5 simple morning habits that support your menstrual cycle
Maybe you're solid in your cycle tracking but now feel like you’re ready to start to shift some things to improve your symptoms or overall health?
I recommend looking at how you start your day. I don’t mean some long elaborate morning routine, but your regular morning habits. I’ve been putting a lot more focus on establishing good morning habits lately and it has made a noticeable difference. I’m sleeping better, my cycles are more stable and I feel well in general.
Five morning habits that support your menstrual cycle:
1.) Morning sunlight
For a very long time, I considered myself a bad sleeper. It turns out, it may have been that I was a less than effective “waker upper.” Getting morning sunlight is very important for our daily circadian rhythm. (This is the hormonal process that tells our bodies to wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night.) Cortisol is a very important part of this process as it is the primary hormone responsible for getting us up and at ‘em. We want higher cortisol levels early in the day and getting a daily dose of natural light in your eyeballs as early in the day as possible (ideally before 10 am) can help with this.
In terms of reproductive health, having a healthy circadian rhythm lends itself to better sleep. Sleep is incredibly important for many reasons but in the case of our menstrual cycles, our bodies produce most of our hormones while we’re sleeping! Quality sleep also helps our bodies deal with stress.
Getting a daily dose of sunlight can also support our Vitamin D levels. There is no shortage of research that suggests Vitamin D is important for our menstrual and reproductive health and getting 10-15 minutes of sun exposure directly on your skin at least a few times a week (sans sunscreen) is the best way to get Vitamin D.
2.) Movement
For many reasons, moving our bodies daily is extremely good for us. In terms of our menstrual cycle, movement can help us mitigate stress, it can promote blood sugar balance and can promote the release of other chemicals like endorphins that can literally help us battle pms and period symptoms.
I personally find that working out in the morning works best for me before the distractions of the day build up. And exercising as early in the day as possible sets us up for better sleep at night, as working out close to bedtime can sometimes wake us up more than we’d want it to when we’re trying to settle down for the night.
And it doesn’t have to be hard-core, HIIT style workouts every day. In fact, it shouldn’t be. We want exercise that helps us manage stress, not make it worse. (If you want to do HIIT workouts, my rec is to do them in your follicular phase.) Walking, strength training, moderate cardio, pilates, are some of my go-to movement practices that keep me feeling good throughout my menstrual cycle.
On a personal note, in the four years since I found out I suffer from anxiety, it has become increasingly apparent just how important physical activity is not just for my physical health but for my mental health as well. Like I have a standing request with my husband now that if he notices I’ve gone more than two days without doing some sort of movement practice, he has permission to poke me about it. And something a lot of people don’t realize is that our mental health and menstrual health are linked. I mean, the menstrual cycle originates in the brain and is run through communication between our brain and ovaries.
3.) Prioritize protein with breakfast
If you have a period, you should be eating breakfast. Yes, I know people all over the internet talk about intermittent fasting and much of the talk sounds great, but much of the research on it wasn’t done on people with a menstrual cycle.
Eat breakfast. Get something with protein in your system within 60 minutes of waking up. This is because when you wake up, you’ve already been fasting while you were asleep. Your body needs fuel, and when we don’t provide it with enough it can become stressful for our body.
Excess and continued stress can cause a lot of issues in our bodies. In terms of our menstrual cycle, it can affect ovulation, it can inhibit progesterone production (which is very important in the second half of the cycle), and can be a contributing factor in many uncomfortable menstrual cycle symptoms.
Prioritizing protein at breakfast also sets you up for better blood sugar balance throughout the day. Blood sugar levels increase when we eat (how much depends on what we eat) and our body responds to correct this increase by releasing a hormone called insulin. This is a natural process and when it’s working correctly, great. When we have consistently high levels of insulin (because we’re constantly creating situations of high blood sugar in our body) it can cause problems. Specifically for our menstrual cycle and reproductive health like excess testosterone (which can lead to issues like PCOS symptoms, irregular periods, and missing periods.)
During the week I will admit, I don’t always have enough time to get a full breakfast in right away. Enter bone broth. It’s full of protein and good for you minerals. I will often enjoy a big mug of bone broth first thing while getting my kiddo out the door for school and then come back and enjoy a full breakfast.
4.) Enjoy your coffee with or after breakfast
I drink coffee every day. My husband makes it for us, I love enjoying it alongside my breakfast or afterward as I get to work for the day.
Drinking coffee on an empty stomach is not good for you. It will set off an unnecessary stress response and mess with your blood sugar. Two things we know from #3 - prioritize protein with breakfast are things we should avoid.
Having food (particularly protein) in your system will help to mitigate these negatives to drinking coffee so that if coffee agrees with you otherwise, you can enjoy it (in moderation) and enjoy some of the possible benefits that are likely connected to its antioxidant properties.
If you find that switching up your coffee routine still doesn’t quite seem to work for you (we’re all different), you can try half-caf, decaf, matcha or any of the numerous coffee alternatives that are available now so you can still have that ritual cup of something in the morning.
5.) Hydrate
Maintaining proper hydration is of course important for the overall function of your body but it’s also important for cervical mucus production. If you’re trying to watch out for fertile cervical mucus to help pinpoint your ovulatory window a la the fertility awareness method and you’re dehydrated … good luck. Your body needs fluids in order to produce fluids like the cervical mucus that tells us we’re fertile and helps sperm reach the egg if we’re trying to get pregnant.
Bonus points if you can upgrade a few of your daily drinks to be something higher in vitamins/minerals/trace elements like magnesium, sodium, potassium, and Vitamin C.
Minerals are natural substances from the earth that we don’t actually produce. We get them directly through plants or indirectly from animals. Minerals work in our body to help us manage stress, balance insulin levels, maintain normal reproductive function, and optimize thyroid function. Trace elements are micronutrients that we need in very small amounts for proper functioning.
Bone broth, adrenal cocktails and green drinks are some of my favorite ways to hydrate and replenish my nutrient stores.
These are the morning habits that are manageable for me in my current season of life. Like so manageable that I even enjoy doing them on vacation! My husband didn't understand why I wanted to sneak a quick workout in most mornings while we were in Hilton Head, SC last month, but daily movement just makes me feel so good I wouldn’t enjoy the rest of my vacation day as much without it!