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Are you somebody that really enjoys having a drink? Do you really look forward to that glass of white wine that's chilling in the fridge maybe after a hard day, or do you associate Friday night with having a few drinks with friends in the pub? Is any kind of social occasion synonymous with having a drink a drink or two? If so, then you aren’t alone. Alcohol for many of us plays an important part in our lives. However, as you transition through the menopause you may have found that alcohol exacerbates your symptoms and it’s got you wondering whether it’s actually a good idea to carry on drinking or whether you should now be looking a little more closely at whether cutting down might help you to feel better. However, when it comes to making changes to diet and lifestyle in order to reduce menopause symptoms, alcohol is often not the first thing women want to tackle and it’s common to find it quite hard to think about reducing drinking because it is often closely tied to our social habits. In this blog post I wanted to explain just what alcohol affects in terms of menopause symptoms so that you can decide for yourself whether you think cutting back might be beneficial to you, and then explore why it might prove harder than you think and some strategies to help you overcome the challenges. Impact of Alcohol on Menopause Symptoms Let's start with some of the reasons why alcohol during the menopause is really not helping. • Impact on blood sugar balance As we go through menopause our levels of oestrogen reduce. This has an impact on insulin sensitivity and control and can lead to blood sugar imbalance. When this happens, it causes a knock-on effect to other hormones such as our stress hormone, cortisol. It can make a whole host of your menopause symptoms worse such as weight gain, sleep, anxiety, brain fog and hot flushes. • Impact on brain chemicals Alcohol interferes with certain brain chemicals which are responsible for mood. So, if you are finding that mood swings are a problem for you and you are swinging wildly between feeling really sad and emotional and screaming with rage the next minute, alcohol may be making this worse. • Depletes B Vitamins Your body has to detox alcohol from its system via the liver but this takes up energy and depletes B vitamins in order to do so. But B vitamins are very important to give us enough energy to function so if you are using them up detoxing, you could feel fatigued. • It’s a diuretic This means that it will dry out your skin, but also exacerbate vaginal dryness which is common during menopause. And if you are suffering with bladder leakage or urgency the diuretic effect of alcohol will also make this worse. • Impact on bone renewal We start to rapidly lose bone mass as we go through the menopause which can contribute to osteoporosis. Alcohol interferes with bone renewal and so speeds up the bone loss. These are just a few of the reasons why alcohol can really affect your menopause symptoms. But even if you know this (and a lot of women do), why does it feel so hard to give it up? Why do I find that clients quite often don't want to discuss the idea of reducing their drinking and prefer to focus on other aspects of diet and lifestyle change? Reasons Why Giving Up or Reducing Alcohol Intake May be Harder Than you Think The main reason really is that our alcohol intake can have some very strong social or emotional habits associated with it. So, for example, if you are always having a drink with a particular friend on a particular evening, in a particular place, they become very strongly associated with each other and with the emotions that that scenario brings. If in that scenario you see it as having a lot of fun, you're really enjoying yourself, or maybe it’s your release of stress from the working week and calms you, those emotions are powerful. It creates this linking of the activity of having the drink with the expectation of how you are going to feel. You may associate it with increasing your confidence in a social situation and reducing your inhibitions. You might feel it stops you looking boring. And you may have had a lot of practice repeating the same habit in the same scenario over and over again. It could be to do with expectations of others. So, if it's somewhere that you go and the people with you also drink, it can feel like there's an expectation that you should drink too. It could be as a way of connecting with somebody, whether it's something you do with a partner at home after work or in a social setting with friends where you put the world to rights over a bottle of rose. Or p erhaps you feel like it's a treat and it's something that you reward yourself with or maybe you use it as a way to escape the frustration of insomnia. Think about the scenario’s alcohol inhabits for you It’s important to really think about in what scenarios does drinking come up for you. It can be hard because if you are used to drinking with people who all drink and they don't understand why you might not want to drink, it can make you feel like you are not really part of something anymore. Like you have removed yourself from something that bonded you together. That can be really, really hard to break out of if you feel you're going to be judged or worried that you are going to be questioned constantly by people about your decision. I'm not going to say that that won't happen because I have experienced that myself on many occasions where others really find it hard to believe that it's possible to go out in situations and have a good time and talk to people and enjoy yourself without having alcohol. But I have learned over the years to really make sure that I'm connected with why I'm doing it, what my motivation is for not drinking. And it's very important to me. It's important to my health. And, and I know that I'm going to feel far better in myself if I have something other than alcohol in those kinds of social situations, or even if I'm at home and feeling sad or super stressed. I keep that motivation forefront all of the time. And then I expect that I'm going to get questions so I'm not bamboozled by them. I have my answer ready as to why it is that I don't drink. You'll find that some people just accept your explanation. Others will confide that they, too, want to reduce their intake. You'll also find though that some people think it's their mission to try and change your mind and will attempt to badger & cajole you into having a drink. You need to understand that that's coming from a place of their own insecurity. It's not really coming from a place of concern for your wellbeing. No matter how much they might say ‘you need to loosen up’ or ‘you're going to enjoy yourself more’, their comments are really just linked to how strongly they associate their own feelings and emotions with drinking and what it might mean about them. So, you have to make sure that you're not taking on somebody else's feelings and opinions. Be strong in what you are doing it for, move on and don't get swayed. Eventually it won’t be a big issue and your friends or partner will see that drinking less doesn’t make you any less fun or able to connect. My Challenge to You So, if you are thinking about reducing your alcohol intake to help reduce menopause symptoms and improve your health through this transition, my challenge for you comes in 3 steps: Step 1: Audit Your Intake Make a note of every time you drink – where it was, what time and who you were with. Note down how you were feeling at the time and what you were expecting to feel. This helps you to start to uncover the pattern and how your emotions might be linked to that habit. Even if you want a drink, but don’t have one, it’s still worth noting the above down. Step 2: Make a list of alternatives Cutting down on alcohol doesn’t mean you have to have boring drinks. Of course, you’ll want to be mindful of choosing alternatives that aren’t full of sugar but there are plenty of options which have less sugar than a standard fizzy drink. By thinking ahead about what you could have instead you can make sure you have some available in the fridge or are less likely to be swayed at the bar as you have options in mind. Some suggestions could be: A comforting, warm drink like a fruit or herbal tea Sparkling water with a dash of elderflower or lime cordial, ice & a slice & sprig of mint Zero alcohol alternatives such as Seedlip Botanical with tonic Non-alcoholic beer Kombucha Step 3: Make a Commitment Now you've done your audit, have a look see where the low hanging fruit is - where are the drinks that would be the easiest to swap to something else? Then make a commitment to yourself that you're going to swap out those drinks. You don’t have to completely give up if you don’t want to, but even just cutting down will bring you benefits. If you’re experiencing menopause symptoms which are getting in the way of living and enjoying your life and want to be able to handle the hormonal havoc so that you can feel like yourself again, then you’ll want to know about my 12-week 1:1 menopause health coaching program. Take away the overwhelm of not knowing what you should be eating or which lifestyle interventions will be of most benefit to you to soothe your symptoms and be guided & fully supported to confidently get back to a life and body you love. Find out more by booking a free VIP Menopause Empowerment Call with me now at https://calendly.com/feelgoodforlife

Have you ever wondered whether intermittent fasting can help you tackle your menopause weight gain? Intermittent Fasting for weight loss is a hot topic and if you do a google search, you’ll find millions of pages extolling it’s virtues. But is it the ‘missing link’ that menopausal women struggling to lose the belly fat are looking for? In this article I want to explain a little bit more about what intermittent fasting actually is, what it's reported to be good for and the different ways you can do it as well as delving a little deeper into the pros and cons of this way of eating so you can decide for yourself whether Intermittent Fasting is going to be good for weight loss during your menopause. What is Fasting? What does fasting actually mean? All it really means is a situation where your body has digested its last meal. So, it usually takes somewhere between three and five hours to use up the glucose fuel from our last meal. After that your body will be fasting, before you eat again. Of course, your body still needs fuel whilst you are fasting just to keep you alive, but as it’s used up its glucose fuel from the bloodstream and within the cells, it needs another source of fuel. It does this by a process called gluconeogenesis whereby it converts glycogen stored in the liver back into glucose. Once this has run out the body will start breaking down fatty acids and amino acids for fuel and eventually (after around 18 hours) we enter a state of ketosis, where a compound called ketone bodies are produced to be used for fuel. Our bodies are programmed to prioritise using fat for fuel instead of muscle (protein) when we fast, which is good news for weight loss. Now, most of us throughout the day will tend to eat regularly so that we rarely go that long without food. Our body doesn't really get a chance to have rest from digesting except for at night when we are sleeping which is a kind of enforced fast and intermittent fasting is carrying on with that idea of lengthening out that fast. Why Might Intermittent Fasting be Good For Menopause Weight Loss? One of the most important benefits of intermittent fasting is related to it’s benefit on insulin regulation, so it can help with blood sugar balancing. It helps our cells stay sensitive to insulin so that we don’t have high levels of circulating insulin or glucose in the blood which can lead to fat storage. This is really important when we're going through menopause because naturally through aging and as a result of hormone fluctuations, our bodies become less sensitive to insulin, leading to increased fat around the middle and a higher risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes. So intermittent fasting is really about forcing your body to use up its stores of sugar and to burn fat instead, increasing our metabolic flexibility. Some studies have suggested that Intermittent Fasting may also help lower inflammation in the body. And that's obviously a good thing as this can lead to disrupted hormones, and have a further knock on effect that can lead to increased weight gain. It may also reduce the ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol and increase growth hormone, which is a really important hormone that helps to build muscle, which is really important because we start to lose muscle from the age of about 30, and the less muscle we have, the lower our metabolism, which can lead to weight gain. It must be said though that there still needs to be more research with human trials. Many studies have been carried out on rats or mice, or on human cells, but in a Petri dish. So bear that in mind. Types of Intermittent Fasting 5:2 Diet. This was made popular by Michael Mosley. For five days of the week, you're just eating normally. Then for two days of the week, you are fasting and you only have around 500 calories for the whole day. So bearing in mind that the average woman needs around 2000 calories a day (depending on activity level and build), you can see that it’s only around a quarter of your normal daily intake. Fasting days would not be consecutive. Eat. Stop. Eat Essentially means putting in some days during the week where you don't eat at all, apart from no-calorie drinks & fluids like herbal teas, water & black coffee. How many days you fast can vary, for example you might just do it once a week. Alternate Day Fasting As it sounds - one day you eat normally, and then the next day you don't eat at all. Time-restricted Eating e.g. 16/8 Essentially this is limiting the window of hours during the day where you eat but eat normally during those hours. The most common example is the 16:8 where you fast for 16 hours and have an 8 hour eating window. This may be the easiest for most people to implement because much of the fasting period can be done overnight and the extra fasting time can be achieved by pushing your first meal of the day later or bringing your last meal of the day earlier. There are other variations of this, so you could have 14/10 or 12/12, depending on the individual and at what point they feel the benefits. Will it Work for Me? It’s really important to know that there's no one right way to do it. Everybody is unique and we will all react differently to fasting. Finding what is going to fit in with your lifestyle is key if you are going to stay consistent with this eating approach. What are the pro’s of Intermittent Fasting? One of the reasons why people tend to lose weight when they're doing intermittent fasting is because it can lead to taking in fewer calories overall. If we are looking at this very basic scenario of calories in versus calories out, you may not have as many calories going in as if you weren’t fasting. However, this may only be the case if you are still following healthy eating principles as obviously it's still possible to eat more calories than you need, even in a reduced eating window, if you are eating a lot of junk or oversized portions (which is tempting if you are really hungry after a fast). Some studies have shown though that for most people they still achieved a calorie deficit overall, although this is more likely with the more extreme methods of fasting rather than a shorter, time-restricted eating protocol. Another pro is the support with balancing blood sugar levels. It can help with keeping your insulin levels down, making sure that you are using up your glucose stores so that your body can then burn fat. If you fast for 18 hours or more and reach a state of ketosis it may also help to blunt appetite. It can be good for people who don’t want to track calories or obsess over every mouthful. It’s a good way of potentially losing weight without losing muscle mass, thereby keeping our metabolism higher, as it depletes the fat stores instead, which is what we want. What are the Cons of Intermittent Fasting? One of the issues that a lot of doctors can be concerned about is whether it can lead to disordered eating. Obviously, it would not be heathy to get into a pattern of starving and bingeing or becoming so inflexible that it impacts home or social life. Another con is that on its own, Intermittent Fasting doesn't teach you anything about healthy eating. It doesn't teach you about the foods, especially in menopause, that your body needs and which can support your hormone balance rather than further disrupt it. If you are going to eat whatever you like in that non-fasting window and think that intermittent fasting is going to be the magic pill for you to lose the weight, then unfortunately it's probably not going to. At this point in life we really need to look at all the ways that hormones get disrupted. So, there's no point doing something on one hand that's helpful and then counteracting on the other hand with what we're actually eating. It can also be very hard to stick to, especially the more extreme versions. If you are embarking on a program which requires you to have complete day fasts, you might find that you can't exercise on those days as you don’t have the energy. You might find that it affects your concentration or your mood that might have an impact on your work productivity and so forth. It might mean that you’re not a very happy camper to have around at home with the kids. So it's really important that you pick something that you think is actually going to fit in with your life and be alert to any negative consequences. It’s not a quick fix and you need to be able to stay consistent with it as weight will likely be regained again if you stop following the protocol. Weight loss during menopause is a slow process and you need to be realistic about how long it’s going to take to come off. So if this is something that you do want to try it obviously has to be a lifestyle change. If you know that you always want to have dinner with your children every night and it's important to you that they see you eating healthy food then you're probably not going to want to do something which requires you to fast all day long. Or if you have regular breakfast meetings with work and it's going to be a little awkward if you are the only one not eating or it’s just extremely tempting for you, making you hungrier and hungrier so that when you get home you raid the cupboards for junk, that's probably not going to work for you. Studies have shown that in fact men respond to intermittent fasting much better than women do. And that's mostly because of the difference in hormones. So, if you are perimenopausal and your hormone levels are all over the place, you might find that intermittent fasting makes it worse. That's not for certain, it might not, but it's just something to be aware of so that you can track your symptoms and how you are feeling. Once you are through menopause and your hormones are lower but more stable, it becomes a little bit easier because it's a bit more like being on a par with a man and you may find Intermittent Fasting works better for you. Interittent Fasting also puts stress on the body. Now for someone who is not stressed and is healthy then that's okay. It's like a good stress. If you think about our ancestors, fasting was not something they did consciously, but it was part of everyday life. They didn't have regular, access to food every three hours. They would some days feast and some days fast and that's kind of how your brain has been designed. It can cope. It gives the cells somewhat of a good stressor. It helps them to be more resilient, but not if you are already really stressed. That's just going to add to your stress levels and mess further with your blood sugar and insulin levels. Who Shouldn’t Try Intermittent Fasting? Obviously if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, but as this article is focused on women during the menopausal transition I’m assuming this won’t relate to you! People who have ever had an eating disorder previously. If you are chronically stressed, or have been struggling with sleep issues. If you are diabetic (always consult a doctor before you try IF) What’s the Best Way to Get Started with Intermittent Fasting? If any of this has made you think you’d like to try Intermittent Fasting to see if it helps you with your goal of weight loss during menopause I would advise you to start slowly. I've given you some of the methods, but I wouldn't necessarily go jumping feet first, straight into them but instead build up slowly starting with a time-restricted eating window. You can start as easy as 12:12, so 12 hours fasting and then 12 hour eating window. The vast majority of people will be able to do that without much difficulty, because for most of it you’re going to be asleep. If you are already finishing dinner by 8pm, then breakfast would be at 8am, which is very doable for most people. You could then start to push breakfast forward slowly by around 30 mins – 1 hour per week to see how you feel until you reach your ideal eating window. See how it fits around your and your family's schedule. It may be that you don't want to do it every day of the week. Maybe you do it Monday to Friday, but you don't do it on weekends because that's going to be too difficult in terms of social plans. That's all fine. There is no one best way that fits everybody. Make sure that it works for you. Listen to your body. If you start to feel faint, dizzy, shaking, your body needs to eat something. You do not want to be fainting or having an accident because you're determined to stretch out that fasting window. If your menopause symptoms are getting worse then drop it and see whether they improve again, to give you an idea of whether it’s negatively interfering with your hormone balance. And please, please, please make sure you are keeping your healthy eating principles, your stress relief techniques and your good sleep routines. All of those things need to stay in place. This is not a substitute for any of that. If you are unhappy with menopausal weight gain and have been struggling to shift it so that you can increase your confidence and self-esteem and get back into your favourite clothes again I’d love to invite you to book a free VIP Menopause Empowerment call with me. During this 30 minute session we’ll discuss your own unique situation and goals along with guidance on areas which will be of most importance to focus on and an opportunity to discover whether we would be a good fit to work with each other. Book your session directly in my diary at https://calendly.com/feelgoodforlife

Anxiety and depression, brain fog, memory issues, lack of concentration, mood swings -all of these symptoms are common during the menopause transition and can be debilitating for some women. But never fear, because the answer doesn’t necessarily lie in medication. Movement and exercise can actually benefit women experiencing negative mental health symptoms during menopause and in this article, I want to explain 10 ways in which exercise can improve menopausal mental health. How Does Exercise Help Menopause Mental Health? 1. Can be as effective as medication Studies have actually shown that exercise can be as effective as medication in reducing anxiety and depression. And that could be pretty life-changing because medication obviously comes with side effects and may come with a list of contra-indications. With exercise you’ve got a means to improve anxiety & depression symptoms naturally without having to remember to take medication or worrying about unpleasant side effects. 2. Boosting Brain Chemicals When you boost your heart rate during aerobic activity your body releases endorphins. These are chemicals produced in the brain which lead to feelings almost of euphoria, wellbeing and happiness. This is what you may have heard referred to as the ‘runners high’ but actually you can experience it with any aerobic activity, not just running. 3. Mood Regulation Exercise increases specific neurotransmitters in the brain, such as dopamine and serotonin, which control your mood. So, if you are experiencing low mood or wildly swinging moods, exercise can be a really good way of actually just increasing that good mood and keeping a bit more stable. 4. Deep Breathing You’ll find when you exercise, you are going to be breathing more deeply. Whether that's because you are doing some kind of aerobic or resistance activity and you need to take on board more oxygen, or you are doing something more mindful, such as yoga or Pilates when you consciously breathe in and out on certain movements. This deep breathing actually stimulates what's known as your parasympathetic nervous system, which is the part of the nervous system that keeps everything calm. It’s the opposite to your sympathetic nervous system which is triggered when your stress response kicks in and puts you into ‘fight or flight’ mode. By utilising this deep breathing mechanism, it pushes your body back into that calm state and reduces your stress levels. 5. Calming our stress response When you do aerobic or mindful exercise such as yoga, your brain actually releases a neurotransmitter called GABA. This neurotransmitter actually supports the body's response to stress as well by attaching to GABA receptors which then inhibits fearful brain signals and calms our sympathetic nervous system. 6. Improving resilience Exercise can improve your resilience - to life, to stress and the general chaos of what's going on around you. We all have busy lives with all kinds of emotional stressors coming at us as well as dealing with our actual physical menopause symptoms that can be stressful to cope with. Exercise can actually help to rewire the brain so that stress response is reduced. 7. Promotes new brain cell growth Exercise also promotes what is known as BDNF (brain-derived neurotropic factor). This is a protein that actually promotes the growth of new, healthy brain cells. It actually aids your cognitive function and may improve your brain power. 8. Clears your Head Exercise is also great for mental clarity, concentration and memory. We often experience this when we talk about going for a walk to clear our head, perhaps if you've had an argument with somebody or you've got a big work project you are fretting about. There's something on your mind. It's partly the act of walking that can help you to focus a little bit better and think more clearly for the next few hours. 9. Aids better sleep Exercise may also improve your sleep. There is a vicious cycle that goes on when you're not getting good sleep, that triggers off your stress response. Having high stress then has a negative impact on your ability to have good sleep. Lack of quality sleep can massively affect mood & lead to that feeling of foggy brain. So, if you are exercising and it's helping you de-stress it can also improve your sleep and stop that vicious cycle continuing. 10. Gives structure & purpose Finally, exercise can give a sense of structure to your day. If you have carved out some time for your yourself, whether it's to go for a walk, do a workout class, go to the gym or a run - it gives that structure to your day. This can be very helpful if you are experiencing depression, for example, which can leave you feeling very unmotivated and make you want to lie in bed all day. It's helps to break you out of that cycle by giving you a purpose and reason to get up and to get that exercise done. It can be very helpful to just change that focus of your thoughts. So instead of letting the thoughts run away with you, it's focusing you only on what you need to do in that moment. It's quite hard to be thinking about other things when you are engrossed in activity. So, for all of these reasons, exercise is an important tool in your box to improve your mental health during the menopause. If you are not doing much activity at the moment, it's important to really consider how to get started by taking small steps towards more exercise to begin with, gradually increasing as you get stronger and more confident. If you have been experiencing menopause symptoms which are getting in the way of you enjoying life and would like to learn how to tackle them naturally so that you can get back to feeling like yourself again and experience the menopause transition in a more positive & empowered way, then my 12-week private menopause wellness program might be right for you. Find more details here

How do we make sure that we are looking after our bone health, during and after the menopause and why is it important? When we go through perimenopause, the time leading up to menopause, there are lots of symptoms that we experience that are really obvious: we all know if we're having a hot flush; we can see if we're putting on weight because our clothes might not fit anymore; we know if we're forgetting things - not only will we know, but other people will probably tell us. But your bone health is something that's not so obvious. It's internal. We can't see it. We kind of assume that everything's okay. And we only really know that it's not, when something happens. Bones have a peak density, they're at their strongest around about age 30. After that, there is a gradual decline in the density of your bones. So, we are not talking about this happening when you are what we would consider to be elderly. We are talking about still being in your prime of life and it's already starting to decline and that decline rapidly accelerates after we reach menopause, so that by around five to seven years post menopause, you may have lost up to 20% of your bone density. So up to a fifth of that strength in the bone could be lost by that point. Now, why is that important? Obviously, our bones are keeping us mobile and strong and upright. And when it decreases to a certain extent, we can develop what's known as osteoporosis. It's really important that we try and do something about it because our risk of fractures greatly increases, and not just from breaking a bone because you fall down the stairs, which could happen to anybody at any age. But fractures resulting from something very minor, like sitting down a bit too hard, coughing or sneezing causing a broken bone. It can lead to the bones in your spine partially collapsing, causing you pain and to be stooped over. You might start struggling to be able to pull yourself out of your chair and experience muscle and joint pain. So, you can see this is something that, is really important in terms of how you're going to be able to live your life - how you're going to feel and what you're going to be able to do. Risk of osteoporosis can be increased by quite a few things and menopause is one of them. The loss of oestrogen accelerates the process. If you've had an early menopause , that is if you have reached menopause before the age of 45, that will increase your risk even further, because you haven't had the oestrogen benefit for as long, perhaps as many other women may. Age and family history can increase your risk, as can heavy drinking or smoking . If you have, or have had in the past, an eating disorder , that can also increase your risk, as can having had chemotherapy treatment . But one of the really big things that can increase your risk and that we totally have control over, is lack of exercise . Exercise for Bone Health Exercise is not just about your cardiovascular health. It's not just about keeping your heart healthy or keeping your weight down. It's also about keeping your bones strong and healthy. Your bones are living tissue and they contain cells which do two different things. Osteoclasts have the job of getting rid of the old and deteriorating bone, and Osteoblasts, which form the new bone. We want these to be working effectively and going through the correct cycle of renewal of your bone. In order for the bone renewal to work, osteoclasts and osteoblasts need to be stimulated and they're stimulated by impact and resistance. This is why it's really important to have strength and resistance work incorporated into your exercise plan. So, it's important to not just do cardiovascular or aerobic activity but to also do activity that will also stimulate your bone renewal. You don't have to belong to a gym to do this. Many people who do go to the gym still tend to stick to the treadmill or, the cross trainer and may be intimidated by using the weights floor as it tends to be quite a male-dominated environment. If you enjoy using the weights at the gym that great but if not, you can do this kind of work anywhere. At home, you can have your own equipment or, you can adapt to activities that you enjoy outside or that you do with friends. It's possible to do this kind of work, however you like to exercise. So, let's talk about the kind of equipment maybe that you might like to use and the types of exercise that will help you. First of all, let's talk about using actual weights. The obvious first choice is dumbbells . They come in many different types and weight increments and they don't have to be large and bulky. Kettlebells are bigger and you might need a little more room to store. Again, they come in different weight sizes and are also good for doing certain moves like swings where it's easier to hold one big weight rather than two dumbbells. Weighted gloves are another good option because you can wear them to add some weight and resistance when you're doing another workout like boxing. You can also get wrist or ankle weights which are great to pair with any activity you are doing, such as going for a walk or even just wearing around the house to add just a little bit of extra strength & resistance. If you don't have the space to store any equipment or you aren't sure about investing the money in anything yet then you can also do body weight exercises . This is basically where you are using the weight of your own body as a resistance to the moves that you're doing. Moves like squats, lunges and holding a plank are all really good examples of where you are actually having to hold yourself up in a particular position which will stimulate those bone cells. If you want to make the moves more intense you can add smaller pieces of equipment such as sliders. These are flat circles of plastic which glide over carpet or hard floor and you can put your feet or hands on them and slide them backwards and forwards or out to the side and back in whilst holding your position, for example in a plank. This increases the intensity and makes your body need to work harder. If you aren't keen on these kinds of bodyweight moves then activities such as walking, jogging, racket,sports, like tennis and yoga are all good too. Then there is specific strength work using resistance bands. They come in different types such as latex, fabric, open and closed loop. Open ones are good if you like to work out in the park as you can wrap them around a tree or bench and are helpful for upper body. Closed loop is better if you are using around your legs in moves such as lunges and squats. I find that the fabric closed loop bands are better as the latex ones tend to bunch up and can start to dig into your skin. The bands also come in different strengths, usually ranging from light to extra heavy, which refers to how difficult it is to stretch them. You can find all of these pieces of strength & resistance equipment easily in places such as Amazon or Decathlon or even check out eBay or other preloved sites to find a bargain. The great thing about strength & resistance work is that you can do it anywhere - at home, the gym, the park etc. You can find classes that do them, create your own workout routines or follow YouTube videos. A couple of things are really important to note: Firstly , you need to make sure you mix it up. Your body needs variety and your bones will get used to the same routine. So maybe don't always use dumbbells. Maybe sometimes use bands or do body weight exercise and make sure to adapt the intensity. When you use weights, like dumbbells, your body else is going to start to get used to that weight as it becomes stronger. You need to listen to your body and really see what it needs to be challenged. If you are using something too light it won't be challenging you or changing you. Equally though, if you go too heavy you won't be able to complete the exercise. You might find that even in the space of one particular routine, that you need more than one weight. Bigger muscles such as the muscles in your legs can power heavier weights but you might need lighter weights for upper body exercises. If you start to feel that you've been doing something for a while and actually it's starting to feel a bit easy, you need to increase the weight or you need to increase the reps. Ideally, look to do some kind of strength or resistance work at least twice a week to keep your bones strong and healthy. Secondly , if you haven't done much strength & resistance work before, be very careful. Go slowly and start small. It's a good idea to get professional advice to make sure you are carrying out the exercises correctly also. If you belong to the gym, make sure you go to the gym induction or ask an instructor how to use the machines correctly. If you go to a class, make sure that the instructor shows you the correct positioning and if you using an online platform at home, look for any instructional videos on there. Nutrition for Bone Health Now we've all heard of calcium. When we think about bone health, that's the first thing most people think about. Yes, you may consume lots of calcium-rich foods such as diary which is great because we do need calcium. But in order for the calcium to work and to do its job, it actually needs to have some other nutrients as well, that aids it in doing its job. If we don't have those nutrients too, there's no point having lots of calcium because it's not going to be able to work as it's meant to. One of those critical nutrients is vitamin D and obviously if you live in the UK or in Northern Europe, you are unlikely to be getting enough from the sun alone. It's also very difficult to get enough through foods because not that many foods contain Vitamin D, so we do have to be mindful of the kind of foods that we're eating so that we can maximize our intake. We also need magnesium. This also helps calcium do its job and converts vitamin D into the form that's needed for working with calcium. It's involved in the actual formation of the osteoblast and osteoclast cells in your bone too. You also need enough vitamin C which is not stored in the body. Some, vitamins and minerals can be stored, kind of like have a backup. But vitamin C has to be consumed on a daily basis. Vitamin K is also involved in the process of healthy bone formation. If you want to make sure that you're getting enough of these, the first thing I would recommend is to eat plenty of leafy green vegetables because they are high in so many of these nutrients. Broccoli is actually very high in calcium, in fact, so if you don't eat dairy that's a really good place to get it from, but other leafy greens as well, such as cabbage, spinach and kale are good too. Eating other types of fruit and veg is also very important to get enough vitamin C, and oily fish, especially sardines are good for calcium because they have very small, soft edible bones. Make sure that you're having enough lean protein and also whole grains, which are a great source of magnesium, as well and seeds and nuts. Are you getting the nutrients or exercise that you actually need to help support bone renewal? Maybe you are doing the exercise, but what you are eating isn't supporting bone health. Or you eat a healthy diet, but you're not doing any strength and resistance exercise. You won't be maximizing your chances of keeping your bones healthy as you age. It's important to note that the average age of menopause is 51. That isn't old, it's still prime of life. It's really only halfway through your life. If we are lucky, we might live another 40 or 50 years post-menopause and we need to be in a physical position where we can enjoy those 40 or 50 years and do the things that we want to do. We don't want to be in pain or incapacitated. This is why we need to start now because as I said, we can't see our bone density declining until something happens. We can instead use strength & resistance exercise and the correct nutrition to help prevent our bones getting to the stage of osteoporosis. If you want to start making changes to your nutrition & movement levels to help support your bone health, I’d love to chat to you. My 12-week 1:1 personalised menopause wellness coaching program will help you to identify, implement & stay consistent with the habits you need to experience a happier, healthier menopause. Book your FREE VIP menopause empowerment call with me here to find out whether this program might be right for you and how I can help to move you forwards.

We’ve all seen the adverts for Bran Flakes haven’t we? Urging us to eat a high-fibre breakfast so that we can feel great (and poop more!). But do you understand why fibre is essential for our bodies or why it’s especially important during the menopause? Let’s first explain a little bit about fibre. When we eat, our digestive system breaks down the food in order to release the nutrients we need to function. However, fibre are the parts of the food which cannot be broken down by the body. And this is a good thing. You see fibre comes in 2 forms, both of which have health benefits. The first is Soluble Fibre. This type of fibre can be dissolved in water and the fluids within the gastrointestinal system to form a gel-like substance. This slows down our digestion and also helps to feed our good gut bacteria. The second is Insoluble Fibre. This type of fibre cannot be digested and doesn’t dissolve in water so it remains in the same state, helping to bulk out your stools (that’s poo to you and me!) and keep you regular. So, let’s take a deeper look at how those characteristics of fibre can actually be of big benefit to menopause health. 1. It helps with your menopause hormone balance Yes, fibre is like that hard-working waste disposal officer cleaning up the rubbish and dumping it out of the body. Making sure that your body is regularly getting rid of the waste products rather than being in a state of constipation means that used and excess hormones such as oestrogen are expelled from the body rather than having time to be reabsorbed through the gut lining and back into the blood stream. When we go through perimenopause our sex hormones, oestrogen and progesterone are in a state of flux and oestrogen can often fluctuate wildly, creating a state of oestrogen dominance which can cause a whole host of unpleasant symptoms. We certainly don’t want to be adding to the imbalance by reabsorbing hormones back into the blood stream that we no longer need. 2. It helps with menopause weight management You’ve heard me talk before about the importance of keeping your blood sugars balanced during the menopause. When we eat carbohydrates, they are broken down in the gut into glucose, which is the preferred fuel for the body. However, if we choose refined carbohydrates (think cakes, biscuits, chocolate, bakery items, white versions of pasta, rice & bread) rather than wholegrains and veggies, they are broken down almost immediately in the gut and release a spike of glucose into the blood. In turn, our bodies then have to produce a spike of insulin to mop up all that sugar. Some can be used by your cells, but much of it will instead be converted into fat and stored in and around the liver to be used at a later date. Because the sugar has been mopped up so quickly it sends a signal that our body has run out of fuel which then in turn signals the adrenal glands to produce a spike of cortisol (our stress hormone). This can then cause us to start craving more food in order to get more fuel – and what type of food does it trick you into wanting? Yep, you guessed it……more refined carbs. It becomes a vicious circle and all the time your body is laying down the extra sugar as fat. This is one of the main causes for menopause weight gain. But when you eat enough fibre, it helps to slow down the release of glucose into the blood stream, leading to a more stable blood sugar level throughout the day. That means that you feel full up, the cravings stop and your body uses the fuel rather than storing it. 3. It’s good for your heart health When we go through menopause, we start to lose the heart protective benefit of oestrogen. Up until menopause women are at lower risk of heart problems than men, and that’s thought to be due to our high oestrogen levels during our fertile years. However, after menopause women’s risk of heart problems rises and so it’s important that we have strategies to look after our cardiovascular health especially at this time. We’ve all heard about keeping an eye on our cholesterol levels to keep our heart healthy right? Well, cholesterol is in fact an essential substance in our bodies, we can’t live without it. However, it does come in different forms. LDL cholesterol is often termed ‘bad’ cholesterol and it’s the level of this type that we want to keep low in comparison to HDL cholesterol (or ‘good’ cholesterol). Fibre may actually help to reduce the level of LDL cholesterol in our body by reducing the absorption into our bloodstream and therefore contribute to menopause heart health. 4. It can improve your menopausal mood swings & brain fog Have you heard of the gut-brain connection? There’s a reason for that. That’s because our gastrointestinal tract is actually connected to your brain via the Vagus nerve. Our gut bacteria actually make hormones and neurotransmitters which send signals to the brain, keeping it informed of the situation in our digestive system and whether or not it’s ‘happy’ or ‘distressed’. Did you know that your ‘good’ gut bacteria produce neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine and GABA which all play a key role in mood? Given that mood swings, anxiety & overwhelm are common symptoms of menopause, it makes good sense to ensure that we are encouraging the growth of our healthy gut bacteria, and therefore eating enough fibre to keep them well fed and thriving. So how much fibre should we be aiming for a day? Ideally, we should be aiming for around 30g a day, or at least 14g per 1000 calories eaten. The average UK woman eats half of that. Did you know that our ancestors, as hunter-gatherers ate around 100g of fibre a day! What kind of foods should I be eating to get more fibre? The types of food you want to concentrate on are: • Wholegrains • Beans, Lentils & Pulses • Vegetables & Fruit (particularly cruciferous veg, peas, carrots & sweetcorn (including popcorn), apples, pears, berries, bananas, melon & avocado) • Nuts & Seeds Easy ways to up your fibre intake every day • Leave the skin on fruit & veg • Add salad to your sandwich • Add another portion of veg to your lunch and dinner • Sprinkle nuts or seeds & fruit onto your breakfast cereal • Choose wholegrain varieties of pasta, rice & bread instead of white versions • Choose fruit & a small handful of nuts as a mid-afternoon snack • Swop your refined carb snacks such as crisps & biscuits for oat cakes or wholewheat crackers with hummus or guacamole or a bowl of air-popped popcorn • Use a nut or seed butter on toast instead of butter and jam • Add beans, lentils or ground flaxseed to soups, stews, casseroles, curries and sauces • Use wholemeal flour in baking recipes instead of white flour I specialise in coaching menopausal women who want to lose weight and regain their energy and mental clarity to make changes to their nutrition & lifestyle habits so that they can get back in control of their bodies, soothe their symptoms and feel more like themselves again. If you are struggling with menopausal symptoms and would like to have a chat with me personally about your situation and explore how you can take positive action to start feeling better, please book a FREE call with me here.

Exercise and movement are extremely important throughout life, but it is especially helpful during the menopause transition to help us balance our blood sugar better, boost metabolism & help with weight management, stop the decline of muscle mass, improve sleep, increase energy and reduce our stress levels. But once you’ve got yourself into the habit of exercising, how do you make sure that you are eating in a way that actually helps fuel your workouts with enough energy to give it your best and to build that lean muscle mass that helps with managing your weight? Glucose - Your body’s fuel Our bodies use glucose as the main fuel to keep our muscles working and we get that glucose from carbohydrates. Once our cells have enough glucose to produce the energy we need, the excess is stored as glycogen in the liver and the muscles. When we exercise, especially if we are doing short or intense workouts, our bodies use up the glycogen stores first. As we use up our glycogen stores during exercise, our intensity and ability to keep going at the same pace or output reduces. So, it’s important to eat carbohydrate foods in order to replenish those glycogen stores. Protein Protein is important for our muscles’ performance. When we exercise, we break down muscle fibres and we need protein to help build them back up stronger. Having protein before and after exercise helps repair muscles, encourages growth and increases strength, lean muscle mass and performance. The more lean muscle mass we have, the better we burn calories. Fat Whilst glycogen is the main fuel source when we are doing short, intensive workouts, fat is the fuel source for more endurance-based workouts that last for longer and are of a low to moderate intensity. So having some healthy fats in your meals is helpful if you are going to be exercising for long periods. The timing of your meals before and after a workout is important to maximise your performance and recovery. Before a workout: Ideally, you would eat a meal with a balance of carbohydrates, protein and healthy fat 2-3 hours before your workout. However, it’s not always possible to eat so far in advance of exercise, especially if you like to workout first thing in the morning (like me!). If you have less time then stick to a simpler meal consisting of mainly carbohydrate with some protein. You want it to be fairly light so that it doesn’t make you feel ill or uncomfortable whilst you workout and be easily digested. After a workout: After your workout, your body wants to replenish its glycogen stores and get to work repairing your muscles so it’s important to eat a combination of carbohydrates and protein. How much protein you have post-workout is somewhat dependent on whether you had a pre-workout meal and if so, how long ago that was. If you had a substantial amount of protein before exercise you may not need much afterwards. The amount of carbs you consume after a workout depends on the type of workout you did. Endurance exercise such as running or swimming will deplete the glycogen stores more than resistance training with weights. Similarly, if you are doing more than one workout a day or you train every day you will need more carbs to replenish glycogen stores than if you only workout every other day. Some people think that having fat in the meal after a workout slows down the digestion and slows the absorption of nutrients, however it doesn’t seem to interfere with the benefits the carbohydrate and protein provide and doesn’t seem to affect recovery. In terms of the timing of the post-workout meal, ideally you want to eat as soon as possible after exercising, and ideally within 45 minutes. However, again it may depend on whether you had a pre-workout meal and how soon before the workout it was eaten. For example, if you had a carbohydrate and protein rich meal one hour before the workout it’s likely that you won’t need any more straight after the workout and you can extend the timing afterwards up to a couple of hours. If you are exercising regularly, it’s a good idea to just get into the habit of eating something small and well-balanced every 3-4 hours in any case as this will help with blood sugar balancing which is especially importance during the menopause transition to help ease many of the unpleasant symptoms. What if I exercise first thing in the morning and can’t eat beforehand? Exercising on an empty stomach is known as ‘fasted cardio’. There are conflicting results from studies about whether or not exercising on an empty stomach helps with weight loss which is usually what it is recommended for. Certainly, if you don’t eat beforehand your body will need to use up its glycogen stores and may even start breaking down protein in muscle for fuel so it will be very important to make sure that you have a post-workout meal relatively soon afterwards. You may also find that exercising on an empty stomach affects your stamina or strength during the workout and some people may find that they get shaky or faint if they don’t eat beforehand because they are very sensitive to blood sugar changes. Others may dislike the feeling of food in their stomach whilst they workout and it may make them feel sick or uncomfortable. So, it’s a very personal thing. Obviously if you have a medical condition such as diabetes, blood pressure issues or thyroid condition you should take your doctors advice about how to eat around exercise. Whether you eat prior or not, everyone should make sure that they stay well hydrated. Meal ideas before a workout 2-3 hours before exercise: Choose something more substantial like a sandwich on wholegrain bread with protein filling and salad; eggs on wholegrain toast with avocado and fruit; wholegrain pasta or rice with lean protein and plenty of veg. 1-2 hours before exercise: Something a little lighter like a protein powder smoothie with fresh fruit; wholegrain cereal such as Weetabix with milk or milk alternative; porridge with fresh fruit such as banana and some chopped nuts; piece of wholegrain toast and peanut butter Up to 1 hour before exercise: Keep it very light and easily digestible such as a piece of fresh fruit such as a banana (with some Greek yoghurt if you like); an energy ball or energy bar made with decent ingredients Ingredient Ideas for After a Workout Carbs: Chocolate milk Complex carbs such as quinoa, wholegrain rice, pasta & bread, sweet potatoes and oats Fruit Protein: Quality lean animal protein such as salmon, chicken, turkey or tuna Eggs Greek Yoghurt Tofu Protein powder (made into a smoothie) Fat: Avocado Nuts & nut butters Seeds Meal Ideas: Scrambled eggs on wholegrain toast with mushrooms, spinach and avocado Wholegrain pitta bread with hummus Chicken salad with cashew nuts and a piece of fruit Greek yoghurt, flax seed, granola and mixed berries Salmon fillet with sweet potato and roasted veg Porridge with nuts, seeds & berries Protein shake with Greek yoghurt, flaxseed, banana and peanut butter See what combinations you can come up with! If you are in the menopause transition – whether you think you might be starting perimenopause or you’ve reached post-menopause – and you’d like more support and advice around how to optimise your health and happiness, soothe your symptoms and feel more like yourself again, I’d love you to join me in my free, private Facebook group, Feel Good For Life.

Many women experience a loss of confidence during their menopause transition and the mood swings, lack of motivation, weight gain and feelings of exhaustion, anxiety and overwhelm are just some of the symptoms which can lead women to having a very negative outlook on their life and feeling isolated and joyless. It doesn’t help when there is still somewhat of a social stigma around menopause. ‘Banter’ at work, for example someone asking ‘you menopausal or something?’ if you forget something or make a mistake, leaving you feeling like you can’t do your job properly. Men who complain that women should stop moaning when they experience symptoms. Other women who loudly state that their mother’s generation just had to get on with it and we shouldn’t make a fuss. GP’s making us beg for hormone replacement therapy or who make us feel like we are wrong for asking. These issues combine to make us feel like menopause shouldn’t be discussed and that it’s somehow our fault if we are experiencing symptoms that we can’t cope with. They can make us feel like we are alone, like we are somehow ‘doing’ menopause ‘wrong’, causing us to doubt ourselves and wondering whether this is how our life will look from now on. Destroying our self-confidence and wondering whether we imagined the person we were before. Our inner mean voice kicks in constantly: • ‘You look fat in that outfit’ • ‘Why are you bothering, you’ll only mess it up’ • ‘who’s going to give you a promotion when you’re always tired?’ • ‘Why would your friends even want to meet up when you moan so much?’ • ‘don’t bother trying that workout, you are so unfit’ • ‘Why would your partner want to see you naked?’ The list goes on and on. Playing that negative record on a loop until we believe it all to be true. Creating a habit of talking to ourselves badly and beating ourselves up mentally. And this leads to us feeling out of control of our body and thoughts, destroying our self-confidence and leaving us feeling utterly negative about the whole experience. It increases our stress levels which then plays a huge role in disrupting our hormone balance further, amplifying our symptoms and making us feel worse. If left unchecked, this spiral of negative thoughts becomes ingrained, creating a habit that’s hard to break. Sapping our motivation and sucking all the fun out of life and making it almost impossible to see the positives. But studies have shown that women who had a positive attitude towards menopause and the next chapter in their lives, had a more positive body image and a smoother and more positive experience of menopause than women who had a more negative attitude to menopause, who in general reported more symptoms. So, how do we increase our positivity and help ourselves to transition through the menopause with more ease and joy? Here’s 3 ways you can try today: Connection The first way is to get more connected. Connecting to ourselves and listening to our body so that we truly appreciate what it needs. Learning how to identify the mean voice and see it for what it is – just a part of your brain that’s trying to keep you safe from trying new things or changing the status quo. Mindfulness and meditation are just two ways in which we can foster more communication with our true desires. Practising how to listen out for those real thoughts and beliefs that are keeping us stuck and reframing them into more positive ones that will help us move forward. Try this: Sit somewhere quiet and comfortable and just starting focusing on taking long, slow, deep breaths – in and out. Don’t worry if your mind wanders and you start thinking about what to cook for dinner or whether you took the washing out of the machine – if that happens just acknowledge that your mind wandered off and bring your attention back to the breath. Carry on in this way for 5 minutes (longer if you can). When we sit in stillness, allowing our mind to wander and bringing it back to specifically focus on our breath over and over again, eventually it teaches our mind how to do that more easily and more often during the course of your day. It allows you to notice things about how and why you make choices that you may have otherwise been unaware of. If you are unaware, you cannot change it. It also helps you start to observe your thoughts. This allows you to start to understand that you are not your thoughts – you are the CREATOR of your thoughts. Which means you can CHOOSE your thoughts. We also need to get more connected to the bigger picture. To see how valuable we are to the people around us. Getting out of our own heads and appreciating the world around us. Try spending more time out in nature, appreciating the miracle of life, volunteering to help others or just making time to see friends and family and enjoy being in their company. Talk about your experience with menopause. If you don’t feel like you can discuss it with friends or family there are lots of support groups and forums out there where you can connect with others going through similar experiences to you. You do not need to feel alone in your situation. Gratitude We can start to practice gratitude. Everyone can find something to be grateful for no matter how negative they are feeling. It could be something as simple as a stranger smiling at you in the street, feeling the sun on your face or hearing a beautiful birdsong. The more we practice being grateful and taking the time to acknowledge the good things, the more we start to notice them. Try starting a journaling practice every day to keep track of all the positive moments and experiences you actually have. It doesn’t have to take long – just 2 mins when you wake up or before you go to bed. You might choose to simply list as many things as you can that you’re grateful for or pick just one thing and explore all the different things you appreciate about it. Maybe you choose to list all the things about menopause in particular you are grateful for or the positives that it will bring for the next chapter in your life. Reading back on our journal entries can be a powerful way to show our brain evidence for the positive things in life. Movement Getting yourself moving every day. It doesn’t have to be a tough session in the gym (although that might also feel good to you) but any kind of activity that releases serotonin – the feel-good hormone. For you it could be running, dancing, gardening, walking, swimming, boxing, team-sports, playing with the kids or the dog etc. Even if you’ve been feeling exhausted, you’ll certainly feel more uplifted and energized after even moderate activity than you would flopping on the sofa and regular movement will also have a beneficial effect on your other menopause symptoms too, helping you to see positive changes both in your body and mind. Has the menopause transition left you feeling like you no longer recognise yourself? Are you are struggling to cope with your symptoms and need a supportive and non-judgemental ally to guide you to make changes that will help you to get back in control and find the joy in life again? If so, we need to talk! My 12-week personalised 1:1 coaching program focuses on the nutrition, movement, sleep and relaxation habits that will ease your symptoms, mindset work to help you identify and re-frame the beliefs and thoughts that are keeping you stuck and techniques you can use to stay consistent and not rely on willpower. If you’d like to know more, please book a free breakthrough session with me at https://calendly.com/feelgoodforlife to find out if my program is a good fit for you.

You’ve probably heard the term ‘self-care’ being bandied about and wondered what all the fuss what about. Maybe you have a pre-conceived idea about what self-care actually is? But do you know why it’s so important that we talk about self-care when we are working to transform our old habits and patterns in relation to our nutrition and lifestyle when we are trying to find better hormonal balance? I’ve talked before about how our brain is fundamentally wired to avoid pain and seek pleasure. It’s inbuilt and we can’t change it. So, guess what happens when you feel exhausted, overwhelmed, anxious, run-down and completely depleted? Yup – your brain sends you on a reward-seeking mission straight towards the old, unhelpful habits and patterns that it knows will give it pleasure, no matter how briefly. That could mean that you gravitate towards things like food, alcohol or caffeine, mindlessly watching tv or scrolling social media for example, rather than taking the action you want towards your goals. A more effective way to address the feelings of fatigue or overwhelm is to head them off in a preventative way, through regular self-care. Here are some common signs that you aren’t currently making self-care a big enough priority – see how many you recognise in yourself: • You feel exhausted at the end of almost every day and you look forward to food, alcohol, caffeine, tv or social media as a way to feel better • You wake up in the morning still feeling tired • You tell yourself that you ‘deserve it’ as a treat when you reach for the junk at night or when you give yourself a pass not to exercise and lay on the sofa all evening instead. • You feel exhausted, but you still struggle to sleep. You lie there with your mind racing with a thousand thoughts • You feel disconnected from yourself and something greater • You get easily pulled off track by other people’s demands on your time What does self-care really mean though? Whilst for many women the idea of self-care conjures up the image of having a relaxing massage or getting her hair or nails done, they aren’t really self-care. Sure, they are lovely, and yes, it’s a way of showing yourself some love and attention, but they are events that tend to be few and far between. As pampering they are great, but true self-care needs to fill your bucket daily. Self-care is really about connection – both with ourselves, listening to what our mind, body and soul is telling us, and connection with something greater, that helps us to feel that we are part of something bigger and worthwhile. If we lack connection in these areas, we can start to feel anxious, overwhelmed, lonely, worried, stressed, angry or afraid. And these are all feelings that can trigger off our stress response – increasing (and often keeping raised if the feelings persist) cortisol which has a massive knock-on effect to the rest of our hormones which can seriously exacerbate menopausal symptoms. So effective self-care tackles this issue – it’s about deliberating choosing and regularly actioning rituals and activities that leave you feeling more connected and less stressed. It recharges our batteries, so to speak. Why self-care is important Well, for a start when you feel physically and mentally drained it affects your willpower. We only seem to have a certain amount daily and when we face so many pressures and stresses in the day, we’ve often worn it out come the evening. It’s at this time of feeling run down either mentally or physically that we feel most drawn to the safety and familiarity of our old habits and patterns. Secondly, when we feel disconnected, we can easily be taken off course by external factors like work deadlines, a fight with a friend or partner, a birthday party or other people’s demands on your time – they can quickly derail our good intentions to make positive choices. It’s like being a tree which only has thin, shallow roots and can be quickly washed away in a storm. The tree which has deep, strong roots help it ground into the earth and cannot be so easily pushed around. So, making self-care a priority means that we need to spend time practicing and strengthening that deep sense of connection on a daily basis in order that we can grow our resilience and strength to stay on track when external situations threaten to take us off course. What kind of self-care practices will be most effective for you? There are so many ways that you can cultivate better connection in your life. And what helps you one day may not be what you need on another – it’s important to listen to your body. Forget about choosing activities based on ‘shoulds’. There’s no point choosing a yoga class if you don’t like it but just think you ought to do it. But on the other hand – don’t dismiss ideas out of hand. Think about what kind of things make you feel more like yourself? What brings you joy and makes you feel more alive and recharged? What would you do if you had an abundance of time? What makes you feel connected to something greater – a part of the bigger picture, that feels valuable and meaningful? Those are the kind of activities you want to do lots of. Self-care Ideas These are just some ideas you might want to consider: • Time in nature • Meditation • Mindfulness • Eating a healthy, nutrient-filled diet • Getting enough sleep • Spending time with pets • Laughing • Cooking • Doing things for others/volunteering • Energy work (e.g., Reiki) • Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong • Spending time with people you love • Taking up a new hobby or skill (e.g., learning an instrument, painting, writing, sewing, singing etc) • Reading • Movement (walking, dancing, group classes etc) Other important aspects of self-care 1. Boundaries You only have a limited amount of time, energy and focus. So, it’s just not possible to say ‘yes’ to everything, as much as you might want to in order to make others happy or avoid confrontation. You need to prioritise the areas that are most important to you. These will change over time but really think about the top 3 priorities in your life right now. Is it about excelling at work? Spending time with the kids? Keeping the romance alive in your relationship? Improving your health/menopause symptoms? Every decision you need to make can be judged alongside these priorities. If it will bring you success in one of your priority areas it’s a ‘yes’. If it doesn’t then it’s a ‘no. Self-care isn’t selfish. It’s an act of self-love and self-worth, and crucial to help you to continue to stay mentally and physically well. 2. Our Thoughts You are the creator of your thoughts! We all have a running commentary in our heads but much of it is the ‘monkey mind’ which voices our fears and feeds into our limiting beliefs which can keep us stuck in the same old patterns of behaviour. But we can actually choose our thoughts! There is a saying ‘what you believe is what you receive’. Essentially it means that whatever you focus on you will get more of. So, if we continue to play the old, negative thoughts on a loop we end up attracting more of that. Do you recognise yourself in these thoughts? • Things never work out for me • Something always goes wrong for me • I don’t have enough willpower • I’m too lazy • I’m probably never going to be able to feel better • I’m not the kind of person who does X, Y, Z We need to catch those negative thoughts and practice reframing them into something more positive. It’s not easy and it takes practice, but it’s another way to help you take better care of yourself so that you can travel the menopause journey with more ease, positivity and enthusiasm. 3. Integrity Integrity means honesty. It’s a positive trait and when we talk about people with integrity, we know we can trust them. When we deal with someone who acts continually without integrity however, you stop believing that they will do as they say. Coming from someone we love, it’s especially hurtful. It’s the same when we aren’t in integrity with ourselves. When you promise yourself over and over that you’ll eat better, move more, get more sleep, or do any of the other self-care actions but then you actually choose actions that aren’t in alignment with those promises you feel pretty bad about it. And that can lead again to us looking for rewards that help us numb those feelings and the cycle begins again. To stop acting out of integrity you have to make your promises to yourself do-able and realistic. So, start really small. So small that it’s impossible for you not to be able to do it. Enjoy the feeling you get when you do what you told yourself you would. It’s by training your brain in this way that helps it remember that it feels good and is worth doing again. Finding the time Self-care must be one of your top priorities – it’s that simple. Even if you are busy and feel like you don’t have the time – all the more reason to make it happen so you can re-fill your cup daily and be able to navigate through the menopause journey in a way that helps you feel happy and positive. No-one says ‘showering and brushing my teeth sounds like a good idea and I really admire people who can do it but I just don’t have enough time in my schedule’. We make the time because it’s non-negotiable. Self-care is no different - it needs to be non-negotiable too. Jo Fazel is a Nutrition & Lifestyle Health Coach, specialising in helping women going through the menopause transition to handle the hormonal havoc so they can lose the belly, fight the fatigue, manage the mood swings and cultivate calmness and self-confidence to navigate the journey with more ease. Her signature 12-week program, Feel Good for Life, focuses on helping women to create, action and embed new sustainable habits around nutrition, movement, sleep, relaxation and mindset to support their hormone balance and help them feel more like themselves again for a happier & healthier menopause and beyond! If you’d like to find out more and discover if her program is right for you – book a free breakthrough call with Jo here .

Menopause weight gain is a very common side effect of the transition and there may be several reasons behind it. Often women can feel more exhausted and fatigued than normal and experience low mood at this time and healthy eating goes out the window as their body craves a quick ‘pick-me-up’ and they reach for the wrong kinds of foods and drinks. As we age, our muscle mass decreases and our metabolisms naturally slow down, meaning that we don’t need as many calories to fuel us as we did when we were younger, and that can show on the scale when we continue to eat in the same way. We may not have the energy or motivation to exercise or new joint pains and aches may limit what we can do which also decreases the number of calories we burn throughout the day. But very importantly, our sex hormones are in a state of flux and this has a knock-on effect to other hormones that keep our bodies running as they should, leading to an imbalance which can cause us to start storing fat instead of burning it off – and its usually laid down around the middle, causing the dreaded ‘muffin top’ or ‘menopause belly’. So, what do we often do at this point to try and lose the weight? Well, many of us turn to what we’ve always been told is the best way to lose weight – calorie counting. We start making decisions about what food we eat based entirely on the number of calories it contains, thinking that if we stick to a specific calorie deficit the scales will start moving in the right direction. But there are problems with this method. Firstly, when we reduce foods to simply the calories they contain we lose sight of the nutrients they contain (or don’t). We might start choosing more processed foods because the packaging tells us it contains 99 calories or less for example, without looking at the label to see what it does actually contain (often lots of unhelpful sweeteners and a bunch of fillers), or we drop certain foods from our diet because we think they are too high in calories (avocado anyone?). This is a big mistake. And the reason why is because when we are going through the menopause our body is already in a state of flux and our hormones need certain nutrients to function correctly. All we do when we cut calories and don’t look at the nutrients is to create a further imbalance in our hormones and make the situation worse. This is why some women find even though they cut their calories low they continue to pile on the weight. Another reason is that our bodies are clever. When we reduce our calories at some point we reach a plateau with our weight loss. This is because our bodies have got wise to what we are doing and adjusted your metabolism to only need those calories. Now you are no longer in a calorie deficit and to lose further weight you would need to reduce your calories down further again. Of course, this isn’t sustainable and you would soon start to starve your body of enough fuel and you would notice a whole host of unpleasant side effects. Then when you raise your calories again to feel better your weight will inevitably go up because your body sees them as excess calories. This is the diet rollercoaster that many women have been on their whole lives – following fad diet after fad diet and messing around with their metabolism so that when they reach perimenopause they don’t know how to actually nourish their body for the task ahead. So, today I wanted to give you 5 tips that don’t revolve around calorie counting that you can do daily which will actually support your hormone balance so that you can start losing weight or stop the menopause weight gain in the first place. 1. Have a protein-rich breakfast One of the most important things to understand about the menopause is that the hormonal flux plays havoc with your blood sugar balance. When we eat too many simple carbohydrates we end up flooding our bloodstream with glucose and we get a corresponding spike of insulin (our fat-storage hormone) which tries to bring it back down to normal levels. Whatever glucose our cells don’t actually need to make energy is extra and needs to go somewhere, so insulin works to store it as fat, mostly around our middle. We can be going through this glucose/insulin spike many times a day – if you eat a carb-heavy breakfast (sugary breakfast cereals, toast and jam, bagels etc) you are setting off this cycle right from the beginning of your day. This sets you up for feeling starving a few hours later and grabbing that chocolate bar/packet of crisps/bag of sweets/iced bun to keep yourself going, and the cycle perpetuates throughout the day. Having protein and healthy fat at every meal or snack actually helps to keep your blood sugar levels more stable and reduces the spikes. So, the best thing you can start doing is make sure that you start the day with a protein-rich breakfast. Think eggs, wholemeal toast with good quality nut butter, chia pudding, protein smoothie etc. 2. Look after your gut bacteria Did you know that we have more bacteria in our gut than we do cells in our entire body? Healthy bacteria are absolutely crucial to our wellbeing – they extract the nutrients out of our food for us and actually produce some of the vitamins and hormones that we need to function correctly. They also help to make sure that our gut lining stays intact so that unhealthy bacteria or used hormones don’t get back into our bloodstream upsetting our hormone balance further. So, we need to look after them. They need particular types of food to survive and thrive – these are called prebiotics and can be found in foods such as apples, green bananas, oats, leeks, onion, garlic, legumes & pulses, artichokes, asparagus, leafy greens, flaxseed, blueberries and wholegrains. So, make sure that you are having at least 2 servings a day. 3. Get moving Yes, exercise and movement burns calories but it does so much more than that! It does fire up your metabolism and help you to burn fat but regular exercise and movement also has a positive effect on your insulin sensitivity, so that your cells are better able to utilise the insulin available to allow glucose into the cells for conversion into energy and not to lay them down as fat. And that’s not to mention that exercise is great for boosting our mood and increasing our energy levels, making it more likely that we will make healthier food and lifestyle choices afterwards instead of needing to reach for something unhealthy as a pick-me-up. But remember, that our bodies are meant to move – not sit at a computer screen all day. So even if you are able to fit in a formal workout, it’s still important to find ways to move throughout the day, whether that be by getting up from your desk every hour and going up and down the stairs, going for a walk at lunchtime or even pacing the room whilst you are on a phone call rather than chatting on the sofa. 4. Manage your Stress When our brains perceive a stressor, it sets in motion a process that releases the stress hormone, cortisol. This hormone makes physiological changes to our body that allows us to be able to run away or stay and fight in reaction to that stressor, and that includes increasing our insulin levels and releasing stored sugars into our bloodstream in order to give our muscles enough energy to cope with the stress. Now if we are dealing with a real physical danger then this would be absolutely vital and indeed, it’s a survival mechanism that has kept humans alive all these years. However, it was never designed to cope with the type of stressors we are bombarded with in modern times. These days most of our stressors are psychological rather than physical and whereas with a physical danger, when that danger has passed our cortisol level will drop and it will have done its job, nowadays we just don’t get a break from the psychological stressors so our bodies never get the chance to relax and bring the cortisol levels back down. So, our cortisol levels can remain unhealthily high which in turn means our insulin levels and blood sugars will spike often, which can cause fat storage and weight gain. Finding ways to activate our parasympathetic nervous system (our calming system) is key in order to bring down our cortisol and insulin levels. Deep breathing exercises have been shown to be very effective in a short amount of time and can be done anywhere. Spending time in nature and in quiet meditation has also been found to be effective. 5. Get to bed early I know it’s all too easy to end up getting to bed late, especially if you have teenagers who want to stay up late or you want to have some time to yourself after younger children have gone to bed. But studies have shown than most people need a minimum of 7-8 hours of sleep a night to really feel rested. When we don’t get enough restful sleep, it messes with our circadian rhythm (our sleep/wake cycle) which involves (you guessed it…) cortisol again. Cortisol levels are meant to be high in the morning to wake you up and get you going and then they reduce as melatonin (the sleep hormone) increases until it gets to a high level in the evening to make you feel sleepy. When we don’t get enough sleep, it’s actually perceived as a stressor to our body as sleep is the time that our brains repair and heal. And of course, when we are stressed that increases our cortisol levels, which further impacts our sleep/wake cycle and we end up in a vicious circle where we find it hard to sleep. At the same time the increased cortisol levels affect our insulin levels again and cause more fat storage. These 5 tips are not only helpful for stopping menopause weight gain but also for easing other menopausal symptoms which may be having a negative impact on your life. When it comes to our hormones, everything is interlinked, so making progress in one area of your nutrition or lifestyle choices will inevitably end up having a positive effect on many symptoms. And remember, to start small. Don’t go trying to change everything at once all gung-ho – that’s a FastTrack to overwhelm and giving up and you want to be able to sustain your healthy habits for the long-term so that you can ease your body through this transitional period but also so that you can feel good, strong and happy post-menopause too. So, give yourself small achievable targets and build on them once you are being consistent with them. If you’d like support and guidance to formulate your own menopause action plan and find out what changes would be of most help for you to reach your goals so you can take back control of your body and mind and feel like yourself again, let’s chat. Book yourself a free session with me to discuss where you are at, what you feel is holding you back and where you would like to be at https://calendly.com/feelgoodforlife