What the hell is happening to my body?
You can think of perimenopause and menopause as puberty in reverse, no wonder we are all over the place with swinging moods and violent inner rage! But these swinging hormones push our body into a place of high stress, high cortisol and diminishing muscle and strength. Ahhh shizz!
The stress hormone cortisol plays an important role in getting us up and going and responding to threat, but when there is too much stress, we burn ourselves out, chomp into our muscle tissue and begin to gain fat around our belly! Ahhhh....
Once the ovaries slow down and cease their production of estrogen and progesterone, the adrenal glands can take over to a certain extent, producing small amounts of these two important hormones.
"Suddenly you can no longer get away with regularly missing meals, consuming too much sugar & alcohol, running yourself ragged and missing out on sleep".
BUT! What if you are stressed out to the max and your adrenal glands (which also produce cortisol) are taxed and not coping with life? This is where it can get tricky and where cortisol production can be prioritised over estrogen and progesterone which is definitely not ideal.
As I mentioned before, stress is good and necessary when it benefits our health, ie building muscle in the gym and getting fitter, but not so positive when it is ongoing and relentless like financial stress, or cutting calories too low or exercising too much without enough rest.
Midlife finds us in this place of change, where our body is asking us to take care of it in a whole new way. All the things we used to get us though in the past are no longer going to work in our favour.
Suddenly you can no longer get away with regularly missing meals, consuming too much sugar & alcohol, running yourself ragged and missing out on sleep. Hormone changes and an increase in the stress hormone cortisol means that we need to take care of ourselves more now than ever if we want to stay healthy and keep that pesky belly in check.
I have written 2 E-Books on the topic of 'stress' - you can grab a FREE copy HERE!
"What can you do today that will take the pressure off so that your body can begin to relax into a safe and secure place of self care"?
Midlife sounds like a disaster but it doesn’t have to be this way. We cannot stop the hormone changes, this is a normal part of the ageing process. What we can change is how we move about in the world, how much stress we take on, what we choose to eat & drink, how we choose to move and how we choose to think.
This is our time to reevaluate what is important to us (I hope you are at the top of your list) and taking a more considered journey through life. This doesn’t mean an end to the fierce and feisty you - stuff that! Self care is the fiercest and most powerful thing you can do for you right now as you transition into a whole different era of your life.
Grab the women around you and embrace them. Support one another, guide one another and share the wisdom that you glean with those who are younger. The way forward for women is not through pushing and forcing, but through acknowledging and accepting where we are now, what we need most and what we can do to be the most powerful version of ourselves.
What can you do today that will take the pressure off so that your body can begin to relax into a safe and secure place of self care? Do it! Do it for you, make yourself a priority, ask for help, say no more often, whatever it is, just do it and your body will thank you for it.
Melanie Briony is a fitness and lifestyle coach who supports midlife women (over 40) as they move into the peri and post-menopause years. This is a huge time of change for a woman, nothing is as it used to be. The restrictive diets and hard exercise regimes that worked in your 30s just won’t cut it anymore. Melanie is here to show you how your changing hormones are impacting on your body and what you can do to take back the reins and bring about positive change. At midlife, a woman has to learn how to work ‘with’ her body. This includes - managing stress, eating the right foods at the right time, sleeping longer, saying no more often and taking back her power. “You are not about to disappear into the mist of old age, you have the strength and courage to move through this transition and come out the other side as a stronger and wiser version of you”. Contact Melanie to find out more about how she can support you.
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