Womanhood comes with many rites of passage and periods are of course one of our favorites! If you ask any woman today if she remembers the first time she started menstruating, she can probably recall the moment in detail. It was a turning point in her life, where she went from being a girl to a woman in an instant, and stepped into a world full of tampons, pads, and panty liners not to mention yo-yo hormones.
All women are affected differently by their periods. Some women experience little to no symptoms, some become a little irritable, and others double up in pain and can suffer from bad headaches, depression, and anxiety. Most of these symptoms occur during the “pre-menstrual” stage, about a week or two before bleeding commences; once the bleeding starts, the majority of them go away.
PMS, known as “pre-menstrual syndrome,” is the term that describes these symptoms that women face leading up to their periods. However contrary to popular belief, not all females suffer from PMS, as only about 4 in 10 women are affected by it.
Whether or not PMS makes you “see red,” periods can still be a stressful time, so we here at Maxim Hygiene wanted to compile together a list of our top five favorite things to do the week before your period to help with the other word that starts with a “p” and is often related to periods – pain! Our goal is to keep you green queens feeling fierce 365 days of the year, and we think that even if you do just one of the things off the list, you will feel a lot better! Let’s kick PMS’s butt!
1. Let yourself indulge in your food cravings, within moderation
The week before your period you probably find yourself craving weird things, or you want to eat all of the junk food your tummy can possibly handle. You feel bloated already, so you reason with yourself, “What’s an extra pizza or bag of potato chips going to change?” During PMS your serotonin levels are lower, which is the chemical in your brain that makes you feel good. When these levels are lower, you often crave fatty and sugary foods because they can help you feel better, even just temporarily.
We don’t believe that you should go and pig out or eat everything you are craving, as sugary and fatty foods can make your blood levels decline and provoke mood swings and irritability, but you only live once and we think that if you’re going to indulge in junk food, you might as well do it when your body is really begging for it!
2. Bake
Keeping along the same lines as giving into your food cravings, we believe that baking is a great way to release stress and give you a nice sweet reward for all of your hard efforts. It helps your mind focus on something other than the pain you are in or the irritability/anxiousness you might be experiencing. It is always important to try to get yourself up and do an activity that will get your blood pumping. Consider baking with some girlfriends to make the experience that much more fun, however just don’t forget to bring those leftovers into school or work so that the PMS monster won’t tempt you into eating the whole batch of those cookies!
3. Eat carrots
“A carrot a day keeps the doctor away” may not be the expression we grew up learning, but it is a mantra that we believe all you Green Queens might want to consider adopting. When women are experiencing PMS, their estrogen levels are increased, which causes an imbalance of hormones and all those bad symptoms. Eating one raw carrot a day helps relieve PMS, as there is a special fiber in carrots that binds to estrogen. When the carrot passes through your digestive tract, the extra estrogen goes with it, and is eliminated when you go to the bathroom. Think of the carrot like a sponge that absorbs the estrogen you don’t need. Blogger “Weed Em & Reap” wrote an article about the benefits of eating a raw carrot everyday, which is definitely worth taking a look at.
We know that eating a carrot isn’t necessarily the most “fun” thing to do, but it helps lots of women lower their PMS symptoms, so we felt it was important to include in the list. To make the carrot eating more enjoyable, consider making carrot juice, and add any other ingredients or spices, like cumin to the mix.
4. Yoga for PMS
Yoga is a great way to calm your mind, and the week before your period exercise is of the utmost importance. We know that working out is most likely the last thing you want to do, as you might suffer from cramps or just feel a bit more lethargic than usual, which is why Yoga is a great option. It still forces your body to exert some effort, but many of the poses are gentle and are meant to be restorative, which helps relieve any tension you are feeling. It is also a wonderful way to reconnect with yourself and be in tune with your needs and wants, as your brain can tend to become a bit more easily confused and unable to process things in a logical manner during PMS.
5. Take a bath
A bath is the perfect way to unwind and escape from your stressful everyday life, and helps you relax, something you really need right before your period. Consider adding Epsom bath salts to your bath instead of bubbles, as these salts contain magnesium, which is a nutrient that your body tends to lack in and crave during PMS. Fun fact: Dark chocolate contains magnesium, which is why you often crave it the week before your period!
Let us know if you have the opportunity to try out any of our tips and tricks to calm your PMS and how they worked for you. If you have any suggestions or things that you do before your period that isn’t on our list, feel free to share them with us, we always love hearing from you.