We’ve all heard how important it is to increase good hormones and control the balance of them day to day – let look at what balance looks like.
Hormones and you, lots of talk around balance and keeping hormones in check, what does this actually mean and why is it important to work to increase the good hormones?
Let’s start with what they are.
Hormones are chemicals created by our glands and realised into the blood stream to send messages and play different roles in our bodies many processes.
The processes we are looking at here are the mood regulators, the ones that help us feel positive feelings including happiness and pleasure.
So which are they?
Dopamine, this is our main feel good hormone, it’s an important part of the brain’s reward system. It’s associated with pleasurable sensations, along with learning, memory, and more.
Serotonin, this is a mood hormone and has lots of roles within that such as regulating appetite, learning, memory, sleep and can aid in digestion.
Now we got that all cleared up, how do we increase these good hormones?
For dopamine:
Diet can assist with this, increasing our protein intake, and reducing our saturated fat can help,
Prioritise sleep, ensure we are well rested,
Increasing time in natural light, especially sunlight,
Relaxation time, be that listening to music, walking, mediation,
And of course physical exercise, as per our previous newsletters, this doesn’t have to be high intensity.
Maximising our dopamine levels helps to maintain our physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.
For serotonin:
Adjusting your diet, again with higher protein foods mixed with carbohydrates to help absorption,
Physical exercise, preferable outdoors,
Socialising with friends/family and our animal friends
Positive acts, volunteering, helping friends etc help elevate us.
Increasing our serotonin levels helps to regulate our circadian rhythm, regulate appetite and increase our ability to learn and memorise.
The cross over between dopamine and serotonin is great, many of the ways to increase both can start with simple steps that we can undertake with a little planning and without impacting our day too much.
Small changes to our daily routines can turn into big changes over the longer term, with each step increasing our good hormones, the next steps also become easier to envisage and act upon.
Would you like some assistance in planning in daily activities to help increase your good hormones? – Chat to one of the team here at SF info@spikefitness.co.uk or 07597215652.