HAPPILY HORMONAL | hormone balance for moms, PMS, painful periods, natural birth control, low energy, pro-metabolic

E68: BONUS: My 5 Favorite Ways to Support My Body During PMS

• Leisha Drews, RN, FDN-P, holistic hormone coach, period expert

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Today is the last episode of my bonus series for the one year anniversary celebration of this show! The luteal phase can be a fun one, I promise. I'm sharing today the BTS of what I actually do on a monthly basis to support my luteal phase for more energy & better moods.

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Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine.

This podcast is for women and moms to learn how to balance hormones naturally in motherhood, to have pain-free periods, increased fertility, to decrease PMS mood swings, and to increase energy without restrictive diet plans. You'll learn how to balance blood sugar, increase progesterone naturally, understand the root cause of estrogen dominance, irregular periods, PCOS, insulin resistance, hormonal acne, post birth-control syndrome, and conceive naturally. We use a pro-metabolic, whole food, root cause approach to functional women's health and focus on truly holistic health and mind-body connection.

If you listen to any of the following shows, we're sure you'll like ours too!
Pursuit of Wellness with Mari Llewellyn, Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, Found My Fitness with Rhonda Patrick, Just Ingredients Podcast, Wellness Mama, The Dr Josh Axe Show, Are You Menstrual Podcast, The Model Health Show, Grounded Wellness By Primally Pure, Be Well By Kelly Leveque, The Freely Rooted Podcast with Kori Meloy, Simple Farmhouse Life with Lisa Bass

Speaker 1:

Okay, so we are on our last bonus episode for cycle syncing, and if you have not listened to the last three, I highly recommend that you go back to those, or make sure that you come back to them when you are at the appropriate phase in your cycle.

Speaker 1:

But today I'm going to talk about the luteal phase, and this is a good one, so buckle up and let's go. Welcome to the Happily Hormonal podcast. Now, if you're a little iffy on whether or not the word hormonal is a good one, you're in the right place. My name is Leisha Drews, registered nurse and functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, turned holistic hormone coach, and, after going through my own hormone journey and having my three babies, I actually believe that our hormones are one of the greatest gifts that we've been given as women and that, no matter what you've been told, it's possible for you to have thriving energy, good periods and a stable mood all month long, and I am here to show you the way. I think it's time to change the narrative around words like hormones and hormonal and start to reclaim the power that we truly have as women, which is a power to change not only our own health, but the health of all of our family for generations to come. Hormone balance doesn't have to feel hard. It can actually feel simple and fun when we do it in a way that aligns with how our bodies were made. If you're ready to start trusting your body again and feeling really good in that beautiful body that you've been given, then grab yourself a yummy drink and maybe a snack and let's do this Next.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so the luteal phase is the phase where you are done with ovulation, and it's usually about the last 10 days of your cycle. And I just want to note because I cannot help myself, even though here I am talking about what I actually do for my cycle I just want to tell you, if you are paying attention to your ovulation, then you should be checking to see how long your luteal phase is, and when you have ovulated is officially the luteal phase, and I just talked in my last podcast about the ovulation phase, which is just like just before and just after ovulation. So it does cut into the technical luteal phase just a little bit. But what I'm actually talking about when I'm having you check your luteal phase to see how long it is is after you've ovulated to the day that your temperature rises. We want to see minimum 12 to 14 days of elevated temperatures to know that you are making enough progesterone. So I just wanted to throw that in there, that, even though the part of your cycle I'm talking about is kind of like the last 10 days, we hope to see that you have like 12 to 14 days of higher temperatures, because that is the sign that you are making adequate progesterone, potentially, and that your thyroid and metabolism are going to be supported by that. And I'm going to go into what I actually do to support my luteal phase.

Speaker 1:

So, as a reminder, if you haven't listened to the podcast before this, this is me really just talking about what I actually do to support my cycle as a busy mama. And this is outside of the baselines that I teach in nourish your hormones, that I practice every single day, mostly every single day of my life, very, very much the majority of the days of my life, but I won't tell you it's every day because that would be perfection and I am not perfect by any means. With that being said, the things that I teach in nourish your hormones, the baselines really nourishing your body, supporting your stress, really understanding your body and knowing what the heck is going on and being an integrity with yourself and alignment with the way you're taking care of yourself. That's what I teach in nourish your hormones, and that is what moves the needle the most when it comes to PMS, the luteal phase, painful periods, low energy, hormonal acne all the things that I talk about all the time. Those baselines have to be in place, and because I have those baselines in place, I'm also doing some of these fun things or these things that help me feel even better to support myself when I'm in the last 10 days of my cycle. So, all disclaimers aside, that's what this episode is about. So when I move into my luteal phase, I know that my hormones are going to be, my progesterone is going to reach its peak around five to seven days prior to my next period coming, and when progesterone is at its highest, you're going to have the most effects on your metabolism and on your thyroid, and so there's more energy demands on the body. So I know that.

Speaker 1:

So if I start to feel like I have cravings, I always want to pay attention to that and make sure that I am meeting that with nourishing food, and so sometimes it will be more of like a treat quote, unquote essentially, but I will do something like I'll make bone broth, hot chocolate at night, or I will. Last night I made some banana cocoa powder like blended up I'm not going to call it ice cream because it's not ice cream, but you know what I'm talking about like frozen bananas. Things like that can be essentially like counted as a treat, but can be like a really nourishing way to meet those cravings for more carbs during the luteal phase. And when you notice that those cravings are coming up more often, or when I notice that for myself, I always like to check in with am I tired? Am I stressed? Am I actually getting enough food? Have I had balanced meals today? And if the answer to any of those things is no, then the dessert that I might want is not necessarily what I need, and so I want to always make sure to follow up with what I actually need, and so cravings are a big thing that comes up in luteal, and that's how I like to answer them for myself.

Speaker 1:

I just like to always think of cravings as information. My body's telling me something. My body's telling me, if I'm craving sweets specifically, that I'm tired or I'm stressed or I don't have enough energy coming in to meet my energy demands, and since that goes up in luteal, it really can come up in that part of my cycle. So I always pay attention to that. I'm always also supporting estrogen detox in my luteal phase because, again, estrogen has built right before ovulation and it's really helpful to continue to support, just like really good detox pathways for estrogen and for everything else in your body when you are in your luteal phase. And so for me that looks like more intention with things like my castor oil packs. It looks like more intention with, even with movement.

Speaker 1:

I actually noticed that I really enjoy working out a little bit harder in the second half of my cycle and that can just look like doing something that's going to make me sweat a little bit more. Sometimes I like to lift heavier weights and I also really love to go in the sauna. In this phase, when my body temperature is a little higher, I just crave it more, and so we have a sauna and I'll go in the sauna and I'll make sure to replenish minerals either with, like the element electrolyte packets or some other electrolyte options that I like, or coconut water, adrenal cocktails, those kind of things. But I really like to just think of this phase as a time that I can fill my cup a little bit more and as I'm saying this, I kind of hear it sound like I have tons of time to do this. Guys, I'm doing this with my kids. I'm doing this early in the morning or after they've gone to bed.

Speaker 1:

A lot of times, like this is my wind down, like sometimes I'll go work out a little bit for a wind down, or sometimes I'll do it after they get up in the morning and we'll get a little snack and then we'll go out and work out before I make them breakfast. So this is not me saying like I have so much quiet time by myself. I promise you, as I'm recording this podcast, I have had a lot of interruptions already and so there's not, there's not tons of quiet time over here, and so I want you to know like this is doable. But those are things that I focus on, and when I'm talking about, I focus on these things. Like it's over 10 days. I'm not doing all of these things every single day, but they, those are things that feel good to me during this phase of my cycle.

Speaker 1:

I also love taking Epsom salt baths. That's also really supportive for just moving moving toxins from your body, but also absorbing magnesium, relaxing and I find that it's really common to have more mood symptoms in the second half of your cycle, and especially the last week before your period. That's something that I hear so much from the women around me, and, while I don't usually tend to have mood symptoms around my periods, if I do have a really stressful month or a month that I am like feeling more depleted, really, really busy, I noticed that I need to fill my cup more, and so I'll try to take a couple. Just knowing that I'm in my last week of my cycle is a trigger for me to know that I might need a little bit of extra self care, essentially, and so that'll be the time that I'll just prioritize taking a bath. When the kids go to bed, maybe the kitchen's gonna stay dirty or in my case it's usually the laundry is going to stay unfolded, and so far everyone has been fine. I will be honest, even though sometimes I really don't love having unfolded laundry in the laundry basket or having to take out kid clothes when they need them, but sometimes in my luteal phase, I prefer to fill my cup and go outside in the evening and like get some sunshine or move my body or take a bath or read a book and take a break so that I can come back the next morning and be the mom and the wife that I want to be and not be grumpy. So that is how I support my body in luteal phase.

Speaker 1:

I also notice that I really love Maybe not spending time with tons of people. Like going to a big group right before my going to like something with a big group of people right before my period may not be exactly my favorite thing to do, but I definitely enjoy spending time with friends who you know I can have like a real deep conversation with, spending time with my husband, spending time with my family, and so, while I am often wanting to have a little bit more alone time than 0% of my day, I often also enjoy having you know, a relationship or like having time with people that I have more of a deep relationship with. So those are things that I look for to support my body in luteal phase and each of these really, I just kind of listen to what I need and pay attention to where I am in my cycle and because I have been paying attention to my cycle for so long because I have learned a lot about women's cycle in general. I can tell you or like I can tell myself, essentially like what I might need. I'm informed in that, but it doesn't mean I have a checklist, it doesn't mean everything happens every single cycle, but these are things that I focus on and essentially just know that they might be something that I need and I can promise you that it makes not only my luteal phase better but it makes my next period better, because I have noticed, when there's a really stressful luteal phase or we're traveling or something like that, that sometimes my next cycle in general, but especially my next period, like I'll feel a little more tired or I'll feel a little more drained, and if I'm able to use my luteal phase to slow down a little bit, to replenish, I notice that my next cycle is better and I'm not a grumpy mom and that is honestly always the win right when we're busy and when there's lots of things going on. So this is just meant to be kind of fun and encouraging and hopefully you can pull a few takeaways that might also apply to you, and I am so thankful.

Speaker 1:

So this is the kind of wrap up of my four bonus episodes for the one year anniversary, which is actually today, saturday, august 19th, the day this episode is coming out, and I am just incredibly thankful for everyone who listens to this podcast and who sends me messages and tells me how much they have learned or what they've been able to implement in their life.

Speaker 1:

When you tell me that you're sharing it with your sister and you're sharing it with your friends, that, honestly, is just so encouraging to me and such a blessing, because I know that you're busy, I know that your time is so valuable, and so I just honestly want to thank every single person listening to this and sharing and reaching out and becoming part of this community. It is such an honor to be able to have this podcast, honestly, and that each of you are trusting me to whatever extent you are, to listen to my research and my advice, and every single woman who reaches out to me and we talk in the DMs or by email or joins, nourish your hormones, like I'm always just blown away with, like how cool of humans are in this space, and so I love you all. I'm so thankful for you and cannot wait for the next year of this podcast. As always reach out, tell me what you want to learn about, tell me what you're struggling with, because I'm here for you and always want to support you and cheer you on.