Women’s Menstrual Cycle

Let’s talk about women’s hormones and our menstrual cycle.

Today, I’m sharing an amazing interview I did with Laura Charelle from Balancedbombshells.com

She is a women’s health and wellness strategist who specializes in hormones and women’s menstrual cycle.

Her journey started because she was trying to find a solution to her acne problem that extended beyond her teenage years.

After talking to her doctor and getting a traditional Easter Medicine solution (get on the pill, use creams with chemicals, etc), she decided to dig deeper and get to the root cause of her acne.

As she embarked on a more holistic approach (looking at foods for clear skin, exercise routine, lifestyle) she realized other symptoms from her hormone cycle such as bloating, mood swings, migraines, and of course the acne, started to disappear.

This is how she got into cycle syncing, a way of aligning your lifestyle with your hormone cycle.

One of the biggest takeaways from this interview is that we have to remember our doctors are trained to solve health issues with a “chemical” approach and perspective. Prescribing drugs or certain procedures is the norm.

They are not trained in nutrition or how food affects our bodies.

I am glad to see there is a shift though, and more doctors have become interested in the holistic approach and functional medicine versus just going back to traditional eastern medicine.

To understand better how women’s menstrual cycle work we need to learn the basics of what happens on each cycle.

There are 4 phases we go through:

The menstrual phase which we all know as that time when we have our period, followed by the follicular phase and this phase lasts between 7-10 days.

We then go into the ovulation phase when we are most fertile (can get pregnant during this phase), lastly we have the luteal phase right before the menstrual phase.

With this information, we can understand our bodies and predict how we may feel or react during each phase.

Here are Laura’s 3 tips to get started on cycle syncing your life:

1. Find a period app and download it to your phone (I use My Calendar but there are a lot of great options out there). Start using it on day 1 of your period. This would be the easiest place to start.
2. Understanding the cycle phases and start tracking your symptoms. Pay attention to when certain symptoms are coming up and on which phase.
3. Pay attention to your energy levels. You energy naturally shifts throughout the month as well. Highest energy during our ovulation phase (baby making time).

I absolutely loved that she reminds us to be kind with ourselves and tune into our energy levels, there is nothing wrong with us when we feel lower energy, it is Mother Nature doing its thing with our bodies.

Also, it is OK to ask for space.

I hope you found this interview useful and share it with your lady friends.

Laura has tons of resources on her website, especially information on food and exercise combos for each phase.

Make sure to check out her Instagram account @laura__charelle

The full interview video can be seen on YouTube or right below.

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