Here are some of the resources from our first event of ‘The Healthy Period Series’, where we got the opportunity to speak with Augustina Jekennu of ‘We Live Our Values’, all about some basic habits and actions we can to take to support our period health.
TIPS
- Start Prioritising Rest – Phase before your period and during your period
- Track Your Cycle – For a few months, even a sentence a day. 1. Journal noting how you feel, what your bleed is like (how long, colour), cervical fluid, symptoms, cravings.Use an app to give you a little more insight or support to track but use in support of journaling. Try the free app ‘Flo’ (Tip: Check out ‘secret chats’ in Flo for some chats from people who are having similar experiences)
- Advocate For Yourself – Get checked out by GP if you want to investigate a symptom that is effecting your life. Bring your journal, insist they either provide a check up with blood tests – that you are meeting your nutritional requirements such as iron, vitamin d, b12 and checking out your thyroid, blood pressure. If they don’t provide what you need, insist they give you a referral. A gynecologist is well worth a visit if you are having bad symptoms.
- Practice Speaking Openly – About your symptoms to those around you to give them the opportunity to be supportive. Speaking about our needs can be so helpful when around others during our bleed or before hand when we feel most vulnerable.
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
- Red Moon Gang by Tara Costello – This inclusive, unapologetic, and humorous guide to menstruation quashes stigmas and provides us with the latest research and information on periods.
- Wild Power: Discover the Magic of Your Menstrual Cycle and Awaken the Feminine Path to Power by Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer
- Period Power: Harness Your Hormones and Get Your Cycle Working For You by Maisie Hill
- WomanCode: Perfect Your Cycle, Amplify Your Fertility, Supercharge Your Sex Drive, and Become a Power Source by Alisa Vitti
- Pussy: A Reclamation by Regena Thomashauer – For every woman who longs to step into her power and live with pleasure and purpose.
- The Body Keeps A Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk – For anyone interested in understanding and treating traumatic stress and the scope of its impact on society.
TOPICS TO CONSIDER LOOKING INTO
Red Tent – Ways to create a space for when you bleed especially that give you most comfort such from fresh flowers, candles & fresh berries to warm oil self massage, breathwork and booking time off work if in anyway possible. Whether you can create the space for yourself for an hour or two days you are deserving of that time!!
Cycle Syncing – A practice whereby you alter your diet and exercise routine (and even other lifestyle factors like your social calendar) around different phases of your menstrual cycle to support and optimise how you feel. Our next event will dive deeper into this topic.
SUPPORT WITH PRE PERIOD EATING (Possible Causes & dealing with overeating/eating foods that don’t make us feel good before our cycle)
- Consider multivitamin & ensure you nutritional needs are being met
- Listen to what you body craves as it might be magnesium, iron or something else causing symptoms like fatigue leading to those sugar/coffee cravings and fatigue. Prepare ahead & prepare meals with healthy alternatives – dark leafy greens, beetroot, seaweed, walnuts, peanut butter, dates.
- Comfort eating that gets triggered by those low moods. Perhaps doing some work in that area; A good workbook is ‘Overcome Emotional Eating by Rachel Evans (Healthy & Psyched)’ . Rachel Evans (Healthy & Psyched Talking it out it with a professional is also an option as it is linked to emotions. A wonderful therapist that does virtual is Monika Hubczuk of Open Doors Counselling. https://opendoorscounselling.com
- Don’t skip meals. Keeping your blood sugars stable will avoid your body going into starvation mode which it needs to make up for eventually
- Prepare your food with intention, finding enjoyment of bringing it together looking nice even if it is a small fruit platter just for you.
- Here’s a recipe for making your own sugar free chocolate (Do invest in ingredients that are sourced fairly, don’t be shy to ask) – How to make healthy dark chocolate on alphafoodie.com .You can use cocoa butter instead of coconut oil if you like and pour on top of any fruit, nuts and it is so good!!
Stay tuned as the resources from our second event all about cycle syncing is coming soon!!
Show our generous speaker some love and follow her @liveourvalues on Instagram – Check out Augustina’s IGTV where she has a series covering all sorts of amazing topics in relation to periods. Also, you can find her shop where she sells handmade menstrual products she makes herself along with lots of other awesome eco products like tooth tabs and deodorant. http://www.weliveourvalues.com
Check out our period health Pinterest board here – https://www.pinterest.ie/ethicalevents/healthy-periods/
Find more of our blogs on this topic here – https://positivelyeventful.wordpress.com/category/health/healthy-periods-health/
Here is a clip from our event about how you too can monitor yours:
Imperfectly Positive 