In this episode, I talk with Le’nise Brothers, a registered nutritionist, yoga instructor and founder of Eat, Love, Move. She’s an expert in women's health and well-being determined to help women fix their period pain.

Growing up in Toronto, Le’nise saw her mom continually have very heavy, very painful periods and experienced the same thing when she started menstruating. Having grown up thinking it was normal, she watched her friends having light periods with barely any pain and started to think, “Why don’t I have that?” This started her journey to figure out why she was experiencing the pain she was. After trying the pill, supplements and a number of other methods, she eventually figured out a way of eating that calmed her body down during her period. She then went back to university and trained as a registered nutritionist, specializing in women’s health and menstrual cycle hormones.

Top Takeaways

Start to honor the menstrual phases: menstruation, the follicular phase, ovulation and the luteal phase. Start tracking your menstrual cycle and learn what affects it. It can be as simple as knowing when your period starts and when it ends or you can make it as detailed as you want it to be. It's really important to know that not everyone has a 28 day menstrual cycle and that the days will change. Tune into your body and understand what impacts your cycle. For example, stress is a huge factor. We’ve been taught that a certain amount of stress is normal so when you start tracking your cycle, you need to be really honest with yourself about how much stress you are actually under.

While your diet can have a negative impact on your cycle, it’s not about restricting what you’re eating or removing foods. Le’nise works with her clients from a place of adding their diet, not taking away. Being a woman in this world, we get taught to restrict, to minimize, to try to reduce ourselves and this creates toxic patterns around so many areas of our lives, especially around food. When you start saying, “I'm going to add this”- it really changes your mindset around food.

Period pain isn’t “normal” and you don’t have to stay in that place of frustration and pain. It’s something that anyone who has a period is taught to accept as a part of life and it is common but that doesn’t make it normal. If you’re experiencing period pain, this is your chance to take ownership of tha. Turn inward and ask yourself, “What can I do about this?”