I started following someone on Tik Tok recently.
Her videos around hormones really resonated with me, so much so that I started following her on Instagram as well, mainly because Tik Tok is a black hole and I want to limit my time on there.
She recently shared a cycle syncing guide and I was intrigued. I’ve seen lots of talk about women’s cycles over the years, but I’ve never really bothered to learn about it as I never had a “cycle” until a couple of years ago when I came off the mini pill, so I didn’t see how it would apply to me.
These days, however, I find that one moment I am teary, sometimes I’m exhausted and other times I am full of beans. I want to learn how to work with that, instead of against it, which sometimes feels like the case!
So what is cycle syncing?
It’s a way of adjusting your diet & lifestyle to meet the needs of the four different phases of your cycle. Menstrual, Follicular, Ovulation & Luteal.
Working alongside these different phases making changes to things such as what you eat, which exercise you do and even adding certain seeds to each phase of your cycle is thought to help with various symptoms, such as low mood or tiredness.
So in my constant quest for self-improvement, I thought I have nothing to lose by giving it a go. I started by adding the different phases into my calendar, I’d been logging my cycle in the Clue app so I used that and the guide to figure out roughly when each phase would be, so when I plan my week, I can refer to the guide and see what exercises and food I could include to work with that.
It’s also useful to see potential moods, am I more likely to feel low and tired that week? Probably not going to want to go out much that week then so perhaps arrange to meet up with friends when I’m likely to feel more sociable.
I’m now taking notes on my phone of any symptoms that come up throughout the day, this way, I can see if my pattern fits with the guide or differs in any way and hopefully each month I will learn more about what works for my body.
I wish I had paid more attention to these things earlier on in life so that I could have spent some time getting to know my body and treating it better, instead of neglecting it in the way that I have, but better late than never I suppose.
Whilst it might not stop me from crying in anger when I bang my elbow, it might make me feel less guilty about not doing a workout when I am tired, or staying home when I don’t feel like going out. I will, of course, keep you updated on how it’s going.
If you are also interested in learning more, you can follow @healthwithholland on Instagram or you can sign up for the free cycle-syncing ebook
