It's Time for the Internet to Talk About My Period Again

Dude, you know how I can tell my period is a scant week away?

I bounce around like I'm on club drugs and I eat like I just met a bong and don't know how to handle my shit.

Thanks to many months of eating Primal with a side of intuition, I have no other physical symptoms, and I don't crave brownies or chocolate or pretzels or any of that crap. I'm just really fucking hungry. All day long. 

Oh and I get an extra five pounds of water weight that disappears all at once on the second day of my period. 

Back to the hunger, though. I figured it for something psychological -- everybody knows PMSing Women to be Totes Craycray -- but Google turns up a lot of (poorly substantiated) claims that under the influence of progesterone your metabolism kicks into higher gear, burning as much as 300-500 extra calories a day. And your body notices a thing like that.

 

 

I can't find a nice source for the caloric amount, but it stands to reason. See that jump in the basal body temperature? Means you're running a little bit hotter. And that big bump in the purple progesterone line corresponds pretty nicely to when I start feeling like if I don't eat an gallon pot of broccoli and maybe a cow leg, I'll faint dead away, and are you going to eat that stick of butter?

I tried an experiment last month. When the hunger kicked in, I told myself I could eat as much as I wanted -- as long as it was very strictly Primal, and almost entirely protein and fat. No grain at all, no sugar, very limited amount of fruit. I gorged on macadamia nuts, coconut oil, meat, and vegetables.

I stopped feeling so hungry about a day before I started bleeding -- and by the time my period ended I was down four pounds from where I'd been before I gained the water weight. Are you totally fucking stunned? Because I was. 

I'm going to have the opportunity to try the same experiment again in oh about RIGHT NOW. I'll let you know how it goes. I still haven't gotten over the fact that I actually do crave things like kale and cashew butter and pumpkin seeds and red meat, instead of the bag of Twix I thought I needed.  

Not that I don't intend to purchase and consume an entire box of Thin Mints all by myself, of course. That's a social justice thing. You have to do right. 

 

 

Comments

[Melissa Schuppe]

I wish I could bounce around like I'm on club drugs. Damn.

[marmalade]

Huh, that's some stuff for me to think about. I have almost zero progesterone, which is why I'm infertile. Also I am the slowest person on the planet to lose weight. I've been working with a trainer and exercising about 7 hours a week, running & swimming mostly for over 6 months and I've lost less than 20lbs. I'm stronger, but not that much thinner (I'm chubby). I've noticed in running that I fail my regular 3 mile runs the week I ovulate. It took several months of beating myself up before I figured it was happening the same part of the cycle. Now I cut myself some slack, swim more, bike, yoga, whatever. The week of my period and the week after is my best running times. I crave running then, must be all the 'club drugs'

[Tine]

Here's what I want to know: How on earth did you get to the point where you crave stuff that your body actually needs? Spill it, lady.

[Jo]

marmalade, that is INTERESTING!

Tine, the short answer is that I ate some version of low-carb or primal a lot of the time over the past eight or nine years, and finally got a lot better about it last spring. That and the intuitive eating thing together. I think it only really works if you do a long-lasting full sugar detox (or whatever the trigger foods are).

Long answer forthcoming in a big old post.

[Jill]

Can I learn about Primal somewhere without buying the book?

[Jo]

marksdailyapple.com

It's alllll in there.