Feel like you have no libido–as if it’s in hibernation or something?
You’re not alone!
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I love talking on the blog about how libido is so much more than just physical–how it’s spiritual and emotional, too. In my Boost Your Libido course, I went over some of the emotional reasons and relational reasons why we may have very little libido, and how our faulty understanding of what libido is can make us feel as if we have no libido–when really we’re just more “responsive”!
But I also talked in the course about some of the physical reasons that your libido may fall, and as we’re spending this month talking about sex and your body in our Monday series, I thought it would be worth elaborating on it today, especially since now is a great time to get help with a lot of these problems, as the Ultimate Women’s Wellness Bundle launches. It’s 79 different products that retail for more than $4500, giving you tools to move towards wellness, including 32 eBooks, 32 eCourses & audios, 12 workbooks & printables, and more.
So let’s go over some of the physical problems that can contribute to low libido–all of which the Women’s Wellness bundle can help you tackle.
When we lose our libido, we often wonder if there’s something wrong with the marriage.
Why don’t I get turned on by my husband anymore? But maybe it’s simply that your hormones aren’t working properly, or you’re just too tired and achey. And that, my friends, has cures! Let’s take a look together.
When we lose our libido, we often wonder if there’s something wrong with the marriage.
But that’s not always the case, sometimes the answer is much simpler.
Why Is Your Libido Sub-Zero?
I’ve been devouring the information in the Women’s Wellness Bundle for the last few days, especially focusing on the resources regarding hormones, since that affects so much of what I write about.
Today I want to share with you what I’ve learned from three primary resources: 14 Day Thyroid Alive Kickstarter Program; Secrets to Controlling Your Weight, Cravings, and Mood; Well and Good: Supercharge Your Health for Fertility and Wellness.
For all those women who wonder why they’re so tired and stressed and achey and can’t figure out how to feel alive and excited again, to you, today, I’d say: “No, you’re not frigid!” To all those of you who wonder why you have zero libido, there may be a simple answer. You may simply have an imbalance, and that’s good news. Because that can be fixed!
What is “Libido”?
Libido is the desire to have sex and the ability to enjoy it. For women, it’s highly dependent upon how we feel about our relationship, our bodies, and sex itself. But it’s not only that. It’s also largely hormonal. Our “sex” hormones (progesterone, testosterone, and, of course, estrogen) prepare the body to want and enjoy sex. Estrogen “lubricates” everything. Testosterone gives us desire. Progesterone regulates all of that. So when something is out of whack, you’re going to want chocolate more than sex. It’s that simple (that may be a HUGE generalization, but it does come down to balance!).
So let’s look at why!
Could you simply have poor nutrition?
Nutrition is everything. All of the cells in our bodies rely on the proper food to function at tip-top level. And if they don’t have what they need, they’ll be limping along, and they’ll often favour the vital things over the not-so-vital things (sex hormones).
Causes: Even people who look healthy can have poor nutrition! If you don’t get enough healthy fats, for instance (like coconut oil, avocados, fish, nuts), then your body will crave them. Even if you eat what looks like it’s healthy, like a vegan diet, your body could be crying out for things it’s missing, like protein. If you’re busy and you’re always grabbing food on the go, you could have some serious deficiencies.
Solutions: Eat lots of fiber! Add healthy fats to your diet. Eat more protein. Eat far fewer refined sugars, because they can cause “leaky gut”, which stops the intestine from absorbing nutrition.
Could you have adrenal fatigue?
Our adrenal glands work overtime in producing hormones. But the adrenals like to play triage: they look at certain deficiencies as “Defcon 5” and will work to fix those first. And one of the hormones our bodies really need is cortisol. It gives you energy, and regulates everything else in your body on sort of a time schedule (your bowels, your sleep, your energy, your digestion). But it depends on this 24 hour clock.
Causes: Our bodies work on a clock. So light=daytime. Eating protein=energy, it’s time to wake up! Eating carbs=it’s time to rest. That’s an oversimplification, but that’s roughly how it works.
Here’s something absolutely HILARIOUS I read recently. Dr. Kellogg was a bit of a quack. In the 1800s he started a sanitorium to help people deal with lust and masturbation. And one of his main “cures” was this neat cereal that he had developed that you eat with milk. You see, this big carb intake would lull the body into a contented, placid state, and then you wouldn’t feel the urge for lust anymore.
Well, Dr. Kellogg found out that people LIKED eating this cereal, and soon it became the breakfast staple everywhere.
Think about our modern lifestyles: we get up before it’s light in the winter; feed our bodies massive amounts of carbs in the morning; and then keep our bodies up at night with artificial light. And we confuse the heck out of them!
Again, there’s more to it than that. But if your body is working overtime to produce cortisol, then your adrenals will get tired and won’t produce sex hormones as much.
Solution: Eat protein for breakfast, and avoid heavy carbs (like cereal, toast, and bagels). Wake up to natural light, or get lightbulbs in the winter that mimic it. Stay away from blue light at night. Keep carbs for dinner time. Stay away from caffeine, which confuses everything. Sleep 8 hours at night, if you can, AT THE SAME TIME everyday (if you can).
Could you have low progesterone?
Progesterone balances estrogen and regulates the metabolism. It’s made primarily in the ovaries, but also in the adrenal gland (and if you’re perimenopausal or postmenopausal, then you’re REALLY relying on that adrenal gland!).
Causes: If your adrenal glands are working overtime, you’ll likely have less progesterone. Also, if you’re producing TOO MUCH estrogen, then you’ll likely produce less progesterone, leading to a real imbalance.
Solution: Do everything above to regulate nutrition and cortisol. Stay away from beauty products with lots of chemicals, especially shampoos and body washes. Choose things like the Diva cup or cloth sanitary pads instead of disposable ones, because they can artificially introduce a weird chemical that mimics estrogen and can mess everything up. Do some moderate exercise four times a week. Try some essential oils, especially clary sage (that one’s helped me a lot!)
You may find that when you eliminate these foods, you have so much more energy and mental clarity! WHY? Well, you gave your digestive system a break from hard-to-digest foods and foods that you may be intolerant to. Therefore, your organs and digestive system (your liver, kidneys, pancreas, and stomach) do not have to work as hard and aren’t in constant distress. Your body can use that newfound energy to repair itself rather than constantly putting out fires, which means rockin’ hormones and periods! Yay!
Could you have low estrogen?
Secrets to Controlling Your Weight, Cravings, and Mood lays out so well how not all estrogen is good estrogen–and how imbalances can affect our libido.
Causes: Age decreases estrogen, so being perimenopausal or menopausal can hurt us. Having other imbalances, as above, can also affect estrogen–and the neurotransmitters that regulate it.
Solution: Have sex regularly! (the more you do it–the more hormones you produce! Libido is use it or lose it!). Avoid caffeine. Don’t overexercise. Add lots of ground flax seed to your diet (I put some in my smoothies everyday). And add some supplements and lots of healthy fats to support your brain and hormone production. There are so many creams and capsules that you can take to help with low estrogen that are really safe.
Could you have low thyroid function?
When your thyroid isn’t functioning really well, it tends to “bind up” the sex hormones, leaving them unable to be properly used. And then, when thyroid production is low, you start producing fewer sex hormones, too. It’s a vicious cycle.
And some studies have shown that MOST people have at least mild hypothyroidism.
Imagine if you lived in a very small space. What would it be like if you could only remove 20% of the trash you brought in? What would it feel like to be in that space after a week? What about a month? Now imagine a year! How does it feel to be in that space now? This is how your cells feel when they are under toxic burden. Detoxing your cells will improve your ability to absorb nutrients and hormones and eliminate waste. It will also stabilize and improve your energy. During this program you will improve your health, increase your energy, and eliminate waste that causes disease, weight gain, and cravings. When your body cannot eliminate waste properly it become acidic and toxic. When it becomes acidic and toxic, your blood and your cells slow down. When this happens, your body starts to slow down and break down.
Causes: When your cortisol levels have been out of whack for a LONG time, this eventually affects the thyroid.
Solution: Avoid soy. Throw seaweed into your soups and stews! Stay away from raw broccoli, cauliflower and kale, but throw in lots of Vitamin C and Vitamin E. And no smoking!
But how do I know what I have?
I know. When we start to read all this stuff, we think: “I’ve got EVERYTHING!” But don’t worry; that’s likely not true.
Here are two simple approaches:
- Eat well, with good nutrition, avoiding processed foods, caffeine, and too much refined sugar. Try to eat properly to a 24-hour schedule. Do that, and no matter what the problem is, you’ll likely start to fix a lot of it.
- Read through Secrets to Controlling Your Weight, Cravings, and Mood–an information-packed ebook with self-assessments so you can see where your hormones may be out of whack.
I know this is a LOT of information, but I find it really empowering. If you can figure out what’s triggering some of the ill-effects in your body, then you can stop it!
And wouldn’t that be worth it?
The Women’s Wellness Bundle is for sale right now until Monday at midnight, and it has resources covering hormone balance, heathy eating, fertility and pregnancy, chronic illness, mental health, confidence, and more (they’ve even got some AWESOME products on building a wardrobe for moms, including building a great capsule wardrobe).
I was talking to my daughter Katie last week about how she and David have started sourcing their chicken from a supplier that doesn’t use antibiotics or hormones. The stuff that is in our food can actually really impact our health, our mood, and our libido. And these resources can help you figure out what maybe the biggest culprits in your life–and how you can deal with them.
So check out the Ultimate Women’s Wellness Bundle now–and you may find yourself with more energy, less pain, and even more libido!