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How to Master Hormone Balance.

When it comes to energy, hormonal balance should be a primary consideration. These crucial chemical messengers rule everything from how clearly you think, how well you sleep, and even to how passionate you feel. When they are in balance, so is our mood, our weight, our appetite, and of course, our sex life.
Our hormones are our body's unsung heroes. When they are humming along in harmony, you feel vital, confident, powerful, and sexy.

In fact, there are five main hormones that influence your level of sexual desire. A healthy sex life makes you healthier not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well —the boost you get in the bedroom trickles out into the rest of your life. If you cannot remember the last time you felt flush with desire, it is likely to be related your hormones. That is because the hormones that fuel it can be thrown off by uncontrolled stress, sleep deprivation, and even the wrong foods.
Unbalanced hormone levels can leave you feeling exhausted, bloated, stressed, apathetic—everything but vital, frisky, or desirable.
You then stop exploring sexually. feelings for your partner become a distant memory; and sex can become a chore that you do, even out of obligation—or you start putting it off. Your partner may feel unloved or undesired, and think you're not attracted to him or her anymore. You long to connect and miss the days when sex was easy, but you just can't muster the verve to do anything about it. You just don't want it.

There could be other factors contributing to how you feel about sex, including any resentment in your relationship, which should be addressed. But a key step toward reviving your drive is mastering your hormone balance, because without it, your body won't be able to produce what you need to keep your sexual interest. And remember, it's not just your sex drive that takes a hit when your hormones go haywire. Your whole body can suffer anything from poor memory to weight gain to moodiness to exhaustion.

Here are ten ways to master your hormone balance.
Cut Down On Sugar
If you needed another reason to stay away from sweet "treats", new research shows that sugar actually reduces the amount of testosterone in the blood—bad news for your sex drive. And it's not just sugary treats that have this effect; anything that converts to sugar in the bloodstream, such as baked goods, cereals, breads, will disrupt the balance of oestrogen and testosterone in your body.
Avoid packaged foods as much as possible (they're usually sugar traps) and try using safe sugar substitutes, the plant-derived sweeteners stevia and lo han guo, in small amounts.

Eat Testosterone-Boosting Fats
Testosterone revs your libido, making you crave sex. In fact, its effects on a woman's sex drive are so potent that testosterone therapy has been used to treat women with sexual dysfunction in recent years. You can boost your levels naturally by eating healthy fats including small portions of avocados, nuts, seeds and coconut or olive oil.

Get More Iodine
Your thyroid needs iodine to function properly. If you don't get enough in your diet—and most people don't, since iodine isn't present in many food sources today—your body can't produce thyroid hormone. Without thyroid hormone, your metabolism and energy levels tank. If you use salt, switch to iodized salt and eat more sea veggies, such as seaweed and kelp, to boost your intake. Of course breathing sea air, walking the beach, or cliff tops, is a great way to naturally enjoy the iodine in sea air.

Eat Every 3 to 4 Hours
Steady blood sugar levels support sexual function, while uncontrolled levels can kill it. In addition to decreasing your energy, bouncing blood sugars can disrupt the pH balance of your vagina and even put you at risk of vaginal infections. Eat smaller, more frequent meals to prevent the blood sugar spikes and dips that occur when you wait too long in between meals.

Soya
Soy is a controversial food —however if it's eaten in the right form it is good. Studies have shown that processed soy, the kind found in most soy milks and packaged soy products, may mimic the activity of oestrogen in your body and throw your levels off—and even contribute to oestrogen dominance. Oestrogen is crucial because it keeps your vagina well lubricated for intercourse, helps you reach orgasm, and even keeps your breasts perky. Rule of thumb: avoid soy milks and yogurts with processed soy protein and soy isolate and choose whole-bean instead. And opt for safe soy sources, like edamame, tofu and tempeh, which contain high levels of protein, fiber, and breast and heart-healthy isoflavones.

Beat back PMS
Bloating, crankiness, constipation and/or diarrhoea are not fun or sexy.

Progesterone is considered nature's Prozac, and when its levels fall right before your period, you'll feel your mood drop, too. Improve your mood so you can get in the mood by supplementing for hormone balance. Try taking 100mg of chaste berry, which has been shown to improve PMS symptoms.

Morning Exercise
A sexy wake-up call can do wonders for your hormone health, and you don't even need to do the deed to reap the benefits. Kissing, lying skin-to-skin, and snuggling with your mate can boost oxytocin, the hormone of love and social connection, in the same way that sex does. You don't have to have sex, though don't be surprised if your interest grows—oxytocin increases your urge to bond with your partner and triggers a love rush that can make the resistible irresistible to you.

Guided Meditation
A big reason people don't meditate is that they feel they don't know how to. What do you do when you want to learn anything new? You find proper instruction. A simple Google search will yield tons of free guided meditations led by experts—so you don't have to worry about whether you're "doing it right" and can focus solely on reaping the benefits. Meditating for a few minutes a day lowers the stress hormone cortisol, which needs to stay in its sweet spot for your sex hormones to remain in balance. Try it for a day. A week. See if it doesn't improve your mood and, before you know it, your desire.

Bedtime Routine
Set aside at least an hour to wind down before sleeping. Without your phone, tablet, laptop or television. When you eliminate these distracting stimuli, your mind can slow down long enough for your body to want to be stimulated sexually. You will sleep better, too—being too plugged in to devices can suppress your production of melatonin, the hormone that helps you drift off.

More...sleep.
In the battle between sex and sleep, sleep wins every time. And it should. Your body makes and secretes hormones during sleep that are critical to your body's repair, reproductive, and immune processes. You need to be well-rested to feel healthy, and also to devote any energy to your sex life. Make sure you get enough, generally speaking between 7 and 8 hours a night is good for restoration and revitalisation. Love yourself. Look after yourself.