kateandlisaIf So – You Are Not Alone!
So many women have these type of issues every month because of suffering with PMS:
- Calling off work 1-2 days per month (or more) because the pain is too much
- Cancelling plans last minute (when you don’t really want to)
- Panicking if symptoms hit and you don’t have ibuprofen or your heating pad nearby
- Stressing about planning vacations if it will fall on your period
- Worrying about missing out on important life events (small or big) because your cramps or pain are debilitating
- Nausea and fatigue making you feel lie a zombie
- Freaking out your friends/fam/partner during the luteal phase but you didn’t really mean to
You feel stuck and like you’ve hit a dead end because you’ve tried:
- Talking to your doctor without any luch
- Making nutrition and lifestyle changes but fee overwhelmed
- Throwing everything at your symptoms but not getting better
- Said OK to the birth control / meds and feel the same or worse
We often think we need this big life overhaul – perfect diet and supplement regimen that we have to follow exactly or else symptoms will never improve. And you are overwhelmed because you can’t seem to figure it all out. A lot of my clients come to me and they have tried:
- Manipulating their diet and cutting out foods and now have a strained relationship with food
- Tons of different supplements that promise to balance your hormones or heal your PMS but didn’t work and they don’t know why
- Starting a rigid health plan and found it too hard to stick to
That’s why we always start with setting foundations and getting back to basics
When you do this you are making a few tweaks to your current routines and habits that feel small but are actually the thing that will actually move the needle to actual symptom healing.
So what are the 3 most common starting recommendations:
#1 Eating Consistently
- Forget cutting out more foods. Simplify and focus on meal and snack timing (every 3-5 hours), putting together meals and snacks and eating enough. Take a look at your current routines and preferences and make a few tweaks. Common things might be: adding more protein to breakfast, ideas for easy lunch if you are prone to working through lunch, fueling workouts properly, having enough carbs throughout the day.
#2 Sleeping Enough
- We all know sleep is important. Not only enough sleep, but enough quality sleep. Dig deep into sleep issues, commonly: trouble falling asleep, racing thoughts before bed, waking up multiple times in the night or restless sleep. Sometimes a few tweaks to how you are eating throughout the day, your morning and evening routines and sometimes a targeted supplement can make a huge difference.
#3 Moving Mindfully
- What I see the most with exercise and movement: unintentionally over-exercising without fueling enough, stuck in analysis paralysis incorporating a routine because you don’t know if X exercise is good or bad for your hormones, exercise = punishment (or feels like a chore versus enjoyable), rigid rules around exercising. We can explore your goals, mindset, and actual steps for scaling back, switching up types or incorporating a routine that aligns with your lifestyle and make recommendations based on your cortisol (stress hormone) pattern.
#4 Supplementing Appropriately
- Sometimes clients come with a laundry list of supplements they are taking but don’t really know what they are for or why they are taking them anymore. Or they are taking something but not in the right amount.
If any of this resonates with you, let’s set up a time to talk so we can review each of these specific to your cycle and symptoms. You can do that here.
