CONSUME CARBS FOR ENERGY
There is a reason the pro-metabolic eating movement, which advocates eating root vegetables, rice and sourdough bread, as well as fruit and even fruit juice along with other nourishing foods, is gaining traction. The low-carb approach just doesn’t work like it used to for perimenopausal women – including me – and that’s why you are seeing more and more people in the fitness and nutrition world advising against it. Personal trainer and holistic nutritionist Kate Deering, author of the book How to Heal Your Metabolism, explains: “It’s an energetic approach to the entire nutrition thought process. It’s about how to support energy production in your cells, because when your cells are producing adequate energy, then there’s enough energy for all the systems of your body to have fuel to do what they need to be doing.” Adam Poehlmann,
a trainer from Fort Collins, Colorado, agrees: “A good chunk of the women I train
are in menopause. What does not work for them is low-carb, low-calorie, low-fat. Restriction does not work. Even though the message out there is ‘eat less, move more’, it’s not the long- term solution.”
LET YOURSELF FEEL BAD UNTIL IT PASSES
In a large, cross- sectional study published in Maturitas in 2021, there was a significant association between childhood adversity and self-reported menopausal symptoms. You didn’t have to be chained to a radiator to have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences: most of us had them in one form or another – it was the 70s! – and the pain they can cause can linger and lurk for years, reaching a fever pitch in midlife. Just think of the pressure like a lid on a pot about to spill over. And they can truly exacerbate the physical and emotional impact of our menopause transition. There are a variety of ways to heal from these ACEs, including counseling or cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness meditation or any practice that helps you be in the moment. As Andrea Brandt, a marriage and family therapist based in California, writes in her book Mindful Aging, one key is letting your body respond however it needs when these traumas arise – yelling and crying work – so you can process and release them, ultimately healing over time. You won’t break, dissolve or start crying and never stop, I swear. And it works.
PICK YOUR BATTLES
INSTILL THE 3AM PROTOCOL :
Waking in the night with a horrible start? My approach might sound a bit woo-woo, I’ll acknowledge, but it was assembled over my own early perimenopause anxiety-stricken night-waking experiences, and it works.
1) Make a cup of chamomile tea and leave it by the bed before you go to sleep just in case you wake up. Drink at least half when you wake (it’s not bad when it’s cool); if you can, don’t even turn the lights on.
2) Lay back down and measure three fingers down from the top of the inside of your wrist, and use the tip of your thumb to dig around in between the tendons, applying pressure. I was told this activates the heart chakra, and while I can’t be sure about that, it definitely makes me feel calmer.
3) While you continue to do this, breathe in for four and out for eight or 10 counts, and keep telling yourself you are going to get back to sleep soon.
4) If none of this works, turn on the light and write down every single thought or fear you are having, then go over them and put a checkmark beside what you can do something about when you are awake and an x beside the rest.
5) Close the book, drink the rest of the tea, and do the breathing again, thinking “I will definitely get back to sleep this time”. (Keep reading for more on lucky girl syndrome – it works! And it’s better than the alternative)
TREAT YOUR ENERGY LIKE MONEY IN THE BANK:
The British endocrinologist Dr Annice Mukherjee, who experienced breast cancer and wrote the book The Complete Guide to the Menopause, offers what might be the most helpful advice of all: Accept that being in perimenopause means you don’t have endless supplies of energy. Every single thing in your body is being impacted by this transition: your equilibrium, your body balance, your hormones and more. If you
push yourself too hard, you can get through it, but there will be a price to pay because you won’t have any energy money in the bank – and you may even have a negative balance. As Dr Mukherjee explains: “You use what you haven’t got and then you can crash.” The antidote? Healthy lifestyle approaches, like good nutrition, exercise and sleep, to build up your levels, and knowing when to back off before fatigue or worse, total burnout hit.
Where HF inc is at
SAVE THE DATES: This Monday, Jan 9-29, 2023, 9-930AM PST!
I’m speaking alongside 20 speakers & experts at the Kickstart Your Confidence 21-Day Online Virtual Event, hosted by the genuinely lovely and talented Tera Greene.
Learn more and get complimentary access by registering here to get your free ticket.
Listen to the new Hotflash inc podcast here or here
Click, read, watch, follow, listen, learn
• Canada’s national broadcaster did a report on menopause and it’s pretty good CBC
• SNO-y Protein Levels Help Explain Why More Women Develop Alzheimer’s The Scientist
• Second acts: 'I quit my job as a recruitment consultant to become a top-selling erotic novelist' Manchester Evening News
• How to get rid of menopausal belly fat (and yes, your boobs can get bigger) Katie Couric Media
• Scottish GP Dr Rebecca Smithson has done a great primer on genitourinary syndrome of menopause, which I like to call “vulva and vagina stuff” Nursing in Care
• British GP Dr Amir Khan brilliantly explains that “don’t touch me, leave me alone” feeling we can get Instagram
• Have you heard about the lucky girl syndrome? Just try to watch this video of these adorable college students and their “I’m so lucky, everything works out for me” experiment and not be inspired to try it yourself Tiktok
Editor’s note
This was my first album and no wonder, it came out in 1976 when I was… six. I saw this week that Marie Osmond teamed up with Nutrisystem for a new post-55 diet plan – she made a video about menopause and metabolism calling them the “dreaded M word” – and while I will ALWAYS wish her and Donny well, is it 1997? I mean, I hope no one signs up for “Complete 55”. Marie is rich, she’ll be fine. Nutrisystem needs to wrap things up. Because diet plans don’t work. We alllll know this. I lost 20 pounds on a liquid diet last May healing SIBO and you know what I weigh now? That’s right: EXACTLY THE SAME AS BEFORE.
You know what does work, for me? Digestive enzymes. They are changing my life. I’m going to dive into this in upcoming posts. We are nothing if we are not digesting, and if you are like me, that’s a consistent challenge. That is all for now. AMx