QUICK PSA: Everybody Poops, or they should. To the men out there, this article may be too much information for you. UNLESS you have a lovely lady who also has painful periods and constipation! My first week of 30 Days to Healthy Living started out with a menstrual cycle from Satan himself. After a full 36 days of waiting, mother nature hit me with a right hook. I don’t know about you, ladies, but my insides go ballistic when it wishes to shed its uterine lining!

My menstrual cycle has never been normal. When I was 15 I was diagnosed with Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). An ultrasound revealed 18 cysts on my left ovary and something like 15 on my right. There was a cyst on my left ovary the size of a grapefruit. The OB/GYN told us that I needed laparoscopic surgery to drain it.   When they were draining my largest cyst, they found that I also had endometriosis. Endometriosis, to put it simply, is when your uterine lining meant to grow inside your uterus, grows outside instead. This abnormal lining causes significant inflammation and intense pain during menstrual cycles. There would also be times when I would go consecutive months without a period.

I finally got my menstrual cycle under control through diet (gluten free and most importantly dairy free) and consistent specific Chiropractic care. Thank You Dr. Corey Neill (S.O.T Chiropractor)and Dr. Leah Rezin (N.E.T Chiropractor). The one thing that has been routine for me now that I have a normal cycle is that, a few days before my period starts, I become extremely constipated. I’m talking to the point where my pants don’t fit me, and I look a few months pregnant. It’s around this time that I start singing, “she’ll be coming around the mountain when she comes….” No joke. It’s the first thing that pops into my head as I embrace my week of womanhood.

This month, however, was different because I was throwing new things at my body, 30 days to healthy living, and I had just cut out my good friend Coffee. For three days I came home extremely uncomfortable and cursing, “WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?! THIS PROGRAM WAS SUPPOSED TO REGULATE ME NOT MAKE THINGS WORSE!”

Guess what… when a body relies on a chemical substance (coffee) for normal processes (bowel movements), it won’t reset in 72 hours.

Every day I explain to patients that their aches and pains won’t resolve in one visit, it will take time to make a correction. The same is true for the rest of the systems in your body. Just because I started the 30 Days to Healthy Living did not mean that my digestive system would reset. To make matters worse I was fooled by my menstrual cycle which increased the probability that I would have constipation during the first week of the 30 days.

The joys of my menstrual cycle started 4 days into the 30 Days to Healthy Living, and finally my bloated belly was able to return to normal. Despite my basic white girl cravings for chocolate and wine, I was handling my new eating habits with my cycle fairly well.

Here’s why.

The 30 Days to Healthy Living is designed not only to guide you into normal eating habits, but it will help decrease inflammation in your body caused by toxic foods! The best part? They lay it all out for you in a meal plan schedule of 4 meals a day!

This schedule was easy to follow and curved the cravings I usually get during my cycle. The chocolate shake in the afternoon quenched my chocolate craving, and gave me a boost of greens for nutrients and vitamins. I am someone who is constantly hungry on my menstrual cycle, and I can honestly say that this meal plan left me satisfied throughout my first week. Not only was it beneficial for the emotional cravings of menstruation, but it is designed to decrease inflammation in the body, so it naturally helped with my endometriosis.

Endometriosis as stated above is the abnormal shedding of your uterine lining.  The abnormal process can be influenced by an increase of chronic inflammation. Two years ago I made the decision to cut gluten out of my diet due to my reproductive organ problems, and then a year ago I cut dairy out too. I chose these two food groups because of their affinity for making interleukin 6 as a byproduct during digestion in your gut. Interleukin 6 is a fancy name for inflammation.

No matter who you are. or how you feel, after eating gluten and dairy, your body will make inflammation as a by product. As someone who suffered from an inflammatory disease (endometriosis) it made sense to me to cut these food groups out on my own to manage my condition. The best part about cutting these groups out was that I was able to get myself off of birth control — a drug that makes your body regulate to a 28 day cycle (which is not everyone’s “normal”), and can give you side effects such as depression, chronic fatigue, and long term infertility.  Have you noticed the infertility rates in this country….

If you are someone who struggles with endometriosis, or PCOS, and you are like the old me, sick (literally) and tired of being on birth control drugs, evaluate the dietary changes you can change on your own! The 30 Days to Healthy Living is a perfect way to get started, because it requires you to eliminate these inflammatory food groups to start with! Message me on how to get started, and remember, the first week may be hell, or it could just be the best way way to thank your body for putting up with all the junk you’ve been putting into it for the last few decades!

As always, like and subscribe to the Dr. Trefnoff (Healthy Living) Blog, and speak to your health care provider before making any changes!