Cycle Syncing 101: How to Use Your Hormones to Make More Money with Jess Suchan

What is up you guys? Welcome back to the podcast. Today's episode is not going to be one that you want to miss. I am sitting down with Jess Sukyan, a board certified holistic health and mindset coach who helps ambitious women thrive by sinking their cycles and stepping into their next level life. This conversation was honestly a game changer because we got into everything that most of us never really learned growing up. We talk about the four phases of our cycle and what each one means, why our hormones are different from men's and why that matters and and the real truth about birth control, including what happens when you decide to come off of it, all the benefits and all of the challenges. Jess also breaks down how cycle syncing can become your secret weapon for success. I left this conversation feeling so empowered about the women's body and our hormone cycles. We talk about aligning your energy and business plans with your hormones so you can make more money, feel more confident and actually use your cycle as a superpower instead of seeing it as something negative. This episode is educational, empowering and will completely shift the way that you view your period, your hormones and your potential. Trust me, by the end you are going to see your cycle as one of the biggest tools you have to build the life and the business of your dreams. So let's go ahead and get on into it. This is Busy Getting Better, the podcast for women who are committed to prioritizing their own personal growth.

I'm your host, Madison J.

A mindset and money coach, a first generation wealth builder and a woman on.

A mission to help you master your.

Finances and live your best life. Money is not all we are covering though because in order to live your best life you have to become your best self. So we are diving deep into all things personal development and bringing you the mindset shifts, money, tips and inspiration.

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Bold and build the life you can't stop daydreaming about. It's time to get busy babe. Busy getting better.

Foreign.

What is up you guys? Welcome to the podcast. Today we have a special guest on we have Jess Sukan on who is a board certified holistic health and mindset coach who focuses on helping ambitious women thrive by sinking their cycles. And this is personally a topic that I am so interested in. I first heard about cycle syncing about a year ago and it honestly blew my mind and in the same vein made me feel a little bit embarrassed about how much I did not know about the female body and about our cycle. So I am so excited to pick Your brain today. I think that this information is gonna be so helpful for so many of my listeners who are high achieving, ambitious women who just wanna feel more in flow and more in line with their life and stop fighting against this, like, natural rhythm that we have. So I'm so excited to have you here, Jess. Welcome to Busy Getting Better.

Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here and I feel like I could talk about this all day. What you said about feeling so mind blown and excited, but also a little bit shameful not knowing this stuff. And that's the message I get from so many women. That's exactly how I felt when I learned about it. Because when I learned about it, I had been a health coach for probably three years at the time, and no one had ever brought it up before. And so it felt like all of these light bulbs and like, how has no one shared this with me? Where has this been hiding? Why didn't we learn about this in school? And so I love coaching on it and teaching it in a way that takes away the overwhelm, takes away the embarrassment, the shame, makes it really fun and sexy because there's so much out there about cycle syncing now, especially when I was first learning about it, there wasn't a lot out there. And so the books I was reading, I took a course on it. It was so exciting to me. But at the same time, I did feel very overwhelmed. It was very scientific. It was a lot to absorb at once. And so I felt like if I'm feeling this way, there's definitely other women that are feeling this way. So I need to put my body bliss been on it and figure out a way to coach it, teach it, and inspire other women to realize that it's actually not that difficult. And it's supposed to make your. Your life more. More in flow versus more stressful or overwhelming. You know, I put my spin on it and now I just have this unique way of teaching it that I think really lands.

I love that I want to get into that first. If somebody's listening and they're like, hi, it's me, I actually have no idea what you're talking about. Can you please give an example or can you expl to the ladies? What is cycle syncing?

Yeah. So basically, cycle syncing is a method that was first created by Elisa Vitti, who's a health coach and she's also a New York Times bestseller at this point. So she has the book Woman Code, and then she created the book in the Flow and now There's, I don't even know how many times the hashtag has been used, probably millions. It's become a movement and it's incredible. And, and essentially what it is, it is working with the four unique phases of your menstrual cycle to live in alignment with your unique body. And what I say is to live in alignment with your unique blueprint instead of trying to follow someone else's so that you can elevate your energy, you can feel good in your body, you could feel more confident, you can have fewer PMS symptoms, which we can get into that. But PMS is common. It's not normal that you can have an easier period. I always tell women, I don't say this to brag, but honestly, I, when I get my period, it's like, oh, it's here. It's not a big deal. It doesn't bring me down. It's not debilitating. I don't feel horrible before I get my period. But that wasn't always the case. And so really bringing to the forefront that, that experience, even if you've had it for a really long time, even if it feels normal to you, it's not your destiny. It doesn't have to be that way. And you can utilize cycle thinking practices to feel better all month long. And I even say that it helps you to get better results from all of the effort that you're putting into your diet, that you're putting into your fitness routines. Like, there's so many benefits. Helps you to own your power and to really embrace your feminine and to realize, oh, this is actually a beautiful thing. I have this beautiful cyclical body and once I learn how to work with it and kind of co create with it and dance with the ebbs and flows, it gives you a lot more compassion and grace for yourself. And honestly, I love it. I love seeing women just feel so much more connected to their body, to their symptoms, to their signals. Because our body doesn't communicate through words, it communicates through symptoms. And I always tell my students, my clients, when we get these symptoms, it's almost like our body sending us text messages, like, hey, I'm exhausted. Do you think we could slow down a little bit? Hey, I need a day off. Hey, are you there? We don't, if we don't slow down, we don't listen to our body. It's like ghosting the text from our body. Like we're just literally ghosting our body. I mean, like, I don't care. I'm just gonna keep doing my Hit training. I'm gonna keep, you know, burning the candle at both ends and then eventually it manifests in these symptoms that might be debilitating PMS period pain. It could be weight gain, like whatever it is. And so it's really about cycle thinking. Also is about learning how to read the text messages from your body and to know how to respond to those text messages so that you can actually feel better.

I love that analogy of the text message. I'm like sitting here picturing myself getting like pings from. And what you said in there is exactly how I felt like the empowerment of the realization that we as women have four different cycles and we essentially are like different versions of ourselves in those different cycles. From how I've understood it. I think what was really empowering and educational when I started learning about this was this idea that our society is really based off of this 24 hour cycle, which is exactly how men operate from a hormone perspective. Right. They wake up the same, they go to bed the same, and their hormones just repeat every 24 hours. Where women are on more of this 28 day cycle. Right. We can't hold ourselves to the way that the world works.

Right.

Expecting ourselves to wake up with the same type of energy, wake up with the same type of emotions. Like all of that throughout these different phases, it almost was, it was very empowering of looking at it. A sense of utilizing how women are unique and how we are special and viewing it as a superpower almost to supercharge our life. Right. And also it gave me so much understanding of, oh well, this makes sense. Why some weeks I feel like I can literally run at 110% all day, every single day. And this is where I find myself. Signing up for all the things, making the commitments, building all these plans that require like the absolute best of me. And then two weeks later I'm like, why did I sign up for all this? I'm literally so overwhelmed. What the heck? And why can't I show up in the same way that I could the other time? Right. And holding myself to this expectation of always being on at 110%, that's probably something that a lot of women relate to. It almost feels like cycle thinking kind of, or understanding our cycle more gives us this permission and understanding that we are going to ebb and flow throughout the month and that is normal. Operating at 110% capacity expecting to keep up with this 24 hour cycle is not normal for women.

Yeah, exactly. And we still live in a very male dominated society. And so it can feel. I mean, I used to do this too, where I would compare myself to my husband or whoever I was dating at the time and be like, oh, they're eating that, I'm going to eat that. They're working out like that. I need to push myself more. Like, oh, this guy at work is performing like that, staying late, leaving early, you know, coming in early. I should do that too if I want to get ahead. And so it's this masculine, driven culture. And so we sometimes not only compare ourselves to that, feel like we have to do that if we're going to get ahead, if we're going to be noticed, if we're going to be. If we're going to succeed and feel like a failure if we're not able to uphold that same standard. Like you said, all month long. I remember when I was in the thick, I, yo, yo dieted for like 12 years. It was like, why don't you just have the willpower? Like, why are you hungry? And there's certain phases in our cycle, the luteal phase, which is the second half of the cycle after we ovulate, where our metabolism actually increases and we need more food. And it's about, anywhere between about 200 to 300 calories on average that most women need extra. And so a lot of times I'll see women that are dieting, for example, and they're trying to eat the same calories, the same macros all month long. And they're like, what is wrong with me? I'm so hungry, I. I'm just gonna drink more water. And then they have fatigue, and then they're not able to show up at work the way that they wanna show up. And then their workouts aren't great. I know this isn't what you wanna hear, but you actually need more food during this phase of your cycle. And when you honor that, when you honor those hunger cues and the fact that your body actually needs more to fuel this intense process, then you're actually going to probably stop overeating later on. That's going to cut out some of the binge eating. That's going to create more stability in your blood sugar levels and your energy and your mood and your clarity. And that is going to have a ripple effect that actually results in better results than you trying to keep your calories the exact same amount, because you feel like you got to follow this masculine structure. So it's little things like that that we don't think about have this massive ripple effect in all areas of our life.

Yeah, I think that's so good. I think what would be so helpful? Can you break down the four different cycles and just give us like a quick bullet point or two of what do we need to know about that phase, like what makes that phase unique and what's the most important thing to know about that phase?

For sure. Yeah. So if you're brand new listening to this, I always say repetition is the mother of all learning. So it's okay, you probably need to hear this a few times and we'll keep it really simple. Um, but the first is there's four phases of your cycle. And one thing that I like to say is we hear. So the cycle is actually called the infraredian rhythm. And we also have our circadian rhythm, which is the 24 hour clock that men operate off of. We have that, but then we also have our infraredian rhythm, which is our cycle. And we hear 28 days. But that's the average. Most women don't have a 28 day cycle. Some women have a 30 day cycle, some women have a 26 day cycle. It's really learning what's normal for you. So for example, I've always had around a 29 or 30 day cycle, but it's not always day 29. Sometimes it's 28, 29, 30, and that's what's normal for me. So if I know, if I go way, if my cycle is way less than that or way longer, something is probably going on hormonally. So I just like to make that clear because I think sometimes we hear the number 28 and it's like, oh no, my cycle is not 28 days. Is there something wrong? So that's kind of the difference. And then the first phase is the menstrual phase. This is the one we're all familiar with because it's when we bleed. And that phase usually is going to be about three to seven days. We are shedding the uterine lining from the previous cycle. So obviously a pregnancy didn't occur. And at the beginning of that phase, all hormones are at their very lowest. And the course of the menstrual phase, our hormones start to gradually rise. So the first one to two days is probably where you're going to feel the most introverted. You may want to, you know, just relax, cozy up. A lot of times the phases are compared to seasons. So the menstrual phase is like winter. And if you think about winter, what do you want to do? You want to drink hot cocoa, you want to put on some blankets? Yeah. Cozy on the couch. Now, one thing I like to say here is, and this applies for all four phases, something that drives me a little bit nuts, but I see on TikTok and Instagram, as it relates to cycle syncing, is this is how you're going to feel in this phase. This is how you're going to feel in this phase, and that is optimally how you should be feeling. Or maybe it's not optimal. You might hear someone say, oh, you're gonna feel like shit during this phase, right? Or you're gonna feel full of energy, whatever it is. We are all unique. We all have our own blueprints. And one person's experience is gonna be different from the other person's experience. So if you're someone who has really painful periods where the entire period you're taken out, you have really bad cramps, you're super bloated, you just feel terrible, you don't want to be social just because you feel so bad. That is like those text messages going off, like something is not right here. We need attention. That again, is not your destiny. Something is going on. Probably your nervous system is somewhat dysregulated. Your hormones need some support. For example, for me, yes, the first day or two of my period, I typically don't do any kind of workout. I just go for walks. I just feel like I want to have a longer morning. I need more fuel, more of that red meat. Because we bleed through our menstrual blood, we lose iron. So we need to replenish that. And if we're not eating enough iron rich foods, then we can feel really fatigued. So simple tweak like that can make a huge difference. So just know it's gonna be a little bit different for every person. Then when you get into the follicular phase, that's about seven to 10 days long, that's your inner spring. And that is when your fsh, your follicle stimulating hormone, starts to increase along with estrogen and testosterone. And basically FSH grows these follicles that then one of them becomes the dominant follicle. It bursts and it's the ovulation happens, right? We release an egg. So with that increase, that rising energy and testosterone, or estrogen and testosterone, that can increase our energy, our stamina, our strength. This is a time where we can feel. Some women describe it like coming out of the period cave, especially if they have a harder period where they're like, oh my God, it's spring, I'm dancing around, I want to try new things. I feel like getting out there and networking. I want to do podcasts like this. I want to be front facing. I'm recording all my reels, I'm going live and like it's feeling really good. I want to be more social. And then we get into the ovulatory phase, which is the main event of the menstrual cycle. It's really the queen bee. It's the purpose of the menstrual cycle. And ovulation is about 53 to 6 days. And the reason for that is there's only one day of ovulation where we actually release the egg to potentially be fertilized by sperm. But sperm can survive inside of us via peak cervical fluid for up to five days. So it's the one day of ovulation plus the five days that sperm can survive inside of us that if we're not trying to get pregnant, we want to either use protection or be using some fertility awareness method, which is a whole nother conversation. But non hormonal options are available too. And then if you are wanting to get pregnant, that's when you would really want to go for and optimize that sexy time. That's your inner summer. So that's really, I call it like the Beyonce phase. If your hormones are balanced and your nervous system is for the most part regulated at this point, we all somewhat have dysregulated nervous systems just in the society that we live in. But optimally, energy should be peaking. Sex drive should be peaking. This is where you can really feel like I could crush a hiit training workout. I can pitch myself for all of these opportunities. You're probably going to feel more vibrant and magnetic. If you show up speaking or podcasting or pitching yourself for new clients like whatever that is, you're going to be in your magnetism. Some women feel flat though. They don't feel great. They have low energy. Their skin starts breaking out and that can be because of that increase in estrogen. If your estrogen is already really high, that can bump it up too high. And you can experience what's called estrogen dominance, which can lead to these not so optimal symptoms as well as the peak in testosterone. If your testosterone is already high, that can create breakouts. But if your hormones are more regulated during ovulation, a lot of women experience that glowing skin where they actually feel more attractive. And so it's just interesting how everyone's experience is slightly different. Then we go into the luteal phase. And last thing on ovulation, it's the only time of the month we can get pregnant. And most of us didn't learn that in school. No, certainly not luteal, right? Like, where was that? And then luteal phase is the longest phase of the menstrual cycle. There's early and late luteal because it's about 10 to 14 days. This is the phase that encompasses the premenstrual week. And PMS is found in this late luteal phase. It's our inner autumn. So during the first half of the luteal phase, estrogen is still peaking, progesterone is still peaking, so we can still feel pretty good. And then as those hormones start to drop, the second half, that's where the dreaded PMS of anxiety, insomnia, cramps, bloating, feel like you look six months pregnant, depression, crying spells, like crying at commercials. My mom is a hormone expert and she always says, like, fear of hugging, where your boobs hurt so bad that if someone hugs you, you're like, no. So those kind of symptoms, feeling ravenous, feeling really hungry is actually normal, like I said. But having such intense cravings that it almost takes over your life, that's not so. We really want to optimize blood sugar, especially during this phase, because we become much more sensitive to blood sugar swings. And this is really the phase, especially that second half, where it's about really setting boundaries. If you are in business, that would be a better time to wrap up projects, to vision cast for the next phase of your business or whatever you're doing. Maybe you want to pre batch some content. Maybe you want to go a little bit more inward and reserve your energy. Obviously, when I'm working with clients, there's so much that I can provide support wise to help you to feel your best during this phase because it does not have to be miserable. So I know that was a lot, but truly in my world, that's like the cliff Notes.

No, I think that was good and just such a brief explanation because I think that was what was so intriguing to me when I first heard someone talk about cycle syncing. It was how they were implementing this information into their business so that they were, you know, to the best of their ability. Obviously, I don't think there's a way to make your life perfect, but saying yes to more extracurriculars or putting yourself in situations where you're gonna have to be on stage or do the podcasting in the timeframe where you, from a hormone perspective, are the most likely to be, like you said, magnet and on Fire and have all this, like, extra energy. And then the week that you just know you're not going to feel your best, not over committing and just being able to be like, no, this week is actually not my extracurricular week. This is not the week I'm going to say yes to all these socials. I'm going to be doing my CEO days or I'm going to be doing back end admin stuff. So I think that's so interesting. So what, what's maybe like one or two tips that you could summarize from there of how do we use cycle syncing to make more money in our business? Like, how do we. How do we set ourselves up for success when it comes to feeling our best, operating in that flow state where we can.

Yeah.

Make more money. And like, think about it in a way that is working smarter, not harder, and working in alignment with these hormones.

Yeah, absolutely. I love that question because again, your listeners are ambitious women. My clients all are too. You are like, this is our space. We have so many visions and dreams for ourselves. I don't know about you, but my brain is always going crazy with new ideas of like, oh, my gosh, I want to do this.

My husband's like, another idea. Fabulous, that's great. Add it to the list. And I'm like, I'm going to do it now. And he's like, of course. On top of all the other things. Go for it.

Exactly. Unfortunately, and fortunately, my husband is the same way. So we're both. We have to keep each other in check. He's like, oh, I just had an idea. And I'm like, I had one. And that's like, okay. We call it shiny object syndrome. And we say, let's streamline and simplify. Let's get back. But yes, it's so exciting to have these ideas and these visions and to be wanting this big, rich life for yourself. When I say rich, it's not just about your bank account. Right. It's about experience, memories, rich health. There's so many ways that we can apply that word, rich. But when it comes to making money, we think that we have to be constantly performing and productive. One of the phrases that I have worked on rewiring this past year is productivity is a measure of success. I always believed that. Say that again. Productivity is a measure of success.

I think a lot of people think that.

Yeah, like, I lived by that. I thought that if I wasn't being productive that I was gonna fail or I felt guilty. I give the example a lot. And this still happens for me, especially in phases. Like right now, I'm in a launch phase where my brain is the time and I do have deadlines and it is hard and I'm working more hours than normal. And so there's these moments where I'll lay on the couch, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna eat my dinner, I'm gonna watch my show. And then I'm on my phone, like scrolling, checking emails, responding to texts, looking at my Instagram DMs. I still have to go back to that old narrative and say, jess, rest is actually productive. If you continue to work even when you're resting, that is not gonna do anyone any good. For me, when I do that, it manifests as headaches and migraines. I, I've dealt with migraines since I was really young. And the way that my body communicates with me that I need to slow down is through a debilitating migraine. I have to remind myself, either you give yourself the space to rest now or later you have a three day migraine that then takes you out and there's brain fog. And I really, I really cannot show up in the way that I want to. And so rewiring rest is actually productive. One of my little mantras that I say is rest is how I do the rest. And so it's not just during the luteal phase that we need to rest. I think it's important that we pepper and rest throughout every day, even if it's like an active rest. I have so many examples of what that looks like, but especially when you're in, let's say, the late luteal phase, where your hormones are dropping and you are naturally more inclined to want to go inward, you can feel a bit more anxiety, you can feel a bit more distracted and more emotional. And so if we don't allow ourselves to rest, think about the trickle effect that that's going to have into the type of work that we actually produce. Like, is it going to be our best work if we're going nonstop? If staying up until 3am Burning the midnight oil, are we actually going to produce our best work if we force ourselves to show up to three podcast recordings and meet up with five people for coffee? Like, are we going to show up as that best version of ourselves? I know for me, if, for example, if I have someone book a curiosity call, if that's booked on a day where I'm not feeling it, I'm anxious, I'm distracted, I have a headache, I know that I'm probably am not going to land that client because it's not going to be the same confident version of myself who's really in it with that person, able to hold space, able to really hear them, able to give them the kind of support that they need. While that used to freak me out, now I. If I get a call that's booked in my calendar and I'm not feeling it, I reschedule it for a time that I know that I will be able to show up. And I can tell you the times that I don't honor that, those are usually the times when people don't sign on with me. When I do honor that and I'm in my magnetism, I kind of feel unstoppable, and I feel, like, so excited to be on that call with that person. So whether it's a client call, whether it's a podcast interview, whether it's a networking event, it really is thinking about conserving your energy so that with the energy that you're putting forth life, you are actually showing up in the way that you want to. It's kind of like what Taylor Swift said, where it's like, treat our energy like a luxury item.

I'm expensive, baby. I'm expensive.

So I'm not gonna pour myself out and just, like, give my energy away for free, right? Like, I'm not going to just, oh, anyone, you want a piece? Do you want a piece? You want a little bit? Why don't you take some of me? Like, you can have it all. And then at the end of the day, what are you left with from, like, a money perspective? Imagine if someone gave you $50 for the week and they said, this is all you have to spend. You would be so much more diligent about how you're spending that money. You might think twice about buying the second Starbucks latte. You know, you may say, oh, you know what? I'm gonna. I'm gonna eat this dinner at home and make myself a bougie nice meal at home instead of going out to eat tonight. Like, you would be so discerning. But yet it's so easy for us to just say yes to everything and to feel like everything is an emergency. And to respond to everybody's requests as if they're demands. To get back to people right away, to respond to te messages within 30 seconds, to feel guilty if we say yes to a plan but then need to cancel it. I can't tell you how many conversations I have with clients who are like.

But I already said yes, I don't.

Want to say no. I don't want to disappoint them. And so it really is learning how to set boundaries and really learning how treat your energy like a luxury item throughout the whole month, but especially in those lower energy phases, I promise you're going to be so much more productive. You're going to be so much happier doing the work that you're doing. You're going to be so much more grateful, more magnetic and you're going to attract more money, more opportunities and more abundance and you're not going to burn out doing the thing that you love.

Yeah, I think that's so good. And I think it just, it's like this energy conservation conversation, right? Energy is everything. Right. Energy is just the basis of everything. So when we can understand our own energy levels and how to best distribute them towards the things that are going to help us achieve our individual goals, like that's the objective. And so the more that you can learn about your own body, it feels like this hack, right. Of being able to, to look at life and business and money in a whole new light. And so my question to you is, how does somebody start tracking this stuff if they want to figure out where am I in my cycle and how do I pay attention to this? Like, what are the easiest ways for someone to get started if they want to pay attention to where they're at in their cycle and how to best cycle sync their life?

Yeah. So the easiest way is just to download a cycle tracking app. I'm glad you asked this because there are some caveats. So my favorite app is I love the app 28. There's one called Lively that's really good. And the reason I like those is because they don't just help you track your cycle, but they teach you about the four phases and what's going on hormonally as well as nutrition tips, movement tips, like even little exercise videos. It's very, very helpful and definitely geared more towards the feminine. And it's just they're beautifully aesthetic too. So you can start tracking your cycle. The first day of your period is day one of your cycle. So you would mark that as day one and then the last day before you get your next period. So let's say your next period comes on day 31. Then you had a 30 day cycle. Now, one thing to keep in mind here is that basic tracking apps, including the ones I just mentioned, they will give you a prediction day for when you ovulate, but it's not super accurate. It's basically guessing when you ovulate based on the length of your cycle. So typically ovulation happens halfway through the cycle. But if you don't have a regular cycle or you're not most women, because we don't all fall under this perfect science, if you ovulate a little bit later and your app is like, oh, she had a 30 day cycle, that means she ovulated on day 15, but you actually ovulated day 18, that is going to be a problem. If you're either trying to avoid or prevent pregnancy, then that also skews with. You don't actually know which phase you're in because it's not totally accurate. So what you want to do is you actually want to use. And this gets a little bit more intricate. But I have the Oura ring, for example, and I know that's a more expensive option, but it connects with an app called Natural Cycles. And essentially it takes my body temperature, it takes my temperature overnight. And there's something called bbt, which is basal body temperature. You want to track that because it's more specific. When you ovulate, your temperature increases by about 0.5 to 1 degree. So it's a very small amount. And, and when you wear the Oura ring or you use the app Natural Cycles without the Oura ring, they'll send you a thermometer, which is a specific thermometer, the bbt. You'll take your temperature every morning and you want to take it at least five mornings a week. And then once you have about three high temperature days in a row, it will confirm the ovulation has happened. So our temperature can increase if we got up to pee in the middle of the night, if we drank alcohol, if we were sick. So it can be very finicky. Which is why having an app with an algorithm with a thermometer or the Oura ring just makes it a lot easier because it's going to wait until you have enough high temperature days to confirm it and then it goes from there. But there's a lot like with temperature reading, you just want to make sure that you're doing it consistently so that it's filtering out any disruptions. But you can just use the Natural Cycles app as your primary tracking app and that comes with the bbt. Or you could use that plus like another fun app like 28, just because you want to learn more about cycle syncing and have that integrated nutrition and movement and mindset support too.

Okay, so don't just pull out the thermometer that we use when we're sick in our medicine. Right. It's going to be a different thermometer. And then would you say that there's a point where like after three months of doing this or is there like a threshold where eventually it, it is a lot more predictable. Like it does get easier to actually understand when you are in that ovulation phase because I think I have heard so many people that switch to natural cy with the intention of not getting pregnant and ended up pregnant. Like I feel like that is a story I've heard so many times. So at what point does it get easier to start identifying when we are in these cycles? Yeah.

So I would say three months is a good window to give yourself time to learn the method. So if you're not trying to get pregnant, I would just play it safe and use protection for a while until you really feel confident and you're like, okay, my ovulation window is pretty consistent. I now know, you know, I have this long of a cycle, I've had now three cycles where I've ovulated between day 20 or day 17 and 20, you know, or whatever it is and gain more confidence in it. And that's really important. There's fertility awareness educators that literally work with people to help them learn the method so that they are doing it correctly. And luckily tech makes it a lot easier. Now there's other devices like Daisy and TempDrop. TempDrop is an armband, so there's lots of ways of doing it that make it a lot easier and more predictable. But you do want to give yourself time to learn the method and feel really confident before you just like come off birth control or use it for the first time and you're just kind of guessing. And also it takes the algorithm a while to get enough data from your body to be able to give you. Cuz with natural cycles it gives you green days which means you're not fertile, and red days which means that you are. So at first you're gonna get a lot more red days even in your non fertile window because it's learning your body.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. This is such a timely conversation and also leads me to a question I wanna ask you. I feel like it's something I don't know if I've had a lot of clarity on and I know I've talked to other women as well, but I have been on birth control for 15 years now and I'm actually getting off of it this month and am going to be utilizing Everything that you're talking about here with natural cycles and the oura ring and all of that, I do not want to get pregnant yet. I want a little bit of a window off of birth control, especially after being on it for so long. And so question I have for you is, how does being on birth control impact our cycles like this? Like, do you still operate on a normal. Like, do we go through all these four cycles? How does it impact our hormone health? Like, how does getting. Yeah, like I just want to have a conversation about birth control because this is something that has been coming up a lot in circles that I've been in is just the lack of education of what it does to our body. Does somebody on, off birth control operate in the same way going through the four cycles, or do we have something a little bit different to, to be aware of?

Yeah, so that's a great question. No, you don't. So you don't have all four phases because birth control works by shutting down ovulation. So it basically cuts off communication between the brain and the ovaries. So you're not ovulating and that's how you're not getting pregnant. And so you don't have ovulation. Right. So that cuts out the ovulation phase. And then you, you don't have a period, which is also a myth because some women do get a quote unquote period. Do you get a period?

I do, but it's very late.

Okay. So the reason why you get a period is because, and I hear this all the time from women on hormonal birth control. They're like, oh, I have a regular period. It's three days or five days or whatever. Marketers, when the pill first came out, marketers worried that women would freak out if they didn't have a period. Because it's our natural body's mechanism, right? We're used to having a period. So they worried that women might be scared. Oh, all of a sudden I have no period ever. It's so strange. And so they added in the sugar pills. Now the sugar pills are withdrawal pills. So you're not getting the surge of hormones. It basically creates this withdrawal bleed. But it's not a true period. It's not the same as a period. You're not shedding the uterine lining from the previous cycle the same way. It's just a withdrawal bleed. So you don't really have a period and you don't have ovulation. And then it's upon ovulation that we produce progesterone which is one of our sex hormones, we have estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. Right. It's upon ovulation that we produce the majority of our progesterone, but we're not ovulating. So we're also getting that same surge and drop like we would in a normal luteal phase for a lot of women when they come off of hormonal birth control and they wait three or four months and they get their hormones tested. Because I also work with my family business and we do at home hormone testing and consulting and we do saliva testing, which is more accurate than standard blood testing. They'll test their hormones with us and all of a sudden they're estrogen dominant, meaning that their estrogen is too high relative to progesterone. And, and that, I'm not saying it's why every time, but in part can be due to the fact that you've been shutting down the natural progesterone production in lieu of the progestin, which is the progesterone found on the pill, which is synthetic. It's not natural. So that's where then it's like, oh, now I have these estrogen dominant type symptoms, which can be like the painful breasts, the mood swings, weight gain. I mean, there's a lot of symptoms associated with mood swings. I think I already said that. But associated with estrogen dominance, it also can impact your gut microbiome. And so sometimes women will have gut health issues afterwards. It also suppresses, and this is hormonal birth control, also suppresses testosterone, which is why a lot of women are put on it for breakouts, because estrogen, high testosterone can create breakouts. And then when they come off of the pill, if they don't transition off of it mindfully and with the right support, they'll get this resurgence of acne that's like worse than ever before. And then they're scared, so they go right back on the pill.

So, so you're literally describing me in 2020. I tried to get off of the pill one time in my life, and I was off of it for a couple months and the mood swings were crazy. I had never felt anything like it. My face started breaking out and I've been scared to get off of it again. But I actually read a book called beyond the Pill that was very, very eye opening for me. And me in 2020 and me in 2025 are very different versions of myself from diet, fitness hall consumption. All of that is like a complete 180. And so I'm hopeful that impact on getting off of it. But yeah it's so interesting how we don't have education about everything that you just said how much it impacts it. And I'll just like speak for myself of it just kind of is like man do I even know me yet? Do I even know the way my body's going to operate through these different cycles of like actually having a real cycle? So I don't know. I. I know this won't apply to everybody but I am just curious what your advice would be I guess selfishly of transitioning or if somebody is on birth control and wants to get off of it. Like what are the tips and tricks to make it to your point? Like a more of a smooth transact transition.

Ye uh, we actually have a whole blog post that I wrote on YourHormOneBalance.com if you go to transitioning off hormonal birth control it'll give you like all the steps. But the thing that you want to know is that hormonal birth control depletes key minerals, key vitamins and minerals. So it depletes magnesium, selenium, vitamin C, B vitamins. And because of that that actually can create a lot of symptoms post pill. So usually what I have my clients do is I get them on a really high quality prenatal even if they're not not wanting to get pregnant three months before coming off the pill to replenish those minerals that are getting depleted. And the prenatal I recommend is wenatal because there's a lot of bad prenatals on the market. Like even the ones that most doctors recommend don't have the right amounts of the vitamins and minerals that we need. And so there's like only two that I recommend and that's one of them. And so to take a high quality prenatal and then someone women also need like extra B vitamins in addition to the prenatal like a really good B complex. Dr. Jolene Bright and who wrote the book beyond the Pill has the one that I recommend and that's because not only can those be depleted but also if you have any kind of adrenal dysfunction, nervous system dysregulation, you're really stressed, you need B vitamins like get on that and not just B12 but like the combination that's another mistake I see is people just taking b12 cuz it has really good marketing but we need the complex like we need the right combination of all of the B. So those two things and then what I love to teach too Is is I have a membership that I'm launching this week and I've been building out the content for that and going through it with a live group first. And we talked about if you're on hormonal birth control, even if you don't have regular periods, maybe you have a missing period, you can still actually cycle sync. And what you can do until you have a regular period is you can use a moon calendar, you can download that and you can treat the four phases of the moon like the four phases of your cycle because they very much align. A moon phase is 29 days, so very similar to the amount of a woman's cycle. And there's four distinct phases that wax and wane. And so you can actually just follow the moon phases and use the recommendations from each of the cycle syncing phases to sync up with the moon. And that can help you to actually regulate your cycle. That can help you to prepare for coming off of the pill because you're doing all of the things to support your body and you don't have to wait until you have a regular cycle.

That's so good to know. That's interesting because I have been saying once I get off birth control, I can't wait to actually cycle sync. So it's so interesting. I could have been trying to align it this whole time. So that's so good to know. And I want to ask a quick clarifying question around because we're talking about the pill, right? And I, I know I'm on the pill, but is this, is this all the same for any sort of birth control? Right. I think of, I've got friends that are on the IUD or I know there's other ones, but is that all across the board? Does all of this impact us in the same way or are there nu to the types of birth control that people are on?

So there's the birth control pill and then there's hormonal IUDs, like you said. The most popular is like Mirena. There's one called Kylena. Mostly they work in a similar way. They are this T shaped device that is inserted into the uterus and then it delivers the small dose of progestin, which is, remember the synthetic version of progesterone. It's not the natural progesterone and it prevents pregnancy a little bit different than the pills. So it creates inflammation in the body that's hostile to sperm. It also thickens the uterine lining, so it's not great for implantation. And then it can thicken Cervical fluid to prevent sperm from reaching the egg. Now, if I had to choose between hormonal birth control, the pill, and the iud, I would typically choose an IUD because it doesn't typically suppress ovulation the whole time that you're on it. It will suppress it. And I can't remember the exact percentage, but I think it's like 85% of cycles. It will suppress ovulation within the first year. And that's because the dose of the contraceptive is higher. And then as the dose, you know, you're, you're on it for this period of time, like the dose lessens and then a lot of women start to ovulate. So you can actually track ovulation while you're on the IUD and using basal body thermometer to see if you're ovulating, and then you are getting more of that rhythm than someone that's on, on the birth control pill. However, still, you're still getting synthetic hormones.

Yeah. Okay, interesting. You know, these, there's all these TikTok conversations that go around about the impact of birth control and hormones. I gotta get your stance here. What is the, the conversation around if you're on birth control and you get off birth control, that impacting who we are attracted to from a partner perspective? Have you heard this? I feel like I keep hearing people talk about, about this.

I have heard that. And you know what? I, I can't honestly say if that's rooted in fact, but it makes sense on a primal level. You let's say that your testosterone is being suppressed, which happens when you're taking the pill, like we talked about. Right. So a lot of women on the pill will have very low libido and they don't feel like having sex. And then when they come off of the pill, it's like, whoa, there it is. That's going to change probably what you're in the mood to do potentially who you're attracted to, just based on the. That your levels of testosterone, your libido, your sex drive, your endurance, your stamina is gonna be different if you have more estrogen relative to progesterone. Like, these are all sex hormones. So they impact the growth of our, our breasts, our uterus. Like they impact who we are at our core, what our body looks like, how it acts, and the pheromones that we release. And so, yeah, it makes sense that we would be attracted to someone different. Especially if your hormones are repressed for a long time and you're experiencing anxiety or depression as A result, low confidence is associated with low testosterone. Then you might imagine that the person that you believe that you deserve looks different too. Are you gonna put yourself out there in the same ways? You know, so kind of my take on it, I think it does absolutely make sense. I don't have, like, science studies to back it up, but that's. Yeah, that's kind of what I would say.

That's so funny. My husband and I were joking when I was talking about getting off, but he's like, you see these trends? Like, are you still gonna love me? And I'm like, oh, my gosh, settle down. We're gonna be good.

Yeah, like, you're in your power. And you're like, no, I'm good.

But I love the way you just said that. It's not necessarily, like, attracted to different. It's almost like giving confidence back to women to be like, well, wait a second. What am I worth here? And what do I want? And are you now up to my standards? Because I've now realized I'm a bad mama jama over here, here, and I want to make sure that you're supportive of that.

Yeah, like, stepping into your 2.0 self. You're probably like, even. Just if I think back to when I was on hormonal birth control, I was in the most toxic relationship of my life. My boyfriend was cheating on me nonstop. He spoke down to me all the time. I was like a doormat. I did whatever he wanted. I was constantly saying sorry. I was apologizing for being myself. And it's interesting because I never thought about that. And then maybe it was somewhat connected to coming off of the pill, but it also was like, rebuilding my self worth after being with someone who treated me that badly. Deadly. And realizing, oh, no, wait, I actually am kind of cool. Like, I do enjoy my company. I am worthy of being happy and meeting someone that treats me right. And it was like my whole mindset on who I was and what I deserved changed, and therefore what I was willing to tolerate change. Like, I would never be attracted to that kind of person ever again. Like, I wouldn't even look his way, you know? And so that's why I attracted my current partner and husband, who would never speak down to me like that, who treats me like a queen, you know, all that stuff where. Yeah, I. I really think that that does play a role.

Yeah, I think that's awesome. I feel like what I'm taking away from this entire conversation is, again, just this, like, empowerment of understanding our bodies, understanding our cycles. And letting it be a superpower.

Right?

Again, when we live in such this like male dominated world, we have a superpower. The fact that we don't operate on this 24 hour cycle and the fact that we can be extra extro during some weeks and then a little bit more introverted other weeks and the fact that we have this power to control our month in a new aligned way, to show up bigger and more confidently for ourselves, for our lives, for our goals, for our business, so we can make the money, so we can live the life like this. Just again, it feels just like this empowering thing to recognize and view our cycles as a superpower. When I think society has really made women in our cycles to be this like vicious, I don't know if vicious is the right word. But just like this negative thing like, oh, you guys are so emotional, you're up, you're down. And I, I, I just love this narrative right now of flipping the script on that. And it's a superpower, it's not a downfall. And I think the more women can understand and lean into this and learn about their body, I just think that to your point, it's just going to instill so much more confidence in how we can show up and understanding that and utilizing it to our advantage. So I, I just think that this is so exciting and I can't wait for more and more women to understand this and utilize this information to continue to just step into our power and take over the world. Because that's what we're after.

Yes. Oh my gosh, yes. And I love that you say it can be your superpower because that's what I say. It's not your setback, it's your superpower. And it's, it's almost like this magic within us that we discover that we have and it's like, oh my gosh, I have superpowers. Can you imagine if you didn't know your whole life and then you're like, I have superpowers. And how much brighter and more incredible your life would be. And of course with superpowers, like you have to learn how to use them and sometimes they backfire and you learn and you grow and, and that's a part of the fun right now. When I have a bad period or symptoms that I don't normally have, it's not. Oh God, what did you do? Did you eat sugar? Did you drink too much alcohol? It's okay, Jess. Let's look back at the previous month. You did have a lot of stress that month. You were traveling more, you know, you were eating more meals out. So that makes sense. And it's not that I did something wrong or I can't come back from this, but it's learning how to nurture my. To pour back into myself, to be like, I actually have a lot more control than I give myself credit for. And this is really cool. And then you see the improvements. You see the improvements, and it is just so empowering and it's exciting.

Yeah. I think I'm kind of in my era of I was in my masculine energy for so long and I'm just really learning to like, love being a woman. Like the last couple years, love being a woman, leaning into the feminine energy. And again, like, it is a superpower. Like, men can't do what we can do. I think that's. And that's something that we should be proud of and not this, like, comparison of, like, well, you know, why aren't we like them? So I think that's awesome.

Yes, I know, I know.

You mentioned your membership that you're launching Supercharger Cycle. Can we talk about it for a minute? Like, what goes on in there? How does someone know if they're listening to this and they're like, wait, I want it. I need to know all the details about it. Like, who is this membership for? And what are they going to get out of being in something like this?

Totally. Yeah. So by the time this comes out, it'll be launched and it's called SYC. So supercharge your cycle to align with 2.0 self. And it's really for. It's meant for ambitious women who are ready to truly sync with their bodies, to understand their cyclical bodies on a deeper level. Like you said, turn it into their superpower. They want to regulate their nervous system. They want to elevate their mindset. Because when you do that, you create a power, powerful ripple effect across every area of your life. So it's not just your health, which is huge because I always say health is wealth, it's your relationships, it's your success, it's your finances, it's your fulfillment, it's your passions. And so. So that's what I'm so passionate about with this membership, is that there's a course inside of the membership called the SYC course where you're going to learn how do I track my cycle? How do I work with the moon phases? We go through each phase. Nutrition, movement, mindset, nervous system, so that you feel so empowered and that you start to take these action Steps that actually help you to feel more energized, reduce your pms, have a better period, feel more connected to your body, improve your relationship with food, be able to set better boundaries, work with your energy and your rhythms instead of against them so that you can show up better in business and life. And it creates the ripple effect. And so then all of a sudden, like we talked about, you're like, oh, wait, my business is growing, I'm making more money, I'm feeling more confident in my own skin, I'm attracting a more aligned partner. I'm really feeling like I have these strong boundaries that I'm able to feed back into myself now instead of giving all my energy away. And then on top of it, there's a vault that has guided visualizations and activations to support you through all of these different challenges. Maybe it's, you want to improve your relationship with food, you want to calm your anx and you're, you want to release stress. Like, whatever it is, there's a guided visualization for you. And then there's also a group because as you know, community is such an important part of every journey. It's like we can put the strategy in place and we can have all of the puzzle pieces aligned, but if we don't have the right support system and we don't have other women, and I say women because that's who I work with in our lives that get it, that understand what we're going through, that are there to support us, to be our cheerleaders, to help us dust off our knees when we fall down and be like, it's all right, you've got this, then it can be a lot harder because many of us, while we love our family and our friends, sometimes those family members and those friends aren't actually able to support us in the stage or season of our life that are, that we're in or they don't know how. And so having women that do get it and that want you to succeed and that want the accountability too, is just like nothing else. And so that community element. And then there will be live group coaching every month. Then guest experts. Experts. I was actually going to talk to you because I want to bring in guests that aren't just talking about health, but are talking about money. Because financial wellness is a huge piece of your health. So bringing in people like Madison and gut health experts, manifestation experts, like, it really is your one stop hug to really elevate and step into that next level version of yourself.

I love it. I think it's so cool. It's such a unique perspective and again it's just like if we're trying to get to like root cause of how we can show up as our best selves, this feels like a no brainer as a woman who's trying to expand, reach the next level and just like understand herself better. So I'm so intrigued to learn about this and I just want to say thank you for coming on and having this conversation and just owning this space. And I know that we talked a lot about cycle syncing, but I know that you do so much else within your world of helping women. I know that this was just a topic that again it just, it keeps popping up and how can we get more in tune with our bodies to show up and you know, make the money that we want to make to live the life that we want to make. And so I just love the work that you're doing and I think it's so incredible. So thank you so much for being here. And if you guys are listening to this and you're like I need more of this in my life, make sure you go ahead and reach out and follow her hop in this membership. You probably gonna find me inside there too as I'm in my getting off birth control era and trying to cycle sync my life. Cause I just, I've seen women talk about the impact of this. Again, it feels like a no brainer to to learn more about your body and figure out how to tune your life to this. So where can everybody find you? Tell us where you hang out. Podcast, Instagram, TikTok. Where, where like to yap with the ladies.

Yeah. Well thank you for saying all that. That makes my heart so happy and I really appreciate you having me on. I can be found at Body Bliss by Jess on all the things. I'm mostly on Instagram and bodyblissbyjess.com what else? Oh, I do have a podcast. Solo 2.0 podcast. It's on break right now. We're coming back with the name she Only Lives Once. Cuz that's actually what it stands for. So it'll be she Only Lives Once and that'll be back in January. We're actually gonna have Madison on and I'm so excited for that. But it's really a health well and personal development podcast. So I love it. My sister's my best friend, we work together in business and yeah, we just have so much fun. So those are the main places and you can always send me a DM on Instagram. My DMs are always open. Amazing.

Yay. Well, we will link all of that in the show notes for you guys if you're listening. If you had any good takeaways from this episode. If you're like, you know what? I'm about to be in my cycle syncing era, make sure you reach out to Jess, shoot her a dm, let her know how you found us. So excited to see you guys on the next episode.

I.