MY JOURNEY INTO MENOPAUSE.
I want to talk about my journey into Menopause.
My journey into holistic health did not start at menopause.
I had been involved in helping my health with natural medicine since my late 20s.
Let’s face it, menopause is something that we must embrace in our lives as women.
If we are lucky enough to live long enough, we will experience menopause. I was determined like I am with other things in my life that I would seek out help in my journey through this time. I wanted to keep myself as healthy as I could to give myself the best outcome to cope with the side effects of Menopause.
I was experiencing a lot of hot flushes and sometimes this was not an ideal situation when you work in the fitness industry.
In early 2014 there was not as much support for holistic menopause as thankfully there is now, almost 10 years later.
I was teaching yoga to a class of high school girls. We were at the start of the class and we had not even warmed up. I was introducing the class and speaking about yoga. All of a sudden, I had a hot flush. It came without warning, and I was instantly sweating. The teenage girls were looking at me and I could see the confusion on their faces. I thought to myself, this is awkward. I then thought to myself that most of these girls may not know what menopause is and are looking at me and thinking why is she sweating?
I ignored the situation as much as I could but then decided from that day on that I needed to normalise menopause and keep it real. I started to educate people that I was working with about what happens during menopause and I started to share things I was doing to help navigate this period of my life.
I started to do a lot of research and went to see a lot of practitioners in natural health.
· Acupuncture
· Naturopathy
· Reflexology
· Ayurvedic medicine
· Eating more of some foods that I found were very helpful.
Some of these are Lots of seeds, nuts, and lots more greens.
Oily fish, such as salmon, mackerel, sardines, tuna, trout, herring, and anchovies.
These fatty fish are an excellent source of omega 3's, which have been shown to improve many of the side effects caused by perimenopause and menopause.
Many women who have tried to lose weight by following a low-fat diet are likely to be deficient in crucial fatty acids such as omega 3s.
These essential fatty acids help your whole-body function – including your cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, and immune systems.
These are some of the healthiest fats you can eat.
Eating omega 3 can reduce several menopause symptoms including:
reduction of joint pain
reducing dry skin
reducing vaginal dryness
help to keep your mood more stable, as a lot of women going through menopause are at greater risk of depression and anxiety.
I stayed away from spicy foods and this helped a lot with the hot flushes.
One thing that I was very aware of was that I did not want to lose my strength and the muscle that I had worked very hard to achieve since my early 30s.
The research that I explored helped me on a journey to natural health during menopause.
Women have a lower muscle mass than men due to hormonal differences, but the decline in estrogen at menopause means that skeletal muscle is often lost.
Females in their fifties find it a struggle to keep muscle because of a decline in estrogen. It is important to keep our muscles so we can keep our metabolism high.
The reason that this is important is that keeping muscle keeps our body strong and helps our body to burn extra calories at rest.
Often when we lose muscle there can be an increase in fat around the belly and thighs. The reason for this is that our metabolism slows down when our muscle declines. The body does not burn as many calories and becomes lazy. The result of this is that extra calories are stored as fat.
We also need to eat enough protein so that we do not lose muscle.
We also need to keep active with regular exercise during menopause.
Research has shown that weight-based activity can slow or even delay the loss of muscle mass and is vital for maintaining bone density and preventing osteoporosis.
Post-menopause women should prioritise weight-bearing activities as much as possible.
The recommended daily protein intake for average weight and height of menopausal/post menopausal women is 90% of your total weight in grams.
In other words, if you weigh 65kg then your protein intake per day should be approximately 60 grams of protein.
Using 60 grams as an example of protein intake per day. The serving size should be 15 grams, divided into 4 meals per day. This is the best way for the body to absorb the protein and prevent muscle loss.
Some examples of serving sizes of protein are
80 grams of grilled skinless chicken = 20 grams of protein.
80 grams of cooked lean red meat = 25 grams of protein.
100 grams of grilled salmon = 24 grams protein
1 cup of whole milk = 10 grams protein
1 cup of legumes = 13 grams protein
100 grams of tofu = 15 grams protein
200 grams of plain yoghurt = 12 grams protein
2 large eggs = 12 grams protein
30 grams of mixed nuts = 6 grams protein
If you are vegetarian or vegan you need to work a little harder to find good protein sources but as you can see there are many, many good protein sources to choose from.
We need to protect ourselves physically also well into old age. Many older adults have unsteadiness, poor wound healing, and recurring falls due to not having enough muscle and not enough protein in their diets.
Finding this research out was imperative to me and made me more determined to do my best to keep my muscle.
Another area that helped me was my yoga. I researched 10 yoga poses that were particularly good for the body and mind during menopause. These poses are fantastic for any time of our lives, they have been found to be particularly helpful during menopause.
These poses are:
I will use English names for these poses as Sanskrit names may be confusing.
· Bridge Pose
· Standing forward bend
· Downward-facing dog
· Plow pose
· Seated forward bend
· Childs pose
· Camel pose
· Savasana or corpse pose
· Legs up the wall
· Warrior 2
You can either do them all individually and hold them for a minute each or practice performing them and hold them for just a few breaths.
Remember that when you are starting something new, take it easy.
Yoga takes practice.
I have had a lot of help to keep myself healthy and fit during menopause and I hope that sharing my experience will help you in your journey.
We are all different so try a few things until you find the things that help you.
I have written a lot on these subjects in my book.
GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO SHINE.
My book will be launched on the 1st September 2023.
Stay posted and join my VIP publish and launch private group at Wendy Anastasi or I love balance.
Comments