Whether you’re a professional mother or a working professional, or both, each day you provide unending value, support, and energy to the world around you. In order for you to sustain those around you, you must first sustain yourself. Here’s a few tips to keep your menstrual cycle symptoms from interfering with your daily life every month. Remember, making even subtle changes to your routine can make an incredible difference in your quality of life.

1. Movement with Intention: Take a brisk 45 minute walk every day or break it up into smaller segments of 15 minutes in the morning, at lunch and after dinner. If you already spend a fair amount of time during the day walking, count your steps with an odometer. Approximately 2000 steps is equivalent to one mile. Most importantly, move with the sake of intention. If you’re experiencing a high amount of stress, set an intention at the beginning of the walk to release that stress with each step you take. If walking isn’t your style, but biking or running is, do that instead. Simply do what you enjoy on a regular basis. Stress is a key factor in PMS so set your intention to release it daily.

2. Raw Nutrition: Ideally you want all of your food sources to be fresh as opposed to processed. Processed foods are stripped of most of their nutritional value by the time they reach your plate and are essentially digested as empty calories. If this seems overwhelming, start simply by regularly incorporating one new vegetable into your diet each week. Food should be our first medicine and vegetable have all the nutrients your body craves. Feed your body well and it will BE well.

3. Daily Juice: Start your day with a tall glass of fresh vegetable juice instead of a tall latte. If vegetables sound daunting first thing in the morning, add small amounts of fruit and/or yogurt to create a more balanced flavor. For bonus points, try to use only fruits and vegetables that are in season or a macrobiotic diet. Our ancestors ate this way and it’s a sure fire way to super charge for body which translates to less PMS symptoms.

4. Indulge: Slip between the sheets for a good night’s rest 30 minutes earlier than usual. At the end of the week this equals an additional 3.5 hours of sleep. Lack of sleep is one of the highest risk factors for poor health and therefore one of the most valuable things you could choose to indulge in. Getting enough sleep allows your body run smoothly and efficiently. Many hormone functions are produced or are timed to release during sleep or right before sleep. So any shortage will affect your monthly cycle in the long run.

5. Consider Herbal Alternatives: Explore alternative therapies such as Chinese Herbs. Dang Gui, has been shown to help balance hormones naturally, effectively decreasing PMS symptoms such as mood swings, cramps, headaches, bloating, and breast tenderness. Dang Gui is known as the female Ginseng, therefore a very important herb. You can boil this herb raw and drink as a tea or purchase in tea bags or bulk. Either way drinking a cup of dang gui tea each day helps your body gradually balance out your hormones and alleviates both PMS during the month and reduces cramping during your cycle.

This post is proudly a part of Prevention Not Prescriptions Tuesday @ The Kathleen Show. For more information and to check out some other great health blogs click here.