Hey Ladies,

I want to share with you how I got rid of my period cramps in 30 days. And yes, it is possible. You DON’T have to live with bad period cramps and CAN have a lighter period.

I learned about this after researching nutrition advice on the web. I started watching YouTube videos by Dr. Neal Barnard, and author of Your Body in Balance: The New Science of Food, Hormones, and Health (2020). He shared stories about curing a woman of bad period cramps and endometriosis. The woman was struggling with infertility and after two months she became pregnant. All she did was follow this doctor’s diet advice.

Listen to two stories of women who went from infertility to fertility (3 kids each!) in this video by Dr. Neal Barnard. I already started the video for you where he talks specifically about these women. At the 12:00 min mark:

I couldn’t believe it so I tried it myself. And, I can tell you it works…. in less time than I thought possible. I wanted to cry because I was so happy. It’s amazing how a little change can make such a big difference.

I don’t know where you’re at in your health journey, but I can almost definitely say that eating this way will lower your period cramps, or other hormone related disorders like mood swings.

There is not really any downside to this. If you try the diet for a month and don’t think it did anything for you, then just go back to eating the way you used to. It’s so easy, the information is OUT there on the web but mainstream advice doesn’t really share it! But it worked for me and I just want to share the information with you and my experience with it.

Here’s exactly what Dr. Neal Barnard recommends. I followed it for 30 days and reduced my period cramps and had a lighter period. I was AMAZED!

What is it?

Go VEGAN! That’s a low-fat, plant-based diet.

(or at least 90% vegan like I did. The other 10% was vegetarian)

Yes, nothing revolutionary here. The key is to eat a plant-based diet (avoiding all meat and dairy products) and going low fat as well. The combination of lowering animal product intake and lowering fat seemed to regulate my hormones better so I didn’t have crazy mood swings for the month and I had almost no cramps when I got my period.

Here is an example of what I ate for one week during the month. I wanted to track it so I could do it again if it worked:

Vegetarian/Vegan week
	Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner	Dessert	Activity
Monday	Flax Orange-Blackberry Muffin (GF), Handful of raspberries	Tofu-Mushroom Spinach Dumplings	Trail Mix + Orange	Skipped (not hungry)
	Egg sandwich (1 boiled egg) on mini sourdough roll with avocado and Cholula hot sauce		Banana Cocoa Nice Cream (coffee, ½ frozen banana, oat milk, ½ Tbsp. cocoa powder, blended)
	Black coffee
Tuesday	¼ cup yogurt, granola, raspberries and honey	Flax muffin	1 slice whole grain bread with olive oil	(Take-out) Pasta primavera with pink sauce and vegetables	Turmeric Tea- fresh turmeric slices, honey, lemon, hot water	30 minute workout
	1 cup coffee	Peruvian bean taco with kale and avocado		Garlic roll
		2 tangerines
Wednesday	1 Blueberry-Flax Orange Muffin with yogurt, and a few raspberries	20-Minute Vegan Pad Thai		Southwest Black Bean Burger (open-faced) on ½ whole wheat bread, ¼ avocado, ½ cup dandelion greens with olive oil, lemon juice, 3 cherry tomatoes	Warm ⅓ cup oat milk with cinnamon and drizzle of honey + ½ biscotti cookie
	1 black coffee		Small slice jalapeño cornbread
Thursday	1 Flax Muffin, couple raspberries	Leftover Pad Thai	Oatmeal with 1 tsp. maple syrup, nutritional yeast, cinnamon and clove	Tomato Soup + Tofu Dumplings, Toast with Avocado	Blueberry Banana Bar (Forks over Knives recipe)	30 minute workout
	1 black coffee				Turmeric Tea- fresh turmeric slices, honey, lemon, hot water
Friday	Flax muffin and black coffee, a few raspberries	Leftover Pad Thai and Vegan Dumplings		Broken Quinoa Cakes with Salad (Dandelion greens)	Green Tea and Blueberry Banana Bar	30 minute pilates
Saturday	1 flax muffin and raspberries, yogurt and granola	Roasted tomato soup, dumpling leftovers, sweet potato and broken quinoa cakes	Lemon water and babka			45 minute bike ride
	Black coffee

Another week I ate vegan:

7-Vegan Breakfast Challenge

How To Get Started

There are recipes on this blog and tons on the web. I share a few that I use often below. Dr. Neal Barnard runs a website where he has free recipes for low-fat, plant-based foods. Here: https://www.pcrm.org/good-nutrition/plant-based-diets/recipes

I also love there other sites for free recipes:

Forks Over Knives https://www.forksoverknives.com/
T.Colin Campbell https://nutritionstudies.org/
Blue Zones https://www.bluezones.com/recipes/

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Let’s Be Real

Going vegan is not for everyone. Just search the web and you can find people saying how the vegan diet is the worst thing ever created. Maybe it’s not for everyone, but if I SAW RESULTS in a month, I thought it was worth sharing with you here.

My question is WHY DOESN’T the medical community tell us about these options? So we can take our health into our own hands instead of them prescribing more pills to us. But, if you’ve read this far, I’m sure you’re already on the same page as me.

I’m going to be honest- one of the hardest things about going vegan is the social discomfort that it brings in social situations. It can be hard when you ask for tofu instead of meat on the grill at a family get together, especially if you are a sensitive type like me.

But, when it comes to period cramps and mood swings, there’s a point where you have to overcome the peer pressure and just do what’s best for you. If you can overcome this (the hardest part for me) then you can succeed on a vegetarian/vegan diet.

The other REAL important thing is to educate yourself on eating a well balanced vegan diet. For instance, beer and french fries are vegan, but if you eat this way more than just a little, your hormones will still rage out of control and probably cause bad cramps. So, an education in nutrition AND cooking whole, unprocessed foods is really what you need to be successful. Make the process fun and you’ll do it more often. Involve others and you will be even MORE successful.

Here’s a quick post I wrote about vegetarian and vegan diets to get started: Vegetarian and Vegan Nutrition

It’s essential that you get sources of B12, D, iron, and calcium when planning your plant-based diets.

Take Away

Remember you don’t have to go vegetarian or vegan overnight. Learning over time is usually the best approach (to anything in life). But, if you have some really bad period cramps, maybe you want to start right away. Start where you’re at and do what feels best to you.

I hope this article helped you and gave you some hope if you are struggling with bad period cramps. Know that there IS AN OPTION. There is ALWAYS an option. You are in control!

If you are looking for help and FUN in cooking your first vegan meals or need help in meal planning, I would love to help you. I have done this for many of my clients as a personal chef and teach online cooking classes since the pandemic began.

Use my contact page on my main website to reach out if you are interested.

‘Cook to 100′

To your happy and healthy life,

Joanna