Episode 10
[00:00:00] Welcome to The Be About Being Better podcast, where we help people make evidence based sustainable. Small changes for their health that compounded the huge shifts towards a better, more vibrant life. I'm your host Abbie Stasior, a health and life coach, future registered dietician, a master's graduate from Columbia University, and a certified intuitive eating counselor.
And I believe that we can't make lasting or meaningful change single handedly. So I'm so happy that you're here so that together you can see that a diet free, sustainable lifestyle is possible, and you can leverage that to live a better life. And remember my disclaimer, This podcast is meant to give you general information.
And it's not meant to substitute or replace medical advice, a diagnosis or service treatment.[00:01:00]
Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the Be About Being Better podcast. Today we're gonna be talking all things cravings, and I know that y'all have been craving this episode and wanting to know the answer that why am I craving these things? What do I do? And so the, the episode's gonna be split into two different parts.
The first part, we're gonna be talking about general food cravings and kind of some of the science behind cravings and why we have them. And I have found that this really helps people. If you understand what's going on in your brain, and I'm obsessed with this. I was a neuroscience major. I love talking all things brain.
If you understand, that makes it a little bit easier to change your habits. and understand your food cravings and to not be so self deprecating towards ourselves. It's easier for us to give ourselves grace when we know how hard it is to break habits and where cravings come from. [00:02:00] So we'll definitely talk about that.
And then the second part of the episode, we're gonna be talking about cravings around your period. So when you're PMSing, when you're in luteal phase, and when you're on your period. So this will obviously, Super applicable to our menstruating listeners. How do you handle food cravings that are specific to your period and the cravings that come up for you?
Say a lot about. Your habits and what your body is calling for and what you need. So this'll be, and you know, definitely value packed episode with a lot of tips and tricks and, and it's talking about specific foods that you might be craving and you'll also understand how these cravings develop and what you can do to combat it.
Super excited. But before we dive into that, I have been craving watching TV lately, and this never happens to me. I especially in the last Have gotten so much into reading. I've always wanted to be a [00:03:00] reader and I feel like with book Tok, I've been going down those rabbit holes, Colleen Hoover coming up in the ranks.
I really, in this last year, have become more and more of a reader and I, I read, you know, four, five, sometimes even. Books a month. It's insane. Um, I have not read any books this month and last month I only read one. I have just been so into TV lately and I'm like, What is going on?
And I'm really combating a lot of negative self-deprecating thoughts around that. Cause I'm like, Oh, and I watch tv. Like that's lazy. And it's not lazy to watch tv. Uh, but I do get mad at myself sometimes cause I'm like, lately I've been so obsessed with watching Dance Moms. That it's impacting my sleep.
And that's, that's what really upsets me when my habits are impacting my routines because I have specifically curated my routines to make me feel like the main character for, So if I'm doing something to sabotage that, I think I'm sabotaging my [00:04:00] ability to feel like my best self every day. So that's, I'm getting frustrated with that.
So it's not that watching TV is lazy. I'm really working to combat these negative self-deprecating thoughts that I'm, that I'm having. But for, I don't know, for whatever reason, I just like, can't stop watching dance Moms like every moment, every free moment of every day. I'm just like, well, watching Dance Moms.
And, you know, part of it is I'm the type of person, there's so much that we can't control in life, but I, I, I like the dependability of knowing what's gonna happen at the end of the movie that I'm watching or the TV show that I'm watching, I, I watch the same things over and over and over again. Cause I like to know what happens in the end.
And I like that. That certainty. Dance Moms is one of those shows that hasn't been in the rotation in bit. It's like, wow, it's been a couple years since I've watched all the seasons all the way through. Time to get started again.
I'm the same way with Grey's Anatomy. I'm the same way with the Office. I'm the same way with the different movies that I watch, whether that's Legally Blonde School of Rock, [00:05:00] Burlesque, the Notebook. So it's very hard for me to, to watch new things. And it's so funny cuz I wake up in the morning before Peter, my boyfriend does, and I go to bed before he does. And when I get home from my clinical rotations. I'm diving right into work. I'm either coaching clients or I'm recording content, or I'm meeting with my team, or I'm doing homework, I'm doing other things in the evening.
So during the week, we hardly see each other because our bedtimes and wake times are off. And we're both just so busy right now kind of doing, doing separate things. So we have intentional time to hang out and have dates on the weekends, but during the week, we hardly ever see each other. Except when we're watching a show together.
I think some people that are in relationships, you know that a show can really bond you together. And some of the shows that have really bonded Peter and I together, uh, are Maid, I'm pretty sure that was on Netflix. We just watched Echoes.
Echoes was insane. If you have not watched Echoes[00:06:00] , you need to like literally stop this right now and go start echoes. It is so good. I think that that one was on Netflix too. Um, what else have we watched in the Dark? Oh, we, you know that, that's been our latest show Watching In The Dark. I think we got through season three.
I think there's a new season, season four. That just came out and we're like, Oh, we don't know if I should start it. But season one and two were so good. Loved in the dark, really great acting, and we like watching some HGTV shows. Sometimes we'll watch anything with Shaa McGee, like Dream Home Makeover.
We'll watch anything with Egypt Shirad, she has a couple shows flipping Virgins. Like we actually wanna start getting into flipping houses eventually. But here's the thing, yes, we would like to get into flipping houses as like a business opportunity, but I'm not really good at interior design. It's not my forte.
I just don't have an eye for it, and I also can't build anything. So I'm not really sure what I would offer the [00:07:00] team, because if you watch these HGTV shows, Especially if there's a couple, like Egypt, Shirad has another show, married to Real Estate, but she like does this with her husband. Her and the husband are doing like the manual labor and she's doing more of the design work too.
Egypt is just, you know, jack of all trades, like she's just crushing in everything. Like she's helping with the demo, She's. Designing the house, she just has an eye for it and she's got an eye for the business side of it. How well should we price the house? How much it need to be on the market? Like she's just overall like so amazing.
I don't understand the real estate market. I don't know how to design a house. I don't have that interior design eye, and I'm not gonna do the manual labor. So I would love the big profits that you get from flipping houses, but it's like I can't do any of the work. I'll probably just have to stick to watching the shows cuz I don't think I can ever make that my reality.
But really enjoyed that show. We've also watched the farmhouse flips. That is really good. Uh, The [00:08:00] Undoing not an HGTV show. The Undoing was one of these murder mysteries we really like. , the shorts where it's just six or eight episodes, kind of like the Queen's gambit, where it's just, yep, here's a couple episodes.
And that's the story. Kind of like in elongated movie that you could watch over a couple days. That's what we like. So that's why I'm like, uh, I really liked In the Dark, but now it's just go like Four Seasons where it's going on too long. This could have ended 25 episodes ago. So anyway, but I'm in the middle of watching Dance Moms.
Peter hates it cause he's like, I feel like I can't hang out with you cuz I don't wanna watch this show. And you have these moms that are screaming at the top of their lungs about a dance performance that does literally does not matter. They're fighting about costumes or their hair or pointed feet.
He's like, he's just so trivial and like, Like, why are you watching this?
I'm like, If this is my one vice, I was like, Pete, if this is, I, you know, I'm so high achieving, like I'm doing all the things right now. Like if this is [00:09:00] my one flaw, that, you know, I'd like to watch Dance Moms. Like, can't you just accept that, that that's just the one thing that's wrong with.
Um, anyway, obviously joking. I have many flaws. Um, but it was, it was a funny joke and he's just like, literally no. Like, you need to find a different show. So, ugh, we kind of, we ended in the dark. We're probably not gonna watch season four, and so we're looking for a new show.
So if you have shows, other than the ones that I've listed that we've already watched, Uh, definitely send me a dm. Let me know what you and your significant other are watching. Cause I feel like we need another series or something that can bring us together and I've been so addicted to watching Dance Moms.
It's unhealthy. It's literally unhealthy. And I need to take a step back. . All right, so let's get into craving. The thing that I wanna say is that cravings aren't bad. I don't want us to have a lot of self dep deprecating. I know I just said that . I know. I just said that my [00:10:00] relationship with watching dance moms is unhealthy and that I'm saying cravings aren't bad, so that might be a little confusing for them.
What I mean to say is we don't need to be so self-deprecating towards ourselves when we do have cravings because. It's information for us, it's all feedback. We can learn so much about ourselves, our bodies, our situation, our triggers, our emotions, when we have cravings, if we're in tune with them, versus just shaming ourselves for eating a cookie, you know?
So I think it's important to know what is going on in our brain. When we have cravings, and this will help to give ourselves more grace and it will help you to course correct for the future to try and work through some of your cravings or to break some of the habits that you have. And what we're gonna talk about is basic habit formation in the brain, cuz that's what a lot of general food cravings are, unless it's [00:11:00] around your period, which we will get into that cuz those are specific cravings that come up for, you know, if you're menstruating at certain times of the month, you're gonna have certain cravings for, for different reasons and we'll get into that.
But just general food cravings. These come up at different times and for different reasons and they are based on habits. So when we have a habit, There are two different parts of your brain that are working at the same time. First, you have your hin brain, your, some people call it your lizard brain.
This is your subconscious mind and here in your hi part of your brain. All of your habits are wired here and th this part of your hi brain cannot discern what is a good habit or what is a bad habit. It can't tell the difference. It just knows what you have wired and what you have programmed as a habit.
And it's important to note that [00:12:00] this part of your brain, the hi brain, is focused on survival. It wants to keep you safe. It goes back to our ancestral days, our fight or flight mode. It really wants to keep you safe, and so the habits that you have and the urges that that part of your brain is sending you, it's all for a specific purpose.
What is going to keep you safe so it doesn't know what's a good habit versus what's a bad, what's a bad. It just knows what you have wired and what you have wired is keeping you safe and keeping you alive. But we know if we have habits like smoking for example, we know that, that that's not a great habit, not good for your health, but it's what we have wired as a habit.
So smokers might feel an urge to have a cigarette or take a smoke break, and we know that that's not a good, but that part of your brain doesn't know that that's a good or bad habit. It's a different part of our brain that's able to discern what's a good habit and what's a bad. And that's our frontal cortex.
Different part of your brain. This is our judgment center. It knows [00:13:00] right from wrong. It knows what's going on. This is more of our conscious brain here. So it is able to judge and discern what is a good habit that is serving us in, getting us towards our goals, making us a better person, healthier person, and what's not.
What is really taking us away from our goals? What's detrimental to our health, what's not serving. The hard part is you have these two different parts of your brain that they struggle to speak to each other because you could be thinking, Don't eat this. Don't eat this. Don't smoke, don't smoke, don't smoke.
Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. All in your logical, logical part of the brain as much as you want, but your high brain only knows what you have wired as a habit. So when it gets some sort of trigger, whether that's an emotion, a place, even a smell, some sort of trigger, it's gonna send you that urge to follow through on that craving, follow through on that habit, regardless if it's good or.
[00:14:00] And so when that part of your, when your hi brain is sending you an urge to follow through on a habit or it, you know, gets you sensing a craving. Whenever you follow through on that and you respond to the craving, you satisfy the urge. You're telling your hed brain, Okay, I just sent them that signal. They responded to it.
They must need this to survive. So the next time that I feel triggered or I'm, I'm in this situation, or I feel this way, or I smell this thing, whatever the cue is, you know, whatever the trigger is, then I am going to send that urge. They must need this to survive. Even though we know we don't necessarily need the cookie to survive, we don't need a cigarette to survive.
Anything is unhealthy. It's not making us survive. So it's important to note that every time that you have that urge, you have a creating and you respond to it. It's strengthening the association. And for your high brain that's so focused on survival, you are telling your brain that [00:15:00] you need that to survive.
So it's gonna keep sending you that urge. on the flip side, whenever your brain sends you that urge and you ignore the craving, you don't respond to the urge, then you start to weaken the association because your brain. Says like, Oh, I sent them that urge and when they weren't responding, maybe I sent it even louder.
Cause maybe you had like raging cravings or some cravings where it's like a kind of a dull feeling. And then we have, so that's like, Oh my gosh, I just feel we're having this right now. I feel really pulled to do this thing. So sometimes these signals are really loud that, that we're feeling. So your brain's like sending it and you're not responding.
And if you don't respond, then it's like, Oh, okay. Your hi brain thinks I sent the signal, I sent the urge. They didn't respond to it, but my body's still alive, so we must not need this craving. We [00:16:00] must not need this habit anymore to survive. So it starts to weaken the association and change your brain pathways so that you don't necessarily need that anymore.
You can start to break the habit.
So I hope that this gives you some reassurance that when you have cravings for certain things, it's not always up to you. A lot of it is subconscious. It's what you have wired as a habit. Sometimes you have these things wired for years. So it's important that you give yourself grace in this process and that whenever you feel that urge,
It's important to try and weaken that association if you feel that this craving or this habit isn't serving you. But that can be really hard because the judgment part of your brain can saying, This is bad. This is, this is bad, this is bad, this is bad. But then the hed part of your brain is like, Well, I just know what's habit.
I can't discern if it's bad. These parts of your brain [00:17:00] struggle sometimes to speak to each other because your subconscious mind, what you have wired as habit will always win. So we can't logically and with the judgmental part of our. Break any habits. We need to really work hard to resist that urge to weaken the association and kind of work, you know, through back office systems, through the hide brain to break habits.
And so what I recommend for clients is a little acronym called R D D R, Cognize Delay, distract and Replace. And this can be a way to deal with cravings and also deal with habits. You want to either form or habits that you want to break. So the first thing is the first R is recognized. Whenever you feel an urge to do something, whether that's a habit or it's food craving, you want to recognize what's going on in the time that you are [00:18:00] feeling that.
Like what's going on? What time of day is it? What are you smelling? What are you seeing? Cause all of those things could be potential triggers for you. So if you are in a certain social situation, like, I don't know if y'all felt this way growing up, if you've heard people say this, I feel like I heard people say this all the time in college.
They'd be like, Oh, like whenever I drink, that's when I feel the urge to smoke. And it's. Okay. Like frat bro, just please relax. But that makes sense. They feel this urge to then go smoke because they're in a situation where they're smelling certain things. They're feeling a certain way maybe from being intoxicated, like it reminds, they have some sort of association, so it's like they don't feel that craving all the time, but when they're in this certain setting, that's when.
Feel a craving. You might feel this way around certain friends. It's like, Oh, I don't really feel the urge to eat this way, or talk this way or dress this way. But as soon as I'm around this group of friends, then I do that. So we all have different triggers and [00:19:00] different associations. So you need to start to recognize what are those associations that are surrounding the habit that you have or the craving that you have that you may wanna keep or may wanna break.
And especially when it's a food craving. and you know that this might not be serving you, and you recognize, Okay, I am getting this craving when I'm really stressed, or when I'm really anxious, or when I'm bored, or when I'm lonely, and I just feel the urge to eat everything that I have in my fridge.
That's what I would encourage you to delay a little bit and just take stock with yourself and don't jump in to eating the food or following through on whatever that habit. Until you can reassess your emotions and just say, I will let myself eat this thing. If it's a food craving, I will let myself eat whatever this is in 20 minutes.
Let me give myself some time to, you know, collect and just kind of step away. I [00:20:00] don't need to make such a gut reaction. And that can give you some time to process to see do I really want to eat this food or am I just trying to cope with an emotion? , am I trying to fill a void? It can give you some time to tease that out because there might be other things that you can do to better cope with that emotion outside of food.
So delaying can help. Also distracting yourself. Like if you're just eating cuz you're bored, maybe you just need to do something else with your hands. Maybe you need to read a book or flip through a magazine or fold some laundry, clean your house, do the dishes like may do your hair. Like maybe you just need to do something else to distract yourself.
You don't really need the food. In that time to, to cope with ever that emotion is so distracting yourself can help. So, r d d, recognize, delay, distract. The last thing is [00:21:00] replace sometimes to combat different habits that we're trying to break, or food cravings having a replace. Can be really helpful.
Some clients find this helpful, especially at night when they feel an urge to eat something, which if you feel an urge really late at night to eat a lot, that might be a sign that you're not eating enough earlier in the day. And it doesn't mean that you can't have dessert ever. You absolutely can. I have dessert most nights.
You definitely can have this guilt free, but you know, it might be feedback for yourself that if you're super ravenous at night, you might not be eating enough during, during the. But you also might recognize that if you eat really late at night, you don't get great quality and quantity sleep, and it's hard for you to wind down.
So maybe you wanna replace whatever snack you were eating in the evening with a cup of tea or something else. Um, or maybe, you know, some fruit if it, you know, was a more calorically dead snack. I don't know. Um, so you [00:22:00] have to see how you're feeling and see if a replace. Makes sense. And then it might be, well, instead of eating while I'm watching tv, just cuz I'm bored, could I replace that with cleaning my apartment or taking a bubble bath, doing a face mask, reading a book, doing something else with my hands.
If I'm feeling lonely and I feel the urge to eat, could I, could I journal? Could I call a friend? Could I go for a walk? I check in with people online. I don't know, like you have to figure out what's gonna work for you in those moments to address the emotions that you're feeling, that maybe right now you're coping through food or feel an urge to cope through food and that this is something that takes time and it takes a lot of self-awareness and it might take some guidance.
I have several clients that need to see A therapist for these certain things. because their associations and their habits are so strong and in their high brain, these habits and these coping mechanisms, these urges are just [00:23:00] wired so deep. But this is the good thing about our brain.
There's a concept called neuroplasticity that means our brains are so malleable. They can be changed. What we have wired isn't wired shut. Things can, like, connections can be weakened, other things can be strengthened. You can form new habits. It, it just takes time. It takes that recognition, it takes that self-awareness.
And it might take, you know, some professional help in some scenarios, but working with someone like me, that's an intuitive eating counselor, especially if you have a lot of food cravings and you might be coping with your emotions with food and, and not with kindness towards yourself. That could be really helpful.
And working with an intuitive eating counselor could make a really big difference for you. And if you're finding that this is the case, definitely go to the show notes. Take um, my quiz, see which one of our coaching programs could be for you.
So give yourself grace in this process and know that this can work for food cravings and also other. [00:24:00] That, that you may have is recognizing what's going on in the situation. What are the potential triggers? How am I feeling? What's the setting where I'm getting this urge, this trigger, this craving? Could I delay a little bit?
Could I distract myself with something else? Could I replace whatever I was doing with another activity or another food? Whatever it is, what can I replace it with? And it's important that you have a go-to list of things that could work for you to distract yourself or replace something with, It's important to have that go-to list on hand.
So you need to figure out what could work for you when you're not feeling that craving outside of it, so that when you need it, it's just ready to go. Cause I, you know, I feel like a lot of the advice that we give, it's like, oh, if you're creating something, just go for a walk outside or take a bubble. I was like, Well, you know, if I'm craving Girl Scout cookies, I, I don't really feel like taking a bath.
I want the Girl Scout cookies. You know, or, uh, especially when I lived in New York City, it's like, okay, if I'm [00:25:00] craving something at 11 o'clock at night in February, I'm not gonna go outside. That's not safe and not realistic. That's, I'm not gonna do that. I'm going to eat the Girl Scout cookies. So I needed to figure out, okay, when I'm craving these things at night, yes I need to address the emotion, like what's going on that's leading to this craving. But then also if I'm gonna replace, I need to find something that I would actually do. So you need to find something that you would actually do in that moment that.
Would serve you. That actually makes sense. So if it's not a bubble bath, if it's not going for a walk, what is it? Would it be journaling? Would it be doing yoga? Would it be folding laundry? Would it be calling a friend? What's realistic for you? Think about it when you're not feeling the craving so that you have that in a note on your phone when you are feeling the craving.
So it's kind of like your lifeline though. Hope you find that helpful. Now getting into period specific cravings. Our bodies are so smart. Whenever we're feeling a craving, especially around our period, whether that's lal phase [00:26:00] PMs, or oh, you're actually on your period in menstrual phase, it's for a reason.
Our bodies are so smart and we need to be in tune with what exactly we're craving so that we know how to address that deficit and how to address that craving. Cause especially during our period. Bodies are giving us certain cravings because likely there is a deficit in some way. Our body's asking for something, so we need to be attuned to that first.
If you, during PMs or on your period crave coffee, this tends to be a sign of a cortisol imbalance. Cortisol is our stress hormone, so number one, we need to address our stress . We need to de-stress. We need to relax. We need to calm ourselves down. We need to unplug. We need to take a break. You also might consider changing up your caffeine routine.
Now, if you're drinking eight cups of coffee a day, maybe we just cut that back to five. Maybe we bring that down to three. Maybe you switch from [00:27:00] a caffeinated beverage to a dec decaffeinated beverage. Maybe you switch from coffee to tea, and if you're already drinking tea, maybe it's switching to an herbal tea.
You have to find a step down that works for you in some sort of alternative, but caffeine, I mean, it wreaks havoc on our hormones, especially during this phase of our menstrual cycles. So it'll be important to address that and also not overload ourselves with so much cortisol if you tend to crave chocolate during your period.
It normally means that you have a magnesium deficiency and there's a lot of foods that have magnesium in them, so you can definitely get that through food. You don't necessarily need a supplement. Um, one of those foods is chocolate. So if you're craving chocolate during your period, it might be because of a magnesium deficiency and I would say getting some higher quality chocolate, like something a little bit more than Hershey.
Specifically dark chocolate or maybe rock cacao, [00:28:00] putting that in a smoothie or putting that on some yogurt or a little bit of ice cream. Putting that in hot cocoa or putting that in your coffee, decaf coffee if you're out. No, but actually getting some good quality chocolate that would have high amount, high amount of magnesium in it would be perfect for this.
If you tend to crave a lot of carbs or sweets during your period, which I feel like this is most people, there's several different reasons why that might be. Carbs tend to be pretty calorically dense, and when we're in luteal phase or menstrual phase, we need 250 more calories than we do during other phases.
And if you want more on this, definitely go to episode three. Of the podcast where I talk about nutrition tips for your menstrual cycle. I go into more detail on these phases, but we know we need about 200 to 250 more calories during moodal phase and menstrual phase. So if your body's like craving a lot of sugar, it's looking for more energy and might [00:29:00] not be getting enough energy with the amount that you're feeding yourself.
If you're still eating the same amount as you did at the beginning of your cycle, it also might be a sign. Vitamin B deficiency if you're craving a lot of sweets. So I would say have sweet potato, sweet potato, good carbs. It's a little sweet and it is like a vitamin B pill. It's got great, you know, great amount of vitamin B in it, and it's a complex carbs, so it will keep you fuller a little bit.
and it's got good fiber in it as well. And you also might be experiencing a lot of sugar cravings or carb cravings. And this might be you have sweets that you're craving or a pasta that you're craving when we, um, have mismanaged blood sugar. So this can happen if we're not eating regularly and we're skipping meals, or if we're not eating enough, our blood sugar dips and we need something quick.
We need quick energy to [00:30:00] bring ourselves up. So it'll be important. Eat regularly. Make sure that you're having these longer acting complex carbs like sweet potatoes, for example. Quinoa is another one. Brown rice is another one. Faro, a whole wheat toast, whole grain toast,
so it'll be important to have those things. But then also making sure that you're having balanced meals and having protein with every meal and every snack protein balances our blood sugar so well and keeps associated, keeps us full and that, you know, it gives us a solid grip on our cravings if we are.
Steady and our blood sugar is more stable. We tend to have more cravings. When our blood sugar is fluctuating a lot, it dips. So we crave something sweet and really fast, so then it shoots up, but then we crash and then it's down again, and then we need something bring us back up. So if it's fluctuating so much, it's, that's not good for our health though, for the long term.
And this can be combated by eating regularly, not skipping meals, having balanced meals. So you're having multiple food [00:31:00] groups, multiple macros for one meal, specifically protein, protein, protein for. Every meal and every snack and trying to loop in these more complex carbs. And with most of those, you're gonna be getting a lot of B vitamins, which can help you with the blood sugar realm if you're doing these things.
But then also, if it is a vitamin B deficiency that you have, it will address that as well. Next, if you tend to crave soda or carbonated beverages during your period, or when you're PMSing, it's likely due to an electrolyte balance, so you might be dehydrated. And you, you might just, you know, be off with your electrolytes.
So I would say definitely hydrate yourself and it's okay to have carbonated beverages. Maybe just stick to seltzer water so you have that carbonation, but you're still kind of hydrating yourself and making sure that you are drinking enough water. A coconut water is really great. Maybe you do need one of those, like liquid IVs or something like that.
Like I'm not sponsored by them in any way. But, um, most people don't need things like that or [00:32:00] Gatorade to replete our, you know, sugar and our electrolytes, If you like, salt your food and make sure that you're drink enough water every day, probably fine. Maybe a coconut water here and there, that might be fine.
And if it's the carbonation that you're craving, specifically having, you know, a flavored seltzer, that that could be enough for you. If you tend to crave steak or meat during your period, this is a sign of an iron deficiency and we lose a lot of iron through our blood. So when you're menstruating, when you're losing blood, you are losing iron.
So it's important to have some steak, have some meat during this time, Hey, maybe get some grass fed beef or something like that, and that could be a good alternative to get that iron in. And there's also a lot of foods that are rich in iron, leafy greens, like spinach is really rich in iron.
Um, so you could definitely lean on that. But the meats do have a higher amount of iron, which would be helpful at this time of blood loss. If you tend to crave cheese or [00:33:00] avocado or things that have a lot of fat in them, normally that means that your body is craving calories because there's more calories per serving in a fat source.
So it's going to be important that you're eating enough and eating regularly and trying to balance your blood sugar and getting in those two hundred and two, two hundred fifty more calories for these two weeks of your cycle. So make sure that you're eating enough and having balanced. And if you're craving things like fish or mushrooms, I know these might seem like kind of random things.
These are foods that our body wants for whatever reason during these phases, specifically menstrual phase. So it'll be important to listen to that. Now, fish specifically has great omega-3 fatty acid, which are anti-inflammatory antioxidants in the body. They'll help decrease bloating. Just be anti-inflammatory at the time, which is so, so important.
So definitely lean on that. Have fish, have salmon things with omega three s. Walnuts also have a lot of [00:34:00] omega three s. Chia seeds have a lot of omega three s, but if you're craving fish specifically, lean into that and maybe have some fish. I would recommend salmon and mushrooms. For whatever reason, we crave mushrooms sometimes during our period, and not, not everyone does, but there's a whole list of foods that are specific for each phase that are good to loop in.
And I talk about these in episode three, so definitely go back to that list, but also go to the show notes here. Um, and they're also in that episode as well. But are health tips for your cycle freebie, you know, download that and you could see a whole list of foods for each phase that you could loop in, and you might see those and be like, Oh my gosh, like chickpeas.
I always crave chickpeas during this time. Like, no wonder, or, Oh my goodness, it makes sense that I'm craving beets, or it makes sense that I'm craving avocado. That's what's better for me during this phase. So it can give you a lot of reassurance like, Wow, it's not bad that I'm craving these things.
I'm not out of control. It's that my body is [00:35:00] trying to tell me something and I need to respond to my body's need, so that is it for our cravings episode. If you have any questions, definitely join our Facebook group and ask your questions there. That's where I get a lot of feedback on the podcast, and we're building up this be about being better community.
So thank you for those who are already a part of that. And if you're not already, definitely join that Facebook group. Follow me on Instagram and TikTok. Abbie dot Stasior here on both of those platforms. Download the, health tips for your cycle freebie for more tips on how to optimize your menstrual cycle, and I go through the list of foods there.
And if you need any personalized support with this, head to the show notes and take our quiz to see which one of our health coaching programs could be for you. See in the next episode.
[00:36:00] Hey y'all. Thanks again for listening to the View about Being Better podcast. I so appreciate you. If this episode made you laugh, smile, think about yourself or your life differently, in any way, making your life better, I empower you to share the show with three people who just like you, need to hear this message and have this type of transformation in their lives.
I personally read all the reviews the show and see the Instagram story shares. It honestly gives me so much joy to see that our mission is making people's lives better, and the reviews really do help in increasing our impact. So thank you so much for taking the time to do that. If you need personalized support with anything discussed in today's episode or need help creating a sustainable diet free lifestyle, take my quiz.
It's linked below in the show notes, and that quiz will help you see which one of our coaching programs is right for you. Thank you so much again for listening and hears to being about being better.
