5 Hidden Secrets for Period Recovery
Perhaps you feel like you’ve heard it all by now. Stop exercising and eat more. You’re doing that already, and your period still hasn’t come yet? Check out these five hidden secrets I discovered in my recovery that helped finally make the difference.
What “extras” are you doing?
“I’ve already cut back on exercise, so don’t tell me that this is a ‘secret’ for me to consider.” So you’ve cut down on your running and/or weight training…but do you still do other exercises during the day? Do you wake up with yoga and stretching? Do you walk your dog, Rocco, once or twice just to get him out of the house? Do you do squats while you brush your teeth? Do you do 20 pushups every time you go to the bathroom? Do you jump rope just for some extra stress release after work or phone calls? These little habits that you might have started stacking a long time ago DO make a big difference. When I had cut down on my exercise, I refused to take these little habits out of my day because I already felt like I was giving up so much exercise and I wanted to stay fit and trim. I also didn’t count them as real calorie burners. But if you do the little things I mentioned above or little habits that are similar, please know that those non-weighted teeth-brushing squats aren’t nothing. The 20 pushups you do first thing in the morning is not something that your body is so used to that it doesn’t use any calories. It all still counts as physical stress even if it isn’t a full workout.
2. Are you focusing on foods or calories?
“I AM eating more calories!” But what FOODS are you eating? I seesawed through two different phases in recovery:
A. I finally have permission to eat everything I’ve always craved!
B. I’ll eat more of the foods I’ve been eating forever through my training because that feels safe to gain muscle, not fat.
Neither of these options are wrong, but neither are completely right. When I started eating everything I had always craved, I still had to fix my relationship with food. I worked through a lot of guilt and shame in this area. But the issue was, I would eat high calorie/processed foods and….plain lean meats with veggies to counteract. I didn’t want to “waste the calories” on noodles, potatoes, salad dressing, olive oil, cottage cheese, etc. All of these foods play a part in providing your body what it needs to feel satiated, safe, and nourished.
The second one, “I’ll eat more of the foods I’ve been eating forever through my training” also posed a problem because it was extremely limited. Some of the foods, like chicken and brussel sprouts, I was gagging as I tried to eat more and more of them. Keep in mind that I also avoided all spices and flavors on foods at this point, but eating three bags of brussel sprouts to meet my calorie goals for recovery wasn’t exactly helpful.
3. Do you have rest in each day?
“Isn’t it bad enough that now I have to incorporate rest days at all??? Now you want me to also include rest on days that aren’t my workout rest day???” …Yep. I used to feel like sitting on the couch to watch a show during the day was disgusting and lazy. My days were planned down to the half hour in my planner, and I had dreams to accomplish! It took me a while to realize that I could plan smarter, still accomplish my dreams, and also feel good doing it. I started with taking a lunch break. As a teacher, I don’t get one without being on duty for children. Each day, I started spending my planning period (if I got one) out in my car listening to music, reading a book, or calmly eating the lunch I would have gulped down with the students. I made it a point to leave work on time. I used to be a proud member of the 4 AM club, but noticed a huge change when I started taking that extra hour that I used for a long morning routine for an actual additional sleep hour. I found that the extra hour of solid sleep helped me plan and work more efficiently during the day. In all, there were a lot of sections in my day that I had continued to push myself to the point of exhaustion. Before, I convinced myself that this was my life and what I had to do to live it powerfully. Thus, I was always reaching for caffeine or searching for the next best supplement to fix my energy issue. What I truly needed was to just add back in my rest; I was shocked when I was able to accomplish more.
4. What stress signals are you getting from your body?
“I’m not stressed! Why does everyone keep telling me I am!?” Then I realized that I puffed like a bull when I would get in the car after work not from running or shuffling heavy bags, but just from being in my own mind running through to-do lists and conversations. I scratched my thighs continuously while I was thinking. Cystic acne went down my back between my vertebrae. I clenched my teeth while I slept. Falling asleep each night happened INSTANTLY when my face touched the pillow. My shoulders and back had painful knotted muscles. These are all warning signs from the body! There were so many ways that my body was trying to communicate with me that I wasn’t managing well under my stress load. I thought that clearly I needed an extra workout to calm myself down without realizing that this was physical stress. Maybe your symptoms aren’t the same as mine, but what little things do you do that you think are just “part of your personality” at this point?
5. Why did you lose it in the first place?
“...If I knew that, I wouldn’t be reading this stupid blog…”
But is that actually true? Have you sat down to talk to anyone about it? I never thought about this until I sat down with a mentor who asked the simplest question: “So, how did this happen?”
It turns out that when she asked, I knew exactly how it happened, but I had never spoken the truth out loud. I guess it had been churning around in my subconscious for so long that I never knew I knew.
I knew that my desire to fit in with other girls in middle school led to me having disordered eating in middle school, high school, and then college. I knew that I was afraid of being overweight like my family members. It turns out that I knew I was using my dad’s autoimmune disease that I was showing early signs for as an excuse to dive into further disordered eating and excessive exercise. And I also knew all the little comments and life situations along that way that made me shift my patterns over, and over, and over again until I was so health regimented that I was no longer healthy. When I was asked out-right, I knew where I had lost my period along the way. But nobody had ever asked me before “what happened?” No doctor had ever spoken to me for more than 8 minutes. While the doctors never asked me any questions or even made eye contact, the only questions I ever got were about being pregnant.
Most questions about eating or exercise were easy for me to bat away, but the one I wasn’t prepared for was… “So…how did it happen?” and it made all the difference.
Now this is me asking you, so… how did it happen? Write it out. Tell someone. Or, come and join coaching with me. Tell me your story. Tell me how it happened because I’m listening.
