Nutrition Experts Podcast Episode 46 Wait For That Beyonce Phase with Amanda Laird, Holistic Nutritionist

Amanda Laird is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and host of the Heavy Flow Podcast – a weekly podcast dedicated to periods, reproductive health and other taboo health and wellness topics. Amanda is the author of Heavy Flow: Breaking the Curse of Menstruation, available wherever books are sold. She lives in Toronto. Website + social media: […]

The post Nutrition Experts Podcast Episode 46 Wait For That Beyonce Phase with Amanda Laird, Holistic Nutritionist appeared first on Nutrition Experts Podcast.

Amanda Laird is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and host of the Heavy Flow Podcast – a weekly podcast dedicated to periods, reproductive health and other taboo health and wellness topics. Amanda is the author of Heavy Flow: Breaking the Curse of Menstruation, available wherever books are sold. She lives in Toronto.

Website + social media:

www.amandalaird.ca

www.instagram.com/amandalaird

www.facebook.com/amandalairdrhn

www.twitter.com/amandalaird

Mathea Ford: [00:00:29] Hi there! It’s Mathea. Welcome back to the Nutrition Experts Podcast. The podcast featuring nutrition experts who are leading the way using food starts today right now with our next guest. It’s great to have Amanda Laird on the show today. Amanda welcome to Nutrition Experts.

Amanda Laird: [00:00:44] Thanks for having me. I’m excited.

Mathea Ford: [00:00:46] I’m excited to have you on this show and share expertise with my tribe. Because it’s a little different topic than we have ever talked about. So, today we’re not talking about being vegetarian or gut health or how often you poop. We’re going to talk about something a little more interesting. So, Amanda tell my listeners a little more about you and what you do.

Amanda Laird: [00:01:06] Yeah absolutely! And I will also set this up to say that actually all those things that you just mentioned do have a link to our topic today so we can bring you back full circle but I’m a Holistic Nutritionist. I specialize in hormonal and menstrual health and I’m the author of a new book that just came out. It’s called the Heavy Flow: Breaking The Curse of Menstruation. And I also host the Heavy Flow podcast which is a weekly show about periods, body literacy and reproductive wellness.

Mathea Ford: [00:01:43] What is the term Holistic Nutritionist. I think we all know nutritionist, you work with food and but how does holistic come into that?

Amanda Laird: [00:01:52] Yeah that’s a great question. So, the holistic perspective is that we’re not just talking about food. We’re really looking at the whole body, the whole person, body mind and spirit. So, when I work with clients you know 60% of the time we’re talking about food and then the rest that 40% is also looking at lifestyles, exercise, spirit and I use spirit in a very general sense. So, whatever that means to you. But looking at stress and meditation and all that great stuff that can can help you heal.

Mathea Ford: [00:02:29] We’re going to talk about periods, menstrual cycles. Let’s talk about a little bit about what is normal and how do you know if it’s broken or abnormal or whatever that would be. Can you give us a little bit of that?

Amanda Laird: [00:02:42] What most of us learned in middle school health class if we were even lucky to learn the basics at all. Was that your menstrual cycle is 28 days right? That 28 day number has really been accepted as what is standard, what’s normal, what we should be aiming for but in reality, what is considered to be normal and healthy is a much bigger windo. Your menstrual cycle and your menstrual cycle is the first day of the year period until the first day of your next period. So, all the days in between not just the days that you have your bleed and that can fall anywhere from twenty one to thirty five days. So, that’s a two week window of what is considered normal and that 28 day number is actually just the average that sits in the middle of that 21 – 35 days. So, that’s the length of your menstrual cycle, your period, your actual period should really be between three to maybe seven days depending on how long your overall menstrual cycle is will depend on how long your actual period is. And we don’t want to be seeing a lot of symptoms or a lot of side effects in the PMS window. So, if you’re getting a lot of pain or cramping or mood swings or very very very low energy you know that’s all a red flag that some hormones may be out of balance. And we want to be looking into that because our periods should be coming up regularly and without a lot of fanfare.

Mathea Ford: [00:04:25] Do you recommend using any sort of apps or anything like to track your period to kind of see what your cycle is?

Amanda Laird: [00:04:31] Yes, I love that you brought that up because even though we do have guidelines as to what is normal and healthy, I always coach my clients and always talking about on my podcast and in my book that it’s most important that you know what is normal for you because there’s a lot of factors that go into what is normal right? Age, whether you’ve been pregnant before, you know lifestyle stuff all has an effect. So, I absolutely recommend getting to know your cycle and tracking that however you wish. So, you know you can do it in your paper journal. You can use an app. I love apps like Clue are great for tracking your period. There’s lots of apps. You know periods are becoming more mainstream and cooler. There’s lots of journals that I’m seeing coming out that are specifically for tracking your menstrual cycle as well. So, how you do it doesn’t actually really matter all that much to me but tracking the first day of your period. Any signs of ovulation that you might be seeing like cervical mucus or you could take your temperature every day and then also of course symptoms in that PMS window like pain, cramping, headaches all that kind of stuff will help you come to know your menstrual cycle.

Mathea Ford: [00:06:01] So, is it typical like a young girl you know 12, 13, 14 when they start their period. Does it take about a year for it to kind of even out or does it take longer?

Amanda Laird: [00:06:12] It would take about much longer than a year I would say. And really your hormones don’t really balance out and regulate. And so what I mean by that is that you’re actually ovulating. So, every cycle until you’re about 20, 21 years old. So, it takes a long time for your body to really ramp up and to be ovulating regularly and have those hormones balance out.

Mathea Ford: [00:06:41] Can you talk a little bit about the messages or taboo around menstruation? Because I think that’s one of the things that struck me immediately was like “wow! We’re going to talk about periods.” I’ve taught my daughter. I’m like “you should not be ashamed that you have a period.” And my husband does not do this with any sort of malice but he’ll act like it’s like “uhh! Don’t talk about that.” I’m like “it’s normal. That’s how children come to be.” You know that how we have that. So, can you talk about some of those common thoughts and messages that women have about menstruation and then maybe help us to identify those things so we don’t feel shame about it?

Amanda Laird: [00:07:25] We definitely have been taught that periods are something to be ashamed of, that they’re gross, that we’re dirty while we’re menstruating. It’s something that we are supposed to keep secret. You know I can think of a dozen or more times in my life when I was you know slipping a tampon into the sleeve of my sweater or like trying to keep it secret while you’re going to the bathroom right? And these are messages that have been passed down from generation to generation and lots of different ways. But in the 20th century and of course modern day age we see this a lot coming up in marketing right? The marketing messages that we see on television or in print ads and magazines or even online. You know the overarching message is that you know your period is something that has to be managed. It’s something that’s supposed to keep secret. You know the worst thing that could ever happen is a leak or a stain or somebody finding out that you are on your period. Right?

Amanda Laird: [00:08:34] And how convenient that these large companies that are manufacturing menstrual products have this solution that will keep your period under wraps. Right? They make pods that come with crinkle free wrappers. So, nobody’s going to hear that that’s what you’re up to in the bathroom stall and they come with odor protection so that the smell is covered up. And you know when you’re using products that are like tampons it’s even keeping it hidden away. Right? You never have to see or interact with your period at all. If you’re using tampons with an applicator, you don’t even have to touch your own body to insert a tampon with an applicator. Right? And so they’re really reinforcing these cultural norms that we have come to accept. Right? The reality is you know menstruation is just a bodily function. There’s no shame in that. As you said yourself, we’re all here because our mothers had periods right? And it should be treated as such. And in fact our menstrual cycles are a sign of good health. Right? If we’re menstruating regularly without a lot of side effects. You know that’s an indication that our body is healthy. Right? The hormones that are implicated in our menstrual cycles like estrogen and progesterone these are essential hormones to our bodily functions. Right? And they help promote good health. So, progesterone is key in promoting our brain health, breast health, bone health, heart health. Right? We should be thankful that we have menstrual cycles because they’re keeping us healthy.

Mathea Ford: [00:10:22] You know that is something I hadn’t thought about the whole marketing messages because but you’re right exactly that kind of the underlying tone there is that it’s something to kind of be ashamed of. So, yeah I’ve strongly talked to my daughter and said “don’t be ashamed that you have a period. It’s a girl’s you know that just happens and it doesn’t mean it’s not a bad thing. You know.” But it’s something that you kind of have to push in to the brain because like you mentioned the health class stuff in the US. Anyway I know you’re in Canada but in the US boys and girls are put into different rooms. They watch the films they talk about it and then it’s kind of hush hush. And they come out of the room and nobody talks about it you know.

Amanda Laird: [00:11:06] Absolutely!! And I should also say that a lot of these programs these you know puberty education programs or sex ed programs are actually sponsored by the big companies that are making menstrual products. Right? You know when I was researching my book, I looked at some of the materials that these big companies are making available to schools at no charge of course for them to administer puberty education. And I found it very interesting that some of the things that was covered in little pamphlets and booklets that are being distributed is you know they’re talking about “Okay. How do you manage your period?” They’re talking about you know removing body hair. They’re talking about managing the magical discharge which is something that really gets my engine going because vaginal discharge is a normal healthy thing that isn’t even discharged it’s just your cervical fluid right? Again it’s an indication of fertility and health yet they’re selling this solution to this. And they talk about you know body odor and what are the products that these companies sell? They sell pods and tampons and panty liners and they sell razors and shaving cream and they sell deodorant and douches and these products that are designed and not to say that we don’t need health like there is we do need to be keeping ourselves clean for healthy reasons but it’s just very interesting that these messages that young people are getting when they’re learning about puberty for the first time are really centered around the solutions that you can buy. Right? Like at the end of the day who cares about body odor? It’s not actually a problem generally. But we have constructed it as something that is gross and something that we’re supposed to be ashamed of. And isn’t it convenient that we have these products that we can buy to cover that up. Right? It’s the same messages that we’re getting around menstruation to and body hair and countless things.

Mathea Ford: [00:13:21] Thinking about your period and you may have some problems, is there ways to make your period easier using nutrition or other things or limit the negative effects? You know like you mentioned was some mass or cramping that type of thing?

Amanda Laird: [00:13:40] So, going back to what’s normal, I should say that you know a little bit of fatigue some like cramping is kind of falls into the normal category. Right? As our hormones fluctuate they have an influence on our energy levels. They influence our appetites, our sex drive. So, there’s a lot of influence that hormones have on our body. So, it’s normal that as we get closer to our period or when on our period we might be a little less energy, more fatigue our bodies working hard to menstruate. Right? We’re losing a lot of nutrients through the blood. Really the threshold though is your period interrupting your daily life. Do you feel like you have to call in sick to work? Are you canceling plans? Are you staying home from school? Are you staying close to home because the pain is so severe or because you know you’re having to change your pad every hour and so you feel like you can’t leave the house. Right? That’s really the threshold that we want to be looking at. And I think that starting with food you know I’m a Holistic Nutritionist so of course I believe of the power of food. That was a leading question there. And starting with some simple changes to our diet and also to stress. How we approach and manage our stress levels can have a significant effect on our menstrual experience. I’ll share a few tips in a second with the caveat though that it’s not a silver bullet. And so if you have made some changes to your diet and you’ve given it a couple of cycles and things aren’t getting better. That’s really a red flag that something else is going on that should be looked at by a doctor. Maybe something like endometriosis says are fibroids or PCOS and that kind of warrants further investigation through medical treatment. So, what can we do? Unfortunately, I don’t think that I have any real surprising news for what we should be eating to make our hormones a little bit more balanced and our periods better but you know really looking focusing on whole unprocessed healthy foods. So, all those things that we know are really good for us. Right? Fresh fruits and veggies, leafy greens, whole grains, complex carbohydrates and really focusing the majority of our meals and snacks and what we’re eating on those whole foods and eating less of the processed package. You know high sodium, high sugar foods that we know don’t make us feel great. Right? A few things in particular that I think are really great are green, leafy greens. I literally feel like you cannot eat too much of them. And so my one and only food rule and even so I break it all the time in my own life is you know take a look at what you’re eating. Is there something green? Can you add something green? Right? And that’s going to help to crowd out some of those less nutritious foods and also making sure that we’re getting a lot of fiber so eating the complex carbs like the starchy vegetables, sweet potatoes, squashes, whole grains, nuts and seeds right? Fox seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, all these things are really fantastic for hormonal balance and then to talk about some specific nutrients especially for pain if you’re getting a lot of headaches or you’re getting a lot of pain and cramping, magnesium is so great it works as a muscle relaxer and can even sometimes give you instant relief. And so I like taking magnesium as a supplement. You can get a powdered supplement and make a little tea for yourself which is nice to drink and zinc is another one that is great for painful periods and also fish oil. Fish oil if you are looking for a vegetarian source then things like evening primrose oil, flax oil depending on where you are in your cycle can be really helpful for that too. So, yes eating well, eating well that’s the short answer.

Mathea Ford: [00:18:33] So are there certain like I always think are you going to be low in iron? Is there any sort of B vitamins that you need to supplement with? Is there any of that sort of stuff that you need to supplement with to help keep your energy make you feel better during your period?

Amanda Laird: [00:18:49] I am always a little bit wary of just making a blanket recommendation for any type of supplements. And so I would recommend you know anybody who is listening you first want to start with getting bloodwork and getting your levels checked because you know iron is important right? And so if you are having especially if you have heavy periods or very long periods or even if you have very short cycles and so your periods are coming close together and your body’s not having the opportunity to kind of like recover your blood stores you are at risk for low iron and of course anemia but you never want to supplement with iron until you know for sure that you have low iron, eating iron rich foods, cooking with an iron cast iron pan is a great way to keep that up too. So, definitely get your levels checked. And then I also love a B vitamin. If I was going to recommend a supplement across the board I think almost all of us are deficient in B vitamins. If stress is an issue B5 is really great for helping to support our stress and B6 is great for estrogen imbalance. So, if we are seeing some of the symptoms of high estrogen unopposed by progesterone which is stuff like long cycles, heavy periods, painful periods, a B6 can can be helpful for that but I always recommend get your blood levels checked first and speak to a like a naturopathic doctor or somebody who is an expert in supplements before you take anything because there’s a lot of ifs ands or buts with supplements.

Mathea Ford: [00:20:48] Yeah! I love that you mentioned magnesium as a relief. I use magnesium to prevent my migraines. So, my doctor suggested that a long time ago that I take magnesium and it really does seem to help lower the number of migraines that I get so to speak.

Amanda Laird: [00:21:06] Yeah absolutely! And actually you know when we’re talking about periods we often talk a lot about like cramps but even more than cramps more people get menstrual headaches right or hormonal headaches and magnesium is great for that too.

Mathea Ford: [00:21:21] So, back to kind of thinking about the messages that women are getting now, that young girls are getting now that from their parents, from the TV, from school. What is the message that we should be giving women about their period? If you had to kind of distill it down to what is it that women should know about their period?

Amanda Laird: [00:21:42] You know the one thing I think anybody listening to this or passing information on to a young person in their life who might be meeting menstruation for the first time would be that your menstrual cycle is a vital sign right? It’s an important physiological function. That’s not just for making babies. You know we have this idea thanks to hormonal birth control which is amazing. It’s great that we can choose when and if we want to conceive a child but it has also given us this false idea that our reproductive system is just something that we can turn on and off which I think is a pretty short sighted attitude to have. Right? You know oh you’re 17 years old. You have irregular painful periods take hormonal birth control until you want to get pregnant when you’re 30 then you can come off it which you know some people have no problems with that but we are seeing you know a lot of people being challenged with a return of their menstrual cycles after a long term hormonal contraception use. So, I’m getting off track here but that’s all to say that like we need those hormones. Those hormones are good for us, they’re important they’re not just for making babies like I said earlier. So, embrace it. Learn to embrace your cycle and if it’s painful, if it irregular, if it’s interrupting your life, that’s not normal and it warrants medical attention.

Mathea Ford: [00:23:17] I was telling my daughter the other day that from now on for the rest of her life until she goes into menopause at every doctor’s appointment they’re going to ask you when was the first day of your last period that your doctor even considers it a vital sign. Because if you do have some interruptions or issues but how do we change that message? How do we talk to people about it? What what do we say differently?

Amanda Laird: [00:23:43] Well, you know that’s just the thing is that we don’t talk about it. Right? Maybe you would talk about it with a daughter or a sister or a very close friend of yours. But if you have menstrual cramps that are so bad that you’re calling in sick to work. Are you calling in sick to work because you have menstrual cramps or are you saying that you ate some bad sushi last night and you think you have food poisoning right? So, I think that you know opening up that conversation to actually you know talk about our experience and pushing back and saying that you know this isn’t right and therefore seeing a medical professional that you you see them and you have very painful periods or something’s not right with your period and they just kind of shrug and say that “oh, well that’s what periods are” you know. I think that we should not be accepting that as an answer and you know my vision for a menstrotopia right? Is that we can talk about our periods like we talked about any other bodily function. Right? “Oh! I’m just I’m feeling a little bloody old today. I feel a little off center. I’m going to get my period soon. You know I just don’t feel that great.” Right? Like why can’t we say that in when we go meet a friend for lunch. Right? If I showed up and I had a runny nose and felt like I was getting a cold or flu I would tell them that. So, why is our period any different? I do like to kind of put a caveat around this conversation too that you know I’ve talked a lot about periods being kept secret. If you feel like your menstrual cycle or your period is something that you want to keep private. I totally respect that and I don’t think we need to be talking about our periods all the time everywhere. And if you’re not comfortable talking about your period then I respect that. But keeping something private and feeling like something has to be kept secret and you’re ashamed of it is a different thing. And if you are feeling like you’re really just uncomfortable talking about your period I would really challenge you to also think about where did that message come from. Because it’s likely that it’s a marketing message that was designed to keep you ashamed and designed to make you feel like you have to buy products.

Mathea Ford: [00:26:10] It’s also really valuable which you mentioned a little bit about knowing what your personal period time is because then you can stand up and say to your doctor if they’re like “Oh you really shouldn’t be having a period of thirty five days” you can say for the last five years “my period has been every thirty five days so that’s normal.” So, then when it comes to fertility, how is that affected with your knowing kind of what your period is and when you’re ready to become pregnant?

Amanda Laird: [00:26:39] Well, the wonderful thing about her period is that it can actually never be late. Right? So, we think about oh your period is late and that’s not true because our period will always show up right on time which is about two weeks after ovulation. Right. So there can be some variation in our cycle length. So, it’s not uncommon for somebody to have a 30 day cycle, a 28 day cycle, a 32 day cycle but that’s not your period that’s moving around it’s all ovulation and that first half of our cycle leading up to ovulation which we call our follicular phase is very very sensitive to stuff like stress, illness, travel, sleep. Right? If your body doesn’t feel like you know this is a safe optimal time for ovulation it’s not going to do it. So, you might feel like you know if you feel like your period is late, I always recommend thinking back two weeks ago. Right? What was going on two weeks ago that would have made your period late and oftentimes people are like “oh that was the weekend we moved or you know that I had a huge deadline at work or I was traveling” and it’s like “right! So, there’s your answer. Your ovulation was delayed and so now your period hasn’t shown up. So, that two week window. Right? I mean certainly if we have some issue like it’s possible for that window to be shorter if there are issues around progesterone or hormonal imbalance but it will never be longer than about 14 days because we just don’t make progesterone that long unless we have been become pregnant. So, learning your cycle and then learning to identify what your signs of fertility are because that vaginal discharge that we have been taught is gross and dirty is actually liquid gold. Right? It is telling us that we are fertile right? And that we are coming into our fertile phase. And I think it comes as a shock to anybody who’s tried to get pregnant that you actually can’t get pregnant any time of day, any time of your cycle and the window for when you actually can achieve pregnancy is quite small. It’s really about five or six days around that ovulation time. So, getting to know your cervical fluid which changes throughout your menstrual cycles so sometimes it’s you know thick and creamy and it looks like hand lotion. Other times it’s stretchy and clear and it looks like egg whites. That’s when it’s very fertile. That’s the good stuff or you know sometimes it can be very watery. So, I really recommend a book to anybody who’s listening. It’s called Taking Charge of Your Fertility. It is two and a half inches thick. It is the Bible on fertility awareness. Will teach you everything you need to know about cervical mucus. So, really learning to interpret that you can also get to know your cervix. It’s actually not that far away. Just about a finger’s length. Getting to know your cervix where it is because it moves around in our vaginal canal. So, when we’re closer to when we’re closer to ovulation it’s up high in the vaginal canal and it’s open and it’s soft like feels kind of like the inside of your cheek. Right? And when we’re not around in that fertile window it’s much lower in the vaginal canal and it’s harder and feels more like the tip of your nose. And it’s also very tightly closed. So, nothing is going to pass through it. Right? And so getting to know your cervix and then you can also take a daily basal body temperature reading which can help you identify where you are in your cycle and while ovulation can only be confirmed by ultrasound it’s the only way to know for sure that you have ovulated. When we do ovulate we can oftentimes see a slight shift in temperature. And so we’re tracking our temperature every day. We’re tracking our signs of fertility like the cervical mucus and positioning. Then we can also take our temperature and maybe see when we may have ovulated. That can happen on day 7, it can happen on day 21. You know I have polycystic ovarian syndrome which means that my cycles are long and they are irregular. However, I was still able to get to know my body do some things like eating well, taking supplements, working with a natural path, take herbs and homeopathic medicine to help promote ovulation. And I was able to achieve pregnancy when I wanted to even though my cycles were forty five days long because I knew when I was ovulating right? I mean so I knew when the optimal time for conceiving was and I was able to achieve pregnancy. Meanwhile, my doctor took one look at me said “you have PCOS, you have irregular cycles I think before you even try conceiving let’s sign you up for the fertility clinic.” I think when you know yourself it can be easier. That’s not to say that simply tracking your cycle is going to solve every fertility issue. But you know if you feel like ovulation is day 14. I had this conversation with a client. She was really struggling with conceiving and she was having sex on day 14 because that’s what she had learned is that you ovulate on day 14. Her cycle was 22 days. So, day 14 that window is closed my friend right? It is you know she was obviously having day seven or day eight. That’s the reason why she wasn’t conceiving because she simply wasn’t having sex on the right day. Right? Sometimes it is some like oftentimes it’s more complex but sometimes timing intercourse is it’s really that simple.

Mathea Ford: [00:33:06] Okay. So, thinking about everything we’ve talked about related to this topic how can the information be used by the listeners in their day to day life?

Amanda Laird: [00:33:15] I love this concept of body literacy which was a term that was coined by a woman named Laura Weschler. And she’s a sexual and reproductive health educator and advocate. And what body literacy means is that you are able to read and interpret the signs and signals that your body is giving you. Understanding the cervical mucus, understanding the shifts in your hormones and just getting to know your menstrual cycle and getting to know how different phases of your menstrual cycle might make you feel different ways. Right. You know we live in this society that really values sameness. Right. And feeling the same every single day. And we’re supposed to be bright and cheery and ready to go to work every single day when in reality especially for female bodies. Right. That’s not always the case because as I said earlier when we’re menstruating our energy levels might be lower. We might be a little bit more fatigued. And then after a period is done we reach that window which I always like to call the beyond say phase and our estrogen is rising. And studies have shown that in that phase we tend to be chatty or we tend to be more ambitious. We tend to be more willing to take risks. We want to be out in the world experiencing life. Right. And then after we obviously those energy levels tend to drop down a little bit more we might want to stay closer to home. We will be craving higher calorie higher fat foods right because our body is smart. If we ovulate and we did happen to conceive. Right? Your body is going into that safe protective mode right? You’re craving that higher calorie higher fat foods because if you are pregnant you need to sustain yourself and a pregnant right. So if you feel like you can’t stop eating you know butter or avocados or you know these fatty foods in the second half of your cycle.

Amanda Laird: [00:33:15] I love this concept of body literacy which was a term that was coined by a woman named Laura Weschler. And she’s a sexual and reproductive health educator and advocate. And what body literacy means is that you are able to read and interpret the signs and signals that your body is giving you. Understanding the cervical mucus, understanding the shifts in your hormones and just getting to know your menstrual cycle and getting to know how different phases of your menstrual cycle might make you feel different ways. Right. You know we live in this society that really values sameness. Right. And feeling the same every single day. And we’re supposed to be bright and cheery and ready to go to work every single day when in reality especially for female bodies. Right. That’s not always the case because as I said earlier when we’re menstruating our energy levels might be lower. We might be a little bit more fatigued. And then after a period is done we reach that window which I always like to call the beyond say phase and our estrogen is rising. And studies have shown that in that phase we tend to be chatty or we tend to be more ambitious. We tend to be more willing to take risks. We want to be out in the world experiencing life. Right. And then after we obviously those energy levels tend to drop down a little bit more we might want to stay closer to home. We will be craving higher calorie higher fat foods right because our body is smart. If we ovulate and we did happen to conceive. Right? Your body is going into that safe protective mode right? You’re craving that higher calorie, higher fat foods because if you are pregnant you need to sustain yourself and the pregnancy right? So, if you feel like you can’t stop eating you know butter or avocados or you know these fatty foods in the second half of your cycle. It’s not that you’re weak and you have no willpower it’s your body is trying to protect you. And doing the best thing. So, if we can start to understand how our hormones affect our day to day in life and we start to understand that we do live in a cycling body and so we’re going to go through periods where we feel more energetic, periods when we feel less energetic. Get to know that and start to cultivate compassion and kindness and self-care routines that are going to help us. You know I think we’ll just be happier, healthier individuals as a whole. Because then you know like “I’m going to be in my PMS window, going to be getting closer to my period. Generally I find them a little bit lower energy. I turn inward feel a little more introverted during that time.” That’s not the weekend to plan your best friend’s bachelorette. Right? Wait for that Beyoncé Phase right? Wait for that Beyoncé Phase and you’ll have a much better time right? You’re not canceling plans all the time.

Mathea Ford: [00:36:45] I always ask my guests what is your favorite food? Since we usually talk a lot about food. So, what’s your favorite food Amanda?

Amanda Laird: [00:36:54] This is so cliché for somebody who talks about periods as much as I do but I really love chocolate. I would eat chocolate more if I could. If it wouldn’t make me feel sick I would eat chocolate seven times a day. I love it. I love it. Yes.

Mathea Ford: [00:37:13] Any particular chocolate?

Amanda Laird: [00:37:14] You know as a nutritionist I’m supposed to like you know high quality dark chocolate. But just I want a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk bar. That’s my favorite.

Mathea Ford: [00:37:26] I can’t say I blame you. Those are pretty good. Yeah. All right well, Amanda thank you so much for being on the podcast today. It was a pleasure to have you on the show. I know my listeners learned a lot about menstrual cycles and just kind of the messages we as women tell to ourselves and hear in the media. So, if listeners want to contact you or connect with you what’s the best way to do that?

Amanda Laird: [00:37:52] Yes, please. They can go to my website which is AmandaLaird.ca. So that’s Amanda Laird from Canada. Keep that in your mind because it’s .ca. and I’m also on Instagram @AmandaLaird and my book Heavy Flow: Breaking The Curse of Menstruation is available wherever books are sold.

Mathea Ford: [00:38:14] Great! Well, guys this has been another great episode of the Nutrition Experts Podcast. The podcast is all about learning more so you could do more with nutrition in your life.

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