Episode 205. Mastering Menstrual Cycle Nutrition and Training

Welcome to the latest episode of the In-situ Collective podcast! In this week's episode, we break down the menstrual cycle phases and how they affect your training, nutrition, and overall well-being. We dive into the follicular and luteal phases, discuss how hormones influence your energy, appetite, and cravings, and share practical tips for aligning your workouts and meals with each cycle stage. From dealing with PMS symptoms to the best foods for supporting hormonal health, this episode will give you actionable advice for confidently navigating your cycle. Tune in to learn how to optimize your performance and feel your best throughout the month!

Links to our resources:

Fueling Your Training Across the Menstrual Cycle: https://www.in-situcollective.com/articles/female-nutrition

Master Your Menstrual Cycle: https://www.in-situcollective.com/collection/p/master-your-menstrual-cycle

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:20 Understanding menstrual cycle impacts on nutrition and training
• 2:20 Women should aim for 25-50g of protein post training within the hour
• 7:15 Adjust training and nutrition based on menstrual cycle phases
• 14:00 External factors impact the menstrual cycle
• 16:15 Addressing Iron Deficiency in Women's Diet
• 22:17 A Balanced diet is important for hormonal phases.
• 28:30 Importance of nutrition and self-acceptance during menstrual cycle
• 34:30 Magnesium supplements can help smooth muscle contraction and reduce cramps
• 38:40 Review contraception methods for long-term health.
• 40:40 Coming off hormonal birth control can have various effects on the body.

Transcript

what is up everybody welcome back to the in-situ collective podcast in today's episode we are going to be talking about the menstrual cycle now before all of the guys leave don't this is also important for you to understand um we're going to be coveringthe basics of the menstrual cycle how itimpacts training as well as nutritionand I think it's important for the guysto get a basic grasp of this stuff aswell because all of you also interactwith women most likely on a daily basisand understanding this is going to helpyou understand them a little better andideally have better relationships athome with friends in the workforcewherever it is so shall we get into somefrequently asked questions first let'sdo it recently I feel like it's been Idon't know if it's me or if it's otherwomen that I'm talking to seem to behaving a lot ofquestions about their periods because tobe honest we don't learn like a lot inhigh school and even if you do learn abit it's probably not that relevantanymore if you're like mid 20s 30s evenum and onwards it gets even moreconfusing like talking about menopauseand everything so hence why we're doingthis topic now have we done it in thepast we have done it a long time agothough that's why I wanted to redo itafter you said you had a few questionsit's like oh it's been a long time sincewe did this yeah get some updatedinformation for you guys hey everybodywe will get back to the episode in justone second but if you are interested inthis topic and you want to learn alittle bit more about fueling aroundyour menstrual cycle then we have tworeally valuable resources one is fuelingacross the menstrual cycle which is ablog post and the second is how tomaster your menstrual cycle which justgoes into a little bit more depth behindthe nutrition and the specific foods youcan include depending on where you arein your cycle as well as a little bit ofinformation about training with yourmenstrual cycle to help you get the bestout of the whole month I guess let's getback to the episode so firstly thequestion that I get the most because Ithink I briefly mentioned it often onpodcasts is how soon after trainingshould I eat so it's different for menand women men can generally get awaywith not eating anything for potentiallyup to 3 hours after training dependingon what their goals are but for womenresearch recently so just just a sidenote research on women's health is poorthere's not much it's only reallyprobably in the last 5 years that womenhave been seriously considered inresearch and that's because prior it wasjust too hard likehonestly women's hormones fluctuate sofrequently that it's hard it's a lotharder to gather data becauseeverything's different everywhere allover the place um so a lot of studiesare mostly men um so now we're startingto get more research about womentraining nutrition and just our GeneralHealth needs which is amazing so Recentresearch um shows that women should aimfor 25 to 50 g of protein post trainingwithin thehour that sounds crazy right within thehour like I don't do that I've startedyesterday doing that um because honestlyI don't I usually train and then takethe dogs for like a long walk so I don'teat anything um but because ourmetabolisms and our hormones are alittle different to men's it's importantfor us to immediately start replenishingprotein stores straight after if we wantto get the benefits of strength trainingif you don't really care about thebenefits like if you don't want to havestrong tendons ligaments joints musclesbones you can eat it as late as you wantafter training but if you want all ofthosethings 25 to 50 grams of protein posttraining now Dr Stacy Sims if any of youwant to like dive into this further thatis the woman that I recommend looking upshe has a really great book called rawum she's also been a guest on a bunch ofpodcasts but she also suggests that ifyou're younger say in your 20s 30s early40s sopremenopause you can get away withhaving 15 to 30 gram of proteinpost-workout if youare per menopause orpostmenopause 30 50 60 gr of proteinlike it's very very important for you tomake sure you're getting also qualityprotein but an adequate amount ofprotein straight after you train sobasically you want a decent mealafter you train yeah in an ideal worldyou would have like lunch or dinner soyou want to have like a good source ofprotein in there ideally carbohydratesas well and then obviously fiber littlefats so a well balanced meal everythingbut if you can't do that then like aprotein shake with say almond milk forlike the carbohydrates after the workoutis better than nothing at all andwaiting until your next meal yeah 100 %cool okay next question can I exerciseduring my period are there any healthbenefits to exercising during yourperiod during your period okay so toclarify first when I introduced thepodcast I said we're going to be talkingabout the menstrual cycle which is amonthlong cycle a period is a weekwithin the cycle we'll come back to thebasics after I answer some frequentlyasked questions just to clarify um butshould you exercise during your periodare there any benefits I would say yesbut it strongly depends on theindividual because everyone's period isvery very different some women bleed soheavy that like sneezing can be adisaster walking between the couch andthe bathroom is difficult so it dependson you as a person and what your periodis like but if you can exercise duringyour period Then yes because especiallyweight training is going to helpwith cramps um like the blood flow yourmood your energy levels all of thebenefits that you get from weighttraining normally you're obviously goingto get while you're on your period youprobably won't be as strong and youprobably won't be able to do a lotof certain lifts or movements but youjust have to sort of go in take it easyplay around with what feels good umbecause trust me from firsthandexperiencegoing and lifting weights even when Ihave the worst cramps ever always makesme feel better afterwards cramp wise andit also will likely make your bleed alittle lighter so there'll be like lessblood which is I mean who wants to bleedout of their body anywhere at anypoint so you just follow the sameprogram and just adjust a suit yes so Iwill follow the same program and I willjust either do like a whole set less solike if there's four sets of 10 I'llprobably do three three sets one superlight set and then probably two setsthat are not my heaviest but are still achallenge because of this time in themonth but it's just really reallylisteningto your body like there is a bit ofresearch out there at the momentabout training through the phases ofyour cycle to get the most out of yourtraining um but you C there's no blanketanswer to say this is when you should dohit training this is when you should gofor PRS this is when you should do thisdepends on youbecause everyone feels differentthroughout their whole cycle not evenjust in regards to your period so veryindividual highly recommend trying ifyou can and just do what you can justbecause you have your period doesn'tmean you shouldn't try at all and youhave to do yoga necessarily but ifthat's what you want to do also greatbut just try just try it see what worksbest see what makes you feel better ifand if it makes you feel worse then justgo for a walk instead but any kind ofexercise is going to be beneficial whileyou have yourperiod okay nextquestion how does the menstrual cycle aaffect appetite andCravings this is a really good onebecause I feel like it's a commonmisconception is it a misconception Ithink so that when women have theirperiod they just want to eat ice creamchocolate cookies cake Etc and that istrue mostly because we aren't increasingour calories from good sources of foodso after you ovulate which is the middleof your menstrual cycle your hormonesare going to change and your appetite isgoing to increase the week before yourperiod and probably the week of yourperiod you're going to be more hungryand you should eat more good food youshould especially eat more protein andyou should especially eat more complexcarbohydrates so that's potatoes likesweetpotatoes oh my God why I can't of thinkof any complex carbohydrates vegetablesin generalrice it's like so slow absorbingcarbohydrates just generally increasingthe size of your meals I think is whatworks best for me or adding in a fourthsmaller meal like a fourth smaller snackum because often we like oh I havecravings but you might just genuinelyjust be more hungry and you're likebecause I'm tired and Moody the thingthat I want is cake chocolate ice creamEtc because those things make you feelgood temporarily right so when we goback and talk through the phases of themental cycle I have included little bitson where to include what vitamins andminerals depending on the face to helpcombat the symptoms cuz like the list ofsymptoms is endless so how does themental cycle affect yourCravings I'll come back to it okay yeahmhm next I feel like I kind of answeredthis but should I adjust my workoutsbased on where I am at in my menstrualcycle it dependsum if you feellike honestly if you feel okaybasically it's hard to give specificadvice because it's a very general areabutafter you have your period so once youfinish bleeding that is when your energyand mood levels should start to comeback up before you ovulate so thinkabout so ovulation is when you can getpregnant the few days to a week whereyou can actually get pregnant and sothink about it from the perspective oflike an animal that isn't a human beforethey're ready to get pregnant they wouldlike show themselves off like a peacockfor example would be like look at howpretty I am like men come and find let'sget pregnant because that's what we weredesigned to do right so once you finishyour period and before you ovulate thatis the window where you should feel likeyour best have the most energy your skinis probably the best like this is thetime when you have the least amount ofacne you'reprobably the skinniest for lack of abetter term like you have the leastamount of bloating you should feelreally good about yourself um andgenerally your like skin hair eyes willreflect that because of your hormones sothis is the time that you should pushyour hardest this is when you caninclude more high intensity training ifthat's what you want to do this is whenyou can do better in enduranceactivities this is when you could go forPRS if like personal bests if that'swhat um you're working towards so afteryour period before you ovulate is whenyou can ideally push your hardesteveryone's different though and thenafter you ovulate it's like a downhillbattle until you get your period againyou're going to start to get more tiredmore hungry less St like you'll I noticeI'm less physically strong in the gym atthis point but doesn't mean youshouldn't try stillum I think you just have to listen toyour body and I was going to say that aswell but regardless of where you are inyour mental stru and this this is forguys as well like you should still belistening to your body just becauseyou're in the partfor women obviously if you're in thepart of the management ccle where youneed to like when you can push and gofor PRS just because you're in thatperiod doesn't mean you go and push ashard as you possibly can if you're doingthat every single month you're probablygoing to end up injuring yourself likeso that's where I say it's stillprobably a good idea to follow a programbe mindful of where you're at justbecause you're feeling strong doesn'tmean you push for like a deadlift 1 RMevery single month yeah uh no one doesthat like I've done that in the past itdoesn't end well so just be smart aboutit as well like if you're yeaheverything's optimized to be absolutelypumping it out but just because you'renot feeling it or if you're new toexercise doesn't mean you push thatextra bit harder and injure yourselfthen you can't train at all I also thinkthat one like a menstrual cycle is justone part of how you feel about trainingso sure you have hormonal fluctuationsand sure you can listen to them but alsothere's going to be a lot of otherexternal factors that are impacting youregardless of whether you men straightor not so like sleep how much foodyou've eaten stress your mood theweather all of these things on top likethe mental cycle is just anotherunfortunately another condition thataffects how you feel and it just happensto go on a monthly basisokay they are the FAQs that I wanted tocover did you have anything that comesup frequently in thegym um probably more like ironsupplements are you going to touch onthat or yeah yep yeahokay now let's I guess get into thephases to clarify what the flip ishappening every single monthso basically we start with menstrationso week one of the cycle the four- weekcycle for most women because again it'sdifferent for everyone um Starts day oneof your cycle starts the day that youstart your period first day of the monthyeah that's it works just like that noum so I highly recommend if this is allnew to you and you're like what the whatthe flippity heck Mac how am I supposedto keep up with all of these movingParts cuz there are a lot of movingParts there's a lot to remember I highlyrecommend getting some sort of periodmenstrual cycle tracking app I just usethe Apple Health app it's free you canleave notes you can add your symptomsyou add when you bleed you add when youovulate and it predicts when you'regoing to bleed next it predicts whenyou're ovulating completely free veryeasy to use okay so if you're going tostart using that start when you firststart your next bleed on the first dayget the app and log I got my periodtoday now a period can last between 3and 9 days it depends on the person umthis is when your hormones drop to thelowest and your uterine lining breaksdownso this is your body being like Oh wehaven't been impregnated let's clear outthis so that we can try again the nextmonth it's so crazy to me that everysingle month your body's like where'sthe babybasically um so this is why obviouslyyou feel depleted because your body isshedding like your utter and lining andthat is often why a lot of women aredeficient in Iron soif you aren't eating enough if youaren't getting enough iron from yourdiet this is definitely something thatwomen in particular have to payattentionto you're probably going to have tosupplement I don't really recommend itif you can avoid it I did say the otherday on Tik Tok actually you can get cuzif you cook and cast iron pans your foodabsorbs the iron from the pan and thenyour body uses that like if you were toeat a steak for example so you can buythese little ironfishes they're Canadian made and you putthe the fish in your food when you'recooking it so that your food absorbs theiron and it's basically like an ironsupplement but it's coming from the fishinto your food and then you're eatingthe food and you can get a similaramount of iron from that cookie so thefish is a piece of it's a piece of ironsorry not an actual fish um I don't knowwhy it's afish okay anyway but it's a yeah so it'sa little it's a little chunk of ironymuch in the shape of a fish and if youcook with that then that's like addingiron to your diet but if you just cookwith cast iron like yeah cast iron aswell same thing but I feel like a lot ofpeople don't cook with cast iron thesedays I don't know it's not that commonum so yeah and if you are iron deficientthis is a really good time for you topay attention to that like if you arefeeling like lightheadeddizziness extra tired um extra flatthey're all sign that you are low iniron like if you're at the gym andyou're lifting weights and then youstand up and you get like woo maybeconsider going and getting blood teststo see where your iron levels are yourdoctor is probably going to recommend aniron supplement because it's a very easysolution but just ask them what otheralternatives are there like should youconsider changing your diet should youtalk to someone about your diet umbecause I I just recommend everyoneshould get their vitamins and mineralsfrom their diet first and thensupplements are on top of that right soat this time it's ideal to base yourdiet around anti-inflammatory foods CUthere's a lot going on there's a lot ofinflammation um everything's changing sothat would be likeblueberries oily fish so like salmonleafy greens especially things likebroccoli spinach kale any of those darkleafy greens avocado olive oil nuts andseeds so they're the sort of foods thatyou want to really pay attention toincluding in your diet and thenobviously red meat is where you're goingto get your iron from you get a littlebit from the dark leafy greens as wellso like the broccoli spinach Etc um butnot as much as red meat obviously alittle bit in eggs but still if youdon't have any red meat in your diet atall and you have any of the symptomsthat I just mentioned I would considergetting it checked because having enoughiron makes gives is a huge impact on howyou feel like energy wise it's insanebecause I used to be iron deficient andI used to be on all thesupplements um and the differencebetween me having my period Then when Iwas iron deficient to me having it nowtwo completely different people like Iwould be in bed for the first two daysbecause everything hurt so bad the bleedwas so bad my life was over pretty muchevery 3 weeks which is crazy like that'sno way to live rightum so yes consider that and thenobviously at this timeum if you're worried about iron andabsorbing the iron make sure you'rehaving foods that have vitamin C in themas well because vitamin C helps withiron absorption so especially if you'rehaving asupplement make sure you're havingenough vitamin C because sometimessupplements alone can be hard to digestand hard for your body to absorb so justhaving vitamin C in your diet as well isgoing to increase the odds that youactually are getting the most out of thesupplement so everyone knows what's whathas vitamin C right Citrus Foodscapsicums Tomatoes leafy greens leafygreens um the last thing to consider inweek one the men the period isminimizing sugar I know it's crazybecause all you want is sugar um spicyfoods highly fat foods so like trans fatso like chips and pastries which is allyou ever want when you have your periodalcohol I can't even emphasize howdifferent I feel when I have alcoholeven the week before I bleed my periodis so much worse when I do bleed andthen coffee depends on the person um butif you're having way too much caffeinethen your symptoms of like the moodswings and the tightness are going to beway more extreme because you're goingfrom you're tired before your period soyou're probably increasing your caffeineintake and then you get your period I dohonestly I still do it every month yousee me do it it gets closer and closerto my period And I go from like onecoffee a day to two coffees a day tothree coffees a day with two hotchocolates and then I get my period andit's just like I'm going to diebasically but I don't I'm still here umdo you have any questionsabout the the week of theperiod um did you mention how caffeinecan just stop the iron absorption aswell oh true if you're having caffeinearound the same time that you're eatingiron so say you're having a steak fordinner who would have coffee at dinnerit's only like a 1 to two hour windowyeah I I feel yeah sorry you go no goingto say like if you're already eatingenough food like I feel like you're fineyou eat enough food to cover all thebases coffee is probably not going toaffect it too much but if you're alreadydeficient and you're on supplements forir and all that sort of stuffand you're heavily caffinated most ofthe day you're probably going tocounteract that so the caffeine doesstop the absorption of it yeah so againindividual where you're at but yeah ifyou're heavily relying on supplements toget your iron but you're also drinking alot of caffeine could be a good idea tojust sort of cut back on the caffeine abit yeah especially obviously in thisweek one week one week one okay nowlet's go to week two this is when westart the fcul phase fcul what a stupidword but this is this is when you feelthe best so this is like the peacockphase you're like glowing you're vibrantyou're energetic you're creative you'reprobably more switched on you can get alot more done in the day um everythingis great for the next s to 10 days andthen it starts to go downhill um thisphase I wouldsay it's not as important your nutritionbut if you can still dial in yournutrition now then it's going to help inthe future phases right um so obviouslyjust following a healthy balanced dietin particular adequate fats in thisphase and protein like protein is notgoing anywhere for this whole cycle itneeds to be your best friend um butadequate fats in this in this timebecause you can afford to eat a littleless like volume wise um and this thesecond phase which we'll get into in aminute the L phase is when you're morehungry and you need more energy sothat's when you're going to focus oncarbs a little bit moreso yeah does that make sense okay so Ithink it's still important to focus oniron here because you have just bled forpotentially 3 to 10 days um so makingsure you still have those iron foods Ithink this is a good time to focus ongut health a little bit more becauseyou're probably going to be feeling theleast bloated and sometimes the guthealth food to make you feel bloated cuzthey're fermented um so including thingslike yogurt kefa kimchi to help supportthe good gut bacteria before you go intothe next phase super important okaythere's not that much to note here youfeel good make sure you still eat good Ithink if you start to track this stuffif especially if you start to track howyou feel around training and even justhow you feelenergy-wise you will notice how what youeat in the follicular phase severelyaffects your PMS symptoms so thesymptoms that you get before your periodso like if I eat if I have my period AndI eat like a trash rat and then I eatlike a trash rat still after like Idon't dial it back in um my symptoms inthe next period are so so much worse umbecause just yeah a month isn't thatlong of a time for your body to turnover the food that you're havinganyway next we have ovulation so this isabout week three of your menstrual cycleand it lasts 3 to 5 days and this iswhen you release an egg ready tobe what's the word attacked by a spermattacked attacked I feel like it's anattack um welcomed I don't know dependson your situation I guess um so this islike the peak of all of your hormones inthe cycle um this 3 to 5 days andobviously that's when wefeel the best but it's only 3 to 5 daysand it it can be different for a lot ofwomen because sometimes depending onyour ageand like how many menal cycles you'vehad it can um be a little uncomfortablelike you can get a little bit of startto get a little bit of bloating a littlebit of ovulation pain so it's sort oflike you got period cramps but notreally period cramps um but also it'svery individual so majority of womenwill feel great but if I'm saying to younow you're hearing me saying this iswhen you're going to feel the best andyou don't feel the best that's also likenormal you know what I mean like you'llstill feel the best out of the wholemonth but you might have some slightlike twinge feelings because you'rereleasing a freaking egg from youruterus you know what I mean so it's notlike an easy process for your body to dobut inan that if you like have a healthybalanced diet in the leadup to this thenit should be smooth sailing mhm MH sothis is when you want to go for PRS ifwe're talking about PRS this is when youwant to go on like long runs rows ridesthis is when you want to do heaps of hittraining extra exercise ifthat's if that even aligns with yourgoals yeah yeah okay the last phase theluteal phase week four this isapproximately 10 to 14 days and this iswhen you're going to start coming downyour hormones are going to startdropping so you're going to feel not thebest still you can still feel okay ifyou eat right but it's probably theworst part of the cycleso I don't even know where tostart Iguess the most important part here fornutrition is to focus on protein again Imean you're always focusing on proteinbut increasing your um protein intakeespecially if you have cravings becauseprotein is so satiating like you can'teat four chicken breasts and still wantanother chicken breasts whereas you caneat 40 Oreos and still want another 10Oreos you know what I mean so focusingon protein to help with your Cravings issuper important umcomplex carbohydrates like I think Imentioned that when I answered thequestion um to help with energy and justincreasing your overall calories for theday I think it'sjust as a female it's hard to be okaywith eating more sometimes like I know Istruggle with being like okay I'm aboutto get my period it's okay if Ieat an extra snack or an extra musly baror an extra scoop of rice I'm not goingto get fat and diet because my body isusing it as energy you know what I meanand I feel like especially with thewhole body image thing on social medianow it's hard to be okay with eating anadequate amount of food sometimes andalso at this point you're probablystarting to get like bloated and you'retired and you're grumpy and you dodefinitely need more sleep after youovulate like making sure that you giveyourself enough time to be in bed for abit longer if you need to is veryimportant because it's going to help youcontrol your Cravings a lot more controlyour mood a lot more still have enoughenergy in the gym but yeah just alsokeep in mind that at this point in thetime in the in the cycle you're going tobe a little bit more bloatedeverything's going to feel a little [ __ ]but that's okay like you're not fat youcan still eat even though you're bloatedit's fineum so at this point if you were limitingany foods I would say this is when youwould start to limit caffeine ideallymaybe reduce your salt intake a littlebit just to help with the bloatingespecially if you eat processed foods asit is and obviously reduce the processedfoods the most at this point in timeum yeah do you have any other questionsdid I missanything on this phase yeah nookayso basically let's talk before we Idon't want to talk too long about thisbecause itcan get kind of tedious you know butbefore we move on I just want to givesome foods to help prevent and relievePMS because I feel like for the guyslistening PMS is probably the part maybethe second part that they know the mostabout because you experience it likeit's hard to hide when you're extremelytired or when you're really crabby as afemale that's usually when it's going torub off or affect the people around youhavingpremenstrual symptomsso like everyone's premenstrual symptomsare different but generally you're goingto be tired you're going to be grumpyyou're going to be hungry you might bein a bit of pain you might get moreheadaches than normal um and there is alittle you can do with your nutritionnot a huge amountbecause I mean it's not like takingibuprofen or whatever but still I thinkI I should emphasize that like you can'tjust eat a sweet potato pot and it'sgoing to stop your cramps orwhateverlike is that going tostay like this is a it's over a periodof time where you're building up theadequate amount of vitamins and mineralsto support your hormones right so it'slike it's probably going to take you acouple of if you aren't doing all of thethings that I've SE been speaking aboutit's going to take you a couple ofCycles to for your period to startfeeling better and for your PMS toreduceum so but basically what I'm going totalk about is a healthy balanced dietthat's pretty much the fundamentals youwant to make sure that you are havingenough fiber I feel like recently fibersOverlook I don't know if I'm justrecognizing the advantages of fiberbecause I was like sick the other weekand it ruined my stomach but um havingenough fiber in your diet is absolutelycrucial for gut health and healthydigestion which are two things that canbe affectedevery four weeks when you have yourperiod so making sure that you haveenough fiber so that you have gooddigestion good vitamins and mineralsfrom all the fruits and vegetablesquality protein which we talk about allthe time butalso I think it's overlooked like I feellike we on the podcast maybe talk aboutprotein in regards to building muscletoo much but it also helps you feelhappier so it helps with the productionof Serotonin which is our happy hormoneso making sure you have enough proteinjust to try and mitigate some of thesadness that you might experience righthealthy fats obviously super importantespecially omega-3 fatty acids if youdon't eat anyfish highly recommend that you try anomega-3 supplement maybe we should evendo a podcast on likeomega-3 or brain health because it'svery very beneficial for your brain umand then the other one that I thinkis almost like a hack is magnesium somaking sure that you get enoughmagnesium from yourdiet what do what I can't even think ofwhat foods have magnesium bananas darkleafygreens um dark chocolate say that cacaolike honestly sometimes if I have reallybad cramps a hot chocolate not a cabyhot chocolate like a hot chocolate madewith just cacaopowder really really helps it's almostlike Panadol as effective as Panadol umbecause obviously sometimes I'm depletedin magnesiumso yeah if you I think if you experiencereally bad cramps cuz that's probablythe thing that's going to stop peoplethe most from going to the gym is likecuz you feel like you have to physicallybe like hunched over for the cramps umeither like review your diet and makesure you're eating enough magnesium orgo intoa supplement shop what do we have here ahealth food shop and ask for a magnesiumsupplement I can't remember the type ofmagnesium but if you go in and say in ahealth shop like I want magnesium for mysmooth muscles so that's going to helpwith digestionandcramps I think it was magnesium citratecitrate was it citrate I don't know butthere is different magnesiums out therenot all magnesium supplements are thesame thing yeah because like there's adifferent type of magnesium to help yousleep better and there's a differenttype of magnesium that helps with smoothmuscle contraction which is what iscausing cramps like your uterus is likeContracting and it hurts so yeah if youdo struggle with that then considermagnesium because I think if you can getyour cramps down to a pain level that istolerable enough for you to get into thegym and then for you to exercise thatshould help everything I feel likeif basically everything we're talkingabout is to make the lead up to theperiod and the period the most tolerablethat it can be which is kind of crazyisn't it mhm um but if you can make itthe most tolerable that it can be andthen you can still go to the gym becausethe the gym or not even the gym butexercise in general is so beneficial foryour Hormone Health and helping the nextperiod and helping manage this periodand helping stay on top of whatever yourgoals are helping you be mentally okayas wellum yeah I feel like that should be thegoal questions should I should I brieflytouch on contraception MH so I'm notobviously not a doctor or a gynecologistbut from what I from the things thatI've learned about contraception and thethings that I think you guys should knowis that generally if you've gone ontocontraception to help with pm symptomsor help with heavy bleeds or acne orwhatever it is it's only a temporary fixin most cases not every casebut I highly recommend if you are oncontraception just reviewing it just Idon't want to tell anyone what to do butfrom personal experience being oncontraception really really [ __ ] mymental health and my gut health Healthum probably now the research that I'vebeenreading had a negative impact on my bonedensity um just the quality of my entirebody really and I think it's oftenoverlooked because it's so easy for youto go in as a teenager get put oncontraception and then be on it for likeI got put on contraception when I thinkI was 15 years old I didn't question ituntil I was 21 and I started reading andlearning about like nutrition and healthand hormones and like how to be afunctioning woman and I was like waathis is bad maybe I should reconsiderand so now I'm not on contraception butI know my menstrual cycle I know whenI'm going to ovulate I know when I'mgoing to get my period so why do I needcontraception unless I have like some ofthe the problems that I mentionedearlier like really heavy bleedingacne really bad cramps Etc but a lot ofthose thingsalso can be um fixed or not fixed buthelped with nutrition and exercise aswell um so it's just something toconsider because like there's so muchresearch coming out nowabout the negative side effects ofcontraception that we didn't necessarilyhave before because women haven't beenstudied so it's like this thing stopsyou from bleeding some of them have aplacebo bleed so it makes you think thatit's more natural that's not actuallyyour period it's just like a it's awithdrawal bleed from the hormones thatthey added in there to make women feellike it was a natural process like thiswas a natural drug far up I know so it'sfake read the information slip read theslip yes because honestly I was in highschool and one of my high school friendstold me that the period that you getwhen you're on the pill isn't the realisn't your real period And I was likeyes it is like you bleed because in highschool having a period is veryinconvenient so most girls get on thepill and then you're meant to take itfor 3 weeks take a week off it and havethe fakebleed but who's watching you who's goingto stop you and tell you to stop takingthe hormones so everyone in high schoolwould just continuously take thehormones and not have a withdrawal bleedforever because then you don't have aperiod so it's like win-win we thoughtright but then one of my friends waslike oh it's not actually a period it'sjust like your body withdrawing from thehigh dose of hormones that you're givingyourself every day and it starts tobleed and I was like whoa that's kind ofcrazy but my doctor didn't tell me thatum so yeah I'm just saying review yourcontraception methods um especially ifhealth and wellness is a priority to youbecause there are a lot of Alternativesout thereum and yeah I guess everyone's reallydifferent but just something to considerespecially for like long-term Health umreally really important and guys I'd sayit's a good conversation to have withyour partner because if you do careabout him and you want them to live along healthy life then talk to yourpartner about it MH because yeah youbecause even you I came to you and I waslike when we first started dating I waslike I think I want to go off the pillbut like can I and you're like we justfigure out how like they people havedone it before you like just figure outhow you can do it safely and I was likeoh okay because also like it's whenyou've been when you're on it for like10 years I'm going to assume that Mo theaudience listening to this has been onif they're on hormonal birth control andthey're of like the same situation sortof as I've been on they've probably beenon for at least 10 years and coming offsomething like that is going to be aroller coaster because your body's likewhat the heck we've had this exact sameamount this exact same dose of hormonesfor the last 10 years and now it's justgone you're going to be sad you'reprobably going to break out you're mightlose a lot of weight you might gain alittle bit of weight I'm not saying it'sgoing to be super easy but do you wantto have strong bones do you want tobreak your hip when you fall over whenyou're an old lady like do you want tobe able to build muscle do you want tohave better skin like better brainhealth avoid Alzheimer's disease likethe health benefits of not being on contperception far far far outweightheit thebenefits um so yeah something toconsider anything else that you think Ishould talk about any other questionsthat you'vehad no I'd just say like I think youcovered it anyway I just want to doubledown on the fact that you know hormonesare like your body's Health score so thebetter this is for guys and girls thebetter your hormones are it means thehealthier you are are so if you areeating all the foods that you talkedabout that you know cause all sorts ofPSPMS issues like sugar trans fats alcoholtoo much caffeine processed foods allthat sort of stuff then your health isyou're you're sliding towards theunhealthy so if you can remove all thoseyou're sliding towards the healthierwhich makes all like your hormoneshealthier whether regardless if you're aguy or a girl obviously it's a littlebit more important for girls um thenit's just your health score so obviouslyfor females the healthy healthier yourperiod is or themore what what am I what's the yeah noyou you make sense I I do remembersomeone somewhere saying that yourperiod is your report card for the monthif you have really bad PMS if you have areally heavy bleed or it's different ifyou break out heaps then this is yourliteral report card for how you have howwell you've treated your body the 3weeks prior to the bleed probably even12 weeks prior to the bleed Y andovertraining is a big thing as well oh Ididn't even talk about that yeah so yeahobviously if you you think you're doingall the right things you're eating allthe right foods but and training enoughbut your period's a little bit off youmight be training too much so trainingis a big thing as well like put trainingis a stress on your body I think thatunder fueling yeah overtraining so likeif you're training heaps and then you'renot eating enough food and youespecially if your period is not regularor you lose it completely humongous redflag the biggest red flag you can findum so you should definitely consider theintensity of your training and thefrequency and if you're eating enoughcalories um fun fact did it's only inthe last like four to 5 years is thatwomen in sports have been able to talkabout having their period so before theLA 2020 is like the first time thatwomen in sports have really beenrecognized as having a period and beingable to perform better at differenttimes of the month 2020 but before thatif you were a female athlete traininghard enough and eating a lower enoughamount of calories in order to lose yourperiod was considered an accomplishmentbecause you were now like on a moreequal playing field with the men becauseyou didn't have a period so you couldtrain the same all month you didn't haveto bleed it all so now you could competebetter with the men what isn't thatcrazy that could open up a whole anothertopic like gymn gymnast dancers all thatsort of stuff everyone in the Olympicsthat we just observedit's strange and weird world I just willsay one more thing for all the girls outthere that are chasing goals do not useyour body weight as your metric fortracking for Success if you're inMelbourne area and you want come see meat the gym I work at we'll do a bodyscan because that's going to give yourbody fat percentage muscle masshydration bone density uh and ametabolic age score and like your musclemass and your fat body fat percentage iswhat you should be measuring to seesuccess whether you're trying to lookbetter feel better just maintain whereyou are that's what you want to keep aneye on because your your body weight isgoing to fluctuate so much but generallyyou know your muscle mass and your bodyfat percentage is going to stay the sameit's going to vary a little bit but youknow if you are overtraining andundereating it's going to show on thattest so try and get into a gym close toyou wherever you're listening and get aDexter scan or some sort of body scansome of them are pretty bad but it stillgives you betterresults to track off rather than bodyweight yeah I feel like a lot of femalesthat I train get real depressed becausethey put on weight but they're actuallystill seeing results in the gym but itjust doesn't show on the scales which itwon't so just want to add that in aswell yeah definitely um if you have nootherquestions okay I have I'm going to linktwo resources that we have um in theshow notes because like this was a lotof information um so firstly we have aBlog on fueling across the menstrualcycle so how to eat an adequate amountof nutrition depending on where you arein your menstrual cycle written down soit's very easy to follow the other thingthat we have is a master your menstrualcycle guide like a PDF book um whichgoes into a bit more depth about thenutrition for each phase and a littlebit more about training um in each phaseI think it costs like $8 but if you usethe code in situ so In-si Tu at the checkout it will be freeum so yeah just look at those CU I feellike it's a lot to remember um andhaving some sort of reference likephysical reference where you can justquickly go read it I'm starting to feellike [ __ ] what sort of foods should Istart including depending on where I amin my cycle extremely helpful yeah coolawesome obviously you've if you lastthis long you've gotten something out ofit you've enjoyed it and if you're a guystill listening good job 10 points 10points you obviously know somebody thatcould probably benefit from this episodeso please everybody copy the show linkwhether you're on uh podcast platform orYouTube copy the link send it to onefriend or family member coworkertraining buddy anybody and we'llappreciate it they'll appreciate it aswell then we'll talk to you all in thenext episode all right bye[Music]