Bridget – a Type A woman and an executive at a technology company – had a demanding job, two active teenage daughters, and a schedule that was packed with no time to relax. Stress was all too familiar to Bridget. She loved running and was addicted to training. She ran to maintain her weight, to calm her mind and cope with the hectic pace of life. When she turned forty, she felt invincible. But even at the age of forty-two, she had the impression that her life was falling apart.
Training became very difficult
The first major symptom she noticed was that she started gaining weight for almost no reason, especially around her waist. She resorted to her old ways of losing weight – she tried to eat less and exercise more, but the stubborn fat on her belly did not disappear. The more she exercised to combat her health problems, the more injuries she suffered. Strained calf muscles, lower back problems, and an old shoulder injury that kept reappearing. This new reality made training very difficult.
‘Lent reset for women’ press materials
When Bridget could no longer run and lost her way of coping with stress and maintaining her weight, she became depressed. While looking for a new tool to replace her exercises, Bridget heard from a friend that intermittent fasting was worth trying. As an ambitious woman, she tried to gather all the information she could about how to fast. She started by skipping breakfast and adding MCT oil to her coffee to see if she could extend her fast a bit. She quickly noticed that her fasting was going quite well and the results were fantastic. Crazy about fasting? – the longer she had a break from eating, the better she felt. My mental clarity, energy levels and peace were like never before. She also noticed that thanks to fasting she had more time, was not as hungry and felt as fit as when she was running. She fell in love with this new way of life!
The palpitations turned into anxiety
Still, after about six months, Bridget developed unwanted symptoms. The first was heart palpitations. There were times when, while sitting at her desk in the middle of the day, she felt her heart start pounding like crazy. Knowing that she had a lot of stress at work and at home, she initially thought that her busy life had finally taken its toll on her. The palpitations quickly turned into anxiety. Bridget was experiencing panic attacks in the middle of the day for seemingly no reason. She couldn’t figure out what was causing them, and – worse yet – she didn’t know how to stop them. Then there were complications with sleeping. She couldn’t relax her body enough to fall asleep. She also often woke up at 2 a.m. and had a hard time getting back to sleep.
Finally, one morning while taking a shower, she noticed that her hair was falling out in strands. This continued for several weeks until noticeable bald patches finally appeared. Concerned, she went to the doctor who ordered detailed blood tests – all results were normal. When asked about her diet, Bridget talked about fasting. To her surprise, the doctor advised her to stop taking them. He informed her that fasting was not good for women. This made Bridget very depressed – she felt that she was in a hopeless situation; she was depressed, she didn’t know what to do.
Fortunately, a friend recommended that she watch my YouTube videos about fasting for women. Bridget was surprised to discover that fasting wasn’t just about skipping meals and that women had to approach fasting differently than men, varying it according to monthly hormonal fluctuations. Perhaps it wasn’t the fasting that was the problem, but the fact that she wasn’t fasting like a woman. She did not vary her fasts to adapt them to her hormonal rhythm. This new information gave Bridget hope. She immediately changed her fasting schedule to coordinate with her monthly hormonal needs. Within a month, her hair stopped falling out, her anxiety and panic attacks disappeared, and she started sleeping well again.
Our hormones suffer, our whole body suffers
The menstrual cycle is truly a miraculous symphony of neurochemical reactions that work in perfect harmony for you to reproduce. If you’ve thought your menstrual cycle was just a nuisance until now, I encourage you to rethink the magic that happens every month. Our menstrual cycle is rarely talked about, rarely assessed, and rarely talked about as a health priority.
Missing this issue affects us in many ways and ultimately prevents us from fully understanding how our lifestyle can impact the complex design of this hormonal system. Without a proper understanding of menstrual cycles, our hormones suffer, which means our entire body suffers. When you learn to fast like a woman, you will restore synergy to these wonderful substances that serve you so well.
I know this because, like Bridget, I experienced it firsthand. When I was forty and my hormones started going haywire as I entered perimenopause, I realized that although I had a rough understanding of how the menstrual cycle worked, I didn’t fully understand this hormonal rhythm and its impact on my mood, productivity, sleep, or even motivation, I also don’t know how to adapt my lifestyle to monthly hormonal changes.
Why don’t we teach all this to girls?
Most of us have not been taught how to adapt our lifestyle to our hormones. Most women don’t even know which hormones play a role in the twenty-eight-day cycle. This is a serious problem that contributes to many hormonal imbalances in women. Knowledge about how to plan nutrition, exercise, meetings and fasting should be taught to us already during adolescence. Why don’t we teach all this to girls? Once you get to know the rhythms of the hormones involved in your menstrual cycle, you’ll start to notice that keeping your lifestyle in sync with these fluctuations makes you feel like the rock star that you are.
First of all – you must remember that your menstrual cycle is unique. All women have cycles of different lengths. In most cases it is around twenty-eight days, some are shorter and others can last over thirty days. Secondly, hormone levels increase and decrease throughout the cycle. They do not remain at the same level throughout the month. It is a certain rhythm of change. Is this information important? – it is this rhythm that determines how your emotional and physical well-being will change in the subsequent phases of the cycle.
The most complicated thing about hormones is that they are a moving target. As you’ll see when I walk you through their hierarchy, each hormone greatly influences the action of the next one. If one hormone is deficient, the entire team will perform poorly. Understanding how each hormone affects your mood, sleep, motivation, energy, appetite, and ability to fast can change your life.
The best thing about fasting women’s style is that you get the opportunity to get up close and personal with all your hormones. I will introduce you to those that play the most important role in your menstrual cycle and tell you how their concentration changes throughout the month. (If you’re not currently menstruating, don’t skip this section – I want you to learn how these hormones impact your life. In Part III, I’ll show you how to enhance their effects even if your cycle is irregular or you’ve already stopped menstruating.)
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
