen dominance is tied to nearly every hormonal imbalance: infertility, PMS, low libido, cramps, heavy bleeding, PCOS. If you suffered any of these things in your procreative years then you might be estrogen dominant now in your menopausal years. This shows up as mood swings, weight gain, irritability, hot flashes, etc. In addition, imbalanced hormones can have a negative effect on gut, vaginal, and breast health. Something else noteworthy about estrogen dominance is that you can still be estrogen dominant even if you are low estrogen. You might have more estrogen than progesterone even if you are low estrogen. So how do you help your body metabolize excess estrogen?
The answer is using the MBody8 lifestyle every single day. Let’s recap how to best support the hormonal dance in your mombody: choose healthier products, eat and exercise to support your mombody, rest your mombody, try to get your body out of the stress mode of “fight or flight” when it doesn’t need to be there, balance your blood sugar, eat foods that help your liver detoxify (drink milk thistle tea), eat more alkaline foods to help normalize cortisol levels, feed the good gut bacteria, improve your natural progesterone levels, and detoxify estrogen. Some of the best alkaline foods for detoxifying estrogen are broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower.
Now you are beginning to understand all of the amazing things you are doing for your mombody in this program.
Back to dry brushing. This technique helps moms flush away toxins and excess estrogen. But remember, it is far more important to help your body as much as you can by choosing greener, cleaner products in the first place. Follow me on IG: @mbody8 to see products I trust to keep my mombody hormonally happy.
Since this video was made, I also incorporate using a jade roller on my face and neck - it’s the exact same premise as dry brushing your body. Only a jade roller is much gentler on these delicate areas while still effective for pushing out the toxins and decreasing inflammation. I also love a gua sha facial stone as well.
Lastly, you should know you have four main areas of lymph glands in your body and they are the calves, groin, armpits and neck. It’s a good habit for moms to get into dry brushing around each armpit and around each breast. And try not to wear a bra all the time either. Studies show that this delicate area can become clogged and congested with underwire from your bra. And the excess estrogen can lead to breast cancer. Taking care of your lymphatic system should become part of your self-care ritual.
Brush your teeth, brush your hair, brush your fascia (more on this later), brush your lymph!