LIVING IN SYNC

In a world built for men, have women finally found a way to align their (cyclical) needs for their well-being?

- KONIKA DATTA

The spoon in your hand edging towards that slice of cake, your body fighting the urge to crawl home from a social gathering to get into bed, the feminine urge to just snap at someone - it's not you, it's your hormones.

We're finally in a place where we've figured out the secret to letting out our inner goddesses: A life that takes into consideration our menstrual cycle. Several studies prove that the fluctuation of energy and hormone levels is governed by the four phases of our menstrual cycle - follicular, ovulatory, luteal, and menstrual. So contrary to what women are conditioned to believe, our mood swings, lethargy, low social battery, and cravings for sugar intake during the time of our periods are not just in our heads', it's literally in our bodies.

The desperation to finding a solution to all that pain and PMSing has led to the virality of a wellness practice that involves aligning your diet, workout, and other lifestyle choices to the phases of your menstrual cycle to help balance your hormone levels and eliminate the fatigue experienced during menstruation. Alisa Vitti, women's hormones expert and founder of Flo Living is the mastermind behind this method called Cycle Syncing®.

Several women are now sharing their stories about syncing their life to their menstrual cycle to better navigate the fluctuating hormones. "I found that everything women have been told to do, from eating the same calories daily to working out the same way daily, to waking up at the same time every morning, is not only based on research done on men that actively excluded women, but causes all sorts of hormonal issues that affect a woman's cycle, immune response, stress response, brain, and metabolic health," explains Vitti. Now, even the U.S. women's soccer team schedules their training based on their menstrual cycle, playing when their body feels the most energised.