There’s no doubt that a woman’s physical health is crucial for fertility and conception. But, sometimes the ways women approach diet and exercise are counterproductive to hormone health.

Of course, exercise is an important lifestyle habit, but this doesn’t need to be intense exercise that leaves you flat on your back panting for air. In fact, this can actually be problematic for hormones and impact fertility, because it increases stress on the body. Many women also tend to unknowingly under-eat, because they underestimate how much fuel their bodies need to keep up with exercise demands.

Exercise in the pregnancy-preparation phase can be simple: move your body often, choose activities you enjoy, and challenge yourself without exhausting yourself. 

In particular, shifting your exercise around your cycle can be super impactful. It can immensely impact energy, motivation, mood, and even strength and recovery. Cycle syncing includes matching not only your exercise to different phases of your cycle, but also your work, nutrition, and even social schedule.

Pretty simply, there are specific hormonal fluctuations that occur throughout our menstrual cycles that impact our bodies immensely. We have more energy and motivation leading up to ovulation, and less leading up to our periods.

Living more in tune with these allows us to tap into our true feminine cyclical nature, harnessing the power of our cycles and of fertility in particular.

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This is an excerpt from a post written by Kim Perez, MA, FNTP, a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and owner of Root and Branch Nutrition. She specializes in helping expectant and new moms thrive postpartum and through motherhood while feeling amazing in their bodies after having babies. Kim is passionate about all things women's health and wellness, particularly filling the major gaps in postpartum care and support as well as helping moms overcome challenges like fatigue, chronic stress, hormonal imbalances, painful periods, digestive symptoms, body image struggles, and more. Check her out on Instagram. Abridged content curated and edited by Nayla Al-Mamlouk.