Podclass Show Notes and Links
Summary:
Episode 5 gets specific on the second phase of the cycle, the Rise Phase. This is one of our favorite phases! This phase happens from days 8-14 (for a 28 day cycle) and is characterized by a powerful surge in hormone creation. With the insight gained from the introspective Release phase, this is the phase to get things done and be a boss babe!
But it’s not about getting more done on a never-ending to do list. We want to get very specific with our goals for the cycle so that we can be most effective with the least amount of stress. Whether that’s doing an elimination diet, starting a new exercise regimen, or promising yourself that you’ll get to bed earlier each night, this is the time to build up new habits in a way that is sustainable and effective.
The Rise Phase is similar to the first phase (Release) in that the emphasis on the inflammatory system–and all of the systems that work with it–is highlighted. A dysfunctional inflammatory system of any cause will hinder good hormone production and often leads to problems with ovulation. By supporting these actions to happen healthfully, it sets up a healthy rest of the cycle.
Important Links:
Zestyginger.com to learn more about the 4 Phase Cycle Approach.
Zestyginger.com/cycle to get our FREE Wild Feminine Cycle Guide to get started with everything you need to know about living in sync with your cycles.
Zestyginger.com/healthyhormones to join our 3 month Healthy Hormones Group Program. This program includes functional lab work with a complete hormone and neurotransmitter panel, with a personalized protocol created for each participant based on their results.
Follow us on Instagram: zesty_ginger
Season 1 Episode 5 Podcast Notes:
Rise Phase is our favorite phase! These are Days 8-14 of your cycle (or Day 8 to the time of ovulation) If you don’t have a reliable cycle to track, use the cycle of the moon from the Quarter Moon to the Full Moon (7 days later)
The rise phase ends when you reach ovulation.
This is the most powerful and extroverted time in your cycle, when we come forth as the powerful female figures of the world.
When we have taken the time to do the planning that happens in the release phase, the rise phase is incredibly productive!
This is the week to move, create, build and command All that introspection and downtime you took last phase? It’s time to put it to good use!
Take concrete and powerful steps toward the goals that you identified in the Release (1st) phase to make them a reality
This is akin to what is happening in the ovaries as one egg takes over control of communicating with the hypothalamus and pituitary and begins to ramp up the products of hormones that will dictate the rest of your cycle. By the time you hit the rise phase there is going to be one dominant follicle. That one is going to release the signaling hormones that it is time to ovulate. This is the ongoing communication.
When the body is really stressed out, undernourished or under attack your body will read the conditions and decide now is not the time to release an egg!
Ovaries take turns to make the dominant follicle, but they do not always rotate between right and left each month. This can be really helpful to track so that you can understand why one side may be more problematic. Left and right ovaries can have different levels of function. For example, Alex has had a lot of damage to her right ovary, so doesn’t usually ovulate as much on that side.
Follice and egg will develop. Once the signal comes out of the pituitary
(7:30)
The LH strips are not a direct test for ovulation, the strips will tell you if your body gave the signal to ovulate, but you don’t know for sure if you actually ovulated.
Transcript for This Podcast
Hi there. Alex here. Thank you so much for joining me again. This is class 5. I can’t believe it. We are just coming on through and learning all sorts of stuff. Hopefully you guys are finding this really really really helpful.
Ok, so today we are going to talk about the Rise Phase, which I know I’m a little bit biased. But honestly I love this phase. I love when I’m in it because I feel like I’ve really taken the time to do the planning that happens in the Release Phase, then the Rise phase, not only do I feel good physically because, you know, the bodies kind of making you feel that way, but it’s also really great mentally because with the plan I just get out of the gate and I get so much stuff done, that then I really can relax when the time comes back around. And it ends up working really well for me, because I just don’t run myself into the ground like I used to. And so this ends up being really fun instead of just another week where I’m trying to do a million things. You know? And so yep. That’s it. You’ll hear, I’m going to be excited about this.
Again I’m going to do a quick overview. So there are 4 phases in the female menstrual cycle. We talked about the Release Phase, which is phase 1, last week and that is all about letting go of what no longer serves us and beginning to listen to our internal voice of where we are going next. It’s also a time for that the body physiologically sets up the entire cycle and begins to recruit all the eggs that will begin to develop for this cycle. So our ovaries are recruiting about 8-10, maybe up to 12 every cycle, to get this process going. That was the Release Phase. The second phase is the Rise Phase, which we are going to talk about today. Third phase is the Plateau. And then the fourth phase is Pause. And then that whole thing repeats over and over and over again.
We are now on the Rise Phase. And again we are going to talk, in this particular class, about what’s happening inside the body and what we need to focus on. But then again, once we’re done talking about the phases in detail and what’s happen, then we’re also going to circle back around and talk again about what all the different movement goals, rituals, and mental aspects that go into this. And so that will all be coming up. So get excited.
Alight, so the Rise phase is the second phase. And on an average 28 day cycle, it’s going to be day 7-14. And if you don’t have a cycle, then that’s going to be from the quarter moon to the full moon. The Rise Phase ends when you reach ovulation if you do ovulate. So however long that is for you, that’s how long that’s going to be. And this Rise Phase is by far the most powerful, extroverted, decisive time that you’re going to have. So it’s really great to get in that mindset where you’re like, “Alright! This is my time. I’m going to just make things happen.” And the reason you can do that is because you’ve gotten really clear about where it is that you want to go in the previous Release Phase. Okay? This is the time you’re going to move, you’re going to create, you’re going to build. And you’re going to command the respect and the reverence that you deserve. And that is a really really really good feeling. And I think is what we are ultimately going for for feminine equality. Right? We just want to have our voices be equally heard. And everyone deserves that right to have. So, this is our time. And that really is a little bit akin to what’s happening in the ovaries for us physiologically at this time.
As we talked about in the Release Phase, there starts to be the development of different eggs inside the ovaries early on in the cycle. By the time you hit the Rise Phase, there’s going to be one that is going to become the dominant follicle. And that one is going to release signaling hormones back to the pituitary and hypothalamus to say it’s time to ovulate. There’s this ongoing communication. Because yes, we always hear hypothalamus and pituitary tell the ovaries when to ovulate, but there’s also a message that goes back from the ovaries. And that’s kinda what happens when the body says, “you know what? We are really stressed out right now. We’re really undernourished. We’re really not feeling our body well. And we really haven’t been sleeping. And because we are under attack, now’s not the time to do any of this.” And so that’s why, obviously, when you talk about hormone balancing, every single program that you see is going to be talking about how you sleep, how you eat, how you all of those basic life things, because that’s how your body is going to read the circumstances that your in, the conditions that are present, and it’s going to make decisions on what happens. And so that conversation is starting between the dominant follicle and then your brain, what’s going on at the hypothalamus and pituitary. Now your ovaries, generally speaking, take turns making the dominant follicle. So you could have right, left, right, right, left, right, left, left. Like it doesn’t have to be one to one necessarily. And that’s why a lot of women, it actually a source of frustration. Cause they will be going along, they were having spotting. They make a change and the spotting goes away and their like, “great! That’s fantastic!” And then whaddya know, two months later you’re back to spotting again. And what that usually represents is that your left and right ovaries, just like your left and right kidneys or your feet, can have different levels of function. If you hurt your foot, you’re going to limp. Right? And it’s going to be that. So for me, for example, I’ve had a lot of damage to my right ovary. I don’t generally ovulate very much from that ovary. So sometimes when it’s that month, and I’m a little bit, you know, my reserves are down, I will sort of backslide into things like spotting, because my right ovary just doesn’t have the same amount of function left that my left one does. And that’s a bit unfortunate, but that just how it is. And that’s the power of understanding your body. It’s not like, “oh I made a change,” like I took out dairy and gluten, and all of a sudden I’m like, “oh this just isn’t working. I’m spotting again.” It has nothing to do with the food, necessarily. It has to do with the function of the ovary. So when you understand that, it actually makes your life a lot less frustrating. And so that dominant follicle, they will take turns making. And they don’t necessarily have to be one to one. So don’t be surprised if you have three months in a row that look like one cycle, and then all of a sudden, two months in a row, that look like you have a little different of a cycle. That is really helpful to understand. But that follicle and that egg will develop, and then once the signal comes out of the pituitary from the LH and FSH. That’s the ovulation test strips. You’re just looking for that LH surge, that’s why it’s not a direct measure of ovulation. It only tells you, those strips will only tell you if your ovaries are getting the signal to ovulate. But obviously, you don’t know by that if you actually ovulated. It ends up being a little bit tricky. The more closer way to know if you actually ovulated is not only testing for that signal, but also going to look on ultrasound before the signal and after the signal and seeing if that follicle ruptured. It’s still not 100% though, because that follicle could rupture and the egg could be not mature, or that follicle was empty and it just looks like it released an egg. But it’s a pretty darn close approximation when you look at everything. And so if you are really having questions, going to work with a reproductive endocrinologist that is familiar with doing these kind of things can be really helpful. But I just want you to understand what we are testing and what that is actually is looking at. So if you have been doing the LH strips, that surge from the pituitary is what you’re looking for. And then the, for the most part in most normal women, that LH surge will lead to ovulation. Sometimes people will have a LH surge that’s a little bit meh. Like you can kind of detect it on the strips. You’ll see there’s a little line, but it very faint. And it’s just not enough of a signal that the ovaries get that signal to release the dominant egg. And that can be a cause of anovulation and spotting in your cycle and all of that stuff. It gets – obviously when there are changes it can be a little bit complex. But hopefully that’s just enough information to have you understand what we’re going for here and what we expect to happen and why that explains what is happening.
Because this time is so resource intensive – you are just doing, in your body, just so much stuff. Like if you just think about what I explained, it’s mind boggling that we actually can do all of this. So it’s very very resource intensive. And so that’s why a big thing in the Rise Phase is going to be nutrients, nutrients, nutrients, and more nutrients. Like if you can do one thing about the Rise Phase to make it more successful, is try to eat the most varied, nutrient dense diet you can possible have. Because then you are giving your body the tools that your body needs to carry out all of these processes.
And then other points for inflammation we’ll also talk about. And so while inflammation isn’t as obvious as the Release, kinda like having your period IS that controlled inflammatory response, the Rise Phase is still heavily impacted by inflammation. All of those signals that we talked about that your body gets that explains to it whether now is a great time to have a baby or not, interfaces very closely with the inflammatory cascade. And so that’s kind of, it’s like having the cops out on the streets looking for stuff, and then they come back and tell the ovaries, “hey, you know what? Now’s not a great time. It’s really not looking that good out there.” Or, “yeah it’s great! You should see everyone’s just chillin’ and they go do a job and everything’s great, let’s do this. This is the time.” That inflammation is going to be characteristic of this phase. So this focus.
And so the Rise Phase, let’s talk a little bit of homework now that we are actually getting into it.
The green juice – sorry I had to stop for a second because I thought I wasn’t recording and I was like, “no! This is going to be the worst!” But we’re good. Alright, so homework for the Rise Phase. We are going to have you fill yourself with some green juice. So if there’s nothing else you do besides focusing on nutrient density, get yourself some green juice. Either make it, or do the make it at home – now it’s summer when I’m recording this so everything is growing in my garden and stuff – but wherever you get it, from farmers market, or you grow it, or you just get it at the store, whatever. Get yourself some green juice and try to get as much variety as you possibly can.
Let’s come back to a couple things about the Rise, and then we’ll finish up on the homework. This homework I’m kinda mixing it throughout this class, because it’s related to what I’m talking about. I’ll recap so don’t worry about following along there.
The Rise Phase. So if the Release Phase was all about releasing what no longer serves us and picking up conscious goals that we want to do, the Rise Phase with all of that build up in hormones, the action in your ovaries, the action in pituitary, the adrenals, and all of that that comes into play, is setting you up to be as active and successful and action oriented as you can be at that time. So this Rise time is all going to be about expending that energy in the most efficient and smart way possible. Many times our ladies come to us and their really just trying to be everything. Like they got young kids, but they are trying to build their careers. Their trying to be a great wife or partner. Their trying to get it all done. And that is a really depleting and stressful way to live if you don’t consciously make decisions day to day what it is you are going to spend your time on and what you’re going to say no thank you to. And when you have taken that time in the Release Phase to make those decisions, then with that much shorter and more focused list, that’s when you’re going to get to action. And so when we circle back around in the later classes when we talk about our movement goals, rituals, and mental health activities, we are really focusing on being very clear about what it is we are doing.
What I would like you to do this week is begin to be a little bit more deliberate in what you take on for yourself. In the Release Phase, hopefully you’ve done so introspective work and have thought through what goals are most important for you. And then this phase what I want you to do is make separate to-do lists based on the different categories of your life. So you are going to have to-do lists that’s just for you. This is what you want to get done for yourself and what you want to do. So that will include things like, “I want to work out,” “I want to stretch every day before bed,” “I want to…” You know, things that fall into things-you-do-for-you category. Then you are going to have things-for-work, if you go to work, things-to-do-around-the-home, if you are going to be at home doing stuff, thing/plans-you-may-have-for-your-kids. But the whole idea is not to put everything that you could possibly do on those list. You want to split them up very discreetly, and then only pick the few things that are going to give you the biggest bang for your buck to where you most want to go. Alright? You want to be really honest with yourself on who you’re putting that task on there for. So if you put it on there and you internally realize that I am only doing this because I think I should be doing this. And there’s a lot of stuff that we do that’s like that, where you do it because you feel like your in-laws want you to, you feel like your kids are going to judge you if you don’t do it, you feel like your coworkers are not going to feel like you are pulling weight. Whatever it is, make sure that what you’re putting on there is actually coming from you, and you see – you’re the master of this ship, right? – so you’re going to see how that is all going to unfold as you go forward. Even if you don’t have all steps, you’re still consciously picking the things that are going to be most impactful for you. One of the hardest parts of doing this is all the stuff you don’t put on that list. And sometimes what I like to do is I sit down first and make a brain dump of everything I feel like is hanging over my head. And then I very consciously then go create my to-do list for that phase, or that day, or whatever it is. And I keep it really tight. And sometimes it’s very hard to do that picking. And that is kind of the most impactful part of doing this exercises. All the things you say “no thanks” to. What I’m asking you to do is not easy, basically. I want to acknowledge that. But this is how you are going to get the most out of your life. And the most out of your health. Because you have – I don’t want to encourage limited thinking but – you do have a limited amount of time to devote to things. And you do have a limited amount of energy. You just can’t do everything yourself. And so that is important thing to realize. And realize that this is how you are going to operate from now on, even if you haven’t done this in the past. And you’ll see very quickly that all those things that you leave behind didn’t really matter anyways. And you’re going to be fine with it. But it takes a little bit of time to get used to living in that way. And making sure that you are kind of, you know, at first feels like you’re just missing the boat on a bunch of stuff. But you’ll see. You’ll see that eventually it ends up being that those things were left off that list for a reason, and that you didn’t really need them. And if you find that you do, you can always pick things back up. You alway have that right, and you always have that choice. But at least we want to make things very streamline as much as we can for ourselves.
Alright, so let’s do a little quick homework recap. It’s going to be nutrients, nutrients, nutrients! So as much variety and density as you can get. If you’ve been stuck in a rut with buying the same five veggies for the week and making them; branch out. Try to swap one of them out for something new. Try a veggie or something that you haven’t ever had in the past. Nowadays there’s tons of recipes, you can stand in the grocery store and google something real quick. Just find a way to vary what you are doing. You can also swap out different teas and spices. Cook the same thing you normally do but jazz it up with a bunch of spices you don’t normally expose yourself to. But teas and spices are great because they are so easy to add. And they’re dehydrated plants, and so they’re really nutrient dense for the volume that you actually have of something. And then green juice is an addition. And then this is actually a kind of an advanced move (and I’ll do a separate class for this): if you are familiar with an elimination diet, or you have diet goals, this Rise Phase is the best time to start any sort of diets because that is when you are going to be absolutely the most effective at it. It’s when we experience the fewest cravings. It’s when we have the most physiologically supported in our decision making skill and will power – those things that we classically call will power. You basically set yourself up for success with any sort of diet endeavor. And out of all the diets that we think you could possibly do, we believe the most in doing an elimination diet because instead of finding a diet that someone else told you how to eat, you’re finding a diet that works exactly for you right now. And then Megan and I actually repeat elimination diets throughout the year because things change all the time. I can eat way more food now than I could 5 years ago, and even before that when I was a lot more sick than I am now. And so, if anything my food, the food that I’m able to eat have grown more and more and more expansive instead of more and more restricted. Which is what most people end up with where they are like, “oh FODMAPs didn’t work for me once. Okay, well I can never eat those again.” Where in reality your body heals, your body changes, and there’s a lot more stuff going on. So having an elimination diet protocol that works for you at your disposal is going to be a tool that serves you for all the years to come. So this Rise Phase is a great time to take on that endeavor. And our 4 Phase Cycle Detox, obviously we work through step by step how to do this, but you can totally do this on your own as well. There’s absolutely nothing stopping you from finding out how to do an elimination diet and going for it. And this is the best time for that. In any sort of dieting or working out endeavor that you are trying to do, this phase is going to be the phase where you really start. Because once you start off with that powerful kick, we’ll talk about in the phases that follow how to stick with this so that you gain traction, momentum, and you really set yourself up for success, rather than starting at a point where you’re inherently setting yourself up to fall off the wagon and not quite get into it in the way that you would want to.
So, this is an awesome, awesome week. Hopefully you guys are, you know, when you come around to it you’re excited, you’re just so ready to kick into high gear, and make positive changes in your life. So let’s keep going with these. The next class is going to be all about the Plateau Phase. And then we’ll come back around and give you all sorts of more actionable items to start living in sync with your cycles more. So thank you for joining me this week again. I’m loving this. Hopefully you are finding this helpful. Come say hi to us over on social media. It’s @zesty_ginger over in Instagram. Or you can email us: support@zestyginger.com
Alright! See you Ladies latter.
13:02-13:31
The Rise Phase. So if the Release Phase was all about releasing what no longer serves us and picking up conscious goals that we want to do, the Rise Phase with all of that build up in hormones, the action in your ovaries, the action in pituitary, the adrenals, and all of that that comes into play, is setting you up to be as active and successful and action oriented as you can be at that time.
Next Steps
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