How to Sync Your Life to your Period (exercise, work, school...)
It’s time we get real with our periods and embrace them. Menstruation is a beautiful part of life that a select few get to experience. Why do we still act like our periods only last a week, when in truth your hormones affect you all month long! Rather than dreading that time of the month, it’s time we work with her. Here is how to sync your life to your period!
What is Cycle Syncing?
Cycle Synching is a method of altering your lifestyle (including diet, exercise, work, and even your social calendar) around the different phases of your menstrual cycle. Using this method supports your mood, productivity, and work/life balance by catering to your body’s needs.
Why is Cycle Syncing important?
By design, the various social structures/institutions are based on a 24 hr hormone rest period (think school or work). Whereby, so long as you complete the necessary basic human demands you’ll be fully functioning on a day-to-day basis. This is true for men in particular whose hormones attune to the Sun, but for women, we attune to the Moon. On average, our hormones reset on a 28-34 day cycle. Meaning, our mood, energy levels, and such tend to differ from week to week. This isn’t to say that women cannot work as hard as men, but our methods may be different. Understanding, acknowledging these cyclical changes can help you be more productive and fulfilled.
See How Your Period Affects Your Skin
How to Get Started!
The first step to Cycle Synching is to listen to your body. Get to know yourself and the various changes you personally go through on a daily basis. Do this by recording your symptoms, mood fluctuations, cravings, energy levels, and such throughout the month. You can use a simple Bullet Journal to track this or use an app. The one I use is the Flo App which neatly organizes this information for me, and gives the graphs to compare weeks. I enjoy using this app because it makes it easier to see patterns as the app does all the work for you, you simply have to remember to keep the log updated. Keep up with this tracking for a least 3 months to get a snapshot of how your body changes throughout the month.
What Does This Mean?
Once you have your pattern down, how do you begin to put it into practice? You’ll start to see weeks when you have a lot of energy and weeks when you feel sluggish. For most women,
High Energy: the week of and before Ovulation you tend to have a lot of energy! During ovulation, your body is fertile causing your estrogen levels to rise in “hopes” of procreating (like listen body, we’ve been having this conversation since I was 12, I’m not ready for a child!). This is the perfect time to get a lot of intense work done. This means high-intensity workouts, renovation, interviews, big projects, essays, and more. I tend to do a lot of content creation during this time because I am usually very productive during this period.
Low Energy: the week of and after your Period estrogen levels plummet causing you to have an irritable mood and low energy. You may find yourself unmotivated, procrastinative, and tired. This is the time to ease back in your daily activities. Find comfort in pampering yourself, doing light workouts, doing light work that keeps your mood up, and avoid highly stressful situations. While its tempting to sleep all day and binge eat this is the time to up your water intake and make sure you are eating a well-balanced meal. This will continue to give your body the fuel it needs to get through this period.
Lean on your Family and Friends
Let’s make periods a non-taboo topic! Lean on your family and friends for support if you need it. Let them know what’s going on, exchange information, tips, and tricks that they do to help them through their cycle. I enjoy being around my friends that have a great sense of humor and don’t take themselves too seriously. They uplift my mood and help me enjoy the little moments.
Your feelings are valid
Just remember that there is nothing wrong with feeling down, moody, low energy. This is how your body is meant to function. It’s not your fault so try not to be too hard on yourself. If there are days when you only have 60% energy to give, then as long as you’re giving 100 of your 60% then you are giving all that you have to give, and that’s okay. Relish in the changes we women go through on a daily basis and treat your body like the Queen she is! Be kind to your body and she will be kind to you.