Nutrition for Every Phase of Your Cycle and Life

0:00Hello and welcome to 9 to 5 wellness podcast. So today we are going to talk about a topic that is super important, I believe, to women's health. And that is nutritional needs for women as they shift through every phase of their menstrual cycle and every phase of life from follicular and luteal phases to pregnancy, postpartum, paramanopause and beyond. Hormones play a big role in hunger, energy and cravings and recovery, which a lot of times we don't place on hormones, but hormones do drive our recovery. So today we'll be breaking down the science of cycle, sinking nutrition, bust some of the myths floating around social media and share some practical and realistic strategies with you guys that you can actually use right away, whether you're optimizing

1:02performance, managing symptoms or just trying to feel better during the day. This podcast interview is for you. And today I'm joined by a super awesome guest who is an expert in hormonal and anti-inflammatory nutrition and lifestyle. Our guest today is Christina, she is a nutritionist, focusing on anti-inflammatory nutrition. Her personal story with endometriosis is what pushed her to look for answers almost a decade ago. Her practice focuses on women's health and all the transitions that women go through. She believes that health is a way of living and that we can turn it into our biggest competitive advantage if we have the knowledge to know what to do. Welcome to the podcast, Christina. Thank you. Happy to be here. I'm so glad you're joining us. So as I just read your bio, I was thinking about your story. I and I know all the other listeners

2:11and viewers of our podcast would love to know what got you started with this field of nutrition and why anti-inflammatory nutrition and lifestyle. Yes, thank you for the question. As you said, it comes from my personal health journey with endometriosis. For me, it was a short journey, I would say, let's say I was from the lucky ones because I was diagnosed very early because it runs in my family and the doctors, they really knew where to look at. So with time, I discovered more and more strategies that I can support my body in healing and recovering and just feeling better. And this led me also to looking further into chronic inflammation and anti-inflammatory nutrition and lifestyle because we know now that endometriosis is not only a hormonal condition, it is also an immune condition and it is very much driven on from chronic inflammation. And looking further,

3:16I discovered that also chronic inflammation is the cause of almost every non-communicable disease. So every disease that we cannot catch, like the serious diseases, and also with time, we accumulate inflammation, like low-grade inflammation in our bodies, all of us. And sometimes it's a disease, like in my case, but other times it's just our lifestyle, the active, two active, life-strized lifestyle that we have, the process fault that we eat, the lack of movement, there are a lot of things that can drive this chronic inflammation in the body. And the good news is that we can really support our body and whether we talk on longevity or just treating a disease or just trying for all our phases as we men or our transitions in life, or we can really support ourselves through nutrition and through different lifestyle changes.

4:17Absolutely. We can all change small things, like take small steps to change what's going on with in our bodies as we go through life, whether it's stress from work or just a stressful lifestyle, with family and what's on it. We all have low-grade inflammation in our bodies and how can we manage it so that it doesn't impact us in the long term? So that's a great way to start this. I want to shift our focus towards the menstrual cycle and the idea of cycle syncing our diet. Could you break down what it actually means to eat for your hormonal phases? What are the hormonal phases that we want to sync to? Yes, I think so too. So women's body are fascinating. Most of us know how men's body operate,

5:23operate, and this is how the whole economy is built on. We all know by now that men operate on 24-hour cycle. It's just one main hormone that goes up and down, like goes up in the morning, goes down in the evening. But for women, it goes very different. We don't live as much as synch with our biology. I would say still. It's still to come, I think, also with the research getting more advanced in women's health. Women operate on roughly 28 days cycle, depending on our menstrual cycle. This is because our hormones fluctuate during these 28 days. We've defined four main phases, that drive how we feel, how we function, the influence of our metabolism, our gut health, even our mold as well. We all know all the transitions that we go through in one month.

6:28In the four phases are lead to four. Menstrual cycle is the menstruation. As it just broke down, the menstrual phase followed by the follicular phase followed by ovulation and then followed by luteal phase. Those are the four phases that we are looking at. How does matching our food to our cycle shift our overall energy and well-being? What do we mean by actually eating for our cycles? Eating and living in sync with our cycles can influence a lot our energy levels. Because also supporting the body gives it space to heal and to feel in sync. We don't talk about what this means. Of course, there are a lot of strategies out there. I think the topic is getting more and more trendy and there are different advice out there from just don't go out of the house when we are menstruating to you. Just do only strength training every day when you're on

7:31your ovulation phase. Let's see how this really works and why not every advice is applicable also for the lifestyle that we have also for physical professionals especially. There is an interesting link to the phases to the phasomes that we have. I find this very helpful also to understand what that the body needs at this period of time and also to remember what maybe your body is needing in that phase. If we look at our inner seasons also, the menstruation phase would be our inner winter. When we look what we need in winter in general, it is also staying warm, staying cozy, a little more with ourselves a little more retired so to say not that social. When it comes to nutrition, it also has a lot to do with winter. When we are menstruating, you can imagine really the uterus shading. It is a little bit of inflammatory process

8:38and our body craves normally warm foods. I think for the soul, also, the phase where our sex hormones or estrogen and the progesterone are at their lowest. It is great also to support the hormones with healthy fats, chytopolis, avocado, very nourishing foods, also a little bit heavier let's say like also as in winter. Different soaps, two lots, a lot of veggies and fiber to support our gut health and of course with the menstruation, the body needs, I'm support because a lot of women, actually if you're having a dinner, you need a little bit more extra iron. So this could be from meat, which is a great source or liver is also a great source but if you're vegetarian, there are also different options to combine different legumes, different type of resources.

9:39Yeah, spinach is rich in iron. Yes exactly spinach as well about the stench of dark leafy greens, it's also great for our magnesium support and a lot of people want to hear as well. This is the phase where dark chocolate can also support you because magnesium is very helping also with crumbs and just really think like some in the muscles and like everything magnesium supports around 600 tons of scented, it's good for recovery and then actually exactly. Yes, so the next phase would be the follicular phase and this is where estrogen starts rising and rises for the whole phase like believe until it's peak in ovulation phase. So the follicular phase will be our inner spring and in spring we live to be outside, we are more social and our body in general is more resilient meaning that also we are more insulated, which is good, that means

10:46that we can metabolize better carbohydrates and this is also the period where the body can thrive on lighter foods. So to have this spring like salads, a lot of salads, a lot of veggies, also fermented foods are great, they're in general great for every day but especially in this phase like fermented foods such as kimchi, sour, crowd, kefir if you like. Fish I would say also to the lighter foods like fish or lean meat, such as chicken, this can support us throughout this phase and also this is the phase where we can push ourselves a little bit more in meaning of word but also in meaning of strength training or some of the training that we're doing because normally we can take a little bit more if you better after that so eating enough protein

11:53also for recovery and for supporting the extra training so to say it also right. Absolutely, I just one more thing because I also said that our body is more resilient in this phase, this is also the phase especially towards ovulation where also if you want to do intermittent fasting it will be good for our body, it is the period where we can benefit from intermittent fasting I wouldn't say like the whole period like two, three days if you want to do the more extreme type of 168 the period when it's as for you. That's fascinating I wasn't aware of that that's really good to know. Yes this is where really when estrogen is higher in in every aspect we are I think also mentally we feel more stable in this phase and in the Lutio phase for example we're

12:53going to talk about it but then it could lead to the question if you do the intermittent fasting. It is very new video for everyone but a lot of women then when they do it a lot especially in the late Lutio they see that they're energy drops and not the other way around. Got it. So then we are left with ovulation and Lutio phases how you should we sink our nutrition and diet in those phases. In the ovulation phase this is our summer we try estrogen is that it's peak and we want to socialize normally we also very outgoing also resilient but the moment of ovulation is it also linked to a bit of inflammation in the body you can imagine when the follicle burns around the egg it is when a little bit inflammation is created in the body that's why some

13:53women feel a little bit of lower energy or even fatigue around the ovulation just before and right after. So anti-fout refools are great here a lot of cruciferous vegetables such kale, broccoli, cauliflower, this supports also the estrogen clearance the metabolism of estrogen so it's great in this space and it's steel such as in the follicular phase a little bit lighter meals will do you good like the salad with fish maybe with tofu and regarding that held a lot of fiber so you can incorporate chia seeds and flax seeds in your diet as well wonderful and then we come to the last phase in this is the Lutio phase this is our inner autumn as it's defined and it is the phase so estrogen drops and progesterone starts to rise

14:56and this could make us a little bit more anxious a little bit more like cook cooling at home and a little bit more we want to spend maybe focus time like not that social because you can also imagine that your body is preparing pregnancy and it also needs the nutrients if this happens so naturally we don't have to feel guilty also having cravings we all know like the especially in the late world here when we crave some food this is the period where warm foods are really great so slopes and stews again a lot of bone broth as well is great also for your gut health and nutrients such as zinc also different vitamins be like to make me be six for example

15:58or tinden mold this can be found in especially in high high emolting meat also in other foods and regarding metabolism this is also the phase when we are a little bit more insulin resistant so we don't have to overdo it with the carbs so better have some complex carbs sweet potatoes squash or pumpkin kinoa for example but yeah I mentioned that it's very normal to crave exactly these carbs and like also more simple carbs and the one reason for that is that the body needs more nutrients that means it signals more anger like the understand now because we theoretically eat because the body needs nutrients and we

16:59need a little bit more calories in this period and it's not quite crazy it's around between hundred three hundred calories more but like biological view the body preparing for the pregnancy and it just needs the storage so I'm saying yeah no thanks for explaining that I am actually learning a lot about gluteal phase and how to match nutrition to the that phase from you I know for sure that I myself and then a lot of the patients I work with they crave sugar and simple carbohydrates during this phase but what I really like how you mentioned that eat some complex carbohydrates like sweet potatoes pumpkin and maybe kinoa to honor those cravings but do so with functional foods

18:00and also even fruit right like berries are great they're sweet they would like satisfy your sweet tooth but they're also very high in antioxidants too so those are good for you so now my question to you would be that I've heard from a lot of busy professionals women who are busy professionals where they feel tired in their gluteal phase right like they don't have as much energy they're not as they don't have as high of energy as they would during their um folic killer and ovulatory phases right so and they're like we feel exhausted at work um so I love how you just explained matching nutrition and your diet to these phases and um of your menstrual cycle how can

19:02we also transition our work lifestyle or work style so that we are not feeling overwhelmed during the gluteal phase the best would be of course to slow down if this is possible uh but don't think of something major like of course we can work we can do everything it is just a a little bit more support that the body needs and also the small things like not eating lunch for example in front of your computer this is already like slowing down for the body not that you should do it at all but you know especially in this space just take small breaks where you can um and I would say also if you have a busy day I hear for example eating out uh business lunches dinner and so on it is great to focus on what you can control like the meal the one meal in the day that you can control and it's your breakfast

20:06this is also very important for your energy to out the whole day so just focusing on um protein reach and lower on carbs breakfast how we will give you the fuel for the day for healthy fats and protein mainly could be eggs I love eggs but I also know now that not that many people uh in the morning but there are the lymphoma slide from boil scrambled and so on um that you can have also with avocado all um yeah my go to your yeah my go to is Greek yogurt yeah that's also great option the Greek yogurt with nut and um berries this is also very nourishing you can put on chia seeds, flax seed in there just for more fiber uh this is a great breakfast as well and also having the breakfast before your coffee because coffee on an empty

21:10toilet can spike your cortisol levels and cortisol is uh normally higher in the morning so it could be like it could trigger a lot of cost cost roller coaster throughout the day uh now that's a good one I wasn't aware of that I actually go for coffee first thing just because I think it's a habit but now I won't yeah you try it out to have breakfast and then the coffee just delay a little bit the coffee and uh you know for a lot of women it has a great impact on their energy levels especially because it influences cortisol influence the soul the insulin response um so you will normally have a stable blood sugar throughout the day and that means like stable energy in the well yeah it's a wise and wedge helps blood yes this is very linked to

22:12our energy levels and we also spoke about in the loyalty of phase that we tend to build a little bit more insulin resistance so really focusing on meals like balance meals that support the blood sugar balance is already very helpful and also when you speak blood sugar balanced um when you have a busy day ahead making sure that you have some healthy slats with you to support like maybe when you feel a little bit more tired and we'll help you snack I mean for example you can have a oil egg you can have some nuts and seeds with you um you can have even dark chocolate if you have these cravings this is also a great um way to satisfy I think the dark cravings in the wood dofie having snacks on hand helps a lot so I really like the idea of packing your snacks let's talk

23:13about meals too how can people integrate these ingredients into like a hectic weekly meal prep routine um yeah you can do it um easy like I know for me especially the beginning like when I heard when I hear the the word meal prep like I imagine like the whole Sunday hours and hours of cooking and um prepping can fall on uh and there are different ways to prepare for the week but um prepare the snacks is one thing because this I think the way the meal like semi meal that we skip most often just because we feel the energy dropping until we want just to have something um but also um for example in the morning if you don't have time to prepare breakfast just boil some eggs in the evening before is a great way to you just

24:19grab and go all sorts of things just to have like your breakfast prepared have it uh you preferably like sitting down and taking the time as much as you can uh then adding some veggies to that this is also just washing you know you don't really need that to meal prep that adding some veggies and healthy fat like olive oil for example or just avocado uh and for the breakfast or you can make for breakfast also chia pudding this is the for example sometimes when I crave also sweet things this is what I have for breakfast and this is you can really new prep it in the light the night before and it's just a couple of minutes so you chia seed uh into some water or into your nut milk um adding some it could be Greek yogurt it could be coconut yogurt uh wherever you like also you can add um cocoa powder which is great

25:22uh as well and this is very satisfying for the cravings and then in the morning just wash some berry and top it with nut whatever you fancy so this is for the breakfast for lunch um I think the my grab and go is always um a salad when like we talked about the face depending whether you um sing with your face depending on which face in your cycle you are but like salad and then adding protein don't forget like when you think of a balanced meal theme first the main thing would be the protein and then add the fiber the veggies everything around and for for lunch um my advice is always to focus on some kind of protein and um veggies and then for dinner like if we talk meal prep forget the question uh for example

26:23for protein you can add to your salad sardines if you like sardines are great region omega-3 uh you just don't really have to prep them so you just all on the can and you can have them with your salad um and then for dinner my tip would always be to focus on protein um veggies and complex carbs because also complex carbs are they could help you sleep better they don't only help you or mood but then there is an indirect link between um carbs in general and uh melatonin so I want to maybe I want uh explain it in great detail it is an indirect thing but normally because the carbs they are animated a little bit our insulin in rebel and it's the in the process like also we treat to found melatonin melatonin the link um it helps to sleep better

27:27normally yeah I absolutely agree that complex carbohydrates are super helpful at dinner time because as you just said that it's an indirect relationship but they do help with the melatonin production which is the hormone uh that helps you sleep so that's great and thanks for breaking down the meal prep and different meals uh I love how you suggested that start building your meal around protein source so that could be grilled chicken uh that could be chickpeas or lentils or legumes or beans if you're a vegetarian or just your word eggs like you know you can combine a few of those with vegetarian sources too that's great way to accomplish your protein goals and then start adding complex carbohydrates start adding some healthy fats to it and some sources like

28:30Greek yogurt is really high in healthy fats already so you know you could like skip on the fat if uh you have if you already have Greek yogurt incorporated it into your meal so I want to shift focus towards women who are going through the transitory period where their hormones have started shifting many women come to me that after the stork noticing changes in body composition and they're like I'm eating the same things but I feel like I'm storing a lot more fat on my body I don't know what to do like to begin with like I don't eat too much but now I'm not really liking how I'm looking in the mirror so what specific adjustments should they make to their diet and or macronutrient

29:30intake to manage these metabolic shifts effectively yes so when we're talking about parimenopause and menopause um especially this is when these shifts and you know these things happen like normally women are getting weight especially around the waist in this period and it is very much linked to hormone changes because in parimenopause estrogen starts diminishing and also estrogen is our anti-inflammatory hormone so also in that period we have more with time more or great inflammation in the body and this is also linked to a little bit higher insulin resistance for a lot of women and gaining weight it exactly has a lot more with hormones to do

30:31than with calories like a lot of women they say like I I don't eat that much or I eat even less than before but like my weight keeps right in can keeps changing and this is when we really need to honor the hormones shifts the cortisol like cortisol gets higher which is the main hormone it influences every other hormone is doing is higher in the body and with estrogen diminishing normally estrogen and progesterone but like estrogen makes these changes and um yes the parting I will out that concentration too may think the first one is blood sugar balance because also if you notice that you gain weight around your waist this is a lot of times linked to

31:33in in the body so really balancing meals this will help a lot also with the energy as we discussed balancing meals like really my best it would be just as I mentioned to focus and protein and veggies for lunch for example and protein veggies and carbs in the evening and this is also the period where the body because of the insulin um being higher can tolerate lower amounts of carbohydrates so if we in our 20s or 30s we could eat that meal that are mainly carbs and don't notice anything this is a period where this won't be the case anymore oh so um if we sit the whole day this won't help at the whole process I'll really get up and move in as much as we can and um having don't fear the

32:34fat don't fear the healthy fast don't fear the protein this is what we'll know if you're voting sometimes when we eat less this backfires more because our metabolism slows down with time it's why all the diets that rely only on fewer calories that don't work especially at this time at this period of our um fate of our life so the first thing would be blood sugar stability and the second thing would be our gut health because also weak hormones changing our gut microbiome changes so really incorporating foods that support our gut health really fermented foods daily it shouldn't be like a big amount just a smaller amount with a meal or two are they um and bone bone proteins also great bone bros actually also great tip when you have craving in your beauty of faith you can just have like a cup of bone broth and it is very satisfying and my yeah bone broth is my favorite my go-to for sure I love it too you can also cook different

33:42um like a rice for example or quinoa you can cook it in in bowl broth and it tops over the bone broth and it is it is great for your health I will tell you also past about maybe some Italian viewers of the inner dish that's been bone broth look it actually tastes very good I think yeah it makes it delicious so I want to highlight something you just mentioned that as you are going through parimenopause and you're starting to see those shifts happening um because our cells are getting a little bit insulin resistant because of the estrogen levels dropping which is kind of like what happens in luteal phase but they're very short span of time uh now since it's happening on a longer span of time during a longer span you will start seeing that impact of insulin resistance very like um on your body which is like packing uh pounds around your waist region uh people also

34:47say that they start noticing changes and skin tone skin tone as a nod just on the face but also throughout their body and what's really happening is they start losing muscle mass right because estrogen is muscle protecting and it's also bone protecting um hormone um so the idea is to shift the focus from having more carbohydrates to more protein in your diet so that you have you're still supporting the muscle mass that you have so you're preserving it and or building it through strength training as well so that's this is the phase where women actually should be shifting to strength training if they're not if they haven't been already doing it although I think women at every age should do it but if you were like okay more uh if you liked doing

35:51cardio more in your twenties and thirties and now you're like oh my gosh whatever I eat it just goes to my waist that's a sign that you need to start introducing some strength training into your routine too because with strength training especially progressive strength training or progressive overload uh you will be able to preserve muscle mass and or build more muscle mass so build lean muscle mass which is going to be metabolically active tissue so that would counteract that insulin resistance that is occurring like naturally during this phase of your life because of declining estrogen levels so that's something I wanted to highlight and add here um I want to talk a little bit about also like because estrogen levels are declining they also accelerate bone density loss do you have

36:51any recommendations as far as diet goes for women whose bone density is decreasing during this time oh first of all I agree with everything you said and also to the question the most important thing for bone mass and health is strength training and it shouldn't be like really the masculine thing in the gym and so on it could be also it um with one kilo dumbbells or one and a half it shouldn't be like something extreme because also extreme training triggers and found a response in the body as well like in general everything we do extremely uh it it's just a reaction in the body so also extreme so nothing can be in the strength training when we talk about uh bone health um and with food what we can do is really have a balanced diet like there is not one thing I can say

37:55that can help you specifically for bone health but really nurturing our body and also making sure that we don't have the chisholences also blood tests like that we should do ideally every year at least once a year and just check our nutrient levels because we are very depleted nowadays and this has an impact on our overall health at the moment also with age we get more depleted um first of all because our gut health changes our microbiome with the hormones changing uh but also then also when the gut changes we don't absorb that's well the nutrients from the food so this is um something I want to highlight that well here absolutely absolutely so to wrap it up if someone who's listening to this podcast has been struggling with paramanopause or menopausal symptoms what would be

39:00immediate changes that they can make like give them two tips if our listeners like two tips they can immediately implement in their life the first one I will say is eat your breakfast don't skip breakfast and also as we talked before the coffee so break the fast so to say with something nourishing for your body and then have the coffee and um build balanced meals which will support your blood sugar balance just don't eat just a salad because then you'll be hungry in an hour or don't overdo it with protein just uh because like everything can stream as we talk protein is great for us but like overdoing it will also we won't benefit from it just building that balanced plate and eating as much whole foods as we can in our diet oh I love it I would be

40:01in lots of related to nutrition but as we talk like start strength training strides start small but consistent at state consistent because also the word for a paramanopause and also from transitional periods in general I would say is consistency because in our 20s and early 30s what we do inconsistently and it works for us we should do it really consistently when hormone changes begin to happen absolutely absolutely yeah big fan of consistency back big fan of strength training and just consistently workout pick pick the frequency maybe that looks like three days a week at minimum or maybe you're like okay I'm more flexible I can do four to five days a week but go for it like you know keep that schedule going and also I want to highlight yes start eating breakfast I think so many women skip breakfast and they don't realize what it's doing to

41:03their bodies and what it's doing to their hormonal profile throughout the day where uh or hormonal levels throughout the day because when you wake up you have high cortisol and women just have naturally high cortisol uh floating in their bodies um and if you don't break fast within an hour of waking up that cortisol level stays high and that kind of trickles down into the rest of your day so make sure you eat something with protein and a little bit of complex carbs good fats of early in the day as you wake up and Christina gave such good examples like chia seed pudding that's my good to as well and just top them with berries that it's so delicious I'm actually now my mouth is watering dreek yogurt with berries and or nuts are good or or seeds are good is good too and then

42:04poiled egg simple you can actually take it it's very portable so that's always a good um source of nutrition in the morning too I also want to leave women who are in uh reproductive age with a few immediate changes that they can make to feel like they have energy throughout the month so what would be a couple of you know tips for them well that for the breakfast would be in general for everyone um having breakfast and uh in general nourishing your body think of food as information as the thoughtless of not nutrients and don't fear foods like healthy fats are good for you you won't get fed from them you just they will nourish your hormones because they are building blocks but your hormones um so really nourish your body and think of it more as

43:08a fuel than as they think else love that yes right on exactly if I was to give one advice it would be that too that look at food as fuel try not to starve yourself because at the end of the day if you are feeding your body with whole food it's not going to have a negative impact on your body of course as long as you have that balance just like you mentioned Christina that you don't want to overdo any of the things like you don't want to overdo protein you don't want to overdo complex carbs you don't want to overdo fats as long as everything is in balance but you're also satisfying your hunger your your body's demands so there's no need to starve yourself just to look thin actually if you feed your body or fuel your body properly you will see that natural glow everybody would start complimenting you and and you won't gain weight every you look so beautiful like your hair

44:13look great your skin looks great well that's because you're fueling your body exactly that's because you have your nutrients the nutrients that your body needs to your food absolutely absolutely so Christina thank you so much for sharing all of this information with our viewers and listeners where can they find you and learn more about your work you can find me many on LinkedIn and also I have a free uh cycle thinking nutrition guide for what you can download also you can find on my page my profile and LinkedIn and just drop me on tm I'd like to to hear from you also if you have any questions and thank you so much for you I just hope for having me absolutely it was a pleasure having you over here and thanks for sharing all this good info with all of that us so um

45:16that being said I want to tell everyone in our audience that I downloaded Christina's um uh booklet or digital book on uh cycle thinking your nutrition it's amazing so make sure you follow her on LinkedIn and go on her um link over there it's super easy you just enter your email and it's sent to your inbox so check it out it's pretty good so thank you again Christina for joining us for the podcast today and thank you everyone for taking the time to listen to us and watch its life have a great rest of your day guys bye