I’d like to knuckle down and have a little conversation about our hormones, perimenopause menopause and the transitions that start from around the ages of 35 onwards?

They say that menopause is like our second puberty? Sounds like fun hey? Not 

But we can make the transition easier, they say prevention is always better than cure, and this has never been truer.

It starts now, it starts with 35 to 50 years old women, we’re in the peak of our stress, we work full-time we have kids full-time we have our partners full-time we have our house work full-time we have running the kids around to extracurricular activities, sport, etc.,

 Our body and mind is in overdrive, and to sustain this level of energy, 

We use adrenaline to boost our nervous system, we rely on coffee to get up in the morning and we drink more wine [or your choice of drink] then we should, 

and this is putting our body under more stress, having to work harder to clear out and shift these extra toxins from our body and having no time to clear out and unwind and down regulate the nervous system. 

What we need to do is lighten the load on our body now, so that it is functioning correctly and adequately as we go through these hormonal changes, the symptoms can be lessened if we pay attention to what we are doing now. 

Yes, yes I know you know ,that I’m going to say that strength training is and has been proven to reduce the symptoms of hormonal changes, 

strength training does promote, lean muscle growth and strength of bones strength of joints, ligaments tendons, this is all super important, especially for women as we age because our body declines, and we start losing The ability to grow lean muscle and we also start losing this lean muscle and we lose our bone density, which makes us vulnerable

I can go on about this all day and it’s very in-depth and I probably will go into it In podcast at sometime …

Just understand this, for example, 

I’m stressed I work full-time full-time kids, full-time partner, full-time house work, full-time running the kids around from here there and everywhere, and I’m drinking wine at night. I’m drinking coffee in the morning. 

Yes, I’m looking after myself by training to the max, 

but I am actually NOT, 

having time out for myself, 

 I’m not resting, 

I don’t have the quality of sleep, 

My body is in overdrive it is working really hard, and I’m not giving it any opportunity to heal and recover, 

 BEAR this in mind. 

As I approach menopause, my body isn’t functioning as it should so what this means is in a nutshell, and very simply, (but not exclusively this)

your ovaries produce estrogen, and when your bodies under stress, it passes that onto the liver to start producing estrogen, the liver already has a lot of work to do so to clear out the alcohol and stress 

you can imagine the stress on the liver now, having to then produce estrogen too, 

(it’s actually pretty amazing that the liver has his ability to step up when It needs to ]

what happens now is your adrenals are high because we’re stressed and running on adrenaline (fight and light system all the time) 

We can become insulin resistant which means we can’t break down and process 

sugars which are carbohydrates, eg: alcohol and burgers and bread and chocolate etc… 

Our bodies will store this as FAT, because it cannot process it, and it, miraculously stores it has visceral fat and subcutaneous fat on your, wait for it, BELLY!! 

(Insert Scream )

This is this very stubborn fat that will not go away, 

A lot of menopausal women are suffering with this, 

what we need to do is reduce the stress that our body is under so it can process the sugars and not be insulin resistant, so that we are not storing fat as we age, 

we need the estrogen production in our body for as long as possible, so that we can promote lean muscle growth For as possible. More muscle = less fat 

It just does ok. 😉 

All that being said there’s a lot to it and it’s not just that simple and I will go into it further at a later date and if you wanted to go into it further, I am working with an incredible nutritionist at the moment who is going to be working with us and our community of women supporting the nutritional needs and vitamin and mineral needs. So that’s an option too. 

I am just here to provide you with a little bit of education around the importance of reducing this stress, 

-spending some time out for you, 

-carving and planning that time out for you, 

-perhaps, reducing the amount of alcohol you are taking in, 

-and having a minimum of 2 to 3 days, alcohol free per week to allow your body to clean and relax and rest and recover, -and also start taking a little bit of a mindful practice where you can down and regulate the body in the nervous system

In other words, you cannot continue to run on adrenaline with high adrenals, and think you’re gonna get away with this long-term because it will come back with harder and more severe with menopausal and perimenopausal symptoms, which means you will have a hard time through that transition. 

-So let’s do the strength training, but turn it down, so that we’re not stressing out our body and going max effort all the time, 

-let’s have a higher protein diet to support the growth of a lean muscle, 

-let’s have some relaxation and some hue time, 

-let’s have two nights of alcohol, free a week minimum, 

-and let’s start adding some greens some salads and vegetables, and some fruits into our daily diet for fiber and digestion. 

-And ultimately let’s sit back and look at our relationships and our behavior, and how we can make our life and our world, a better place, and carve out some time to just be present in the moment.

-See your kids and your husband- really see them- count their freckles- kind of being PRESENT!!

Here is a downloadable on perimenopause that I would love to give to you so please click here to download, 

and if you missed it I also did a post on Instagram on how you can track your cycle your period and why it’s so important even if you don’t have ‘said cycle’ due to Maerina or partial hysterectomy. You still have a cycle . 

You still get hormonal changes 

Let’s make changes now that last forever! 

Let’s enjoy the BEST years of our lives!! 

NOW In this present time.