Find it difficult to resist cupcakes, chips, chocolate, soda, French fries and other greasy, gooey, yummy foods, especially during Week 3 and Week 4 of your cycle when progesterone kicks your desire for high-calorie foods into high gear? Try making a fist whenever you’re about to cave in to a craving. A just-released study published in the Journal of Consumer Research reveals that clenching any muscle, such as your hand, finger, thigh or calf, automatically pumps up your willpower, making it easier to resist temptation. In fact, the researchers found that this easy technique can bump up your willpower to reach all your health goals where you need to exert self-control, such as withstanding a foul-tasting yet helpful medicine, getting through the pain of a flu shot and motivating yourself to exercise! Turns out, simply tensing a muscle, which is a physical act of willpower, sends a non-conscious message to the brain to amp up its self-control, the researchers explain. There is one caveat, however: This trick works only at the moment when you’re making the decision to be healthy or not. Study participants who clenched a muscle beforehand depleted their willpower by the time they had to make their choice.

[photo: Neil Alejandro]

As estrogen plunges during Week 4 of your cycle (your premenstrual week), it brings down the brain’s level of pain-masking endorphins with it, which makes you more sensitive to discomfort, like headaches, sore muscles and chronic conditions, like fibromyalgia. And now researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands say that there’s another culprit behind worsening pain in women: an angry or sad mood. How they proved it: When female study volunteers were asked to think about situations that made them either irritated or blue, their sensitivity to pain caused by electric currents rose significantly compared to when given the same electrical current while thinking of something neutral. While this study didn’t look at the cause, past research has shown that stress hormones produced during negative moods intensifies pain.

Unfortunately, as any woman knows, an angry or sad mood is practically the hallmark of Week 4 of your cycle. So, what can you do to avoid pain? Anything you can to lift your mood, such as go for a walk, talk with a friend, treat yourself to something you love, play miniature golf, watch a funny TV show or sniff your favorite fragrant flower. Not only does doing something you enjoy distract you from discomfort, it actually lifts levels of endorphins, serotonin and other mood-regulating brain chemicals and puts the kibosh on pain-magnifying cortisol, so you feel happier and more comfortable!

[photo: Orin Zebest]

Tend to feel down, teary or even downright depressed during Week 4, the premenstrual week of your cycle? If so, you’re not alone. Millions of women feel blue during PMS due to plunging estrogen, which depletes your brain of serotonin, a chemical that regulates mood and sleep. 

To the rescue: Vitamin B6, which is found in fortified cereal, potatoes, bananas, beans, eggs, poultry and sunflower seeds. Two recent analyses of 19 studies—one in the British Medical Journal and one if the journal Family Practice—reveal that women who popped up to 100 mg. daily of a B6 supplement were significantly less likely to be depressed and more likely to enjoy an upbeat mood during PMS than those who took a placebo. The link? Vitamin B6 prompts the brain to produce serotonin, boosting your sagging levels right back up.

For best results, try taking a daily B-complex supplement, since other B vitamins have also been shown to raise levels of mood-lifting brain chemicals, including GABA and dopamine.

[photo: D Sharon Pruitt]

Nope, it doesn’t involve popping prescription pills or supplements. All it takes is snuggling with your pet, splurging on a sundae, going to a baseball game, treating yourself to new shoes, taking a walk, dancing or doing anything else that helps you banish stress during the second half of your monthly cycle. A just-released study shows that high levels of tension during these two weeks leading up to your period makes you two to three times more likely to experience premenstrual syndrome, including sadness, crying spells, irritability, body aches, bloating, back pain, headaches and cramps, than women who aren’t as stressed-out, reports the Journal of Women’s Health.  And the news is worse if you suffer from chronic stress; women in the study who felt tension during the second half of their cycle for two cycles in a row were an astounding 25 times more likely to suffer from intense premenstrual symptoms. What’s the link? A high production of the hormone cortisol, which the body produces when you feel stressed, increases moodiness and exacerbates pain.

[photo: Never Cool in School / Leslie Kalohi]

When PMS hits in Week 4 of your cycle, do you get hit with intense cravings for a big bag of chocolate M&Ms, a heaping bowl of salt and vinegar potato chips, or a combination of salty and chocolate snacks? New research reveals the reason: Two separate studies—one from the University of Iowa, the other from the University of California, San Diego—show that chocolate and salt (eaten alone or together) activate pleasure mechanisms in the brain that chase away depression, a common problem women face during their premenstrual week as estrogen and testosterone plunge.

Trying to watch your waistline? Research shows that exercising, shopping, doing your favorite hobbies and spending time with uplifting friends also boost mood-lifting brain chemicals and distract you when cravings hit so you’re less likely to indulge.