Love Your Body Series: Do You KNOW Your Body?

by | Feb 10, 2020 | Uncategorized | 7 comments

Do You Know Your Body Well?
Orgasm Course

 It crept up on my so slowly I didn’t know it wasn’t normal.

(and this is going to get way too TMI, so I’m sorry!).

It started in my late 30s with having to use super-plus tampons. Then I had to start wearing tampons, and not just pads, to bed or else I’d leak. By age 43, I was sleeping with a towel under me.

I stopped doing errands on the first two days of my period because I couldn’t go anywhere without leaking. And if a speaking engagement happened to fall on one of those days–I was beset with a migraine the whole time.

I was exhausted. I remember coming home from speaking at a MOPS conference so completely worn out I burst into tears the next morning when it was time to go to church. I just didn’t have the energy to get dressed.

My husband marched me off to the doctor, and I found out that I was anemic–I was really low on iron. And the cause wasn’t hard to find. I was having way too heavy periods, caused by hormone fluctuations of perimenopause, and uterine fibroids. But I truly hadn’t known that anything was abnormal.

I had a minor surgery called a uterine ablation that helped, and I changed my diet to help control the hormone fluctuations, and within a few months I felt like I hadn’t in years. But I really mourned those years I had battled exhaustion and fatigue and just plain frustration and inconvenience because I didn’t know that this wasn’t just part of the aging process that I had to live with.

Disclosure: Affiliate links ahead.

That’s why I’m excited to tell you about the Ultimate Women’s Wellness Bundle that’s for sale right now–but only until midnight tonight! It’s a huge collection of online resources that can help you understand your body; feel more confident; balance your hormones (as I talked about last Wednesday); find more relaxation; and so much more.

What's in the Ultimate Women's Wellness Bundle

Check it out here!

One of those resources especially could have helped me avoid all the trouble I had–Perimenopause: The Savvy Sister’s Guide to Hormone Harmony. Author Anna Garrett explains:

Flooding or prolonged periods are both caused by an excess of estrogen that stimulates the uterine lining to grow, grow, grow. If you happen to not ovulate in a particular month, then there’s nothing to signal your body to have a period, and the lining keeps on growing. When you finally do have a period, it can be extremely heavy or clot-filled (or both) and long. Not only is this annoying, it can lead to anemia over time which can result in other health problems. Low levels of red blood cells and iron contribute to fatigue, poor memory, dizziness, paleness, and other problems because inadequate amounts of oxygen are transported to the cells. Anemia can become a vicious cycle because it also makes a woman more likely to bleed more heavily.

Anna Garrett

Perimenopause: The Savvy Sister’s Guide to Hormone Harmony, Women's Wellness Bundle

When things go wrong with our body, we assume that there’s nothing we can do about it; it’s genetic (my mom had it!); ti’s our lot in life. We’re helpless. And we feel depressed.

But what if a lot of these things can be controlled by what we do? What if the reason it’s genetic is because your mom tended to have the same habits you do and eat the same foods you do?

I didn’t realize that having to sleep on a towel and not being able to go grocery shopping on day 1 of my period was abnormal.

For many people, learning what you have and treating it. For others–reducing the impact of fatty liver disease; of exhaustion; of acne; of stringy hair; of weight gain; of mental fog and depression. Not all, of course. The body doesn’t work like that. But knowing how all of this goes together is empowering. You feel like–I don’t have to put up with this! I can do something about it!

And it starts with learning, which is why I just love these Bundles! They’re full of so many resources that you would otherwise not have heard of, and they can introduce you to ideas you’ve wanted to explore, but didn’t know where to start. Even if you use just a few of the resources, you’ll get more than your money’s worth!

Instead of being upset at your cycle every month, for instance, what if you could use the ebb and flow of your energy and hormones during your cycle to boost your productivity?

That’s what the Power up Your Period e-course will teach you.

By learning to decode your menstrual cycle, you can actually harness the power of your hormone ebbs and flows throughout your cycle.

When you work WITH your body rather than against it, your life is filled with greater predictability and ease.

Knowing what to eat, how to exercise, and what types of work projects to focus on during each phase of your cycle is KEY!

Boost your energy levels, your relationships, and your productivity, too!

Power up Your Period

Women's Wellness Bundle

I’ve talked before about how our libido changes over the course of our period, but understanding how the energy boost at ovulation can be useful for more than just sex–and how the luteal phase can be great for contemplation, planning, and relaxation helps put a better rhythm to your life. So interesting!

Intermittent Fasting

There’s a great resource in the bundle on how intermittent fasting works, and I’m very excited about it. My mother and my husband have both lost 30 pounds using intermittent fasting, and they both feel and look great!

Can I just brag on my mom for a little bit here? My mom has struggled with her weight for years, even though she eats relatively little sugar; tends to eat at home and not go out to eat very much; she’s walked and exercised regularly; and still her weight edged up. The problem was metabolism. Hers was slow like molasses.

So in the spring of 2017 she decided she’d try intermittent fasting. One day she’d eat like normal, and the next day she’d only eat 500 calories. And the weight just started to come off! Not just that–but she keeps inching downward, and she’s kept it off. And she feels so much better.

Mom in 2016, right before she moved in with us!

Mom last winter, after having lost 40 pounds.

Or here’s the contrast from the girls’ weddings! She wore the same dress (it’s awesome; it’s purple; and it’s her). Plus a handknit shawl for Katie’s winter wedding:

When we started to see how well it was working for my mom, Keith started intermittent fasting as well. Here you can see him side-by-side; in 2016 with Connor on our cruise, with the “blue steel” pose from Zoolander; and then this fall, wearing the same thing, as we got ready to welcome our grandson!

The bundle contains the book “Intermittent Fasting for Better Health: The Purposeful Nutrition Guide to Weight Loss, Balanced Blood Sugar, and More Energy”. Of course you should always check with your doctor before trying fasting, and the book talks about who fasting is NOT appropriate for, but increasingly it’s being seen to be a great tool for increasing metabolism and helping to give the liver a break and improve gut health.

The reason we don’t lose weight on traditional calorie reduction diets is that our bodies think we’re starving, so they start conserving fat and slow down the metabolism. With fasting, for one day you eat like normal so your body knows food is available, and then the next day you get very little, so it burns fat. That helps with insulin levels, hormones, and so much more (and is much more in tune with how ancestors originally ate!). And the best part about it is that it’s totally sustainable. You don’t have to cut out any particular food, but you can do it for the rest of your life.

She writes:

And this may sound a bit strange, but enjoy that feeling of hunger. In our western culture we don’t often feel hungry. It is a sign of how much abundance we really have. When we fast, it sets us up to appreciate feasting more. We in the West don’t really appreciate feasting in our times, because we do so little fasting. I am learning to enjoy that feeling of hunger, because I know I can eat when I want to, and I can eat good and healthy foods. I am so grateful for that. 

Intermittent Fasting for Better Health

Women's Wellness Bundle

But the Bundle covers so much more.

To take our “iron sharpening iron” series even further, and help learn to put it into practice, there’s even a course called “Love and Boundaries” that will help you:

  • Gain strategies for developing courage
  • Learn tools for emotional weightlifting
  • Learn where I struggle with boundaries
  • Find compassion and grace for myself and others
  • Practice identifying, understanding, and communicating emotions
  • Learn how to stop escalating and manipulating conversations
  • Learn to understand and be understood  
Love and Boundaries

Women's Wellness Bundle

And, of course, there are plenty of resources on fertility and tracking your cycle, too, including Well & Good: Supercharge Your Health for Fertility and Wellness. In that book, author Nat asks the question:

Before you eat, do you think about the nutritional value of your meal? You wouldn’t be alone if the answer was no. 

Well and Good

Women's Wellness Bundle

But does that scare you? Make you think that you have to start counting how much B12 and folic acid is in everything you eat? Really, the answer is learning what categories of food NOT to eat, and what to include more of. I’ve switched to the whole foods diet (though I do cheat), and I try to include healthy fats as much as possible, and once you get the hang of it, it isn’t that difficult. And these resources will help you! Food is not just about fun, it’s also about fuel. Here’s what Nat sets out to do:

Fertility is about a thriving reproductive system, free from hormone imbalance, menstrual issues, conditions such as PCOS, endometriosis, thyroid issues and a whole swag of other symptoms. It is about a thriving body. To help you achieve this goal, I will share with you some of my favourite hormone-boosting recipes and also assist you to come to a whole new way of understanding and fuelling your body. 

Well and Good

Women's Wellness Bundle

That helps not just your fertility, but your hormones, your well-being, your mental state, your ability to sleep, and even your libido, as we talked about last Wednesday. And the bundle has a great course for something I’m really passionate about–pelvic floor health. We’ll be talking more about that this month, and I’ve talked about the importance of pelvic floor health before when it comes to sexual pain like vaginismus. But it’s also so important post partum, when you feel like you leak every time you sneeze, and more. Your pelvic floor muscles hold everything together, and when they don’t work well, we really do suffer.

Dr. Orlena’s Pelvic Floor Solution course sends you videos for four weeks with “hypopressive” exercises (that she thoroughly explains) that are quick and that give you so much more control.

And there’s so much more! Altogether 32 eBooks, 32 eCourses & audios, 12 workbooks & printables, 2 summits & a documentary can help you achieve your wellness goals. And they retail for $4641.70, but the bundle sells for just $39.–but only until midnight tonight!

Seriously, check out everything you get right here.

I talk a lot about sex on this blog, but you can’t have great sex without taking care of your physical body.

I think there are some absolute gems in this bundle that can get you on the road to a better you–a more confident you. And a “you” who feels more at home in her skin, and more aware of what is happening in her body.

Women's Wellness Bundle

At midnight tonight, the bundle turns into a pumpkin and disappears. So jump on it now and get it before it’s gone!

Written by

Sheila Wray Gregoire

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Sheila Wray Gregoire

Author at Bare Marriage

Sheila is determined to help Christians find biblical, healthy, evidence-based help for their marriages. And in doing so, she's turning the evangelical world on its head, challenging many of the toxic teachings, especially in her newest book The Great Sex Rescue. She’s an award-winning author of 8 books and a sought-after speaker. With her humorous, no-nonsense approach, Sheila works with her husband Keith and daughter Rebecca to create podcasts and courses to help couples find true intimacy. Plus she knits. All the time. ENTJ, straight 8

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7 Comments

  1. Cara

    So tired of battling my body. PCOS at 14 led to infertility in my 20s and so on. Weight problems for years (not as bad as most PCOS women). Depression. And now all kinds of hormone mess.
    Lost 11 lbs with intermittent fasting and when I added exercise back in I gained the weight BACK. Despite still fasting.
    Leads me to believe years of stress have led to adrenal fatigue possibly. Mixed with peri menopause maybe.
    And drs just don’t care. Told a dr most of this and she only was concerned about my heavy/long periods. Wanted to give me the pill. At 44. That’s not even healthy-even if the pill was healthy!!!!
    The only relief I have found this far is some relief with a good probiotic.

    Reply
    • Elizabeth Rusaw

      Cara,
      Look into Trim Healthy Mama. It’s a beautifully simple, natural and balanced way for us women to heal our hormones and our bodies. I know multiple women your age and older who thought their case was hopeless, but found healing on THM.
      Elizabeth

      Reply
  2. Anon

    I know my body – my problem is getting my doctor to acknowledge that. Especially with any gynae issues. Because they always start off by asking how I find sex, and when I tell them I’m a virgin, they write me off as having psychological hangups about my body and tell me it’s all in the mind! I was told I was ‘abnormal’ in my mid 20s for not having ‘lots of sex’ – this was in spite of my explaining that my faith meant I was saving sex for marriage.
    I had to insist on a full exam under general anaesthetic as I knew something was wrong – went in for it with my doctor still insisting it was all in my mind. And came out from the op to be told the gynaecologist had found two separate physical issues, both of which would have caused me to experience a lot of pain…
    You’d think they’d learn, but oh no, next time I went to the doctor it was ‘how often do you have sex? Never? I think you should consider counselling…’ ARRRGGGHHHHH!

    Reply
  3. Jane Eyre

    Some thoughts:
    I’m fortunate in that my body usually works very well when I feed it healthy food and get exercise. I maintain a reasonable weight, sleep deeply, have stable moods, don’t have pain during menstruation, and had no trouble conceiving in my late 30s. This is, of course, except for sexually: intercourse is a really terrible experience.
    Exercise can help you lose weight, but it can cause you to gain weight. The latter happens when you exercise too much all at once, instead of spacing it out. It can happen when you exercise intermittently (e.g., twice a week instead of 3-5 times a week). If you have a hard workout, you should have some protein within about 20 minutes of finishing your exercise; otherwise, your body will slow down a lot.
    Do not eat carbs late at night. If you have to have dinner later in the evening (preference, schedules, etc.), focus on lean protein and veggies. Nothing, repeat nothing, causes weight to go onto the hips and thighs like carbs at night.

    Reply
  4. Jen

    I thought I was starting menopause at 45. Nope, I was pregnant. And I never suspected that – probably because the odds of getting pregnant at my age are 3%!! I did go on to lose the baby.
    It would be nice if we could have some kind of obvious warning sign that stated – Danger! Menopause Starting!!😂😂

    Reply
  5. Cynthia

    I also had no idea that my very heavy periods were abnormal until I got a Diva Cup. It literally measures your flow, and the guide with it said that around 1.5 oz per period was normal. Well, I was sometimes having that in a few hours, and having 8 oz per period. No wonder I was anemic!
    I considered ablation, but it isn’t always great for adenomyosis (uterine tissue that grows into the muscle). The Mirena IUD has been fairly effective, although I’m well into perimenopause and it isn’t totally stopping my periods anymore.

    Reply
  6. Margaret

    My uterus and I were sworn enemies from the age of 12. I suffered many years from debilitating bleeding, cramps, and anemia. I was given no sympathy by my mother or my family doctor. When I was 36, I had enough and requested a hysterectomy. The surgeon refused because he thought I’d want kids! I didn’t. Then he wanted to do an ablation. I didn’t want a useless shell of a uterus and told him so. I knew I had a bigger problem. He still refused, even though I was an RN of 14 years and knew what I was talking about. So my GP, a woman, called him and yelled at him on the phone. He called back, cowed, and said he’d do it. Turned out I had severe adenomyosis that had infiltrated the entire uterus. An ablation would have only aggravated my problem. I was also a DES baby, which may have caused it.
    I had my hysterectomy the day before my birthday as a present to myself. My ovaries were left in, making me the perfect woman.
    I am 64 and have celebrated every day since then. I found my answer, but suffered long and had to fight. My message is if you have any OB/GYN conditions, be it infertility or dysfunctional parts, advocate for yourself. Use the internet to educate yourself, bring a notebook to your appointment, and fight if necessary. If the doctor is not a good fit, dump them. I wish you health and all the good things in life!

    Reply

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