Do you know what your menstrual cycle is telling you about your health? In this video, we explore the different phases of the menstrual cycle and what they mean for a woman’s overall health. If you’re curious to learn more, be sure to watch!
Sarah guides women to create massive change by syncing energy+cycles. She uses health and life coaching, human design, yoga, and breathwork to help women connect with their unique cycle and create the life and business they desire!
https://www.instagram.com/iamsarahbyrne/
https://www.sarahbyrnewellness.com/
https://sarahbyrnewellness.com/menstrual-magic
Lacy Reason
Hey, mamas. I’m Lacy, your lactation counselor, and you’re listening to the early motherhood guide Podcast. Today I have the opportunity to talk to Sarah, Bryn, why don’t you introduce yourself? Hello, I am Sarah Boone. I know it looks a bit funny. It’s the Irish Don’t worry. It’s the Irish spelling. So I work in a primary school and I would tell kids, it’s burn like you burn yourself on something hot, which then backfires. And they call me Mrs. Hot, the rest of the term, which is fine. But I am a period and a life coach and I guide women to create massive change by syncing their energy and their cycles, and really just taking them on a journey so that they can remember that they do actually know what their body is trying to say to them. And it’s not a foreign entity that they are at war with, and so that they can make peace with their bodies and make peace with the lives that they have. I love that. So what is menstrual cycle awareness? Well, it is kind of what it says on the tin, it’s an awareness of your menstrual cycle. So the red School, which is a monstrosity school, in the UK, they are in the US now that you will most have most commonly heard of the book wild power. So they wrote that book, they coined menstrual cycle awareness. And effectively what it is, is it’s a, an awareness of your menstrual cycle. So they break up the menstrual cycle into seasons. So your winter is from day one of your bleed. And then you move into spring, summer and autumn slash fall depending on where you’re located. And it’s really helpful for women because we don’t understand because we’re not taught to understand our bodies, right? But we can look outside and know what they’re doing. The animals are doing outside in the winter, right? So then we can go oh, well, if they’re hibernating, they’re resting. They’re, you know, getting ready to get all cozy and stuff in the winter. Well, maybe that’s what my body wants me to do. And it just helps bring you back from an outside view to an inside view. So that’s pretty much menstrual cycle awareness in a nutshell. Okay. Interesting. How do you think that this would benefit women being aware of all of this?
Sarah
Well, for a start, it’s like the fifth vital sign. So there’s actually a book called The fifth vital sign. But there’s a lot of research now saying that you’re using your period and your menstrual cycle, as one of your vital signs. So like your blood pressure, and like your heartbeat, or all of that kind of stuff, don’t actually know the other vital signs, just the bone is really super important, right. And it’s really important to see how you bleed and how you go throughout the month, there’s a lot of conversation out there now about hormone imbalance, and balancing your hormones and your hormones are out of whack. And you’ve got to do all these crazy things. And actually, really, ladies, like, you really just need to eat better, move more, drink more water, get a bit more sleep, and have a little bit less stress, right and start those things before you go crazy. With the whole balancing of the hormones, not to say that some people’s hormones aren’t imbalanced, because I’m sure there are. But a lot of people can solve their hormone imbalances by just looking at their sleep patterns, their stress patterns, and how they’re moving and how they’re feeling their bodies. But it takes again, it takes that awareness outside of the body and brings it back in and it shows and it gives a woman and a remembering, they’ve got an autonomy. Now they are the hero of their bodies. They if you’re a mama and you bring your baby to the doctor, and you know there’s something wrong, and the doctor says, Oh, you don’t know what you’re talking about, you will stay there and you will fight for your baby, right? But women don’t tend to do that for themselves. Because we hand over our power and our authority to someone else, because it’s what we’ve been taught to do. Understanding and tracking your menstrual cycle gives you that authority back because you have data. If nothing else, you have data to bring to a GP or a doctor and say this is this is it. This is what I’ve been going through. And it really adds kudos to a woman. But it also empowers them as well because they understand what is going on in their body.
Lacy Reason
How do you go about understanding that? Like, how do you see, like you were saying, like the type of lead that you have, or maybe how many days? How do you get that information and understand what that means.
Sarah
So it’s really simple. You just start to pay attention. And so I have a free cycle tracker which I’m more than happy to send over for your listeners. But effectively it is so day one of your bleed is is day one, not spotting, not cramps, but an actual full bleed, right? That is day one. And then you just track every single day until you bleed again, right? So an average cycle can range from 25 days to 3730 to 47, something like that, not 47, but like 37 ish days. So it’s not this textbook 28 day cycle where you ovulate on day 14. And it’s all like, it’s not like, I get a one woman who ovulates on day 14 and has a 28 day cycle, like, just just not happening. And asking yourself these questions. And again, as a moment, once you’re up, and once the kids are up, your day is no longer yours. So I always advise women to sit for five minutes in bed with a notebook next to them, you can use a tracking app, be mindful of which ones you use, just because they’re not always data protected. So sometimes that data will leak and be put into the hands of the wrong people. So do Just be careful of that. But using that, and just asking yourself super simple questions. What’s my stress levels? Like? What’s my sleep? Like? How am I feeling emotionally, so all of that is on the tracker, and you can create your own tracker, you can use this one, you can jot it down in your notes app, it doesn’t really matter where you do it, it’s doing it consistently. So to do that, because I am not very consistent, I would add a little note to my alarm clock. So I’d have a post it note on my alarm clock cycle check. And that would get me into a habit of doing it. So my notebook and my pen was next to my bed, I’d get up, do my stretches, grown, that it was awake. And then I would do my cycle check in. And some women like to check their stress levels in the morning, and then check their stress levels in the afternoon because sometimes our stress level rises, and sometimes it drops. Now it’s key to understand your stress levels and how your stress levels and how the food you put into your body and how the drinks that you put into your body affect your cycle. So a lot of women will find that their cycle after Christmas is 10 times worse than their normal bleed. Because and I’m sure you can guess you’ve had really rich food, you’ve had a lot of alcohol, you’ve had a lot of sugar, there’s been stressed because Hello family, Christmas gifts, like all this stuff. So you’ve had all of this stuff. And it started really in November, right? Because you had Thanksgiving. So it’s you’ve had this whole like month and a bit of all of this rich food and these parties and these late nights and there’s stress and doesn’t really lend itself to a nice pain free. Bleed, right. So it’s really important to just take five minutes to breathe. To check in some people like to put their hands on their heart, some people like to, you know, do your Mudra is whatever you like to do, I don’t really care, I’m not judging, I just want you to breathe, take a few moments and just sit with how you are feeling. And if you feel anxiety or anything, you can note that down in the in the tracker, but it’s not important. What I want you to focus on is how you slept, what your stress levels are like, and how you feel emotionally. And then once you’ve done that for like three months, you’ll have a massive amount of data that you can start to pinpoint. Oh, I was really stressed at this point. And microcycle was really not great. Or every month on the 17th to the 19th I get a bit aggro, I should put some boundaries around to make sure that that doesn’t happen. Or I know every third month, I have a really sort of, I’m really exhausted on my bleed. So maybe I should prep more in my Autumn. Or ask someone for some support or freeze some meals or whatever it is. So yeah, that is how you would go about doing it.
Lacy Reason
That is so interesting. I love that idea. Because my thought is when you’re tracking, you’re like, Okay, this is day one of my cycle. And then I start my next cycle this day. And that is it. Right? But tracking, like your sleep and your stress levels, and even possibly what you’ve been eating can affect it so much. And to have all that knowledge and how you’re feeling in that. And yeah, like how much more productive would you be? And would you be setting yourself up for success? If you’re like, Okay, so these days, I typically don’t want to socialize, you know, instead of you set yourself up to do a girl thing, and then you’re beating yourself up because you don’t want to go or it didn’t go as planned and you’re not feeling it. You know how much better if you’d be like, hey, one day 14, I feel amazing. And these are the times that I would love to go out and socialize. Right? Yeah, and all of your hard work done right. And that’s the beauty of it is that we aren’t our hormones are
Sarah
up and down every day, right? Because we’re women we are cyclical is the ingredient rhythm. It’s not, I can’t even think of what it’s called. But like the male hormone is literally, this is what it is at 9am. And this is what it is a five at 5pm. And it’s the same every day, right? During certain points of your month, you are going to want to go out your hormones have primed you for being forward facing for being on podcast for being out with your friends, particularly if you’re introverted. Make sure that you plan stuff during your ovulation because that’s when you want to go right your body is saying I want to make a baby, you might not want to make a baby, but your body wants to make a baby, okay? And to do that, you’ve got to be around people. So you are much more inclined to want to go and have that girls night want to go out dancing to want to go and you know, I don’t know, go to the theater, whatever it is, you’re a lot less inclined to do that. If you’re on your bleed, you’re also a little less inclined to do that towards your later autumn because you are preparing for your bleed. So you’re laser focused, right? You want to get stuff done. So if you need to declutter your house, or move, or you’ve got work that you need to finish up, you are much better suited hormonally and chemically to do it in your autumn. And so yeah, it’s beautiful. And it’s just another. It’s like a crystal ball. Really, if you can look at that. And you’re planning a holiday? Well, who wants to go on a beach holiday when they’ve just started their period? Like, come on? Nobody. But you can look at it and go actually, I normally start around this time. So let’s just postpone it a couple of days. And yeah, it doesn’t always work. And sometimes things happen. But if you are pretty good in your stress management and your sleep habits and your food, you’ll stay pretty regular, right? So it’s a nice little crystal ball to have to know what you can plan and prep for in the future. Yeah, I read this book about foods and your hormones and how it affects your cycle. And it was so interesting of how certain foods will make your lining thicker, which will affect how heavy your bleed is, and which in turn will have more cramping. You Yeah, I was just, I wish I could remember the name of the book. It was very, very interesting. There is a book called Better period food solution, which is a brilliant book. And I can’t remember who it’s by I can’t actually see the small print. But it’s a brilliant book as well. Because if you do struggle with hormone imbalances, or really painful periods, or endometriosis, or P cos it’s a great book to use. To just get more knowledge on an on a nutritional basis. I am not a nutritionist, I will not tell you what how to eat or what any of that stuff, I will give you suggestions, some women find that they will lend to seats and then they think it’s flax seeds, sesame seeds linseeds and something else and they’ll have to in the first part of their cycle, so their winter in their spring and then to in their spring in their sorry summer in their autumn. And they’ll have that in their juices or whatever. And a lot of women will report that they have much less painful periods, they pretty much eradicate their PMS. They don’t have that the mood swings and things like that they have easier bleeds. So a lot of women will try that approach just to help because it’s an Ayurvedic thing I believe, and quite a lot of women find that it’s really helpful. Yeah, I did it for a while. It’s called season. Yeah. That’s it. Yes. I loved it. I honestly have never felt better than when I was seed cycling. And I feel like I’m either pregnant or breastfeeding. So I never have a regular period anymore. But yes, when I had a time that I was having a regular cycle, I absolutely love seed cycling. So it’s flax seed. I have to look it up. But yeah, Lin seed sesame seeds. Flax one that’s gonna bug me. Was it choosing an linseed oil? I don’t know. What is linseed? Because we we definitely call it something different here in the US. Oh, I don’t know. I thought it was linseed back home. I am American but I forget sometimes. I’ll say American things in the UK and they’re like, Whoa, yeah. Oh, I can’t remember. Um, let’s see my Google’s not working. But yes, I think overall, there’s a lot of holistic things out there and remedies out there that you can try. Have you found it?
Lacy Reason
Yes, flaxseed pumpkin seeds. So flower seeds and sesame seed.
Sarah
Oh, then it’s not linseed at all. I’m pretty sure we do call them linseeds in the States, but so it’s not at all. No, I’m telling you the wrong thing. I do apologize. Yeah. And again, it’s so simple, isn’t it to just grind it up, put it in a smoothie, put it in oatmeal, whatever it is. And there you go. And it’s little things. It’s being proactive, as opposed to reactive, like you said. It’s the little steps. And those little mean, we say big little hinges swing big doors, right? So it’s the little steps that you’re taking every single day to get you to your goal. So what can I do today to get me to my goal of having pain free periods? Or what can I do today to get me to a goal?
Lacy Reason
Oh, it makes it a lot less daunting. I think. Yes, so it does make it a little less daunting if you have, if you are being more proactive than reactive, I love to just putting them both those two seeds on my cycle for in a food processor, and then I would make some like energy balls with like, peanut butter, oats and like, put that together. And I’d have my two weeks worth of seeds. And I would just divide them up to 14 balls. And that would be all my seeds. All I had to do was eat at once, like one ball a day. Oh, it was so dumb. is so smart. Now I have not I’m not dedicated enough. I gotta get back into it. When I’m there. Yeah. It was. Yeah. I mean, it’s it is really helpful. And I think again, setting you you were there you have a habit. So it’s a lot easier to recreate that habit. If you’ve already had it before. Do you know what I mean? So yeah, I love awesome. So earlier, you mentioned how healing your body was out here healing your bond with your body is worth it. What do you mean by that?
Sarah
I think a lot of women, and again, I’m blatantly generalizing, I personally had a lot of self worth issues, and a lot of lack of love, like I do, it didn’t deserve to be loved. And I know a lot of women can have certain challenges around body image and self worth and love and all of those kinds of things. When I started to actually look at what my body could do, and yeah, don’t get me wrong, like there’s still days where I’m like, Oh my God, my stomach, like I wish it could be I mean, we all have those dates, right? But my self worth whilst is still a work in progress has definitely increased. Because I’m like, wow, look at what my body does every day. And I’ve started to view myself as a superhero, really, which I know sounds really cheesy, but like I do view my menstrual cycle and what I can do during each of the different seasons is like super powers there. No man can say I am. I am well up for like partying this week, every single, you know, like, yeah, day 14 To day 16 I’m, I’m uh, I’m there, like, No man can say that. So we have this crystal ball. And that provides us with an insight that men don’t have. Right. And so I guess for me, it helps me to heal my relationship with my body, because it helps me to remember that I have an intuition. And I have superpowers. And I am worthy of them by default of just being a woman. And a lot of therapy. But, you know, I do believe that my journey to understanding how my body worked gave me the knowledge and therefore Knowledge is power. And for me, knowledge is power, which equates to self worth. Yeah, the more knowledgeable I am, the more I feel worthy of what it is I’m doing and everyone will have a different path to self worth. But I do feel that having a connection with our bodies and our menstrual cycles
Lacy Reason
is one step on the path to healing. Any challenge that you have self worth, love, whatever. It’s so interesting, because I definitely view it very similar with motherhood, I find the things that we can do are, we are like superheroes. I mean, we can create life, we can sustain that life with breast milk. And even like, people, their stories of women lifting cars, you know, this will literally do anything like the power that we have in motherhood is insane. And it’s so empowering, you know, and I feel Same with birth when you’re giving birth, like I’ve literally created life, and I’ve, like welcomed with my own hands like and put the baby on my chest, I think it’s so amazing. And it’s interesting that you put it in the aspect of the menstrual cycle, because I’ve never viewed it that way I have read a book about menstrual cycle and how you should plan activities throughout your cycle vary, but I feel like she was phrasing it more as we can’t just do the same activities every day as women, and I love your, your view on it, where it’s like, Well, men never get this instead, you know, we’re, we have this crystal ball. And we know that on this day, we will be energized. We know this day, we’re gonna be hyper focused, you know? And, yeah, they just, they just don’t. And however, they can probably push past some things, and just get through it. But we know that, you know, I’m going to be great at
trying to think of CrossFit. I don’t know, what was the like circuit training on these. But yoga is going to be amazing on these days, you know, and there’s a lot to be said, for cycle thinking a lot of things, I know that there were a lot of
Sarah
Instagramers and tech talkers out there that are like, Oh, you can only do CrossFit during this half of your cycle. And you could only do yoga at the latter end of your cycle. And if that’s how you feel, do it, I think the general consensus and what I try to explain or empower or impart is the understanding of what your body wants, my body never wants CrossFit ever doesn’t matter. Like it just does not want CrossFit ever lifting weights all the time, there’s like two days a month that I won’t go and lift weights, and no, I am not going to constantly progress in my weightlifting every day of the month, because I will be more tired on Sundays. And I will find lifting a little bit harder. But I listen to my body, and I go and I do what I can. And so that to me is still a progression, right. And so you can cycle sync anything and everything if you want to. And that is your your desire in life. I don’t like or sync my workouts, I cycle sync my business and I cycle sync a lot of things in my life. But like life happens, and sometimes it doesn’t happen. So like, let’s be full transparency here. I am human. So like I, I would like for it always to happen, but it doesn’t. But there are lots of things out there. And I think the biggest takeaway is that it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you are listening to your unique individual body and you understand what your unique individual body is saying, and I love how you bring it back to motherhood. But imagine if you were that empowered in your menstrual cycle before you became a mother, like how much more empowering that would be. And if you think about, you know, like you have a daughter, I have a daughter, she’s 11, you know, are in year 11 She will be starting to menstruate soon, her beginning will be so vastly different, like I’m from New Orleans. So like my grandmother raised me she gave me a pamphlet and that was it on my menstrual cycle like nothing was nothing. And you know, my her experience, my daughter’s experience is going to be so much different or so, so different, and so much better than mine. And if we can just impart the positive about the menstrual cycle. And you know, and when they get older birth and motherhood and all of that if we can impart the positive or even the neutral because I understand positive sometimes first period is not like you’re pushing it, they’re not going to happen. But the knowledge in the positive and what the superpowers that we’re getting, right, if we can impart that when you just start your cycle, imagine how much different your teens and your 20s and your 30s are going to be.
Lacy Reason
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Just being more self aware. Yeah. So far in life.
Sarah
Yes. And also, I think, to not have certain negative outlook on something that you are going to have happen to you every single month for like, I don’t know, 3040 years depending on when you start and when you stop, and then you get perimenopause, which is even more fun and like and yet we know nothing. Think good tip for most women a good 10 years of your life is spent in perimenopause. Do you know how many days are spent and how many years are spent in menopause? A day. Oh, really? And then you’re postmenopausal so you are Peri menopausal. So the last cycle you have so say you had a cycle on December 25 2021. And then you did not have a cycle on Taylor. Until again. So on December 25 2022, you’re menopausal. And then on December 26 2020, do you are opposed menopause lady gratulations. So you spend all of the time in perimenopause and then all of his time in postmenopausal one day and menopause. But like we were not taught this. No, I mean, I know you’re young. But like I’m 40. And so I am in maybe perimenopause, who knows? It’s all a guessing game here. And most women who have been in perimenopause for years have no idea that only one day is menopause. And then you’re postmenopausal? Yeah. So you feel more empowered now to know that? Yeah.
Lacy Reason
Yeah, menopause is something I’ve always been very intimidated about.
Sarah
Yeah, I think it can be and that’s that in itself is disempowerment to the woman, right, because I think you will find as you get older, and as you watch, women get older that by the time you hit 40, you kind of just shrug that shoulder off and be like, I don’t care anymore. And you almost come into I don’t know how much you know about like the sacred feminine and the wounded Maiden and the mother, and the crone and all of that kind of stuff. But a lot of women spend a lot of their motherhood years as a wounded made it because you haven’t fully been allowed to heal that part of you, because it is what society wants you to be right. By the time you hit 40. You just like, done, I am done with that. And you go deep into the underworld, and like, you figure out and you emerge almost like a phoenix. And there’s just so much empowerment there. And I keep using that word, and I know it’s really overused, but you have so much self awareness, self awareness, and and just joy for life, I think. And if we can leave that intimidation at the front door, and just be like, Do you know what, it’s just another? It’s just another journey for me to go on as a woman to end up bigger and better than what I was before? Yeah. If that makes sense. Yeah, I get a bit passionate about it.
But really, like knowledge is so much power, right. And there is no point where we are taught these things. You know, I had no idea that you don’t typically ovulate on day 14. And so you know, that tell sometimes you just have another baby that’s unexpected, because you’re just like, if you were planning around, avoiding day 14, and you end up ovulating on day 10. Well, surprise. Yeah. And also you can still have a period and not have AVI and not ovulate. So the real star of this your menstrual cycle show yet isn’t actually the bleed like that messy bed at the end. It is ovulation. Yeah, so a lot of people have found that they will use basal body temperatures. So I’m sure you’ve heard of the, you know, like, there’s a lot of FEM tech around so you can get the temp drop. Or you can get a daisy thermometer can get a normal thermometer. It’s all fine.
Sarah
I use a daisy, I like it, but it’s not like it. Just whatever you’ve got really on hand. And that is one of the only ways if you learn to chart your cycle that way that you can tell when you’ve ovulated but you also again, when you start to pay attention to what your body is doing and how you’re feeling. You will also start to no notice how you feel around ovulation, you will feel friskier, you will feel more sexy, you will feel like you want to put makeup on and do your hair and go out partying right? cannot say the same for day one of your cycle. I mean, you might do but most people won’t feel sexy on day one of their cycle. I should also say that using a basal body temperature is a good way but you can also
Lacy Reason
tag team that with your cervical mucus, because both of those together is how you can really sort of tell when ovulation is happened. But your body gives you signs too. But you don’t notice them when you don’t pay attention to your body. Yeah. Isn’t that interesting? Like tracking? I was tracking for a while when I was wanting to have another baby. And I was thinking when you’re tracking your cervical mucus in your temperature. I was like, there is no way it is the same like every day I have no idea and now I’m so much more aware. But to have to be able to get pregnant a numerous amount of times and had no idea that my body went through the cycle and was showing signs of ovulation that are visible signs to go that far into adulthood and have no idea it’s baffling. You know I do but I’m taking charge of your fertility.
Sarah
Fertility yet. Great One is a great one. And most women will only come to this because they’re trying to get pregnant, right? Because we’re told we can get pregnant at any time and Oh, my God don’t have sex, because you will just get pregnant. If you look at a boy, you’re gonna get pregnant. And they go, I have been trying for a year and I’m still not pregnant, what’s going on? Right? And it’s because you can actually only conceive five to seven days out of the month, right. And so a lot of women will come to this cycle tracking and this fertility awareness method, because they are struggling to conceive. And I had a conversation with a fertility specialist. Last year, I think, and she was saying something crazy, like the percentage of people that have fertility trouble is like 60 or 70%. It could be higher than that. And that’s only the people that report it. Yeah. You know, so like, there is a huge percentage of our population, women and men, for women who are going through a fertility challenge. I was speaking to a woman this week. And she she’s got has unexplained infertility, like, this is just what they’ve told her. And it’s like, well, fine, you can do all of these things. But what is your gut health, like? And she’s like, Oh, it’s not that great. And I’m like, Well, I would heal your gut first. And I’m not a fertility specialist. But there is such a link between our gut health and our menstrual cycle, hell’s that we just don’t get two and two together. Really. gut health is huge for every aspect of your body, I think in your emotions, and your your biochemistry and or but you know, a bio individuality or whatever it is. But yeah, like, I mean, I know that when my stomach isn’t great, because I’ve had, and again, a lot of it comes down to the food you’ve eaten, right? So the sugar, the alcohol, the rich food, that doesn’t sit well with my stomach, it doesn’t sit well with my cycle either. If I’m struggling with my gut health, I’ll most likely be more anxious and more stressed about stuff, I probably won’t be sleeping as well, either. So it’s a huge ask, you know, it’s this huge cyclical thing. We’re all in the cycle, right. And also, a lot of women, people in general will find that their gut health isn’t as optimal as it could be just because of the foods and the water and you know, the different. What’s the word I’m looking for, like the different chemicals and things that are in our foods and in our water and in the drinks for drink that we just put in our body? Because we don’t have any other choice, right? You know, lots of people need probiotics, and prebiotics, and vitamins and all that kind of stuff. So yeah.
Lacy Reason
It’s so interesting, I love I’m obsessed with gut health, I had no idea that it could affect your cycle or fertility. It makes sense because it affects everything. There’s a book called fiber field, and it just like blew my mind. I don’t know if you’ve ever read it. And not. So good game is all about how much fiber we need, is very focused on fiber. But he really goes in depth with the microbiome and how to optimize it by having a high fiber diet. Yeah, it’s amazing. But yeah, it’s interesting how you can heal so much just by focusing on your gut, and which is a whole nother podcast. That sounds amazing.
Sarah
Yeah, and I think it is, and again, it’s just one of those things that we’re not taught about that either. Right? You know, we’re taught that it’s normal for us. I mean, I’m I was in a 90s child. So I grew up on antibiotics, right. So like, I probably haven’t had decent gut health since I was five. But to be honest, but we’re taught that stomach aches and IVs. And all of this stuff is normal or back pain at 12 is normal. That is not normal. If you have back pain at 12. Please do something. I had back pain at 12. It is not normal. Right? But we’re told that it is. Because our doctors say it’s not it doesn’t matter. Yeah, matter. Yeah, it’s tough. And it’s so true. You had something interesting I heard recently is your gut microbiome can actually affect marine sickness. Possibly. Oh, probably. Isn’t that interesting? Yeah, I could definitely see that because it affects your mental health and things like that as well. Yeah. Yeah. I probably really, I mean, to be honest, my diet when I was pregnant was pretty horrific. I think I ate dry Cheerios. Yeah, yeah. And tins of vegetable soup and leek and potato soup. Cold. It was cold. I wouldn’t even heat it up. Like oh my gosh, it was Yeah. Not too bad, but equally not that amazing.
Lacy Reason
When I’m dealing with morning sickness, it’s dried Cheerios in some bread. That’s how I had Yeah, don’t blame me. Yeah. So or most women associate how heavy their flow is. And then this just dictates how painful their period is. Is there something more that our body’s telling us with a heavy flow?
Sarah
I mean, it depends on what heavy flow is, right? So your heavy flow, if it’s really heavy, then it could be a sign of P cos it could also be a sign of endometriosis. So, I would say that if you’re, if you’re going through multiple tampons in as many hours or sanitary pads, or pureed pants, or whatever it is that you’re doing, and it isn’t necessarily your normal, then I would get that checked out. It could indicate a multitude of things like fibroids, or tumors or anything like that not to like freak people out. If it is your normal, then it’s probably just your normal again, it would really did it would be determined by how much blood you’re losing, some women will find that they do lose so much that they are anemic around the time that they have their bleed. Again, it really depends on if it is your normal or not. But if you are feeling so drained and so tired, and a hamburger and a steak doesn’t make you feel better, because of the iron, then I would definitely speak to a doctor. Girls when they first start their cycle may find that they are very irregular, but also very heavy. And that is because our hormones are trying to balance out when you’re first starting your cycle. They haven’t hormones at every level, but they haven’t leveled out yet, if that makes sense. Yeah, so young girls can find when they first start their cycle that it is quite heavy, and it does taper off after a while. But if you’re worried I would definitely just speak to your OBGYN. Yeah, for sure. Or deeply.
Lacy Reason
Okay, interesting. Yeah, I know. Endometriosis is definitely one that you always have to watch out for. But yeah, yeah, our bodies tell us so much. I feel ya know, they completely do. Yeah. I don’t think we already covered this a bit. But if you want to talk about activities that you should or shouldn’t plan around your cycle is there things that you do with your business or with your personal life, your family life that you plan in don’t plan around your cycle.
Sarah
So at the moment, because I’m I seem to be getting every couple of cycles, like cycle migraines, I kind of just lay low for the first sort of day and a half, two days of my cycle. business wise, in my winter, because I’ve got a bit of downtime, because I’m taking time off like I forced my body to rest during my my, the first couple of days of my bleed just because I am so tired. I like to dream about what my business can do and ideas and things you can be quite prophetic in this stage of your cycle. And then when you come to your spring, so that’s I always say like, I believe for five days or five to seven days, your estrogen starts to rise, or at least mine does around day three or four. So you will start to feel your energy rising as well. So when you come into your spring, which may be day five or day seven, depending on your cycle, you will find in business that you are able to sit down and to look at things and to almost weed out what it is you want to do. You might want to shelve that, ideally, you might want to bring that idea you might want to stop the idea altogether. You’ve also got more energy so you can burn the candle at both ends, and not fatigue yourself too much. Do be careful. I do always equate the spring as like being a butterfly that’s just come out of the cocoon, right? You still want to be quite gentle with yourself. You don’t want to. It’s not like the horse race or the car race where you’re shooting out of the start gate right. You just want to be gentle and mindful of the energy that you have, you’re more likely to be able to focus on education at this point. And if you want to start any hobby or activity or exercise program, your hormones will be primed at this time to help you stick with that habit. Moving into your summer. This is your ovulation so you think summer you think I’ve ruined my car I want to get out I want to party I want to do stuff. So these are really good times to plan launches in your business. It’s a good time to play and podcast interviews or webinars or recording things if you’re doing a group program you need videos. It’s a great time to go out and network it’s a good time to meet friends to go out and have that girls night if you want to. And then as you move into, but I will say this after ovulation Some women will find that they have PMS like symptoms because your hormones tank if you’ve not fertilized the aid right. So a few days after or like A day or two after ovulation, you might find that you are a little bit more cranky. It’s just because your hormones have dropped and they will come back up and level off a little bit. Just like I’d mentioned that moving in to autumn or fall fall. This is a really good time to start wrapping up the projects that you’re working on. So you’re gonna want to dot your i’s and cross your t’s, you’re going to want to create boundaries. So you’re a lot better at saying to someone out need you in my life. Maybe not quite so harsh. But you can say to people, this isn’t working for me. I don’t need you in my life, you’re a lot better it’s suited or equipped to declutter. So get rid of stuff. If you find that you naturally hold on to things. Use this time to go through your closets and you are ruthless. Trust me, I have done it. It is amazing, you Marie Kondo everything is fast. And you also may find this time, particularly if you find that you are quite tired, or you are a single mama, because your husband’s deployed or whatever, you may want to take this time to create some meals that you can just shove in the oven, or buy some ready made meals that are in the freezer, wherever, whatever works for you. Right, and then you are moving in to your winter again, and winter is a really great time to just relax to dream, like I said earlier. And it isn’t always possible. And I know that depending on what your life looks like, for me if I’m having because I work in a primary school as well. I’m a speech and language assistant therapist kind of thing. I will wear leaves of trousers, if I know that I’m going to going to be at school, I will bring a hot water bottle or 10s machines are actually really good for cramps. So if you’ve had babies, and you’ve used a 10s machine during your labor, it’s actually quite good for cramps because it loosens the muscles, that kind of things machine. I know Yeah, sounds crazy. So you just don’t put it up really, really fine. But I’ve got a little one. I mean, 10s machines, unfortunately, aren’t very discreet. The one I or at least the one I used when I was in labor wasn’t very discrete, I’ve got it’s called over Euro. And it’s really tiny. And it’s got little like, the not nodes or whatever. And they’re quite handy to be able to put on if I know that I’m going to have to be up and about at school quite a lot. And I can’t just sit at my desk. So yeah, that’s another good little tip that you can have there. Yeah. Yeah.
Lacy Reason
I love that. Yeah, if
Sarah
I think about all the times where I just like feel so motivated to get things done right, when I’m just like, I need to get rid of everything in my house, like, especially after Christmas, right? When you’re in that perfect part of your cycle that you’re prying to just be like, I need to declutter this space, so that I can just enjoy and relax in the next cycle. And it’s something that you don’t even realize when you’re in it. No. And also, that’s a beautiful aspect of the tracking is that once you start to do it, I mean, I’ve done it for like 10 years. But once you’re starting to do it, and you’re being stingy with this, and you’re writing everything down, write those things down, write how you felt that day, like oh, I felt more motivated, oh, I felt really pretty today or who I looked really nice my dress, because that won’t help you and give you an insight as to how your next month’s will go and how it will pan out. Because whilst we are cyclical and things change doesn’t change that much. You can still see a pattern if you’ve tracked for three months, or six months, you can see the pattern of what you’re like, and how your life is like crystal ball. It’s pretty good. That is I will have to do that. I’ve always tracked like, what day I started. But other than that, I’ve never gone further than that. But yeah, I’m trying. But then when you have kids waking you up, the temperature is never been something I’ve been in that’s more tricky, I think because they say realistically, you should track your temperature at the same time every day. So you have really little ones. So you can’t say well, I know that no one’s going to be up at halftime, right. So that can be a little bit tricky. That’s why people get the temp drop, I think because they sleep in it. And then there are other ones you can get that are like ratings also that you can sleep in. So if you are woken up, it isn’t as much of a problem because you’ve got sort of a steady
Lacy Reason
range of data from sleeping in in the temp drop and things like that. Yeah, I love that because I feel like that could be so helpful too. If you are worried about or trying to get pregnant or trying to avoid pregnancy like yes knowledge in this of knowing where you are in your cycle, not just like, hey, I need focus on getting something done. Whereas like I mean homeschool comes to my mind like yeah, I want To focus and get organized and get so much done with my kids, it’s probably that point of my cycle. But then also with having more kids, you know, the knowledge that you have, would be so imagine how many people that are trying to get pregnant and they’re just trying on the wrong day.
Sarah
Yeah. And this is the thing, right? Like, you know, they always say, like, schedule it in. But, you know, I just, it just doesn’t, it loses Spark, I think for me when you when you sort of say that, but it is really challenging, unless you were going, you have to be proactive, I think if you’ve tried to get pregnant, and it’s not happening spontaneously, you know, it’s not that doing that doesn’t make it any less natural, or any more any less spontaneous. It’s just giving you information, right? Data is good, there’s nothing wrong with having the information, it empowers you to make different decisions. And not every decision is going to be right five years from now. But it was right at that time. And so just having that information is great, because you can look back at it from five, you know, maybe well look back at five years from now, but I’ve had, I’ve tracked on the Flow app for like seven or eight years, my period, not necessarily my symptoms and things like that, but just and it was very good information for me when I went actually my cycles becoming more irregular. Why is that? And then I was able to sit with it and go actually, I’ve been a lot more stress have not been sleeping very well, my food habits haven’t been great. But having that data that spanned back five or seven years was really helpful for my app.
Lacy Reason
So yeah, it’s just data. The end of the day. Yeah. It’s very telling. I love that. Yeah.
Sarah
I was gonna say, and it doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with you. I think sometimes people feel that they have failed, or that they’re wrong, or they’re broken. You are not broken. You just need and the data will help you to realize that you’re not broken. Yeah, I think
Lacy Reason
that’s so true. And I kind of always assumed that if my period was off, it was something wrong with my hormones. And I’ve never even thought about that, like looking back and saying, Hey, maybe it was just a really stressful time, or I wasn’t eating or sleeping. Well, like it should be.
Sarah
I think I read if you’re stressed, it could prolong it right, because it can prolong ovulation. Yeah. So sometimes with stress or like for myself, personally, when I went back to the US this past Easter, it was really stressful getting there. It was really stressful while we were there. And I went from having a 30 day cycle to having a 50 day cycle. Holy cow. Because of the stress. Yeah. And because of my knowledge, and because I’ve tried my cycle for so long. I didn’t freak out. I was like, oh my god, I’m pregnant. I knew I was pregnant, or oh my gosh, there’s something wrong with me. There’s nothing wrong with me. It was the stress. It was I’d had COVID in January was super stressful. Few months before we went to the States, it was stressful while we’re there like there was this culmination of like stress. And it led to a 50 day cycle. And I probably didn’t ovulate that month either. Like I’m pretty sure that my my app never showed me ovulating. So you know, again, sometimes we don’t ovulate. And that that isn’t great. Yeah, because of your body. So stress now is not the time to have a baby. You know, dairy tree will respond. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. All right. So can you tell us how we find you online? Yes, so I am here. I’m over on Instagram. On and off I’m not very active. But if you DM me I will always respond. And I am in stories quite a lot. And that is at I am Sarah. So SAR a haitch. Burn B is and boy y r n e My website is Sarah burn wellness.com. So you can find my program over there. You can send me a message we can chat. It doesn’t really matter. I love connecting on Instagram or the website. I love connecting with anyone and everyone and I really like talking about periods. So DMV.
A lot of people have questions. Yes. And and also I think as well like don’t ever think that your question is stupid. No question is ever stupid. Is only stupid if you don’t ask it. Like asked me. I love answering questions. Manifesting generator sacral. I am built to respond to your questions. So please ask me so that I can live my life in the correct design. Let me respond. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate this conversation and having you on. And thank you everyone for listening. I will see you all next week on the early motherhood by early motherhood
Sarah
Again podcast thank you so much for having me this has been so much fun thank you
