PMDD shaped my life for 17 years before I could name it. I spent those years searching for answers, questioning my sanity, and desperately seeking treatments that actually worked. My painful journey had an unexpected twist. Helping others heal from PMDD became my life's purpose. Hi, I'm Jess, a board-certified nutritional therapist, coach, the founder of Her Mood Mentor, and your host. This is PMDD Pep Talk, a weekly reminder that your suffering is real, your experience is valid, and your future is brighter than your symptoms suggest. Each week, we're going to explore the truths about PMDD that nobody talks about. The kind of truths that shift something deep inside you and make you think, maybe there's more possible than I imagined. Whether you're in the depths of luteal darkness or riding the clarity of your follicular phase, you're exactly where you need to be. Because here's what I know for sure. Healing PMDD isn't just about managing symptoms. It's about transforming your life. This challenge, as brutal as it can be, is an invitation to know yourself more deeply, and live a more joyful, purpose-filled life. PMDD might feel like your whole story, but it's just a chapter, and you get to write what comes next. Welcome to PMDD Pep Talk. Quick pep talk pause. Remember that everything we talk about here is meant to educate and inspire. Always team up with your healthcare provider for personal medical advice. All right, now let's get into it. All right, welcome back to PMDD Pep Talk. If you haven't listened to the previous episode about why travel triggers PMDD so hard, go back and listen to that because I want you to have the understanding of why on a deeper level travel is such a trigger. We break down so many different areas of how and why physiologically, environmentally, on and on travel is a trigger for worsened hormonal mood symptoms. And today we're going to get into some specific tips of what you can do if travel tends to flare your PMDD symptoms. So stick around, this is for you. Um, and again, I really want to emphasize the goal here isn't to have a perfect trip. The goal is to support your body in a way that reduces the damage that is happening through travel, protects your stability, and just makes it easier for you to recover when you get home. So if you experience PMDD symptoms, travel is not usually just like a fun break for your body. It can, again, just a short recap, mean that your sleep is disrupted, your circadian rhythm is disrupted, you're dehydrated, you're going to experience blood sugar swings. Overstimulation is a big part of travel, digestion changes, missed supplements, losing your routine and having more histamine activation. All can come with travel. So here the travel— here we're going to be diving into the travel tips that I want you to get started with and be thinking about before, during, and after your trip. So the first tip, really basic but really maybe the most important part of being supported, is to know where you are in your cycle before you go. And I don't just mean where are you going to be in your cycle, what phase of your cycle are you going to be in on the trip, but in the whole scheme of things, the weeks before, the week, weeks after, where is your cycle falling. This is one of the most important things you can do is to always know where you are in your cycle and to know your symptom pattern. So this may require a little bit of legwork before just diving in and knowing your symptom pattern, right? You have to collect that. And we have a free symptom mapping kit to help you map your symptom pattern. So if you want to grab that, you can grab that in the link in the show notes, or you can go onto social media, comment or message to us anywhere, map, and we'll send you a link to get the kit. And knowing where you are in your cycle is really important because the same trip can feel very different depending on where you are in your cycle. Are you in follicular, ovulatory, luteal, menstrual phase, right? Those 4 phases of the cycle where your trip falls is going to matter. If you're traveling during your luteal phase, you're going to need more protection, more margins, more support, and lower expectations in a way. And that doesn't mean you're being dramatic, right? It means you're being informed with how travel impacts you, why, and then what is your symptom pattern and what can you expect when you're traveling. So traveling without knowing where you are in your cycle is really like leaving on a road trip and not taking your phone that's gonna send you the map of directions on how to get where you're going. Really, really, really, really important. We could also say it's like traveling without checking the weather, right? You're ill-prepared for what you're going to be facing. Depending on the cycle phase. And this doesn't just go for luteal. It's like, okay, if I'm traveling during the ovulatory phase, I'm gonna be— I'm gonna want to get out of my sleep routine even more. I'm gonna want to drink or use substances even more. I'm like caffeine. I'm gonna be a little bit more impulsive during that time. Like, a lot of these travel tips, it's so deep, guys. It's so deep. It's like, understand your cycle, know what your cycle means, know what different phases of your cycle and how different hormones in each phase are going to impact your mood. And then have your symptom mapping data. So if you're like, wow, this is more in depth than I suspected, welcome to the party. We teach you all of this in PMDD Rehab and our one-to-one programs. So you know what I'm talking about here. If you're scratching your head, you can access all of that. We have the support for you, but let's go on to the next travel tip. And this is going to be deciding ahead of time which anchors are non-negotiable for you and where you're going to flex. Now, again, if you. Kind of act out of turn here and make a different decision. It's not something we need to feel shame or guilt about cuz it will happen. It's like right on time, expected. But having some parameters set before you go is really important. And this has been something that's really helped me personally a lot in navigating travel as a trigger. And this is one of the most realistic and helpful thing— ways I think to think about travel as you're preparing. A lot of us. Either try to do everything perfectly while traveling or we throw everything out the window and then we wonder why are we crashing. On both sides. Perfection, crash. Throwing everything out the window, crash. Okay, so what works better is deciding ahead of time, like, what are my anchors? Now in our one-on-one program, we do so much work on helping you identify what your symptom triggers are and then what you're going to anchor to. So again, if this language is like, ah, what is she talking about? This is what I'm talking about. We need to understand what triggers you specifically, and then we need to understand what anchors you to reduce and better manage symptoms. Now, you may not have all that sorted out right now, right, because maybe you haven't gone through our program yet, but you can go ahead and identify some anchors for you by asking what helps you stay the most stable. One question. Second question: where are you willing to flex without going completely off the rails? Or are you going to choose to go completely off the rails? But again, you're going to have that context of, okay, well, I went off the rails. So again, more context to the trigger list. So for example, for me, caffeine is usually an anchor that I adhere to. No caffeine for me is an anchor. Now that's the case because I know how much caffeine is a trigger. Now when traveling, I will allow some shifts in that. I'll probably maybe have a moderate amount of caffeine depending on where I am in my cycle. But again, I'm not gonna go, okay, now I'm just drinking a coffee every morning while I'm on my trip. Right? Maybe it's, I'll have a matcha one time while I'm traveling, or I'm gonna just do decaf coffee the whole time I'm there. Like I'm negotiating with myself, what am I going to adhere to? What is my anchor gonna be on the trip? How much caffeine, no caffeine, depending on where I am in my cycle. So that's something I'm navigating. Same thing you can do with sweets. Like, are you gonna have a dessert every day on the trip? Or are you going to have alcohol every day on the trip? Or are you going to anchor to some boundaries with yourself? With your routine, are you going to throw it out the window? Are you going to abandon it? Or are you going to simplify it for travel? So going through and looking at your routine and what stabilizes you, and then taking out, hey, these things are something I can do while traveling, and these things are simplified, right? Maybe I can't hit the gym, but I can take a walk kind of thing is a way that we would modify this. So you're really asking yourself some questions here because it's not going to be perfect, but it is about intentionality. So how are you intentionally going into the trip? What are your primary triggers? Like, make a list of those that you can think of. And then what are going to be some anchors? And then where are you gonna create some non-negotiables. For example, I feel like I didn't flush the caffeine example out very well, but I can flush an alcohol example out very well. I maybe have 3 drinks a year, like very few drinks. I would rather eat dessert than drink alcohol. That's just me personally. But in the past, I used alcohol as a coping mechanism. I used it a lot when I traveled. There was a lot of alcohol consumption. So when we travel, I will maybe— I rarely have any drinks, rarely any, but if I'm going to have one, it would just be one, right? Because I would rather have the dessert at dinner. I would probably rather have the matcha than drink the alcohol. So that's how I'm navigating this example with myself. And then again, sometimes maybe there is a trip and I have more drinks than I would have liked, and I get kind of out of what I intentionally planned with myself. but I'm gonna hold that context of, okay, I'm feeling extra right now because all these travel triggers. And then I also renegotiated an intention that I set with myself. Now, I think travel can be such a great tool because it can help you practice those boundaries with yourself, which is the hardest place to set boundaries, but the most important place to start setting boundaries. Cuz if you can't set a boundary with yourself, how can you set a boundary with another person? So you can kind of gamify this. Into what boundaries you're going to set with yourself and how are you going to stick with them. And when you don't, what are you going to do instead of beat yourself up about it? Next travel tip, moving on: don't skip meals. Just don't. This one is huge. If you take one thing from this episode, try not to skip meals when you're traveling. Now, this is really hard to do, it turns out, but if you're experiencing hormonal mood symptoms, going too long without eating is gonna be a major Symptom trigger, and this is happening a lot with traveling. Travel makes you skip meals very easily, delay meals, rely on random snacks that don't actually stabilize you. So one of the most simple and effective things you can do to make travel better for you is to make sure that you have non-perishable protein snacks in every single bag for you that you're traveling with. For me, that's all about EquiP, EquiP protein bars, EquiP protein powder, meat sticks. Um, that's what I'm leaning on. You lean on what works for you. Obviously protein bars, jerky, protein packets, nuts, seeds, nut butter packs, things like that can be helpful. An apple travels pretty good in your bag, an orange even, but obviously those aren't gonna be in the protein category. But where can you stock some non-perishable or semi-non-perishable? Things so you're not going long periods of time without eating. So even if you're not getting a meal, you have some safe kind of meal backup options to utilize when you need them. And I want you to pick things that you know sit well. I don't want you to like try something new that you hadn't tried before or something that feels totally unpredictable. You don't know how it's going to land in your system. I want you to have some exposure to these foods before you're on the trip and you're already tired and overstimulated and dealing with limited food options and then adding something random and new in. So the emergency protein, again, not extra. It's really part of keeping your blood sugar and your body stable and then aiming to not skip meals and to snack frequently when traveling. A lot of stress being used up, need extra minerals, need extra carbohydrates, need extra fats, need extra proteins. Tip number 4 that I wanna get into is hydrating very specifically. So it's not just Hope you drink enough water. It's, you're gonna drink water. So flying in particular is gonna increase dehydration risk, which then is gonna play into headaches and histamines and fatigue and brain fog and constipation and low res resilience. Like it's just a downward spiral with all of these triggers that come along with traveling. So I want you to think proactively about hydration. Bring your own water bottle. Okay? Gotta have your own water bottle and you gotta refill it often and you gotta drink it and you need minerals when you're traveling. So I want you to personally think about potassium-forward support because when we're thinking about minerals, macrominerals, calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium, you're drinking maybe like an element on the plane, already more water retention, then you're getting 1,000 milligrams of sodium. Mm-mm. That's not what we're aiming for. We want potassium-forward. We don't wanna drive more water retention while we're traveling, but we do want to get minerals. Minerals are what actually bring water into the cell, actually hydrate you. Traveling is very stressful. We need extra minerals to deal with that stress load. So sodium has its place. We want you to get good sea salt while you're on your trip, but we don't want to put sodium ahead of potassium because this can actually worsen, uh, dehydration when you're traveling. So potassium-forward mineral support. Now, some easy ways to do this. Obviously you can bring a electrolyte powder with you that's potassium forward. Also, coconut water would be a really good option because it's gonna be super high in potassium. Potatoes, high in potassium. Squash, high in potassium. There's lots of foods that you can be eating as well to support minerals while you're traveling, but it's generally easiest to find a high potassium mineral electrolyte powder to bring with you. The main point here too is don't wait until you start to feel terrible to start hydrating. You need to, you need to actually support hydration the days leading up to traveling, during travel, and then throughout until you're home, even after the re-entry, supporting With hydration, aka adequate water. So we're generally recommending 64 to 72 ounces for an average female, but you can also take your body weight and divide it in half and try to drink that many ounces. That's another general recommendation. Now you're traveling, so you're gonna be more prone to dehydration, so you can maybe drink even more water than that. But the minerals is a big important part of the conversation in hydration. It's not just about the water. The next tip is going to be to pack a kind of comfort bag inside your bag, or like a little SOS bag is what I call mine. And this is one of my favorite travel tips. So you're gonna pack a small bag of regulation support, like a little SOS support kit inside your main bag that you have with you. So if you're traveling by air, you want to have this in your carry-on. If you're traveling in the car, you want to have this up front in the front seat with you, and you don't want to be digging around trying to find it when you need it and you're already overwhelmed. So things your comfort bag may include could be things like— in mine, I have overstimulation tools, so I have earplugs that block out some sound. I have Fidget tools. I have creamy, cozy lotions and lip balm and eye drops and electrolytes and some kind of as-needed basis use supplements and herbs and medications, gum, mints, blue light blockers. I can keep going, but anything grounding and familiar that helps you in the moment kind of come into your body, deal with some overstimulation, deal with some dysregulation that you can stock in this little SOS comfort bag. The comfort bag is not a— is not an extra thing here. It's not like, maybe I'll do it. No, this is a part of your regulation kit. So plan this out, prepare it. And I have— I keep it, I move it from my travel bag into my daily going around town bag. So I have this with me all the time, not just when I travel, but when I'm like leaving my house. And anytime you start to feel overwhelmed or dysregulated, physically drained, having those things to turn to and reach for is really comforting and really matters. So that's gonna again be individual for you. Those are some examples, but that kind of get, get your wheels turning on what maybe you would put in your SOS bag. And then the next tip, make your supplements and medications easy to take on the move. So travel is not the time to rely on memory and motivation. If medications, minerals, histamine support supplements are part of what keeps you stable, then these need to be as easy as possible to take. So for this, I like to use a supplement dispenser. Get a fun one, pack it out before you go, have everything you need, pull one out per day, pre-sort everything. Keep the essentials that you need on an as-needed basis, uh, in your carry-on, in that SOS bag. If drinkable options work better for you, something like the Moraea, which is the micronutrient supplement support we provide to all of our clients, this could be a really useful option. Sometimes when I travel, I just bring the Moraea instead of bringing my personalized supplement regimen because it's just easier to drink the tasty drink and get some support. So that could sub in if you don't want to use the supplement dispenser, kind of medication dispenser plan. Reducing the friction is what's important here. So you have to look at it for yourself. Where is the friction? Setting timers or alarms. I have an alarm that goes off every day to like eat and to take my supplements, and so I'm gonna have that on my watch daily, and I'm also gonna have that in place while I'm traveling to help me remember, because traveling is it's gonna make it even more difficult, especially if I'm changing time zones. The next tip is gonna be histamine specific. So if you've recognized that histamines are a part of your symptom picture, we wanna support it before, during, and again after travel, like most of these tips apply to. Now, histamines are a big part of symptom drivers for many women experiencing PMDD. So if you already know that you're histamine sensitive and your body struggles with it, you don't wanna wait until you're flaring or on the trip to remember that, cuz you wanna prepare again in advance ahead of time. So this can look different for different people depending on what you wanna do, but using a histamine stabilizer for 3 to 4 days before you travel and then during travel is oftentimes really helpful. This is what I do. Uh, and then remembering like travel isn't the root of the issue, but it can add to that stress, inflammation, the disruption, and the reactivity on your already sensitive system. So the histamine stabilizers, it's not just like that solves the problem, right? I can take some Pepcid or I can take a Zyrtec and my problems are solved. No, we still want to work on the underlying root of what's driving that histamine intolerance or histamine sensitivity. But when traveling, we may need to take some shortcuts and bring in some heavier hitters to help stabilize you on the trip, and that's okay. You just want to plan for it because it really matters. And this is huge. This is huge. We could do a whole— we should do a whole episode on histamines, but travel is a big histamine trigger. The next thing I want— the next tip I want to share is to protect your digestion and prevent constipation. We do not want constipation on the trip, and this is a really underrated tip. A lot of us get constipated when we're traveling. Again, no surprise. The dehydration, the stress, the sitting more, the food changes, disrupted routine, lower movement overall is gonna lead to more constipation, but it's going to make you feel worse across the board. Obviously you're gonna be more bloated, more sluggish, more inflamed, more uncomfortable, more symptomatic. But then those symptoms, it's gonna impact your next cycle and your next cycle when all the, these free radicals build up and you're not clearing, you're not getting that estrogen metabolism, that estrogen clearance. Your body processes hormones through the bowel and moves them out the digestive tract. So when elimination slows, you're going to feel backed up in every sense of the word. And this is one reason I think it can be really helpful to support regularity before travel. And then obviously during travel, I again, really like the Marea for this. It keeps digestion moving, magnesium, hydration. Regular mealtimes, movement are all also going to be supportive. But you have to continue eliminating well while you're traveling. And if not, you again want to hold that as context for yourself of why you're feeling so terrible during the trip, after the trip, next cycle even. The next tip is to protect your sleep environment as much as possible. So obviously travel is a major sleep disruptor. You're not going to sleep generally as good when you travel as you do at home. And I think a lot of us underestimate— again, you know, I love light biology— but overestimate how much overhead lighting, hotel lighting, plane lighting, airport lighting is going to disrupt your circadian rhythm. So I always travel with my blue light blockers. My husband and I were the weird people on the plane with our orange and yellow blue light blockers. You can't have clear blue light blockers. It's not doing anything. You actually need yellow or red-toned lenses to block blue light. For this, I like Raw Optics. I also like, um, Bon Charge. I'll put the links below if you want to check those out. But we want to do anything we can that helps avoid bright blue-white LED light at night. This goes across the cycle, but you're probably hopefully only getting exposed to this more when you're traveling, and you've already addressed some of this in your at-home light environment. If not, highly recommend taking my workshop called Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD, and PMDD. We dive into light biology there, vitamin D levels connected to PMDD, um, LED light exposure suppressing melatonin, driving cortisol. It's a whole thing, but really, really important to think about when you're traveling and this travel trigger impacting your sleep. Um, the bright overhead lighting at night has got to stop. Yeah, so turning it off, uh, it's going to suppress melatonin. You gotta have those blue light blockers. We even travel— I mean, we're serious about this— but we even travel with little lamps, tiny little small lamps. So if we're staying in a hotel or we're staying at a friend's house or whatever and they don't have circadian-friendly light bulbs, we travel with our own rechargeable small little lights so we're not being exposed. Plus we have the blue light blockers. Next tip that I wanna get into is working on communication before you hit your limit. So a lot of us really try to be as low maintenance as possible while traveling, right? We don't ask for breaks, we don't speak up when we need food, we don't say anything when we're overloaded or starting to get overstimulated. We don't ask support until we're when we need it until we're like already in a meltdown. So this pattern is not helping you. So if you know travel is hard on your system, it's hard on your system. Okay, let's just say it. Then you can get better at saying things like, I need to eat before we do that, or I need a few minutes, or I'm overstimulated, or can we build in a break, or can we slow down a little bit, right? Many of us, we just, we don't need more toughness while traveling. We really need better communication, and that is gonna come first and foremost from listening to your body and yourself so that then you can ask for what you need. So again, boundary communication here. It's like if you can't set that boundary with yourself of, I'm gonna listen to myself, I'm gonna feel what I need, and then I'm gonna ask for it, this is gonna be another major trigger when you're traveling, is just you're pushing through, pushing through, pushing through, not listening to your body, not listening to the cues, not listening to what the symptoms are, the stories the symptoms are telling you. And then, whoo, here we go, we're in a full episode, we're going to the psych ward. During the trip. Like, who's been there? Raise your hand. That's me. Um, you're in a breakup, you're screaming at your family, like it can go really sour in so many examples I could give you. But the communication is going to be huge, and it starts with listening to the communication from your body and then asking for what you need and getting what you need. The next tip that I want to dig into here is breathwork and somatic regulation before during and after the trip. So again, you don't want to wait until you are dysregulated in an airport to try to learn nervous system tools. You want to practice them before you travel and then actually use them when you need them. So we're thinking very simple and repeatable things here. We're not talking about a 20-minute guided meditation. We're thinking things like exhaling longer than you inhale. That helps trigger parasympathetic activation. We're talking about using the psychological sigh. We're talking about using sound matching techniques, about relaxing different parts of your body like your jaw and your shoulders if you're tensing those up as we tend to do. It means orienting into the room. It means feeling your feet on the floor. It means using simple somatic exercises like shaking or swaying. Or aura fluffing, as some people call it. Really grounding practices that you can do anywhere: in a bathroom, on a plane, in a car, at a dinner party, wherever you are when you're traveling. In a club, you could even do these things. At a concert. All accessible and simple and repeatable. So you don't need a perfect morning routine while traveling, but you do need things that work in real life and you need to know how to do them and to actually be able to do them. And if you're waiting until you're already escalated and you're like, what was that tool? How do I use it? Where is it? Not gonna happen. Too late. So building these in beforehand is really important. And this is something we do in our one-on-one program. We do these throughout. And so clients are really resourced and confident that when additional stressors come up, whether it be travel or weddings or heavy workloads all the things of life, lifing, they can use these tools in the moment. They know how and they know what's effective for them, because that's going to be another kind of part of the deliberation is, okay, we can teach you these tools, but what actually resonates with you? Because what resonates with me probably isn't going to be exactly what resonates with you. So again, we have to personalize this, and this takes a little bit of finessing before you're on the trip. The next tip that I want to share is to protect luteal phase travel more aggressively. This isn't surprising. This is just just like kind of duh. But again, it wasn't duh to me in the 17 years of misdiagnosis and undiagnosis when I was ruining everyone's trip, including my own. So it really deserves its own point because it matters that much. If you know you're going to be traveling during the luteal phase, you're going to plan a little bit differently, okay? Ideally, a less packed schedule. Ideally, more rest margins. Ideally, better food preparation and planning, more hydration supports, stronger boundaries, more realistic expectations, adhering more to your anchors, being more aware of your triggers, and extra nervous system support, to name a few. The exact same trip may feel manageable in follicular and brutal in luteal. So again, we want to resource ourselves more with the tools that we have and the context and understanding for a trip during luteal. And again, it's not about because you're so inconsistent, it's just physiology. It's just physiology, okay? You're not broken, nothing's wrong with you. Like, you can navigate this, but it's going to look different in a female body because every single week is— you're playing out a different cycle phase. So we need to understand, right, that we need to reorient into the reality of the female body and You're like, what does that mean? Meet your menstrual cycle, okay? It's a mini course that we have. You need to take it. You need to understand the cycle phases, what to expect, and then you start to move away from that guilt and shame of why do I not have the same energy levels every day, why do I not have the same productivity every day, and then you're beating yourself up because you aren't consistent in the way that society has taught you to be consistent because that is not aligned with female biology. Doesn't mean anything about how productive you can be and how successful you can be and how awesome and actualized as a human being you can be, but it's going to look different than what we've been sold because we don't live on a 24-hour hormone rhythm, but a male human being does. Okay, a dude, 24-hour hormone level, their consistency can look the same every single day. Females, 28-day infradian rhythm. Hormone cycle, plus we have some circadian things happening in the 24 hours, but our physiology is different than male. So if you feel like, why am I not fitting into my square peg into this round hole of society's idealism around perfectionism and consistency? Well, because you live in a female body. And so we need to like rebuild the ground that you're standing on, and we can help you do that, but you do need that education. That you did not receive adequate reproductive health education to comprehend what that really means, right? Because it's one thing for me to tell you that that exists and you know it in your head, you're like, makes sense, but you have to start to know in your body. It's a different way of knowing it, and we can help you get there, but your 7th grade health class did not prepare you for this, okay? So if we need to learn this at 28 or 48 better than never learning it. The next tip that I want to get to here is to use simple physical supports that are going to reduce body stress. Now, sometimes the smallest practical supports can make a huge difference. This is a histamine thing, but it's also just a helpful thing in general. Using compression socks on flights. Use compression socks on flights, okay? Do it. Next, bring your own water bottle, as I said before. Learn some gentle, simple stretching techniques that you can use for travel days. Even like in-bed stretching can work. And then moving as much as you can, so walking when you can, getting any kind of movement when you can. Practical physical movement supports is what we're talking about here. The compression sock thing, does it fit here? Fits more in the histamine conversation, but it is also helpful for blood flow during flights. So fine. The compression socks, they're simple, they're practical, they help with circulation and swelling. So just try the compression socks. Um, next tip, helping your body reset once you arrive. So if you can, getting morning sunlight exposure to help support circadian rhythm. Really helpful for reset, for mood, for sleep timing, especially if you are changing time zones. And move your body as soon after and during travel as possible. If you have a layover, walk around, do some stretching. Gentle mobility is gonna really support digestion, circulation, stiffness, and your nervous system. So nothing extreme, but just keeping your body moving as much. 'Cause if we're driving in the car or flying, there's a lot of sitting. A lot of sitting, not helpful. Next tip is to, if possible, choose flight times and schedules strategically when possible. So if you have options, try not to stack super early flights or packed schedules or late nights, poor access to food, no downtime, right? You want to get as much flexibility as you can. Now that's not possible with every trip. But if you can build it in, kind of use it as much as you can. Those using the buffers where possible, it's one of the easiest ways to reduce the total stress load of traveling. And people are, we're often cramming our schedules from this to this to this. Try to build in some buffers. Next tip I wanna get to is kind of plays into that, but plan a lighter social kind of expectations. On travel days, on the first days of travel, it's really a big one, especially if you're traveling for family events or work or group trips. Don't assume you'll land and instantly be socially available at full capacity because you're not going to be. So when possible, keep that first day lighter, whether it be the day you arrive and the next day or the first day, whatever's going to work best for you. But building in extra buffer time for you to hydrate, to settle, to regulate into the new environment, to orient. To eat, to kind of make a plan. Do you need to make a grocery order or stock the, the mini fridge with some things that are gonna support you moving forward? Really can make a huge difference how you start the trip, stabilizing yourself rather than starting the trip already behind, already dehydrated, already on a blood sugar rollercoaster. Next tip is to build in a reentry plan before you leave. There's so many tips here. I hope you guys are taking notes, but Don't just plan the trip, plan the landing for the trip too, because many of us, the hardest part isn't the travel day, it's what happens the next couple of days when you get home and you're exhausted and you're dysregulated and you're constipated and you're dehydrated and behind on everything, and you're expected to snap back immediately into everything. So think ahead. What's food going to look like when you get home? Can you have groceries delivered? How can you keep that first day back a little bit lighter? Can you build in extra sleep? How can you not overschedule the first 24 to 48 hours after you get home? Because reentry really, really is important and having ex, you know, realistic expectations and setting yourself up for success there matters a lot. And then having a kind of next tip is like having a minimum viable routine. This is one of the best ways to stay grounded while traveling, like again, coming back to your anchors. So instead of trying to keep your full routine that you have at home, what are like 3 to 5 things that help you stay the most stable? And then keep those up. Like for me, it's going to be protein earlier in the day, it's going to be minerals in my water, it's going to be keeping up on my medications and supplements, it's going to be using at least one nervous system tool or getting some walking in or trying to keep a consistent bedtime anchor. So again, 3 to 5 things. Keep it simple. The goal isn't to do everything, but to hold on to the essentials. So travel is always going to be a stressor for your body regardless of like where you are in your cycle phase, but it doesn't have to take you out in the way that it probably has been when you understand your symptom patterns and you support your body proactively before, during, and you plan for both the trip and the recovery. You start to give yourself a much better chance of staying steadier throughout the whole experience, and it changes everything. So if travel has been a major PMDD trigger for you, or a major symptom trigger for hormonal moods, I hope this episode helps you stop blaming yourself and start planning in a way that actually is going to support your biology, your physiology moving forward. Because again, you don't need a perfect body to travel well. You don't need a perfect plan. You don't need to stay on top of everything perfectly, but you do need better tools, better awareness, and more preparation. If this episode was helpful for you and you know someone who needs some travel tips to keep their mood in check, send this episode over to them. If this episode was valuable for you, if you're learning, uh, about things about PMDD or helpful tips, please take a couple of seconds to rate and review the podcast on Apple or Spotify. It helps us reach more women and it helps us spread our mission. And we are so grateful for everything you do to help us do that. If you're looking for support on, okay, how do I actually make this happen? How do I actually learn my symptom patterns and learn my triggers and learn my anchors? The first step is going to be to schedule an intro session with our onboarding team where we will run your symptom assessment It's a 320-question assessment. It reveals drivers behind your symptoms. What is driving your symptoms? And it helps us kind of make a plan for a next step of, okay, what are options to support you? So if you're looking for a next step, two options: grab our symptom mapping kit, start mapping your symptoms, or go ahead and schedule an introductory session with our onboarding team so that we can run your symptom assessment and we can start supporting you. All right, see you next time on PMDD Pep Talk.
