The Menstruality Podcast - How Food Can Nourish Menstrual Cycle Health (Naam Bachmayer)

Episode Date: June 9, 2022

Have you ever wondered what foods can support your cycle health as you move through the different inner seasons of the cycle month?In this interview with Menstrual Cycle Coach, and food-lover Naam Bachmayer, we explore her ‘Cyclical Nourishment Principles’ and how they help us to welcome in hormonal health, more pleasure, less stress and a deeper intimacy with our cycle process.This isn’t a ‘how-to’ episode or a set of rules. Naam is very aware of how food can be complex for many of us, as well as the harm that diet culture causes. Instead, Naam shares a wealth of ideas which you can adapt for you and your body, including a delicious recipe for each inner season. Bon appetit!We explore:- Naam’s ‘Cyclical Nourishment Principles’ including ‘eating the rainbow’, listening to your body, and reducing inflammatory foods.- How to adapt our nutrition and cooking style in the four phases of your cycle - including a delicious, colourful, healthy recipe for each inner season. - What to eat in inner winter, including iron rich foods like oats and chickpeas to support your body as you lose blood, watermelon and cucumber to up your water intake and why chocolate can help with cramps (yay!). ---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email [e-mail]---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.schoolNaam Bachmayer: @thecyclicalcoach - https://www.instagram.com/thecyclicalcoach

Welcome to the Menstruality Podcast, where we share inspiring conversations about the power of menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause. This podcast is brought to you by Red School, where we're training the menstruality leaders of the future. I'm your host, Sophie Jane Hardy, and I'll be joined often by Red School's founders, Alexandra and Sharni, as well as an inspiring group of pioneers, activists, changemakers and creatives to explore how you can unashamedly claim the power of the menstrual cycle to activate your unique form of leadership for yourself, your community and the world. Hey there, how's it going for you today? Thank you so much for coming back and for joining us on the menstruality podcast. Have you ever wondered what foods can support your cycle health as you move through your different inner seasons of your

cycle month. If you have, then this is going to be a good one for you. We're interviewing, I'm interviewing menstrual cycle coach and foodie Naam Backmayer and we explore her cyclical nourishment principles and how they can help us to welcome in more hormonal health, more pleasure, less stress and this deeper intimacy with ourselves and our bodies and our cycle process. And this definitely isn't a how-to episode or a set of rules that we have to follow. NAMM is really plugged in and really aware of how food can be complex for many people as well as the harm that diet culture can cause. So instead Nam shares this wealth of different ideas which you can adapt for you and your body and your cycle and we actually include a delicious recipe for each inner season.

So I really hope you enjoy this and I think the only thing left to say is bon appetit. So Nam, welcome to the Menstruality Podcast. Thank you so much for making the time to be with us today. I just love following your content on Instagram and learning all about cycles and food. It's colourful and bright and yeah, I've been really looking forward to this conversation. And we're going to start with a cycle check-in. So I'd love to hear where are you at in your cycle today and how is it for you? Hi, Sophie. Thank you so, so much for having me. I'm on cycle day 17 today and I'm transitioning from my inner summer into my Lucio phase. I've got a little bit of a wobbly transition day today and yeah I've been taking care of myself, just had a nap and now I'm sitting here with my ginger tea really excited for

our conversation today. I love that you just had a nap. I think napping is everything isn't it? If we can find a way to get a nap in the day because it's like you get two days then. Yeah totally it's so underrated but like best medicine toddlers do know how to you know have the best life yeah naps everything they really do so you said you're having a wobble between inner summer and inner autumn how does that look like like what does it look like for you and how do you take care of yourself when you have that wobble? That's a great question. Usually how it shows up in my cycle is that this day kind of feels a little bit off. So a lot of things might go wrong. I might spill something or I might just not feel like 110% in my power. And that is totally

okay because we're cyclical beings. We don't have to be the same every day right and I kind of take those days to appreciate the cyclicality of my life and how I can live more in tune with my cycle and for me it also just boils down to the basics like I check in with myself what do I need today what do I feel like I crave what do I feel like would really nourish me and yeah today that was a nap. And some other days it might be like an embodied dance practice. It might be some going out in nature and bathing in the forest kind of vibe. Or sometimes it's just something like watching a funny Netflix show and just really taking that self-care, whatever I really need on that day.

Yeah, to that level that I need. show and just really taking that self-care whatever I really need on that day um yeah to to that level that I need and today it's just about naps I guess yes oh I love it I often use um net my favorite Netflix comedies as like a little homeopathic dose of just something funny to reset myself like I did it before this I thought okay I've had a big day I feel a bit overwhelmed I'm on day 25 so you know I generally feel overwhelmed it's just you know I just need life to be very small and quiet on my day 25 and you know sometimes it isn't so I thought I'm just gonna watch like five minutes of the great Australian bake-off and and it's just it's medicine totally resets me I'm'm like, I'm happy.

I like, I've been looking at people baking. And so it sets me up nicely for our conversation. Love that, love that. I'd love to hear what is it that most inspires you at the moment about making this connection between our menstrual cycles and what we eat and how we prepare our food and how we eat our food. What's inspiring you at the moment I think for me it's all about understanding that food is such a great tool to help your body and to nourish your body on different levels not just your body but also your mind and your soul and for me I feel like food has such a big meaning when it comes to my ancestral ancestral line when it

comes to my heritage but also in terms of self-care what is more self-caring than you nourishing your body by making yourself something yummy something that really yeah is juicy and you're just like yes I'm so excited to have this meal and enjoy it and for me it's really that I love that duality of like having this as a self-care practice but also this remembering of where you're from and where you maybe want to go with with wherever you're going in life beautiful I love that connection to your heritage. Can you tell us a bit about your heritage? Yeah, totally. So I'm half Thai, half German. I grew up in Germany and Sweden and Thailand, like been traveling like all my life basically. And I had that great privilege of growing up multilingually and also biculturally. So with two cultures cultures with the Thai culture and the German culture which is yeah

quite quite different I would say I feel like yeah I would lie if it if I said that it was always easy to grow up with two different cultures because they're yeah there can just be struggles I mean all kids from with like two two cultures they probably know what I'm talking about right now but there's also so much power in in sort of decolonizing your own mindset when it comes to the cultures that you grew up with especially for me it was was the Thai culture yeah you you know you speak so beautifully around how food is a great self-care practice for us with our cycle and how we can nourish ourselves in our cycles. And one of the things I've been appreciating about your content recently is how you share these cyclical nourishment

principles. So I was wondering if you can walk us through some of them, because this is the sort of ground for how food can help us to have more balanced hormones and less mood swings and regular cycles and less stress which just impacts all of our health including our menstrual health so the first one can I just take us through them I'd love to hear you speak about them so the first one is nutrient dense gut and liver supporting foods that are unprocessed and fresh. Yes. I also call this eating the rainbow and making sure that you have as many colors of, of different foods on, on your plate, just to get those vitamins and nutrients in. Having said that I'm not a registered dietitian or a nutritionist. I'm just a huge foodie. I am trained in functional

nutrition for happy hormones and so on, but I really just have this appreciation for good, yummy food that lights you up from the inside. And when it comes to hormonal health, eating those fresh, unprocessed foods is key because this is where the quality is and we want to go for quality over over quantity we want to um lower inflammation as much as we can and want to support our gut and our liver because our gut and our liver are key to balanced hormones um if we eat the the best food in the world but our gut is kind of off and and yeah not not feeling good then we can't absorb the nutrients that we need to create the hormones at the right time at the right place in our bodies and so leading leading on from that in terms of gut supporting

food there's pre and probiotic food could you share the difference between pre and probiotic and you know what that looks like yes so probiotics have um bacteria in in the food that bring like it's good bacteria that is being brought to the gut and prebiotics they have they contain um how do I say that? Sorry, in German. Okay. So say it in German for our German listeners. They'll love it. So prebiotics, they nourish the gut microbiome, which is, we have a lot of bacteria in our gut and probiotics bring good bacteria to our gut. So that's, that's the difference, but having both in our diets is really important. And prebiotics is usually in onions or leek, um, anything in like

the onion family and probiotics can be in yogurt or kefir or tempeh or kimchi. Um, we need to sometimes be a little bit careful about those though, because they're also rich in histamines. So, um, yeah, always consult your nutritionist to make sure that you're talking to someone who is experienced in how to deal with gut issues. It should be experienced gut issues, but if you have a normal gut, make sure that you're still supporting it with those pre and probiotics, but also when you're eating slow down. I feel like this is incredibly important, especially in the world that we live in, where we're like multitasking, watching Netflix at the same time, talking to our kids while we're making the food. And we need to really calm ourselves and maybe take a few deep breaths before we start eating because digestion starts in your brain, starts in your mouth and in your heart. And we want to bring our body into that

rest and digest mode so it can really absorb all the goodness in the food that we're having. What does that look like for you in your day-to-day life because I've heard this advice loads and I know I need to live it more I literally like scoffed down a salad in 10 minutes before we talked whilst watching Netflix so I just did exactly what you said like don't do so what does it look like for you like how do you set up that kind of rhythm so that you can be eating in that slower way for me it starts way before eating for me it starts I nearly call it like a foreplay or I just get really inspired by different recipes and then I go to the to the farmer's market which is around the corner I'm so lucky I have that and get all the fresh ingredients and have a look what looks good and get myself inspired and just think

about what I want to cook. And then when I start cooking, I try to do it without any distraction, really savoring the food, pouring all my love into it and making that food for myself, my partner, or whoever I'm cooking for. And then this kind of already sets the tone if you already approach food with that kind of appreciation and with that loving it translates into not only the taste but also the way that you will eat the food because you will appreciate that on a very different level and yeah what I like to do as well is before I start eating I just take a couple of deep breaths and have a look at my food and just think about where all the ingredients came from. So I'm looking at my fresh organic eggs. I'm imagining the chickens. I'm looking at the salad that's been grown here in the region.

I'm thinking of the person who grew that salad, plucked it out of the earth and just going on like this little visual journey. And it takes what, like a minute. And then I start eating and that really helps my body to be like, okay, we're resting and digesting. Now we're in, we're not, we're not fighting and flighting. We're just, we're just here enjoying the food and feeling good about it. Oh, that's so beautiful. That's so beautiful because actually then the meal becomes this gateway to understanding how completely interconnected we are with everyone you know how many different hands have been involved in bringing this food to the plate it's amazing when you really take it in do you think there's something from your Thai culture here because my experience of being in Thailand was

meals were really different so when I was staying with families in the northeast we would all get together for a couple of hours or more there'd be loads of different dishes spread out in between everyone that gorgeous sticky rice that we'd be like using to dip in is so good yeah and it was oh it was beautiful it was um it wasn't just we were eating to nourish our bodies but we were eating to be together we were eating to enjoy the food we were eating to laugh because it was funny that they'd give us really like stuff that was really hot and then watch us while like we were crying because we couldn't handle it it was such a yeah beautiful connecting time do you think your Thai culture might be part of what has inspired you to

to do the work that you're doing absolutely I think food is my love language and the love language of every Thai mama or birthing person out there because sometimes and this is my experience so that might not be for for every every Thai but in Thai culture parents might have difficulties to express their love like in a in a way that we know in in western culture for example with praise or with um yeah giving compliments or whatsoever but the way that my mother has showed me love is always asking me what's your what do you want to eat like are you hungry do you want me to cook your favorite dish do you want do you want it and this is how she showed me love and I feel like in Thailand that is that is very common and um also in Vietnamese cultures from from what I know or

or other Asian South Asian Southeast Asian cultures it's a lot of food is a love language and when we come together and appreciate food this is also sort of enables us to love each other and appreciate each other more because it opens room for conversation opens room for connection exactly what you experienced with you know when they gave you kind of spicy food they just wanted to see your reactions and um just yeah connect with you in a way that feels good for both and I feel like that is so beautiful in Thai culture having that fun and loving part integrated into the healing the healing medicine of food yeah uh sanuk yeah sanuk yeah everything has to be sanuk yeah exactly it's that lightheartedness that is really appreciated yeah i miss it yeah yeah

so back to our cyclical nourishment principles so yeah sit and slow down you also talk about the importance of regular meals so eating regularly which kind of fits in with the sitting sitting and slowing down and you also talk about reducing inflammatory foods so can you explain what what inflammatory foods are and how they're how they have a negative impact for us in our cycles yes inflammatory foods can look different for everybody um depends on your genetics depends on if you have any underlying health conditions or how your gut is looking like so for some people they react really badly to gluten or to dairy um that really depends. But what is definitely inflammatory to all humans is processed vegetable oils. Also, a lot of sugar. Sugar can also be inflammatory in a way because it

creates kind of internal inflammation is how we like to call it because it spikes our blood sugar. And when our blood sugar is unbalanced, it can create stress in our body essentially. And stress is basically the number one culprit for, I would say, most hormonal imbalances and messed up cycles, period pain, PMS, and so on. And when we eat food with a lot of inflammatory properties then we are also harming our gut microbiome and also creating a burden on our liver at the same time and our liver and our gut like to work in a tandem they're sort of like best friends forever so yeah like reducing the amount of inflammatory foods that we have in our diet is really key and that can look different for everyone

depending on who you are like what you're reacting towards um but yeah things like vegetable oils also alcohol nicotine they usually react they usually are inflammatory to to most people how about like one or two glasses of red wine a week like I personally don't drink any alcohol I also feel like I don't want to ever label red wine or a sugar or something having a piece of cake eating your mac and cheese what whatever that may be into good and bad if the glass of red wine makes you feel really good, really nourished, and you're like, yes, this is one of the highlights of my week. Like I like to have my glass of red wine, go for it. Because if you create that restrictive mindset about, I shouldn't be having this, I should probably eat this. And this kind of creates stress as well. So I'm always wondering where is the

balance, you know, and this this is this is up to you to decide I decided for myself it's not for me I don't like drinking that much alcohol anyways I'm like nah but if it's for you then you do you thank you that's so nice and I love that approach because there can be um what's the word I'm looking for diet culture yes diet culture very annoying and frustrating and really harmful actually diet culture that can yeah food can be complex for people and I guess this is where cycle awareness and food are such great allies because when we're practicing cycle awareness we are getting closer and closer and closer to ourselves and learning how to tend to our vulnerabilities and understanding

where our tough spots are like I know that there are going to be people listening and I'm definitely one of these people that as we get into inner autumn it's like we reach for the chocolate because it's hard to manage the level of tension or pain and challenge that's happening inside. And we don't want to make it wrong for you to have like a couple of like pieces of gorgeous dark chocolate to get you through that moment, you know. Yeah, and inner autumn is, I would say one of the trickier times in our cycle when it comes to nourishing ourselves, because this is where it really comes down to the basics of eating regular meals, having breakfast

after within 60 to 90 minutes of waking up and making sure that you're having those balanced meals as well, because that will help you to prevent those cravings. And there's nothing wrong with those cravings, right? But if you ever struggle with like intense sugar cravings or if you, yeah, feel a little bit lightheaded or moody or dizzy, sometimes that's really connected to your blood sugar being unbalanced. And yeah, I encourage you to check in with yourself

in these moments and ask yourself like, had I had my glass of water today? Did I have my breakfast? And boil it down to to the basics when it comes to to inner autumn and to the low-tailed face yeah I've been loving listening to Glennon Doyle's podcast lately and one of the things she often says is um just a lot can change if you just drink a glass of water oh my god yeah if you're having a really rough moment like just pause breathe drink a glass of water things feel different on if you're having a really rough moment like just pause breathe drink a glass of water things feel different on the other side and it sounds like the tiniest thing

but it's so true yeah you've segued us quite nicely into where I wanted to go next which is to look at how we can adapt what we're eating and how we're cooking to the four different seasons of the cycle um but before we start you are this rides off the diet culture but you're very clear on the fact that we're not describing a set of rules here it's not like you must only eat sweet potato in in autumn yeah but it's like you can eat any of these foods do you want to share a bit about that yeah totally so when we talk about how to eat for your cycle we we can sometimes be led to the idea that we need to very adapt our nutrition to each of the four phases and completely change what we eat but first of all let's cover the basics with regular meals

making sure that you're eating the rainbow right and then you can add those things in and what you want to add might really also depend on what you're craving. And I always encourage people to listen to their bodies. And if you're craving chocolate in your follicular phase and not in your luteal phase, like most people, then that's you. And that's your lived menstrual cycle experience. And that is totally okay because we're all so unique

and our menstrual cycles are as well. So yeah, take, take care of yourself by noticing these, these little hints of your body of, of your cravings, what you want to eat, and then you can also adapt your nutrition. But yes, there is a few specific foods that can be beneficial in the four different phases. Lovely. And I'm going to pull out actually a recipe from that I've seen you share on your Instagram and I'll link to them in the show notes so that like literally we could just have four lovely meals that people could cook from off the back of this for each of their inner seasons. But before we get to it, could you

explain what eat the rainbow is for people that don't know about it because this totally changed my life yeah so eating the rainbow is what I call making sure that you are including as many colors of the rainbow as possible on your plate so have a look at your plate and see can I add something red can I add something purple can I add something green so you have a lot of a lot of colors that also signify the different kind of vitamins and and minerals that you're getting from the food and this is what I mean with with eating eating the rainbow yeah I found that I was eating maybe like the same five to ten vegetables all the time and when I learned about eating the rainbow I was like okay I don't eat much that's purple

like I need to eat more blueberries and more red cabbage, or like I eat a lot of orange foods, but could I have like yellow pepper? Could I get, could I get those carrots that have all the different colors, like the red ones, the purple ones and the, sorry, the purple ones, the orange ones and the yellow ones. And it's, it not only makes the food look more beautiful, but yeah, it means that you're accessing a bigger range of nutrients and vitamins exactly exactly yeah okay so let's start with i'm so excited let's start with inner spring so what can be supportive for our hormonal health at this time in inner spring pre-ovulation so i like to include lots of pre and probiotics in in my food in this phase of the cycle just because i want to give my gut a little extra support and absorbing all the nutrients and help my body build those hormones that are increasing and yeah with with

estrogen increasing um leading up to ovulation and also a lot of sprouted food. So think literally just think spring, everything that screams spring in, yeah, on your plate, anything that is sprouted, anything that is fresh, but make sure that you're still sautéing and steaming those and not necessarily going like all raw this is something more for the ovulatory phase when our digestive system is even a bit stronger and can really digest those raw veggies and and so on I've also got on the list here healthy fats yes healthy fats always important of course but healthy fats are also great for this phase i mean in in each in each

phase of the cycle healthy fats are really key but i like to uh put a little bit put a little more in this phase actually no i think i would say in every phase healthy fats are incredibly important um and in this phase i usually focus on things like avocado or olives and the same in the same um in my ovulatory phase also great sources of healthy fats are also fish fatty fish um for example or also meat if you if you're looking for that if you're not vegetarian yeah let's talk about the recipe that I found for this time so this is your inner spring salmon bowl oh yeah yeah a very colorful bowl and also really um packed with with lots of proteins actually because we've got the mash of peas which is green peas and we've got our liver supporting beet which I also put in there we've got salmon which is great it's

a great source of protein a great source of fat and yeah this was just I was really inspired by the colors of it and by how it kind of yeah translated in my head to the plate I think it it's a very fun a very fun inner spring bowl yeah and like you said about when you're in inner spring and you think about eating food just think spring think sprouted and when I looked at the picture of that it just did feel very springy very full of life very like vital and that full of that kind of optimistic rising energy of spring I also added some early spring veggies in there. So the little radish, for example. So also it can also be really great if your season, your inner season matches with the outer season, which is lovely, which was actually exactly in the time that I created this recipe. Then also

feel free to add those little regional, locally and freshly produced greens and veggies to your plate at that time. And you also shared in the post that spring is a great time to try out new recipes because you can ride off that playful, innocent, exploratory energy of spring yes exactly my favorite time to brainstorm and and to create and to try out new things and not even be so attached to the outcome of of whether it turns turns out brilliant or not so much just going ahead and and having fun and playing and exploring in the kitchen I've been really focusing on this energy lately because I feel this might even be because of the pandemic. I feel that we overlook this naive, playful, youthful, experimental way of living, possibly because we generally all of us live in such an outcome focused culture.

Like if we're not producing something, then what we did didn't count or something. Oh, gosh. Yeah. And I think that can it can not only burn us out, but it leaves us jaded and cynical. And I feel like this inner spring energy is this innocence is such an undervalued and underutilized way of being in the world. I can relate to that so much. I feel like capitalism really has us all fooled into thinking that we need to be productive at all times, also within our cycle. So, yeah, I am such an appreciator of inner spring spring energy just like you for sure okay so then the inner spring salmon bowl I'm going to put a link to Nam's Instagram post where you can actually watch how to make this recipe so that you can

have it next time you're in your inner spring beautiful full of beets and carrots and garden goodness so then let's move on to inner summer what can be supportive for us or kind of help us to be in tune with our cycle at this time so this is the most expressive phase of our cycle right where we're very out there and um very in the yang energy i'd say like very in in the hot phase of our cycles everything that is kind of cooling and can sort of help you cool down a little anything that is rich in in water like cucumber watermelon um but also rich in antioxidants so berries can be really good making sure you're getting your fats in like single-seeded fruits for example any stone fruit like plums and cherries but also avocado

and what's really good in this phase to help your body to get rid of excess hormones is cruciferous vegetables a little bit careful about that if you're having thyroid issues um but yeah cruciferous vegetables like broccoli what's the white broccoli called I always forget the name of this cauliflower cauliflower exactly that one I can I can seriously I cannot remember this word like it's one of the cauliflower yes cruciferous vegetables your leafy greens um anything that is really yeah um rich in those anti-antioxidant anti-inflammation properties and um what I like to have in this phase a lot is this is the only phase basically where I have raw and cold foods like smoothies or anything like a salad and yeah this is where you'd like

a lot of raw food I would say I want to put in a recommendation here for roasting your brussel sprouts if you're looking for a new way to get cruciferous vegetables I was just I just thought I'd try it to see if my little boy he's's a year and a half. I wondered if he might be into them. So I just cut them in half with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and then roast them for about 20 minutes and then put some maple syrup on them. And they are so good. And he just won't stop eating them. He absolutely loves them. They can completely transform.

How amazing is it how vegetables can transform just the way that you're preparing them with roasting with baking with um steaming sauteing I feel like it brings out so many different flavors when you just yeah follow the inner spring energy and try something out with your veggies yeah yeah I love it and so then the recipe that I found on your account was the ovulatory phase wraps oh yeah yeah they are so yummy so these are just uh wraps I think I made them with um corn tortillas I can't actually remember so long ago. And then I made a red cabbage that I marinated in apple cider vinegar before, which is also great for your gut. And then I made like an avocado spinach dip with that and then roasted some chickpeas with some

yummy spices. So you're getting your protein in as well and then that's just a really simple I have no time I'm out there doing my inner summer things recipe but still you're getting all the good stuff in and supporting your body yeah. How is your inner summer like do you like being in that out of focused phase? I do enjoy it sometimes it can it can depend like in most cases I do I just had a really great amazing inner summer and I'm transitioning now but sometimes inner summer can also feel a little bit scattered for some people right and sometimes I have that too but inner summer in general is probably the phase where I feel at my very best. Yeah. How about you? I really love my summer because in the phase I'm in, in my life with my family, it feels easy at this time. So I feel like I can

do my work. You know, I love the work I do. I love pouring loads of energy into it, but I love my family and I love being with them as well and we have a bouncy Labrador who needs lots of love so I feel like in my summer I can sort of pour all the love I've got into all the things that I want to do and then it gets to day 18 19 20 and I just start to feel my capacity to give slowing down and then that's when things can get a bit spiky and I find myself shouting at the dog or just like feeling like I desperately need some space to myself so I enjoy summer for that for the the ease of things but I my favorite um my favorite season totally at the moment is autumn because I love this coming back to myself I feel really grounded in myself I feel anchored in

myself and it definitely wasn't always that way and I've talked about this on the podcast before that my inner autumn used to be a really rageful time a really grief filled time like bouts of depression but yeah now I just feel like I know who I am I know what I'm about and I enjoy sitting in my authority in my inner autumn love that for you so you're embodying the wild woman archetype and energy in this face you're like yes I'm feeling good and grounded that's beautiful yeah yeah exactly tell us about your inner autumn because we're going to move there next yeah how do you experience your inner autumn at the moment inner autumn oh yeah I feel like I'm also slowly starting to love my inner autumn more and more and appreciating that I feel like I'm in general I'm a cancerist I'm like a very homely cozy person and inner autumn

has those vibes right like you're yeah you're, you're turning inward again. And I really appreciate that energy. Sometimes inner autumn with me building my business, this is the time where I can feel very self-destructive, even like self-critical and very self-conscious and doubting my abilities, feeling imposter syndrome, creeping up the inner critic, like very classic, right? Yeah, but at the same time I really appreciate that time of insight insight and that time of refocusing on what matters most in business and in life

which is what what inner autumn is is also for I feel like it's uncovering a lot of um hidden things that you might have pushed away all cycle and that you were procrastinating on and you were like oh yeah I don't want to think about that and in the autumn it like hits you in the face you're like okay whoa wait if this chat with Nam is inspiring you today and you'd like to dive deeper into your cycle process or your menopause process, I warmly welcome you to buy our books. Wild Power, Discover the Magic of Your Menstrual Cycle and Awaken the Feminine Path to Power is available at wildpowerbook.com and Wise Power, our new menopause book, Discover the Liberating Power of Menopause to Awaken Your Authority, Purpose and Bel shining the light on it until I go, OK, I need to work on it.

I get it. Then I have to make the shift. Yes. Thank you for naming the the business piece there. And the did you say the words imposter syndrome yes I did I did I thought I thought I heard that it's just so important for us to normalize this and particularly for you so many people might look at you and look at your business and look at this massive growth phase that you're in like so tell us how many TikTok followers you have? I think currently I'm over 130,000. Yeah. Okay. So a lot of people might look at you and think she's got it all sorted. Like she must be fine. And it just so isn't that way. You know, in my, I've been working on and off as a business coach for the last five years and everyone I've encountered at some point experiences this

imposter syndrome but when we're inside it we think we're the only ones experiencing it yeah the power of the critic can swamp us and think look look she's out there doing this they're out there doing this he's out there doing this and I'm failing when actually everyone's experiencing these cycles. Absolutely. And it's so, I mean, it's incredibly hard to stop comparing yourself to your, like comparing your chapter one or two to somebody else's chapter 10. So I feel like that is probably one of the biggest lessons for me in like my own business journey, that this comparison spiral really also contributes to that imposter syndrome. And we all experience that. I sometimes, like most of the time, I don't know like what is

going on, what am I doing? And it is normal to have those days where you feel completely off in your business. And that is just an invitation for you. I feel like to come back to yourself and to focus on your mission, what you're passionate about, what lights you up inside. Because if you have your own business, another very important lesson for me is the business should be working for you and not like the other way around. And do you want to create a business that suits your life and not, I don't know like I feel I feel like business and menstrual cycle awareness also kind of goes hand in hand because when you're aware where you're at in your menstrual cycle it really helps to it really helps to bring things into perspective and when you catch yourself comparing to other people especially when you are in your pre premenstrual or even when you're on your period, going offline or just really retreating back to yourself and finding that wisdom that you have within yourself is so important and so potent as well. I could literally talk to you about this all day.

You know, last night we did our cyclical business webinar to launch this new program so it's all I've been thinking about for the last four months and well one of the things that fascinates me and then we'll come back to food is that the menstrual cycle is initiatory in that it's initiating us into becoming more fully ourselves all the time if we're paying attention to it and our businesses are also initiatory our businesses are constantly asking us to step up to be a voice for our work to grow to master new skills that we're constantly being asked to grow and so I think menstrual cycle awareness is such a powerful ally when it comes to being a business owner because then you have this initiatory power to support you in this initiatory process that you're in.

I love everything that you just said. Thank you so much for sharing that with me. We will talk business another time. I can't wait. Back to our inner autumn foods. So what kind of foods can we be eating at this time or how can we be eating to support the inner autumn processes that are going on everything that is boosting your happy hormones for example

orange and yellow foods i'm i'm not naming specific foods right now just have a look at what's orange what's yellow um and anti-inflammatory so making sure that you're reducing anything that is inflammatory to your body as much as you can so you can help prevent a period pain or even pms um integrating some ginger and turmeric if you'd like grounding foods like root vegetables are amazing in this phase and having breakfast is also key just just making sure that you're having those balanced meals throughout the day starting with breakfast and also making sure that you're eating a little bit more because in this phase of our cycle when progesterone is boosting up our metabolism we're burning more energy so making

sure that we're getting a little bit of extra in is always great in this space that's nice emotionally too for me to hear that but it's okay for people listening who do experience PMS are there some sort of direct pieces of advice you could offer about how to approach that through the lens of food I think my number one advice would definitely be to help balance your blood sugar so making sure that you're having those balanced meals and simply because the symptoms that we often have that we label as premenstrual or PMS, like feeling a little bit moody, feeling easily irritated, feeling a little bit off, or sometimes even a little bit dizzy and brain foggy. That is sometimes also the same symptoms that you experience when you're low on blood sugar,

or when you're high, like too high on blood sugar, for example. So making sure that you're low on blood sugar or when you're high like too high on blood sugar for example um so making sure that you're really having those balanced meals throughout your cycle but especially in this phase of your cycle can really make such a big difference also in terms of hormonal migraines especially there so we're literally talking three meals a day spaced out a few hours apart and making sure that the meals contain carbs and good fats and fruits and vegetables. Yes, exactly. So in each meal, you want to have your protein in. I like to have a look at my palm, like a palm sized amount of protein, then some sort of healthy fats. So that could be a little bit of olive oil or nuts and seeds, if you can eat them, your avocado, anything that has fat in it, and then

making sure that you have your fiber in. So that can be anything from your root veggies to your grains, to your legumes, to those leaf greens um that you have that you have that component as well but the protein part and the fat part is incredibly important in this phase to make sure that you are are making sure that you're not spiking and then having those drops in blood that follow after a spike that leads you to have those or contribute to you having those mood swings or just feeling yeah pmsc um i put that in quotation marks just now yeah absolutely i often find that i can use my inner summer energy to batch cook things and put them in the freezer ready for like if i'm in in autumn I don't have a lot of time

that I know that there's going to be something for me to eat that's nutritious that's going to help me to balance that and in a winter too yes number right off the summer energy yeah number one kitchen hack to be honest like making making those those batch foods and then checking them in the freezer and enjoying them when you're in in another phase of your cycle I absolutely love that before I gave birth I just spent the last month of my pregnancy cooking and I had a freezer full of 50 meals it was amazing and I just was so grateful for it yeah so the recipe that I found for this was the nourish bowl with black bean patties. Yum. Yes, it has sweet potato in it. We've got some protein with the black bean patties,

which are really easy and fun to make. And lots of flavor, like this bowl, this nourish bowl was so flavorful. And also very colorful. I feel like you have a lot of different colors in this in this one I believe I put some did I put some cruciferous spinach or some cruciferous vegetables yeah it was it's black bean patties grounding root veg sweet potato red cabbage and carrot to help to detox excess estrogen yeah yes exactly those uh the red cabbage again which is yeah really amazing to help break down um estrogen and yeah with hormones it always it always comes to you want to use them and then lose them and food food can help you with that and healthy digestion as well so yeah this this nourish bowl is really fun to make. Yeah. It looks so delicious.

And you also shared in that post that your favorite thing to do when you're premenstrual is hide in the kitchen, do things with your hands and blast loud music. Sounds like heaven in that phase. I've got a friend who, when she was premenstrual, she'd make smoothies just so that she could have the blender on really loud and just roar. And no one would be able to hear because it drowned out the sound so her and her little boy they would just go rah and it would give her a chance to you know how sometimes in in autumn you just need to make sound to let some of

that energy and emotion move through your body yeah so that's another menstrual kitchen hack. Okay, so let's complete now with inner winter. What can we do to support our body in this phase through food? So inner winter is where we are losing blood and we want to help our body to create more. So anything that is rich in iron and magnesium. So think seafood, raw chocolate, beans, leafy greens, mushrooms, anything that's really rich in minerals and in vitamins is great in this phase. And I like to make sure that I'm eating warm food as well. That is very important also in traditional Chinese medicine, that you're making sure that you are balancing that kind of inward yin energy, which is cold, with something warm, keeping your womb space warm, keeping your whole body warm, and eating warm foods like stews or broths or anything that is baked or cooked essentially yeah the recipe i found for

this was a low effort dip which is the next thing for your menstrual snack attack um it's got walnuts in it red bell pepper it's that yeah the red pepper and walnut dip yes so walnuts have um omega-3s which is really great to help support your body in relieving menstrual pain however i have to say when it comes to omega-3s when it comes from animal sources it's it's much more potent um and also in this phase of your cycle anything that is red and purple can also really support you so this is why I put red pepper paired it with the walnut and then you can just take your take your crackers and just yeah dip it and have a snack when you're chilling at home on the couch doing whatever you want to do in your

period cave yes I love it that's good if you can't really be bothered to cook you're just gonna whiz that together what about for cramps like is there anything that you could offer in terms of people who do experience quite a lot of menstrual pain it really depends and I feel like I would love to say yeah just eat that kind of food and that helps but it's not that simple right like I think there's a lot of herbs that we can drink that are supporting us. For example, red raspberry leaf. I also have a period pain tea that I created together with my herbalist. They can really help and support ourselves.

But when it comes to period pain and any kind of hormonal or menstrual related challenge that you have in your menstrual cycle, making sure that you are supporting your body in a holistic way. So looking at nutrition, looking at your lifestyle, your stress management, your gut health, and so on. Having this foundational approach is really important as opposed to having that one quick fix, what kind of food can I eat type of vibe yes yeah again that's like the opting out of the patriarchy patriarchal capitalist culture that says this will solve this and that will solve that and then we move on breaking down everything compartmentalizing everything when actually the truth is that everything we do is connected to everything else we do, which is why the cycle is such a powerful ally when it comes to healing because it's so stress sensitive as well. I mean, unfortunately that means we can experience

symptoms quite easily if we are stressed, but fortunately we can follow the signs of our cycles to show us the kind of lifestyle changes we might need to make exactly yeah love that yeah so I'm going to put a link to that tea to your um tea that you made with your nutritionalist with my herbalist I'm so lucky that um I'm just around the corner maybe like five minutes down down the road from my house uh there's this uh lady that has a herbal shop it looks like a you walk in there it looks like you know outlander do you watch outlander i've seen it yeah yeah yeah it's like outlander kind of vibes you walk in there it feels very witchy and she has like tons of different herbs half of them i can't even pronounce and um yeah so together with her I created a period pain tea I call also this I call it also the the

moon time tea and it has lots of uh great herbs in that can support you and your period pain also your premenstrual if that's what you're looking for and yeah like one of my favorite teas that I have when my inner winter starts or even a couple of days before that when I feel myself like really wanting to retreat and to go go back to my period cave yeah I find it can be so helpful to have something that puts us in in a ritual kind of frame of mind when it comes to heading towards inner winter which I should be doing now because I know I'll be beading in the next couple of days yeah just knowing okay I'm gonna get my tea out now and for the next couple of days I'm gonna have it helps it's a signal to our psyche

to slow down as well isn't it yes absolutely self-care self-care rituals cyclical self-care rituals I absolutely love that and there's so many ways that you can create a ritual for yourself if tea is not your thing I'm sure you will find something that can help you really yeah embody the energy of the different phases of your cycle what do you find yourself doing to take care of yourself in in a winter in a winter I try to go offline as much as I can and having an online business with yeah that social media where social media is such a big part that can sometimes feel a little bit daunting for me I have to say but I find when I am really um retreating to myself and focusing on what is on the inside this is when I feel at my at my best and most nourished so going offline trying to spend as much time alone

as I can so scheduling some serious me time not hanging out with people and really just being by myself with myself and appreciating appreciating that alone time that alone time that really helps me to take care of myself in my inner winter yeah thank you nam if people have been enjoying listening to you how can they connect with you and how can they work with you so I'm the cyclical coach on Instagram and TikTok so you can find me at the cyclical coach and you can work with me one-on-one in my three or six month program called cyclical empowerment which is all all about supporting and empowering you about your menstrual cycle and helping you step into your period power connecting reconnecting to your period power and you can also book me for um 90 minutes cycle power sessions if you're if you want to ask me your burning questions about your menstrual cycle and your period. Yes. Oh, Sophie, one thing that I forgot

to mention, by the way, I'm currently creating my own recipe book that is based, yeah, that is based on the four phases of the menstrual cycle. So I'm working on it. I'm not sure when it will come out yet, probably sometime in June or July this year but uh yeah stay tuned I'm really looking forward to to share uh this yummy juiciness of the of this this recipe book with the world and it will have over 10-15 different cuisines around all around the world inspired by my travels in there as well so it's going to be like a sickly cool recipe book and like a travel recipe book like all in one kind of oh that sounds so good how is the creation process going um it comes and goes right now I feel like the inspiration is not there right now but I'm I'm taking it easy you know I'm not trying to force it and yeah I'm taking it easy. You know, I'm not trying to force it. And yeah, I'm really looking forward

to finally shoot the recipes. I'm like all over Pinterest, creating my mood board for this thing, for this recipe book. So it's going, it's going slowly, but it's deadly, I would say. That's gorgeous. And I love that wisdom of not forcing it. I think that's one of the great wisdoms that cycle awareness can give us is to to be with what's happening it sounds so obvious but it can be really it's a real art to practice that in our lives isn't it yes for sure I feel like this is one of the key learnings for me when it comes to menstrual cycle awareness that some things just cannot be forced they just you just need to wait until they come to you

yeah I just interviewed Alexander and Shani because they're they've just finished writing their menopause book and we're going to publish it in September and they got almost to the end of the book before they had the title of the book but I just couldn't believe it I was like how how can you hold the tension that long like and they said it was such an art and that their menstrual cycle awareness had helped them with this just to you know how in autumn how we have to hold the tension between what we're feeling and what we have to do in our lives they just held the tension the whole time and then the perfect title landed yeah that's so exciting fun story is there anything else that you'd like to share with our

listeners about cycles and food are there any final things you'd like to share I think one of my key learnings when it comes to um food and menstrual cycle awareness is to understand that your body is not your enemy but your body is your friend so if your body is not your enemy, but your body is your friend. So if your body is giving you symptoms right now, and I've been there myself, then don't hate your body, but take that as a sign that your body is trying to communicate with you and trying to tell you something. And it is your invitation to understand, trying to understand what's going on, ask for the why, and then support your body and nourish your body and and give it the love you and and your body deserves and what would your top three tips be for like food and self-care oh so I've got so many like just popped into my mind um first one is probably

eat the food that you love and eat the food that you love so so don't be blinded by things like diet culture that is trying to tell you like this is bad this is good but follow your own instinct your body is in incredibly wise and so are you so it can sometimes be a little bit of a challenge to decode the cravings and what they actually mean but everything that your body is giving you as a sign has a meaning so this would probably be my number one tip and my other one is keep it simple it doesn't have to be complicated it doesn't have to be um i'm making this juice cleanse i'm fasting i'm doing intermittent fast just making sure that you're eating nourishing whole food that is like unprocessed that is um yeah just really giving you all the vitamins and nutrients and the last one would probably be i think just again seeing food as a sort of self-care tool that there's so much possibility

for you in there to explore parts of yourself, parts of your ancestral lineage as well, through food and reconnecting to yourself and to your own culture by understanding where the food is coming from that you're eating by exploring your um ancestral kitchens and just being curious and playful and have that even that inner maiden inner spring energy um when it comes to to cooking for yourself and your psycho as well and letting yourself being led by that by that joy and curiosity i'm gonna add a tip which is if you're on Instagram follow Nam at the cyclical coach because what she's creating and offering is so beautiful and nourishing and fun and just a joy to to take in so thank you this has been so rich like I feel like you've given us so

much and in the show notes I'll drop all the recipes but yeah thank you so much for for sharing everything that you've shared today thank you so so much for having me Sophie I really appreciate it thank you so much for being part of the community that listens to this podcast I hope Nam's conversation today inspired you to bring some new recipes into your repertoire and yeah thank you so much for listening if you're loving the podcast please come over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review it really helps other people to find the podcast and I look forward to being with you again next week and until then keep living life according to your own brilliant rhythm