I started cycle-syncing my diet out of curiosity.

I wanted to see if I felt better -  less anxious, less tired, more ‘optimized’ and in tune with myself.

At 35, I also wanted to preserve my fertility. I am finally with someone I could actually see having a family with so I want to do everything I can to increase my chances of doing so.

I also was very into the idea of “bio-hacking” my age. Jeramey (my boyfriend) has this fancy scale that measures all sorts of things but the one that stuck out to me was the biological age data. It had me down for 32. So I thought, why not actually try at this.

Could I not only live my healthiest, most energized life while giving my fertility the best chance it has, and also lowering my biological age?

What I didn’t expect from this little cycle-syncing experiment was the realization that us women have been betrayed by how our society is set up and functions. All of which seemingly work against women’s bodies, nutritional needs, and our natural rhythms.

And the worst part… most women don’t even realize it. They don’t realize that most research and information out there that is being touted as the be-all-end-all truth was designed and created based on men’s bodies.

Men’s bodies are on a 24 hour cycle. Your typical 9-5 work day structure follows the natural flow of their bodies and hormones. They have the most energy during the morning that peaks around lunch time with a slow tapering throughout the afternoon and evening until bedtime when sleep (less sleep than women need) replenishes their hormones and energy again.

Us women? We’re on a ~28 day cycle. You could categorize a man's body's energy levels by morning, afternoon, evening, and night. Whereas for us our “morning” is our follicular phase, our “afternoon” is our ovulation phase, our evening is our luteal phase, and our menstrual phase is our night. Not a perfect comparison but you get the idea. They need hours to rest, while we need a week+ of rest to replenish our bodies and hormone cycles to be fully optimized.

Yet we’re told to push through. Show up the same every day. Ignore the signals and feelings that something is “off”. “Off” meaning the schedule forced upon us doesn’t align naturally with our body's rhythm. There’s zero accommodation for the reality that women are not the same person hormonally every day.

And unfortunately for a lot of us, there’s no changing this aspect. We have to be a member of *this* society we currently live in, that was unfortunately not built around our bodies.

That’s just one piece of it too. The more you deep dive the more you realize that most areas that make up our society are working against us (in the U.S. specifically).

We force hormonal birth controls on women for 10+ years - but the long-term effects on mood, libido, metabolic health  and fertility are still not well understood.

All of the endocrine disruptors in food and cosmetic/household products - seed oils, preservatives, plastic packaging, pesticides, synthetic fragrances - many containing xenoestrogrens, paragons, phthalates, and formaldehyde… all of which are linked to hormone imbalance, infertility, cancer and more.

Most products being applied (DAILY!) to our largest organ - our skin - are NOT FDA or EPA regulated. These government agencies regulate (loose term these days) what goes *in* your body but not what goes *on* your body. See the difference? The "fragrance" found in most personal care items is actually a legal way to mask hundreds if not thousands of unlisted chemicals. There’s something called the Fragrance Loophole where companies can say their formula is “proprietary” and therefore they don’t have to list all the ingredients in it.

So if you think all of the products you’re putting on yourself are “safe” and “regulated” well… think again.

The list of things working against women these days goes on and one - including things like our food quality, water quality, stress levels, etc etc etc. We could talk about this all day.

Which is why I’m such a big proponent for cycle-syncing my diet. There are so many things out of our control but this is one thing that you can do for yourself.

Why does cycle-syncing mean?

It’s eating, moving, and living based on where you’re at in your cycle. And it’s not “woo woo” despite what some might same - it’s literally biology.

You probably haven’t heard much about this because, again, most research and dietary/exercise recommendations are based around men so all of this isn’t common knowledge.

Most women only stumble down this path when something “bad” is happening health-wise or infertility. But you don’t have to wait for that.

You can start taking back control of your body now.