I received this question the other day via Instagram: “I get extremely emotional and I feel irrational the week before my period – how can I cope with it?. Since so many of us deal with PMS I’m sharing how you can get rid of PMS for good with food and lifestyle tips.
It’s like clockwork every month. The week before your period arrives, you find yourself extra weepy, crying at almost everything (especially those feel good commercials on TV) and you seem to pick a fight with your partner only to apologize profusely a few days later.
So many of us have been dealing with PMS almost our entire lives that although it’s not our normal every day behavior, we think we have to put up with feeling this way! Yes, hormones are part of being a woman, but with the right nutritional and lifestyle support you can reduce those monthly tears and fights.
So how can you feel more like yourself that time of the month? I’m sharing with you the top five things I have my clients start focusing on first with their health in order to support those hormonal shifts.
How To Get Rid Of PMS For Good With These Foods
What’s on Your Plate
What we eat has a direct effect on the health of hormones, and our hormones determine our mood, energy and how we feel every single day. Yet, we tend to forget that fact that time of the month because we are craving fatty and sugary foods. While it’s important to eat to support your hormones all month long, this is especially true during the last two weeks of your cycle when it’s more challenging to keep your blood sugar levels balanced, which play a huge role in keeping us calm and balanced. A good place to start is by combining healthy fats, like avocados, walnuts, salmon, coconut oil, with healthy proteins like beans, legumes, chicken, and tons of fiber with dark leafy greens and other vegetables. The more that you eat like this at every meal and snack all month long you will start to feel less hormonal right before your period arrives.
Eat Chocolate
I know that you are craving it anyway, so let’s add some chocolate to your diet! I’m not talking about M&M’s though, but real chocolate “raw cacao”. This superfood is full of antioxidants, Vitamin C, iron and magnesium. That time of the month, right before your period, the iron and magnesium levels in your body drop rapidly. This is one of the main reasons you crave chocolate because real chocolate, cacao, has magnesium and iron. By keeping these levels up all month long this helps reduce that huge drop right before your period. I love adding in the cacao to my smoothies and trail mixes. Try making my women’s trail mix today, I use cacao nibs!
Add Magnesium
This is one of my favorite minerals. Magnesium is the anti-stress mineral and helps to keep your internal body calm. Most of us are deficient in this mineral since we deplete our natural stores when we get stressed. Having more magnesium in your diet helps reduce PMS, especially cramps that time of the month. My favorite magnesium rich foods are cacao, almonds, pumpkin, flax and chia seeds, avocados, Brazil nuts, and cashews. I also like drinking Natural Calm, a magnesium powder, about an hour before I go to bed at night.
Reduce Caffeine
If you feel overly anxious that time of the month it could be coming from your coffee cup. So many of my clients who are addicted to their morning coffee seem to feel more emotional that time of the month. By reducing the amount of caffeine, plus making sure to eat breakfast and drink water before having any caffeine I see so many of my clients feel more even and calm right before their period and all month long.
Add In This Yoga Pose
We all have so much going on at all times that it becomes harder and harder to escape from the daily grind, but it’s so important to create space for mindful moments. Sometimes we only have a few minutes which is why I love having my clients add legs up the wall to their evening routine. This yoga pose is one of the best ways to calm the central nervous system, it helps lower cortisol and helps our body get a better night’s sleep. Adding this in can help you feel more rested and calm. Try adding this pose in all month long, just five minutes before you go to sleep at night and feel the difference in your body and mind.
I suggest starting with the one tip that really resonated the most with you today, then slowly start to incorporate the others. Within a few cycles you will start feeling calmer and those tears and fights will be a thing of the past.
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