Navigating the Portal with nutrition and health
Happy Sunday, Soothers, and we come to a big one this week on how to navigate the Portal, and that's nutrition and health changes we may want to make.
Let's review where we are in the Portal series, first, shall we?
Here's where we are so far in the essay series:
Navigating The Portal by Looking to the Stars (using the North Node of astrology)
And today we'll delve into absolutely everything I can tell you that I have personally learned about diet and nutrition changes in the last 8 years of navigating the Portal, which, spoiler alert, I believe actually starts with the onset of peri-menopause.
Yes, even if you are in your mid to late 30s. Looking back, I believe I cratered into peri-menopause around 37 or 38, which was the time the rest of the Portal started, too. But no doctor would have told me that, because I was still having very regular periods. (And still am at 44, though they are getting shorter and lighter.)
Now, I hope it goes without saying, but 1. I'm not a medical professional so at best this can be considered entertainment 2. Seriously, never take medical or diet advice off some rando off the internet (it's me, I'm the rando) 3. YOU, and you alone can trust your intuition around your health and diet — not a medical professional, not me, not some naturopath or allopathic doctor, none of us — know better than what you know as your truth and lived experience. I'm also not at all medically educated, so I can say for example, I know blood sugar regulation is a huge issue for HSPs, but I don't know the science of why exactly, I can only share how I know it manifests, and what I did for it that worked for me.
THAT SAID. As a highly sensitive person who ran into some significant health challenges during her Portal years, and who has also coached 100s of HSP clients and students who also struggled with similar issues, and as a bio-hacking, health-obsessed, will-try-out-any-health-approach person, I do think I have some valuable lived experience that may translate as a bit of wisdom you could possibly use.
So first, why, during a series about the Portal, a multi-year-period of self transformation, would or should we be talking about diet and nutrition?
Because the Portal, like everything else in life, is birthed through your body. Because the Portal seems to align with peri-menopause. Because I truly believe the Portal is the starting invitation into our Crone, postmenopausal years, and the hormone fluctuations really can, let's just say, do a number on us during this time, so if there's any way we can find some small relief, that's of use.
Because part of the invitation of the Portal is also realizing, as women, how the traditional medical system, created under patriarchy, and still deeply steeped in patriarchal values and hierarchy, is failing many of us.
So it's time to take our health back into our own hands.
Where do we start?
So what I'm going to write today focuses on a few things, and each will have a component:
The health issue at hand
Symptoms of the issue at hand
A story of how this issue looked or manifested into my life
How I addressed it in my own life, and how you could, too.
I'll also share at the end, a sample daily agenda and diet of what I do self-care-wise and food-wise to work with these issues.
Plus, I'm about to give you a ton of information, so don't get overwhelmed: also at the end I'll share what I think the mostly simple, under 10-minutes few things you should be doing to begin change are.
So let's go.
The health issues to look at the during the Portal, are, in my opinion:
Blood sugar regulation
Stress hormones
Estrogen overproduction
Focusing on the liver
The health issue at hand: Blood sugar regulation, and/or insulin resistance
Symptoms of the issue at hand: Insane cravings, eating a lot of sugar, exhaustion after meals, brain fog, just really tired, mood swings, intense anger or irritability, PCOS (insulin resistance is one of the root physiological imbalances in most cases of PCOS), unexplained weight gain, afternoon exhaustion slump. Possibly fertility issues.
A story of how this issue looked or manifested into my life: I love me some sugar. LOVE IT! It was an acceptable vice, at a time when I was starting to look askance at my drinking habits. And man, people just bring so many baked goods to the office and they're impossible to resist. But for most of my late 30s I was soooo sleepy after meals. Like I would pass out at public dinner parties sleepy, could barely keep my eyes awake at work after lunch, and also I was eating sugar multiple times a day. I was starting my days off with bagels, chocolate croissants, I was eating donuts at the office, I was having sugary Starbucks lattes in the afternoon, you name it.
This manifested in exhaustion, sure, but also, WILD MOOD SWINGS. I've since connected for me personally that too much sugar will lead me to absolute emotional meltdowns; anger where I lash out at others; being unable to control my emotional moods; basically reverting to being a toddler.
How I addressed it in my own life, and how you could, too: I regularly started implementing the tactics of the Glucose Goddess and read her book. These tactics are pretty simple, it's mostly a food ordering thing. But first and foremost: I stopped having sugary or carb heavy breakfasts and started having savory ones. No cereal, no carbs, no bread, no sugary yogurts, no fruit-based smoothies, no green juice or juices straight away. (Fruit-based smoothies are just LOADED with sugar, even though yes fruit and berries and such are healthy.) Look at whatever you eat for breakfast and assess the sugar. I was doing this with a friend last week who has Raisin Bran every morning for breakfast and the amount of sugar in that is insane.
Anyways, the principles are, at every meal...
1. Eat vegetables first (no starting with bread plates at restaurants anymore)
2. Then eat proteins and fats
3. If the meal has starches or carbs, eat them last
4. Any desserts must go after you've had all the above, NOT on an empty stomach or first
5. Move for 10 minutes after eating - a simple walk, moving around doing the dishes, dancing, will all do.
I liked this because it didn't require me to cut out sugar or sweets, it just re-ordered things for me. Now, I'm working on cutting out most processed and refined sugar from my diet by doing a month off sugar in February, but this is so much easier and simpler to implement, and less restrictive.
Remember at the end of this I'll share an average daily meal plan I use so you can see what this looks like in action.
The health issue at hand: Stress hormones (adrenaline and cortisol)
Symptoms of the issue at hand: Look I don't know how to tell you this, but if you're attracted to the Sunday Soother content, you're probably deeply stressed at some level, even if it's repressed. HSPs just absorb so much stress. For me, symptoms were hair loss, abdominal weight gain, 3am wakeups, general sleep issues, waking up with racing thoughts, addiction to coffee, addiction to HIIT type workouts, never able to slow down and rest. Just absolutely, totally, fried. Maybe fertility issues here, too.
A story of how this issue looked or manifested into my life: I started losing my hair in the Portal and also it got brittle and dry. Thanks, Portal. It's still never fully grown back, but I was SHEDDING for a while. I also, seemingly in one weekend, jumped 15 pounds and put on a ton of weight around my belly. I was waking up at 5am every morning, drinking a venti Starbucks coffee, and going off to an HIIT boot camp, but not losing any weight. I'd wake up with racing thoughts every night at 3am. Then when I'd wake up at 3am I'd roll over, pick up my phone and immediately start doom-scrolling. My adrenals were SHOT. My cortisol was HIGH. Stress hormones were running my life, in short. And I was stuck in chronic fight-flight in my nervous system.
How I addressed it in my own life, and how you could, too: I'm sorry, but I quit coffee. I still drink decaf. I did a ton of nervous system regulation. No more phone in bed, because it only contributed to stress levels. I started drinking sole water in the mornings, to get some more minerals in my system and to nourish my adrenals. I started making adrenal cocktails (fresh orange juice, coconut water, and sea salt or drinking Jigsaw Health Adrenal Cocktail. I drank more electrolytes overall and hydrated more. I really, ACTUALLY, did meaningful things to reduce stress in my life, didn't just think about doing them. I reduced the HIIT workouts and intensity and frequency of my workouts and focused on gentle movement (because those kind of workouts can increase adrenaline in an already-shot system).
The health issue at hand: Estrogen overproduction.
Symptoms of the issue at hand: Bad, painful, heavy periods. PMDD. Endometriosis, maybe. Tender breasts. Depression. Hair loss and weight gain here, too (many of these symptoms are going to be across all of these issues).
A story of how this issue looked or manifested into my life: I'm lucky in that I've had mostly decent periods. They are regular, not too heavy, and I don't get much cramping. What I did get? INSANE MOOD SWINGS, serious depression in the 3-10 days ahead of my period, and my breasts would be on fire for the two weeks before my period. Like seriously, don't try to touch them. PMDD, which stands for premenstrual dysphoric disorder, is one of the most common health issues I've seen in my clients. I have an extremely woo-woo theory that estrogen is actually an intuition receptor. It makes us HSPs so intuitive, but we also live in a physical environment where our estrogen levels might have gotten out of whack and so what started as a gift (perhaps higher levels of estrogen to make us more intuitive) has become an out of balance thing.
How I addressed it in my own life, and how you could, too: This is where my oft-talked-about Bean Protocol comes into play. The idea of this way of eating is that beans contain so much soluble fiber that they help pick up and move along excess bile and hormones in our bloodstream and in our liver, so it's great for anybody with hormonal imbalances. It can get pretty strict — there's removal of all stimulation (even decaf coffee, tea or cinnamon or even scented products) and also eating a weird amount of nuts for fat. But I didn't do all that. I just started eating 1/3-1/2 cup beans 3x a day in my meals. I knew it worked one month when I cut coffee, did the beans, and for the first time in my life, had ZERO BREAST TENDERNESS or any PMS symptoms. Now it's my main way of eating.
If you can't tolerate beans right now because they make you bloat (this will reduce over time as your body adjusts) you can also take 1-2 tsps of psyllium husk before meals in 4-6oz of water.
The health issue at hand: The liver, which can get sluggish or even turn into fatty liver
Symptoms of the issue at hand: Anger, resentment, short temper, hyper-sensitivity to alcohol or caffeine, shortness of breath, eye issues.
A story of how this issue looked or manifested into my life: Well first and foremost, several years ago I literally had a dream-vision where a doctor came to me and said my liver was in trouble, so, uh, that really piqued my interest, lol. And then, anger. Lots of it. Now we have lots of reasons, as women, to be angry. Living under patriarchy and capitalism and white supremacy SHOULD make us angry. But it was getting past my ability to regulate or like, keep relationships. In Traditional Chinese Medicine we store bitterness, anger, resentment, it's all repressed into the liver (sometimes the gallbladder), and I KNOW we HSPs have got a lot of that. Plus, I was a causal binge drinker, and that was not helping.
How I addressed it in my own life, and how you could, too: For me, gluten, sugar, and alcohol were all affecting my liver, so over a period of years I drew down on each of those. This did NOT happen for me overnight. I also still have gluten from time to time. I also wear castor oil packs overnight on my liver, and found actual functional ways to deal with my anger and resentment issues (EFT tapping, JournalSpeak journaling, movement, ancestral healing).
Phew, wow, that's a lot, right? But I'm betting you see yourself in some if not all of these health issues, if you're in the Portal.
So, what do you do?
Well first, I think this is the most important thing you can do, if you're looking at all this, KNOW it's you, but don't know where to start and are feeling totally overwhelmed:
Do this 5 minute nervous system video 2x a day, morning and night.
Change your breakfast to a savory breakfast. Zero carbs, zero sugar. I'll share my breakfast below, but it could be full-fat greek yogurt with nuts, or salmon with scrambled eggs, or a breakfast salad. Focus on making sure it has fiber, protein and fat.
If you drink coffee, just try and see if you can have it AFTER your breakfast.
If you can get a handle on those few things, your system should start coming back into a bit of balance, and then over time you can make other gradual changes, little by little.
Whatever you do, don't try to do everything all at once. That will throw your nervous system into more stress and have the opposite intended effect. I promise you, slow and tiny changes are the way to go here.
So, now, what do I eat in a regular day when I'm following some of these nutritional changes? Here we go:
Warm water with the juice of a lemon, 1/4 teaspoon of good salt, and a frozen ginger cube from Trader Joe's blended in
A tonic of cacao, ashwagandha, dandelion blend and functional mushrooms, hot water, with a splash of cream
Breakfast: I saute brussel sprouts, kale, greens, and throw 1/3 cup of any type of beans in there (I used canned, rinsed). I add two eggs, half an avocado, maybe some chicken or salmon, and maybe some shredded cheese.
Decaf coffee with collagen powder and cream
Lunch: Honestly a variation on breakfast. Maybe a sandwich on gluten-free bread, preceded by just eating the 1/3 cup of beans plain out of a bowl like a maniac
Snack: Apple and cheddar cheese and/or nuts, sometimes tea
Dinner: Trader Joe's chicken meatballs, sauteed with greens or brussel sprouts or kale, avocado. I might also have lentil pasta with chicken meatballs and greens and cheese. Or mix in beans with canned salmon on top of a salad of greens.
(honestly my breakfast, lunch and dinner are all variations on each other)
Since I'm currently cutting out refined sugar, I'll have some rich cheese after meals, or peanut butter if I need like, a "finisher." Or some cacao in milk.
Then every night I have two teaspoons of Magnesium Calm powder, with a Sleepytime extra tea, in hot water.
Self-care habits:
No phone or screens until an hour after waking up.
Regular walks in nature so I get morning light in my eyes, also, ya know, nature
Morning pages or JournalSpeak journaling for 20 minutes
Deep breathing and meditations in bed for at least 5 minutes before getting out
Regular self-lymphatic drainage and stimulation via this method, also regular Gua Sha on my face, neck and chest, sometimes dry brushing
Castor oil packs most nights over my liver
I try to sweat regularly, whether it's yoga, sauna blanket, or any other workout, at least 1-2x a week
No phone in bed, I just read my kindle
But I do listen to affirmations and hypnosis each night via my phone as I'm falling asleep (the phone just goes in airplane mode the second I hit my bedroom)
You may ask, HOW DO YOU HAVE THE TIME? Well, I built up to this over a series of years, is how. This all did not happen at once whatsoever. But I had five minutes of self-care here, five minutes of self-care there, and the thing is, when you start to bring your system back into balance, it THEN becomes easier little by little to incorporate the time. Also, this is part of my job, and also, I don't have children (just blanket disclaimers for everything, always).
Phew! That was a lot. Thanks for sticking with it. I hope you found it useful, and inspiring, and helpful, and clarity-giving.
Since medical systems these days often (not always) do not have solutions for women's health issues, and can make us feel insane and ignored and don't offer root-cause-oriented solutions, I hope I may have provided a few nuggets of ideas in this today.
Please share any thoughts, questions, or reflections in the comments, and I'll do my best to answer them.
And let's do what we can to nourish our nervous systems, our organs, our bodies, and our selves, as we continue to navigate the Portal.