Here’s how women can make easy lifestyle changes to smoothen their perimenopausal journey
A lot goes on in a woman’s body from one menstrual cycle and stage of life to another. Some days you’ll crave unhealthy, processed foods and some days may have no appetite altogether. Some days you’ll be as chirpy as a bird and other days you may feel gloomy. The same goes for your sex drive too. In short, we often find ourselves enslaved to our cycles and stages, and this is especially true during perimenopause. But, what if I told you that it can be managed for healthier living, both physically and emotionally during this time? Let’s understand a little bit about the best way to restore hormonal balance, especially during your perimenopause phase.
Let's understand what cycle syncing is
Cycle syncing is a method that helps women track their hormones during their entire menstrual cycle. Once women understand how their body is changing or reacting in different phases of their cycle, they can easily devise and follow a lifestyle that will improve their symptoms and restore hormonal balance naturally, and this works for different stages throughout life as well.
Women also experience their period synchronizing with other females they have close contact with. It is believed that women living together tend to have their periods synced due to the way their pheromones act and affect each other, leading to their period cycles happening around the same time.
Cycle syncing and perimenopause
Perimenopause can be a challenging time for women. The female body is going through several transitions in this phase where they may experience hot flashes, lower libido and water retention, making it an irritable situation. On top of this, when your period becomes highly irregular and unexpected, the sudden change in hormones can lead to increased mood swings. These are just a few problems associated with perimenopause that physically, mentally and emotionally affect a woman.
Focus on the late luteal phase
Photo credit: Hello Clue
The late luteal phase can be majorly triggering for females during perimenopause. The late luteal phase in the menstrual cycle is the time right before menstruation begins or would normally begin. This portion of your cycle will be much longer now and you will need to focus on a few key things: lowering stress, sleeping, doing activities that lower cortisol levels like walking and eating more fiber and low glycemic foods than normal.The irregularity of this time can leave you feeling fatigued, anxious, depressed and severely moody.
How can cycle syncing help during perimenopause?
Cycle syncing is an immensely powerful way to harness the powers of your hormones and use them to live a harmonious life, especially in perimenopause.
Here are a few things that women entering or in the perimenopause phase should practice for a smoother transition to menopause:
Get 8 hours of sleep
Your sleep will get affected during perimenopause due to lower estrogen and progesterone. So, you must fight all odds, create a sleep schedule and stick to it. Avoid afternoon or late evening naps to get proper sleep every night and try to get 7-8 hours consistently.
Hydrate
Due to lower estrogen levels in the body at this point, you will feel dehydrated and have dry skin. To avoid this, make sure you're drinking enough water. Now, this may be different for everyone, so you want to make sure you're drinking enough so that urine is light yellow and you don't feel thirsty throughout the day or at night—this comes to about 2 liters of water for most women, but may be more or less depending.
Move
Hormonal fluctuations can easily lead to an emotional spiral, making you feel anxious, irritated, stressed and even depressed. Moving your body has been proven to release endorphins and increase dopamine levels, helping to combat stress. Go for a walk, do at least 20 minutes of yoga or opt for a light cardio workout every day. You may want to avoid high intensity workouts that you used to love, and switch to lower intensity exercise.
Eat high fiber foods
By the time you reach perimenopause, your metabolism has started to slow down. Fiber can help boost your metabolism. Increased fiber intake will help keep you fuller for longer and combat unhealthy cravings. Fiber—both soluble and insoluble—plays a key role in gut health.
Eat low glycemic index foods and limit starchy carbs
Focus on eating low glycemic foods, which are beneficial for you now and post-perimenopause too. Complex carbohydrates, which have a low glycemic index keep your sugar levels in check, reduce cortisol levels and help maintain weight by keeping you fuller for longer. Eat green vegetables, berries and beans and lentils and avoid any processed food.
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