Sadly, almost everyone of us suffers from estrogen dominance these days!

Our exposure to environmental estrogens is tipping the scale in your bathroom and in your internal chemistry. Estrogen dominance is prevalent in women and men alike, in our girls and even in our boys. Get this: Over 70,000 registered chemicals in the U.S. have hormonal and toxic effects that are difficult for your body to detoxify.

These include:

• pesticides

• herbicides

• insecticides

• fungicides

• industrial chemicals (like lead, mercury and PCBs)

• plastics (particularly BPA)

• dairy products from animals fed chemical growth hormones

• fluoride

• skin, hair and cleaning products that contain estrogenic chemical compounds

We understand that it can be overwhelming to think about. And these substances can be overwhelming your body, leaving you in a state of overwhelm and despair.

In EstroZen, we’ll explore what these environmental estrogens are and what you can do about them to help bring you the balance and ease you crave.

This is a great question. We definitely encourage people to travel around with things on hand so they don’t get caught in a pinch, with their blood sugars down. This is going to lead to the kind of desperate spontaneity that rarely serves our goals. (Low blood sugar = grabbing whatever is convenient.)

Two suggestions are making miso soup and our Flax Max bar, which can be prepared in advance. Thermoses are great and the bars hold up well in a wax bag or small container (especially as the weather cools — your good fats won’t melt as easily!).

We also advise people to carry nuts, seeds or some kind of healthy bar option to help keep even and balanced.

Absolutely! This is one of the things we’ll be diving into in EstroZen.

Sometimes the weight falls off during the course and other times it lingers, here or there. One of those places is right on the belly. Belly fat that won’t budge is a good indicator that there is some hormonal imbalance at play.

It’s important to balance blood sugar. That’s #1. Then we need to support adrenal issues. If you’re living in a state of fight or flight, as many of us are, you’re producing excesses of the hormone cortisol. Excess cortisol = belly fat.

But we can’t produce excess cortisol forever. We’ll run out of steam. What happens then? We produce less than we need. So then we don’t just have less fight or flight and diminished “get up and go,” we’re stuck with the fatigue and the flab!

But there’s another hormonal imbalance that can easily lead to belly fat. That’s estrogen dominance. This is a situation that has become epidemic in our society for men, women and children alike. In EstroZen we’ll explore how and why this is happening, as well as WHAT to do about it! That’s what EstroZen is all about!

We’ll beat the belly fat by cleaning up our diets and our environments, and discover what BALANCE really means.

You can rest assured that anything you ever do with the Functional Nutrition Alliance is gluten free and sugar free. Through the weeks we will remove some other food constituents to support your body’s balance as well.

There is some other non-dairy animal protein included, if you want or already eat it. There are only a couple animal protein dishes each week, and that way you can eliminate those to suit your dietary needs or restrictions, or include a bit more as your body requires.

And you’ll find plenty of answers in the EstroZen Answer Board to help navigate your unique needs dietary and otherwise.

As with the animal protein, there is little to no grain in this course. Where it is included, it can easily be substituted.

If you always wanted to see what a grain-free diet could do to reduce your inflammation, pain, help with weight loss, and improve mental clarity, then this is a great opportunity for that, among other things. If you’re scared of a grain-free diet, don’t be! You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how good the food is and you’ll have so many recipes to carry you forward with a new way of eating – no matter how you decide to eat beyond the three weeks.

We’ve actually set up a supplement store to help you make the choices that will best benefit your experience. The recommended supplements are not required, but instead meant to support your explorations and inquiries should you choose to bring in that additional help for your hormone balancing.

The bottom line? We’ve got your diet and supplement needs covered!

Deep breath. We’re going into Zen territory here.

Many people use the terms detox and cleanse interchangeably. But at the Functional Nutrition Alliance, we’ve created a distinction between the two. It’s this distinction that will help you to make the appropriate investment of your time and resources to reach your optimal health goals.

We’re taking out the substances that slow you down, make you sick, clog your sinuses, cause gas and bloating, make you retain unnecessary weight, and leave you feeling tired and foggy. Hormonal havoc!

Sometimes the things we’re removing are foods and sometimes they’re more than foods – behaviors or beliefs, patterns and habits, environmental toxins, all the things that are holding us back. Our intent here is hormonal balance and understanding how to achieve that for yourself. We’ll be getting into the nitty gritty while nurturing ourselves with delicious foods and grounding practices.

And at FxNA, we never remove without replacing. So you know exactly what to eat and what to do to help you feel great.

With a career born of a personal family health crisis and the loss of her young husband, Functional Nutritionist Andrea Nakayama has guided thousands of international clients through the online programs at Functional Nutrition Alliance (FxNA) and Functional Nutrition Lab.

Andrea’s education includes the following:

• Certified Nutrition Educator (CNE) and Certified Nutrition Counselor (CNC)

• Certified Holistic Health Coach (CHHC)

• Masters of Human Nutrition & Functional Medicine

• Select Institute of Functional Medicine training programs and modules

• Continuing education in areas of specialty such as thyroid disorder, autoimmunity, and Functional lab diagnostics

Andrea is the very first Functional Nutrition & Lifestyle Practitioner (FNLP)

Accolades of Note:

Andrea was the winner of the 2019 Evolution of Medicine Media of the Year Award for her 15-Minute Matrix podcast. She was also the recipient of the 2015 National Association of Nutrition Professionals (NANP) Impact Award and the 2016 NANP Service Award for her leadership in the field of nutrition. She has been featured in Oprah’s O Magazine, Martha Stewart’s Whole Living, Experience Life Magazine, and numerous online conferences.

Andrea’s ceaseless inquiry is driven by her passion to educate her clients, course participants, and team members so that we all can become agents of change, able to take ownership of our own health. She simplifies physiology so that it’s understandable for each and every one of us. In this way, her programs additionally serve as a motivating tool for understanding why we may need to make particular dietary changes to meet the goals we’ve created within that journey of ownership over our own health.

Absolutely! All course materials will be accessible on your Member Page and the recorded Q&A sessions are accessible online.

EstroZen delivers comprehensive printable materials including:

• guidelines and recipe packets including menus, suggested supplements, general food rules, and recipes to carry you the full three weeks

• a daily quick-bite e-zine with tips to help keep you motivated

• handouts to support you, including information on gluten, sugar, fats and vitamins, as well as additional recipes as requested

Additionally, you’ll have access to your private EstroZen Answer Board where you can review questions and answers from Andrea and the FxNA team.

You betcha! We’ll be exploring the ways in which men experience estrogen dominance too. Estrogen dominance is an epidemic and the problems are reverberating throughout your entire household — affecting not just you, but your partner and children as well.