Foods for the Flow

Keeping it simple all month long

Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash

You’ve heard it before. Diet and exercise, diet and exercise. Yeah yeah, we get it. Sounds easy. Eat healthy and move the body. Easy words, hard practice. There are huge industries around diet and exercise all saying different things seemingly every week! Fads that included, don’t eat butter, eat margarine, don’t eat eggs, eat egg whites, don’t drink wine, okay, drink a little wine are constantly changing. It’s exhaustingly endless to choose one diet plan and one exercise plan and repeat it every single day.

Thank goodness for women, diet and exercise are already bio-engineered inside our hormone make-up! And it doesn’t require us to do the same exercise and eat the same foods every single day. In my last post I broke down how our changing bodies love for us to go hard when it’s time to go hard and go low and slow when it’s time to downshift. Check out cycle syncing exercise here.

The cycle consists of 4 weeks of phasic energy based on hormone fluctuations. As I researched the menstrual cycle phases and their corresponding energies I quickly understood that they line up with the 4 seasons in a temperate climate.

I have been a gardener for many years. I live in a climate (zone 7b) that provides all four seasons fully. An interesting connection occured when I studied cycle syncing nutrition. The foods recommended across all of my research confirms that each phase of the month lines up with what is in season throughout the year. How cool is that?!

Supporting our menstrual cycle is more than about being fertile to become pregnant or minimizing pms or menstrual symptoms. We eat to support our bodies by supporting our hormone make-up which in turn supports every organ function in our body. We know that estrogen is a big player hormone helping us to ovulate and to grow uterine lining. But estrogen receptors are in other organs as well including skeletal, cardiovascular, central nervous, immune system and even the colon liver and bladder!¹ This is a big deal. Progesterone has receptors in the brain including cerebellum, pituitary and central nervous system. Receptors were also found in the urinary system and the GI tract and still progesterone has not been fully explored². I’m going to let that sink in. Our hormones are working on many cellular levels..

What we eat matters! What we eat can help support healthy hormone balance.³

Changing eating habits, just like starting exercise is kind of a big deal. And by that I mean it can be very hard. But I want you to know that our bodies already know what to eat even our minds don’t.

Have you ever found yourself craving a burger, fries, chocolate before your period? I do, every month. In fact I crave wings too! There is a biological reason for that.

The body naturally needs to ramp up calories, vitamins, minerals, carbs, fats and protein to perform a multi-step process to menstruate. Within that craving of:

beef- iron (blood building), B vitamins (mood regulating),

fries- carbs (fuel for cellular function), oils (anti-inflammatory)

chocolate- magnesium (relax muscles reduce cramps and promote sleep)

Now of course the quality and quantity of these foods matters a great deal. Poor quality of beef, potatoes, oils and chocolate are not going to deliver the nutrition that the body is asking for. But you are not weak-minded or a glutton for these cravings. Our bodies are talking to us! What if we listen and substitute healthy alternatives to satisfy these cravings by choosing quality foods that meet the demands.

More on that when I cover the late luteal/fall phase.

Okay, back to the phases and seasons.

Each phase lines up with each season of the year.

• Week 1: Menstruation: Winter

• Week 2: Late Follicular: Spring

• Week 3: Ovulation: Summer

• Week 4: Late Luteal: Fall/Autumn

• Week 1: Winter: Warm soups and stews

• Week 2: Spring: cool weather harvest of fresh citrus fruits, sprouts, cruciferous veggies

• Week 3: Summer: warm weather harvest with melons, peppers, squashes and berries

• Week 4: Fall: cool weather season producing cruciferous veggies like broccoli and also root veggies like pototoes and onions

If we begin to think about when our food is most abundant in each season, it can serve as a natural guide to eat these foods in each of our mentrual weeks.

What if we begin to meal plan thinking about what sounds yummy to have in each new week of our month that lines up with seasonal eating? Will it line up with natural cravings?

When do we begin to add some foods for our seasons?

As you come out of Winter phase (Day 1-Day 7) and feel ready to start something new, plan and make a list, begin to look at the month ahead. In each of your inner Seasons add a few foods that sound good to you for each week that line up with what’s in season. For example, if you already love to make smoothies? Prioritize that in Week 2 and 3. Do you have a favorite soup? Put that in Week 1!

Now that I’ve got you thinking about food, stay tuned. My next post will be all about Eating with the Flow: Follicular Phase. We’ll take a look at a Spring harvest and see what connections there are to supporting estrogen, luteinizing hormone and follicular stimulating hormone to help our bodies get ready for ovulation.

*In some cases eating and exercising doesn’t help symptoms of PMDD, PMS, PCOS, Endometriosis, fibroids and other reproductive issues. It is always best to talk to your healthcare provider before starting any new eating habits or exercise plans. Every woman is different. This information is not designed to treat or diagnose any illness or pathology. All information provided is my own personal research and opinion.

There is a lot of research that needs to be done. I am still learning so much when it comes to cycle syncing. Re-thinking what I eat in each phase has been something I am starting to incorporate. It has also been really interesting to keep my awareness going through my month to see what I naturally want to eat or don’t want to eat.

I would love to hear if you cycle sync your meals and what tricks you have found or what changes you have seen by doing it!

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4192010/

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9968951/

3. https://www.ifm.org/news-insights/nutrition-impacts-hormone-signaling/