Transcript

Hello. Hello. And welcome back to the hormone hub. Today is a super fun. episode, and I want you to have an open mind. So there are gonna be points during [00:01:00] this episode where you think, what is she talking about? She’s gone all woo woo. She’s lost us. But trust me, stick with it. There is, you know, science threaded throughout this.

So today we are talking about how to sort of get in sync with your cycle. And this applies whether you are menstruating, whether you have a period or not. So. You know, we are still connected to biological rhythms and cycles. So all of these biological rhythms influence our sleep, our metabolism, our heart rate, our blood pressure, temperature, the production of urine and hormones as well.

So when we sort of tune into our cycles, we can tune into what our body needs. So we are not the same are we, 24/7, day in, day out? You know, we might be on fire one week. We might be super productive at work. We might be, you know, on top of our energy. You know, we can get up, we can exercise, we can do all the things.

And then [00:02:00] there’s other days where we just wanna lie on the lounge, watch Netflix and, you know, eat popcorn. So, you know, by tuning into our cycles, we can tune better into what our body needs. Okay. So when we, this is where we’re gonna go woo woo. So what we are gonna do is link your cycle. If you’ve got a cycle, that’s great.

But if not, we are going to link it to the moon. Okay. So this is where you’re probably thinking, okay, but there is science behind this. So we can be guided by the natural ebbs and flows of our energy, our nutritional needs, our sleep patterns. And because the lunar cycle is one of the most powerful cycles on the planet.

So it controls the seasons. It affects the title currents in the ocean. And it’s the interaction between the sun, the earth, the moon, all is connected. So, you know, you might be sort of thinking what is she talking about, but trust me, so start to sort [00:03:00] of think about the similarities. So our circadian rhythm is 24 hours long. So that’s our sleep wake cycle. Our female menstrual cycle is, you know, around 28 days long, you know, anywhere between 24 and 35 is sort of normal. The lunar cycle is about also about 28 days long. Well, technically it’s actually 29.5. The lunar cycle has four distinct phases and the female menstrual cycle also has four distinct phases.

So can you see I’ve not lost the plot totally. It’s connected. Then, you know, in our calendar year, we have four seasons all with different qualities and the four phases of the female cycle also have four different qualities. See, interesting connection hey. So each phase kind of offers a different kind of energy than the last.

So even coming down to the different food requirements that our body needs during each phase. So once you tap into [00:04:00] these trends, you’re gonna see powerful shifts in your energy levels, your mood, digestion, sleep, your creativity, your productivity and your overall health and wellbeing as well. So let’s kind of jump in and, and have a look at, you know, how to do it.

Now, my advice for you is just to sort of start tracking where we’re at with the moon cycle. And if you are having a menstrual cycle where you’re at in your menstrual cycle, so you don’t have to use both, you can either use the moon cycle if you don’t have a menstrual cycle or you can use your actual menstrual cycle.

All right. Yeah. Like I said, don’t overthink it, but I do suggest that you take, give it a good, you know, three months or even like four to six months and give your body a chance to create some repetition. So you can sort of start to recognize these rhythms and support these rhythms. [00:05:00] All right. Let’s jump in.

It’ll make more sense as we go along. Okay. So just imagine your menstrual cycle as the new moon phase. Okay. So the new moon is when you know, it’s mostly dark and we’ve got a little bit of color poking out of the moon. Okay. So if we think of our menstrual cycle as the same, we wanna sit in the dark and we just wanna poke our nose out.

We don’t wanna be out there on display necessarily. So, this is where, you know, if day one of our period, you know, this is where our body is in search of foods. Okay. So we want comfort. We want soothing and you know, so many of us hear this calling from within, and this is where we go for the chocolate, the cookies, the ice cream, all the things.

So these are just, you know, a temporary support system. Okay. But that can actually make it worse. So cramping, sore boobs,[00:06:00] breakouts, crappy moods, constipation, water retention, weight gain, you know, it’s a perceived weight gain. We might have physical symptoms, so we might have backache, achy, hip joints, breast tenderness, and cravings.

You know, those cravings increase. So, this is where, and you might feel achy in your pelvic area. So this is where, like, if you don’t have a cycle, if you have had a hysterectomy or an ablation, your ovaries are intact, you can actually experience these symptoms. Okay. So it’s, it’s good to pay attention.

So during that menstrual phase or that new moon phase, You know, with our energy and creativity. So this is a great time for journaling. It’s a great time for reflection. It’s a good time to see, you know, what’s working, what’s not working, tune into your intuition. Okay. So this is where we wanna get grounded.

We want to, you know, we tend to be sort of a bit quieter, a bit [00:07:00] more withdrawn from social interactions and, you know, tune into yourself. And, you know, if you are feeling annoyed or even venomous to the people around you at this point, you know, it’s a sign that something is out of balance. Okay. So during our menstrual cycle, this is where, or our period, this is where our hormone levels are at the lowest.

So we need to, you know, keep our energy and mood stable by having, you know, upping our protein, upping our healthy fats, go lower on the, the carby sort of sugary foods because, you know, that’s not gonna help. So food’s full of, you know, iron and zinc. So, you know, things like kidney beans, kale, kelp, even putting like spirulina and chlorophyll in your water can help, mushrooms, beetroots, you know, because this is all re-mineralizing and restoring the blood.

 So listen to your body during this phase, do what feels best and, you know, keep in mind that if you are suffering from cramps, [00:08:00] breast tenderness, you know, really heavy flow along with fatigue, you know, going down that, that path of the sugar, the carbs, dairy, caffeine, alcohol, it’s going to sort of exacerbate all of these symptoms.

All right. So that’s your, that’s your period. So that’s, that’s where we want to kind of bunker down, you know, and we really need to support our blood sugar and, and eat lots of protein and healthy fats during this time. 

Okay. So if we sort of then move on, so we had our, our period and then, you know, we, we are coming up to ovulation.

So this is what’s called our follicular phase and it’s also, you know, we link it back to the moon. It’s the waxing moon phase. So the moon is starting to come out. It’s starting to show ourselves. So from a hormone perspective, you know, we start to feel more energetic. We have a higher libido, and it’s, you know, where we feel more confident and good overall because we’ve, finished with our period where we are coming into that sort of new, new cycle, new phase. And you know, what [00:10:00] we sort of tend to notice is this is where our energy levels are up. Our brain and our cognition function is better. Our libido is increased. We feel more confident, more powerful. This is where we are willing to take more risks.

 Our skin is softer and clearer. So you know, that that breakout that we had during our period has settled down. We tend to be more extroverted. It’s a better time to socialize and put yourself out there. So this is, you know, from a work perspective, a great time for brainstorming, teamwork, networking, and also, you know, estrogen that, that is higher at this time of the month, it suppresses our appetite, which makes us feel lighter. So, you know, this is where we can, you know, eat lighter, fresher foods because our metabolism drops a little bit. So this is where, you know, we can get away with, you know, lots of salads and, you know, lighter type foods. [00:11:00] So is this making sense?

Okay. All of this will be in the show notes. So if you need to come back and go, well, what phase was I more energetic? And from a work perspective, it can be really powerful because if we have like planning out our calendar, and I’ve, this is something I’ve learned to do, you know, the week of my period is not the time for me to do back to back webinars.

Or have back to back client calls, you know, I want to be, that’s where I can tap in and be a little bit quieter, a little bit more creative. But then as I come out of my, my period, this is where I want people, you know, where are the people? Give me the people. So this is when I tap into. These are the times for me to do a, a live webinar.

See, you just thought I just did it randomly. Didn’t you? Okay. All right. So then we get into the full moon phase. So this is our ovulation phase. So, you know, if we are thinking about having a baby, this is the time to conceive and become pregnant. [00:12:00] Now. If any of my listeners are thinking about becoming pregnant, I think you’re in the wrong spot.

Because I think for lots of us, those days are done. So, you know, but this is when we’re ovulating. So this is where our, you know, estrogen levels are elevated. So we feel sexy. We feel confident, we feel energized, you know, and it’s, nature’s way of priming our body to, you know, seek a mate. We want pleasure.

We want joy. You know, if that’s what we are craving. So physically, you know, it’s not uncommon to have like pelvic pain and twinges, and you know, for some women, you might also see an increase in headaches, bloating, increased cravings during this time. So it is possible, like I said, to still be cycling if you’ve had a hysterectomy or an ablation, and your ovaries are still intact.

So this is why I really encourage you to track your, you know, cycles. And then we can track the moon and use the moon as a [00:13:00] base. So where’s the moon at. Okay. Just imagine that’s where I’m at. And you know, you might notice over the course of a couple of months that you’re not quite in sync and that’s okay.

It just gives us a starting point. Okay. So when we are ovulating, this is when our brain’s at its sharpest. So this is the best time for communicating, for speaking, for writing, for putting your projects out to the world. Our libido is up. We might find ourselves, you know, wanting to do more grooming, taking more care about, you know, looking good, feeling good.

 Some women even notice that their smell changes and this is due to the, the changes in the pheromones. So this is where, you know, it’s important to, you know, include those healthy fats, fiber, protein at every meal because, you know, we can get, you know, constipation, gas, bloating, moodiness. So it’s important to keep our fluids up, and keep that fiber up so that [00:14:00] keeps moving through us. We want to, you know, limit our simple carbs. So things like pasta, bread, rice, flour. Keep those down because it’s gonna contribute to that bloating. If we are more susceptible to bloating, steaming, saute’ing, or even blending our veggies, into soups as well can make them more digestible.

So we want to, you know, increase up our leafy greens at this point. This helps Detox and metabolize the, that excess estrogen that’s in our system. All right. So then we so full moon we’re out there. We’re on display. We’re looking for a mate. We’re feeling good. We’re feeling fine. So this is where we then head into our luteal phase or the waning moon phase.

So this is when the full moon’s been out there on display. And then it starts to shrink itself. Okay. So this is where, you know, if we haven’t fallen pregnant, our progesterone levels tend start to [00:15:00] drop and this signals our period to begin. Okay. So you are more likely to experience symptoms if you have low progesterone levels.

Okay. So maybe you didn’t produce enough progesterone to actually ovulate, which is what we call an anovulatory cycle. Or our progesterone is just low relative to higher levels of estrogen or, you know, we’re through menopause and we are not producing, or we are producing very low levels. So it’s when there’s this imbalance between progesterone and estrogen, that we are more likely to experience bloating, gas, cramps, breast tenderness, moody, PMS, headaches.

So this is where, you know, that drop in progesterone. It’s like having the rug pulled out from under us. So once you’ve sort of started tracking this for a couple of cycles, you’ll notice that your symptoms will start to decrease because I’m gonna tell you now what [00:16:00] we can do to sort of mitigate it. So with your energy and creativity levels, this is where it’s time to decrease your obligations and like prune out your schedule things that don’t really have to get done or don’t really have to be done by you, you don’t have to. This is where we want to sort of nest a bit. So we wanna get organized at home. We focus more on our living space, reevaluate, you know, the things that we’ve put our hand up and say yes to what can we say no to, we need to prioritize sleep at this point. You know, ideally we would be getting at least seven hours of sleep and if we can’t get sleep, let’s get more rest. So this means lying down. So reading, snoozing, binge watching TV. This is okay. You know, just to sit there and rest, this is not the time, the week before your period to start training for a marathon.

Okay. We want to, you know, to help your sleep, let’s sort of decrease [00:17:00] time on devices. Let’s use, you know, like blue blocking glasses can be helpful if you’re watching TV, and try and sleep in a really cool dark room. So, yeah, what we wanna do, you think that week before our period, we wanna slow down, contemplate, incubate.

So we do actually need more calories during this phase. So our metabolism naturally speeds up. Okay. So what we need more of, we need more fiber rich foods. So our veggies, fruit, oats, whole grains to support our sort of fiber and sort of metabolize that estrogen and, and eliminate it properly.

Okay. So ideally we’re aiming for two to three, well formed, easy to pass bowel movements a day. So that’s how we know we’re getting enough fibre. We want to include food rich in our B vitamins, calcium, magnesium, all help curb those sugar cravings. They also help to decrease any water retention and bloating as well.

So [00:18:00] if we can get, you know, complex carbs at each meal, so those same high fiber foods, all your veggies, fruit, oats, whole grains, and this helps stabilize our serotonin and our dopamine levels. And it helps prevent those mood swings. So foods like, brown rice, quinoa, roasted baked veggies, like pumpkins, sweet potato, cauliflower, parsnips, radishes, onion and garlic are great for those, you know, detoxifying those hormones as well.

 So this is where, and it’s that dip in serotonin that, you know, causes that cravings for the, uh, the chocolate . Okay. So when we give into those chocolate sugary cravings, this is where, you know, we might feel like we need a quick fix to boost our mood, but that temporary boost is followed by a sharp sort of drop in blood sugar and our energy levels as well.

All right. So I hope that makes sense. It makes sense to me. So just to recap, so get in sync [00:19:00] with your cycle, regardless of whether or not you have a period. Okay. So those natural ebbs and flows in our appetite, our sleep, our energy levels, our creativity, you know, is all linked to a cycle. Okay. So everything in our body is also linked to a cycle.

So our sleep cycles, our, you know, blood pressure regulation is all linked to a cycle. So I hope this helps. This is one of my kind of passionate subjects and I, I noticed a massive difference when I started working with my cycle. It was huge because I was able to give myself some slack when I needed to.

And I was able to take on more when I was able to, so I hope this helps you today and all the notes will be in the show notes. So you can check in and find out more about how to tune in to your cycle. Okay. Thanks for listening everyone. Bye now.