No, whether not you feel supremely bloated is not the only thing your menstrual cycle affects. In fact, start to track your period and you may find all kinds of things falling into place.
That’s according to Alisa Vitti, creator of the MyFlo App, which is designed for cycle tracking and hormone balancing.
Vitti is the founder of virtual hormone health center Flo Living and the author of WomanCode, and she’s on a mission to convince women that painful, emotionally-draining periods are not normal. The problem, she says, is likely that your hormones are out of whack and that you’re not paying attention to what your body needs at different points during your cycle.
Using MyFlo, she hopes, will help address that.
“It is my intention that this app not only helps more women have easier, healthier periods, but also finally lets women plan their lives according to their cyclical nature and neuro-hormonal reality,” she says. In other words, balanced hormones and a humming cycle won’t just curb cramps—your moods, energy, and productivity may improve for all 28 days.
Here’s how it works:
- Track your period. You’ll input days when you have your period, when you’re having sex, and how you feel each day to track symptoms.
- Find root causes of your symptoms. MyFlo analyzes which of your symptoms keep coming back and then recommends food-based remedies to correct them.
- Sync your calendar. One your cycle is established, it will also recommend weekly activities that work for your body depending on the phase you’re in, so you’re not pushing through boot camp when your uterus is pleading for yoga. And it’ll help you determine when during the month you’re at your most productive and persuasive, so you can plan important projects (or meetings in which you ask for a raise?) accordingly.
Just think: How great would it be if instead of disrupting your work week with sugar cravings, your cycle actually made it better?