Quasi Recovery & HOW TO GET YOUR PERIOD BACK in ED/Diet Recovery

Today I wanted to talk to you about how to get your period back after years or months of restrictive dieting, over exercising, and just the whole shebang. Okay?

After being in a prolonged caloric deficit, your body has not been able to menstruate properly, because it’s so weak, so depleted.

And your hormones are just imbalanced, and so we need to give your body some time to heal, regenerate, strengthen, and rebalance.

So how do you do that?

And I just wanted to say, first off, I personally lost my period for over four years, so I lost it when I was teenager, and didn’t get it back until recovery, four to five years later. It was gone during the fitness competitions. It was gone during the binging and purging after that, and it was gone during the vegan and then raw vegan and fasting and all these clean eating types of lifestyles.

And it only came back until I let go of all of the restrictions and all of the dogmas and all of these clean eating trends and fads that are out there, and I just started to listen to my body again, and was consistent with nourishing my body as much as it wanted, whenever it wanted, and what I actually wanted to eat.

I ended up getting my period back after taking on recovery. It was a good three months. And then having three consecutive periods in a row, I knew that my body was finally coming to a balance, but it didn’t stop after there.

I still had extreme hunger after three months, and I still was binging, just not as much as in the first three months. The first three months was like phase one, and it’s just intense. So it started to die down after this, only because too I was not yo-yoing any more. I wasn’t going back to restricting in any way.

You know, after recovery a lot of us go into this period where we jump back and forth, and we’re in limbo, like pseudo … I like to call it half-assed recovery, because you’re not committing 100%, and so you take on recovery, but you’re still not ready to let go 100%, so now you pickup…. paleo.

Or now you pick up vegan.

Or now you pick up intermittent fasting.

Or now you pick up no histamines

or no oils,

or you’re still trying to hold onto whole foods only all the time, and you’re still in limbo phase.

You need to just let it go and find the balance that will be sustainable for you!

Find YOUR balance.

That’s why I always say that,

because you are not paleo.

You are not raw veganism.

You are not intermittent fasting.

You are … If you’re hungry in the morning, you eat.

And if you’re not, you don’t.

And if you want some eggs or meat, you have it.

But if you just want plants that day, then you just have plants, but the next day is totally different, and you go with that.

That’s finding your balance.

Okay, so I’m way off topic… How do you get your period back?

Well, it’s simple in theory, but a lot of us don’t like simplicity, and we over-complicate it. But really what it comes down to is, like I said, you have to commit 100%. That’s number one. You have to feed your body as much a it wants, whenever it wants, and whatever it wants consistently.

The other part of this formula … It’s rest and re-feed and repeat. That’s the formula, okay?

So that’s re-feeding. Okay? It doesn’t matter if you’re getting up to 10,000 calories a day, like I’ve said in previous videos. You feed your body, and then you need a rest, because all of this energy coming in … That needs to go towards rebuilding and rebalancing and strengthening and restructuring and yeah. This needs to go for your hormone reproduction and the healing of your body.

So if you’re using all of this energy coming in to over exercising to compensate for the extra calories coming in, you’re not going to get anywhere. You’re just going to be a hamster on a wheel. You know?

You’re doing everything right, but you’re not, because you’re still over-exercising. You’re not giving your body the rest it needs. Rest is just as important as re-feeding. So rest not only means sleeping and taking naps whenever you can if possible if your schedule allows. Seriously, I went through a period in the first several months of my recovery where I would wake up so tired. Then I would have a nap every time I would eat a meal. I would have to go take a nap, and then I’d get up. It was just a period of … I was very fatigued in recovery. Things got to get worse before they get better, in this case.

Napping, sleeping, and then completely taking out exercise if need be, and it depends on how long you’ve been restricting, what kind of restrictions you’ve been doing. If you’re like severe anorexia or if you’re just restrictive dieting, but if you’re bikini competing … It all varies, so you need to listen to your biofeedback and what your body’s asking for.

My fatigue and nap taking period went on for a good amount of time, so a few months.

You have to cut down on the exercise. I’m serious. You can walk lightly or stretch lightly, but no crazy lifting weights and HIIT workouts and crazy couple-hour-long hikes, like all-day-long hikes to where you’re super fatigued.

You need to conserve this energy coming in, okay? This is a short-term sacrifice for long-term life and freedom and sanity and health, so get that through your mind. This is like an investment for your future, so rest. Okay? You have the rest of your life to exercise the way you want to, how much you want to. You have to keep this up, the resting from exercise and in general until your period comes back. So if it hasn’t come back yet, then the answer is no, you should not be doing intense exercising again. Okay? No.

I get this question a lot. “When can I do it again?”

Has your period come back? “No.”

Well, no.

You’ve got to keep doing it. If it’s not coming back after months and months, you’re still restricting. You’re still over-exerting yourself.

There’s something where you’re not committing 100%. You have to be honest with yourself at this time. Being consistent without restricting and without relapsing is how you’re going to get your period back.

Another thing. Super important. Keeping a balance of all macro-nutrients. Carbs, fats, proteins, everything. You’re on the high everything diet now. No low-carb. No low-fat. No no-protein. You need a balance. You need carbs. You need fats. You need proteins and sugars. You need all of this in a balance that’s unique to you to heal and strengthen and rebuild. Rebalance your hormones. Rebalance your metabolism. Promote cell repair, muscle tissue repair, hair re-growth. You name it. You need all of this for all of these things.

Again, after three consecutive periods in a row, this is a good sign that you’re rebalancing, and you’re getting closer to being able to add in more exercise, and being able to find that balance that’s unique to you. Be able to listen to your hunger cues again, and that’s the next step in your journey. This is a long journey, and there’s different phases. But be mindful to not go extreme again with your exercise. Like, “Okay, I can exercise now. Okay, I’m going to go seven days a week, couple hours a day, blah, blah, blah.” Super intense. No.

Again. You are in this. You’re reframing your mindset to exercise healthy and balanced, and not super draining and overexertive. You’re exercising for enjoyment again, not punishment, not to over compensate for eating more than you think you should. Exercise is not there for punishment. It’s there to move our body, because we’re human beings, and we are meant to move. Be in movement. Okay?

And it’s supposed to be fun and enjoyable and meditative, so you always have to keep this in mind, because this can happen a lot. People get into a certain period of their recovery, and then they start to add back in exercise, and they go extreme again because that mindset is still there, and they’re not keeping it in check, and then they fall back, way back into the beginning of recovery if they even notice, and they’re miserable again. This happened to me, and I know that it’s happened to other people that I’ve worked with and talked to. Don’t let this be you. Keep yourself in check. A year from now, two years from now … whenever. Remember this.

And lastly, you have to gain weight. You have to gain healthy, necessary weight gain that is healthy for your body physiology and genetics and body structure and body type. There’s no way around this. You can’t stay at this body type that you’re at now without your period and think that you’re going to get your period back. No, that has to change. You have to gain some weight, and if you need help or advice on how to deal with this weight gain in recovery, I did make another video on how to deal with weight gain in recovery and free download on my page, a new one. This is a common question that I get a lot, and there’s plenty of other videos out there on how to deal with weight gain in recovery.

You have to come to the terms of going through this process. So, yeah. That’s what I have to say about getting your period back.

Be consistent.

Be balanced.

Feed your body.

Rest.

The whole shebang.

You got to do it all.

Xx 

Kayla Rose

Holistic Nutritionist

P.S. I’m hosting a free masterclass specifically for people who want to stop feeling obsessed around food and truly heal their metabolism and you’re invited! Click here to sign up.