MIZ. What do you eat when you have your period and crave sweets. Lots of sweets. I cant do treat days through my whole cycle. HELP!
Ahhh, that’s me (and many of us) to the proverbial T.
I used to think it was all in my head but, the older I get, the more I realize it isnt. My body truly craves sugar during that time of the month.
My go-tos?
I’ll make ‘haystack cookies’ with fiber1 cereal, some chocolate chips, some peanut butter chips, and peanuts.
And no.
There’s no recipe here, People, as it’s usually done in a semi-panic eating as I go (I caint lie to you).
I also LOVE (brace your collective selves) making air popped popcorn, spritzing it with water, & tossing it with chocolate protein powder.
It tastes FAR better than it sounds and works, for me, as a way not to eat the Oreo cookies which are typically in the cupboard chanting MizFit! MizFit! MizFit! at the top of their tiny creamfilled center voices.
I also have been known to eat these.
Perhaps not the most clean food ever but the most sweettoothsatiating food ever for me during that time of the month.
Now what does science tell us (because I know you come here for the scientific stuff)?
We should seek out the omega 3 fatty acid rich foods when the cravings strike.
Our seratonin levels drop prior to getting our period and that’s, technically, what triggers our cravings for sweets.
The best snacks then, emailer, would be cold water fatty fish (salmon, sardines), flax seeds, walnuts, chia—things of that nature.
**crickets chirping**
Yeah, me either.
When the yen for Ben (& Jerrys) comes I dont think a slab of salmon would suffice.
I mightcould be in for sprinkling some chia on my New York Super Chunk Fudge (marianne? you too?) but that’s as far as this MizFit would be willing to go.
Miz, I’ve heard you talk about active rest and I wondered if you could define this for me. As a former overexerciser I tend to use the term active rest to pretend to myself I am taking a day off (doctor’s orders) when I am probably still doing too much. Suggestions appreciated. Thanks!
I loved this email because active rest is a concept which took me a while to wrap my training-brain around as well.
I tend toward the other end of the spectrum from our emailer and, when I was following a set program/training for competition, wanted my days of active rest to be more the latter word than the former.
By definition active rest is when we do lightlight activity (walking, slow swimming etc) in order to spark the RECOVERY process and not in an effort to calorie burn or tax our bodies in any fashion.
Ren Man and I like to liken active rest days with regards to exercise to the rest of our lives:
When we have busy busy days of working it can be hard to unwind when evening comes. It is, in a way, as if we’re attempting to go from traveling 65 MPH on the highway to slamming-on-the-brakes & veering into a rest stop.
It doesnt work for us as we both are the types who need to slowly apply the life-brakes and e-a-s-e into the scenic overlook.
The idea same applies to exercise.
It’s important to take days off from hardcore working out to prevent overtraining — but your body wont benefit from you slamming the exercisebrakes on ENTIRELY either.
That’s the reason why many experts recommend we find a reduced intensity or mild aerobic activity to do on days we’re not training.
This active rest helps our typically hard working muscles flush out toxins (muscles recover more quickly when lactate is carried away from them) and (if you’re me) also helps to keep you from growing bored with the same repeated routine.
What does active rest look like? It depends on what you like to do!
For me active rest is simply living my life (chasing the Tornado at the park, talking a walk around the neighborhood, playing with her in the pool).
For others it’s more a scheduled activity (restorative yoga, trail walking, stretching, s-l-o-w cycling etc, dancing etc).
The most important part of active rest is to focus on not WORKING your muscles (save that for training days!) but FEELING your muscles.
Spend the active rest days living in your body & listening to what it’s telling you about your workouts on the other days of the week. Too much? Too little? Only your body knows for sure.
My last tip, and one I used frequently with clients who didnt adore what they perceived as days off, is to think of active rest days as active recovery.
These are the days, emailer, when your body is recovering, repairing & healing so that it can perform better on the days you train.
That’s me, People.
Weird PMS cravings & days of restful movement.
And you? Got any craving-reducing secrets you wanna share? Recipes we need to have?
Any tips for our emailer on incorportaing active rest, err, recovery and ENJOYING it as s/he does?
Please to hit us all up in the comments.
The post PMS Cravings & Active Rest. appeared first on Carla Birnberg.
