Cycle synching
living in harmony with your period
One of the best ways to fall more in tune with your body and feel your best throughout the month is to sync your lifestyle choices to your natural hormone fluctuations. While men are on a 24 hour hormone cycle, women cycle throughout the month which means virtually every single day is different for our hormones.
When I first learned this, I truly breathed a sigh of relief because I was in fact not completely crazy for feeling on top of the world one week and low energy the next. And while not crazy, it also isn’t necessary to feel such drastic jumps like this that have you calling out of work buried under your covers during your luteal phase.
I’m talking about cycle synching. Small changes in how we exercise, eat, socialize, and work throughout the month to better match our hormonal changes can help us to feel less like are working against the tide and more like we’re effortlessly flowing with it.
Menstrual Phase:
During your menstrual phase, your hormone levels are at their lowest while you bleed. Estrogen and testosterone take a deep dive along with progesterone which causes the shedding of your uterine lining. With this lower energy, it’s good to slow down and focus on rest.
Social Life & Work:
If you have the flexibility, it’s best to plan ahead to meet all your pressing deadlines before your menstrual phase hits. This is the best time of the month to start reflect on the previous months and set goals for the month to come - whether that be professional or personal goals.
A favorite meditation of mine at the end of the day is to simply sit and go through in your brain everything that happened from when you woke up until right now. Play it back and pick out moments that stood out to you. Pull out your journal and write down three things from the day that you are grateful for.
Exercise:
Less is more this week. Truly, you will not be gaining much by forcing yourself to hit a PR and do a 40 minute HIIT right now. Your lack of energy will likely make this painful and depleting.
Instead, try out some yin yoga, gentle walks, stretching, and just resting!
Food:
Key nutrients in your menstrual phase are magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin C, zinc, iron, and omega 3. The goal here is to combat inflammation and support your hormones with healthy fats.
Recipe to try this week: Tofu Curry Scramble
This is a favorite recipe of mine to make during my menstrual phase as it is warming, boasting with inflammation fighting spices, and blood sugar balancing.
In a small bowl, either mash up some firm tofu with a fork and pour in a bit of almond milk to make the spices stick OR gently beat 2-3 organic pasture raised eggs. Next, add in turmeric, mustard powder, curry powder, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper
Chop up some scallions, broccoli, sweet potato, spinach, and bell pepper and toss it in with olive oil in the skillet
Put the tofu or egg mixture in the pan and mix with vegetables
Serve with fresh sliced avocado, some extra spices, and a sprinkle of hemp seeds
Follicular Phase:
As you move out of menstruation, your hormone levels slowly begin to rise and along with it comes your energy levels and mood. Estrogen is rising to a peak as it prepares for ovulation and your pituitary gland is producing FSH to mature your eggs that will be released.
Social Life & Work:
You likely won’t be as adventurous and filled with spunk as ovulation, but take advantage of what you do feel spiking here!
Try out a new hike with a friend or find a new coffee shop in your city work at. Take some time to plan out how you want the next month to go as your brain is primed for this right now. In the office, this is the ideal time for meetings and presentations as your social butterfly energy is building.
Exercise:
You can put the HIIT video back on now if you want. In addition, you can pick up the pace/distance on your walks, get back into strength training, and go for a long bike ride. You will feel your endurance peaking right now.
Food:
The key to your diet this week is incorporating a lot of fiber, antioxidants, fermented foods, and phytoestrogens.
Recipe to try this week: Avocado Toast on Sourdough
This is another recipe you can have for breakfast or whenever you crave it during the day! The reason I love this here is that it has a lot of fermented foods along with cruciferous greens and protein! It is light yet very satisfying.
Slice two pieces of fresh sourdough and toast them to a nice golden color
While they are toasting chop up some fresh garlic cloves, a head of kale, and half of an avocado
Cook up this garlic and kale in a pan with olive oil until the kale is softened and fragrant
In another pan, cook up two eggs sunny side up
Pop out your toast and lightly drizzle it with oil before you spread the avocado over it. Next, pile on your kale, and a layer of some sauerkraut. Top it off with your eggs!
Ovulation Phase:
Ovulation is the super star of your cycle, as we talked about in a previous blog! Everything truly is designed to lead up to this point, and your energy is going to reflect that. Your hormones are all peaking. We have a surge here of LH, estrogen, and testosterone which thickens our uterine lining, stimulates our follicles to release an egg, and increases our libido.
Social Life & Work:
This is a really good time to meet up with a group of friends, communicate your needs to coworkers and family, and spend some one-on-one time with a partner if you have one. Testosterone peaking is going to really push your libido up so this is a great time of the month to plan date nights! If you aren’t trying to conceive, this is also the time frame you want to be the most mindful of practicing safe sex.
Exercise:
You can really push yourself this week to test your strength. Ramp up the cardio to do sprinting intervals, try out a kickboxing class, power yoga, or F45. And if you’re in the mood to take advantage of the spike in libido, you can try out a dance or pole class!
Food:
This week, focus on fiber, phytoestrogens, and more fermented foods to keep your gut microbiome happy.
Recipe to try: Cacao Smoothie
I included a fun chocolate smoothie for this week to really touch on your increased libido with maca, fiber with spinach and berries, and phytoestrogens with oats, flax seed, and plant milk. This would make a great mid day or post workout snack!
Blend together: 1/4 cup of oats, 1 tbs maca powder, 1 tbs each of hemp and flax seeds, a handful of spinach, 2 tbs cacao powder, 1/2 frozen banana, 1/2 cup berries, cinnamon, and milk of choice
Luteal Phase:
As estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone all peak and prepare to decline again, you will feel yourself wanting to come down from the high of ovulation as well. Estrogen works to thicken your uterine lining that will shed next week while progesterone supports it and helps you relax. Note: this is usually when PMS happens and your appetite really increases, but it doesn’t have to be terrible. Fall into what your body is asking for, trust yourself here.
And if you are experience a terrible luteal phase, this is sign from your body that you may need to dig deeper into your hormones. I usually recommend the Dutch complete test during this time of the month!
Social Life & Work:
Your luteal phase is the time to slow down and plan more intimate social outings. In work, this is a time you are going to want to finish up big projects and ideas so you can let yourself relax more during menstruation.
Exercise:
Instead of focusing on intensity and pushing yourself to the limit this week, be more slow and intentional with how you move. Focus on maybe 3 different weighted moves with low reps and really create a mind to muscle connection. As we get further along in our luteal phase, we feel our energy decline each day and this is when it is a good idea to go back to long walks, mat pilates, and vinyasa yoga
Food:
Key nutrients this week include omega 3, magnesium, B vitamins, cruciferous vegetables, complex carbohydrates, and antioxidants.
Recipe to try:
For this week, I am linking a perfect recipe by PinchOfYum! This is an amazing dinner to have at any point in your luteal phase as it has complex carbohydrates of lentils and quinoa to support your blood sugar and energy levels, high protein and omega 3 content of salmon, and veggies for fiber!
Get the recipe here and let me know if you try it!
It’s important to note that each person is unique and this information is not a one size fits all. Beyond everything, always do what feels good for your body. Trust your intuition and your body wisdom!
If you found this blog post helpful, I have more in store! Keep an eye out for my Period Harmony Cycle Synching course launching this September!
This course will include modules going through each phase of the cycle in depth, recipes for each cycle phase (over 60 recipes!), factors that influence hormonal health and how to optimize it (including your thyroid health, adrenal health, liver health, gut health, environmental toxins, diet, and more), and my perfect supplement bundle for kicking PMS to the curb for healthy, easy periods!
If you’re interested in diving deeper into your health & wellbeing, click here to schedule a free discovery call with Dr. Paria!
