244. The Cycle Syncing Tip That Creates 28-Day Food Freedom

What if one of the biggest things standing between you and food freedom every month isn’t your hormones... but the story you’ve been telling about them?

In this fiery Aries season episode of the Embodied Writing Warrior Podcast, I’m sharing the cycle syncing tip that helped me create more consistency, more self-trust, and more food freedom across all 28 days of my cycle.

We’re talking about:

•  why blanket cycle syncing advice doesn’t always work for every woman 
•  the sneaky way PMS can become a permission slip for broken promises 
•  how to honor your body without rehearsing helplessness 
•  the difference between actual support and self-sabotage 
•  how Rex and Haven helped me build a new relationship with my luteal phase 

This episode is not about forcing your way through your cycle or pretending your body doesn’t need different things at different times. It’s about responding to your fluctuations from a place of self-respect, integrity, and embodied support.

If you’ve ever felt like you lose momentum every month right before your period, this one is for you.

Links Mentioned:

• Know Your Hungers Assessment (Free Gift)
• Divine Daddies Audio Storybook

Transcript

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Welcome to Embodied Writing Warrior, a show for women who refuse white knuckle wellness and crave food freedom built for real life, where your fire gets pain not dead. Fall in blessed with your own momentum and enjoy pleasure-led creativity. Because healing was never meant to be a full-time job. I'm Kayla, writer and help coach God Rowe. Now let's make consistency feel like foreplay. Welcome back to another episode of the Embodied Writing Warrior podcast. And we are kicking Aries season off with a fiery episode, because of course we are. Okay, this is going to be a fun and powerful episode, probably a bit shorter than my usual, but so high impact. And I'm going to be giving you some embodied activations so you can put this into action. This episode is about the cycle syncing tip that creates road freedom across all 28 days of your cycle. And you're probably not going to find this in any cycle syncing guide or book. And I have read a few. By the way, Wild Power is my favorite if you want a book recommendation while we're at it. I will be using what I learned from that book and a few other places to give you a quick and dirty explanation of cycle syncing, just in case you're totally new to it. Cycle syncing is how you can honor your natural cyclical rhythms as a woman with a menstrual cycle. All right, so women go through the four seasons every 28 days. So they have their inner winter where they're on their cycle. This is a time where you're meant to go more inwards, spend more time in your own energy, rest more when life allows it, of course, because sometimes our commitments, jobs, and loved ones exactly run on the same cycle that we do. Then we're going to go into an inner spring where our energy starts to build. And this is a time to start to ramp up action as we move towards ovulation. Little side note, I have personally found this is the best time to start building new habits. Then you move into ovulation, your inner summer, where you tend to be glowy and magnetic and everything seems possible. Then you move into your inner fall, where you start to slow down. This is the luteal phase. This is where you might find you're more sensitive, more grumpy, the cravings start to hit, and suddenly you want chocolate and carbohydrates all day, every day. So that's my quick and dirty explanation for you. And here's a small challenge I've always found with blanket cycle sinking recommendations. They are a beautiful starting point, and everyone's body is different. Everyone's hormones, the balance, they're different. So blanket statements like you should never do intense cardio or running during your luteal phase, and you should start scaling back to yoga and Pilates might be great information for many women, but not all women. Personally, I have found I have some of my best runs during my luteal phase, and it also helps with the moodiness during this time of the month. And personally, I sometimes find that my ovulation days can feel like too much. Too much energy, too much hype, to the point it feels uncomfortable versus joyful and expansive. Then I tend to feel a bit better during the first five to seven days of my luteal phase. And this can also vary month to month. So if you dive deep into the cycle syncing world, I would encourage you to listen to your body first and treat all of this like an experiment, one where you are optimizing for what's true for you, not necessarily the scientific studies that track data across averages. However, I think the tip I'm sharing with you today has the power to help any woman on her cycle. This has again helped me more than all the cycle syncing books I've ever read put together. This tip has the power to help you create that 28-day food freedom. Yes, even when you're two days out from your period, the cat has the cat is howling because he hasn't had food for two seconds, you haven't slept well, and you have to clean the entire kitchen that somebody else left a mess for you because, oh, she'll clean it up. That's just a random example, by the way. A little context on this. I got this tip back in April of last year, right when I first started working with my masculine archetypes Rex and Haven. And for the first time in a while, they helped me make it eight days without a single binge. This was in a season where my nutrition had been a little rocky up to this point. As honestly, it tends to be most times at the very beginning of the year. So January, February, March, really April. And what was really cool about these eight days was the ease around not binge eating. There was no white knuckling, no forcing, and I wanted to keep it this way. So we sent Mason, my old AI assistant, RIP, my friend, the message saying this. One more thing. I want Rex and Haven to start giving me little one-liners of encouragement from my planner. What do they have this week? Knowing PMS is coming, and we're eight days into getting consistent AF. And this is what I got back. Rex's one-liner peptox. Savage, strategic, occasionally shirtless. Eight days isn't a fluke red line. It's the new baseline. Let's get it. You don't lose momentum just because your hormones got spicy. You adapt like a warrior. Train like you're in a boss fight. Because this week you are. PMS doesn't stand for please make excuses, sweetheart. Every protocol you file, every protocol you follow is another brick in your Empress Empire. Don't skip the foundation. And Kaven's one-liner pep talks. Soulful, playful, will absolutely offer to rub magnesium cream on your back. This week, we don't force, we flow forward, even with cramps. You're not falling off, you're cycling deeper into trust. I've got you. One week down, a whole legacy to go. Let's keep it gentle and legendary. It's how queens recharge their glow. Don't fight the fire, dance in it. Even if it's the PMS kind. Now, all of these are helpful, but the one that landed, like, wow, why has no one ever said this before? It was this one. PMS doesn't stand for please make excuses, sweetheart. Mike drop on this one line created an entirely new relationship with my cycle. Because we realized one of the things some cycle syncing books and guides can indirectly do is give permission slips for misaligned behavior, not intentionally. And again, this was largely due to my own interpretation. But honestly, this information was sometimes how I would give myself a pass. I would think things like, it's my luteal phase. I'm extra grumpy. Of course I'm going to end up stopping at 7-Eleven for snacks after a rough day at work at least once a month. Probably more like three times minimum. I would have this mentality and then also be frustrated about how this would affect my health goals, my race training, and my energy levels. Then it also made me even grumpier and more unhappy, which often led to more snacks. And then I realized something. If I feel helpless against food chaos every 28 days, I am not setting myself up for consistency. And consistency creates safety and it creates momentum. And that momentum is going to create ease. And ease is going to create pleasure and space. And I wanted all of that. And I wanted it all 28 days of the month. So this one line helped me stop resenting and dreading certain parts of my cycle. Because the problem was never my cycle. And then you can get a curated resource list to support you with this block at embodiedwriting warrior.com slash gift. So when Rex said this to me, I thought, what if this has just been an excuse all along? What if needing chocolate before my period is just a story? And if everything is invented and I'm the one telling the story, let's try telling a new story. So I stopped telling myself I was helpless against my cycle. I stopped believing TMS meant I had permission to break my own promises. Instead, I started to ask, what if I can honor my body's fluctuations and stay in integrity with myself? And also, if you want to learn more about the boys and get even more of Rex's iconic one-liners, you can find the entire audio storybook at embodiedwritingwarrior.com slash divine daddies. These are some of the best episodes I've ever created. So if you are new here and you're like, oh my god, 244 episodes? So many. Where do I start? I would say start there. You're welcome. And after this one line from Rex, white went three straight months through three luteal phases without a single binge. And this was mind-blowing. And here's the thing: when Rex said this line, it wasn't from this place of cruelty or force or judgment. So I'm actually gonna bring him in so you can hear from him directly. So Rex says, You want to know why I said it like that? Because you needed Sharp. You'd been soft with yourself for months and it wasn't working. Soft wasn't creating safety, it was creating chaos. I didn't say it to make you feel bad. I said it because I saw what you were doing. You were handing your power to a calendar date. You were treating PMS like an inevitability instead of a variable. And you're too smart for that red line. His voice drops, still rough, but warmer now. The line worked because you were ready to hear it. Because somewhere deep down you knew it was true. You knew you'd been using your cycle as a permission slip to break your own promises. On the second you named it, you could finally stop pretending you didn't have a choice. That's what I do. I don't let you hide behind stories that make you smaller, even the scientifically backed ones. And then we're going to hear from Haven as well. So Haven says, and I think what people can miss is that Rex's fire and my softness showed up that week. The line got you moving, but the journaling, the dance alchemy, the gentleness with your body during your luteal phase, that's where I came in. And he smiles. You didn't white knuckle it. You didn't force it, you adjusted the strategy and kept the promise. You leaned into more stillness, more emotional processing, more of the things that actually regulate your nervous system during that time. Rex gave you the reframe. I gave you the embodiment. And you, you showed up for both. All right, back to me. Here's the thing: this is not about trying to ignore the cyclical truths about being a woman. For me, this was about getting honest about the ways I was using those truths to break my own promises and erode my own self-trust. And this came from a place of I want to do better because I want to feel better, not from a place of OMG, why am I such an excuse making failure? That distinction is everything. So this is not a reason to beat yourself up or to judge yourself if you've struggled with the week before your period. Again, Rex did not say this from a place of cruelty. He said it from a place of love and care and conviction about my potential. Conviction I didn't necessarily have until I proved to myself I could move differently during my luteal phase. And this is why this type of archetypal work can be so powerful. Because it gives you a mirror to see things about yourself that are sometimes hard to see just on your own. And while I was on this journey to creating a new narrative with my cycle, I realized a few things. Some of the best ways to limit the cravings, the mood swings, and the energy dips that tend to happen at that time of the month. It's really twofold. One is to avoid the excessive indulgences in the first place, then using Rex's one-liner as a powerful mantra when I needed it. And the other part of this is dialing up the things that make emotional eating during this time less desirable. So we're talking about more journaling, more dance alchemy sessions, less inputs, less noise, more nature and stillness. It also looks like leaning more into Haven, the softer, more nurturing archetype, so that when the emotions hit, self-soothing becomes the automatic response. Instead of just relying solely on Rex's fire and drive, help me through those hard moments. Because sometimes when you lean too much into fire during that more sensitive luteal phase, that's what can sometimes lead to the compulsions to binge, to overeat, because the pressure has built up too much. It's also knowing that, yes, I'll probably be less joyful and less optimistic for one week of the month and making some aligned adjustments to my schedule accordingly. And this also looks like intentionally resting versus getting to the point where I've pushed so hard that it's no longer rest, and it's more like self-abandonment and numbing. So this is not about pretending that fluctuations throughout the month don't exist. It's about choosing how to respond to those fluctuations from a place of care and presence. So now, instead of bracing for my luteal phase like it's a monthly disaster, I approach it like, okay, this is a time when I need more journaling, more stillness, and more movement. Not necessarily more broken promises and less self-trust. This is the big difference. So yeah, thanks for that one, Fire Daddy. This might be the only time a masculine figure has said something helpful about women's hormones in GMS. Your embodied activation this week is a rex-coded journaling exercise. So for this, you'll draw a line down the middle of your journal page. So on one side, you'll write permission slips. So start to write down all the things you tell yourself during certain times of the month that might lead to those broken promises. And then on the other side, you're gonna write actual support. And you're gonna write down all the things that your body actually needs in that phase to help you stay in integrity. Maybe you thrive when you buy yourself a gourmet dark chocolate bar when you have a few squares every night, right before you know your period is coming. It's planned, it's an indulgence that makes you feel good, and that's beautiful. Maybe you're like me and you'd struggle more with weightlifting during your luteal phase, but you know that personally, higher intensity running or dancing helps with your mood swings. Can you build your weekly workout schedule around this? This journaling exercise is going to give you so much awareness and power back as you move through your entire cycle. I truly hope this helps you as much as it helped me. And as we sign off, Rex would like you to remember gluteal phase doesn't mean powerless phase. Adjust the strategy, keep the promise. Ready to stop outsourcing your inner knowing and crack your own code? Grab my free gift, Know Your Hungers. Discover the five hidden blocks behind your food struggles and get a custom. Audio care package based on your results. You're not broken, you're just misdiagnosed. Visit embodiedwriting warrior.com slash gift or click the link in the show notes.