I'm 46, I still have a fully regular cycle, I'm a former athlete, and someone who's not only been exercising and working out for over 30 years, but I've also tried every diet, workout type, fasting, fad, under the sun. I'm also a high-functioning woman with a demanding career, a mother, a wife, a 9-5er, the family nutritionist, etc...someone who was always go, go, go until the wheels fall off. Training hard, eating right, but always living with some level of inflammation, and always starting and stopping the next 'best way' to eat and exercise, with nothing that ever landed as sustainable.
I've been self-conscious about my body since my first day of dance class at six years old, and have been working out since my mom bought me a Get In Shape Girl workout set when I was eight. So this was not a matter of suddenly discovering that movement and consistency matter, or that I should be paying attention to my body.
It wasn't until I started asking myself how am I feeling today? What is this day asking of me? What is my body asking of me today?...that I realized those different wants and needs were being driven by what cycle phase I was in at any given moment.
It honestly felt like an unlock. It seemed so clear once I could see it.
So over the course of two years, I started matching (or syncing) how I was eating and how I was working out each day, based on where I was in my cycle.
And the thing that hit me was that it alllll rolled up to permission. Women don't give themselves enough permission...we think we can't stop or we won't keep up.
When it comes to my stance on traditional cycle syncing, I don't think someone should look at a calendar and say, "ohp, it's day 22, I'm in luteal, I need to rest." I think more in terms of body literacy. It's more like, "ohp, it's day 22, let me check in with myself...I feel pretty energized for day 22...I was originally planning on resting, but I think I can handle a workout today...cool."
More I do what I want, when I want to, because that's what I need, less I'm in luteal, I can't.
I leverage my cycle in service of my goals, to maximize nutrition and strength training, to lose excess fat, maintain health, and build muscle. That permission piece finally made the path toward those goals clear instead of another thing I was forcing my way through.
Obviously, I do create prescriptive guides that reference the cycle phases, but the way I see it, the prescription is just training wheels. You follow it for a few cycles to learn enough about your own patterns to adjust it, or outgrow it. Sure, there are other markers I pay attention to, and there is a lot of nuance...but that's kind of what makes it so great.
The goal is not a protocol to follow forever, it's the body literacy.
Body literacy, I believe, is achieved through cycle awareness, mind-body connection work, a level of intuition, and education around nutrition and strength training, so each woman can build a personal framework that works for her. My day 24 is different from someone else's day 24. There is no one-size-fits-all, but the fundamentals can be leveraged and learned, and women need to feel empowered that they can do it on their own.
That's what I'm here to share, from my lived experience, in hopes of helping other women see that they can do it. This method is not the fastest, or the easiest way to lose weight and gain muscle...but it's the truest, most sustainable thing I've ever tried, and I've tried it all.
— Leah