Fall back in love with your hormones!

When was the last time you felt great and put it down to your hormones?

Maybe never??? Not surprising really. Most of us grew up knowing very little about how our hormones work and within cultures where conversations about female hormones were mostly negative.

We’ve all experienced times in a menstrual cycle where hormone changes can trigger less favourable symptoms such as irritability, tiredness, headaches and cramps that warrant the negative narratives. BUT in a healthy, natural cycle, hormonal changes are also the reason you can feel great. High energy, libido, creativity and drive are all benefits of a well-functioning hormonal system.

Are you missing the good bits from your menstrual cycle?

Better awareness of how your menstrual cycle impacts you, can give you the opportunity to maximise the best bits and plan for the more challenging times. It can also help you to find ways to mitigate the less desirable symptoms by identifying actions that trigger or can help.

To help you understand this, here are some changes that can occur within each phase (there are 4 phases over a cycle):

1 (after period) - Build muscle mass more easily with strength training.

2 (ovulation) - Better skin, feel more sociable.

3 (before period)- Feel creative, immune system mildly weakened so more vulnerable to illness

4 (period) - More in tune emotionally, poor sleep.

Using this knowledge you can begin to work how you might plan or adapt your lifestyle to suit the phases.

For example, in phase 3 you can eat more vitamin c rich foods to protect against illness and in phase 4 you can plan more rest to make up for poor sleep.

Menstrual cycle awareness also helps to cultivate more self-compassion and allows you to perceive and speak more positively about your cycle. It is no longer just a period, there are things to look forward to!

What to watch out for!

Experiencing extremely negative symptoms within phases 3 - 4 of your cycle such as sore breasts, painful cramps and low mood is not normal post puberty and is associated with hormone imbalance. This must be checked out by your doctor.

What can help?

For many, simple diet and lifestyle changes can really support and optimise hormonal health.

To get started why not book in a free consultation carla@thegoodhealthally.co.uk

I highly recommend Fitr women App for tracking.

"Our mission is to educate, empower and elevate you to reach your fullest potential. We are not just another health and fitness app - we are a movement that celebrates the strength, resilience and unique physiology of every woman."