Podclass Show Notes and Links
Summary:
Episode 9 is all about the best action steps to take during the second phase, the Rise phase. We often talk about this being our favorite phase and it’s because of how much we’ve been able to accomplish with much less effort in our lives and in our health by approaching them this way!
These action items are also focused on helping to support a healthy inflammatory response. This means optimizing hormone and ovulation signaling so that all of these important aspects of the cycle occur smoothly. It also helps down-regulate an overactive central nervous system, which is common in our modern lifestyles and is a reason so many women struggle to find hormonal balance in the long term.
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
Transcript for This Podcast
Hi there. This is Alex here with you. We are all about our cycle stuff that we have been talking about in the previous podclasses. And I am here today to talk with you about the action items for the Rise Phase. Okay, so we have been cruising along. We got an overview. We talked about what’s happening inside the body and each of the four phases. And just a reminder that’s the Release Phase, followed by the Rise Phase, and then the Plateau Phase, and then the Pause. So we are right in the Rise Phase, which as I’ve said before, still my favorite one.
With the Rise Phase, this is going to be your most actionable time and when you are going to feel like you have the most energy. Everything in your body is primed for outward experiences, and action, and movement, and all of that. It’s just all of the other times that you spend – for example if you listened to the previous podclass and we were talking about the Release Phase, that is the time for rest – so when you have taken the time, that’s when you can really get going out of the gate really really quickly with everything that you plan to do. And here’s the thing: when you do things in this way, you will ultimately end up being a lot more efficient with your energy, and you’re going to feel like you just don’t have as much overwhelm in your life. So that is the benefit. There is also, I’ve talked about this before as well in that, when you go by the phases, that means you never have to do something all the time for the most part. It’s just when that right time comes around, that’s when you do something. And then when that time passes, you stop. So you’re never feeling like, “oh my gosh! I just missing or dropping the ball on half the stuff that I expect myself to do.” So rise is all about the action.
And so let’s get going, we’re going to talk about food goals for this phase, movement goals, the ritual that we’re going to have you do, and then some mental work and journaling that we’re going to cover. Alright? Okay. So let’s get started.
The food for the Rise Phase, this is by far the time when you’re going to be the most successful with whatever diet or nutritious, nutrient goals that you have. So if you have ever said to yourself, “oh, I always mess up diets,” or “I never stick with diets,” it’s likely a big portion of it is you are starting at a poor time for your body. So a lot of times we’ll follow a calendar like, “oh hey it’s almost summer, I should get into my bikini body shape, and eat like that.” But the thing is it is a better way to do it if you wait for the right time when you’re body is primed for it. So regardless of what your food goals are, the Rise time is the time when you’re going to be the most effective at starting something. And you’ll have a lot of motivation and energy to make it happen.
And so when someone is first starting, working with us out of our ladies, this is usually the time when we have them do the elimination diet portion, or the elimination portion of the elimination diet, by this phase taking out those foods and then reintroducing during the Plateau and Pause Phases. Because, for example, for the Pause Phase, that’s when you’re most likely to crave things and quote on quote “mess up.” It’s not a very good time to be necessarily limiting a whole variety of things and making yourself feel like you are depriving yourself. That’s not a great time. The Rise, however, because you are so primed for all of this stuff physiologically, what happens is that your body is that much happier to say like, “okay, I’m going to get motivated by this. I’m going to do what’s right.” And you’re going to do it for the right reasons instead of when you do it for the Pause it’s mostly because you feel bad about yourself, and you’re trying to do something to make it better. Unfortunately when you feel bad about yourself, that’s not an empowering place to be coming from. And that’s why people ultimately will end up not sticking with the things that they resolved to do. Because if your belief in yourself is that “you are going to fail,” when the it’s going to be really hard for you to not meet that expectation for yourself. So that’s why with the elimination diet we do it that way. If you are not following an elimination diet, that’s totally fine. Whatever you’re food goals are, the Rise Phase is when you will feel most motivated, most powerful to start that diet, cut out that sugar, eat more veggies, you know go and make a trip to the store to get different kinds of foods and veggies that you may not have tried before in an effort to do nutrient density, and all of that really important stuff. And so, with food goals, this is your time to make the most impact.
So I always think of the Rise Phase as kinda like the starting phase. So whatever you want to increase in your life, whatever you thought about during the Release Phase, whatever you journal on, whatever you discovered about yourself, the rise phase is when you get going on it and you put in the effort up front to get started. Think about it like this: if you have a balloon that you are blowing up, the part of that whole blowing up the balloon process that is the hardest is when you first get started, right? You have to put a lot of effort into getting a little bit of air in, and then all of a sudden once it reaches a certain size, it just blows up really quickly. Right, you just, it’s not as much work after that. That’s basically when you have, and when you’re starting something new, it’s like that first little phase of blowing up the balloon where you have to work really hard, but you don’t necessarily see the effort going on in the inside. And then once you reach your tipping point, all the sudden it gets a lot easier. And a lot of times that metaphor translates very easily to how we experience positive changes in our life. In the beginning it’s hard, but we’re hopefully motivated. So you want to pick that time where the hardest work that your going to do is when you have the most energy and motivation to put into it.
Once you’re on a roll and everything starts adding up, it gets easier and easier and easier. And then you want to set up THAT time for the time where you’re primed to maintain. It’s the time to integrate. It’s the time to make real life changes. It’s the time to go back and tweak and modify. Okay? So that is how everything will flow. But make sure that you’re lining up all of the changes that you want to bring into your life. Everything you established in the Release Phase, this is the time to do it. Alright, so that’s food. Let’s go on to movement.
Once again, this Rise Phase is going to be when you have the most amount of energy and reserve, and your endocrine system while it’s – our endocrine, I hate saying it’s fragile because it makes it sound like we’re likely to mess it up by doing just a little something funny. But it is a system that it’s job is to respond to things going on in your environment. So it is sensitive to those things because it is meant to be sensitive. It is, in real time, looking at your environment, taking in feedback, and then your brain is making decisions about what to do then or not. For example, in the time of the famine, probably not the best time to have a baby. When you’re being chased by a tiger, definitely not the best time to start ovulating, right? So all of these things end up having real consequences. And so for this Rise Phase, that’s when our body is primed to have the most reserve. Even if it’s sensitive, it still has a lot of things that it has done in the background during that Release Phase to reprime the circuit, so to speak. So you’re basically, everything has gotten ready for you, and then now is the time to expend that energy.
So when it comes to our movement goals for this, this is the time when no matter what your goals are, you’re going to push those goals and try to push past your limits, wherever you are. Because that will a) make you successful and 2) cause the least amount of side effect damage. Because, we all know, if you are exercising really hard, that’s a stressor on the body. In some ways that’s a really great stressor. We want to exercise our cardiovascular system. We want our lymphatics to move. We want to sweat our toxins out through our skin. We want to get blood flow through our lungs. We want to build our muscles. We want to rebuild our bones. All of that is all true. But it is a certain amount of damage and stress on the body. And right now in this Rise Phase, that damage, the body can take that and positively help you grow. So it will take that input that you give it and it will do what it needs to create in the future. So that is rebuilding muscles. Making your bones more stronger, less likely to break with small incidents. All of these things. And so this, for your time, this kind of eustress, so good stress, can be really really great. Because that is something that your body is going to respond to positively. And so if you are pushing for a PR in Crossfit, or you’re training for something, this is the time to do the bigger work, and the hardest part of your training, and take it up a level.
So if you are, if that’s where you are, you just want to plan your workouts, or plan your training so that it falls in this category. Now you still want to be careful about overtraining. You want to make sure you’re not setting yourself up for injury. But, in general, this is going to be the time where it’s safest to do that. If you are just starting out with your exercise journey, it’s not that you have to go crazy on your exercise now because you feel the need to. It’s more just that as you develop, and you take the thing, you know maybe you started walking last week and that was your gentile exercise, maybe this week is the time to push yourself a little bit so jogging every other block, or doing some weight lifting a couple days a week. So wherever it is, you want to act according to that. Once again, this is not a focus on me telling you exactly what you need to be doing. The focus is you take what you have come up with that would most nurture your body and your soul and you find the things that you want to do anyways, within the context of this cycle. And within the context of what your body is already going to be primed for. And so you want to take into account just cause I said that was the time to exercise heavily and push yourself, now is not the time to send yourself to the hospital because you passed out from overexertion, or the heat, or something. Make sure that you are listening to the feedback of your body within everything we are doing.
But as far as movement things that I really like, you know, high intensity interval training, I really like, because it can be a fifteen minute workout, it’s really hard, you’ll get a sweat on, all that stuff. I really like sprints. Not a lot, but a couple times a week during this time because, again, it’s one of those things that increases your capacity for exercise while still being one of the most efficient things. I like slow heavy lifting. Although during this Rise Phase I tend to do a little more dynamic things. I will mix up heavier weights and lower reps with dynamic movement like squat jumps, or burpees, or anything like that. And so that’s my personal thing. You certainly don’t have to do that. You can even, if you choose to do yoga, the movement exercise can just be to push yourself on the poses, maybe push yourself to try something you haven’t tried before. Maybe you take the extra energy to go out and get a little bit of coaching. Whatever it is for you, you just want to say, “okay, I’m doing this because I have a goal. I realize during the Release Phase I need X exercise because I chose it for myself. And I think that’s the best thing for me. The best match for me.” And then you build on that depending on what your body is telling you.
So that’s the movement. And I think it’s really fun cause I feel like once you’ve rested up from the Release Phase, this is when you see the gains. Where all of a sudden you start pushing yourself and you realize how much good that rest did you. And a lot of times people are like, “whoa, this would have taken me a month to get to these weights, or this time. But instead it took me a week, because I just was well rested, well nourished, and I had the mental fortitude to do it.” So it ends up being super super fun.
Okay, So ritual for this phase. The ritual is going to be super fun. As a society, we <15:10 have as _____> not appreciated the feminine quite as much. I feel like I’m saying the most obvious statement in the entire world. What we want to do, Megan and I, what we believe in is not that we are trying to overthrow patriarchy with more feminine. It’s more that we want to recognize in each of us, and each person, the fact that there is a feminine and a masculine presence there. And what has happened is that in trying to participate in the male dominated world, we have begun to be really good at bringing up the masculine parts of ourselves. Even if we are kinda girly girls or not, a lot of times the way we do things is very reflective of men/male physiology and male culture. And so our work weeks, and the way we learned about the human body, and the way we talk about exercise and weight loss, and all of those things are still very much geared to the masculine. And so in order to balance this out we have to respectively bring up the feminine within ourselves. And less so, what we’ll talk about sex actually later, but one of the ways to do this is to allow yourself times where you specifically honor your feminine. And it’s not the, it’s not necessarily just sexual things that will work in this way. What it is is that you are bringing up for yourself the ability to give and receive love. Or receive good in your life. Traditionally masculine is seen as action, outward, giving. And the feminine is receiving, transforming, and nourishing. And so it brings up this idea of as we develop the feminine, it asks us to think about our ability to receive. How good are you at receiving a compliment? How good are you at offloading a task when someone offers to do it for you? Or do you just go, “no no, I got it. I can do it.” How good are you at nurturing yourself when you’re tired? When you’re hungry? When you are stressed? Do you respond to those cues from yourself? Or do you simply ignore it and move on and push yourself and hustle and whatever other word people say. And so this whole idea is going to be highlighted in the rituals.
So during this Rise, as we feel the hormones rising, and as we feel our bodies changing in response to that, and we benefit from all those great things, like the energy and the motivation and the happiness and the ability to just get things done, we want to take that and honor it as the feminine super power that it actually is. Because all of these things are necessary in the world. Whether or not we talk about the importance of femininity and what the feminine in each human brings to the table or not.
This ritual is going to be your, it’s like a feminine bath. What’s the word I’m looking for? Your honoring yourself. So almost like you were being celebrated. But it’s just you. So you’re going to take a bath. And whatever femininity means for you, you’re going to find ways to represent that. It’s like a ritual bath. But I want you to set up the environment. So whether the feminine represented in you is best depicted by pink flower, and rose petals in your water, and rose essential oil, and lavender, and you have bubble bath, and you’re going to have some champagne. And if it’s super girly, great! If you’re entire, if you want to light black candles, and dye the water black, and do whatever, and that represents your femininity to you, and that ability to receive, and nurture, and transform, and regrow, and rebuild, and rebirth. Whatever that is for you you will represent it physically. And so this is, I want you to make this ritualized. I want you to do it as if you are giving reverence to your own feminine as if it was a statue or a goddess in front of you. And as you do this, it’s really really great to allow yourself as you interact with this environment and make conscious decisions. Like, “I am including this in my bath. I am including this, and this is why.” And as you begin to pick the items and incorporate them and live in that environment as you do this, even if it’s for an hour or three hours or whatever it is, as you do that you get a clear understanding with your relationship with this part of you.
And it also gives you a clear relationship with what you’ve chosen to surround yourself with. And when I started doing this, what really worked, what it brought up for me, was that there was a lot of things that I did to nurture other people, but that I would not do to nurture myself. And so I made it a habit to start, from this exercise, I started making it a habit of buying myself cheap flower bouquet every single week. Or it didn’t even have to be cheap, I just happen to like daisies and stuff. So it always is cheap. But my point is it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg to do this. It was like $3.99, I would get a fresh bouquet, I would buy it saying, “I’m buying this for myself because I love myself.” And I would get it and it’s something I did. And I would cut the stems, and be appreciative that I would have this, and I would put it out where I always sit and do my work. To me it was a very very small, it didn’t take a lot time, it didn’t take a lot of money. But for me that represented nourishing myself.
Your thing might be something completely different. And will not look like anyone else. But that is okay. It is simply your, an exercise and a ritual to highlight what you’re thoughts are on this topic and what you can do more to bring that into your life. And I think it’s a really beautiful thing when we find that balance of femininity and masculinity. I feel like it goes on to impact other people around us. And then it impacts them. So instead of having to feel like, “oh, I’m standing up for my femaleness. I want to make this happen. I have to fight patriarchy.” We’re not fighting them. We are simply in ourselves, reestablishing more of a balance. And that will, that goes on to, we model it for others. And that begins to change how they interact with themselves. And so on and so forth. In my mind I think it’s a really healthy thing to do for society, even though it’s something you do within yourself. So that’s that. And let’s end with the mental stuff.
Now that we’ve done all the introspection of the previous phase, this is going to be all action stuff. What you’re going to do is you’re going to take a look at those to-do lists that you created last phase. And you are going to look at the things that you picked to be the most important to you. And so more than likely during this Rise Phase you are now following that to-do list and doing the things on it and taking action. Which is amazing. What the journaling exercise I’m going to give to you this though for this phase though, is the journalling on the question of who is the version of Me that already does all of these things that I want. What do they look like. I think for all of us we aspire to be the kind of person we aspire to be. But there is a disconnect between where we see ourselves now, and where we will see ourselves in the future. So it’s always like, “oh, when I finish that extra schooling,” “oh, when the kids grow up,” “when this and this.” And what we want to do, and it gives us much more power, or empowers us, when we can flip that and say, “how can I be that person now?” So who is this person that allows herself to be nurtured? Who is this person that exercises four times a week? Who is this person… And you begin to pretend and put yourself in those shoes already. And part of that may be your internal experience. You just decide, “yes I am the kind of person that exercises three times a week.” What do people that exercise regularly have? They have gym clothes that they like. They have gym shoes that they like. They put their gym clothes out the night before so when they wake up in the morning they don’t have to think about it. They have friends who also exercise. So they meet, they have their friend waiting for them at the gym in the morning so that they have an accountability partner to get up.
When you think of this that way from that perspective it does something really powerful. On one hand you say it gives you more weight behind the actions you choose to take because it is who you are trying to be. And then it also allows you to be in the driver’s seat and empowered to identify new areas of direction. And all you need to get started living in a way that you like is just doing the next step that needs to happen. You don’t have to have the entire thing planned out. You just need to see one step ahead of you. So just like me saying, “I’m the kind of person that exercises three times a week,” from that you can kind of figure out the other next steps. What does that look like, and what do you actually need to make that happen? And then it shows you what those things are and you do them. And then once you start doing those, all of a sudden you get a whole new layer of things like, “well now I’m working out three times a week, but I really love lifting weights. Oop, well I’m going to join a gym that has weightlifting group classes so that I can get better, but also have fun and get to know other people who do it.” You see how that works? It just ends up instead of always saying, “I wish I was that person. I wish I was that person.”
And what I wish ends up causing is that you just wish the whole time and you don’t actually make it happen. What I want you to do is put yourself in those shoes and say, “what would I do from here if I had already made it here.” And from there that’s what you are going to journal about. You’re going to identify some steps. And then I know you are going to get excited because I’ve done this before. You’re going to get so excited because you’re like, “I was struggling and stuck here with this for so long and now I just, like, in 10 minutes realize that I have a list of about five things, things I can do right now to make this more of a reality in my life.” And you’re going to get so excited.
And you are going to take all of that Rise Phase energy and you’re just going to do it. You’re going to GET. IT. DONE. And so I’m already so proud of you. I’m so happy that you’re listening to this and starting to live this way. Cause it’s just so transformational once you start doing it that your life is going to change. In two cycles, three cycles from now you’re going to not even recognize yourself or your life cause that’s how powerful this stuff can be.
Alright, on that note, we’re going to wrap it up for today. Join me next time. We’ll talk about the next phase and lots of good stuff in that one as well. Have a good day and I’ll talk to you soon.
Sound Bites
0:40-1:01
With the Rise Phase, this is going to be your most actionable time and when you are going to feel like you have the most energy. Everything in your body is primed for outward experiences, and action, and movement, and all of that.
18:17-18:43
So during this Rise, as we feel the hormones rising, and as we feel our bodies changing in response to that, and we benefit from all those great things, like the energy and the motivation and the happiness and the ability to just get things done, we want to take that and honor it as the feminine super power that it actually is.
Next Steps
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