Women are often hard on themselves about PMS. Why do we do that? Why do we punish ourselves for something we can’t control, instead of preparing our minds and bodies for an event that is a prominent part of our womanhood?
We need to embrace our PMS. Does that mean we throw up our hands and say, “eff it, I’m going to eat an entire tub of ice cream and wash it down with a bottle of wine?”
Nope. Well, maybe sometimes.
But what if embracing it meant we prepared our bodies for PMS and gave it what it needs to endure it in the best way possible?
Nourishment over punishment.
I write about this topic a lot on my blog. After learning to navigate my own relationship with PMS, I can say that I have some words of advice. But first, let’s talk about what PMS is.
What is PMS?
Premenstrual syndrome happens to about 90% of all women, with symptoms varying from mild to severe. Those symptoms can be anything from light cramping to being bedridden with pain OR more emotional — anxiety, depression, irritability, etc.
If you’re anything like me, you get to experience PMS in ALL its glory. That means, come time for it, you not only experience the physical side-effects, but you also struggle with depression, anxiety, food cravings, and the list could go on.
For me, PMS has felt like a monthly curse, comparable to that of being a werewolf. I don’t feel anything like myself. It affects my parenting, my marriage, and my overall livelihood. I’ve sometimes had to cancel life if it was bad enough.
There were a few of my lady days that will forever go down in my PMS history.
One time, I shoved an entire gallon of ice cream down my gullet and followed it up with a few bags of popcorn. Let’s just say I didn’t feel so good after the fact.
Then, there’s that one time I spent an entire day on my bathroom floor, sobbing. I felt as though the world had ended, all hope was lost, and I hated myself through it all.
It’s with my extreme PMS I have searched high and low for remedies — anything to make this feeling go away. Again, it’s almost as though I wanted to “punish” it, so to speak.
I’ve taken birth control, hormonal supplements, depression medication, shady stuff I’ve seen on infomercials — I’ve literally tried EVERYTHING. And then, when I hit my thirties, it’s as though my PMS started shooting up steroids.
To say that PMS didn’t affect almost every area of my life would be a lie.
But thankfully, with age also comes wisdom.
And because I’ve tried just about everything, I now know what works and what doesn’t. Along with having SO MUCH GRACE for yourself during PMS and NOT drinking an entire bottle of wine to wash down the ice cream, here are some ways you can significantly reduce the negative symptoms of PMS through nourishment over punishment.
How to prepare your body for PMS instead of punishing it
Women sometimes talk about PMS like it has power over them because that’s exactly how it feels. But it doesn’t have to. If we prepare our bodies throughout the weeks leading up to our period, we can significantly reduce PMS’s negative symptoms.
To begin doing this, we need to change our perspective.
PMS is apart of our womanhood. Getting your period is something that has to happen, and if you think about it, it’s kind of beautiful. It reminds us that our bodies are capable of growing a human. It reminds us that expressing our emotions is good and okay. It causes us to find strength and perseverance through difficult times. Our bodies are capable of a lot more than we give them credit.
And if you want to embrace it, you need to see it as an event you can to prepare your body for — nourish it with healthy food, exercise, hydration, natural supplements, and rest.
Ultimately, we need to first change our thoughts about PMS.
It’s easy to think things like, “Great, my period is coming up. Guess I’ll have to stock up on wine and snacks, cancel all my plans, and be prepared to spend a few days in bed.”
But what if you thought to yourself, “My body is about to go through PMS, so I’m going to do everything I can to make sure it has a good chance at succeeding.”
Also, we won’t always be perfect at this, so have grace for yourself. If you need a glass or two of wine, have it. If you need a bowl of ice cream, allow yourself that. It’s not about being legalistic; it’s about giving your body what it needs and being attuned to that.
Another thing about embracing is knowing. Having knowledge about your PMS will benefit you in numerous ways. Here are some things I’ve learned about how to best help my body endure its monthly arrival of PMS.
5 Different types of PMS and how this ONE supplement called Jubilance helps will ALL of them
Did you know PMS can be sorted into five different categories?
Understanding what PMS type you have can significantly help you tackle the side-effects on a whole other level. How, you might ask?
If you figure out the root cause of your symptoms, the better you can find remedies to help ease PMS’s side-effects.
One of those remedies that help with all of these types is called Jubilance. Check out what they have to say about how PMS is not necessarily a hormonal issue.
“Scientific studies show that, during PMS, women with severe PMS mood symptoms send much larger amounts of glucose to a specific area of the brain, the cerebellum.
If there is not enough glucose (energy), the cerebellum can’t properly perform important functions like mood regulation, managing fear, pleasure responses and motor control. This leads to the four core mood symptoms of PMS: anxiety, gloominess, stress, and irritability. You may have experienced these same mood alterations outside of PMS when you are hungry.”
Now let’s go through the different PMS types, and see how Jubilance could help with each of them.
How do you stop PMS symptoms naturally by understanding your PMS type?
In order to best figure out what PMS type you have, you can start a daily journal, documenting how you feel and at what point, what you eat or drink that makes you feel a certain way, and what has helped. I found this to be extremely helpful to know what to do ahead of time.
For example. The day before I start my period, I make sure to take it easy and not schedule anything too stressful. In my journal, I can see that I documented how I had hardly any energy, needed rest, and was extremely thirsty.
I also know from my journal that if I drink too much alcohol or have too much caffeine, my periods tend to be worse, so I cut back significantly on those days.
Here are the 5 PMS types, and what you can do to nourish your body as it undergoes PMS.
PMS-A (anxiety)
Affecting nearly 70% of all women, PMS-A is the most common type. Its characteristics include anxiety, irritability, and emotional instability. So what could help with PMS-A sufferers?
Along with making good sleep your number one priority, here are a few things you can do to help ease your anxiety during PMS.
- Take Jubilance once per day
- Limit caffeine and alcohol
- Learn how to say no and not overload yourself
- Have grace for yourself – your body is physically going through something
- Take a high-quality CBD oil
- Do this “five senses” practice
- Drink TONS of water
- Take a daily Magnesium Supplement
- Do yoga or an exercise of your choice daily (cardio helps with anxiety.)
- Drink my smoothie concoction – Vega Protein All in ONE + Coconut Water + a few ice cubes. It’s YUMMY and gives you ALL your daily supplemental needs.
- Schedule a monthly body massage around the days you struggle most
PMS-C (cravings)
It’s easy to blame our cravings on our hormones because that’s what we’ve been taught since our first period.
But if we look at the science behind our cravings, we can see that it has more to do with what our brain is telling our bodies.
Check out what Jubilance has to say about it.
“Your body is smart. Ravenous carb and fat cravings are the cerebellum yelling, “Give me more energy NOW!” This is why chocolate, chips and ice cream provide real short-term relief from PMS mood symptoms—and why adjusting hormones did not remove these cravings. But because of the way we metabolically process sugar in these high carb foods, the short-term improvements are quickly lost as we sugar crash, leaving the cerebellum with less energy (and more anxiety, gloominess, stress, and irritation) and making us feel worse than before.”
Other than taking Jubilance, here are a few other tips I’ve learned to balance cravings.
- Substitute unhealthy foods with healthier versions. For example, eat yogurt and blueberries with honey instead of ice cream. Eat dark chocolate instead of a brownie.
- Allow yourself to have the things you crave, just don’t overdo it.
- Don’t starve yourself — this might cause you to overeat when you finally give in.
- Drink coconut water to curb your sweet tooth.
- Drink my smoothie concoction – Vega Protein All in ONE + Coconut Water + a few ice cubes.
PMS-D (depression)
Did you know that crying helps with this depression? Have you ever felt relieved and better after a good cry? There’s a reason for that. Crying releases endorphins in your body, helping you cope with feelings of sadness. Check out the benefits of crying here.
So if you’re struggling with depression either during your PMS or just in general, watch a movie that will cause you to cry if PMS alone doesn’t bring it out in you!
What are some other ways to help with gloominess and depression during PMS, and how can I control my PMS mood swings?
- Take Jubilance – it is proven to help reduce gloominess by 54%
- Do something fun for yourself
- Take CBD oil
- Take vitamin D (get some sunshine!)
- Think positively and do yoga or something that relaxes you
- Get a good amount of sleep if you can
- Get out in nature, even if it’s sitting out on your porch
- Do this “five senses” practice
- Drink TONS of water
- Take a daily Magnesium Supplement
PMS-H (Bloating or Hyper-Hydration)
A vast majority of women suffer from bloating during PMS. Often, this is exacerbated when we eat things we shouldn’t, especially salty foods like chips. And that’s how Jubilance can help. By reducing your cravings, it’s easier to avoid eating things you shouldn’t that cause you to bloat! You can also eat diuretic foods like celery, parsley, and turmeric root.
I would highly recommend you get tested for food allergies and figure out what foods cause inflammation in your body. During your PMS, you can avoid those foods, which will help fight inflammation in your body.
Everybody is different, so while certain foods might be anti-inflammatory for one person, it might aggravate inflammation for another. It’s all about knowing what’s right for your body, and that’s why its’ good to get tested! Here’s a way to do it from home!
PMS-P: (Pain)â €
A lot of us experience cramping, migraines, or lower back pain when PMSing. And while Jubilance doesn’t deal directly with PMS’s pain side, it can help because it keeps those unhealthy cravings at bay that can sometimes make the pain worse by causing inflammation.
When I PMS, I always experience fewer pain-related side-effects when I take care of myself and eat a healthy diet.
If I eat healthily, I’m more likely to exercise and sleep well, which leads to overall less pain during PMS.
Along with taking Jubilance, I do some other things to help ease my PMS pain symptoms.
- Light exercise 5 days a week
- Take Magnesium – Did you know that 75% of Americans aren’t getting the recommended intake of Magnesium? That’s a LOT of people. Not to mention, when you’re PMSing, Magnesium can have monumental benefits, like helping prevent those nasty menstrual migraines some of us get. This is the one I like to take. Not only is it delicious, it includes minerals and vitamins to also fight off stress and calm you down for a good night’s sleep. I don’t know about you, but I also get to experience insomnia during my PMS, so taking this has been a great added benefit of getting my needed magnesium intake.
- omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids – Studies show that taking 1-2 grams helps with cramping and other PMS related symptoms. If you’re not a fish person, you can also get this amazing vitamin in flaxseed, nuts, and green leafy vegetables.
- Take CBD oil
- Do yoga
- Take it EASY!
Jubilance Natural Supplement to Ease PMS
As you can read, Jubilance seems like a miracle in a bottle.
And while I can only attest to it working for me, you should try it for yourself to see if it works for you!
On top of all the benefits I mentioned above, they’re the only PMS supplement that’s clinically proven, and their structure-function claim makes them unique. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed Jubilance to include the structure/function claim of “Oxaloacetate may help alleviate the mild to moderate psychological and/or behavioral symptoms associated with Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS).
Preparing your body for its monthly PMS isn’t easy and takes intentionality and a bit of forethought. But if you start taking time to care for yourself, it will not only benefit your body and mental health, it will benefit your family as well.
PMS sometimes makes common, daily life seem like a mountain to climb. But with the help of Jubilance and other healthy daily habits, you can experience PMS with more ease than ever before.
