And Just Like That... she did less

... and other hopefully helpful things

Image courtesy And Just Like That…

One of the kind of common comments I get in asking about perimenopause symptoms goes a little bit like this one, via Instagram, from Jenny: “Weight gain no matter how much I exercise or how healthy I eat”.

I was probably annoying when I told her that based on experience – my own and that of others – expert opinion and evidence, the key may be doing the opposite and cutting back. Her answer is typical, and what I would have said previously too: “I love exercise though! It’s a physical and mental stress release for me. I’m a former competitive swimmer.”

To which I said: “me too, me too and me too”. (And just now I felt silly about it, because I thought she said “competitive athlete” and that last “me too” was because I was a competitive figure skater, just about as far on the other end of the sports spectrum as can possibly be. I’m not even a good swimmer: In my 20s a lifeguard at a public pool ordered me into the slow lane, and I’ve never got over the image of him kneeling down, at the end of the lane, a sad, resigned expression on his face, as I did my painfully pokey breast stroke towards him, and the humiliation that waited. A lot of things have changed then, Jenny, and I may be quick on a pair of blades, but I still swim in the slow lane.)

Anyway, I thought about this when I saw the sad recent episode of Charlotte contending with her won’t-budge tummy on And Just Like That… Charlotte seems to be the only one to be physically experiencing menopause on this show, and like the clunky flooding period episode in Season 1, it does not play well.