Cycle Synching Basics for ADHD Women: Your Hormones are Your Energy Superpower #116

 
 

Hold up...You're telling me we can harness the power of our cycles by syncing our activities with our hormone and energy fluctuations!? Can we say mind blown?

When I learned how cycle syncing helps women create a lifestyle based on their own body's natural flow of hormonal changes, I was hooked.

And then, finding out how our menstrual cycles & our hormones affect our ADHD symptoms and energy levels, I went into full hyperfocus mode: Chronic fatigue and energy regulation are serious issues for women with ADHD.

I know this chat with wellness guru and creator of The Productive Mum community AND podcast, Sara-Jane Ladums (aka SJ) is going to help soooo many ADHD mamas.

She and I dive into the basics of cycle syncing and:
- the struggles and symptoms we face during our cycles
- how what we eat affects our hormonal levels
- learning to accept our bodies and work WITH what's going on internally
- how we can use our cycle to understand our energy regulation
- why an analogy of the seasons can help us understand the phases of our cycles

Cycle syncing is absolutely fascinating and it doesn't have to be overly complicated. There are lots of simple ways you can implement the awareness of it into your daily life.

Think about ALL the things going on in your bodies...would you be willing to make a couple of tweaks so you allow yourself to feel and be your best? If so - I encourage you to consider learning more about cycle syncing.

I want you to realize how you can set your body up for success by listening to what your body needs, and making sure to support it with understanding and grace.

You live in an amazing body that can grow an entire human, mama. I hope you enjoy all the info and advice that SJ gives during this conversation. I was soaking up alllll the goodness and I want you to know, you can feel better in your body.

Special thanks to SJ for hanging out with me and sharing her energy-giving knowledge with us! Learn more about SJ on her website here and check out The Productive Mum Academy here while you're at it. 

REMINDER: There's a place where you can get your calendar and to-do list organized one step at a time, so you enjoy more time with your kids while feeling confident + capable in your day... even when your ADHD hijacks your plan. Sign-ups for Daily Planning for ADHD Moms are open! Click here to sign up --> bit.ly/adhdplan

JOIN THE MOTHERHOOD IN ADHD COMMUNITY

Links to things mentioned in this episode:
The Stefanie Gass Show - Episode 338: Instagram Detox


STOP SPINNING IN CIRCLES, UNSURE ABOUT WHAT TO DO NEXT.

It's time to feel confident and capable in how you run your day.

After the kids are in bed and you look back at your day, it’s possible to feel both productive & accomplished.

Learn how to keep up with your calendar and organize your to-do list in an ADHD & mom-friendly way.

Sign up now for class: Daily Planning for ADHD Moms!


Sara-Jane Ladums  00:00

As they're coming towards the luteal phase, I'm giving them recipes for like healthy chocolate chip cookies, and healthy peanut butter cookies and things like, and they're kind of looking at me like, really well, like, why is my personal trainer? Shouldn't I be like really restricting my calories? And I'm like, No.

 Patricia Sung  00:23

Are you overwhelmed by motherhood and barely keeping your head above water? Are you confused and frustrated by how all the other moms make it look so easy. You can figure out how to manage the chaos in your mind, your home, or your family. I get your mama, parenting with ADHD is hard. Here is your permission slip to let go of the Pinterest worthy visions of organization and structure fit for everyone else. Let's do life like our brains do life creatively, lovingly, and with all our might. When we embrace who we are and how our brains work, we can figure out how to live our lives successfully, and in turn, lead our families well, at the end of the day, we just want to be good moms. but spoiler alert, you are already a great mom. ADHD does not mean you're doomed to be a hot mess mama, you can rewrite your story from shame spiral to success story. And I'll be right here beside you to cheer you on. Welcome to motherhood in ADHD.

 Patricia Sung  01:29

Hey there successful mama. It's your friend Patricia Sung. I have a treat for you today. My friend Sarah Jane Addams is here to talk to us about cycle thinking. Now, I have recently totally gone down to hyperfocus hole and jumped into cycle thinking because our ADHD bodies are just more sensitive to change to stress and man are cycles literally the change in stress that we deal with every month. I've gotten to know Sarah Jane over the last few months, and we've been working on a podcast cohort together, really figuring out how to improve what we're doing so we can reach as many women as possible. Sarah Jane focuses on helping mompreneurs reclaim their energy and time through cycle syncing their workouts, nutrition and to do less.

 Patricia Sung  02:19

Sarah Jane is going to explain to us what cycles thinking is how we can use that to our advantage and simple ways that we can apply the principles of cycle thinking to our daily lives so that we can honor our bodies and use the cycle to our advantage. She calls it using it as a superpower instead of working against it trying to do things that were not meant to do at that point in the cycle. This is so good. And I am honored to share this with you because I know that that is going to make such a huge difference in the way that you function day to day, but also in the way that you can teach your kids about how we talk about our bodies and that periods don't have to be gross and yucky.

 Patricia Sung  02:58

They're actually an amazing system that allows us to grow humans. I mean, that is amazing stuff. And we can teach that and change the narrative with our children, not only our daughters and understanding how their bodies work, but also in our sons so that they can understand what a beautiful thing it is. And how can you better deal with women when our bodies are under stress and doing a lot of hard work. So let's jump right in with Sarah Jane Latham's. Alright, let's welcome Sarah Jane Latins to the show. How are you doing today?

 Sara-Jane Ladums  03:31

I am very good. Thank you, Patricia, for having me. I'm really honored to be on your podcast, I have to say I am a huge fan of your podcast. So thank you very much for having me.

 Patricia Sung  03:40

Thank you. I'm, I'm excited. I mean, so we're obviously in very different time zones. So I appreciate you staying up late and chatting with me. Because you know, our brain gets a little tired by the end of the day. So I appreciate you making it work juggling the kids and all. Well, let's jump right in. I'm like, so excited about this topic. I can't even help myself here. So last week on the podcast, we were talking about just the general like, understanding our cycles better because we are so affected by our hormones. And we just don't get much information about like, I feel like it's one of the great disservices of women is that we aren't taught about how our bodies function and like what they're doing and what that means. So last week, we literally just went through like super basics of your cycle and understanding like the different names and what's happening really basic. And today I want to talk about cycle thinking because we're not taught to honor our bodies in that way. And like understanding what it's doing.

 Patricia Sung  04:36

I feel like we're taught like this is just like a nuisance, and it's an irritation every month that we have to put up with, and we don't really understand what our body is doing. And it's like this great mystery. And once I started understanding truly what my body was doing, I had a lot more grace for myself in understanding that it's not just me being tired or lazy. It's that truly my My body is working really hard right now. And I need to give it that space and honor it. And we just we just weren't taught to appreciate it is more like a nuisance. And so once I started diving into this, I was like, Oh, my goodness, this is like a whole world I didn't even know existed. So I'm so excited for you to be here and bear with us what cycle thinking is and how it can help us. So let's just we'll back up for a second. Can you just tell me about how did you discover it, and what even got you interested into diving into this topic?

 Sara-Jane Ladums  05:31

Like you said, I really didn't have a clue about this probably until about two years ago. And I'm a former teacher like yourself, and I don't know about you. But I remember when I was in school, being taught about the menstrual cycle by some creepy science dude, out of a textbook in a science lab. And that was literally how I was taught about my body. And I think so often, we look at women as being small men. And we're not like our bodies are totally different. We can have children for a start. And so often, we think about our periods as being a nuisance, as you said, and it's something that's really inconvenient. And I personally struggled with my periods, I struggled with headaches in particular. And it's just something that I always lived with every single month, I would have like about two days out of that month, where I would have some kind of migraine. And I was constantly relying on really strong painkillers, to be able to go to work. And then there were some days where I just couldn't, I just couldn't physically get out of bed because these headaches were just so bad. And I just assumed that was just normal, like part of everyday life. I put up with it.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  06:49

I mean, I think that must have started when I was like 25. And I'm 41 now. And it wasn't until I had my daughter, Chloe, who is now full on when I fell pregnant, those headaches stopped. And I was like, Okay, well, that's great. But obviously, I had all of the other lovely stuff that comes in potency. And then when she was born, and we were about six months postpartum, and my headaches started, come back. And I thought, oh, gosh, great, here we go. So I've got a newborn, I've got these headaches, I can't get rid of them. And I will just back up a second as well. Because my background is I'm a sports teacher. So like I've done sports science, like I know quite a lot about the body as teaching that sort of thing in school as well. And when I had my daughter, Chloe, I needed to find a way to work so that I could be around for her like so many of us mums want to do, and also make use of the qualifications that I had. So I retrained to be a personal trainer here in the UK if to get an extra qualification. So I did that. And I was still struggling with these headaches. So I knew they weren't stress. And I started to notice like a little bit of a pattern. I went to my doctor and I had a conversation with him about it. And I don't know if it's the same for you guys in the US. But you know, like seeing a doctor, we get about 10 minutes, and you're trying to describe what's going on. And he's a guy and he was trying to do everything that he could to help and support me. But his answer was to give me a pill. And I'm kind of like, that's great. And obviously, I'm not a medical professional. And I am going to sort of put that caveat in here.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  08:28

But me being me, and I know Patricia, you're a bit like me with this as well. And like I wanted to find out like knowledge is power, isn't it like if you know stuff, so I fell down the rabbit hole, if you like when it came to cycle syncing, and I learned and I read and I consumed every book, every journal that I could find everything. And I started to put the pieces of the puzzle together. And I started to use myself as a guinea pig. And I was changing my diet, I was changing the way that I worked out. And all of a sudden, I could see month by month by month that these migraines weren't impacting me in the way they used to. And I'm not going to sit here and say they've completely disappeared. But it's a point where my life is manageable. And I'm not having to take out like two days, every single month because I've got these horrible headaches. So that was where I started the cycle of thinking I kind of like massively helped myself. And I was thinking, well, if I have this surely other people do. And when you start talking about it with like everything, isn't it? You start talking to other people. They're like, yeah, I get headaches. I get really bad PMT. Like why don't we talk about the stuff? Why are we so frightened to have this conversation? So yeah, that's where it all started for me.

 Patricia Sung  09:47

So I'm like I have to ask him I'm like but but like so what was the headache problem? I need to know what the migraines Yeah, like had what did you figure out was the like missing piece there.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  09:56

Okay, so the main missing piece was my diet and I what I was eating and how I was eating. So in terms of, you know, like, if we kind of start digging into it a little bit more, so you were talking about, like, you've said that you've sort of looked at the different phases, there is food that you can be eating to change, like what's going on with your hormones, particularly with estrogen. So for me, personally, what I found was that I was really estrogen dominant. So my estrogen would rise really, really high. And then when it dropped it kind of like it like a massive big roller coaster, and it was the crashing down. That was what was triggering my headaches.

Patricia Sung  10:39

Okay, okay. I've been like really digging into hormone because also with my chronic illness, and I have mold toxicity and got a whole pile of problems that are all thankfully being worked on. But when I part of diving into this is that the mold toxicity has really affected my hormones and how they are interacting with each other. And so now I'm all like, I got to know more like, I'm all into you all the estrogen, progesterone imbalances, and all this stuff. So I'm excited. I'm like, Okay, let me write it in, though, because also, you know, I like to keep my attention span. So I'm going to try to pull it together here. So can you give us just a brief overview of understanding what is cycle thinking.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  11:18

So it's about really, I think, the way that I describe it, it's about like working with your body rather than against it. Knowing what is happening in your body at certain times, your cycle, like typically is about they describe it as being like 28 days, we're all different, we're all individual. But cycle thinking is about knowing the different phases that your hormones in your body is going through understanding what's happening, so that you, as you said, at the start of the podcast was a bit you can give yourself some grace. But also, one of the things that I love about cycle thinking is that actually, I like to think of it as like my superpower. Because I know that there's certain times the moments where I'm going to be really good at some things, and perhaps not so good at others. And I can harness that power. And you know, like, there's lots of, we won't go crazy, because I know you and I geek out on this pages. But there's an awful lot that's going on in your brain and your brains working in different ways at different times of your cycle. And you can really, really take advantage of that. And that's what I love is like changing the mindset and reframing it to actually being something that, you know, is an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

 Patricia Sung  12:27

So where have you seen the biggest differences in the benefits? Now that you've implemented this, and it's been you know, enough time that you can truly see the differences? If you could say like the top three things, where do you see the most difference in the benefit of just your general life.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  12:42

So for me personally, the main benefit is definitely I don't have the headaches, that's like number one, like I get a normal headache, I don't have a migraine. So that's like the biggest change for me. The second one is like weight loss and the way that I work out with my body. So now that I have an understanding of cycles, thinking, I know that at certain times of the month, my body's gonna respond better to certain types of exercise, rather than thinking that I'm a small man. And so many fitness programs are designed by men are tested by men, and not women. And I mean, I often work out with my husband. And the way that his body reacts to a workout compared to mine is totally different. So it means that if I've got an understanding of how my body works, I can train it and I can work out in a better way. And ultimately, because for a lot of people, you know, working out equals weight loss. I've personally managed to lose weight and stay consistent, instead of this up and down yo yo rollercoaster of, you know, putting on weight and losing weight. So I've managed to keep stable. So those are kind of like the two main things for me, in terms of my health.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  13:55

Now I have a business like you do. The other thing that's really benefited me from understanding cycles thinking, it's actually how I go about running my business and doing my work. So I'm not expecting myself to be switched on like 24/7, go, go, go, go go. But actually knowing that there's periods in my cycle where I need to take a step back and take a bit of a rest. And there are times when I'm going to be better at doing other tasks. And I think in our society was so good at feeling like we've got to push and push and push and push all the time. But our body needs rest. And I think if you understand cycles, thinking, you can then program that into the things that you got to do.

 Patricia Sung  14:36

I'm sure I've mentioned this on previous episodes, but like when we talk about like scientific studies, or like testing a fitness program, usually people will choose their participants. They pick men on purpose because they don't have cycles, like they are a more steady and predictable test subjects. So they're like, Oh, I'm gonna go with that one because I don't have to account for other things. So there's not as many outside factors. So it's like in that way, it's disadvantage, because then all the studies that go on are not on us. But yet, when we really think about Will, our body is doing different things at different times, like when you stop and think about it, like, wow, that sounds really dumb that we expect ourselves to do the same thing. Every day, when our body does not run like that our body doesn't do the same thing every day, our body runs on a cycle. So when I like started researching this, I was like, Oh, my goodness, like, how, how do we not talk about? Like, what was what was it like, what, why.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  15:34

And it's so funny when you think about it. I mean, as a fitness instructor, there are so many women, they come into a class and they'd start like coming to a class on a regular basis. And you would notice that certain people would not be there or certain weeks after a while, and you start thinking, and how many of us have gone to a fitness class and tried really, really hard to push through this class and expect our bodies to perform at the same level every single time. But our bodies just don't work like that. And I love cycle thinking because it gives you the permission to be kinder to yourself, and not be beating yourself over the head or the time with this stick and making yourself feel like you're not doing good enough feeling inadequate sometimes. And actually, if you understand how your body's working, you can be kind to yourself.

 Patricia Sung  16:22

Yeah. And I think just as a whole as women, we we need that message of being kinder to ourselves. And when we are accepting that this is how our body functions, because we can't control it, we can't undo it. And there's nothing we can do to change that. Like you can get real mad about it. But if we change it, so when we accept that this is how our body functions, then it's like, okay, well, now I can work within the parameters of what I'm given. If I understand what the parameters are, it felt like there was a lot of freedom in that along with the permission and the grace because like, okay, now I know what I'm working with. So I can do something with that. So I'm really excited, okay.

 

Patricia Sung  17:04

Do you wish there was a way to feel competent about your day, to know exactly where you need to be, when you need to be there and what you need to do today? I know what it's like to buy 15 Different planners and not use any of them for more than a week or two. When you're tired of disappointing your family, your boss and yourself. Imagine with me that tonight, when you look back at your day, you know that you did the things on your to do list, you showed up? Well, you feel productive and accomplished. That's why I created daily planning for ADHD moms, where I teach you how to keep a calendar and organize your to do list. When you learn these skills from another ADHD brain in super short videos, they finally make sense. So now you'll be able to keep up with the commitments you've made and feel confident in how you're organizing your day, you will walk away with an easy to stick to three step system to keep up with your calendar and a simple way to sort through the giant to do list and figure out what actually matters. Plus we have a weekly accountability group. So you can ask questions when you're stuck and jump back on the wagon when you fall off, because you will fall off. That's just part of ADHD. But now you will know how to prepare for that. So if you're ready to figure out your day in a way that makes sense both for mom wife and an ADHD brain, I want to help you make this happen. Join me at bit.ly/adhdplan. That's bit.ly/adhdplan. It's all lowercase letters. I cannot wait to see you feel confident and competent in how you run your family life.

 

Patricia Sung  18:44

So what I wanted to ask next is if you can kind of walk us through the different cycle like sections, and then what should we be looking for or preparing? How do we like integrate this into our daily life where like when we're on our cycle, we should be thinking about these things or doing these things and kind of walk us through the different sections. Obviously, we don't have a ton of time but like in like a quick version of how do we run through just like things to start to be like thinking about I guess.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  19:10

So. I live on a farm. I live with farmer and I know this might sound a bit weird talking about farming and cyclists thinking but you'll see the link in a second good analogy so Yeah, exactly. And it's so it makes it easy to remember this. So we are cycle has four different stages. So the menstrual violet killer of regulatory and luteal. And if you kind of think of those words, you're kind of like oh my gosh, like they're really complicated words like don't always have the capacity to remember all of these words. So I like in each phase in the cycle to a season. And on our farm here in the UK, different things are going on in different seasons. And I really like to think about my cycle in the same way as the seasons.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  19:55

So for example, the follicular phase that's the first day after your period So I liken that to spring, like, if you imagine what spring is, like, you know, like here, everything starts to grow, and you can see more energy and things are starting to feel, you know, like more productive. And for us, when we're in our physical place, you'll probably notice that your energy levels are starting to go up because of this lovely hormone called estrogen, which makes us feel more energized, ovulatory phase which is your next phase, I liken that to summer, you think? I mean, like the summer here in the UK, with lucky if we get a few days to view that. But it's kind of like that feeling where everyone's just, you know, really happy, and they want to be outside and they want to be talking to each other. And there's a really great energy. And then the luteal phase is the phase where our hormones I always think that the luteal phase.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  20:49

For me personally, this was my challenging phase, because our estrogen levels are dropping, and then progesterone levels arising. So we've kind of got quite a bit of a roller coaster in this space. And this is the phase where people can face a lot of different challenges, depending on what's going on with those hormones. And I liken this phase to autumn, so you start to see like the leaves falling, you know, you kind of want to get all nice and cozy and start bundling up and being, you know, like getting warm at home. And we in the farm, you know, we've harvested in summer and autumn time and moving into winter. So your menstrual phase, this is the time when we start thinking about rest. And in winter time the fields are resting, you know, we were getting things ready, we're waiting for things to grow ready for spring.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  21:36

So I think you know, that's a great way of remembering the seasons, linking them to the phases and how you might be feeling. And I think it gives you a good understanding. Because if you think about how you feel in winter, now we don't get as much sunshine, we want to spend more time indoors, perhaps being you know, in the warmth and that sort of thing. When I'm teaching the ladies that I work with, I use cycle thinking when I'm coaching people through personal training, and the way that I do it to make it really super simple is to imagine your cycle in two halves rather than four stages. So we're thinking we're so I tend to put the follicular know of ventilatory phase together. And that's the phase when I sort of say to people, you're likely to feel more energy, you're going to be want to be out there, you're going to be want to be like talking to people. And this is the time to be doing the things that are going to like take the most energy, if you are in a job where you've got to go out and you need to be networking and talking to people, that's a great time to do it. In the fitness world. That's the time to be pushing for like your personal bests. And being able to run you know as like your furthest distance. And the second part, I put the luteal and the menstrual phase together so that people sort of can understand that this is the time where you might want to be thinking about slowing things down.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  22:57

So with my clients in the health and fitness world, when it comes to their fitness training, I will be saying to them, we're not going to be pushing hard in cardio, because your body's not going to like that. So we slow it down. And we start thinking about lifting heavier weights, and also about resting. Because rest is such an important part. Whether it's fitness, whether it's you know, in your business, actually programming in some form of rest, taking rest days from your fitness program, taking some rest days from your work, you know, like even rest days from your kids, you know, in that phase, and if you can pass them over to somebody and let somebody else take them out for a playdate or something. But programming this kind of thing. And this is what I love about cycles thinking because in my mind, yes, okay, I use it a lot for health and fitness. But you can use it in so many different areas of your life. And just backtracking because I get so excited about this. And I could talk about this forever.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  23:56

But in terms of health and fitness, so your energetic phase, your follicular and your ovulatory phase where your estrogen levels are rising. That's the kind of timing if you're thinking fitness wise, go for the cardio, do the hit intervals do the really really you know like the the real intense training that's going to get your heart rate up and really, really going for it. And the second phase of your cycle. So your luteal your menstrual phase, your luteal phase, when progesterone is rising is a really good time to lift weights. But what we don't want to be doing in this phase of your cycle is adding stress to your body. Because it's doing so much like it's really we don't understand it's it's potentially preparing for a pregnancy. So it needs extra calories. It needs a bit of kindness as well. It needs a better awareness of the food that we're giving it as well. And also we don't want to be pushing it to do a workout that is actually going to raise cortisol levels. Because in a health and fitness world like so many people are coming to me to lose weight.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  24:59

Actually, if you're pushing your body really hard in your luteal and your menstrual phase, and you're triggering this stress hormone cortisol, it actually encourages your body to produce more glucose. And then that glucose is going to get stored as fat. And it tends to get stored as the fat around your belly, which is a really difficult fat that we will struggle to get rid of. So yeah, I know it's a bit of a whistle stop tour. But I think the easiest way to remember it is kind of in two parts, like there's a half the first half of your cycle after your after your period, that's going to be on it, you're going to feel more energetic. And the second half is when you need to maybe start thinking about taking a step back. And you could apply that to anything health and fitness, business, parenting, anything you like.

 Patricia Sung  25:46

I think that really makes it simple to understand is just one half, go get them the other half calm down. Has, and that makes it easy. Because when you're talking about part of what when women start thinking about their cycles, and they're you know, especially when you get into like all the tracking apps and everything, there's they're tracking so much information that you're like, Where do I even start? And it feels really overwhelming. But when you break it down into, like, let's just start with a simple one half go one half, so that it makes it so much more doable. And I can't help but ask I'm sure a lot of women are thinking like, but wait, you're telling me that for half the time I have to slow down that I don't want to hear that. Sarah? Different news. What do you say to that when people are like, Oh, why.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  26:39

It's really hard. And I know how hard it is myself, because I find it very difficult to slow down. And I think we have this pressure on us as women to perform all the time. But I don't think of it as slowing down. So maybe slowing down is the wrong way to put it. And what you're doing is you're changing the activities that you're doing to optimize your health, your fitness, your business, whatever it is. And I talk about fitness, because that's what I do, like as a personal trainer. So you might not be out there like, you know, running a 10k when in that second half. But you might actually find that you could be lifting some really heavy weights in a deadlift. Because your body's gonna respond better to weightlifting in the second half of your cycle than in the first half. And that's the way to think about it. It's not kind of like you're not giving up and you're not slowing down. But you're giving your body what it needs to be at its best. And we all need to rest. I mean, even God rested, didn't he, like I said, it's okay, you can have a day off. And I think we can give ourselves that permission.

 Patricia Sung  27:50

It's very much so because when we realize what our body is doing in that the second half of the phase where your body is preparing for a pregnancy, whether or not you actually want one, that's what it's doing there it is diverting a lot of resources to prepare that for a baby. So even if you're not heading down that path, like that's what your body's doing. So, in having that grace for yourself to know, like, okay, because I remember the first time you mentioned, like, we should be eating more in that time. I was like, Well, yeah, but usually, we joke about how like, everyone wants more chocolate, and we're like beating ourselves up about it. But you're telling me like, no, that's what you should be doing. Like, you shouldn't be giving your body more calories, it is telling you, hey, I need something. And so you know, maybe we don't want to drown ourselves with sugar, but it's giving you a message that it needs something different at that time. And when you look at it with that grace of like, Oh, I'm just allowing my body to talk to me, I'm listening. And then I can then do something more useful with that information instead of being like, No, I don't want to do that just makes it a lot more meaningful and, and like almost like loving to ourselves to appreciate what our bodies can do. Because we know he said, we're not tiny men, like we can literally grow humans. That is an amazing thing. And as hard as that is as moms it is such a blessing that we have that gift, and it's okay to give yourself that space.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  29:23

It's completely okay. And you know, one of the things that always surprises the clients that I work with. So when I work with my fitness clients, I always know we're always checking where they are in their cycle. And as they're coming towards the luteal phase, I'm giving them recipes, like healthy chocolate chip cookies, and healthy peanut butter cookies and things like and they're kind of looking at me like really well, like, why is my personal trainer? Shouldn't I be like really restricting my calories? And I'm like, no, because you're gonna want to eat this stuff. So let's Get prepared, let's be organized about it here is a healthier version of something that your body's probably going to be craving. That's going to give it more nutrition. It's going to stop you from falling off the wagon. And I say that like with air quotes, it's going to stop you binging on junk food, get prepared, know this stuff, get prepared, give your body what it needs, and you're going to stay on track with your goals. And that's what I love about cycle sinking. It really is. It's that knowledge, which allows you to be prepared and to plan and I could be here all day, and I get so excited.

 Patricia Sung  30:36

I have 150 more questions, but I know it needs it also is lay there. Before I do the lightning round questions, can you tell me like real quick, what would be your best advice in terms of tracking the cycles because that is one thing that a lot of women with ADHD really struggle with is trying to keep track of it. Because it's just hard for us to keep up with those details. Do you have any, like really easier ways to keep track of it than just hoping that you remember.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  31:05

Like you said, there are a lot of apps out there. And the great thing about apps is that they can remind you to do things you can set reminders. If you have an iPhone, I'm not so familiar with Android, but if you have an iPhone, within the health section of your iPhone, there is a section where you can it will track your cycle for you and you within you know your phone, you could set reminders and that sort of thing. And I think if you've got like a lot of requests, some kind of smart technology don't mean like a you know, a watch or a Fitbit or something like that, that you can use that to remind you. And so I have like within the technology that I use, because I'm the same as you Patricia, like I have a million things going on in my head, I'm not always going to remember to go into an app and check it. But what I do always remember is to go into that app and log when my period starts. And when my period ends, because that information is what really, really helps the app to get that right, it can see what's going on. And like you said earlier, there are so many apps that you can add in so much extra information, and you can kind of really go to town on it.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  32:18

But let's be honest, we don't have the time or the memory to do that. So I think if you can, in some form or another I know it's not always easy, mark it on a calendar, the start and the end of your period. And then it gives the technology the ability to help predict where you're going to be at certain dates within your cycle. That would definitely be my main piece of advice.

 Patricia Sung  32:41

Okay, well, that sounds much more doable if you just have to track two things a month. Okay, I can handle that. And I think knowing that it doesn't have to be super fancy, if you're just writing on a calendar. But the good part about technology is that it will remind you so you can set that notification. And, and what I think helps is that when you even just knowing this information and being aware of it allows you to have literally like a better awareness of it. And now I know like on the days where I'm really struggling. I'll be like, Ooh, I should go check the calendar. Yeah. And usually it's like, oh, oh, here, it's all coming together. It was funny. I was actually having a conversation with a friend earlier this week where she was like, freaking out about something. And then two or three days later, she was like, and I started my cycle. I think it's all making sense. Like, yes.

Sara-Jane Ladums  33:32

And I think it's quite an important conversation to have with your husband as well. And I'm going to do and I will at some point, I keep asking Tim to come and like talk on my podcast about this. But for us, I really feel it's changed our relationship because he has a better understanding of how I feel. And I think for men, they don't know this stuff, either. We don't get taught it, how do we expect them to do it? So I think it's really important to have this conversation with your husband. So you know, if you've got like, you've got boys, haven't you I've got a daughter, so that this information and I'm really passionate about this as being passed to the next generation so that they know that that's a really big gift that we can give them.

 Patricia Sung  34:17

Yeah, I think that obviously like we can't go back in time, but we can pass this down to our kids and take away some of that stigma of periods being like a taboo topic and gross because it has to do with blood or whatever and creating it more of like a knowledge of we appreciate what our bodies can do and this is how you were created and how I was graded is through the magic and the gift of women being able to make more people so it's just part of our of everyone's life. Obviously if you are alive, you are part of the cycle and to be able to take away that stigma and appreciate it more from a like a fax and appreciation level instead of it being gross and we heard that that gift will mean so much for the generation coming up to understand how to work with their body instead of against it, and not expecting to be able to do everything that you were doing before.

 Patricia Sung  35:15

Like, I also I was talking with another friend about it, who has ADHD, we're kind of saying like, Okay, I'm really getting into this, I'm so excited. And she made a point of like, you know, you see tampon commercials, and they have these tampons labeled, like, you know, sport or whatever. And they show the girls like, I can still do gymnastics, even though I'm on my cycle. And like, we get fed this message that we're supposed to be able to do these great feats, and like, just like we're not having our period. And that is not the message we want to pass on to our kids at all. Because we're not meant to carry on like, it doesn't exist, we are meant to take care of ourselves and honor the process. And it's a whole nother can of worms.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  35:56

And I think we're lucky. I mean, I know over in the US lifecycle thinking is is more to is talked about more than it is here at the moment. But it is becoming more and more widely spoken people who are talking about it more, there's so many more athletes. I mean, there's the premiership football teams here in the UK, are adopting these training methods as part of their processes. And I think that's fantastic. And women's sport, I think is probably going to be one of the main, like driving forces for this, because they can see how important it is for women's bodies, they can see how it changes women's performance. And I think that's what's probably going to open the conversation even more.

 Patricia Sung  36:40

I can imagine like, if you are in competitive sports, and you're looking at like what competitions to participate in knowing that, you know, you're going to be in that first half. And really excelling would be like such a different experience than if you're on your cycle. I like I'm like, oh, yeah, my brains like,

 Sara-Jane Ladums  36:58

I know. I actually happened to me recently, because I dented myself, I do a lot of cycling identity myself into a long cycle race. And it actually fell my my period actually started a couple of days earlier than I was expecting it to be. And I didn't do the race, because there was just like, there is no point trying to get around that and put my body under this stress, because I'm not going to do it. And I'll probably injured myself. And that kind of knowledge and just being able to say, which is really hard to do.

 Patricia Sung  37:29

Yeah. Especially if you've paid your entry fee, and you've been working on this goal for months. It's hard to say this isn't the right time, but it isn't. Okay, so let's do our lightning round questions. You don't have to explain anything, just fill in the blank. Number one, the best thing that I read or listened to recently is

 Sara-Jane Ladums  37:48

a podcast that our one of our mentors actually was talking about, which was talking about Instagram, and not using Instagram. That's probably one of the best things. So I've listened to recently.

Patricia Sung  37:59

Oh, I haven't listened to that one. You know, I'll link in the show notes. It's Steph gasses guy. I actually did an experiment for 30 days without Instagram to see how it affect your business. It was interesting. I like I watched along the way but I never listened to like the end one of like, what have you I've been meaning to do that. Okay. Number two, my most boring about me fact is because I don't like bugs. Number three, when I'm having a rough day, my go to quote song poem, book activity, whatever is.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  38:32

Yeah, when I'm having a rough day home. My go to quote at the moment, and I'm not sure if it was actually one that you gave me is that food does not bring me closer to God.

 Patricia Sung  38:42

There was not me, but there's a good quote.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  38:46

On those days when your kids are driving you crazy and you just think I just want to eat all the chocolate in the luteal phase. That's fine. All right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Trying to absorb it all. In that second half is the second half when you want to eat all the food. Yeah.

 Patricia Sung  39:03

Okay, number four. Don't tell anyone.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  39:06

I Gosh, this is like deep dark secrets almost here. I don't know how

 Patricia Sung  39:11

it also can be something controversial. Like sometimes I'm like, I don't like bananas. And everyone's like, watch how you melt like bananas and they get very offended about my banana hatred.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  39:21

I don't like cats. Cats are killing me. I don't understand them. Well, nobody understands. They like one minute and the next minute. They're like crazy at you.

 Patricia Sung  39:36

Number five, if I had a magic fairy wand for one spell, I would.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  39:40

Right now I'd find my husband in new tractor because it would make my life a lot easier.

 Patricia Sung  39:50

And number six, my best piece of advice for mamas with ADHD is,

 Sara-Jane Ladums  39:56

I think bearing in mind what we've been talking about today is about learning about your body, and being kind to yourself giving yourself grace, and not always expecting yourself to do everything, to be everything for everybody else, and to look after yourself.

 Patricia Sung  40:17

And if our members would like to learn more about what you do and cycles thinking and all that, where do they find you? And what would what do you do that would help them?

 Sara-Jane Ladums  40:27

Okay, so like you I have a podcast. That's how we met through podcasting. So my podcast is called the productive mum and you because I'm British, and so yeah, come and find me over there. If you want to dig into cycles, thinking pretty much every single episode that I talk about, I talk about productivity, I talk about health and fitness, but it's all underpinned by the principles of cycles thinking and how you can use those hormones to be your superpower.

 Patricia Sung  40:57

What thank you so much. I wish I could ask another 73 questions. So I think this is fascinating. And I'm so excited for the mamas to hear this and start implementing these things that are not complicated or it doesn't have to be overwhelming can be little ways just to honor your body a little bit more. So thank you so much for sharing with us today. I really appreciate it.

 Sara-Jane Ladums  41:20

Oh, thank you so much for having me.

 Patricia Sung  41:24

For more resources, classes and community head over to my website motherhoodinadhd.com