Dhru Purohit Show - How Women Can Hack Their Hormones using the Power of Cycle Syncing with Dhru Purohit

Episode Date: April 18, 2022

This episode is brought to you by Birch Living. Women have an important biological rhythm they experience every month that affects their productivity, weight, sex drive, energy, and mood. It’s essential to stay aware of, but it has been widely ignored by medical, nutritional, and fitness research. Women often diet, deprive themselves, and cram as much as possible into their day, striving to accomplish impossible to-do lists. I see so many of them scheduling their lives based on a 24-hour time cycle, ignoring the intuitive time their bodies naturally keep: a monthly cycle with four hormonal phases. Understanding this offers some incredible advantages. That’s what today’s episode is all about. If you’re a woman in your reproductive years who’s feeling burnt out, low on energy, or just “off,” this one’s for you. And men, this one is also for you—understanding a woman’s unique rhythms can only improve and enhance your relationships with your wife, daughters, friends, and colleagues. Today on The Dhru Purohit Podcast, Dhru dives into the world of the infradian rhythm and hormones with Taylor Groff, a Certified Nutrition Specialist, and cowriter of the Try This Newsletter. In this episode, we dive into:  -The infradian rhythm (6:14) -The pros and cons of hormonal birth control and correcting hormonal imbalances (26:10) -The root causes of hormonal imbalances (30:15) -The Cycle Syncing Method and understanding the four phases of a woman’s menstrual cycle (43:04) Also mentioned in this episode: -Try This: The Cycle Syncing Method  -Beeya Wellness -MyFLO Period Tracker App  -In the FLO: Unlock Your Hormonal Advantage and Revolutionize Your Life -Unlock Your Hormonal Advantage by Harnessing the Power of Your Infradian Rhythm with Alisa Vitti -Dr. Afrouz Demeri For more on Dhru Purohit, follow him on Instagram @dhrupurohit, YouTube @dhrupurohit, and TikTok @dhru.purohit. Text Dhru at 302-200-5643. You can follow Taylor on Instagram @foodhappywithtaylor.  Interested in joining Dhru’s Facebook community? Submit your request to join here. This episode is brought to you by Birch Living. Birch mattresses by Helix are made of only four non-toxic, natural materials. To get $200 off your Birch Living mattress plus two free Eco-Rest Pillows, head over to birchliving.com/dhru. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi everyone, Drew Prode here. Today we have a very special podcast where we're talking about a game-changing method to help primarily women, but men, please stay tuned. I'm going to tell you why in a second to help women in their reproductive years keep their hormones balanced in sync so that they have better ability to focus, more energy throughout the month, more abundance to give focus to every aspect in their life that they want to and have their health feel good along the way. And that process and method is called cycle sinking. And joining me on today's podcast, I have Taylor Groff, who is my co-conspirator, co-conspirator slash co-writer

in my newsletter called Try This. And each week on Try This, every Friday, we come out with an evidence space newsletter featuring a protocol to help you take your help to the next level. Anybody can sign up, by the way, link in the show notes. Go to drew peroid.com and click on the tab that says, try this. And Taylor is the individual who I've invited on today because she wrote a fantastic newsletter about how to hack your hormones using the method of cycle syncing. It was a fantastic newsletter. And a few people had asked us to turn into a podcast.

So that's what we're doing today. Taylor, welcome to the podcast. It's a pleasure to have you here. Thank you, Drew. I am so excited to be here talking about such an important topic today. Taylor, in like the simplest way, right? Like one sentence, maybe two sentences, tops. What exactly is cycle sinking and how is it that it can support women in their goal to have balanced, optimized hormones throughout their month? Just high level, you know, a few sentences. Yes. Cycle sinking is the act of tracking your menstrual cycle for women in the reproductive years and becoming aware of where your hormones are at throughout the different phases of your cycle

and sinking your diet, your lifestyle, your relationships to this fluctuation in your hormones to get the most out of your life. Experience less burnout and have more energy and just feel all around amazing. And if that sounds like a duh to anybody, it is a duh, but it's also not a duh because so many people do not understand how cycle sinking works. First of all, definitely most men don't understand. I didn't understand until I had a couple podcast guests come on here and explain this methodology and why it's so important for women. And again, the men who love them to understand whether that's you being a father, whether that's you having nieces and nephew, sorry, nieces, whether that's you having a wife that you want to support. Anybody that might be in the reproductive years as a woman,

it's also important for men to understand this topic. So most men don't understand it. I didn't understand it. And shout out to Alyssa Vitti. We'll be chatting a little bit more about her in a second. And your experience and your introduction to this topic through her, Taylor. But also, the crazy thing is most women do not understand how cycle-sinking work. because there's a fundamental aspect of the female biology that is not covered when it comes to sex education, puberty education, and how women's bodies work. And that's called the infradian rhythm. Taylor, talk about what did you know about the infradian rhythm, if anything? And how did you get exposed to this whole topic of really optimizing a woman's hormones

using this process of psychosynching? Well, Drew, I did not know a single thing about my infiradian rhythm. I was first introduced to this whole concept of infaradian rhythm and syncing your hormones to your life through a podcast interview that you did with Elisa Viti. And I was completely blown away. My jaw was on the floor when I was listening to this interview because I had never heard this information in my entire life. And it honestly came as a little bit of a shock to me at first, followed by a little bit of a feeling of being kind of upset and pissed off that

nobody had told me about this because it is a game changer. Cycle-sinking ladies can change your life. And I am so, so thankful that I came across. that episode because I probably would have never learned about it, Drew, if I hadn't. Unless you're in the social media space or the health space where you have access to this type of information, you're not going to come across it. So it comes a complete disservice to women in their reproductive years to not be aware of this cycle. So I'm super excited to talk to everybody about it today and how they can happen to it.

I love it. I love it. And shout out to Alyssa Vidi. We have a link to her website and book inside of the show notes. Her book is called In the Flow. And it's really about the power of unlocking the hormonal advantage that women have by, it's a lot more than just cycle sinking. But since that time period, there's been other women that have come on my podcast and have talked about how to integrate this in their own way and following more of the cycle method. We've got Dr. Stephanie Estima. We've had a few naturopathic doctors that have also talked about. this. So shout out to all the incredible practitioners that are out there that are helping women, and again, the men that love them in the context of this conversation here, and the women that love them and the people that love them, all things inclusive, all vibes, welcome, everything like that. Shout out to all the practitioners who are helping to educate because it's a fundamental shift in how health is approached. And that's actually a good place to get started. So Taylor, let's set this up. A little bit of background before we jump in and give some teasers. So explain what the infradian rhythm is and how we can contrast women's

biology and the fact that they have an infradian rhythm to men's biology and the fact that they don't have an infradian rhythm. So just high level with a few sentences, set that part of the conversation up. Yes. Women are these beautiful, complex creatures that follow this 28-day cycle and we know it as our menstrual cycle, but the fancy word that it also goes by is your infaradian rhythm. And this is the about 28 days, more or less, the cyclical pulsing of your hormones that is unique to four phases of your cycle. So that's your follicular phase, your ovulatory phase, your ludial phase, and your menstrual phase. Now, we all know men do not experience a menstrual cycle or the four phases. That means that women are not small men.

Women are these unique dynamic creatures that experience an infaradian rhythm in addition to the circadian rhythm that both women and men follow. So the other day, I was with a doctor who specializes in environmental toxins. And they told me that the most toxic. item in our home is actually our mattress. I'm sure many of you were shocked to hear that as I was. This is especially scary when the average person spends more than 26 years of their life sleeping. We spend so much time in bed, but it's crazy that we're more likely to splurge on an expensive car or clothes. Well, I'm advocating for a better mattress for you. Most mattresses on the market, though, contain harmful chemicals and polyurethane foam, which emits things like volatile organic

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better knowing that I'm not exposing myself to harmful chemicals day in and day out. And the best part is, this mattress is crazy comfortable. You don't have to give up comfort when you choose the non-toxic option. I've honestly never slept better. So if you're looking for a new mattress, I highly recommend checking out the birch. Right now, they're giving my community $200 off all mattresses plus two eco-reset pillows. Just head over to birchliving.com. slash Drew. Again, that's $200 off and two free eco-reset pillows at Birch, B-I-R-C-H-L-I-N-G, slash Drew, spelled differently, D-H-R-U. If you're worried about trying a new mattress, by the way, they have a 25-year warranty and you can try it risk-free for 100 nights.

Birch also ships directly to your door for free with no contact required, and they'll pick it up for free if you don't love it. Check out the Birch mattress today by Helix. Yeah, just to add in another layer on top of that that you wrote about in the newsletter, just so everybody's clear, we're talking about, of course, women in their reproductive years. So as soon as you hit puberty and you start having your cycle start all the way up until, you know, that cycle stops. and then you are in the perimenopause and menopause and when you don't have a cycle. So those individuals are not going to be having an infradian rhythm, but we're specifically talking about women who have a cycle and are in their reproductive years. Is that right, Taylor?

Yeah, that's right, Drew. And that's another huge takeaway just right off the bat is that the cycle-sinking method applies to women solely in their reproductive years, because that is the time where we're experiencing ovulation. And ovulation is, you know, the release of an egg. So as women enter through perimenopause and premenopause, they're not experiencing that part of their cycle anymore and are unfortunately unable to tap in to the cycle-sinking method.

However, they can share this information with women in their reproductive years in their life that they love. Yeah, and when we're talking about what information and if you're new to this topic and you haven't heard some of those past podcast episodes, you're kind of like, okay, I kind of get what you're saying, but I'm not really sure also what exactly you guys are talking about. And I think the simplest way to share it is that there are certain activities, foods, behaviors, things that you want to set up in your environment as a woman in your reproductive years who has a cycle. There are certain things that are beneficial to do at certain times. And there's other things that

if you operate like a man does, you know, men operate on their circadian rhythm, and it's that 24-hour cycle. And for most men, again, there's natural variation between, but generally, as we're talking about it, like biological men, are going to be operating on the same cycle of their circadian rhythm every single day. So you often find anecdotally, again, big picture generalization, knowing that there's differences again in people, most men can do a lot of the same things every single day. Men can often eat a lot of the same foods every single day. They can have the same routine.

They can wake up at the same time. They can really lean into a lot of that structure because their system and that circadian rhythm that's happening in their body is pretty much the same every single day. Of course, there's natural variation that happens seasonally. But for women, because they're operating within this infradian rhythm, rhythm that's there, on top of their circadian rhythm, there's going to be things that are more beneficial to do or less beneficial to do at certain times of the month, depending on what phase

they're in. Let's give a couple of those teasers. Before we give some background knowledge and talk about the biology and how this works, Taylor, let's talking about working out. You know, there's been an explosion of all sorts of different hit classes and Pelton and Soul Cycle, and CrossFit, and it's great to see. It's great to see that there's such an explosion, not just in the U.S., but throughout the world that more people are getting into working out. Let's take something simple like working out.

We've talked about the benefits of working out. We've had so many people come out here that talk about the importance of resistance training. Give us a teaser of how something like resistance training and heavy workouts may be more beneficial at certain times of the month than other times of the month, how certain times a month it could lead to one result and other times of the month that too much of a heavy workout can lead to other results. That is such a great question.

You generally want to become aware of first where you are at in your cycle, ladies, which phase you're at. And the luteal phase, so that is after ovulation, that is when our progesterone levels are gradually starting to rise. We experienced a tiny little surge in estrogen after ovulation. And that is the time where you're going to want to focus more on strength training. Your body is going to be more inclined and adapt to handle strength training. and to get the most out of it. So to get the most bang for your buck. Contrarily, cardio, Drew, as you were saying,

the peloton is amazing, it's great. But if you're doing heavy, intense cardio in your ludial phase, especially leading up to menstruation, because that's what follows your ludial phase, you're going to put a lot of stress on your body, and your body is going to not like it. And that could lead to some elevations in cortisol, your stress hormone, what you're going to tell your body, maybe it's not the best time to menstruate right now

because we're stressed out. We can't prioritize that part of our cycle. And the next question to follow up with that would be, well, when is the best time to do cardio? when can I kick it on my peloton or break a crazy sweat in the gym doing like the stair stepper or jumping rope or something like that. And that would be your ovulatory phase. That is when you're at your peak energy levels and where you can get the most out of those high-intensity hit workouts that you're talking about.

Yeah. And that's just a little teaser. Again, just remember, anytime you talk about ideal times, windows, etc. Of course, there's natural variation. Every person is different. But the reason that we're bringing these things up is that just because something works for someone else, and in this particular case, we're talking about biological genders, right? Just because there's a lot of research that's there.

And we'll talk about research in a second that a certain type of workout works really well for a certain group of people. And most of that research ends up being on men who are, you know, and they don't have a cycle. They're not in their reproductive, you know, years in the same way that women are, that doesn't mean that we can't personalize it appropriately. And there's this whole movement of practicing, or rather, I would say, not practicing what is typically called bikini medicine. Bikini medicine is this term that I'd first heard from Dr. Lisa Mascone, a PhD researcher,

who is the author of the book, The X, X, X, Brain. And inside of that book, she talked to a little bit about the history of how because it was well-intentioned and there was a few drugs back in the day and studies that were done that included women in their reproductive years and had detrimental impact on individuals, women, and ended up harming their baby or their ability to be reproductive and create a baby in the future. In general, it was considered that a lot of times you wanted to avoid women in their reproductive years as participating. in studies. So that naturally led to, it wasn't some grand sexist, you know, conspiracy. It kind of came from a well-intentioned place, but it led to a lot of the trials on fasting, a lot of trials on working out, a lot of trials on some of the lifestyle things that many of us know that work really well, primarily being done up until really a few years ago on men or if women were included, it was women that were older that were not in their reproductive years. Now we're

sort of backtracking on that. We're getting out of that sort of bikini medicine style. And they call it bikini medicine. I was curious. I asked Lisa, why do you guys call it bikini medicine? She's like, it's kind of like, you know, women wear a bikini, traditionally, like an American bikini. It covers up their breast area. And then it covers up, you know, their lower area as well, too. And those are the private parts, so to say, that other than that, women are exactly like men. And she's saying that that's not the case. So we don't want to think of women as bikini medicine. We need to understand that their systems, their hormones, their infradian rhythm when they have it in their reproductive years, makes them so much more layered and that the approaches for them have to be layered and personalized.

I thought that was a unique example. Before we go further, actually, Taylor, I realize that we haven't gotten a chance to properly introduce you in the context of why you even wanted to write this and who you are and what your background is. So we talked about you getting interested in this topic through Alyssa Viti and having heard it on the podcast. Talk about some of your credentials and who you are in the world and what you practice. I am a functional nutritionist. I see clients on a weekly basis. I love my clients. Shout out to them.

And I'm also a certified nutrition specialist through the American Nutrition Association. and I have my master's in human nutrition and functional medicine from University of Western States. And I'm also the co-writer for the Try This Newsletter. Awesome. I love it. With your work with your clients, because you still do have individual clients, you work with both men and women out there, what have you seen about cycle sinking and some of

the results that it's had when women start to incorporate? it into their world. And if you want to talk about your own life, just some of the anecdotes that you can tease out here so people can understand that if they go through this process and they integrate it in, which we're going to walk exactly through how it works. And we have the link to the newsletter that describes it in the show notes. And then they can incorporate the benefits for themselves. But what are some of the benefits you've seen in your patients? And what are some of the benefits that you've seen personally from integrating cycle sinking into your life? Well, with my patients, or with my clients, my apologies.

That's okay. With my clients, I find, first of all, they have no idea what cycle sinking is. And when we kind of start to talk about it and I introduce it to them, they get really, really interested in, of course, the diet component because that's what I'm there to help them out with, but also the workout component and the social communication component that we're also. going to talk about today. But with diet, what I've seen with my clients is when we get them eating foods that support the natural fluctuations in their hormones, that their periods start to get more regular, that they feel a little bit less stressed out, a little less burnt out. They know when the best time for them to do those hit work. or to go even for a long jog, they know when to prioritize those certain types of workouts, so they're not running their body and their hormones into the ground.

So I've seen really incredible changes in my clients. In addition, you know, providing foods that help support detoxification of estrogen, metabolites, and certain phases of their cycle, which I will also talk about soon, but I see a lot of times that estrogen dominance is a huge issue in women who are maybe experiencing a regular period. So we work on providing foods that support estrogen detoxification. And as far as my life goes, this has been absolutely life changing for me. I have, you know, been paying more attention to what I need and what my body needs in certain phases of the month and how I can support myself and my body.

So I can show up as the best fiance, as the best daughter and worker that I possibly can because I'm aware and in tune of where my hormones are at and how I'm, I can optimize my life to perform my very best and at the same time give myself a break when I need it. That's great. I love that. Thank you for sharing that, Taylor. And you know, a couple of things that are there. Also learned this. Shout out again to Dr. Lisa Mascone. Most people don't know some of the bigger picture stats when it comes to chronic disease and how women are more likely to develop certain chronic diseases. And I'll connect the dots here back to cycle singing in a second. But most people don't know that two-thirds of all Alzheimer's patients are women. Now, originally the thinking was, and by the way, it's not just Alzheimer's. It's actually also more women die of heart attacks than men.

That's always astonishing, that more women get heart disease than men do. And there's a few other stats that are like that that I could pull from her book that we can link in the show notes. a lot of the thinking at the time was, well, why are women suffering from some of these diseases more so than men? Women are the majority of autoimmune diseases that are out there. I think it's almost like 80% of autoimmune diseases is in women. And the thinking was, why are women getting some of these chronic diseases more so than men? And it's like, oh, well, we know that women typically live longer by a few years than men. So maybe they're just living longer.

And because they're living longer, they're more likely to get disease. these diseases in particular, Alzheimer's, hard disease, and autoimmune conditions that develop. Well, it turns out that that's not true. It's not just because when you rule out for age and longevity and you have people that are living around the same ages and dying around the same ages, you see that there's something else that's going on. And the argument that was made inside of the book, the XX brain, is that because of the hormonal factors that play into women,

in Fradian rhythm that puts them on this 28-day cycle. And again, it's different if you're not having your period or if you're on birth control. We're going to get into some of those considerations in a second. Because of those fluctuations that happen and the delicate interplay, women, when those levels are thrown off, when that cycle is impacted, when it's completely thrown off, it leads to a lot more stressors, which long term, if those build up over a period of time, are more likely to develop all the root causes of inflammatory aspects in the body, they're going to make it more likely that these other chronic diseases that I would mention would end up developing.

So this isn't just about optimizing your cycle so that you can feel good and maybe have less PMS, which that's a big part of it too, and feel more energized and not be completely burnt out. It's actually, let's balance these things out because it does seem that there's a strong connection to developing chronic disease much later down the road. So I just wanted to make sure that I added in that connection. All right, Taylor, before we break down cycle-sinking and what each phase is and how we should be thinking about activities, foods, workouts, movements, environment, etc. We're going to break all that down.

Again, we have this in written form two. The full newsletters in the show notes. Let's talk a little bit about birth control. And there's a couple key points high level that we want to mention if there are any women that are listening, which I'm sure there are, that are on birth control right now. So can you chat about birth control? Can you still do cycle syncing if you are on birth control? And if you want to start thinking about other options, what resources would you have that you could point people to that are there? So just high level, would you love you to chat about that? Absolutely, Drew. The biggest takeaway is if you are in your reproductive years and you're on the birth control pill, which side note, most women are, I myself was for a very long time, the big takeaway is that you are not experiencing this rise and fall in your estrogen and progesterone that dictates your infiradian rhythm. So unfortunately, you're not experiencing the infiradian rhythm on the birth control pill. And the other big takeaway here to Drew is that most women are prescribed birth control pills to help with hormonal imbalances. But this is not solving the problem.

It's not getting to the root of the issue. It's kind of just putting a band-aid on it. So a lot of women are still struggling with these hormonal imbalances while still being on the birth control pill. And just because you might experience a bleed at the end of your cycle, that's your placebo. You're still not experiencing the ovulation and what's happening with your hormones. So, Drew, if you want to mention those resources that you were talking about, I'm all ears. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is a big topic.

And birth control has given a lot to society. It's allowed women to participate in the workforce. There's so many great things that are there. And what we're really advocating for and many of the practitioners out there that will mention, like Dr. Jolene Brighton, who's written about this topic, Alyssa Vitya has a lot of content. There'll be a couple of the people, some naturopathic doctors that have written on this as well. It's really about informed consent. When you shut down and often in the medical world, because most doctors are not trained

in how to get to the root causes of hormones, and nobody's written more about this than Dr. Sarah Gottfried, who's an OBGYN, M-Y-N, MIT, trained, Harvard trained doctor who's really trying to help women understand that, you know, it's so important at every stage of life to balance out their hormones and adopt a lifestyle that supports that and that many doctors end up because they don't have training that their answer to, let's say, adult acne or really bad PMS symptoms or any other things that are going on that they attribute to hormones is to just shut the whole system down by putting a woman on birth control, even if she doesn't need to be on birth control, or isn't worried about that or has

another form of contraceptive that her and her partner are using. So Sarah Godfrey's a great resource. Dr. Jolene Brighton has written a whole book on this topic and a few others that are there. But it's important to know because some of the aspects, as Taylor mentioned, about cycle-sinking that we're going to be talking about, really are only available once you bring back that infradian rhythm. And if you're on birth control, you want to follow some of these resources or find a functional or naturalopathic doctor that can help you weigh the pros and cons and decide if you want to get back on it. And then if you've been on birth control for years, there's also a few startups that are out there that have created some supplements to help you repair the nutritional

deficiencies that are associated with birth control that many people develop. It's drug induced nutritional deficiencies. The whole category of people that are trying to help individuals solve this. So Taylor, now that we've talked about birth control, and that's been addressed as well, let's go into the next aspect. And it's talking a little bit about some of those root factors. Again, before we break out cycle-sinking, let's talk about some of those root factors that many of these practitioners and even you with your clients are trying to help women

understand that have a major impact on how their hormones fluctuate not just throughout the month, but on a daily basis. So let's get into some of those root factors, starting first with chronic stress. So in the case of chronic stress, how does that impact a woman's level of hormones and therefore end up impacting their infratian rhythm? Yeah. When you're stressed out, your body does not want to prioritize ovulation. It doesn't want to prioritize the release of an egg to be fertilized. And we all know that, you know, that is not the goal is to have a fertilized egg. That, you know, we just want to make sure our hormones are experiencing this rise and fall. And stress is a huge roadblock to your hormones being balanced

and also to tapping into this cycle-sinking method. And that's because when you're stressed out, in fighter flight. So you have your adrenaline is pumping and your cortisol levels are high. And when your cortisol levels are high, that is going to tell your body, maybe it's not the best time right now to release an egg. And you can enter in this realm of amenorrhea, which is, you know, not experiencing a period or hormonal imbalances. Yeah, that's great. Thanks for bringing that down, Taylor. And like you mentioned, the goal isn't necessarily that somebody wants to get pregnant, have a baby even. But when fertility and when the infratian rhythm is not operating in a way that biologically, at least for right now, until maybe different technologies emerge,

that allow a biological woman's body to do what it needed to do, like having, you know, getting ready for pregnancy in. If that egg doesn't get pregnant, then shedding that egg and having that period of time where, you know, a woman bleeds, it's, there's a canary in the coal mine. So many practitioners will look at a woman's cycle. And if it's out of balance, again, even if that woman has zero interest in having a baby in the future, it's an indication that something else is going on. You often see this with, you know, I think it's fascinating. We'd love you to talk a little about marathon runners and other elite athletes and what often happens for them when it comes to their cycles. Could you chime in on about that, Taylor?

Yes, absolutely. female athletes are one of the most at-risk populations for amenorrhea or the loss of your menstrual cycle because they're putting chronic physical stress on your body. So I covered mental stress and anxiety, how that can elevate our cortisol levels. But in addition to that, physical stress can as well. And that's why it's so important to prioritize your workouts according to where you are in your cycle. so you're not putting this stress on your body that it can't necessarily handle at certain times of the month. Yeah.

Just great to look into. You often see that marathon runners who run marathons regularly, they'll lose their period. Because again, if your body feels like you're working out really, really strong and hard, the last thing on its mind is to be ready to think about having a baby. But again, we don't know a lot about this area. There's a lot of still to discover and we'll maybe look and see how it's discovered over the years. But one of the concerns that are there for a lot of functional and integrative doctors is that if that continues over a period of time, are there downstream effects that end up making somebody more likely to develop certain diseases or other further hormonal imbalances, even if a woman has well past her reproductive years? So going back to the root causes that are there for hormonal disruption, let's chat about a couple other ones. Let's talk about diet. How does an ultra-process diet or a diet that is constantly spiking your blood sugar impact your hormonal disruption?

levels. This is a huge one. I see this. This is the most common driver of hormonal imbalances that I see in my clients. And I believe on a nationwide and global scale as well is eating a high sugar, high starch, processed foods diet. And we know that when we are eating sugary foods, it raises our blood glucose levels. Drew, you've done tons of podcasts on this. We've written newsletters about it. This is our body going into a high glucose state. And in response to that, you know, we release insulin to bring the glucose levels back down and into our cells. But over time, we develop insulin resistance. And insulin resistance is strongly linked to hormonal imbalances, but one in particular known as polycystic ovarian syndrome.

This is strongly linked to insulin resistance and estrogen dominance. So that means that you have more estrogen in your ludial phase of your cycle, which is not what we want. And we're not doing a good job of detoxifying and getting rid of it. So the high sugar, high starch diet leads to insulin resistance. And insulin resistance is heavily, heavily tied to a lot of hormonal imbalances like PCOS, which affects between like 6 and 12 percent of women or some crazy statistic. You can look it up. It comes out of the CDC.

But it affects a lot of women. So we really, really need to be mindful of what we're putting into our bodies and how that affects our hormones. And so one of the number one drivers of infertimore. in women, that women just want to get pregnant, they can't. And it's a cascading impact of insulin resistance supporting and creating the growth of these cysts that are there in PCOS. And that's basically an inflammatory response. It's inflammatory response.

Men have their own situation that happens with insulin resistance. It's primarily erectile dysfunction that would be coming there. And then lowering the sperm quality from eating a lot of ultra-processed foods in their diet. But for women, it's a major issue, especially if this is somebody that does want to have kids in the future. Let's talk about another aspect, and you've written about a bunch, Taylor, but I'm going to pick out one more that I think is worth chatting about, and that's endocrine disrupting chemicals. What are those and how ubiquitous are they in our lives? Endocrine disrupting chemicals are quite literally hormone disrupting chemicals. That is what

endocrine means, your hormones. And these are chemicals that we, that are, you know, ubiquitous, as you said. So the plastics that we come in contact with on our daily life, they contain chemicals such as BPA and phalates. And these two, in particular, mimic our sex hormones and our body. And our body kind of gets confused. And it's binding our estrogen receptors are binding to these chemicals and mistaking them for being the sex hormones like estrogen and progesterine that they really want. So endocrine disrupting chemicals like BPA, phthalates, another huge one is parabins, which are in a lot of personal care products, pesticides, and just coming back to phthalates real quick, because I think a lot of people aren't aware

that most fragrances and scented candles and incense and car fresheners, they all contain phthalates and we're breathing these in constantly. So I mean, it's no wonder that so many women and men are suffering from hormonal imbalances. It's a great reminder. Just two easy takeaways for anybody who's listening, men or women, because it can impact hormones of women and women's hormones are much more intricate as this whole podcast is being outlined, but it can also impact men as well. And so just two easy lifts that are there are reducing the amount of plastic that you get in contact with in your life that is especially being exposed to heat. So not microwaving your food in plastic Tupperware, using glass Tupperware, not constantly drinking water bottles, especially if they've

been laying out in the sun that are plastic water bottles and using a reusable water bottle. Those things make a difference when we're talking about years, decades, and lifetime of chemical buildup. And when it comes to fragrances, unless if it's essential oil or straight up, just natural fragrances, which pretty much is only straight up flour extract or essential oils, it's pretty much going to be chemicals that are completely unregulated and those scents that we use in our febrees, in our air fresheners, in our scented candles, those things, if you're constantly surrounded them in your life, you're getting a ton of exposure to these endocrine disrupting chemicals. Taylor, you wrote about a few others, but just two just off the bat that I want to touch on

before we go into breaking down the cycle and how to think about it, are caffeine and alcohol. I'll tell you one tip for my wife, Yasmin, shout out to Yasmin, that was huge for her. She was a big wine drinker. And when we first started dating, and when she had learned from another one of these naturopathic doctors who talks a lot about cycle-sinking, Dr. Afruz de Mary, we've linked to her in the show notes as well, a fruse was the one who told her that especially in the last phase of your cycle, right before your period, your bleed week starts, it's so important to make sure to not drink alcohol, ideally, you know, two weeks before the bleeding would typically start because alcohol is going to

hit you at a much different level closer to your bleed week comparatively to maybe if you're going to enjoy a glass of wine, you want to be a social drinker, putting that at the, at the getting part of the cycle. And that alone just made a huge difference and led to actually a natural reduction in overall alcohol. Not that my girl was an alcoholic. She wasn't drinking all the time or anything like that. But we would enjoy wine occasionally and, you know, socially and things like that. She started feeling so good. And her PMS symptoms, in addition to doing a few other things, sleeping better, cutting the amount of sugar in her diet as well, she started having such a huge reduction in PMS symptoms associated with her cycle that she felt so great that that just led to a whole

bunch of other cascading benefits. Caffeine is one of those. Taylor, do you just want to talk about that high level about how caffeine can be when we overdue caffeine, having it at the wrong times, having too much of it, how that can impact the hormones? Basically, caffeine like stress, it increases our hormone cortisol. That's our stress hormone. and like we mentioned before, Drew, having high stress levels can signal to the body that, hey, we're stressed out right now.

This is not a good time to ovulate. So let's kind of like put that on the back burner. The same thing happens with caffeine. So we just want to be mindful of how much caffeine we're drinking and when we're drinking it, like you said. And especially if you're a slow metabolizer of caffeine, keeping it early in the morning, cutting yourself. off at around 12 noon and keeping it to just about a cup a day would be the best way to keep those cortisol levels in a ideal range. Yeah. One good hack for that is that, again, going back to my partner, my wife, Yasmin, she used to have a couple cups a day. And we said,

okay, just even on a small level, right? Let's have a caffeine cut off, 12 noon. No, no caffeine after that. But instead having two cups of coffee, have your first cup. And then if you still feel like you want to little bit of like a caffeine boost, let's switch to Earl Grey Tea or Yerba Mote. And that helped a little bit with that sort of cracked out feeling that she would get when she wouldn't drink enough water and it's too much caffeine and she's kind of all over the place and her cortisol is up and she's more stress throughout the day. And by the way, that can happen to men and women. I'm just using that example for her in this instance of how we have that.

So you've written a little bit more about this in the newsletter. People can follow up from there. But this is a perfect opportunity. now that we've covered that basics to go into cycle syncing and how it works from the different phases. So this is you about to go on a little bit of a monologue. I'll chime in a little bit here and there, but you're going to be basically setting up how to think about cycle syncing. And again, if anybody wants to see this in written form, we have it in the newsletter below that's in the show notes. You can follow along.

It's a good amount of information, but it's all super important. So, Taylor, why don't you walk us through it starting with the first phase of the cycle? Yes, totally. Technically, the first phase of your cycle is your menstrual phase. However, I would love to start off with the follicular phase because this is when you're going from a low hormone state in your menstrual phase to your ovulatory phase, which is a high hormone state. So this is that transition period into from your menstrual phase to your ovulatory phase. And the follicular phase is when your body starts to produce more estrogen. And your estrogen levels are gradually rising. And as your estrogen levels rise, so does your energy and your mood. So this is an amazing time to, you know, you might be feeling a little bit more like creative, maybe a little bit more outgoing, maybe a little bit more focused. So this is a really awesome time

to put your nose to the grindstone and start handling complex tasks that maybe you've been putting off for a while. So that could be, you know, strategizing your social media plan or strategy or thinking about, you know, your business plan or what you want to get out of the work week or month. This is a great time to set new intentions and to start planning new projects. And this is all because your estrogen levels are coming into the picture. Your body is waking up from menstruation and you're feeling more alive and energized. And with this energy, you can use. use it for your workouts. So as we talked about earlier in the podcast,

you know, certain phases of your cycle are best for cardio. And that would be the follicular phase. So we're going to give our body, you know, a few days to adjust from being in the low hormone phase of menstruation and let those estrogen, let estrogen come into the picture a little bit. And about three to five days into your follicular phase, this is an amazing time to start doing some light cardio, whether that's, you know, jogging, jumping rope, biking, dancing, going for a hike. This is a really great time to do those more high-energy workouts, more cardio workouts, even like adding a little bit of strength training in there as well. So things like yoga is awesome for your cardio and strength training, the stair climber.

If you're a gym goer, that's another awesome one for the follicular phase. And this time is going to be the best time to shed fat and to build lean muscle. And I need to mention to a really important note would be that if you're dealing with hormonal imbalances like PCOS, like infertility, or you have a lot of anxiety or stress going on in your life, even though the follicular phase is when you want to prioritize light cardio, you don't want to do too much if you're dealing with hormonal imbalances because that'll drive up your cortisol levels and kind of run your hormones into the ground, which is the exact opposite of what we're trying to do here. So I would keep your workouts to about 30 minutes or less just to make sure you're not putting

so much stress on your body. And finally, I know what everyone's been waiting for is the diet related component. So what do you eat to support the rising of your estrogen levels? Well, it's important to note that your estrogen is rising because it plays a role in rebuilding your uterine lining and the thickness of your uterine lining. So when ovulation comes, an egg has a pretty good chance of becoming implanted. And we want to support this rising estrogen levels. And what do you need to make estrogen, well, you definitely need some healthy fats and amino acids. And this is a great time to prioritize your protein intake. So starting the day off with a high protein meal. So that could be eggs for you. That could be maybe some smoked salmon or locks, avocado, anything that is a great

source of healthy fat and protein nuts and seeds are another good one. And that's because we want to give our body what it needs to be geared up to produce the estrogen that it needs and to also prepare for ovulation, which is when estrogen is at its highest and testosterone is coming into the picture. And that is a perfect segue into ovulation. So after our follicular, you know, phase when we're experiencing this rising estrogen levels, we hit our ovulatory phase. And our ovulatory phase, I have to say, is one of my favorite phases because this is when you're kind of like the most on your game, I want to say. Your energy levels are now at their peak because your estrogen is at its peak. Testosterone comes into the picture very, very briefly.

it is no accident that you might feel a little bit more outgoing, maybe a little bit more sensual. Your libido might be higher during this phase because this is when you're releasing an egg. So this is when your ovaries are releasing an egg and it's traveling to your uterus to become fertilized. So it's no coincidence that you might feel a little bit more outgoing, more spontaneous, more frisky. And this is the cool part because you can use this to your advantage in your day to day. day life. So this would be an awesome time to tell your partner to take you out on a date night or go out with your friends and go dancing or clubbing. I don't know if people still do that, but something that, you know, kind of takes a little bit more energy because if you do that in

this part of your cycle, you're not going to feel as burnt out afterwards as if you were to do it and maybe your ludial, which will get to you next, or your menstrual phase. So ovulatory phase outgoing, high energy, feeling great. You can use this high energy for, this is when the hit workouts come in. This is where those high intensity cardio workouts are the best. So that could be jumping rope, that could be doing a kickboxing class or a boot camp or going for a long run or anything that makes you break a sweat. your ovulatory phase is the best time to do that.

And as far as food goes, you really want to prioritize fermented foods during this phase of your cycle because it's extremely important to support your gut and the detoxification or removal of estrogen from your system after you experience that crazy. high surge that happens at peak ovulation. This would be, you know, sauerkra, kimchi, any fermented foods, Kefir, Drew, I know we're both huge fans of Go Kefir. Huge fans. Right? It's the best. Go Kefirr would be awesome at this time of the phase and also cruciferous vegetables because we know that cruciferous vegetables help support detoxification. that's broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, even broccoli sprouts are really, really effective

for helping to bind to estrogen and pull it and remove it from your gastrointestinal track. And that's really going to help with symptoms of estrogen dominance, which would be super severe PMS symptoms, PCOS, infertility, things like that. So cruciferous vegetables are really great during this phase. Yeah, I want to add in one more thing about cruciferous vegetables that I've seen. Again, shout out to my partner, Yasmin, who lets me tell all her stories and details in here. Thank you, Yasmin. Thank you, Yasmin.

I always ask for permission. And sometimes I've asked for forgiveness when I haven't asked for permission. So I appreciate her giving me that leeway. So Yasmin, and she's been open about this on social media a little bit, but she wants to write a little bit more. She always had great skin growing up. Like her skin growing up was great, flawless, like never really dealt with that puberty level of acne.

Me, on the other hand, I had terrible skin. Now, many practitioners will tell you in the integrative space, they're in the know, that often when it comes to acne for men is very different for acne for women. It's a lot more sort of straightforward. And there are certain things that could play in. In my case, it was dairy, especially traditional. Cows Milk Dairy, storebought dairy, that was a big factor for me that would cause these

breakouts when I was in high school. For Yasmin, it was very strange for her because she didn't realize until much later on, well, she didn't realize because she never dealt with any kind of skin issues. She was very curious, like, why am I all of a sudden now just turning 30 having all these breakouts? Well, Yasmin was on the pill for a long period of time. And then when we met, you know, understanding a little bit about why the challenges with the birth control pill. Actually, a little bit before we met, she came off of the pill. And then that's when her body, you hear this a lot, all of a sudden, started to have really bad PMS symptoms, really challenging cycles.

And along with it, came these breakouts. And at the time, she didn't understand, like, where is this coming from? Is something going on with my skin? Am I having, like, a food issue? And yeah, there were some food stuff that we tweaked a little bit, but really what she didn't know at the time that we later figured out was that there was this whole hormonal symphony going on in the background. And when she was eating high starch foods and not having enough things like fermented foods and cruciferous vegetables, broccoli sprouts, other things like that that have a high level of sulfurophane, she wasn't able to detoxify a lot of those estrogens. And again, I might butcher it over here. We had some folks come on the podcast previously to describe this whole system.

But my understanding was when this, a lot of free-floating estrogen that's there and we're not eating a diet or supporting a lifestyle or having really great sleep to be detoxifying it out, those things can become androgens or an increase in androgens in there, which leads to some inflammation. And again, I might have it all wrong. Taylor, I'm definitely, I'm the first person to tell everybody that I just asked the questions. I'm not the person that's the expert.

So I might have butchered it. But those things were causing these breakouts that Yasmin was experiencing. and a lot of women experience right before their period starts. When she started including things like she was taking actually sulfurophane in a capsule form, Thorn and peer encapsulations and a few other companies have that. She started including more broccoli sprouts in her diet. She started including more brocolini, more cruciferous vegetables on a regular basis. That acne didn't happen in that same way.

So it's just amazing to see the impacts that are out there and that hormones control. so many aspects of our health and especially in the context of what we're talking about for women here. So just wanted to add in that anecdote. Yeah, no, thank you so much for adding that. That was super valuable. And thank you, Yasmin, for allowing us to share this with the community. The next phase that I want to talk to you guys about is your ludial phase. And that is the phase that follows ovulation. And your ludial phase is, I have to say, The ludial phase might be one of my less favorite phases, and I'll tell you why. Your ludial phase is when your hormones, they start out very, very low.

So you're going from ovulation where your estrogen and testosterone are peaking high, and they kind of take a massive dip, and that is when you start to enter your luteal phase. So you might start to feel a little bit more low energy, maybe a little bit more inward and like in your head a little bit. and that's because you're going from this high estrogen state and when estrogen increases, you know, your energy and your mood does, and that's partially because serotonin is also increasing when estrogen increases. So when you get this dip, you're going to feel a dip in your mood and your energy levels. And so your luteal phase is about the last 10 to 14 days of your cycle. and the first few days is when you might feel a little bit low energy, but then you'll experience this little peak in estrogen that happens again.

And that's around like, you know, the second to fourth or fifth day of the ludial phase. And this is a great time for you to get in those strength training workouts to work it to work, you know, on maybe lifting a little bit more or doing some power yoga. or something like that. And that's taking advantage of that little surge and estrogen that we experienced in the beginning of the ludial phase. And as we kind of go into the ludial phase, our progesterone levels start to rise. And our progesterone levels, they're, you know, coming into the picture because progesterone is responsible for maintaining the thickness of the uterine lining.

And that's super important. in the concept of fertility because the egg that's released during ovulation, it needs to become implanted into the uterine lining to have the highest chance at being fertilized. And interestingly enough, your fertile window is only about seven days. Sperm can only last in your system for seven days. So that would be, you know, you ovulate and your fertile window would be, you know, plus or minus three days of your ovulatory window. So anyway, you can only get pregnant a week out of the month. And yet we're on birth control to protect us from getting pregnant throughout the whole month.

But anyway, I digress. So your ludicase when progesterone is coming into the picture is maintaining the thickness of your uterine lining. but it's also making you feel a little bit more, like I said, inward, more self-reflective, maybe a little bit more calm. You might feel a little bit more mellowed out in this phase. And that's all because of progesterone. So to support this rising of progesterone and this decrease in mood, also, you know, we're wanting to focus on detoxing, continuing to detox from the estrogen surge of our ovulatory phase.

We want to focus on eating more complex carbohydrates, more fiber-rich foods. And this is to help move that estrogen, those estrogen metabolites out of the system to prevent estrogen dominance and those symptoms that you were talking about, Drew. And that's why in this portion of the phase, we want to focus on eating, a ton of fruits and vegetables. We want to make sure we're keeping our blood sugar in mind at all costs. I mean, all the time, but especially in your ludial phase, you want to be mindful of the blood sugar balancing strategies that we, I know you've talked about drew in previous podcast, so that's eating, you know, maybe some berries or fruit with nut butter or a hard-boiled egg

or a handful of almonds or something like that. So we want to keep our blood sugar balanced and stable. And it's also important to note that your alludeal phase, your metabolism does start to pick up a little bit. So we're going to need to up our calorie intake just a little bit to support that heightened metabolism that we're experiencing. And that, you know, happens in your luteal phase, contrasting that to your follicular phase, your metabolism is a little lower in that phase.

So just pivoting back there real quick, we want to make sure we're focusing on lighter meals in our follicular phase because our metabolism might not be as high as it is in the ludial phase. And progesterone, when it comes in the picture, it also can contribute to fluid retention and blow. So we want to be mindful of that. A little bloating, okay. But if you're experiencing, you know, crazy bloating where you feel totally uncomfortable and it's keeping you from going out and living your life, or even if you're experiencing like such

low mood that you're feeling depressed or anxious, this is a sign that there could be hormonal imbalances going on and that maybe you're more estrogen dominant, which is not what you're you want during the Ludo phase. So this is something to definitely consider and talk to your healthcare provider about. And I just want to quickly go back real quick through to the complex carbs conversation because those complex carbs, when you're increasing your intake of those fiber-rich foods, this is super important. And a really awesome takeaway is that It's also going to help increase your serotonin and dopamine levels, and that is going to help combat maybe the tired inward, maybe a little bit low mood feeling that you have. So like dark chocolate is really good during this part of the phase.

Slow burning carbohydrates like sweet potatoes or squash, again, keeping your blood sugar in mind, are going to be the foods that you want to focus on in this. phase. And again, mood behavior-wise, you're going to be feeling more calm, more relaxed, and this is a good time to, you know, maybe focus on yourself and stay in a little bit. Because if you go out, you could be, you know, crushing your hormones. And that could lead to burnout, stress, fatigue that we're trying to avoid. Great reminder. Thank you. And then finally, let's hop into the menstrual phase, which is the final phase we'll be talking about today. And this is super unpopular opinion, but the menstrual phase is honestly one of my favorite phases.

We know this is our bleed week. Ladies, this is when we're on our period. But I know it's got in a bad rep. But if we're taking care of ourselves and aware of what our body needs during this phase, it's really not that bad. It can actually be an amazing time for you to focus on yourself and to take care of yourself and to maybe, you know, draw a bath or get a massage or tell your husband to like take the kids to the park for a couple hours just so you can have some you time to really, really just give yourself the self-care that you need and you deserve. So this is not the time

to do heavy intense workouts. This is not the time to go out and, you know, go party or anything. This is the time to focus on you. And going hand in hand with that, Lisa Viti, the godmother of the cycle-sinking method states that in this part of your phase, it's so fascinating. your left side of your brain, your analytical side, and your right more emotional side of your brain, they're more connected than ever during your menstrual phase. So this is an awesome time to just kind of do some evaluation about what's going on in your life, what's working, what's not, maybe do some journaling and make course corrections if your gut instinct is telling you that that something isn't right. Now, as far as food is concerned,

your menstrual phase, you are also going to want to be focusing on eating foods that are rich in protein because, again, we have to kind of look ahead into the future a little bit and prepare for our follicular phase where our estrogen levels are rising. So we want to make sure we're eating the protein and healthy fats that we need to support the estrogen production that's coming up. And it's also super important to have your protein and healthy fats to help balance your blood sugar during this phase and keep your blood glucose and insulin levels low. And another amazing, this is another amazing time to incorporate some iron rich foods into your diet. So whether that's like grass-fed beef or some wild-caught sense.

salmon or pumpkin seeds. Any food that you like that's rich in iron, dark chocolate is another good one. Another good excuse to have dark chocolate is in the menstrual phase of your cycle for those iron levels. And that is just to help remineralize your body. So to prevent, you know, anemia and low energy levels and things like that. And I think that about does it. Well, Taylor, thank you for walking us through all that. And again, we have it in written form for anybody that wants to follow along or go and revisit it. Check out the newsletter that Taylor wrote on this topic. And you can find a link in the show notes.

And, you know, just a reminder that there's natural variation. These are all just sort of guidelines. And I think the goal is with a lot of the stuff and one of the reasons that we called our newsletter, try this, is that you could try this out. You know, evidence-based medicine is also the clinical experience of a lot of practitioners who have had their patients try something else. There's not always a randomized placebo control trial on every single thing that's out there. And plenty of things are used in standard medicine that don't have big clinical trials, but doctors know that they work and they'll tell their patients that I've often seen that this works, try it out and see. And the risk of doing it is very low. So that's how I like to think about cycle

sinking. Take the parts of it that work for you and modify the parts that don't, but at least be aware that there's an infradian rhythm, that women are very different. than men, especially women in their reproductive years. And so that they're things that are even considered good things, like working out very heavily or, you know, getting up like super early in the morning that's touted by a lot of people to, you know, help your creativity and focus. It's okay to do those at certain times the cycle. But if you naturally find that they don't work at other times, that's okay. There should be that variation.

And this should be a guide that helps you figure out that variation for you. We have the resources of all the practitioners that you mentioned inside of the show notes. Taylor, any concluding thoughts you want to leave people with? I would just like to say that the cycle-sinking method changed my life. Shout out to Elisa Vidi for letting us cover this material in our newsletter. It's so important for women to be aware of this because it's empowering as hell to know what your hormones are doing throughout your cycle and how you can optimize your diet, your workouts, component of your life to feel more fulfilled, to feel more energized and ready to go into your

days and also to show up better in your relationships, at your job, for your friends, for yourself. So I'm super excited to put this information out here today with you, Drew, and thank you so much for having me on. Yeah, Taylor, thanks for reping everybody who this information could benefit. And again, I think that we've said it before. I've benefited from understanding how the infratium rhythm works for my partner, for my sisters, everything. It just makes me a much more understanding and supportive brother, husband to Yasmin, and just an advocate for women's health because we're all on that journey together.

And we're all trying to figure out what's the right fit to dial in our health and feel good. And I think this is a huge part of it. So thanks for tackling it in our newsletter and covering it on today's podcast. Taylor, just shout out your social media handle. if people want to follow you and keep in touch with you on this journey of you writing about different topics. Where can they find you? Yeah, you can follow me at Food Happy with Taylor on Instagram. And I am working on my other social handles, but right now Instagram is the best place to reach me. That's at Food Happy with Taylor.

Awesome. Perfect. You can find them in the show notes. Taylor, thank you so much for being on here. Audience, thanks so much for listening. We'll see you next week. Thank you.