Connecting your cycle to your life and living in sync with your phases was the topic of discussion at our 2/27 Cycle Balance event.
Thanks to Keznie Radigan (M.Ed, RYT) and Samantha Lebicz (M.Ed, FNTP, Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner) for sharing their knowledge and expertise! Here’s a recap of the event:
The Four Phases of Our Cycles
Thank you for joining us last Thursday, 2/27 evening for Cycle Balance!
My hope is that you learned a lot about your cycle, how to make empowered decisions for yourself, and how to advocate for your health.
I want to reiterate that all forms of birth control- hormonal or non- hormonal are great tools; my hope is that no matter your choice, you are finding a way to connect with your body and become aware of what you need.
A Great Place to Start: Selfcare
A great place to start is by journaling, practicing yoga, meditating, dancing, or even cooking a nice meal for yourself in your kitchen! These small practices open the door to awareness and help you listen to what your body needs.
On Thursday we discussed what the phases are, some things you can do to support yourself in the phases, how to support yourself without hormonal birth control if you so choose, how to talk to your doctor about this, and small practices you can add into your life to take care of yourself no matter what.
The four phases of your cycle can optimize how you live your life! Knowing where you are in your cycle can help you understand why you crave certain foods, feel specific emotions, or move the way you do.
Journaling
Journaling, using an app like Kindara to help you track, or marking it in your personal planner is a great start to connecting to your cycle and connecting your cycle with your life!
Achieving Hormonal Balance through Nutrition
Your ability to live in accordance with your cycle is reliant on your body’s hormonal health. However, thanks to today’s standard American diet (aka S.A.D.) and the high-pressure society we have cultivated, women’s hormones tend to be anything but balanced. In order to begin working towards improved hormone balance, we need to focus on optimizing digestion, balancing blood sugar and managing stress.
Although each person’s nutritional needs are unique, here are three important steps to take to begin working towards hormonal balance:
1. Revolve your diet around whole, nutrient-dense foods such as a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, healthy fats, high-quality, well-sourced meats.
2. Eat your fats! Fats and cholesterol get a bad rep due to a ton of misinformation over the last century. Fats are critical in our diet for many reasons including hormone health. Fats are a major building block of all hormones and cholesterol is needed specifically for the creation of our sex hormones.
3. Balance each meal with a combination of protein, fats and carbohydrates. Avoid eating meals that are heavy on carbs only. This leads to dysregulated blood-sugar due to quick spikes in glucose levels. Including protein and fats helps to lessens the amount of glucose being absorbed by reducing your portion of carbs as well as helps to slow down the digestion of glucose avoiding those quick blood sugar spikes and crashes.