In The Flo

Hilary from Little Apple Pilates turned me onto a book called In The Flo and I feel like my entire vision on the female reproductive system has changed. I want to share it with you this week because it’s so important regarding what is ‘normal’ and what isn’t.

In society, women have been trained to think that getting on birth control is the only cure for many of our hormonal problems whether that’s mental, emotional or physical. Cramping, bloating, PMS, clotting, irregular periods…. this is not normal and truly means we have hormonal imbalances happening within us.

This was a huge ‘aha’ moment for me because I’ve always had a lot of these symptoms. I would feel great for two weeks out of the month, and the other two were spent feeling depressed, moody and awful. After reading this book I realized I was showing signs of estrogen imbalances as well which can result in PCOS or polycystic ovarian syndrome with ovarian cysts as a main symptom.

As a society, periods are often downplayed for the sake of prevention discussion in school, which I understand and know its importance. I also believe we should be discussing the beauty of a woman’s anatomy and physiology because without it, we wouldn’t be able to grow babies inside of us. I grew up hating my period, but I don’t think I should have or that we need to. I never fully embraced my feminine side until pregnancy, and I think it should start much earlier than that.

In The Flo is a great reminder that we are not in this alone. There are so many women with these imbalances but there are also so many things we can do to help the process. This book goes into what foods to eat during different times of your cycle, when you should be social, when you should look inward, when to exercise and what type of exercise to do throughout your cycle as well. Have you ever thought that your body needed different nutrients or exercise types based on your cycle? This book will change the way you eat, work out, manage your time and do your work, all in harmony with your body.

I hope this was helpful, and please, check out In The Flo by Alisa Vitti.