Gaining weight during your menopause? Not feeling as energised as you used to? Forgotten what a good night’s sleep felt like? This could be game-changing.

So, today I’m going to start a multi-part menopause blog series based on the latest evidence and scientific research to help you to best manage your menopausal years – strap in, it’s going to be a good one. I’m excited.

I know that your symptoms like weight gain, and the myriad of others, are affecting the way you feel from day to day and impacting your life way more than you ever could have imagined - we know by now that menopause isn’t just our periods becoming irregular and feeling a little hot sometimes. Just about ALL of our bodily systems can be impacted. This isn’t scaremongering if you are yet to experience it, it’s putting you in the most empowered position that I can to help you tackle it head-on.  

First up, let’s talk about the symptoms you may or may not be experiencing.

It’s important to know that no two journeys are the same. Just because you are experiencing something your friend might not be, there is no need to panic but also it doesn’t invalidate your experience or someone else’s if you are experiencing something they may not be, or vice versa.

When we experience menopause, it is a single day in time, it’s that final period, although we don’t know it’s the final one instantly, obviously, so that glorious day is marked when we have gone 12 months without a period. BUT symptoms can last for many years or alternatively, a much shorter amount of time – again, no two journeys are the same. We are considered to be pre-menopausal before we experience any of these symptoms, peri-menopausal when we start to experience the dreaded ‘change’ (this is the one that can last a long old time and result in just ‘wanting to get it over with’). Post-menopause is everything after that inevitable menopausal date.

Unfortunately, ladies, all of us who are born with functioning ovaries will experience menopause, there’s no use dreading it, trying to put it off or wallowing in our own self-pity. It’s happening, so let’s embrace it, let’s try and use it to empower ourselves into a new and exciting phase of our strong lady lives and let’s use the tactics we speak about in this series to tackle it head-on and show it what we are made of.

We can and will adapt our lifestyle habits to put us in the most optimal position possible to feel fabulous into our menopausal years. It isn’t just movement and nutrition either – it’s mindset, sleep practices, practical day-to-day tips, stress management and many, many more.

For me, you all know I LOVE to talk about nutrition, so today I wanted to hone in on that one a little. Nutrition can be SUPER powerful for our well-being at any stage of life, not least during our menopausal years.

Let me guess – what used to work for you, leave you feeling fine, the diets you used to try, what you used to ‘get away with’, no longer work? You just keep putting on weight and feel sluggish? Am I right? Thought so. 

This isn’t a bad thing, it doesn’t have to feel like a punishment every day – this is an incredible opportunity to nourish our bodies in the stage of life that we are at, learn what works for us now and THRIVE while we change and grow! There are no magic foods but we can learn what works for you as an individual (keep reading for a tactic on how we can start to go about this!) and help you to still continue to work towards those all-important aesthetic and performance goals – because those are what make us feel great, right?

The basics we all know (and often neglect!) still apply. What a great time in our lives to check back in that we have all of those things in place – hydration? Sleep hygiene? Got it down? No, didn’t think so. We’ll work on those as a baseline and get more nuanced from there.

One thing you can get to work on right now though is to simply start to notice, make a note of patterns of symptoms, foods that make you feel energised or maybe not so. Let’s start to help ourselves become enlightened as to what is working for us and what may not be so. Then, and only then can we work together to make more informed choices for you.

I want to empower YOU at this time in your life, you may have heard it referred to recently as a ‘new beginning’, rather than an end stage in your life. Let me tell you, I am ALL about that! I know you feel fragile and at a loss as to the best path to move down next. I want to lift you as your confidant, your friend and your little bit of knowledge and accountability in your pocket as to how to make this experience the right one for YOU.

Let’s take action together now. If you would a little more of an individualised experience and help to find a targeted approach for you then I would love for you to pop me an email at annalouisecoaching@outloook.com letting me know a little more about the stage you are experiencing right now. Let’s chat!

Next up we’re going to talk weight gain and some strategies that we might use to combat that – it’s a big one.

Until then, peace and love, for now, A x

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