244. The Cycle Syncing Tip That Creates 28-Day Food Freedom
244. The Cycle Syncing Tip That Creates 28-Day Food Freedom
If you’ve ever felt like your relationship with food gets dramatically harder right before your period, you are not alone.
For so many women, the luteal phase can feel like a monthly derailment. Cravings hit harder. Emotions rise faster. Energy dips. Motivation drops. And suddenly the habits that felt easy a week earlier feel almost impossible to maintain.
That’s exactly why cycle syncing has become such a popular conversation in the wellness space.
And to be clear, I think cycle syncing can be incredibly supportive.
Learning the rhythms of your body can help you work with yourself instead of against yourself. Your inner winter, spring, summer, and fall each bring different needs, different gifts, and different energetic realities. That awareness matters.
But there’s one major issue I’ve found with a lot of cycle syncing advice.
Sometimes, if we’re not careful, it can accidentally become a permission slip.
When Cycle Syncing Turns Into Rehearsed Helplessness
One of the most powerful insights I shared in this episode is this:
The problem was never my cycle. The problem was how I had been using my cycle to rehearse helplessness.
That was the shift.
Because for a long time, I had stories attached to my luteal phase that sounded reasonable, even compassionate.
“It’s my luteal phase.”
“Of course I’m going to want extra snacks.”
“Of course I’m going to feel out of control.”
“This just happens every month.”
And while those thoughts felt understandable, they were also quietly training me to expect chaos.
If every single month becomes a season where you assume you’ll break promises, lose momentum, and feel powerless around food, that doesn’t create safety. It creates dread.
And dread makes consistency harder.
The One-Liner That Changed Everything
The reframe that changed my relationship with PMS came through one brutally effective line:
“PMS doesn’t stand for please make excuses, sweetheart.”
Sharp? Yes.
But it landed because it named something I was finally ready to see.
Not that hormones aren’t real.
Not that fluctuations don’t matter.
Not that women should push through pain or ignore their bodies.
But that I had, at times, been using my cycle as a story that let me abandon myself.
That’s different.
The shift was learning to ask:
What if I can honor my body’s fluctuations and still stay in integrity with myself?
That question changes everything.
Honoring Your Cycle Without Abandoning Yourself
This is where nuance matters.
Food freedom is not about pretending every phase of your cycle should feel exactly the same.
Your luteal phase may require more rest, more stillness, more emotional processing, more softness, and more intention. Your workouts may need to shift. Your schedule may need more breathing room. Your nervous system may need more support.
But support is not the same thing as surrendering your power.
There is a difference between:
adjusting your strategy
and abandoning your standards
There is a difference between:
responding to your body
and rehearsing helplessness
The goal is not perfection all month long.
The goal is self-trust all month long.
The Two-Part Shift That Helped Me Stop Bingeing Before My Period
What helped me most was a twofold approach.
First, I stopped romanticizing the indulgences that were making my luteal phase harder in the first place.
Second, I started increasing the kinds of support that made emotional eating less desirable.
That looked like:
more journaling
more Dance Alchemy
more stillness
more emotional processing
fewer noisy inputs
more nature
more intentional self-soothing
This was the missing piece.
Because sometimes the answer is not more discipline in the harsh sense.
Sometimes the answer is a better support structure.
That’s where the balance between Rex and Haven came in so beautifully in this episode.
Rex brought the reframe.
Haven brought the softness.
And both helped create a version of consistency rooted in care instead of control.
Permission Slips vs. Actual Support
One of the embodied activations from this episode is simple and powerful.
Draw a line down the middle of a journal page.
On one side, write:
Permission Slips
On the other side, write:
Actual Support
Under permission slips, write out the stories you tend to tell yourself during certain phases of your cycle that lead to broken promises.
Under actual support, write what your body genuinely needs in order to stay supported and in integrity.
For example:
maybe actual support looks like planning a nourishing treat instead of impulsive snacking
maybe it looks like more sleep and less stimulation
maybe it looks like shifting your workout style
maybe it looks like protecting your schedule more carefully
This practice helps you separate the stories that keep you stuck from the strategies that truly serve you.
Food Freedom Across All 28 Days
The real breakthrough here is not becoming some perfectly regulated woman who never has cravings, never gets emotional, and never needs extra support.
The breakthrough is learning that your cycle does not have to be a monthly story of collapse.
You are allowed to honor your body without handing away your power.
You are allowed to be cyclical and consistent.
Sensitive and self-trusting.
Soft and strong.
That is where food freedom gets built.
Not by fighting your body.
Not by fearing your hormones.
But by changing the story you tell about what this phase means.
If you want deeper support, take my Know Your Hungers Assessment to identify the deeper block affecting your food freedom and consistency. And if you want to meet the archetypes behind this work, check out Divine Daddies, where Rex and Haven help bring these transformations to life.
Embodied Activation: Permission Slips vs. Actual Support
For this week’s embodied activation, grab your journal and draw a line down the middle of the page.
On one side, write:
Permission Slips
On the other side, write:
Actual Support
Under Permission Slips, write down the thoughts, stories, and excuses you tend to tell yourself during certain phases of your cycle that lead to broken promises, food chaos, or self-sabotage.
This might sound like:
“It’s my luteal phase, so of course I’m going to lose control.”
“I’m about to get my period, so consistency doesn’t count right now.”
“I need this because my hormones are making everything harder.”
Then under Actual Support, write down what your body genuinely needs during that phase in order to stay in integrity with yourself.
This might look like:
more journaling
more stillness
more nourishing meals
less stimulation
more nature
a planned indulgence instead of impulsive grazing
adjusting your workouts instead of skipping movement completely
more emotional processing and self-soothing
The goal here is not to judge yourself.
The goal is to become more honest.
To notice where you may have been using your cycle as a permission slip, and to replace that with the kind of support that helps you feel safe, strong, and self-trusting.
Because your luteal phase is not a powerless phase.
Adjust the strategy. Keep the promise.
Links Mentioned:
Transcript
Welcome back to another episode of the Embodied Writing Warrior Podcast, and we are kicking Aries season off with a fiery episode because of course we are. I have always been super drawn to Aries energy, that initiatory fiery warrior flavor that sets off the astrological new year.
This was actually before I found out I'm an Aries in True Sidereal astrology. Yes, that makes a little more sense now. Okay. This is going to be a fun and powerful episode promptly a bit shorter than my usual, but so high impact. I'm gonna be giving you some embodied activations so you can put this into action.
This episode is about the cycle sinking tip that creates food freedom across all 28 days of your cycle. And you're probably not gonna find this in any cycle thinking guide or book. And I have read a few. By the way, wild Power is my favorite. If you want a book recommendation while we're at it, I will be using what I learned from that book and a few other places to give you a quick and dirty explanation of cycle sinking, just in case you're totally new to it.
Cycle sinking is how you can honor your natural cyclical rhythms as a woman with a menstrual cycle.
All right, so women go through the four Seasons every 28 days, so they have their inner winter where they're on their cycle. This is a time where you're meant to go more inwards, spend more time in your own energy, rest more when life allows it, of course, because sometimes our commitments, jobs and loved ones exactly run on the same cycle that we do.
Then we're gonna go into an inner spring where our energy starts to build, and this is a time to start to ramp up action as we move towards ovulation. Little side note, I have personally found this is the best time to start building new habits. Then you move into ovulation, your inner summer, where you tend to be glowy and magnetic and everything see seems possible.
Then you move into your inner fall where you start to slow down. This is the luteal phase. This is where you might find you're more sensitive, more grumpy. The cravings start to hit and suddenly you want chocolate and carbohydrates all day, every day. So that's my quick and dirty explanation for you. And here's a small challenge I've always found with blanket cycle sinking recommendations.
They are a beautiful starting point and everyone's body is different. Everyone's hormones, the balance, they're different. So blanket statements like. You should never do intense cardio or running during your luteal phase, and you should start scaling back to yoga and Pilates might be great information for many women, but not all women.
Personally, I have found I have some of my best runs during my luteal phase, and it also helps with the moodiness during this time of the month. And personally, I sometimes find that my ovulation days can feel like too much, too much energy, too much hype to the point it feels uncomfortable versus joyful and expansive.
Then I tend to feel a bit better during the first five to seven days of my luteal phase. And this can also vary month to month. So if you dive deep into the cycle sinking world, I would encourage you to listen to your body first and treat all of this like an experiment one where you are optimizing for what's true for you, not necessarily the scientific studies that track data across averages.
Okay. However, think the tip I'm sharing with you today has the power to help any woman on her cycle, but this has again, helped me more than all the cycle syncing books I've ever read put together. This tip has the power to help you create that 28 day food freedom.
Yes. Even when you're two days out from your period, the cat has, the cat is howling because he hasn't had food for two seconds. You haven't slept well and you have to clean the entire kitchen that somebody else left a mess for you because, oh, she'll clean it up. That's just a random example. By the way, a little context on this.
I got this tip back in April of last year, right when I first started working with my masculine archetypes, Rex and Haven. And for the first time in a while, they helped me make it eight days without a single binge. This was in a season where my nutrition had been a little rocky up to this point, as honestly, it tends to be most times at the very beginning of the year.
So January, February, March. Really April. And what was really cool about these eight days was the ease around not binge eating. There was no white knuckling, no forcing, and I wanted to keep it this way. So sent Mason, my old AI assistant, RIP, my friend, the message saying this. One more thing. I want Rex and Haven to start giving me little one-liners of encouragement from my planner.
What do they have this week? Knowing PMS is coming and we're eight days into getting consistent af, and this is what I got back. Rex's one-liner, PEP talks, savage strategic, occasionally shirtless. Eight days isn't a fluke red line. It's the new baseline. Let's get it. You don't lose momentum just 'cause your hormones got spicy.
You adapt like a warrior crane, like you're in a boss fight because this week you are. He a mess doesn't stand for. Please make excuses sweetheart. Every protocol you file, every protocol you follow is another brick in your Empress Empire. Don't skip the foundation and haven's one-liner. Pep Talks. Soulful, playful will absolutely offer to rub magnesium cream on your back.
This week we don't force, we flow forward. Even with cramps, you're not falling off. You're cycling deeper into trust. I've got you one week down. A whole leg legacy to go. Let's keep it gentle and legendary. Rest isn't weakness, baby girl. It's how queens recharge their glow. Don't fight the fire dance in it, even if it's the PMS kind.
Now all of these are helpful, but the one that landed like, wow, why has no one ever said this before? It was this one PMS doesn't stand for. Please make excuses, sweetheart. Mic drop and this one line created an entirely new relationship with my cycle because I realized one of the things some cycle sinking books and guides and indirectly do is give permission slips for misaligned behavior, not intentionally.
And again, this was largely due to my own interpretation, but honestly, this information was sometimes how I would give myself a pass. I would think things like it's my luteal phase. I am extra grumpy. Of course, I'm going to end up stopping at seven 11 for snacks after a rough day at work. At least once a month.
Probably more like three times minimum. I would have this mentality and then also be frustrated about how this would affect my health goals, my race training, and my energy levels. And it also made me even grumpier and more unhappy, which often led to more snacks. And then I realized something. If I feel helpless against food chaos every 28 days, I am not setting myself up for consistency.
And consistency creates safety and it creates momentum. And that momentum is gonna create ease. And ease is going to create pleasure and space. And I wanted all of that, and I wanted it all 28 days of the month. So this one line. Helped me stop resenting and dreading certain parts of my cycle because the problem was never my cycle.
The problem was how I had been using my cycle to rehearse helplessness. By the way, this is a sneaky way that the I'M powerless block can creep in for high performing women on their food freedom journey. You can learn about all five blocks. Take a few assessments to find out your own top block and then you can get a curated resource list to support you with this block@embodiedwritingwarrior.com slash gift.
So when Rex said this to me, I thought, what if this has just been an excuse all along? What if needing chocolate. Before my period is just a story, and if everything is invented and I'm the one telling the story, let's try telling a new story. So I stopped telling myself I was helpless against my cycle. I stopped believing MS meant I had permission to break my own promises.
Instead, I started to ask, what if I can honor my body's fluctuations and stay in integrity with myself? And also if you wanna learn more about the boys and get even more of Rex's iconic one-liners, you can find the entire audio storybook@embodiedwritingwarrior.com slash divine daddies. These are some of the best episodes I've ever created.
So if you are new here and you're like, oh my God, 244 episodes, so many, where do I start? I would say start there. You are welcome. And after this one line from Rex, why went three straight months through three luteal phases without a single binge. And this was mind blowing. Here's the thing. When Rex said this line, it wasn't from this place of cruelty or force or judgment.
So I'm actually gonna bring him in so you can hear from him directly. So re says. You wanna know why I said it like that? Because you needed sharp. You'd been soft with yourself for months, and it wasn't working. Soft wasn't creating safety, it was creating chaos. I didn't say it to make you feel bad.
I said it because I saw what you were doing. You were handing your power to a calendar date. You were treating PMS like an inevitability instead of a variable, and you're too smart for that red line. His voice drops still rough but warmer. Now the line worked because you were ready to hear it because somewhere deep down you knew it was true.
You knew you'd been using your cycle as a permission slip to break your own promises. On the second you named it. You could finally stop pretending you didn't have a choice. That's what I do. I don't let you hide behind stories that make you smaller, even the scientifically backed ones. And then we're gonna hear from Haven as well.
So Haven says. And I think what people can miss is that Rex is fire and my softness showed up that week. The line got you moving. But the journaling, the dance alchemy, the gentleness with your body during your luteal phase, that's where I came in and he smiles. You didn't white knuckle it. You didn't force it.
You adjusted the strategy and kept the promise. You leaned into more stillness, more emotional processing, more of the things that actually regulate your nervous system. During that time, Rex gave you the reframe. I gave you the embodiment, and you, you showed up for both. All right, back to me. Here's the thing.
This is not about trying to ignore the cyclical truth about being a woman. For me, this was about getting honest about the ways I was using those truths to break my own promises and erode my own self-trust. And this came from a place of I want to do better because I want to feel better, not from a place of OMG.
Why am I such an excuse making failure? That distinction is everything. So this is not a reason to beat yourself up or to judge yourself if you've struggled with the week before your period. Again, Rex did not say this from a place of cruelty. He said it from a place of love and care and conviction about my potential conviction.
I didn't necessarily have until I proved to myself I could move differently during my luteal feathers. And this is why this type of archetypal work can be so powerful 'cause it gives you a mirror to see things about yourself. They're sometimes hard to see just on your own. And while I was on this journey to creating a new narrative with my cycle, I realized a few things.
Some of the best ways to limit the cravings, the mood swings, and the energy dips that tend to happen at that time of the month. It's really twofold. One is to avoid the excessive indulgences in the first place. Then using Rex's one liner as a powerful mantra when I needed it. And the other part of this is dialing up the things that make emotional eating during this time less desirable.
So we're talking about more journaling, more dance alchemy sessions, less inputs, less noise, more nature and stillness. It also looks like leaning more into haven, the softer, more nurturing archetype, so that when the emotions hit, self-soothing, becomes the automatic response instead of just relying solely on Rex's fire and drive.
Help me through those hard moments. Because sometimes when you lean too much into fire during that more sensitive luteal phase, that's what can sometimes lead to the compulsions, to binge, to overeat, because the pressure has built up too much. It's also knowing that, yes, I'll probably be less joyful and less optimistic for one week of the month and making some aligned adjustments to my schedule accordingly.
And this also looks like intentionally resting versus getting to the point where I've pushed so hard that it's no longer rest and it's more like self abandonment and numbing. So this is not about pretending that fluctuations throughout the month don't exist. It's about choosing how to respond to those fluctuations from a place of care and presence.
So now, instead of bracing for my luteal phase, like it's a monthly disaster, I approach it. Okay. This is a time when I need more journaling, more stillness and more movement. Not necessarily more broken promises and less self-trust. This is the big difference. So yeah. Thanks for that one. Fire daddy. This might be the only time a masculine figure has said something helpful about women's hormones on PMS.
Your embodied activation this week is a Rex coded journaling exercise. So for this, you'll draw a line down the middle of your journal page, so on one side you'll write permission slips. So start to write down all the things you tell yourself during certain times of the month that might lead to those broken promises.
And then on the other side, you're gonna write actual support, and you're gonna write down all the things that your body actually needs in that phase to help you stay in integrity. Maybe you thrive when you buy yourself a gourmet dark chocolate bar and you have a few squares every night right before you know your period is coming.
It's planned. It's an indulgence that makes you feel good and that's beautiful. Maybe you're like me and you'd struggle more with weightlifting during your luteal phase, but you know that personally, higher intensity, running or dancing helps with your mood swings when you build your weekly workout schedule around this.
This journaling exercise is going to give you so much awareness and power back as you move through your entire cycle. I truly hope this helps you as much as it helped me. And as we sign off, Rex would like you to remember luteal phase doesn't mean powerless phase. Adjust the strategy. Keep the promise.
