Writing by Mia Barnes // photograph by Autumn Goodman
My monthly cycle used to feel like a real challenge. I dealt with mood swings, fatigue and changes in my appetite long before my period cramps started. Now, I know my body was telling me what it needed. I just didn’t know how to interpret my symptoms until I learnt about cycle syncing.
Cycle syncing turned me and my body into a team. Even with my crazy hectic work schedule, I no longer battle exhaustion around my period. When I start feeling a bit hungrier than usual or experience a mood swing, I know exactly what to give my body so it can maintain my cycle. I feel more comfortable in my own skin and less frustrated with cycle symptoms.
Here is everything I know about cycle syncing so you can enjoy the benefits too!
I Started My Journey by Asking: What Is Cycle Syncing?
I’d never heard of cycle syncing before I found a Healthline article about it. I was so done with fighting my changing appetite, moods and energy level every month. It seemed like the right time to try a different menstrual cycle management approach.
Cycle syncing is a practice where a person changes their diet, exercise and social routine to match their body’s needs during their menstrual cycle. It takes a closer look at the different phases of the cycle to understand how changing hormones affect our mood, energy and overall wellbeing.
I know that sounds like it requires a college course to understand, but it’s much more simple than I originally thought. There are four distinct phases each month:
- Menstruation (days one through seven, also known as your period)
- The follicular phase (days seven through 14)
- Ovulation (days 14 through 21)
- The luteal phase (days 22 through 28)
When your ovaries and uterus are preparing your uterine lining, releasing an egg and getting ready to shed your uterine lining, you deal with menstrual symptoms from the resulting hormone changes. Cycle syncing encourages you to shift your exercise and diet according to your lower or higher energy levels.
The first step toward working with our bodies starts with learning about our oestrogen levels.
Oestrogen gives you more energy by supporting tissue functionality throughout the body. People who menstruate have the most oestrogen while experiencing their follicular phase, so you’ll feel most energetic during that time. Our hormone levels — including oestrogen production — lower significantly when our periods begin or around day 25 of our cycle.
Changing my social schedule was my first move after learning about cycle syncing. When I felt exhausted, I rescheduled activities with friends and family to let my body do its thing. We can’t make our hormones change just because we have plans and if it’s possible, changing busy social plans to suit our current cycle status can help keep hormones balanced. Listening to what our bodies need instead of pushing through is the first step to body harmony.
When your body is allowed to rest during lower hormonal phases, you may start experiencing cycle-syncing benefits like:
- Consistent energy
- Fewer cravings
- Feeling more in touch with your body
- Less confusion about mood swings
- Understanding when you’re most fertile if you’re trying to conceive
Understanding why my body used more energy during certain days of the month made me feel more compassionate toward myself. As I began matching my routine to my body’s changing needs each month, I felt more in control of my life. I want the same for every menstruating person, especially since so many of us have intense symptoms that affect us nearly every day.
Tips to Start Cycle Syncing
Diet and exercise are also core components of cycle syncing. When I realised how powerful resting felt during my low-energy days, I made simple changes to what I ate and how much movement I got throughout the week to further hack my cycle.
These are the tips I recommend starting with to refine your daily life according to what’s going on in your body.
1. Look at Your Diet’s Nutritional Structure
Nutrients are essential for anyone with a menstrual cycle — and not just because they satisfy our sweet tooths during our periods. Something as simple as eating foods with omega-3 fatty acids can reduce the intensity of depression symptoms that intensify with hormonal shifts between menstrual phases.
During my ovulation and luteal phases, my body uses more energy to release an egg and prepare for potential pregnancy. I balance the resulting hormone intensity by avoiding high salt or sugar ingredients. Research shows they intensify a person’s premenstrual symptoms more than meals with vegetables, high fibre and low fat ingredients. It’s an all-natural way I prevent cramping in addition to occasionally taking over-the-counter pain medications.
Adding extra iron to your diet during the menstruation phase will also minimise the monthly insomnia and fatigue that often accompany heavy periods. Losing more blood during heavy period days decreases the amount of iron in your body because it stores itself in your bloodstream.
2. Plan Your More Intense Exercises
As the body builds energy to ovulate during the follicular phase and throughout ovulation, you may gain additional energy for higher-intensity workouts. I try to plan my more challenging exercise routines during this phase since my body can tackle those kinds of workouts.
When you’re not up for high-intensity exercise routines due to lower hormones, opt for something easier on your body. I used my first gym break to exercise with my friends at a yoga class. Even if you only take an evening walk, you’ll get your heart rate up without demanding more from yourself than you can give that week. Movement is important, but following your bodies energy cues means you can cater to where you’re at.
3. Journal About Your Experiences
You’ll only know if your cycle syncing is working if you have a reflection tool. After I started journaling about my various weekly symptom changes, I knew what to expect each month and how to plan for those menstrual cycle side effects.
Ask yourself introspective questions that inspire your journal entries, like how you’re feeling about syncing efforts and if you’ve noticed a positive change in your quality of life. As the next month begins, you can adjust your routine based on what wasn’t as helpful last time.
Feel Better All Month Long
By learning about cycle syncing, I took control of my uncomfortable menstrual symptoms. I once believed I could only manage my symptoms by predicting and pushing through them, but cycle syncing taught me to work with my body instead.
Now, I feel at home in my skin, understanding that each symptom is my uterus and ovaries working hard to regulate my periods. You’ll improve your quality of life too by addressing your physical and hormonal needs rather than forcing yourself through each period.
