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How to Coordinate Your Life with Your Menstrual Cycle. Perform tasks when you’re at your
best, hormonally speaking, by scheduling around your menstrual cycle. You will need A record
of your menstrual cycle and a record of your menstrual cycle. Step 1. Realize that the
days cited in the following steps are based on a 28-day menstrual cycle. Your dates may
vary. Step 2. Start a diet at the beginning of your cycle, when you're menstruating. At
this point, a drop in the hormone progesterone causes a drop in insulin, a hormone that creates
hunger by reducing sugar levels. Less appetite, more willpower. If your willpower usually
flags several days into a diet, start dieting the week before you get your period. Step
3. Lay off deodorant and perfume during Days 6 to 14 of your cycle. Research has found
that men find your body's natural scent most appealing in the week around ovulation. Lighten
up on the face paint, too: Men tend to find women most attractive during ovulation, but
makeup masks the effect. Step 4. On Days 6 to 13 of your cycle, challenge your friends
to an evening of charades. Rising levels of estrogen and testosterone boost your confidence
and make you unusually quick-witted. Step 5. Pencil in sex for day 13 or 14 of your
cycle, when the libido-boosting hormones testosterone and progesterone are peaking. Do it in the
morning, when a man's testosterone peaks. Step 6. Schedule anything physically painful—bikini
waxes, root canals, tattooing, or piercing—on Day 14, around the time you ovulate. That’s
when your tolerance for pain is highest. Step 7. Schedule your annual pap smear between
the 14th and 24th day of your cycle, when the reading tends to be the most accurate.
The best time for a mammogram is the week after your period ends. Step 8. Increase your
chances of giving up cigarettes by quitting during the second half of your cycle, when
high levels of progesterone could help reduce withdrawal symptoms. One study found that
women who tried to quit smoking in the first half of their menstrual cycle were half as
successful as those who quit in the latter half. Step 9. Focus on aerobic exercise on
Days 15 through 22, when increased progesterone could help you burn up to 30 percent more
fat than at other times, according to one study. Step 10. Stay out of karaoke bars from
Day 26 of your cycle until the first day of ***. Retained fluid could swell your
vocal chords, preventing you from hitting those high notes. Step 11. Practice yoga or
Pilates in the day or two before your period: Levels of the hormone relaxin rise, making
you more flexible by softening ligaments. Did you know European opera houses used to
give female singers “grace days” right before and at the start of their periods because
directors believed *** adversely affected their voices.