A woman’s body goes through quite a bit of change during their monthly cycle. In today’s episode you’ll learn how to align your life with your period and instead of feeling overwhelmed by your strong emotions, exhausting days and intense food cravings, you can begin truly understanding your cycle. If you’re a high achieving woman interested in learning how to get more done without burning out, this episode is for you…
Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Briana’s Simply Freeing Podcast Listener Hub brianavillegas.com/simplyfreeing
This Episode Discusses:
Briana’s story being homeschooled in a large family up until college and how it’s shaped who she is today.
What cycle syncing is
How to leverage each of the 4 stages of your cycle to help you align your life with it
Why women struggle with consistency more than men
If you prefer to read rather than listen, here is a summary of the episode.
(Please note that this is not a word for word transcription)
Today’s episode is one of my favorites! Many women are used to tracking their cycles simply to know when they are going to get their period. You’re going to hear from Briana Vilegas, a Cycle syncing coach who helps high achieving women create an optimized day based on their cycles in order to avoid burnout. If you’ve never heard of cycle syncing, I can promise that you’re going to think very differently about your period after listening in today.
Lets face it…Being a homeschooling mom who also works from home can be pure chaos! As you’ve probably already noticed, despite the occasional laugh track, life isn’t a sitcom and everyday struggles are rarely resolved in 30 minutes with commercial breaks to keep your sanity in check so the right strategies and mindset are vital for becoming more productive and less overwhelmed with all the things life throws at us. Enter the Simply Freeing Podcast…Episodes for the highly passionate, busy work at home, homeschooling mama ready to break away from cultural norms and raise life long learners. So let kick stress to the curb, throw chaos out the door and order in some peace and simplicity…with a cup of coffee, or 3.
Many women are used to tracking their cycles simply to know when they are going to get their period. Instead of simply asking, when am I going to get my period you can learn so much more about yourself by understanding when you ovulate and how the phases work around your period.
There are 4 phases
1st phase - Menstrual Phase (can last to 3 to 7 days) The 2 sides of your brain are the most intuitive during this phase. This is a great time to journal and take note of feelings that are coming up, especially if big feelings are coming up every month about a certain issue. For example, I'm feeling overwhelmed so I’m just going to put my kids in school. It’s important to find that balance from month to month and have it inform your decision making going forward. All of those feelings that come up around this time are very much in line with your true self and your true ideas about things but it might not be the best time to communicate about them. This is where many women get into trouble because they try to have the conversations in that moment when they are experiencing strong emotions. The feelings you are experiencing in this stage are the ones to really be curious about and dig into and then save the conversation for the next week.
2nd phase - Follicular Phase (can last 7 to 10 days) Hormone levels are pretty low, appetite is typically a bit lower and we have the most energy at this point. It's a time where you're having all these creative ideas, you're brainstorming, you're thinking about all the possibilities and what you can do with them. You might be signing up for challenges or getting that new curriculum for homeschooling.
3rd phase - Ovulation Phase (3 to 4 days) This is where your energy starts shifting. You have this boost in estrogen as it peaks and also a boost of testosterone that contributes to you being social or communicative and also better at problem solving.
4th phase Luteal Phase (Lasts for 2 weeks leading up to your period) This phase is where your appetite will go up in the second part of the luteal phase and where your craving will usually come. On average women need between 90 to 250 more calories a day during this time so making smarter choices and choosing healthier protein filled snacks can help you in between meals. This is when you may find that you’re binge eating more often. In this phase, your energy starts to shift towards being very detail oriented. This is when the actual plan for how all of these ideas are actually going to work comes into play. In this stage you're getting ready to go into the menstrual phase which will be more like a hibernation phase and when you will need more breaks. In this luteal phase your body does what it needs to do to wrap everything up before you take time off and slow down. In this phase hormones are dropping off so there is typically more craving and more symptoms of PMS if they haven’t been supporting their bodies along the way.
Why do women struggle with consistency? This is something that many women struggle with because we find balance across a 28 day cycle as opposed to male hormone patterns who have cycles tied to a 24 hour clock. If you start making goals and aren’t taking into account your natural energy shifts, it can be difficult. Our society is built on a 24 hour clock and that is against women’s natural cycles.
I am super excited to announce that my stress free homeschooling class is back! this is my signature free web class that is going to help you get more clarity around your homeschool days and most importantly, give you the mindset and practical strategies you need so that you can you truly enjoy your days at home
Stress comes out of us in so many different ways. some of us shut down, some of us freak out, some of us give in to the stress, some of literally become a magnet for guilt!
So if you’re brand new to homeschooling, on the fence about beginning, or in the midst of it with a ton of guilt that you’re barely teaching at all, or piling the work onto unhappy kids, you’ll walk away from this class with more clarity around your homeschool choices. Your time with your kids is so precious. homeschooling doesn’t have to feel hard or that it’s a burden.
I’m going to teach you my signature sacred method to help you go from feeling frazzled to more free! You’ll get more done in less time and with a clearer focus.
This class is happening on Thursday, Feb 24th at 9pm EST right on zoom. you can sign up at simplyfreeing.com/sfh When you sign up you’ll get your workbook for the class so that you can take notes and most importantly take action right away.
I am so exited and I can’t wait to see you there! I’ll see you next time friends.