Again.

The first time I experienced something like this was on Survivor. This time, it happened all over again. People usually ask about the challenges. The lack of food. The exhaustion. The adventure. Those are the stories that make great television. But they aren’t the stories that stay with me.

What stays with me is what happens when all the noise disappears.

No phone.

No emails.

No notifications reminding me I’m already behind.

No endless list of things I should be doing.

For a little while, the only job was to be present.

And every single time I come home, I notice the same thing.

I remember how capable I am.

Not because I survived something difficult.

Because I stopped measuring my worth by how much I could accomplish in a day.

Somewhere between the simplicity, the movement, the conversations, and being surrounded by nature, I reconnect with a version of myself that somehow gets buried beneath everyday life.

It made me wonder…

Why does it take something so extreme for us to slow down?

Why do we wait until we’re overwhelmed, exhausted, or completely burned out before giving ourselves permission to rest?

The truth is, I don’t think we’re looking for another vacation.

I think we’re looking for ourselves.

As women, we carry so much.

We build careers. We raise families. We show up for everyone around us. We answer the emails, remember the birthdays, hit the deadlines, train through the fatigue, and somehow convince ourselves we’ll rest when life calms down.

But life rarely calms down on its own.

I’ve spent the last year immersed in women’s hormones, physiology, and performance. The science fascinates me. Understanding how our bodies work has changed the way I train, coach, recover, and live. But the more I studied, the more I realized something.

Health isn’t built by information alone.

It’s built by environment.

By slowing our nervous systems down enough that everything we’ve been learning actually has the chance to take root.

That’s where RESET began.

Not as another retreat.

As an experience.

An experience designed to give women something we rarely give ourselves.

Space.

Space to move because it feels good.

Space to eat nourishing food without rushing through another meeting.

Space to learn about our bodies with curiosity instead of judgment.

Space to have conversations that matter.

Space to laugh.

Space to breathe.

Space to remember who we were before the world convinced us we always had to be productive to be worthy.

And here’s the part that’s closest to my heart.

I don’t believe experiences like this should only belong to the people who can afford them.

So we’re building RESET differently.

Through partnerships with brands that believe in women’s health, every woman selected for RESET will have her accommodations, meals, transportation, movement sessions, workshops, and experiences fully funded by our partners.

Your only investment is your application fee and your flight to Mexico.

Because I believe investing in women creates ripple effects that extend far beyond five days.

A woman who feels rested leads differently.

A woman who feels strong parents differently.

A woman who feels seen shows up differently.

When we invest in one woman, we quietly invest in every life she’ll touch afterward. Maybe that’s the real reason I couldn’t stop thinking about this after I came home. I didn’t want to recreate a survival show. I wanted to recreate the feeling.

The feeling of remembering what actually matters.

The feeling of discovering you’re stronger than you thought.

The feeling of disconnecting from everything that’s demanding your attention long enough to reconnect with yourself.

That’s RESET.

If you’ve been craving space to breathe… If you’ve been telling yourself you’ll slow down “someday…” If you’ve forgotten what it feels like to put yourself on your own list…

I’d love to invite you to apply.

Not because I think five days will change your life.

But because I think five intentional days might remind you of the person you’ve been all along.

And sometimes…

That’s all we really need.

Submit Your Applicaiton

🤎

Drea

As women, we spend so much time talking about hormones through the lens of nutrition, exercise, sleep, and supplements. Those things absolutely matter, and I spend a lot of my life teaching them. But this trip reminded me that hormone health is also influenced by something much simpler that often gets overlooked: connection. There is something powerful about spending time with people who have known you through different seasons of your life. People who knew you before motherhood, before business, before social media, before all the responsibilities that seem to pile on as we get older. There is a level of comfort and safety in those relationships that I don’t think we give enough credit to.

This trip felt especially meaningful because my relationship with my best friend has been woven through so many chapters of my life. I still remember when she told me she was pregnant with her son, my nephew, who is now nine years old. At the time, motherhood was something I hoped would be part of my story one day, but I had no idea what the years ahead would hold. Fast forward almost a decade and now I’m watching my own daughter run around with that same little boy. Except he’s not a little boy anymore. Somewhere between then and now, life happened. Dreams happened. Loss happened. Growth happened. And suddenly the years that once felt so far away now feel like they passed in the blink of an eye.

There was something incredibly special about seeing them together. And if I’m being honest, it made me a little emotional. Because before there was Amara, there was Mia. I can still remember when Mia was the same age Amara is now. Back then, I wasn’t a mom yet. I was the one taking her out for little craft dates, one-on-one adventures, and special afternoons together. I loved spending time with her and watching her personality develop. At the time, I never could have imagined that one day I would have a daughter of my own. Now, years later, I’m watching Amara and Mia build their own relationship. One minute I’m remembering the little girl I used to take out for ice cream and craft projects, and the next I’m watching her help my daughter navigate the world. It’s one of those full-circle moments that catches you off guard and reminds you just how connected our lives really are.

Watching all three of them together reminded me that relationships don’t just shape our memories. They shape our health, our resilience, and our sense of belonging. One of the things I often teach women is that our bodies are constantly taking in information. Not just through what we eat or how we train, but through our environment, our stress levels, and the relationships around us. When we feel supported, connected, and safe, our bodies respond differently. Research continues to show that meaningful social connection can influence hormones involved in stress regulation, emotional well-being, and bonding. Spending time with people we trust can increase oxytocin, often referred to as the bonding hormone, while helping regulate our stress response and lowering the burden of chronic cortisol exposure. In simple terms, feeling connected isn’t just good for us emotionally. It’s beneficial for us physiologically too.

I think sometimes we underestimate how much our bodies benefit from simply feeling safe, understood, and connected. I laughed more in a few days than I probably have in weeks. I had conversations that had nothing to do with work. I sat around while the kids played. I hugged people I love. And somewhere along the way, I felt my nervous system relax in a way I didn’t even realize it needed. We spend so much time trying to optimize our health that we can forget some of the most powerful things for our well-being can’t be measured on a watch, tracked in an app, or purchased in a supplement aisle.

As adults, we often schedule connection. Kids don’t. They just jump right in. They play. They laugh. They imagine. They connect. Watching Amara spend time with her cousin reminded me how important those relationships are. Not just for little girls, but for all of us. The older I get, the more I realize that health isn’t just about what happens in the gym or the kitchen. It’s also about the people we call when something amazing happens. The people we lean on when life feels heavy. The people who remind us who we are when we’ve gotten a little lost in all the roles we play.

As women, we often carry so much. We are caregivers, partners, mothers, business owners, employees, daughters, and friends. We spend so much time taking care of everyone else that we sometimes forget how much we need community too. We convince ourselves we’ll make time for the phone call later, plan the girls’ trip next year, or catch up when life slows down. But life rarely slows down on its own. Sometimes we have to intentionally create space for the people who make us feel most like ourselves.

And while I spend a lot of time teaching women how to support their hormones through training, nutrition, and recovery, this trip reminded me that connection deserves a place in that conversation as well. Sometimes supporting your hormones isn’t another supplement, another workout, or another thing to add to your to-do list. Sometimes it’s a weekend with your best friend. Sometimes it’s watching your daughter build the same kind of meaningful relationships that shaped your own life. Sometimes it’s laughing until your stomach hurts, sharing stories around a dinner table, and being reminded that you don’t have to carry everything alone.

Sometimes the healthiest thing we can do for ourselves is spend time with people who make us feel seen.

And after this trip, I think that’s exactly what I needed. 🤎

Drea xx

Share

I’ve realized something recently.

For most of my life, even when I was “resting,” I wasn’t actually resting.

My body might’ve stopped moving, but my mind never did. I was still thinking about what needed to get done, what I should be building, what I should be posting, how I could somehow make the rest productive enough to justify taking it in the first place.

And for a long time, I honestly thought that was discipline.

Push harder. Keep going. Stay productive. Earn your rest later.

But over the last five years of my life, something started changing in me. Some of it was forced. Motherhood. Burnout. Loss. Hormonal changes. My body asking me to slow down whether I wanted to or not.

And some of it came from realizing my body wasn’t asking me to do more.

It was asking me to finally feel safe enough to stop.

I noticed this even more while traveling.

There’s something about being in places where rest is just… part of life. People sit longer. Meals aren’t rushed. People walk slower. Conversations last longer. Nobody seems obsessed with proving how busy they are every second of the day.

And at first, I almost didn’t know how to exist inside of that.

Even in beautiful places, my nervous system still felt urgency. Like I needed to optimize every moment somehow. Turn it into work. Turn it into content. Turn it into productivity.

And then eventually, something softened.

Not overnight. But slowly.

And I started realizing how disconnected so many of us are from actual rest.

Not sleep. Not taking a random day off.

I mean real rest. The kind where your body no longer feels like it has to stay alert all the time.

The more I study hormones and the female body, the more everything starts making sense to me.

When women stay in chronic stress for long periods of time, the body adapts to survival mode. Cortisol stays elevated. Recovery becomes harder. Sleep changes. Hormonal symptoms become more intense. The nervous system literally stops recognizing safety as normal.

And I think a lot of women have lived this way for so long that exhaustion started feeling like personality instead of a warning sign.

Especially mothers. Especially women constantly carrying the emotional weight of everyone around them. Especially women taught that being “strong” meant pushing through everything no matter what it was doing to their bodies.

And as a Black woman, I can’t ignore the deeper layers of that either.

There’s a reason so many of us struggle to slow down without guilt.

There’s a reason so many women feel uncomfortable resting even when they desperately need it.

A lot of that goes deeper than us.

It goes back to survival. To generations of women who didn’t have the luxury of slowing down. Women whose bodies learned endurance before softness. Women who carried families, stress, grief, labor, survival… and kept going anyway.

And while resilience is beautiful, survival mode was never supposed to become our permanent state.

That realization changed the way I started looking at fitness too.

Because for years, even wellness spaces convinced women that the answer was always more. More intensity. More discipline. More output. More pushing.

But the female body doesn’t function the same way every single day.

Hormones shift weekly. Recovery needs shift weekly. Even your metabolism changes throughout the cycle. Research shows women can require more calories during certain phases while simultaneously feeling more fatigued. Stress itself impacts hormone balance, inflammation, recovery, sleep quality, and even how the body stores energy.

Meaning a lot of women are trying to push harder while their bodies are quietly begging for restoration.

And restoration isn’t weakness.

It’s biology.

That’s something I want my daughter to understand differently than I did.

I don’t want her growing up believing rest has to be earned through burnout. I don’t want her nervous system attached to productivity the way so many of ours became.

I want her to understand that taking care of herself is not laziness. That slowing down is not failure. That her body deserves support before it reaches exhaustion.

And honestly, that starts with me.

With the way I move. The way I train. The way I eat. The way I recover. The way I allow myself to sit still without immediately feeling guilty for it.

The deeper I go into this work, the more I realize strength and softness were never opposites.

The body actually becomes stronger when it finally feels safe enough to restore.

And maybe that’s what so many women are actually searching for right now.

Not motivation.

Not another routine.

Not another way to optimize themselves.

Just safety.

If you’ve been feeling exhausted, disconnected from your body, emotionally overwhelmed, or guilty for slowing down, I need you to understand something:

Your body is not failing you.

It’s communicating with you.

And sometimes the strongest thing a woman can do is stop treating rest like something she has to earn.

This is also a huge part of why I created Sync’d Strong.

Not as another program meant to burn women out, but as a way to help women move with their bodies instead of constantly against them.

Training differently. Recovering differently. Living differently.

Because real strength should leave room for restoration too.

SYNC’d and STRONG

Maybe the goal isn’t becoming softer.

Maybe it’s finally feeling safe enough to stop surviving.

— Drea 🤎

Subscribe

So I went back. Back to my Oura Ring. Quieter, cleaner, more intentional, less noise. But this time I came back different, because now I actually understand what I’m looking at.

If you’re wearing an Oura Ring, you’ve probably seen it too. You wake up, check your stats, and your body temperature is slightly higher than usual. Not enough to question, not enough to feel obvious, just… higher. Most women scroll right past it, because Oura gives you the data, but it doesn’t fully translate what that shift means for your body, especially when it comes to your cycle.

Right now I’m in my luteal phase, and last night my temperature was higher. That’s not random. That’s progesterone. After ovulation, progesterone rises, and one of its primary roles is to increase your basal body temperature. It’s a subtle shift, but it changes everything about how your body operates.

Your body is now running slightly hotter, your recovery demand is higher, your metabolism increases slightly, and your tolerance for high intensity can drop faster than you expect. This is the part no one teaches. From the outside, nothing looks different. You still look like you, you still show up the same way, but internally your body is in a completely different state than it was just days ago.

So when your workouts start to feel heavier, when your runs don’t hit the same, when your energy dips a little and you can’t explain it, most women assume something is wrong and they push harder. But this is the moment you’re supposed to do the opposite.

This is where you start training with your body instead of against it. Where strength work becomes more controlled and intentional, where tempo matters more than speed, where steady movement replaces constant intensity. Not because you’re doing less, but because you’re finally doing what actually works for you.

That small increase in temperature is not just a stat. It’s one of the clearest signals your body gives you that a shift has happened. It’s direction. And once you understand that, everything changes. You stop second guessing yourself, you stop labeling natural shifts as inconsistency, and you stop forcing performance in phases where your body is asking for support. You start moving with awareness.

That’s the shift. And that’s exactly why I came back to this ring. Less noise, more alignment, more connection to what actually matters. Because your body has always been communicating with you. Most of us were just never taught how to listen.

🤎

Drea xx

If you’re tracking your data but still feel like you’re guessing what to do with it, that’s exactly what I’m building with Sync’d. This is the bridge between your stats and your training. Your body already knows. I’ll show you how to follow it.

4 Week Sync'd & Strong Plan

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I used to eat growing up in Texas.

Not in a nostalgic way. Not in a “back then was better” way.

More in a… what was actually happening there that I didn’t understand at the time.

Because the more I’ve been studying hormones, especially how they affect women and more specifically Black women, the more I find myself connecting things I didn’t expect to connect.

Food I never questioned. Meals that were just normal. Plates that didn’t come with explanation, but somehow still did exactly what they needed to do.

And the deeper I go into this work, the more I realize that a lot of what we’re now calling “optimization” didn’t start with us.

It started with survival.

If you trace Black American food back far enough, you don’t just land in Southern kitchens. You land in conditions where food wasn’t about preference, it was about endurance.

During slavery, the foods our ancestors had access to were limited, often the least desirable cuts and scraps. Greens, legumes, root vegetables, cornmeal, preserved meats. What’s often overlooked is that many of these foods, while given out of necessity, were incredibly nutrient-dense.

Leafy greens high in iron and magnesium. Legumes rich in fiber and plant protein. Root vegetables providing sustained energy through complex carbohydrates.

These weren’t curated for performance.

But they supported it.

Because they had to.

And that matters more than we talk about.

Because even now, Black women are nearly twice as likely to experience iron deficiency anemia compared to white women. Iron is directly tied to oxygen transport, endurance, and overall energy.

At the same time, research on female physiology, especially in sport, has historically been limited, and even more so when it comes to Black women specifically.

So for a long time, many of us have been training in systems that were never designed with our bodies fully in mind.

Pushing through fatigue. Ignoring shifts in energy. Treating inconsistency like a personal failure instead of a biological reality.

But when you actually understand how the female body functions, especially across the menstrual cycle, the shifts make sense.

There are phases where energy is higher, recovery is faster, and you can push your training in a real way.

And there are phases where your body is asking for something different. More recovery. More support. More awareness.

Research shows your metabolic rate can increase in the luteal phase, meaning your body needs more energy while often feeling more fatigued.

That’s not inconsistency.

That’s physiology.

And this is where things started to click for me.

Because the more I study this, the more I see how the foods I grew up eating were already supporting these shifts.

Greens that help replenish iron and support recovery.

Beans and rice that stabilize energy and fuel movement.

Sweet potatoes that support endurance without crashing your system.

We didn’t call it hormone support.

But the support was there.

So now, I’m not trying to reinvent how I eat.

I’m paying attention.

I’m looking at how I’m training, where I am in my cycle, and asking a better question.

What does my body actually need right now?

Some days that means more fuel. More support for performance.

Other days it means more recovery. More grounding meals.

And more often than not, what I reach for isn’t new.

It’s familiar.

What I’m learning is that alignment doesn’t come from doing more.

It comes from understanding what’s already there.

If you’re starting to realize your body needs different things at different times… you’re not wrong.

That’s exactly why I created Sync’d Strong: 4-Week Bodyweight Burn.

It’s not just a workout program. It’s built around understanding your energy, your cycle, and how to actually train in a way that works with your body instead of against it.

Simple, effective, and something you can stay consistent with… because it makes sense.

You can start here:

Sync’d and Strong

If you’ve been trying to understand your energy, your training, and your body better, this is something I’m continuing to break down more here.

We didn’t always have the language.

But we had the rhythm.

— Drea 🤎

One race a month. Anywhere in the world.

At first, it honestly just felt like something I needed. Something consistent to hold onto while everything else in life kept moving. Travel, motherhood, work, all of it.

But after a few races in, I started noticing something that didn’t sit right.

Each race felt like a completely different version of me.

Long Beach felt strong but a little unpredictable. Dubai felt powerful but almost too fast, like I couldn’t fully control it. Amsterdam felt steady, but I couldn’t quite access that extra push.

And if I’m being real, it started to mess with me a bit.

Because when your performance keeps shifting like that, your first instinct is to think something’s off. Like maybe you’re not progressing the way you thought you were.

But this is where everything I’ve been learning and studying over the past year started to click for me.

The more I get deeper into this work, the more I realize I wasn’t inconsistent. I just wasn’t looking at the full picture.

I had been judging my performance the same way every time, without considering the fact that my body is not the same every week. And once you start to understand what’s actually happening hormonally throughout the cycle, you can’t unsee it.

Your energy shifts. Your recovery shifts. Your strength, your speed, even your mindset shifts.

So of course my races felt different.

They were different.

And now I’m learning how to actually account for that.

I’m still committed to one race a month. That part isn’t changing.

But now I’m paying attention to when I race, not just where.

There are moments in the cycle where everything just feels more available. You feel lighter, faster, more locked in. That’s when I want to go after it. That’s when I want to push pace, test myself, and really see what I can do.

Then there are moments where my body still shows up, but in a different way. Where it’s less about speed and more about control, endurance, and staying steady. And instead of fighting that, I’m learning how to work with it.

And then there are days where pushing doesn’t even make sense. Where the win is just showing up, moving, and respecting where my body is at.

That’s something I didn’t fully allow before.

What I’m understanding more and more through my studies is that progress isn’t just about doing more or going harder every time.

It’s about understanding when your body is actually set up to do that.

And when it’s not.

Now when I look at a race, I’m not just looking at my time. I’m looking at the full context. Where I was in my cycle, how my body felt, what was actually available to me that day.

And that changes everything.

Because now I can actually track progress in a way that makes sense.

If you’ve ever felt like your runs are inconsistent, or like your energy is all over the place, I promise you it’s not random.

There’s a reason.

We just haven’t been taught to look at it this way.

I put together a free, really simple runner’s guide to help you start understanding how to train and run with your cycle without overthinking it.

Something you can actually use.

You can download it here:

Free Guide to Running with your Hormones

We’re not meant to train the same way every single day.

And once you stop expecting that from yourself, everything starts to feel a lot more aligned.

— Drea 🤎

I was ordering fattoush almost every day. Not because I was trying to be healthy or disciplined, but because I genuinely wanted it. Crisp lettuce, fresh herbs, tomatoes, cucumber, that tangy bite, the crunch from the pita, and this deep citrusy flavor that kept pulling me back. At the time, I didn’t overthink it. I just listened. But when I got home, I realized something that I think more women need to understand. Cravings aren’t always random. Sometimes they’re direction. My body wasn’t just asking for a salad. It was asking for what was in it.

That’s when I really started paying attention to the ingredients. Sumac and pomegranate. Two things I had seen before, maybe even used here and there, but never fully used like that, never consistently, and definitely never in alignment with how I train or how I feel throughout my cycle. Once I started incorporating them into my routine at home, everything began to make more sense. Not just nutritionally, but hormonally, and especially in how my workouts felt from week to week.

Because the truth is, your workouts don’t randomly feel harder. Your hormones change. There were days in Egypt where I felt strong without even trying, where running felt light, where movement felt natural and powerful. And there were other days where the same level of effort felt heavier in my body. That’s not inconsistency. That’s biology. We’ve just been taught to ignore it and push through it instead of working with it. So instead of fighting that, I started supporting it, not just in how I train, but in how I fuel.

We’ve built an entire fitness culture around consistency, but not context. And without context, consistency starts to feel like failure because you’re trying to show up the same way every single day in a body that is designed to change every single week. That’s where this shifted everything for me. I didn’t lower my standards. I didn’t train less. I just changed how I supported what I was asking my body to do.

There’s a difference between a workout feeling challenging in a way that builds you and a workout feeling hard in a way that drains you. And once you start to understand your cycle, you can feel that difference clearly. In my follicular phase and into ovulation, when estrogen is rising and my body is more resilient, my energy is higher, my recovery is faster, and I naturally lean into heavier lifting, strength endurance, sprint work, and more explosive sessions like my Body by Drea classes. That kind of hard feels good. It feels aligned. It leaves me feeling stronger, not depleted.

That’s where sumac has quietly become part of my routine. It’s what gives fattoush that tangy, citrusy depth, but beyond the taste, it supports exactly what my body is doing in those phases. When I’m training at a higher output, I’m creating more stress on my muscles and my system, and what I’ve noticed is that adding sumac into my meals helps reduce that post-workout inflammation, supports my recovery so I can keep showing up consistently, and keeps my energy more stable instead of spiking and crashing. Hormone-wise, this aligns with rising or peak estrogen, when my body is more insulin sensitive and able to utilize energy more efficiently. I’m not trying to slow anything down in this phase. I’m supporting performance. I’m building.

Then my body shifts. In my luteal phase and into my menstrual phase, everything changes. My body temperature rises, my recovery slows, and the same workouts that felt powerful a week before can suddenly feel heavier. Not mentally, physically. This is where most people think they’ve lost progress or motivation, when really, their body is just asking for a different kind of support. I still train, but I shift the way I do it. More controlled strength, more intentional movement, less explosiveness, more awareness.

This is where pomegranate syrup started to make sense for me. It’s richer, slightly sweet, deeper in flavor, and not something I would usually reach for, but during these phases, it just feels right. When progesterone is dominant, my body is working harder internally, and things like blood flow, nutrient delivery, and sustained energy matter more. Adding pomegranate into my meals has helped me feel more supported during workouts that would otherwise feel draining. It gives me a quick, usable source of energy without feeling heavy, supports circulation, and provides antioxidant support that my body actually needs more of in this phase. I’m not trying to push harder here. I’m maintaining. I’m supporting.

Looking back, that fattoush salad makes perfect sense. My body wasn’t just craving something light. It was craving hydration, minerals, anti-inflammatory support, and something that felt nourishing without being heavy. The combination of herbs, citrus, sumac, and pomegranate gave me exactly that. Not because I planned it, but because my body recognized what it needed before I did.

I’m not making fattoush every day now that I’m home, but I brought pieces of it back with me. That’s the difference. I didn’t try to recreate the trip. I integrated what worked. Some days that looks like heavier lifts and adding sumac to my meals to support recovery and performance. Other days it looks like slower, more intentional training and incorporating pomegranate to support my energy and circulation. Both are productive. Both are aligned.

The biggest shift for me is that I stopped asking why everything felt so hard and started asking what my body actually needed from me in that moment. Because your body isn’t inconsistent. You’ve just been taught to ignore its patterns. When you start paying attention to your cycle, your cravings, your energy, and how your workouts actually feel, everything starts to make more sense.

For me, it started with a salad I couldn’t stop eating in Egypt. And somehow, that turned into a deeper understanding of how I train, how I fuel, and how I actually live in my body now.

I don’t guess anymore. I don’t take it personally when something feels harder. I don’t force the same version of myself every single day. I pay attention. To my cycle, to my energy, to what my body is asking for, even when it’s subtle.

Because once you understand that your body is working with you, not against you, everything shifts. Your training feels more aligned. Your recovery makes more sense. And you stop chasing results and start building them in a way that actually lasts.

If you’ve been feeling that disconnect in your workouts lately, this is where I would start. I put together a simple guide to help you run with your hormones instead of against them, the way I’ve been doing it.

You can download it here. 🤎

FREE Hormone Running Guide

When my period starts, I’ve been feeling more inclined to run.

Not because I’m forcing it. Not because I’m trying to prove anything to myself. But because my body genuinely seems to want movement. And if you’ve spent any time in the women’s health space, you know that usually isn’t the message we hear.

Most advice around workouts during your period tends to fall into two extremes. Either you’re told to stop moving completely and rest, or you’re encouraged to push through it like nothing is happening.

Neither of those approaches really reflects what is actually happening hormonally.

The menstrual phase is the beginning of a new cycle. Both estrogen and progesterone are at their lowest levels. Your body is shedding the uterine lining, inflammation markers can be slightly elevated, and for many women energy does feel a little lower during those first days.

That part is real.

But something else is happening at the same time that doesn’t get talked about enough.

Progesterone, the hormone that dominates the late luteal phase, drops quickly once menstruation begins. And progesterone is often responsible for many of the symptoms women feel right before their period. The heaviness. The bloating. The fatigue. That feeling like everything requires a little more effort.

When progesterone drops, some women actually feel relief. Almost like the system resets.

And lately, that’s the moment where I’ve noticed my body wanting to move.

Not every cycle looks the same. There are months when my body clearly asks for rest during my period, and I listen to that. Sometimes recovery is exactly what it needs.

But lately it’s been the opposite.

Instead of wanting to shut everything down, I’ve been craving a run.

Nothing aggressive. Nothing intense. Just movement that feels clearing and grounding at the same time.

And physiologically, that actually makes sense.

Moderate aerobic movement during menstruation can support circulation, which helps the uterus contract more efficiently as it sheds its lining. Movement also releases endorphins, the body’s natural pain relievers, which can help reduce menstrual discomfort.

Better circulation can also help regulate inflammation and support the nervous system as the body resets for a new cycle.

For me, the key word is moderate.

The runs I do during my period look very different from the ones I might do during ovulation or the follicular phase when estrogen is rising and strength usually peaks. My pace is slower. The distance is shorter. I’m not chasing performance.

I’m paying attention.

Sometimes it’s twenty minutes at an easy pace just to get circulation going. Sometimes it’s a run that turns into a walk halfway through. And sometimes it’s just being outside and letting movement happen without forcing it.

That’s the part of hormone training that often gets misunderstood.

It’s not about following strict rules for each phase of the cycle.

It’s about understanding the hormonal environment you’re in and responding with awareness instead of resistance.

Some women genuinely feel better resting during the first day or two of their period. Others notice that light movement helps reduce cramps, improve mood, and bring their energy back online.

Both experiences are valid.

The goal isn’t to give women another rigid rule to follow.

The goal is to help us notice what our own bodies are communicating.

The more I pay attention to my cycle, the more obvious those signals become. There are weeks where my body clearly asks for intensity. And there are weeks where it asks for recovery and softness.

Right now, during my menstrual phase, it’s asking for movement.

Running has been giving me circulation, clarity, and that feeling of resetting from the inside out.

It’s not about pushing through my period.

It’s about moving with it.

Because the menstrual phase isn’t always about stopping completely. Sometimes it’s about allowing the body to reset while still honoring its natural rhythm.

The question isn’t whether women can move during their period.

The question is whether we’ve been taught to listen closely enough to know what our bodies are actually asking for.

If you’re starting to pay more attention to how your body moves throughout your cycle, I put together a simple running guide that breaks down how to train in each phase.

You can download it when you subscribe.

Have you ever noticed that once your period starts, your body sometimes feels more inclined to move rather than less?

More hormone training and cycle education coming this month.

Women’s bodies are always communicating. Sometimes we just have to get quiet enough to notice.

Free Guide: Running w/ Hormones

There’s something grounding about the food here. Meals feel slower. Warmer. Built around ingredients that clearly existed long before wellness trends started telling us how to eat. Lentils, rice, chickpeas, slow cooked proteins, herbs and spices that show up again and again in different forms. Nothing feels forced. Nothing feels “optimized.” And yet my body feels supported.

I’m moving into my late luteal phase right now, that window before your cycle where energy usually changes a little. I always notice I want more grounding food, more stability, less stimulation. My nervous system feels more sensitive. Sleep matters more. Blood sugar matters more. And without even trying, the way people eat here naturally supports that. Warm dishes instead of cold meals. Slow cooked food instead of quick hits. Spices like cumin, coriander, cinnamon, mint. Generations of cooking that were built around nourishment, not aesthetics.

The more I pay attention, the more I realize these aren’t just flavors. They’re functional. Warm food is easier on digestion when hormones slow things down. Spices help with blood sugar and inflammation. Meals feel satisfying instead of spiking energy and crashing it. It’s funny how culture figured this out long before the wellness industry started explaining it.

Walking through markets, sitting at long meals, eating food that feels rooted in history… my body responds differently. Energy feels steadier. Cravings aren’t loud. I feel calmer, even though travel usually pulls me out of rhythm.

And that’s the part I keep coming back to.

We talk about travel like it always disrupts us, but sometimes it reconnects us instead. As women, we’re often told we need strict routines to stay balanced. Perfect workouts, perfect timing, perfect meals. But being here reminds me that hormones don’t need perfection. They need support.

My sleep hasn’t been perfect. My schedule definitely hasn’t been perfect. But nourishment has been consistent. Movement has been natural. Walking more than anything. Being outside. Slowing down enough to actually taste food.

Late luteal doesn’t have to be something to push through. Sometimes it’s just a cue to soften the edges a little. More grounding. More warmth. Less intensity. And Cairo has been teaching me that women have been doing this forever. Long before we had the language for hormones, women fed themselves in ways that worked with their bodies. Recipes weren’t random. They were built from experience, climate, and generations paying attention.

Travel makes that obvious in the best way.

You realize your body isn’t separate from where you are. It responds to environment, to rhythm, to culture. And when you lean into that instead of fighting it, everything feels easier. I didn’t leave my hormones at home when I got on the plane. I brought them with me. And right now, they’re being fed really well.

From Cairo, still learning and still listening.

🤎

I am writing this from Dubai.

The sun is sharp and golden. The air is warm in a way that feels intentional. The skyline looks like ambition carved into glass. And somewhere between airport gates, family dinners, and new time zones, my hormones are recalibrating.

Travel is beautiful. It is also biologically disruptive.

When a woman crosses time zones, she is not just adjusting her schedule. She is asking her brain and ovaries to renegotiate rhythm. Circadian signaling shifts. Cortisol patterns adjust. Sleep fragments. Light exposure changes. Blood sugar timing moves. Estrogen and progesterone respond to all of it.

Most people call it jet lag.

But jet lag is hormonal.

The endocrine system thrives on consistency. The brain’s internal clock depends on light cues. Cortisol follows a daily arc that influences energy and focus. Estrogen responds to sleep quality and metabolic stability. When rhythm changes suddenly, the body does not panic. It adapts. But adaptation requires support.

My sleep right now is not ideal. I am waking earlier than I prefer. Going to bed later than usual. Regulating my daughter’s rhythm while mine follows closely behind. Motherhood does not pause for perfect circadian alignment.

And still, I am regulating.

Not perfectly. Intentionally.

Within an hour of waking, I step into natural light. Even a short exposure helps anchor cortisol in its new time zone and signals safety to the nervous system. I prioritize hydration aggressively. Flights dehydrate more than most people realize, and dehydration alone can elevate stress hormones. Electrolytes are not aesthetic here. They are strategic.

I am not chasing flawless gym sessions. In fact, structured workouts have been inconsistent. But movement has not disappeared. I am walking thousands of steps a day across city blocks, hotel corridors, and early morning paths. Walking regulates the nervous system. It lowers stress load. It keeps insulin sensitivity responsive.

This year I committed to running one race every month, regardless of where I am. There is a scheduled 5K here. I have already gotten one run in, and I plan to get another before race day next week. The training has not been pristine. The schedule has been fluid. But the commitment remains. I will line up anyway.

Because regulation is not about ideal conditions. It is about honoring the commitment to myself.

Strength training, when I can fit it in, supports estrogen metabolism and bone density. Protein anchors my meals even when the cuisine changes. Blood sugar stability protects mood, energy, and hormonal signaling. Sleep may not be perfect, but I create darkness and reduce stimulation at night so my brain has cues to recalibrate.

None of this is extreme. None of it is dramatic. It is simply awareness.

Black women regulate differently because we have always understood adaptation. We move through unfamiliar spaces without losing ourselves. We observe before reacting. We recalibrate quietly.

But endurance is no longer the goal.

Rhythm is.

I am not pretending this trip is seamless. My sleep needs work. My workouts are not textbook. My daughter is adjusting and I am adjusting with her. There are moments when I feel the edges of fatigue.

And still, I will make it happen.

Not through force. Through consistency.

Hormonal literacy does not require perfection. It requires presence. It means understanding that cortisol, estrogen, insulin, and sleep are in constant conversation. It means supporting the body even when circumstances shift.

Jet lag is real. So is circadian biology. So is estrogen. So is Black girl energy.

And here, in a city that never seems to rest, I am choosing regulation over reaction.

From Dubai, composed and aware.

🤎

Start Your Sync’d Journey (4 wk Bodyweight)

At first it felt familiar in a way that tightened my chest. Black women have long been discussed as an outlier. Higher risk. Poorer outcomes. More complications. Less favorable responses. What struck me was how rarely the research paused to ask why. The conclusions were framed as biological inevitabilities instead of physiological responses to lived experience. As if our bodies exist untouched by stress, bias, environment, access, or care.

When you study hormones deeply, you learn quickly that the endocrine system does not operate in isolation. Hormones are messengers. They respond to safety and threat, nourishment and deprivation, movement and stagnation, rest and chronic vigilance. The hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis does not differentiate between emotional stress, racialized stress, financial stress, or physical danger. Cortisol rises in response to all of it. Over time, that load reshapes metabolism, ovulatory function, inflammation, cardiovascular health, and pregnancy outcomes. This is not theory. This is established physiology.

What many studies fail to account for is that Black women in America are disproportionately exposed to long term stressors across a lifetime. Not occasional stress but sustained vigilance. Being doubted. Being dismissed. Being expected to endure. When research compares our hormonal profiles and pregnancy outcomes to populations that are not carrying the same cumulative load and then labels the difference as dysfunction, the most important variable is missing. Context.

I understand this not only as a student of hormones but as a patient.

Before my postpartum preeclampsia nearly took my life, I had already learned what it feels like to not be believed. During a previous pregnancy, I told my doctor something was wrong. I felt pressure. I felt the weight of my baby. My body was signaling that something was not safe. I was reassured that everything was fine.

It wasn’t.

I lost my child due to an incompetent cervix. A condition that, with proper attention and intervention, can often be managed. My symptoms were overlooked. My concerns were minimized. I carried that loss quietly, trusting that the system would protect me the next time.

A year later, after giving birth to my daughter, I knew something was wrong in my body. The headaches. The pressure. The feeling that my nervous system was spiraling. I was told it was lingering postpartum exhaustion. That my body was still adjusting. That this was normal.

It wasn’t.

It took another minority nurse listening closely and trusting what I was saying to tell me to go to the emergency room immediately. Just in time. Postpartum preeclampsia is a neuroendocrine and cardiovascular emergency that can occur months after birth. Left untreated, it can be fatal. I was not overreacting. I was being overlooked again.

That experience changed the way I read every study after. The data stopped being abstract. It had faces. It had consequences. Black women are not only more likely to experience certain complications but are also more likely to have their symptoms minimized until they become dangerous. That delay is not biology. It is bias layered into care.

Black women are not hormonally inferior. Our bodies are not broken. They are responding intelligently to environments that demand resilience at a cellular level. Chronic cortisol elevation disrupts progesterone signaling. Blood sugar instability alters estrogen metabolism. Inflammation interferes with ovulation and recovery. Hormones record the story of what the body has endured, and too often that story is ignored until it reaches crisis.

Sitting with this information while studying was both validating and unsettling. Validating because so many of the symptoms Black women are told to normalize suddenly made sense. Unsettling because the research often stopped short of accountability. Disparity was documented without interrogating the systems producing it.

Hormonal health is not about perfection. It is about support. Movement regulates stress hormones and improves insulin sensitivity. Strength training supports estrogen metabolism and bone health. Walking calms the nervous system. Nourishment stabilizes blood sugar, supports neurotransmitters, and aids hormonal clearance. These are not trends. They are tools for resilience.

But access matters. Cost matters. Culture matters. Hormonal support should not become another space where Black women are told they are failing. It should meet us where we are and strengthen us from there.

That is why I am choosing to share this work here. Not as a protocol or a challenge but as a living conversation rooted in science and lived experience. I will be sharing simple household recipes that support hormonal health without requiring specialty ingredients. I will be sharing how I move my body while traveling and living life instead of waiting for perfect conditions. I will be sharing what hormonal care looks like in real time for a Black woman navigating this world.

Black History Month often invites reflection. For me, it also demands reframing. Our bodies are not statistical warnings. They are intelligent systems responding to stress, survival, and gaps in care. When we change the support we offer them, the outcomes change too.

I am still here. Still learning. Still moving. Still nourishing. Still insisting on being heard. And if you want to explore this alongside me, you are welcome here.

🤎

What followed was surgery, then months of hands-on rehab where nothing was left to chance. My meals were planned. My workouts were structured. My recovery was intentional. In track and field, training is cyclical even within a single month. There is a constant rhythm of loading, intensity, peak effort, and strategic pullback. Volume and speed rise and fall week to week so the body can adapt, recover, and perform again. Nothing is meant to stay maxed out for long.

Without anyone naming it at the time, that training rhythm mirrored my menstrual cycle almost perfectly.

I remember feeling the strongest, fastest, and most physically aligned I have ever felt in my life. My body trusted the process. I recovered well. I performed well. Training felt grounded instead of forced.

At the time, I credited discipline. Structure. Being an elite athlete.

It wasn’t until this past year that I realized what was actually happening.

That alignment was not coincidental.

My body was thriving because it was being trained in rhythm with itself.

That realization stayed with me as I returned to racing again years later, now with a deeper understanding of my body and the language it has always been speaking.

I recently finished a race knowing I was heading straight into my luteal phase. In the past, I would have ignored that information and pushed anyway. This time, I planned for it. The first five days after that race were still part of my luteal phase, and training looked very different than what most people expect. There was movement, but it was measured. Short steady runs. Long walks. Mobility. More sleep. More fuel. Less pressure to prove anything.

I wasn’t chasing speed or testing fitness. I was sustaining. And because of that, I didn’t feel depleted by the effort I had just given. I felt ready for what came next.

Women are rarely taught that training is not linear. Our bodies shift week to week, hormonally and neurologically, and those shifts influence how we respond to effort, endurance, and recovery. When we ignore that rhythm, training starts to feel like resistance. When we honor it, everything begins to click.

Menstruation mirrors the recovery or deload weeks in track training, when volume drops and the focus shifts to restoration and repair. This is not a setback. It is a reset that prepares the body for the next build.

As estrogen rises in the follicular phase, training aligns with higher-volume weeks in track. Energy returns. Speed and mileage can increase. The body is primed to adapt and learn.

Ovulation often mirrors peak or performance weeks, when speed is sharp, confidence is high, and the body feels capable of more. This is where races, time trials, and personal bests often happen.

The luteal phase aligns with maintenance and controlled intensity weeks, when the focus is on sustaining gains, managing fatigue, and preventing breakdown. This is where longevity is protected and burnout is avoided.

When women train without understanding this rhythm, they often overtrain, underfuel, lose confidence, and eventually walk away from running altogether. Not because they are incapable, but because the system was never designed with them in mind. Cycle-aware training is not about doing less. It is about doing what makes sense, when it makes sense, so progress can actually last.

This year, I am running one race every month. Not to prove anything, but to stay connected to my body, my cycle, and my intuition, even while traveling and training in different places. I’m bringing you along for the entire journey. The training. The adjustments. The lessons. The races.

Next is Dubai.

🤎

Women who train consistently.

Who care deeply about their health.

Who are informed, intentional, and capable.

Women who do not skip workouts lightly.

Who knows how to push themselves.

Who have built strength before and know what it feels like.

And yet, they feel weak in a way they don’t expect.

Not broken.

Not fragile.

Just off.

Heavy in their bodies. Slower to recover. More tired than their effort should justify. Strong on paper, but disconnected from that strength internally.

This usually gets framed as a motivation issue. A discipline problem. A need for more structure or more grit.

But most of the time, that’s not what’s happening.

Most of the time, it’s timing.

We’ve been taught that effort should work the same way every day. That if you apply enough consistency, the body will eventually respond. Train hard. Recover. Repeat.

That model works well for bodies that operate on relatively stable hormonal patterns.

The female body doesn’t.

Across the month, hormones shift how stress is processed, how muscles fire, how connective tissue responds, and how the nervous system recovers. Estrogen and progesterone don’t just influence reproduction. They shape coordination, strength expression, pain perception, and resilience.

When training ignores those shifts, effort stops translating into adaptation.

There are phases of the cycle where the body is primed for output. Strength feels accessible. Coordination improves. Recovery happens more efficiently. Training stress is absorbed and returned as growth.

During these windows, women often feel like themselves again. Capable. Energized. Confident in their bodies.

And then there are phases where the same stress lands differently.

The nervous system becomes more sensitive. Cortisol lingers longer. Connective tissue responds more slowly. Sleep quality can change. The body becomes less tolerant of repeated high stress inputs.

Pushing harder in those windows doesn’t build strength. It quietly accumulates fatigue.

This is where many strong women get confused.

They remember what their body can do. They’ve done it before. So when performance dips, they push harder. They add volume. They tighten discipline. They override signals instead of reading them.

Over time, strength begins to feel unreliable. Not because it’s gone, but because it’s being asked to show up on a schedule the body can’t support.

This disconnect becomes even more pronounced during major hormonal transitions.

Postpartum is an obvious one. The body is rebuilding systems, not just muscle. The nervous system is recalibrating. Recovery demands change, not resistance.

Perimenopause introduces another layer. Fluctuating hormones alter stress tolerance and connective tissue resilience. Training that once felt supportive can suddenly feel depleting.

But even outside these seasons, this pattern plays out every single month.

Hormone aligned training is not about softness or caution. It’s about accuracy.

It’s understanding when the body is ready to build and when it is asking to stabilize. When intensity creates adaptation and when it simply creates noise.

It’s knowing that strength doesn’t always need to look aggressive to be effective.

When training respects rhythm, recovery improves across the cycle. Injury risk decreases as connective tissue changes are accounted for. Lean muscle is protected instead of repeatedly broken down and rebuilt. The nervous system stays regulated instead of constantly bracing.

Strength stops feeling fragile.

It starts feeling dependable.

This is the difference between forcing consistency and building sustainability.

Strong women don’t need more discipline. They already have it.

They need training systems that understand how their bodies actually work.

I knew why.

But the world did not.

After two high-risk pregnancies, one ending in loss and the other complicated by postpartum preeclampsia, my body was not something I could push or hurry. Hormones were fragile. My nervous system was braced. Recovery required slowness, patience, and restraint in a culture that praises urgency.

Nearly two years passed before my body felt like a place I could fully live inside again.

From the outside, none of that context was visible. What was visible was a body that no longer fit the aesthetic people associate with health, discipline, or expertise. And in that silence, something subtle but painful happened.

The room changed.

Opportunities faded. Conversations shifted. Brand interest cooled. My credibility was questioned not because my education had changed, or my licenses disappeared, but because my body no longer performed health in a way that felt reassuring to others.

I was still the same trainer.

Still highly educated.

Still deeply informed by physiology, movement science, and years of lived experience.

But I was no longer visually convincing.

That period taught me something I can’t unsee now:

In fitness, appearance is still treated as proof.

We say health isn’t defined by size. We say bodies are complex. We say hormones matter. But the moment a body falls outside the expected narrative, understanding disappears. Biology becomes inconvenient. Recovery is framed as weakness. And discipline is confused with the ability to override signals instead of listen to them.

Health has never worked that way.

It isn’t linear. It isn’t visual. It’s layered and deeply personal. It lives in hormones. In the nervous system. In recovery. In rhythm. In how safe the body feels when no one is watching.

Health is not defined by size.

And yet, lately, I’ve been hearing the same story on repeat.

People coming to me after being promised answers. After following programs sold with confidence and certainty. After being told to trust someone because they looked the part.

What comes next is always the same.

Burnout. Confusion. Hormones that no longer feel steady. A body that doesn’t feel like home anymore.

What stays with me most isn’t just how often this happens.

It’s how normal it’s become.

Somewhere along the way, aesthetics replaced education. We stopped asking who was trained, licensed, or informed by biology, and started asking who looked convincing. Extremes were reframed as discipline. Overtraining became dedication. Undereating became control. Constant intensity became commitment.

It works until it doesn’t.

Because the body always keeps score.

When biology is ignored, it doesn’t always break loudly. It compensates. It adapts. It whispers. And eventually, it demands to be heard. Through exhaustion. Through injury. Through inflammation. Through hormonal imbalance. Through the quiet loss of trust between you and your own body.

This is why I believe so strongly that health guidance must be rooted in research, licensure, and lived expertise not aesthetics, confidence, or certainty alone.

Before handing over your body to anyone who claims to know what it needs, I hope people pause long enough to ask better questions. What training supports their work. What education informs their decisions. What systems of the body they actually understand.

These questions aren’t meant to challenge someone’s confidence.

They’re meant to protect your health.

Because your body is not content. It is not a project. It is not something to fix or mold for someone else’s narrative. It is a living system. And living systems require care, not force.

I don’t speak about this from judgment. I speak from knowing what it feels like to be unseen while doing everything right. To be patient in a culture that rewards speed. To respect biology in a space that prefers optics.

That experience changed me.

It changed how I move. How I teach. How I define strength. How I understand health.

Education over aesthetics.

Awareness over intensity.

Care over control.

Your body is a sacred space. It deserves to be met with respect, not urgency. With curiosity, not punishment.

If any part of this feels familiar, take it as permission to slow down. To ask better questions. To choose guidance that honors biology instead of bypassing it.

This week, I’ll be moving live on Substack in the same spirit this piece was written. Intentionally. Gently. With respect for the body as it is right now.

If you feel called to move together, you’re welcome.

Drea 🤎

But the older I get and the longer I work with women, the clearer this becomes. Most women don’t struggle with fitness because they aren’t trying hard enough. They struggle because they’re trying to force their bodies into systems that were never built for them.

Women don’t operate on a straight line. We cycle. Every month, our hormones shift in ways that affect our energy, our strength, our mood, our hunger, and our ability to handle stress. That isn’t a flaw. It’s biology. And yet most workout plans treat those shifts like they don’t exist.

So when a woman feels strong and motivated one week, then slower or heavier the next, she assumes something is wrong. She pushes harder. She cuts more. She tells herself she’s being inconsistent. But what’s actually happening is that her body is responding exactly as it should.

Estrogen rises and supports strength, coordination, and confidence. Progesterone comes in and changes how the body experiences stress and recovery. Cortisol doesn’t hit the same way in every phase. Some weeks your body is primed to build and push. Other weeks it’s asking to protect, repair, and slow the pace just enough to stay balanced.

Ignoring that doesn’t make you stronger. It usually does the opposite.

I see it all the time. Women doing intense workouts during phases when their bodies are already under more internal stress. Then wondering why they feel exhausted, inflamed, disconnected, or stuck. The body isn’t being stubborn. It’s being smart. It’s choosing safety over adaptation.

Your cycle isn’t getting in the way of progress. It’s showing you how to create it.

When women start training with their cycle instead of fighting it, the whole relationship with movement changes. Strong days feel powerful instead of forced. Lower energy days stop feeling like failure. Rest becomes part of the plan, not something you have to earn. Consistency starts to look like listening instead of overriding.

This is what hormonal alignment really is. Not tracking every detail. Not being perfect. Not making excuses. It’s paying attention. It’s adjusting intensity instead of abandoning workouts altogether. It’s understanding that consistency doesn’t mean doing the same thing every day. It means staying connected to your body as it changes.

January is already a stressful month for the nervous system. Less daylight. Colder weather. Big expectations. Piling extreme workouts and restriction on top of that often backfires, especially for women. Alignment here looks quieter. Smarter. More supportive.

And you don’t need to change everything to start. You don’t need a brand new plan or a perfect routine. You can begin by noticing. Tracking your cycle. Observing when workouts feel nourishing versus draining. Letting awareness come before judgment.

This year doesn’t need more force. It needs more trust.

Your body isn’t something to conquer in January. It’s something to work with. To understand. To respect. And when you stop treating your hormones like an inconvenience and start treating them like information, fitness stops feeling like a constant restart.

It starts feeling steady. Sustainable. And honestly, a lot more empowering.

Long before wellness became an industry and hormones became content, our ancestors were feeding themselves in ways that supported regulation, recovery, and survival. Not through theory or trend, but through observation. They paid attention to how the body responded to food, to stress, to seasons, and to scarcity. What endured was what worked.

Black-eyed peas were often dismissed as “poor food,” yet they became a nutritional anchor for entire communities. From a hormonal perspective, their value lies in steadiness. They provide a grounding combination of plant-based protein and fiber that helps stabilize blood sugar. When blood sugar rises and falls too quickly, cortisol follows. Energy dips, irritability, inflammation, cravings, and fatigue are often read as personal failures, when in reality they are physiological signals. Protein and fiber slow that cycle, creating a calmer internal rhythm. Black-eyed peas also contain iron and folate, nutrients essential for red blood cell production and recovery. For menstruating women, postpartum bodies, and anyone living under chronic stress, this kind of nourishment matters. It supports endurance rather than spikes, regulation rather than urgency.

Greens bring their own quiet intelligence to the plate. Collard greens and other dark leafy greens are rich in magnesium, calcium, vitamin K, and antioxidants, but their deeper value lies in how they support the liver. The liver plays a central role in metabolizing estrogen. When estrogen isn’t properly cleared, it can show up as bloating, heavy cycles, breast tenderness, irritability, or exhaustion. Greens help the body release what it no longer needs. Magnesium, in particular, supports the nervous system, sleep quality, and stress response. It’s one of the most commonly depleted minerals in women, especially those carrying constant mental and emotional load. This isn’t about detox culture. It’s about balance, clearance, and support.

There is also meaning in how these foods are prepared. They are traditionally cooked low and slow. Warm. Soft. Easy to digest. From a hormonal lens, this matters deeply. Gentle, warming foods reduce digestive strain and signal safety to the nervous system. When the nervous system feels safe, hormones follow. Digestion improves. Inflammation lowers. Energy stabilizes. This is nourishment that doesn’t demand performance. It invites rest. And rest is not the absence of productivity. It is the foundation of regulation.

Our ancestors didn’t need hormone charts or wearable technology to understand balance. They watched patterns. They listened to the body. They noticed what sustained energy, supported recovery, and allowed people to endure. Greens and black-eyed peas weren’t chosen for symbolism alone. They were practical. They supported blood health, stress resilience, reproductive health, and long-term survival. Prosperity was never abstract. It was embodied. It was survival becoming sustainability.

So when we eat this meal on New Year’s Day, we are doing more than honoring tradition. We are grounding the nervous system, supporting hormone balance, and beginning the year with intention that lives in the body, not just the mind. This isn’t superstition. It’s ancestral alignment. And maybe that’s why it has lasted.

Subscribe now

There is so much joy, so much food, so much family energy… and if we’re being honest, a little chaos too.

And every year I watch women enter this month already bracing themselves.

Worried about the food.

Worried about the bloating.

Worried about falling off their routine.

Worried about starting January feeling defeated.

I get it. I’ve been there more times than I can count.

But here’s what changed everything for me.

I stopped trying to “control” December and started listening to my cycle instead.

Because when you know what your body needs at each phase, everything gets easier.

Your food choices feel calmer.

Your workouts feel more aligned.

Your body feels like it’s finally working with you instead of against you.

So this is not a rulebook.

This is just me sharing what I’ve learned in my own life, through my own body, and through helping women every single day.

Take what feels good. Leave the rest.

You deserve a holiday season that feels supportive, not stressful.

⸻

Menstrual Phase

(Cycle Days 1 to 5)

This is the phase where my body whispers at me to slow down.

My cravings shift. My energy softens. My emotions sit a little closer to the surface.

And instead of fighting it, I’ve learned to lean in.

How I Eat During This Phase

I reach for warmth and comfort because my body truly responds better to it.

Soups, stews, bone broth

Iron rich meals

Warm oats or rice

Greens and lots of minerals

Holiday moment: If we’re at a family dinner, I start with something warm before I look at dessert because it keeps my blood sugar steady and I don’t crash later.

How I Move During This Phase

Honestly, gentle movement is my best friend.

A slow walk

Mobility

Dead bugs and bird dogs

Breathing exercises

This is not the time when I’m trying to push myself. This is the time when I support myself.

⸻

Follicular Phase

(Cycle Days 6 to 12)

This is the phase where I feel myself coming back to life again.

My energy lifts. I feel inspired. My digestion gets stronger.

Everything feels lighter.

How I Eat During This Phase

I go for foods that match that lightness.

Fresh fruit

Crisp veggies

Lean proteins

Meals that feel energizing instead of heavy

Holiday moment: This is the phase where I try the fun holiday foods because my body handles variety so well right now.

How I Move During This Phase

This is when I get excited to move again.

A light jog or brisk walk

Squats

Lunges

Glute bridges

A little playful cardio

It feels like momentum. And I let myself ride that wave.

⸻

Ovulation Phase

(Cycle Days 13 to 16)

This is my glow phase.

I feel social, strong, confident and a little extra magnetic.

My digestion is great and my appetite feels really steady.

How I Eat During This Phase

Protein first

Lots of veggies

Light carbs

A ton of hydration

Holiday moment: I always eat a balanced meal before events so I don’t show up starving and end up overeating out of pure hunger.

How I Move During This Phase

This is my power window.

Squats

Pushups

Split squats

Planks

A fun little run finisher

When I’m in this phase, movement feels like it’s helping me step into my strongest self.

⸻

Luteal Phase

(Cycle Days 17 to 28)

This phase used to make me feel like I was failing.

The cravings, the bloating, the emotions, the dips in energy.

But when I finally understood what my body was doing, everything changed.

Your body is not sabotaging you.

It’s preparing you.

It just needs support.

How I Eat During This Phase

I aim for grounding meals that keep me steady.

Sweet potatoes

Root veggies

Magnesium rich foods like almonds, avocado and cacao

Warm, comforting meals

Higher protein and fiber

Holiday moment: If I want something sweet, I have it after a balanced meal so my mood and energy don’t tank.

How I Move During This Phase

I keep things controlled and grounding.

Step ups

Squats

Glute bridges

Side planks

Stretching

This is not my go-hard phase. This is my stay-steady phase.

⸻

A Real December Reminder From Me

You don’t need to earn holiday food.

You don’t need to punish yourself in January.

You don’t need to start over because you had a cookie.

Please hear me when I say this.

Your cycle gives you a rhythm.

Your body is already intelligent.

And when you support your hormones, even in the middle of holiday chaos, you feel more grounded, more confident and more yourself.

Take what supports you this month.

Let go of the pressure.

And enjoy your December with softness and intention.

Drea xx

Share

And this is exactly why syncing your cycle now, right here at the end of the year, is the most important thing you can do for your energy, your consistency, and your emotional bandwidth.

I say this as a woman who has lived through postpartum recovery, hormonal chaos, exhaustion, and rebuilding my strength from the ground up. I am not just talking as a trainer. I am talking from lived experience.

December is not a pause month.

It is a prep month.

A reset your body has been begging for.

Let’s get into it.

Stress hormones are naturally higher this month and syncing helps regulate them

Cortisol rises faster when routines fall apart. Work deadlines close in. Holiday tasks stack up. Sleep drops. When you keep training out of sync with your cycle during this season, your body pays for it. Training with the wrong intensity for your phase is the fastest way to feel bloated, inflamed, moody, puffy, and exhausted in December.

When you sync your workouts you are regulating cortisol instead of fighting against it. You keep your body grounded.

Your body becomes more sensitive to inflammation

Alcohol, sugar, travel, richer foods, late nights. These things hit differently depending on which phase you are in. This is the month where a synced training plan protects you. You recover better. You digest better. Your energy stays more stable. You do not feel like you are spiraling during the holidays.

This is the best month to build consistency not intensity

Women do not need a December bootcamp. They need hormone smart structure. They need workouts that move with their real lives. When you sync your training in December you stay consistent without burning out, and that consistency carries into January with ease.

Your nervous system is tired and syncing protects your emotional bandwidth

Hormones and the nervous system work together. When your hormones are stressed your brain feels it. Your mood feels it. Your patience feels it. Syncing your cycle supports your nervous system by giving it the right type of movement at the right time. It creates predictability and calm in a month that can feel overwhelming.

What you do in December determines whether you enter January depleted or aligned

Women assume January gives them a clean slate. It does not. Your body does not magically reset because everyone is shouting new year new you. Your hormones carry everything from December straight into the new year.

This is why syncing your cycle now is the smartest thing you can do for your future self. It sets your body up to feel powerful and energized in January instead of dragging your way into the new year already tired.

I have lived through seasons where my hormones were unpredictable and my body felt out of sync with me. Cycle syncing brought me back to myself. It helped me regain trust in my body and rebuild strength that actually supported my life as a mom, a wife, a woman navigating stress, and a woman with goals.

So no, we are not waiting for January.

We prepare now.

We sync now.

We enter the new year already aligned.

You deserve a December that supports you not drains you.

And you deserve to start January already in your power.

I have you.

Subscribe now

If you have been here for a while you already know how passionate I am about helping women understand their bodies. When I say cycle syncing will change your life I mean it. I learned this not from a textbook but from my lived experience. Miscarriage, high risk pregnancy, postpartum recovery, breastfeeding and rebuilding myself from the inside out forced me to look at my body differently. I realized how much power we lose when we are working against a biology that is designed to work in seasons not in straight lines.

The moment I started honoring my cycle everything clicked. My energy made sense. My cravings made sense. My strength made sense. And for the first time in years my body felt like an ally again.

This is your introduction to the method that changed my life and the method I continue to teach women around the world.

Why Cycle Syncing Works

Women are not built around a twenty four hour performance schedule. Our hormones shift across a full monthly rhythm which affects strength, mood, motivation, recovery, metabolism and the way we respond to stress. When your workouts match your hormones you stop fighting your body and you start flowing with it. That is where consistency lives. That is where transformation lives.

Understanding Your Four Phases

Think of your cycle as four different chapters in one story. Each phase brings its own strengths and its own needs. When you train with this rhythm you tap into a level of intelligence your body has always had… you just were never taught how to read it.

Menstrual Phase. The Reset

Hormones are at their lowest. Energy dips. Cramps and heaviness can show up. This is not weakness. This is your body recalibrating.

Move like this: gentle strength, breath work, walking, mobility and softer cycling.

Your pace slows but your progress does not.

Follicular Phase. The Rebuild

Estrogen rises and you start to feel sharper and lighter. Creativity lifts. Confidence returns.

Move like this: athletic, conditioning, circuits, speed work and playful movement.

Your body is ready to reengage.

Ovulation. The Peak

This is your power window. Strength is at its highest. Testosterone gives you more fire. Confidence is naturally elevated.

Move like this: heavy strength, HIIT PR attempts and long endurance days.

This is the moment to push because your body is built for it.

Luteal Phase. The Shift

Progesterone rises and your body becomes more sensitive and slower to recover. This is not a sign to stop. It is a sign to listen.

Move like this: moderate strength, Pilates, low impact cardio and grounding movement.

This phase teaches you the power of honoring your limits without losing your momentum.

Why This Changes Everything

Once you understand your hormones you finally see that you are not inconsistent you are cyclical. You are responsive. You are adaptive. And you are powerful when you work with your biology instead of forcing yourself through it.

Cycle syncing is not a trend. It is not a wellness buzzword. It is a biological truth. It reduces inflammation, boosts energy, improves strength, decreases PMS and turns fitness into something sustainable instead of punishing.

I created The Drea Method because I lived every side of this journey. I know what it feels like to push through pain and burnout. I also know what it feels like to rise again with a body that finally feels understood.

My Promise To You

I will always give you the science and I will always give you compassion. Your body is not the enemy. Your cycle is not an inconvenience. Your rhythm is your power.

And when you learn how to train with it everything in your life begins to shift.

If this spoke to you share it with a woman who could use this knowledge. And if you are ready to go deeper into hormone smart training stay close because I have so much more to teach you.

xxx Drea Wheeler

Share

How we show up.

How disciplined we are.

How consistent we stay.

But the real story, the one many women never hear, is that performance is built on recovery.

And recovery is built on sleep.

Not just any sleep.

Not the “collapse on the couch after a long day” sleep.

Not the “scroll until your brain is tired” sleep.

I mean the kind of sleep where your body finally softens.

Where your nervous system loosens its grip.

Where your hormones have the space to reset and communicate.

That sleep is where strength is rebuilt.

That sleep is where patience is restored.

That sleep is where your cycle recalibrates.

And here’s where things get real:

Most of us are not getting that sleep.

⸻

Let’s Be Honest About Nights

I don’t have a slow, candle-lit nighttime routine.

I have real life.

There’s bath time and toddler bedtime negotiations.

There are dishes I forgot, emails I didn’t finish, texts I haven’t answered.

There’s the mental load of a full day still buzzing in my body.

By the time the house is quiet, I’m not “winding down.”

I’m coming down from a sprint.

My nervous system is still running.

My mind is still processing.

My body is still on alert.

So even when I finally get in bed… my system isn’t ready for rest.

And this is where magnesium became the difference-maker for me.

⸻

Why Magnesium Matters for Women

Magnesium is the mineral that tells the body it is safe enough to let go.

Safe enough to sleep.

Safe enough to regulate hormones.

Safe enough to rebuild.

When magnesium is low, the nervous system stays tense.

And when the nervous system is tense, the hormones follow.

You can be eating well, training consistently, drinking water, taking care of yourself and still feel:

• exhausted

• irritable

• inflamed

• overwhelmed

• emotionally fragile

• or like your cycle is unpredictable

It’s not failure.

It’s physiology.

Our hormones cannot regulate when our nervous system is in survival mode.

And in this world — our nervous systems are almost always in survival mode.

⸻

So Where Does MagZ Come In?

Not as a magic fix.

Not as a “self-care moment.”

Not as a supplement trend.

Just as support.

A replenishing of something my body was already asking for.

MagZ contains forms of magnesium that the body can actually absorb — and that matters, because absorption is what helps:

• the brain slow down

• the muscles release tension

• the heart rate drop

• the nervous system settle

• the hormones communicate

For me, this is what allows sleep to work.

Not just happen.

Work.

⸻

My Real Nighttime Routine

It looks like this:

Toddler to sleep.

Pick up the house a bit.

Finish emails I didn’t get to.

Take a moment to breathe and let the day leave my body.

MagZ with water.

Heart rate slows a little.

Shoulders drop.

Thoughts loosen.

I finally land back in myself.

And then I sleep.

Not crash.

Not numb out.

Sleep.

The kind that helps me wake up steady the next day.

Not perfect — just steadier.

More present.

More myself.

⸻

If You’ve Been Feeling “Off”

If your mood has been louder than usual

If your patience feels thin

If your workouts feel harder than they should

If sleep isn’t giving you rest

If your cycle feels unpredictable

Start with your nervous system.

Not with more effort.

Not with more restriction.

Not with more pressure.

Your body doesn’t need perfection.

It needs support.

MagZ has been part of that support for me.

Not to “fix” anything.

But to give my system what it needs to function the way it’s designed to.

When the nervous system feels safe

the hormones follow

the sleep deepens

the strength returns

and the body softens into itself again.

Drea xx 🤎

DREA10 at Perfect Sports 🇨🇦 and Muscle Strength 🇺🇸

Subscribe now

Share