Read about my easy, approachable, and practical meal ideas and workouts for the luteal phase. Get in sync with your body to promote a healthier cycle, reduce PMS symptoms, and gain more understanding of what is happening to your body each month.
What is the Cycle Syncing Method?
The Cycle Syncing Method comes from the idea that women need different movement patterns and nutrition throughout their cycles. As long as everything is functioning correctly, women’s bodies cycle through four phases on a “monthly” basis (the average cycle length for women is 23-35 days). Each phase of our cycle, ovulatory, luteal, menstrual, and follicular, are causing increases and decreases in various hormones that are vital for getting an egg ready for fertilization. These hormone fluctuations (and excess presence of hormones) are what can cause acne, bloating, PMS, fatigue, etc. However, if we can learn how to support our bodies through out each of its cycles, we can experience a better, balanced cycle and therefore decrease the “bad” symptoms we are all trying to avoid.
If you’d like to read more, visit my blog post: WHAT IS THE CYCLE SYNCING METHOD? | EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO GET IN SYNC WITH YOUR BODY
Video: Cycle Syncing in the Luteal Phase | Workout and Meal Ideas
Get an in-depth view of what a week of cycle syncing in the luteal phase looks like in my cycle syncing vlog here.
Is Cycle Syncing Hard?
Before we begin, I want to share a quick word of encouragement. Perhaps you’ve seen girls on Tik Tok or Youtube showing how they are cycle syncing and you think to yourself “wow, I could never have it together enough to do THAT!” Well, let me let you in to a little secret, I definitely don’t have it all together and I cycle sync, and so can you!
As I mention in my video, the whole point of cycle syncing is to balance your hormones to promote a healthier cycle, do you know what can throw your hormones off balance like crazy? STRESS! So, do not let this method stress you out, or you’ve missed the point. Just start where you are, make small changes each month, and soon you’ll be amazed at the changes in your body. You’ve got this! 🙂
The Basics of Cycle Syncing
Determine What Menstrual Phase You Are In & Align Your Lifestyle With It
You can do this by using a period tracking app, using the symptothermal method, or just counting the days from your last period.
Try and Eat Foods That Support Your Particular Phase
This one can often be made out to be more difficult than it really is. You don’t need to eat VASTLY different in each phase of your menstrual cycle. Honestly, I just don’t have the time to create four different menus I have to rotate through every month. The main idea here is really incorporating healthy, whole foods throughout the month. It really can be as simple as during your period shooting to eat a little more grass-fed beef to take in some extra iron and trying to eat foods that contain a lot of probiotics during the follicular phase!
Workout According to Your Energy Level
Our bodies need to movement to support a healthy lifestyle but sometimes, the best thing that we can do for ourselves is rest! Here are examples of what type of workouts to do in each phase of your cycle.
Menstrual:
Rest, Walking, Yoga
Follicular:
HIIT, Jogging, Strength Training
Ovulatory:
Strength Training, HIIT, Cardio
Luteal:
Pilates, Strength Training
Avoid Inflammatory Foods Such as Processed Oils, Artificial Sweeteners, Sodas, Etc.
After many years of trial and error, I’ve learned how cutting some foods out of my diet (for the most part) can make a big impact of my cycle and my PMS symptoms. When the uterine lining begins to break down leading up to the menstrual phase, inflammatory prostaglandins begin to release in a woman’s blood stream. Women with a higher amount of prostaglandins in their body report experiencing worse menstrual cramps than women with less. This can also be connected to excess estrogen in the body, because estrogen is essentially the “factory” for prostaglandins.
Of course, eating foods that reduce inflammation, and detoxify the body of excess estrogen are likely going to result in less PMS symptoms, and the reverse is just as true. Inflammatory foods like highly processed oils (canola, palm, safflower), processed sugars (aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, etc.), can lead to inflammation and the retention of excess estrogen.
While I am not a doctor or a nutritionist, I can say that eliminating these foods from my daily diet has greatly improved my monthly PMS symptoms. You can read more about using foods to fight menstrual pains in this in an article by Physicians Committee.
Don’t be Afraid to Mess Up or to Enjoy Your Life
As mentioned in the paragraph above, diet is very important to cycle syncing, BUT I think it’s just as important to be practical. You’ll never be able to eat perfectly healthy 24/7. You’ll have date nights, birthday parties, and celebrations that might trip you up. My philosophy is as long as I’m eating the best I can for my body 80% of the time, I can enjoy indulgences 20% of the time without any downsides. In my video or in the menu and workout schedule below, you’ll see that I certainly didn’t eat 100% healthy the entire week and that is just alright with me. 🙂
Luteal Phase Menu and Workout Schedule
Monday
Workout
Sydney Cummings 30 Minute Full Body w/ Abs Finisher
Breakfast
Healthy Zucchini Bread & Scrambled Eggs
Snack
Decaf Coffee, Raw Milk & Lavender Syrup
Lunch
Chickpea Protein Pasta, Tomato Sauce, & Roasted Vegetables
Snack 1
Carrots, Hummus and Pita Chips
Snack 2
Adrenal Cocktail – this is something I decided to try out this week and so far I’ve been happy with the results, but I want to keep experimenting before I can safely say this works!
Dinner
Brat, Hotdog, Burger Patty, Salad, Chips 🙂
Tuesday
Workout
Sydney Cummings 20 Minute Power Pilates
Breakfast
Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Protein Shake
Snack
Lunch
Leftover Hotdogs and Salad with Primal Kitchen Ketchup
Snack
Decaf Iced Coffee
Dinner
Salad With Homemade Creamy Balsamic Dressing and Leftover Burger Patties
Dessert
Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice Rooibos tea & Healthy Zucchini Bread With a Honey Drizzle
Wednesday
Workout
Sydney Cummings 30 Minute Low Impact – NO EQUIPMENT – NO REPEATS HIIT Cardio Workout!
Breakfast
Plain Greek Yogurt, Homemade Granola, and Frozen Berries
Lunch
Teriyaki Chicken and Brown Rice
Snack
Carrot Sticks and Hummus
Dinner
Date Night 🙂 Pizza and Salad
Dessert
Movie concessions: (chocolate covered peanuts and popcorn)
Thursday
Workout
Long Walk
Breakfast
Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Protein Shake
Decaf Coffee
Lunch
Teriyaki Chicken and Brown Rice
Snack 1
Hummus, Orange Pepper, Pita Chips
Snack 2
1/2 Apple and Almond Butter
Dinner
Roasted Veggie Omelette, Turkey Sausage, & Sourdough Toast
Dessert
Dark Chocolate Chunks
Snack
Unsweetened Applesauce
Friday
Workout
Sydney Cummings 30 Minute Lower Body & Jump Rope Bootcamp
Breakfast
Old Fashioned Oats, PBfit Powder (mixed with water), Strawberry Jam
Lunch
Roasted Veggie Omelette & Turkey Sausage
Dinner
Sourdough Pizza With Fig Jam, Mozzarella, Prosciutto, and Caramelized Onions
Oven Roasted Asparagus
Salad
Dessert
Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Covered Dates
[…] Cycle Syncing in the Luteal Phase | Workout and Food Ideas […]