A lazy Sunday turned even lazier last month when I woke up to find I’d started my period. My day was spent with a heating pad over my stomach, wrapped around my low back, sitting across the tops of my thighs, and basically any other part of my body between my belly button and my knees.
Wanting to get to the root of the problem instead of just covering it up with Tylenol and chocolate which, for the record, I’m not above, I wanted to look into more holistic approaches to nourishing and balance my body in a time it clearly needed it.
A wellness buzzword I’d seen scrolling through Instagram (shoutout @leefromamerica), the phrase “cycle-syncing” kept popping into my head, and because nothing in this world is coincidence, I knew I had to investigate further.
What is “cycle-syncing?”
Created by functional nutritionist Alisa Vitti and covered in her book “Woman Code,” Cycle-syncing is essentially a way to biohack your hormones to be your best you, no matter what time of the month it is. We know that as women our hormone levels naturally change throughout the cycle, but other than wanting to just nestle in with Netflix and a ratty pair of sweatpants, we don’t generally grant ourselves permission to leverage those waves, thinking we always needing to be at the top of our game to compensate those few days of the month we feel out of commission.
In her book, Vitti explains why it’s so important to balance these hormones, not just for the sake of feeling better. Viti describes that hormone imbalances begin as nagging symptoms, like mood swings, weight gain, excessive cramping, etc. but when left unchecked can actually create larger health issues.
There are a number of facets to cycle-syncing, like adjusting your diet, how you schedule your social calendar and when/how you take on new projects, but for all intents and purposes (mostly not wanting to be overwhelmed with a complete lifestyle overhaul), this post is dedicated purely to the effects of incorporating cycle syncing into my fitness routines.
What hooked me in to cycle-syncing is that there is no right or wrong, no guilt. It empowers women with information about their bodies to make decisions that helps them unlock things that may have otherwise been hidden as a “weakness.”
