I Tried Cycle Syncing For A Month, And Now I’m One With My Hormones

How many of us naturally expect our periods to suck every month? Women are taught that the 3-7 days we menstruate every month are going to be a nightmare and there’s not much we can do about it.  

The average period lasts 5.5 days. Females start getting their period around age 12 and reach menopause around 51. That’s 2,574 days – or a little over 7 years – that we’re supposed to be in pain. Yeah, I’ll pass.

If you’re like me, you hate your period. I have been to doctors, OBGYNs, and even the emergency room because of my monthly uninvited guest. And who says being a woman isn’t a hoot? 

All jokes aside, when I heard of cycle syncing and found out that there was a possibility to make my periods and my entire life a little easier, I jumped on it.

It’s the Cycle of Life

If you’re someone who gets their period, you know that periods, hormones, and cycles have a huge impact on what we do in our lives. The problem is, we don’t know the extent of that impact. We haven’t been taught that every phase of our hormone cycle is just as, if not more, important as our menstrual phase.

Our hormones change throughout the month and we don’t pay attention to them. We force ourselves to wake up at 5 am and follow a strict schedule when our bodies are pleading with us to slow down on certain days and weeks. This is why we need cycle syncing.

What is Cycle Syncing? 

Cycle syncing simply means syncing your diet, workout, social, and personal life to certain parts of your cycle. Throughout our hormonal cycle, our bodies specialize in certain social, active, and personal activities. The fascinating thing about our cycles is that our bodies don’t want us to stick to one routine all month; instead, it asks us to shake things up a bit nearly every week.

Alisa Vitti, author of WomanCode and In the Flo, hormonal health expert, and expert in all things cycle-syncing has done years of research on how hormones can improve women’s lives rather than wear them down. Her story began when she was told medication and guesswork were the only solutions to her painful periods, so she made it her new goal to find healthy and holistic ways to have painless periods. 

Society Vs. Cycles

I’ve been in the bulletproof and biohacking communities for two years now, I’ve joined the ‘5 am club’, tested some successful celebrity morning routines, and I still practice an intermittent fasting schedule.

While these lifestyles work for me and have helped me in my fitness journey, they aren’t made for women. The majority of these lifestyles were invented and studied by men. 

Have you ever tried to keep up with your male bestie or significant other’s routine and failed miserably? That’s because women aren’t physically built the same as men. It’s not sexist, it’s proven biology. We just have a hormonal cycle that differs from men’s.

Our metabolism and hormones aren’t the same as men’s. Ours are dependent on our menstrual cycle and infradian while men’s are circadian. In other words, every time a man goes to sleep, he gets a hormone reset. Yet we get a hormone reset once a month. So that’s the first lesson in cycle syncing: don’t compare yourself to the opposite gender.

Why We Need to Cycle Sync

Insider reports that 70-80% of women athletes don’t perform at their peak performance during their menstrual cycles.

The US Women’s Soccer Team caught onto cycle syncing and used it to gain success on and off the field. The head coach, Dawn Scott, says that the team tracks their periods just like they do their heart rates.

When the women started cycle syncing and paying attention to the care and nutritions their bodies needed during their menstrual period, their cramps, fatigue, and mood changes lessened for 78% of them.  

Have you ever worked out a ton for a week or two, only to come back one day barely able to do a pushup? That’s because certain phases in our cycle call for activity or rest. We need to be careful about how much we exercise and the training we decide to do — another reason I love cycle syncing.

What About Birth Control?

You can still cycle sync if you’re on birth control! If you still get a period while you’re on birth control, that’s easy enough. If you don’t get a period, try the holistic way and cycle sync with the moon phases. Many women sync up with the moon naturally, so you’re one step ahead of the game. 

How Do You Start Cycle Syncing?

I watched a wonderful video that breaks down cycle syncing. In it, Jillz Guerin suggests that because cycle syncing can take over your entire life, you start with just one section (Diet, work, exercise, social, or sexual) and you continue to improve on that throughout the month.

It’s hard to 100% know when you’re in different phases, so you might want to use an app to track your cycle. Some of our favorite apps are Clue, Flo, Eve, Cycles, and MyFLO. The MyFlo app, created by Alisa Vitti, will be the most intuitive and helpful for starting cycle syncing.

The Cycle: 

Menstrual Phase

Lasts 1-5 days.

Food: Cozy and warm foods that are easy to digest: Soups, stews, herbal teas. 

Workout: Take time for rest and don’t push yourself. Walking and yoga are the best options. 

Work: Be slower, easier, and gentler with yourself. This is a good time to rest and evaluate. You’ll have the most access to your intuition at this time as well.

Social: Spend less time with your friends and partner during this phase. Focus on resting and self-care during this time. 

Sex and Intimacy: Your interest in sex and intimacy will decrease during this time.

Follicular Phase

Lasts 7-10 days.

Food: Eat lighter and more vibrant foods. Sautéed and steamed vegetables are great. 

Workout: You’ll probably get a burst of energy, so cardio and dancing are great during this phase. You also should try something new during this phase, so if you’ve been craving a certain workout, now is the time. 

Work: Your creative energy will be at an all-time high at this stage of the cycle, so start new projects and get newly inspired.

Social: This is a good time to go out with your friends and partner and try something a little different. 

Sex and Intimacy: Again, this is the ‘try something new phase’, so if you’ve been wanting something new in the bedroom, do it!

Ovulatory Phase

Lasts 3-4 days.

Food: Eat raw and cooling foods because this is one of the ‘hot’ phases in the cycle. Salad, smoothies, and juices. 

Workout: You’ll have the most energy during this phase, so this is the time for HIIT. You’ll also be the most social, so maybe find a group workout class! 

Work: Focus on the work that involves your communication and vocal skills. If you’re the boss, this is when you should plan meetings. If you make presentations, this is when you should give them. 

Social: This is a good time to go to or host a party. Don’t sit at home alone during this time, or you might suffer from some cabin fever.

Sex and Intimacy:  We are the most appealing to the opposite sex at this time because we’re at peak fertility. If you’re single, this is your time to go out on a first date.

Luteal Phase

Lasts 14 days.

Food: Eat roasted root vegetables, carrots, squash, and also a lot of fiber because that will help us flush out our bodies. Your body needs more calories during this time. 

Workout: Move away from less cardio-based activities and more strength-based. Pilates, barre, and weight training are most helpful. 

Work: This is the time to wrap things up at the end of the month. You might feel less motivated and less inspired, but you will get shit done during this time. 

Social: The cozy times are going to be best here. Date nights should be Netflix and chill and making food at dinner. 

Sex and Intimacy: Most people aren’t in the mood during this phase. This isn’t to say you can’t have sex, but it might be a good time to bring out the lube or do something a little more chill.

The Month

This picture is an accurate portrayal of what my room looked like after I heard about cycle syncing. I have sticky notes, charts, websites, podcasts, and Instagram memes all about cycle syncing. I started the month not too sure if this would be a miracle cure to turn my hormones around and make them work for me. But after two days, I called my partner and told him that I would never stop. Two days and I was already sold. Spoiler: It didn’t stop after 2 days.

My Phases

Luteal Phase

I started and ended this challenge during my luteal phase. Any doubt I had that cycle syncing wasn’t legit was squashed the second I wrote all the facts down. Let me say this: If cycle syncing isn’t accurate, there is something in the water. Every fact I wrote down, everything I had been feeling and thinking, everything lined up completely. 

I was drawn to yoga, barre, and pilates workouts, I cooked more root vegetable dishes because I felt like it, and just yesterday I decided that I couldn’t start anything new, I would feel better if I wrapped everything up. I am shocked by how accurate this already is. 

The luteal phase was kind of my boss bitch phase. These were the days when I sat down to work and cured world hunger at the end of them. Okay, maybe not as extreme, but they were the days when I finished most of my tasks. I will say that I wasn’t necessarily thrilled to work these days, but once I started I didn’t stop.

Menstrual Phase

I could feel this phase before it came. I started to get severely introverted and tired. If one thing threw me off my schedule, I would simply break down.

As soon as I felt my body slowing down, I respected it. Alisa Vitti talked about her workout routine and that it wasn’t that we couldn’t do cardio pushes or HIITs, it was that we would feel them more. If I pushed myself a few times to do my rage cardio kickboxing class or even a quick dance break and I couldn’t move the next day. 

I told my partner I might want a little space, and hunkered down most nights. I limited my exercise and my body thanked me for it. I did push myself a few times, but nothing too extreme.

I felt this phase hit me in my work as well. I love to wake up and get shit done, but this week I took my time, got in my comfies, and slowly went through everything. One source said that this was a great time for number work, and it was. Some of my work this week involved math and problem solving, so I excelled in that. I didn’t stop working, but I did cut some days short and even took a nap this week which I never do. 

I’m not going to sit here and say that it was a painless period and because I knew what to expect, I had no bad emotions, but I will say that I liked knowing everything that would happen and what to do so that I could handle it better.

Follicular

I started pretty slowly during this phase. After 2 days of being slightly sluggish, I woke up and kicked ass. My partner and I traveled during the beginning of the phase, so I had a ton of things to do. While leaving my home and my routine usually make me super anxious, I unknowingly scheduled this trip during my “try something new” phase and felt a lot less stressed about it!

I got the energy I needed and accomplished my tasks in half the time it took me during my menstrual phase. I also was able to work out at the level that I enjoy and I was not nearly as tired as I was during the past phases.

I still got slightly exhausted and was ready to be a quiet introvert. This might be my most outgoing phase, but it doesn’t magically turn me into an extrovert.

Ovulatory

There is absolutely nothing like getting hit with the energy that came from this phase. I was jumping around, getting 6 hours of sleep, and hitting the ground running. Sadly, I couldn’t run every day (traveling), so it did get annoying, but it was good to check why I was so antsy and so energetic. 

Even though I was the most energetic during this phase, I think I was also the most unhealthy. My partner had to grab me a few times and plead with me to be still. I suffered from some toxic positivity during this phase and didn’t love when I had to just rest or be still.

My Results

If I haven’t convinced you yet, please, please try this out. You don’t have to be strict about every aspect of cycle syncing, but I would suggest becoming familiar with the phases in the cycle and starting to pay attention to what your body needs and what phase you’re on. 

I honestly don’t think I’m ever going to stop cycle syncing (until menopause, that is) because it made my life and my cycle so easy to understand and celebrate rather than fear.

I would 100% recommend you try this and teach your daughter this as well. I’d love to see the day when cycle syncing is taught in school in health class because it changed the way I view periods completely. 

Have you ever heard of cycle syncing? Are you going to try it now? Comment below!

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