Before I jump into this, I will place a warning here for any gentlemen reading. I understand the topic of “that time of the month” may make you uncomfortable. If so, do not continue to read!

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know then that I was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2018. So when I’m on here discussing my “illness”, that’s what I’m referring to. I am no expert on the subject, so if you want to learn more, click on this link here. Bottom line, this is a disease that’s affected my menstrual cycle for years. If you’re a woman reading this, then you know that that time of the month leaves you feeling a little less than beautiful and your productivity goes down. Needless to say, I feel like I lost a lot of progress that I was making with my diet and workouts from a single week of being sick.

Diet/Exercise

I tray to stay as healthy as I can during my period week, however, ladies you know that’s easier said than done. This last time around wasn’t that bad in regards to my diet. I was pretty good leading up to it, although I did notice quite a few cravings (cupcakes and Arby’s). My biggest downfall during this whole thing is that I don’t track what I’m eating. One thing that I did do this time in preparation of my sweet cravings was make some “healthy” muffins from one of Autumn Calabrese’s Fixate cookbooks. They were actually really good, so I’m glad I did that. This is something that I plan on doing for next time.

When it comes to working out during my period, I have found that I simply need to take the week off. This year, especially, I am trying to listen to my body and not push it. In the past, I would continue working out the entire week leading up to my period, but then I found it took me longer to recover and the cramping and nausea was almost uncontrollable (I’ve landed myself in the ER twice). This often leads to weeks of being unable to workout from lingering month-long pains.

Prior to this week, I was doing two Beachbody programs: 9 Week Control Freak and 30 Day Breakaway. I completely had to stop working out a week before my period as I was getting major premenstrual cramping. Even walking around at work trying to do my regular amount of physical activity was painful. That being said, I did decide to restart the 9 Week Control Freak at day 1. I’ve also decided to stop doing the 30 Day Breakaway and instead will be doing a different treadmill program (update to come). When it comes to the Beachbody program, I do plan to tailor the schedule around “that time”. For most programs, if you take too long away from the program, they recommend that you start over from day one. I’m tired of doing that, so I’m learning how to make these programs work for me. Once I get it, I’ll be sure to update on here.

My biggest takeaway from this little “learning reset” is that I’m not mad about having to start my workout program over. I don’t feel like I “fell off” my diet. 2021 is about learning what works best for me and my body without harming my health.

Thank you all so much for reading and supporting the struggle! Be sure to like or follow for more updates and until next time……