Women's business

There are some things about being a woman that suck.

One of them is that your hormones fluctuate over the month. You go from feeling like yourself, happy and satisfied, to feeling somehow off kilter.

I have noticed every time I have taken hormones for medical reasons, big changes in the way I feel and think. I notice that my memory is effected, my ability to rationalise and be logical is less. I am someone who uses these 3 things a lot in my life, because my job is in a technical area.

It is especially frustrating to feel different. In a way I feel like a different person just before I menstruate.

It bothers me so much that, I am getting pretty finely tuned into the changes. The changes I resent.

A week before my period my skin breaks out. Now with a change in diet, those pimples are just small white heads on the surface of my skin, while previously they were deep and painful.

My sexual appetite drops, well sort of, I am not going to go into the details but the overall way I feel sexually is different.

My bowel movements change; just before it, I am constipated, just after diarrhea. What is with that.

On the first day I am sometimes, not always, assailed by cramps. Sometimes they hurt and I need to take a pain killers, other times I find keeping active drives it away.

I get hungrier. I crave sweet things. I have been suspecting of this for awhile, with almost every diet I have been on has been blown as I approach my period, only for the cravings to disappear almost as soon as it begins.

I wasn't sure of this, but I haven't had any trouble maintaining my diet until now. Now I am breaking out in pimples etc.

Of course, I have a strategy and that is to let myself indulge a little, in the hopes that it means I don't need to indulge a lot. I have already had an extra piece of chicken today and 20g of dark chocolate.

Might sound like cheating to some, but it is all about keeping to something I can achieve. If I plan to eat some chocolate, then when I eat it, I haven't broken my plan. While my calorie intake will be higher than it probably should be, I am hoping I won't end up binge eating and then taking a few weeks to refocus and get back on track.

I used to suffer more from mood swings, which I guess I still do, but instead of me just swinging from being angry to being depressed, now I tend to just feel like everything is just a little out of place.

I think all men should see what it is like, just for a little while. Then we might get a little more respect.

Then of course we get smacked with menopause, yay, can't wait for that!

Menstruating is a part of life, it is part of what make us women. I have to deal with it, just like every other thing. So with chocolate in the cupboard and a daily allowance of 20grams a day set, feminine hygiene products at the ready, I get ready to deal with it.

In other news, I ran my 15minutes at level 9.3 yesterday as well as keeping my heart rate up for the full 50 minutes. Cardio is harder to face than weights, but it is satisfying to be reaching those goals.

The gym was packed last night and the little competitor in me was pleased to see that I ran faster and longer than even the gorgeous girls. I rode on the bike further in the same amount of time and I didn't leave after a quick 30 minutes work out. Some people are just blessed with good genetics I guess, or haven't abused their body as much or as long as I have.