foods that support your hormones | what to eat when you’re on your period | menstrual phase meal ideas

Welcome to the Stellar Cycles Podcast! In this episode, we'll talk about the best foods to keep your hormones balanced and your cycle healthy. As women, our dietary needs are different from men's, and it's important to eat the right foods during each of the four phases of our cycle. 

I'll explain why we need different foods and how they support our hormones. You'll learn tips on food choices and preparation methods that help keep things interesting and nourishing. 

Tune in for practical advice on eating well and feeling your best throughout your cycle!
 
Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more women's health and wellness tips! 

Book Reference: Women Code by Lisa Viti

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Transcript

Alina: Hello everyone and welcome back to the Stellar Cycles podcast, your hot girl database for all things pertaining to your femininity, your cycle and wellness. Andrew, walk in life as a woman. I'm your host, Alina. And today we are talking about what foods to choose that will keep your hormones balanced and your cycle healthy. the goal of today's episode is to give you guys an overview of how we should be eating differently as women in the cycling stage of our lives. This is going to look massively different from how guys eat because our systems and bodies work so differently from theirs. I'm going to give you girls a snapshot of why we choose different types of foods and even methods of food preparation for each of the four phases, and how these foods work to support our hormones, to do the very best job that they can do, focusing on the foods that we should be eating on our periods. This is a really exciting episode, mainly because there's so much variety for our diet as women. There's no need to constantly stick to the same thing. We are designed in such a way that gives us not only a need but the opportunity to taste and accept nourishment from a huge variety of foods. We really get to keep it interesting as women. I have a few current updates for you guys. I just spent the weekend in Sacramento. I love any sort of getaway with Sam, my husband. I know Sacramento might not be the biggest tourist attraction, but I had a really great time there. I went to learn how to do a very comprehensive and thorough technique for hair extensions. The single bond type. Where I specifically pick the hair out for you, I process it myself. I'll even color it and diet to match your hair that's on your head as well as the texture. And then I prepare it and then do the installation. And trust me, it was not easy. I was going through that class truly feeling like, Oh my goodness, am I ever going to get this? Like, why did I even try to get into this? Why did I pay for this class? But towards the end, the teacher told me that I have a knack for this and that was just really, really exciting to hear because learning how to do something really tough and really hard is very gratifying for me. So that was cool. Another thing that's been going on in my life is I have been kind of dipping my toes into modeling. I know it sounds annoying, but usually people ask me, Oh, do you model or anything? And I truly really never have in my life. So I got asked by this jewelry company to do a little modeling gig. And when I tell you I made more in that five hour session of modeling than I ever did in a full day's work of working my ass off in a hospital doing ultrasound. I've just been shook. I'm like, I could have been doing something else with my life, but I fully trust that what we do at certain stages of our life is meant to take us to the next thing. And I do not regret one bit my ultrasound education or career because it has equipped me with a lot of knowledge that has eventually brought me to starting this podcast and really caring about women, their reproductive health, their cycle wellness. but I'm very excited that my pursuits are kind of taking me more and more into a creative direction. So we'll see what happens with that. Along the lines of the creative era of my life, we have started a party planning collective in San Diego with Régine from Book Club, and it's just very exciting because she's been doing book club for four or five years now. I only joined and started getting involved just a year ago. But we've had so much success with our events and our book club meetings that people are now just reaching out to us to plan their parties or baby showers or engagement parties. And I could cry because I've really wanted to do this for a long, long time, and it's always better to do it with a team of people that you trust, that you really enjoy working with, that you know, can pull their weight. So I'm very excited to see more of this to come. I will definitely be promoting the party planning committee in this show too. But that's enough. Let's get into our episode. first, I kind of want to give you guys an introduction to what we call basic eating, eating for the different phases of your feminine cycle I'm actually really excited to jump into this series with you because food is truly the cornerstone of our lives. What a woman needs and what a man needs is very, very different. The man's hormone cycle runs on a 24 hour cycle where ours runs on a 28 day site. Can you tell the difference there? Each phase we go through sets us up for success in the following phase, which is why a variety of foods that are needed at those specific times, because everything has a domino effect. with our hormones, are female hormones fluctuating four times throughout the month, it's imperative for us to feed ourselves key vitamins and minerals to replenish what we lost or eliminate what we're producing too much of. the purpose of food is not necessarily about restricting. It's more about adding nourishment like fuel for a car. Listen, you can still eat junk food and have balance. You can set up your life however you like after you take this knowledge to give your body what it needs to restore and digest. It's just a matter of proportion. It's like, okay, what does the majority of your diet look like? So keep in mind that our body is speaking to us all times and responding to what we feed it, both mentally and physically. I think we can lose track of this simplicity so much of the time because we can be like, Oh, I don't feel good. Or, Oh, I'm mentally don't feel great today. I need a mental health day. But we're not necessarily paying attention to what we've been putting into our bodies the past few days, weeks or months. It's very easy for us to blame the external environment rather than our own internal environment. So how do we take care of our internal environment and balance our hormones and really take care of our cycle? Well, we're going to do it through food and this is so important. But first, we have some foundational food guidelines that you can find in the book Woman Code. Honestly, my whole podcast is based off of Woman Code by Lisa Viti, because that book blew my mind and opened my eyes to this whole new world. the guidelines that we're going to keep in mind when it comes to our food episodes are going to be based on food, energetics, micronutrient support and estrogen metabolism. So let's break these down real quick. Food energetics means that different foods result in different energetic experiences in your body. So this is why eating mac and cheese feels totally different than eating a kale mushroom sweet potato bowl, both at first and later. the foods that are going to be recommended for each phase align with the energy that you experience or the kind of energy you need the most to feel your best in each phase for example, if you have a really important meeting than the day before, you could use this information to eat the food before that meeting. That will set your mind up to be clear and focused on your meeting. So you're not feeling anxious or jittery so that you can truly perform at your very best. that's what food energetics means. Moving on to micronutrients. micronutrients are the building blocks specifically needed during that phase? micronutrients support proper hormonal ratios and avoid imbalance. these really are the vitamins and minerals that can be found in foods, herbs, all sorts of things that we ingest that are going to really keep our hormones from going out of whack during each phase of our cycle. the thing is, you're going to have different micronutrient demands depending on your phase. And that's why I'm going to break these episodes down into eating for your period, eating during your follicular phase, your ovulatory stage, and then of course your PMS or luteal stage because your body's going to need different support at each one of these stages. And finally, estrogen metabolism. Estrogen metabolism means how your body processes, utilizes and gets rid of the hormone estrogen. our body as females, as long as we have working functioning ovaries that haven't gone into menopause yet, they are always going to be producing estrogen. And a lot of uncomfy conditions like breast tenderness, excessive weight gain, low libido, even sometimes bloating can all be caused by too much estrogen in your body. a lot of what we're going to be focusing on as we're thinking about foods to eat for each phase are going to be those foods that help us metabolize that estrogen. So there's not too much of it hanging around in our bodies and causing us problems. this is super important, again, because. those estrogen levels are going to vary according to what phase you're in. And we want to keep the estrogen moving to properly metabolize and then eliminate that excess quickly. all of these things food, energetics, micronutrients and estrogen metabolism can be accomplished by adding the right foods at the right times into your diet. Now, do you need to eat according to these principles 100% of the time? The answer is no, because if you start this extreme, You're going to get overwhelmed with this drastic change and find it harder to stick to the food sinking program. You really want to ease into it and do it in a way that fits your lifestyle, your budget and your time that you can even take to prepare your food. at the beginning, even 6040 or even 7030 works out first. So kind of balancing it out, let's say 60% of the time you're following the basic food plan and then 40% of the time, you know, you're kind of eating how you're used to eating. And over time, as you get used to it and used to it, you can switch to 7030 and then 8020. Of course, if you can do 8020, that's the best way for your body to handle those occasional foods that maybe aren't the best, because 80% of the time you're really taking care of yourself, you're paying attention to what you eat. That means your body can absolutely handle and detox and eliminate maybe the not so healthy 20%. Remember, everything is balance. There's really no need to go super extreme. And even with a 6040 or even 7030 change, you're going to really notice a difference. this can be a big but hugely beneficial change in how you shop for your groceries, how you cook them, and the way that you eat. It's going to take some time before this becomes second nature to you, but don't give up before you know it. You'll be so in tune with your phase and the foods you need at that time is going to change your life. And speaking from personal experience, I would attribute that food and phase eating was the biggest thing that diminished my own terrible period cramps. big recommendation for me for you guys to try this. before I jump into what foods you want to be eating for your period week or your menstrual phase, I just want to leave you with one thing. Definitely do your own research if you have the time or simply be intuitive and listen to what your body needs and is craving. If you're craving sugar or chocolate, it could be a sign of low magnesium. So listening to your body wouldn't mean caving in to those sugar cravings, but maybe going out of your way to find food that is going to replenish that magnesium but won't give you a ton of garbage at the same time either. Now, let's talk about what to eat during your period, also known as that menstrual phase. this is the type of diet that I really believe will help you get through it easier. They've done research on this. They've done studies on those books, have been written about this. And women's lives and cycles have changed because of the foods that they eat, especially on their menstrual phase. I want you guys to reach into your brain and think back to your most recent period that you had. Do you remember feeling hungrier than usual? Do you normally tend to go for saltier or sweeter foods? What did you feel after eating those certain foods? Did you feel drained, energized? Did you feel shame or guilt even? I really want you to think about this because we can go into so many layers here that can really help us on our healing journeys. And this is a step number one and becoming more present with your cravings, what your body wants, and kind of stepping into that intuitive eating sphere. as women, we are so fortunate to have the monthly feedback of our health in the form of our period. So what are those menstrual phase hormones at play? you are bleeding because estrogen and progesterone are done pumping because they know that you're not pregnant. So those hormones have dropped off and all of the tissue that's been building up inside your uterus over the past month is now sloughing off and coming out of you. Remember, girls, this is an intense process that. Takes 30 to 40% of your daily energy. we need to be conserving our energy during this phase. while you're still bleeding, you're still on your period, your egg growing hormone, MSH starts to slightly increase to prepare for another ovulation in about 10 to 15 days. But again, this slight increase is just getting those gears turning to prepare you for another cycle. However, you're not necessarily feeling the effects of this hormone quite yet because the levels are very, very low. They drop off and then they slowly, slowly start climbing back up. now that we have a reminder of what's going on with our hormones during this time and in our body. Let's jump into what we should be eating. The easiest way for you to follow along will be to download the free grocery list. It's going to have the essential items. You'll want to fuel your body with each phase so you can hit the link in the Instagram bio to get your free grocery guide. I'm going to cover each major food group, starting with grains. during the menstrual phase, when you're on your period, you really want to stick with whole grains. Why is this? Because they are a great source of magnesium, which can help alleviate menstrual pain. What magnesium does is it relaxes the muscles in the body. And since the uterus is a muscle and it's kind of pissed off and it's aggravated and it's just like, we're not pregnant, we have to get all of this lining out and start over again. You give your body some magnesium, and that is not only going to ease your aches and sore muscles. It's really going to help your uterus not feel as angry. And that could be why we crave magnesium rich foods like dark chocolate and such during our period. when it comes to whole grains, they are low glycemic index, so they don't have a lot of sugar content and they're going to be fiber rich that's going to keep you full for longer times and also help you with healthy bowel movements during your period. I know that constipation can definitely be a thing in the luteal phase and leading into your period, and that's because progesterone, which is the hormone that acts up during that time, is kind of known to do that. So when you're eating whole grains, they're going to keep you cleared out. what are some examples of whole grains? That's going to be buckwheat, which I personally love. I grew up eating buckwheat. It's a very Ukrainian food, wild rice. we're thinking black wild rice or forbidden rice. those kinds of grains are really going to decrease the inflammation in your body and help manage menstrual cramps. Because when we're going through our period and we're feeling uncomfortable and bloated and just just not like ourselves, that's because there's inflammation in the body. So we want to eat foods that are going to support decreasing that inflammation, moving on to veggies. before I start, I really want to tell you guys how easy nature makes it to remember these things. So when we think about menstrual phase foods, we're just going to think about the period. So the darker and more nutrient dense the foods are, the better you're going to be. Think things like beets, watermelon. kelp, kale, anything that's darker in pigment is going to have a lot of minerals for you. Red foods are really great. So let's get into veggies Beets are a great iron source, as we're bleeding. We're losing the iron in our blood. beets are also rich in beta carotene as well as antioxidants, and that's going to promote the flow of blood to the uterus and reduce cramping. So even though your uterus is bleeding because it's shedding that lining, there's blood flow that goes to the uterus to really help it do its job. Right. And when it's cramping, it really can't take the circulation in as well. So we really want to eat our beets because not only are they going to provide us with a good amount of iron, they're going to open up those blood vessels and really help the blood flow, get through our uterus to help it do its job. Next, veggie very high on the list for me is kale. apart from being a great source of fiber and iron, kale also really helps to improve anxiety, quality of sleep as well as reduce cramping. Also, we are going to be very into sea veggies seaweed such as kelp. Nori and kombu are going to be very rich in zinc and iron. So consuming those is really going to help replenish and re mineralized the body after blood loss because again, remember, as you're losing blood, you're also losing those essential minerals and electrolytes. Other veggies include mushrooms. Mushrooms are very high in vitamin D. I think they're actually one of the highest foods in vitamin D and vitamin D very much affects our mood. I know mushrooms aren't everybody's favorite, but if you want better mental health in just a better mood, mushrooms are your friend and water chestnuts. When it comes to fruits that you want to eat for your menstrual phase, you are going to want to eat water rich fruits. anything that's very hydrating and water rich is going to again help you replenish your blood supply, make more blood volume in your body and just let things circulate better. so what are some examples of water rich fruits that's going to be things like watermelon, darker grapes, cucumber, and of course, lots and lots of berries, berries, antioxidants. Right. So especially those darker ones like BlackBerry, blueberries and cranberry. The larger the amount of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, the more it's going to help balance those hormonal changes that your body goes through. Another superpower is that those berries carry vitamin C, which is essential for iron to be absorbed. You could be taking all the iron you want, eating all the beets, but unless you have vitamin C to kind of help that iron go in and be utilized by your body, it's kind of useless. berries also help balance those low estrogen levels that cause insomnia during periods. have you ever had a hard time sleeping during your period? Well, that's because those estrogen levels are so low that it actually affects our sleep. Can you believe it now? Would you believe it if I told you that bananas hoard berries too? I think I recently found that out myself. But one thing about bananas is that they are rich in potassium and vitamin B6. That is going to ease bloating. It's going to help your muscles relax. And potassium also helps to regulate your Blood pressure and sends oxygen to the brain, which, again, is going to have a very positive effect on your mood. So those are fruits that we want to consume during our period. Moving on to legumes. So if you're not much of a meat eater or your vegetarian, vegan, you can still get your protein in through beans. nature makes it very easy for us. We're going to choose darker beans during this time. That can be a Dukey Beans, the black soybean, the black turtle bean, kidney beans, things like that. And once again, these are darker beans because of those micronutrients that they contain. And they're also a great source of protein for our vegetarian and vegan girls. When it comes to meat, if you are a meat eater, your body. Uses that iron through the blood loss you experience during your periods. So you need additional iron, which again the vitamin C will help you absorb more of. if you eat meat, it's not a bad idea to have some red meat like a steak or a burger. When you have your period, you can also have darker pork. and lean beef, you just don't want the beef to be too fatty. But I've heard from my girlfriends who like they have a very vicious period and they're like, I could eat a whole steak right now. I don't know what it is. And that really tends to help them because we can take those micronutrients that are in that steak and use them to help our body do its job better. Now, for my seafood girl is this is the best time is your period to be eating seafood? Why? because seafood is very high in those minerals that your blood really needs to replenish after blood loss. These are things like clams, crabs, lobster, mussel, octopus, oysters, sardines, scallop and squid. Honestly, if you're a seafood girl, just go off. All of this stuff is going to be good for you at this time. Another conversation that me and my friend had at dinner actually is because she ordered some clam pasta and I didn't really grow up eating a lot of seafood. So it's just not really part of my taste. But I asked her and I was like, do you do you like things like clams, oysters? She goes, Yes. But I just found out that they're the filters of the ocean and the sea and the bottom cleaners. And I was just kind of like, Yeah, I always knew that a lot of people like to eat that. But again, I think that as long as it doesn't make up the majority of your diet, you'll be fine if you have it literally drink 25% of your month, which is your period week, you'll be okay again Your body can handle the rest. during that period week during your menstrual phase, those types of seafood are going to be the most beneficial for your body, your system and your hormones. Now, taking a look at specific vitamins and herbs that we can be taking to support our cycle, make our period go a little easier for us is take magnesium vitamins That's going to help relax your body. It's can help you sleep better. It's going to help relax your uterus. I recommend bio optimizers because their magnesium tablets have seven different forms of magnesium like you'll be covered, helps with mood, helps with your body, it'll help with your uterus, it'll help with your sleep. So that one's a really great one. Another thing that you can do as you're cooking and the thing is to that's really interesting about the menstrual phase and I've mentioned this before in the cycle episode is that when you are in your menstrual phase, definitely prepare your food more cooked through stews, roasts, very comforting foods such as soups and things like that because number one, it's going to be what you're craving, just pay attention, be a little more intuitive and you'll see that that's what you're craving. You want those comfort foods, those stews, those soups, and you kind of want to avoid raw foods or too much raw foods because your body's already spending 30 to 40% of its daily energy on getting that lining and bleeding out of you. It's not going to be able to digest as well, and that's going to lead to more uncomfortable symptoms. Going back to vitamins and herbs. when you're cooking, you want to cook with anti-inflammatory herbs and spices. those are going to be things like ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, parsley. Because when we're on our period, we're already inflamed, we're uncomfy, we're going through it. Adding those anti-inflammatory herbs to the foods that you're cooking is really going to aid you. The other thing too is you can brew a soothing ginger tea. Ginger is a great cramp reliever and I never shut up about red raspberry leaf tea because it is literally designed by our creator to soothe uterine cramps. It calms the uterus before and during your period. And a lot of women drink it throughout their pregnancy, too, and before and after they give birth. Now, this is one of my favorite herbs to add to my food, but I love adding cinnamon to my tea and my food. I don't know what it is. I can never get enough of cinnamon. cinnamon is great because not only does it add. Really amazing flavor to your food and makes it feel more holiday and cozy. But Cinnamon is extremely helpful in stabilizing your blood sugar and preventing crashes. And finally, salt. Salt will help you with your electrolyte balance and the mineral content in your blood. Remember, we're losing minerals. We're losing vitamins in our blood. It's essential to have some electrolytes, even if you don't like salt that much and you're not much of a salty girly. The element electrolyte packets have been a game changer for me. When I'm on my period and to kind of stack it. I'll get the watermelon ones for my period because watermelon is a fruit that we should be eating. And yeah, electrolytes. actually, you can hear my water. I've been obsessed with putting ice in my Stanley. Cracking open a cold, sparkling water from the fridge and then sprinkling some Maldon sea salt flakes in it. And I call it my mermaid water. It makes me feel so much more hydrated throughout the day. I just can't get enough. I'll be at the airport, like looking for an ice shaker and some club soda just so I can make those. There's water for my flight. now I'm going to touch on some other foods that are really good for you during your period that don't necessarily fall into any sort of category, but are also important to touch on. So decaf coffee, if you're a big coffee drinker and I know there are times out my life that I can be, too, I kind of bounced between coffee and matcha, but decaf coffee. How is that going to help you during this time? Well, caffeine can be a little bit irritating to your system and lead to more inflammation or pain during this time. So if you just switch over to decaf, I think it could really help especially if you're somebody who suffers a lot from uterine cramps and a lot of bleeding. I know that when I was going through really terrible menstrual cramps, whenever I drank caffeinated coffee, it would make my cramps so much worse and so much more painful if anybody else can relate. Definitely right in the comments, if that is you too. another thing is miso soup. in general, like I said earlier, soups and stews are really great at this time because they're very grounding and extremely nourishing. And I love me some miso soup. In fact, I think when I'm done recording this, I'm going to go find myself. So I'm moving on to dark chocolate. I saved the very best for last. So dark chocolate is going to be amazing for your period because it is high in antioxidants as well as magnesium. And that's going to help ease your cramps. It's going to help ease your mood swings. You're going to feel better all around. And of course, it also stimulates the production of endorphins, also known as our happy hormones. So just go on, have that piece of dark chocolate. You deserve it. And I have on my Instagram, too, some of my favorite healthy, dark chocolates that you can enjoy without worrying about health impairing ingredients. just a reminder that for your period and for your menstrual phase, you just got to eat nourishing foods, soups, stews, roasted vegetables and in general, warm cook foods are better and drink tons of water because you know, you're losing blood. You want to replenish the blood stored in your body. Just a couple things left. We're going to talk about foods we want to avoid. Like I said earlier, we want to limit our raw fruits and vegetables because they're harder to digest. You want to save and conserve your energy. Also reduce excess sodium intake the less super salty and super processed foods, the better and easier your period is going to get month after month after month. I promise you, I have experienced this. I have benefited from this, and I really want us to benefit from this, too. You know why? Because we want to reduce our sodium intake because it's going to cause water retention and bloating, which are just really uncomfortable symptoms that I know a lot of girls go through during their period. Again, we want to cut down on caffeine. Yes, this one's probably the hardest to do, but caffeine is known to constrict the blood vessels in the uterus, making those period cramps additionally painful. Remember, we want to eat things that are going to open up those blood vessels and allow the blood to feed the uterus so it can do its job. Because when those. Blood vessels are constricted, the cramps become worse. And not a lot of people are going to like this, but truly try to avoid drinking alcohol during your period. The loss of blood during your period might cause low blood pressure, which is going to make you more vulnerable to the side effects of alcohol consumption. And drinking, of course, is going to make you feel more fatigued and increase the flow of blood. You're going to lose more blood during a period if you're drinking. I want to leave you guys off with some meal ideas so I'll give you a sample menstrual phase day, a sample day of my period. Normally, I will have a protein smoothie with hemp and dark berries or a buckwheat kasha made with broth. Broth instead of water is just going to give additional protein and an additional taste collagen to your kasha. So that's really good for lunch. You could have miso soup with some brown rice sushi rolls. Remember, seafood is fantastic during this time with a seaweed salad. Or you can do sardines if you like sardines on some toasted black rice bread with kale. And again, you can make that as flavorful or unflavored as you want. It's up to you. I'm a strong believer that we can always make healthy, foods, taste incredible. And Ticktalk has been just a wealth of ideas for foods and recipes and just ways that you can get creative with what you eat. For dinner, we can do a beet salad over steamed kale with water chestnuts. And don't forget to squeeze some citrus over that because the citrus and the vitamin C is really going to help your body absorb the benefits of the beets, which is iron. to that salad, you could add talky mushrooms, or you can do more of like a seafood dish for dinner, like mussels and scallops stewed in a light tomato broth. Another idea for dinner time is a stew that you can make in crock pot with carrots, yams, onions, garlic bay leaves some protein of your choice, some beans and of course, some filtered and filtered water and spices. And you can just let that cook all day and you're done. I suggest you get the grocery guide that we have linked for you so you can just go off of the foods that are listed there that you like and build your own meals. this concludes the What to Eat on your period episode. I hope you guys really got the background of why we need to eat certain foods on our period, why we need to avoid other things on our period, the kind of mechanics of what's going on in our body and our hormones and of course a bunch of meal ideas and grocery ideas that can get you started and get you thinking about what you're going to eat the next time that you're on your period, your menstrual phase, so that you can have the easiest time possible. And with that, this episode is over. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at Stellar Cycles pod. In that link, you can download that free grocery guide that I was talking about this whole entire episode, and if you have a moment, we would love it. If you give us a five star rating, if you enjoy this podcast and if you're feeling extra generous, I would love to read any reviews that you guys sleep for me until the next time. Spread the good word about stellar cycles to your fellow women and let's all elevate our lives, cycles and dreams together till next time stellar cycles out.