The Energy Equation: Balancing Hormones and Nutritional Needs to Fuel Energy Levels and Business Success

Beth Rush

Founding a business is a massive, courageous undertaking. It’s especially notable when the world doesn’t strive to support people identifying as women or nonbinary individuals as it does with cisgender men. You’ve likely found yourself putting twice the effort into your brand than you initially expected. Not to mention this time of year being a time when we're all feeling low on energy and at risk of burning out.

It’s time to boost your energy with foods that balance hormones instead of just coffee and adrenaline.

These are some of the best ideas to try if you want to merge your nutritional needs with your business success. Once you know how hormone-balancing diets work, you can revolutionize your energy levels and supercharge your brand.

What Is a Hormone-Balancing Diet?

A hormone-balancing diet is an eating plan that includes foods that balance hormones in females and nonbinary individuals. It prevents harmful ingredients from interfering with your endocrine glands, gut microbiome, and other bodily functions supporting hormone and energy production.

How Do Hormones Fuel Your Energy?

Hormones affect your energy in a few ways. People with ovaries produce estrogen and progesterone, which interact with metabolic hormones through ghrelin secretion. The stomach releases ghrelin before meals to initiate your appetite, but it also supports short-term energy boosts by regulating homeostasis throughout the body.

Your energy might feel low more often than usual if your body doesn’t make enough of these hormones or has an imbalance. Eating foods that balance hormones in females could mitigate this issue naturally.

Best Hormone-Balancing Foods

You could foster greater business success if you have the energy to put more work into your brand. Integrating these foods into your diet can supercharge your productivity without initiating burnout.

1. Salmon

Check out the fresh, frozen and canned salmon options at the grocery store. The delicious fish contains fatty acids, which improve thyroid homeostasis abilities without medication. They soothe inflammation that could disrupt your thyroid function.

Salmon is one of the most accessible foods that balance female hornones because it’s so widely available at grocery stores. Try it whenever you’re in the mood for seafood. It’s easy to add to many recipes because the neutral flavor lets sauces, spices and glazes take center stage on your plate.

Meal Ideas to Explore:
● Honey garlic salmon
● Everything bagel seasoned salmon filets
● Salmon patties

2. Kale

Your salads are about to support your physical health in new ways. Fill your bowl with freshly washed kale before adding your favorite toppings. The leafy green veggie contains a high amount of vitamin D, which reduces cellular inflammation that could cause endocrine gland issues, improving hormone production one salad at a time.

Add kale to a warm dish if it’s too cold for a salad or you’re craving something different. The leaves soften quickly under heat. They’ll blend into your favorite comfort foods and make them healthier.

Meal Ideas to Explore:
● Kale quinoa salad
● Kale and sweet potato lasagna rollups
● Spaghetti squash with chickpeas and kale

3. Eggs

A well-balanced diet includes essentials like proteins, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. You could fill your meals with chicken or beef, but those can become costly for anyone on a budget. Swap in eggs instead.

Whole eggs have small amounts of estrogen and progesterone because they come from chickens producing those hormones. When people digest them, the hormones serve the same functions as those made by humans.

Egg whites may also improve your pancreas functionality. The pancreas of people with endocrine disorders doesn’t make hormones efficiently. Fatty foods inflame the pancreas, but egg whites don’t contain fat. Yolks are the part that stores the fatty acids. Swap your whole eggs for whites if your pancreas affects your imbalanced hormones.

Meal Ideas to Explore:
● Roasted potato and egg hash
● Deviled eggs pasta salad
● Parmesan egg-in-a-nest toast

4. Broccoli

Fresh or frozen broccoli could boost your energy by improving your hormone management. The cruciferous vegetable contains sulforaphane, which detoxifies excess estrogen accumulated due to imbalanced hormone production. Eating more sulforaphane means your body can process the extra estrogen more efficiently, which might be the help your body needs if your ovaries are too active.

Research shows that eating broccoli three to five times weekly can even prevent cancer from developing. It’s worth adding to your diet to manage your hormones, fuel your energy needs and protect your overall health.

Meal Ideas to Explore:
● Mushroom and broccoli casserole
● Broccoli and chicken stir fry
● Broccoli mac and cheese

5. Nuts

Nuts have mono and polyunsaturated fats, which boost leptin production and make long-term energy easier to maintain naturally. When the body has enough leptin, it effectively marks adipose tissues and uses them to fuel you with energy.

Losing more of the essential leptin hormone could be part of why you don’t have as much energy as you used to. Eating more nuts might help. Nuts have the healthy fats necessary for leptin production and maintenance. Enjoy servings of peanuts, almonds, cashews and any other nuts you find tasty to restore your energy.

Meal Ideas to Explore:
● Smashed potatoes with walnut dressing
● Pecan and kale salad
● Trail mix

6. Pomegranates

Adding more pomegranates to your diet could help you solve your energy equation. The purple-red fruit is full of antioxidants that directly balance hormones. The antioxidants in pomegranates will block the overproduction of estrogen so your body returns to a balanced state.

Don’t be intimidated by the many seeds inside a pomegranate. Once you know how to cook with them, you’ll help your body heal from an estrogen imbalance and feel more energized. You add them to a salad or whip them up in a smoothie to keep things simple.

Meal Ideas to Explore:
● Pomegranate-glazed ham
● Homemade pomegranate juice
● Pomegranate and feta salad

Find Greater Business Success

You’ll experience more business success once you have reliable energy to pour into your brand. Revising your diet could help if you know your hormone imbalance affects your energy levels. Balance your hormones with your nutritional needs by adding these foods to your daily or weekly routine. Your body will get the support it needs to thrive, leaving you with extra energy for the business you’ve worked so hard to build.

About the Author

Beth Rush

Beth is the carr editor at Body+Mind. She has 5+ years of experience writing about leadership and personal development strategies and the power of human design to reveal entrepreneurial potential. She also writes about using the emotion of awe to activate our leadership prowess.

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