If you’re aiming to live more healthfully, consider giving cycle syncing a try! Don’t let your monthly hormonal fluctuations be a detriment to your well-being. Through this practice, you can make small changes to your nutrition and activity levels based on your menstrual cycle. It will help your body feel better as you move from phase to phase.
In this post, I’ll explain how you can start a cycle syncing diet so you can feel great every day of the month.
What Is Cycle Syncing?
Cycle syncing is the practice of aligning your lifestyle with the different phases of your menstrual cycle.
The levels of hormones in your body fluctuate as you move from one phase to another, which impacts every single one of your body’s physiological processes. Most noticeably, your cycle can impact your energy levels and mood.
The average cycle spans 28 days, but every person is different so your cycle might be shorter or longer. These are the main changes your body goes through during different phases of the menstrual cycle:
- Menstruation/menses (1-5 days): This is the first phase, when you’re on your period. Your uterus sheds its lining (hence, period bleeding). Your estrogen and progesterone are at their lowest.
- Follicular (9 days): Your period is over, and your estrogen and progesterone levels are on the up and up.
- Ovulation (3 days): This is when hormones are truly raging, with your highest levels of estrogen. Your progesterone is still working its way up!
- Luteal (10 days): At the start of this final phase, your hormones (especially progesterone) are quite high but then they gradually start to drop. You may experience PMS symptoms.
How To Start Cycle Syncing
So how do you start cycle syncing? Start out by tracking your cycle. Your period is the signal that your cycle is starting, and when it ends, you know you’ve moved into the next phase. Based on that, you can also figure out how your body moves through the other phases of the cycle.
Ideally, keep track for at least a few months so you can also determine the average length of your cycle. The more data you track, the better. Everything from how you feel, what you want to eat, and how much energy you have from day to day are worth noting.
Period tracking apps can be useful for this, but can also have some privacy risks that you may want to take into account.
Cycle Syncing Diet
One of the major aspects of cycle syncing is your nutrition. Your body needs slightly different nourishment depending on the phases of your cycle. Those changes aren’t major, but more like small adjustments in calorie counts, nutrients, and digestibility, to account for what your body needs at any given time.
In fact, certain aspects of your diet shouldn’t change from phase to phase. Your diet should always consist primarily of whole, natural foods, and you should always try to limit foods that are highly processed, sugary, or high in saturated and trans fats.
To my own clients, who often experience hormonal imbalance, I also recommend introducing seed cycling, which means eating certain ground seeds throughout the cycle. Seeds are a source of healthy fats and hormone-modulating lignans that can improve your body’s hormone synthesis.
That said, here are the nutritional goals for each part of your cycle:
Menstrual Phase Nutrition
Prioritize foods that increase your iron levels. That doesn’t just mean iron, but also foods rich in B vitamins – especially B12. Eat more dark, leafy greens, beans, and, if you’re a meat eater, this is your time to eat red meat.
Vitamin C can also help your body absorb iron, which is another great reason to eat a lot of veggies. Additionally, try to keep your diet comforting. Don’t force yourself to eat, and take the time to rest and do light activities.
Additionally, considering introducing flax seeds and pumpkin seeds (a tablespoon each) into your diet. Flax seesd are rich in omega 3, which provides the building blocks for your body to produce hormones, and pumpkin seeds which are rich in omega-6 fatty acids and zinc. You can boost your omega-3 consumption further by also adding in flax seed oil!
Follicular Phase Nutrition
As your hormones start to climb, it’s useful to eat foods that will help the process along. Keep it light and fresh, with a lot of fiber-rich foods. Cruciferous vegetables can be particularly beneficial for your body during this time. That includes broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.
If you’re trying seed cycling, continue eating the same seeds as in the menstrual phase.
Ovulation Phase Nutrition
With higher estrogen levels, you’ll probably notice an increase in energy. This is a good time to slightly increase your caloric intake. Eat foods that will keep you full and help your body process the rise in estrogen. That means eating more complex carbs, slightly more protein, and a diverse range of fresh vegetables loaded with micronutrients.
At this point, you can also switch to a tablespoon each of sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, and consider adding in evening primrose oil for a balanced portion of omega 6.
Luteal Phase Nutrition
The luteal phase is very transitional, so you’ll probably find that you’re still energetic at the beginning. Then, as you move through the phases, that may start to decline. First, you can keep up your ovulation phase diet, with a slightly higher caloric intake and high-protein foods. Then, as your period nears, start taking it easy and focus more on foods that’ll keep your iron levels up.
Holistic, Informed Syncing
Cycle syncing is energizing and useful, especially if your menstrual cycle is quite consistent. That said, even the ideal cycle syncing diet isn’t one-size-fits-all! Our bodies need different nutrients based on a wide range of factors.
Many women experience disrupted cycles, often as a result of hormonal imbalances or underlying conditions. This lack of consistency can make it even harder to figure out how to start cycle syncing.
If you’d like to optimize your nutrition based not just on your cycle, but also on the individual factors that impact your life, working with a naturopath or cycle syncing nutritionist might be the answer. As holistic medicine practitioners, we first make sure to gain a complete understanding of what’s going on inside your body through functional medicine testing.
So whether you’re interested in adjusting your diet for weight loss, better digestion, or just an overall healthier body, book a consultation. We can work together to develop a holistic nutritional plan customized to your body’s unique needs.