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Menopause and Muffin (tops)

lizeateherbalife

“Perimenopause is a joyful time” said NOONE EVER!!! (well, maybe a few individuals who haven’t had too many symptoms). One of the worst things for me with starting my perimenopause journey was not recognising my own body anymore!

As well as the hot flashes, anxiety, mood swings and creepy crawly skin feelings my body shape began to change, and I only had to look at food and it seemed as if I would gain a stone! Things which previously worked for me like increasing exercise only made things worse and calorie control also didn’t seem to be working. It was only when I began better looking at nutrition, exercise, and perimenopause as a package deal that I began to understand how to help myself better.

With Beyond Nutrition, I began eating more food not less, to lose weight! I stopped exercising altogether for a bit as I needed to get my nutrition on point first so I didn’t do myself a mischief or get stuck in a cycle of self-loathing when I couldn’t do something. I relooked at eating ALL the food groups including fats and carbs so that my body wasn’t depleted of vital nutrients. I looked at the impact of alcohol, caffeine, and processed foods on my body.

I began to be more mindful of what did and did not serve me in my life and started to manage my stress in a different way, not relying on just fire fighting the issues as they arose and living on adrenaline as I always had done previously, but employing strategies of meditation and mindfulness to process and accept what was happening. I also stopped getting involved in other people’s drama and moved away from people who seemed to want to keep me in my rescuer persona but weren’t prepared to reciprocate when I needed something from them.

I attended my nutrition club regularly to seek accountability from the members and to keep me on track through a time when my willpower was depleted.

I also appreciated that weight loss isn’t linear. I have gains and I have losses. Now I am maintaining (have been for a year) and I have learnt that fluctuations in my weight are normal. It doesn’t mean that I have failed, reverting to my old weight or habits, it just means that I have inflammation due to having been out for the night, or I am retaining water as I am at a specific point in my menstrual cycle. I also know that weight is not fat, and I am more mindful now of the composition of my body rather than just looking at the weight on the scales.

I have looked for gradual, sustainable results not the quick fixes I could achieve in my 20s and early 30s. I am mindful of what my body is telling me, and I now listen to it. When I do exercise it is because it feels good and I want to, not because I feel obliged to.

More than anything I have learnt that I am unique, I am worth the investment and, most of all, my body is telling me all I need to know, I just must listen to it.





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