how to align your lifestyle with your cycle

 This episode is specifically for those listeners who are lost on the idea of “cycle syncing,” “period tracking,” and “hormonal balance” -- many of which have just become buzz words today. This episode I share what has worked for me to help me become more aware of what’s going on with my female health & the tools and resources you can make use of too. 

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Transcript

Alina: 0:08

Hello everyone and welcome back to the stellar cycles podcast, your hot girl database for all things femininity, cycle and wellness and your walk in life as a woman. I'm your host Alina and today we're talking about how to start tracking your cycle for beginners, and maybe refresher for all of us no matter where, which level you come in at. The goal of today's episode is to give you ideas of the various ways that you can keep record of your cycle so that you can begin to align certain aspects of your life with specific reproductive phases you go through monthly as a woman, this episode is specifically for those listeners that are lost on the idea of cycle syncing, period tracking and hormonal balance, many of which have just become buzzwords today, especially on social media. So join me today in this solo episode, as I share what has worked for me to help me become more aware of what's going on with my female health and the tools and resources you guys can make use of to some little updates. We recently went on a trip to Phoenix for my husband's work. And I was really expecting perfect weather being really hot, but it was actually pretty cold. And it really didn't quite go as expected. But on the other hand, it also turned out to be a really fun trip. because aside from the courses and stuff that Sam had to do, we got to hang out quite a bit with our good friends from Loma Linda one of Sam's colleagues, he's also in the dental industry. And it's just a really good time seeing them and catching up with them, we just always end up in the most random cities with those two. So that was cool. Over this past week, I was sick as a dog, I don't know what came out how it hit me out of nowhere. But I'm one of those people that will say, Oh, I don't get sick much. So when I do get sick, I don't really know how to deal with it very well. There was about three days straight, where I couldn't breathe out of my nose, I was a total mouth breather that entire time. Just hated every aspect of it. So going through stuff like that will make you very grateful for the times that you are able to breathe and that you're in good health. While spring is definitely here. And so as renewal, I'm seeing a lot of people getting into their spring cleaning reorganizing their lives, maybe remaking their mood boards. And yeah, it's just a very inspiring time. So yeah, let's get into today's conversation. So you want to start tracking your cycle, or whatever that means, well, what does cycle tracking mean? To me, cycle tracking means keeping record in whichever way is best for you of the times and events that pertain to your period and fertility. And this can be tracked digitally can be tracked the old school way. The digital version is very popular with apps or maybe keeping notes in your notes app. And the old school way is pen to paper journaling about it or making pie charts of your month and what goes on during each section. Cycle tracking can be super helpful because number one, we are a very forgetful species. We go through stuff, we might suffer through it, we might enjoy it. And then we tend to forget most major aspects about it and or romanticize it in our brains or think of it worse than it actually was. So keeping track and keeping record not only of most things that happened in your life, but also of your reproductive health as a woman is an invaluable skill. I'll tell you that for sure. Coming from the medical field, it was always very helpful working with a woman who was aware of her cycle her concerns if it was regular if it was not when her last period was and on the other hand was very frustrating and left a lot of gaps in a possible diagnosis when a woman wasn't able to tell us this information about herself or wasn't keeping track tracking what occurs over time is really going to show us patterns. It's going to show us and help us see what happens over and over again and what might keep happening in the future. So cycle tracking has both a retrospective and predictive power. Seeing a pattern emerge brings you so much closer to solution because then you're able to work on it a little easier, who can benefit from tracking their cycle? I believe that everyone can every woman of any age, you know from one she actually starts recycle on even postmenopausal women still follow a sort of type of cycle in their bodies still, even though they might not be getting their period anymore. Hormones are so They'll circulating in their body in a way that's still different from men. First and foremost, when you choose to enter the cycle tracking world, then you want to start on your own personal journey, the very most important thing will be to define your why it's a common one and any sort of self development or seeking any sort of internal change. Because if you have a very defined why, and something that always reminds you of your reason of why you're choosing to make changes or do something differently, that will keep you on track so much better than not having a reason. So this will be the anchor for this entire thing, your why this is what will keep you coming back. And if it's not strong or meaningful enough, you will fall off easily and you'll get very discouraged. Also another disclaimer, always discuss going off of medications like birth control with your doctor prior to launching off the deep end into bouncing or cycle bouncing or hormones, because it is a change to your health and your body. And if your doctor doesn't want to have an open discussion with you get a second opinion. When you define your why put an encouraging affirmation based on your y somewhere that you can see it often for example, your bathroom where you get ready or your car where you know you're in it several times a day, maybe and you can see it often write something in positive present tense. For example, I am grateful to have a healthy womb or my female experience is healthy and painless. Seeing that often will first begin to reprogram your brain to believe that living like this is in fact a possibility for you. When you define your why just helps you be more present. And being present is the most important element to any sort of cycle or period healing work. That is the number one thing. Next, you've defined your why you know why you want to do this, you're gonna want to choose your tracking medium, this is going to be the way that you collect and sort your information. So you're going to need to pick one place, just one to collect and sort your data. So that it's not scattered everywhere. Having multiple apps for just one thing is hard. Try to just pick one, because I have gotten caught in having several different cycle apps and wanting to try all of them and see which one is best. But first off, I can't keep up with entering all of my information in like five or six different apps every single month. So then it's hard for the app to calibrate and make proper, accurate predictions. So scattering info like that probably won't work, I would choose one that you really like and stick with that and decide if you're the digital, girly or the handwritten girly apps will support you by Helping you log your past periods. And like I said, helping predict your next periods as well as your fertile stages and not fertile stages. But remember, these are just predictions. It's just helping guide you. And some apps are really cool and stand out because they include meal ideas and exercise plans. Overall apps are just a good system to log your periods and your symptoms. Because you know, your phone is always on you. When you're experiencing something or feeling something or something's actively happening, you can just immediately input it into your phone. Some apps that I have used, of course, the iPhone health app, it just comes with the phone, it already tracks your sleep your steps. I wouldn't say the iPhone app is super comprehensive. But it's definitely was a starting point. For me. There's the 28th app, that one's really good. It's very, very helpful with breaking down into four phases. The menstrual phase, follicular phase Abila Tory phase luteal phase tells you exactly what's going on every time. And that one's great was meal plans and exercise ideas. Moving on to start as to that one's really cute. It's very spacey very aesthetic, very funny and how they word their little daily bits that they give you. But I wouldn't say it's necessarily superduper helpful unless maybe you buy premium. I haven't explored very many premiums for this. And then we have pre mom, which is also a period tracking app, but that one is differentiated in that it also tracks your ovulation. You buy physical pee test ovulation strips, and when you test it, you can take pictures of them put it in the app and it will literally track and show you when your luteinizing hormone is rising when you ovulate so you know exactly when it's happening. It's been super helpful to me. We have two ways of tracking our cycle as far as storing information organizing it and that's digital and handwritten with digital you can choose something like your notes app on your phone or your computer. I would think that would be really helpful to make a separate folder so they don't get lost in your other notes, you can do a folder cycle tracking or etc, something like that, and make a new note for each month or each cycle. So you could make a note, for example, for April or for May, or for each cycle, so when your period actually starts when it ends, so, cycle of let's say your period started April 15, you say, April 15 2024, right. And in this note, each monthly note or each cycle note, you'd keep record of your sleep patterns, your bowel movement patterns, these are the first things that you want to start paying attention to. Cuz these are the first signs that will tell you if your body is stagnant or bogged up or just kind of needs help detoxing. Because once you're detox, then nutrients and supplements and things can actually work on you because your intestinal wall has been cleared. And it can actually absorb those things. Now, when you're keeping track, digitally, you want to make a section for your sleep, your bowel movement patterns. I know that's such a weird thing to keep track of. But it tells you a lot about your health, how you're feeling mentally, and emotionally, maybe physical sensations, what you're craving, what your social life looks like, Are you wanting to go out and do fun things all the time? Or are you kind of wanting to be more of a homebody? Start to look and see. Is that consistent for you? Or does it happen? Maybe at certain parts of your cycle? What does your exercise look like make a section for that? Keep track of your sexual activity and corroborate these notes with your tracking apps to see what phase you're in. So when you make a note of something, go into your app and be like, Okay, so I'm in my luteal phase. So when I popped off earlier, okay, that makes a little bit more sense, because I'm feeling a lot more sensitive right now, a week before my period. Very soon, when you begin to keep track of things that are happening to you, you will see patterns start to emerge out of that. Another option, if you've heard of it is notion, it's an online notes database that you can design yourself. You can build lists, tables, pages in any way you want. It's just it's so creative, and so cool. And there's also a lot of cute templates available to beginners to again, you can design it whichever way you want. YouTube is your bestie. For those wanting to learn notion, it's really changed the game for me in organizing and planning my life. And honestly, I don't really know if there's any cycle tracking templates for notion quite yet, but You bet I'm going to be making one. I think another option too, for digital tracking is if you'd like to make PowerPoints, I don't see why that wouldn't be an option to like, you could get really creative with it. Now, pen to paper, it's a more old school way of tracking. But for some people, you know, it really works for them to write stuff out. And that's kind of how they process and organize one form. Obviously, as a journal, there's lots of these that are sold online, you could do a blank journal and just design it all yourself with your sections. And, you know, stay really consistent with that, or switch it up whatever works for you. Or you can go online, literally go on Etsy and look up cycle tracking planners, cycle tracking journals, there's so much for that. And this is really good for those people who like to do it the handwritten way rather than the digital. And if you don't use phone apps, or if you don't like to track your cycle through the apps, I would still circle your period days on a physical calendar. So you can still track the length and variability of your cycle. So you can see somewhere physically and be like, Okay, there's like consistency here or okay, there's not consistency here. Same thing as with the digital girlies. You'll want to keep track of your cycle and symptoms in a way that makes sense to you and is easy to keep up with you don't want to make this system so difficult for yourself that you give up after two weeks. What are some resources that we can take advantage of once we've decided to do this because it's one thing to sit down and make an outline of what you want to track. But then it's a whole other thing to actually understand what you're tracking and put two and two together. So first and foremost, I have great book recommendations for you. The reason I'm even here right now is because of a book. And I wouldn't recommend audiobooks either unless you're listening to audiobooks to kind of refresh your memory on a book that you've already read with your eyes. But the reason I say this is because you're going to be highlighting and marking and making very good use out of them and making connections in your head and writing things down. So I think it makes a world of difference when you can actually see what you're reading versus just audiobook because it's not very often that you're going to throw everything down that you're doing and start taking notes of your audio book. So some books that have made an incredible difference not only for me but for some of my guests that I have had on the show. Woman Code by Alisa Vitti no period. Now what by Nicola Sykes period repair manual and Dr. Laura Brighton. That was the first one that I ever read. That was what actually inspired me to take this journey. In the flow is another Alisa Vitti book biohack, like a woman by Aggie law. And very many more if you read these, or even if you search these up on Amazon, or online, these books will lead you to more books just like them. This reading assignment here is going to be imperative to your understanding of what you're doing and how to tailor it to yourself and your situation. So there's no one fits all approach, right? You're going to be reading this and you're going to be feeling intuitively like oh, that stands out to me that that might work. You know, I really want to try that. Or you might read something be like, You know what, I don't really see myself doing that I'm not gonna force myself into it. So that's why I think it's really important to incorporate books into your resources in cycle tracking. Now, another thing I know we're always on our phones, we're all scrolling, you're gonna want to include some hormone healthy accounts in your followings. So tick tock Instagram, those are great search engines for hormone healthy cycle balancing stuff. There's so many girls out there doing this now, you're going to be seeing it all the time. So it'll be reiterating this idea in your brain, it'll remind you it'll teach you some really good accounts on Instagram would be balanced Beyers, so balanced Bey AR s on Instagram, those are three sisters. And they put out really great hormone and female health content. And they make really funny reels. And they just put out a lot of really useful food and products and just everything. They're great. And 28 wellness, also on Instagram, that's the Instagram page for the app 28. And that one's really good too. There's just so so many good ones, you just got a search for them. YouTube, that one has so many great examples. There's girls on there doing vlogs there's girls on there sitting down and explaining how they do their cycle, tracking how its increased their feminine energy. So really take advantage of that because you can watch those videos and glean some examples from that and get a better idea of how people are doing this. Some stellar cycles resources that we have available for you guys are of course, these podcast episodes. This is your library of cycle information. The Instagram graphics also on my page will hold a lot of information for you to from recommendations mentioned in the episodes to informative graphics that help you break down and understand things about birth control or Western medicine versus Eastern medicine. There's a lot on the stouter cycles, Instagram and of course that free grocery guide in the bio as well for you and your girlfriends or your resources to talk to them. Ask them what they're doing, ask them what's helped them. This isn't something that we as women should continue to be quiet and embarrassed about. And women are our greatest resource. I know this one was a little shorter today a little bite size. But yeah, it was all about cycle tracking and figuring out how to do it. And this might not be the most simple thing to try right off the bat. But it's certainly doable and most definitely gets easier with each monthly cycle. Things always get better with practice and understand that this will be a personal undertaking and you are the only person you answer to. Nobody will care more about your health than you will. So it's your responsibility. And thankfully today we women have incredible resources, especially here in the United States available to us to help us work on these issues and not be sentenced to them for life. We have modern medicine we have podcasts and books shows we have people sharing their experiences, sharing tips, sharing their research journals designed specifically for cycle tracking. We have seminars, we have webinars, so take use of all of these things while they're still free. That's the main the most important thing and whether you work with more the digital or the old school style of tracking anyone can find a way to track recycle in a way that's conducive to her and makes her life easier and more exciting. The most important part is to keep up with it and not give up. I think keeping track of things is really important because you can't change what you don't know or forget about. So happy cycle syncing. Don't forget to follow along on Instagram at the stellar cycles pod. You can also download a free grocery guide on there in the link in our bio. It'll be phase based So based on where you're at in your cycle, what you should be eating, what kind of vegetables and fruits and proteins will be most helpful at that time. I would love to see any ratings reviews that you guys leave for this podcast and spread the word to your fellow women about stellar cycles and let's all elevate our lives together. Till next time stellar cycles out