Female "Yin" Energy

Forgive me if this is too personal, but it is a reality that we must all deal with, male and female alike... and, it's "that time of the month". My good friend "Priscilla" has come to visit me. Each time that she shows up, she makes her entrance very clear with serious cramps, headaches, and nausea.

Since beginning to eat macrobiotically, I have searched and searched for some female-specific advice on macrobiotics, and all that I have found is a gaping hole. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot out there for the inquiring female macrobiotic to go with regarding what effect the macrobiotic diet has on the intricate organism that is the human female body. Not that there is a lot out there on the male human body, either. I guess that is my point. Macrobiotics has become a part of my spirituality - as it should - but another important part of my spirituality is recognizing that men and women are intrinsically different. We are built differently, we respond differently, and we think differently. So, macrobiotics must have differing effects on our bodies.

This is what I know from my readings about the energies (click link for my description of yin and yang energies generally) of the genders and the food energies that go with them:

• Women are primarily "yin" energy, men are primarily "yang";
• Yang energy is needed to balance our female bodies so that we don't become overly yin, so the typical American female eats things like animal foods, baked flour, salt (unbeknownst to her, she is trying to balance out all of the yin foods that females are drawn to);
• Yin foods include sugars, fruits, chocolate, and beer and alcohol;
• Overeating yin foods causes our blood to become weak, and hypersensitivity because we are out of balance, we lose the contractive energy of yang and our energy is constantly expanding until it can expand no more -- this is where depression comes from.

This is what I know about menstruation - from the Hip Chick's Guide:

• Like every natural cycle it takes our bodies from yin to yang;
• The first phase where the egg is maturing in the ovary, is more yang;
• The second phase, ovulation (releasing the mature egg), is more yin;
• The last phase where the body prepares to shed the unfertilized egg is more yin;
• It goes back to yang at the beginning of the next cycle, after the egg has been shed;
  
• So - the cravings that I experience in the couple of days before my period are due to the extreme yin state that my cycle is currently in - the cravings are trying to help me align with my cycle;
• The typical American diet includes animal protein, salt, baked flower (yang) and creates contractive (yang) energy rather than expansive (yin) -- and your body fights that with cramps, headaches, backaches, etc.

Jessica (The Hip Chick) says to lay off the yang foods in the few days before your period, and you will reduce the unpleasant side effects of "Priscilla's" arrival... less animal food, less salt, no baked goods, and instead eat fruit, lighter grain dishes, some rice dream, or even a beer.

So - Ladies - and gentleman - but more to the ladies... This is what I know - but I'm interested in what you know. How has macrobiotics affected your cycle and what things do you do to combat the typical side effects of your period??

And, as an aside... a little plug for the Keeper®"alternative female hygiene product" -- I've been using it for a few years now and it is absolutely divine - I feel more connected to my cycle, and I'm not putting bleached products into my reproductive organs anymore, and that is beautiful.