Perimenopause - don't think 'I've got heaps of time'.

So Anyway… Don’t wait to plan your health and wellbeing.

I’m not trying to be the harbringer of doom, but if you a woman, and even if you think you are NOWHERE near menopause or perimenopause, please up the ante on how much notice you give to your periods, cramps, and any other kind of hormonal upheaval you experience during the month.

Keep a health diary, make a note in your phone, or actually have a small paper diary that you use to mark things in that are worthy of remark. When I was a teenager, my periods would absolutely cripple me with cramps and feeling as if my legs both had air pressure pumps attached to them. In my 20s it was only every 3rd of 4th period that would do that, then in my 30s, my period would arrive and I wouldn’t have known any better.

When I hit 40, that’s when the ugly crying and feelings of doom started, but it was like a 2 week lead up to it, and it was the emotional side of it that would cripple me, and then all of a sudden it was permanent feelings of low confidence, not knowing how to dress, 4 changes of clothes before leaving the house, and excessive sweating due to that. Stress was a major factor.

Notice what you notice. Don’t leave anything to do with your health down to chance, or , I’ll deal with that later. Have a note of what your numbers are. Do you know what your blood pressure last was? Smart watches are brilliant for keeping an eye on heart rates etc aren’t they? When was your last smear test? Are you due another one? Has your GP even spoken about perimenopause with you, or asked you about your period?

I think as people these days, we are always aware of what everyone else is up to, and sometimes not paying enough attention to ourselves. Keep a note on your own wellness. I live on my own and have more than enough time to take care of myself, but a Mum or Dad with kids, possibly only eating their leftovers and not having a proper meal themselves, I see you.

That’s why we have thousands of women up and down the country in tears ( I read it on community facebook groups) in tears because they don’t understand why they have put on weight or just feel worn out all the time.

It’s an honour to get old, and we are the first generation of women to be able to talk about periods and menopause because most of us are lucky enough to have Mums or Aunties still alive. My own mother lost her Mum when she was 29. My Grandma was only 54. No age at all. What that meant though was my Mum had nothing to compare it to when she experienced it. No one to talk to. I’m lucky that I can talk to her.

What I would urge you to look out for as a fabulously maturing lady are:

Crying a the drop of a hat

Not feeling comfortable in your own skin and losing confidence

Explosive rage, which is basically fear and feelings of not being able to control your surroundings (why would you want to control other people anyway? We can’t police the world. It’s a difficult one)

Your period being like playing the lottery 26 days, 46, 33, 23…

I don’t have the scientific background but I do have the ‘back to the future’ mind. I do think in the next couple of years, we will have devices at your front doors to breathe on and tell us whether we are virus free, and also a little pad we can wear that will tell us daily whether we need more carbs, protein, hydration, when our cycle is due, what levels our oestrogen is at.

I’m not suggesting for a moment that we promote health anxiety, but what I am saying is that, I have been upright for 52 years now. I look after myself physically, and mentally as best as I can. To be honest the mental side of it, is the bigger struggle, just watching the news, I feel like I need a cushion to hide behind.

Start taking notice of yourself. If you knew as much about yourself, as you knew about Harry Styles (just me?), or what so and so on Instagram is up to, it would give us a massive heads up.

Onward!

Elizabeth

Menopause, and how I deal with it.

So anyway.

This post could be a bit of a trigger so if weight loss or weight gain conversations do that then please don’t read on.

I am a member of a website with workouts on it, and the website also has a private Facebook page.

One of the the most common comments I read on this have the following:

I am doing all the workouts, and I can’t lose weight.

I’m eating really healthy and I can’t lose weight

I’m feeling so down because I’m working out so hard and I step on the scales and nothing has changed.

It truly is one of the most awful things about menopause. The unexplained weight gain, and it’s definitely top of the list when I think about the ‘things that made me cry the most’ list. The reason for that being that the weight gain directly impacted my confidence as well, and I seriously didn’t know how to dress.

Recently, a good friend in her early 40s commented to me that her appetite had gone through the roof, and she couldn’t stop eating, and I thought ‘oh oh’, I know this one too well.

How awful to try and think how to explain to my gorgeous friend that this was because The Cookie Monster has moved into her brain. It really is a nasty thing to think about, saying to a woman that she needs to watch her food consumption. The best way I could think of wording was ‘well… 52 year old me, would tell 40 year old me to think about whether it was hunger or hormones’. That really is what it comes down to.

As women get older, 2 hormones in our body start having a party.

Ghrelin tells your body to keep eating, Leptin tell the brain that you are full up and to stop eating.

What happens in menopause is that Leptin goes on holiday ,and leaves Ghrelin in charge.

The best thing you can do is to keep your fluid intake up, and when you feel hungry, have good think about whether you ARE hungry or if its just your brain playing tricks on you.

What an awful thing to say I know, but having this information now will save you a lot of scrolling and ugly crying later on, I promise.

One of the best things I can say, is follow an eating plan, and don’t starve yourself.

I cook from the slimming world magazine, and make all my own lunches and dinners because it keeps me out of Greggs at lunchtime. Also, the more protein I eat, the less sugar I crave.

I get my chocolate fix from protein chocolate shakes. Winner.

I went through an awful time with bloating and sweating and not fitting into my clothes which would increase my stress, and make sweat a lot more. It was the worst 18 months ever. I'm telling you all this to help spare you from that ordeal, or at least make it a bit easier to bear.

I host menopause workshops, and I also have a menopause workbook on my website here . I don’t give advice about medication, thats for your GP to do, but what I concentrate on is reducing stress which ultimately is the best thing you can do for yourself full stop.

Please get in touch if I can help you further with any menopause advice. If I don’t have the answer, I can signpost you where you need to go.

Onward!

Elizabeth

Sugar Rush!!!!!

So anyway, how are you?

Insight into my life. Writing this watching Guardians of the Galaxy.

Here’s this weeks revelation. Sugar was taking over my life.

I have started cycling to work, and I just love it. I am also following a 6 week programme on the Chris Hemsworth app Centr. I am doing all this hard work, and up until last week, was seeing a a big ZERO in terms of what difference it was making to my body, and my wellbeing. Why? Because sugar was taking over my life.

I thought I was being healthy and eating all the right food, yes I was, but I was eating huge portions. The big wake up call for me, was weighing myself and I thought I was 11 stone. Nope, I was 11 stone 8 Ilbs. Ooft!

I have a fancy pants set of scales also that told me everything else that i didn’t want to know including body fat percentage.

Also, and I know this is going to sound strange but I can’t remember the last time I felt ‘empty’. It was a really weird feeling of feeling hungry, but at the same time feeling so bloated that eating was doing me no good at all. I short, I was putting the wrong fuel in, and feeling really sluggish too. Lethargic.

So what next?

I got inspired when I watched a programme called 'How to Lose a Stone in 3 Weeks’ with Michael Mosely. I have friends who have long advocated the 5:2 method and also fasting, so, whilst tackling a pile of ironing I watched the programme and made a plan, and to cut a long story short got stuck right in, and I seriously can’t believe the difference that getting grip on my eating habits has made.

The plan is to cut my daily calories to around 800 a day, now that sounds quite alarming but here is a sample of what that looks like:

Breakfast is greek yoghurt (2 spoons as opposed to the whole tub like I used to do), handful of almonds, half a punnet of blueberries

Lunch - 2 egg omelette with heaps of green veg

Dinner - Portobello mushrooms with chopped tomato, garlic, wee bit of mozzarella on top, stick it under the grill.

I feel full, I don’t have cravings, I no longer what to eat the whole packet of biscuits. Quite happy with 1.

The website has really great recipes, and they are not complicated which I love.

If you feel like you need a food reset I can’t recommend it enough. I don’t and have never had an eating disorder, if, in the past, you have, please follow advice from your GP before proceeding with any lifestyle changes. Also, speaking to family and friends is a good idea.

I’m going for it following the 800 plan for 3 weeks, then the plan is to go to 4:3 and reduce my calories 3 days out of 7. I’ll keep you posted with how it goes, but so far, I feel less bloated and my food cravings have greatly reduced.

The only problem I have with food is that I have a MORE than healthy appetite, and with menopause that gets accelerated by the fact that the munchy ghrelin hormone gets amplified even more.

So anyway!

It’s going good, and I feel great.

How are you?

Onward.

Elizabeth