Holistic Nutrition for the Menstrual Cycle

If you’re looking for a simple way to help yourself and your client’s stay nourished throughout the 4 phases of the cycle, this will give you 5 simple ways help your clients!

My name is Omega, I am an exercise scientists and menstrual cycle educator and I have helped dozens of women simplify eating while supporting their hormones. 

Tip #1: Eat a variety:
So many of us get stuck in a food rut, eating the same types of protein and vegetable day in and day out. But when we do have a variety of foods, our gut microbiome becomes more diverse. A diverse gut microbiome has be linked to healthy outcomes like increased immunity, better estrogen clearance and even greater fitness.

Tip #2: Change your cooking style:
Changing your cooking style is one the easiest ways to tap into your cycle. The amazing book, 4 seasons in 4 weeks, by Suzanne Mathis McQueen details that we have 4 seasons of our cycle. And if we think about the cycle in terms of seasons, it becomes easier to conceptualize how we would eat for those different seasons.

In the bleed phase, our core temperature is lower, so baking foods and sticking to warm broths, soups and stews can be easier on digestion. In the spring / follicular phase, when the body is maturing your follicles, you can try lightly sautee’ing your foods. In the ovulatory phase, since your body is burning less calories, you might not be as hungry. This can be looked at as your inner summer. You can stick to lighter raw foods or give your veggies a little steam before eating. In your luteal phase, just after your basal body temp spikes, you enter your inner autumn, where you might gravitate to more comforting foods. Transitioning your cooking style to baking or throwing everything in a pot for a nice stew can be really supportive in your luteal phase.

Tip #3: Increase fiber intake after ovulation
After you ovulate, your body begins the process of detoxing estrogen at hyperspeed. Estrogen gets treated as a toxin and sent from the liver to the colon, where it’s disposed of. Fiber supports this process by binding to estrogen so that it can be excreted out your bowels. You can support estrogen detox holistically by eating fiber with every meal. The RDA for fiber is 10-15 grams, so being on the upper end of that can help support estrogen clearance.

Tip #4: Eat when you feel hungry:

So many of us are still surprised when our appetite increases in the weeks leading up to our period. On top of that, so many of us were raised in a diet-culture that has all of us thinking we’re fat. For both of those reasons, we think that extra hunger cues, makes us fat, when in fact hunger cues are there to help us maintain metabolic balance. 

So in the second half of your cycle, do yourself a solid and eat when you’re hungry. Compare that to the ovulatory phase, when metabolism is lower. You might not be as hungry. All in all, pay attention to your hunger cues. 

Tip #5: Reduce caffeine intake:
Now I know some of you want to click off, but before you do hear me out…
Caffeine is one of the things that alters hormone production in the brain - you can watch this video to see how it happens - so if you want hormone balance, reduced pms and to feel free from your coffee addiction...I highly recommend you start considering going off caffeine if you haven’t already. And if you want to know how I did it, you can watch this video here. 

If you are a personal trainer who wants to become confident in understanding your female client’s hormones so that you can not only help them get fit, but also aligned with their cycle, apply for the Confident Menstrual Cycle Coaching Academy. To apply, click here.