Lifestyle Management in Menopause Part 1

On the Menopause Uprising Podcast today, It's a solo episode! I am talking about my personal journey over the last year and the three small changes I made that dramatically improved my health and can improve yours too!

Transcript -Automatically Generated

Welcome to Menopause Uprising with me, your host, Catherine O'Keeffe. This week's guest, it's me. How funny is that? I'm going to share with you a journey I've been on this year, and I really hope my experience will help you. Last year, I had an experience that changed my life. I was in Dundrum, uh, here in Dublin for my DEXA scan to measure my bone density.

And I was nervous because I was worried about my bone health as we never really know what's happening there. So in I went, my head totally thinking about the results and how my bones might be. And a step in the process is being weighed. So I hopped on to the weighing scales. Well, I can abruptly tell you that I fell off.

Laughter. It registered a mighty increase. I'd never been this heavy in my life. Never. And it was a big wake up call for me, as the weight coming on had been so gradual, like everything in perimenopause over the last few years, so gradual that really I didn't realise. But anyway, practical as I am, I re read the chapter in my book on weight, in my book All You Need to Know About Menopause, that being step number one.

And I rolled up my sleeve and I went at managing my weight. And the foundation of that was lifestyle. So over these next two episodes, I'm going to share with you what happened by inviting you to explore three crucial aspects of your daily life. Now before we even start to think of how to support the symptoms you're experiencing in menopause and how to support the key symptom of weight management, we have to stop and we have to look inward.

We do need to take some time. I guess to look at our own house, so to speak. It may be that you're surviving on no sleep. You might be holding on by your fingertips. Maybe you're just not feeling like yourself anymore and you feel quite lost. You can be going from moments of calm to utter rage and frustration.

We all can relate to that one. It might be that waves of exhaustion that hit every part of your body. Forgetfulness, difficulty getting those words out. Or breaking into profuse night sweats at the drop of a hat or hot flushes. And not to mention the complete lack of interest in sex. But what if we turn this on its heels?

That we can reduce these symptoms and achieve a healthy and, dare I say, happy menopause. We can start to reduce these symptoms by managing them better and finding the tools to help you with that. But a starting point is looking at how are you looking after yourself, really. You just take a minute to even think about that.

Remember, menopause is like looking in the mirror, in the looking glass. Where your life to date is being held up in front of you and you're being asked, how are you looking after yourself? You're being asked to take time now to look after yourself more. This isn't self care, this is crucial care.

Perimenopause through to postmenopause demands extra care. And chances are for many of you, you're in what we call the sandwich years. You've got ageing parents, you might have children, either young children or teenagers, and you're in the middle, with life, with work, with stress, and menopause sprinkled on top.

As my lovely cousin once said, the struggle of the juggle. We can get lost in the everyday routine of life, and while we're juggling, we can often forget ourselves. But we're not Wonder Woman, and I know society might want us to be, and society might actually tell us we can be Wonder Woman, that we can have it all, that we can have the career, we can have the family, we can have menopause, we can juggle it all.

That's not always possible. So I want to invite you to take time to consider the foundation of your life. How well are you supporting yourself through your lifestyle, through your menopause years? It's really important we do this. So I'm going to share three key aspects of your daily life that will transform your experience in these years.

And these are the three key aspects that I looked at when I was looking at managing my weight. So whether you're in perimenopause or postmenopause, you will be able to support yourself and empower yourself through these years. And I guess why is it important? Why do we want to do this? Well, there's three key reasons we need to take action.

Firstly, what we do in our 40s through to our 60s sets us up for optimum health in our 70s, 80s and 90s. You can influence your own health. You can influence your health today. for the years ahead. That's what I always talk about when I talk about the future proofing aspects of menopause. And secondly, these three lifestyle aspects will help with brain fog, with sleep issues, with anxiety, with stress, with rage, with energy, with exhaustion, and much more.

And finally, when you make these changes, you will see results. You will see improvements in your menopause symptoms. So I'm really excited to go through these three aspects with you that will change your experience and you will know best which of the suggestions will work in your own menopause journey.

Remember, the one guarantee in menopause is the individual nature of the experience and every single one of us will have a unique and individual experience. So, if we think about this journey, like we're trying to climb Mount Everest, let's say, the analogy of the mountain, menopause being the mountain we're climbing, and we're aiming for the glory when we reach the summit.

Because there are opportunities up there. There are opportunities in menopause, and I will be touching on that in next week's podcast. But it is once we navigate the obstacles, and what are the obstacles? Well, the obstacles are the many symptoms of menopause. So the first crucial area to delve into is sleep.

Did you have a good night's sleep last night? Wouldn't it be great if we slept peacefully every single night? It's tricky, isn't it, to get sleep right? But I want you to consider these essential top tips in relation to sleep. on where to start. And also, just to mention, if you're a shift worker, you can tweak these based on the hours you're working.

So I always say, sleep is the bedrock of thriving through menopause, the foundation layer, the start at the bottom of the mountain. So the first aspect we have to look at in relation to sleep is stress. Hormonal production is directly impacted by stress, and this means sleep is impacted. It may be that you fall fast asleep when your head hits the pillow, or you wake up a couple of hours later.

Bing! You're wide awake, emails going through your head, the to do list in full flight. Women report higher levels of stress than men, and this peaks at age 45. And what is age 45? It is the average age of the start of perimenopause. So it is really important we bear this in mind. The stress hormones, cortisol, adrenaline, they're great when we're in real danger.

But when our bodies are pushed beyond their limits for years, chronic stress takes a toll and it's robbing your hormones. Cortisol, that stress hormone, is impacting your sleep. Yes, as I said, you might fall asleep quickly, but ping, you're wide awake. That's cortisol. And also, we tend to worry more at night.

And we know that there is concerning scientific evidence that suggests chronic sleep and stress deprivation can harm the body severely. And what else triggers cortisol production? screams. This is one we all have to put our hands up and admit to. I would really encourage you to ditch them at least 60 to 90 minutes before bed.

That blue light will just trigger cortisol production and cortisol wants you to stay alert. It wants you to stay awake when what we want at nighttime now is the calming melatonin production that lulls us to sleep. And please don't make sleep another stress either. If you have a night where you're in and out of sleep, just remember that light sleep and rest still has benefits for your health.

Now secondly, when we look at sleep, we have to look at routine and rhythm. Our bodies love rhythm. Going to bed at the same time, and waking at the same time. Now when you do wake up, get into the brightest possible light as quickly as you can. This will help to reset that important circadian rhythm and ensure the right hormones are working optimally at the right time.

You know, this is why in the night time you want the, the lighter, dimmer, dimmer lights around you so that you're kicking off the melatonin production. But conversely in the morning you want the bright lights and that's also why early morning exercise outdoors is so beneficial to your sleep routine. And just be mindful too, it might be that at the weekend, maybe you sleep on a little bit more and you take a bit of a rest and that is fine if you can keep it in blocks of say 90 minutes.

So let's say you wake up at half six during the week, maybe then You could set the alarm for eight o'clock at the weekend. And we know those chunks will encourage a nice restorative sleep. But our body loves the rhythm. If you oversleep at weekends, you can wake up and you can feel groggier. So it's really important to make sure that you kind of stick to the rhythm and routine that we know our bodies absolutely love.

This is for all aspects of life, but particularly when it comes to sleep. And thirdly, This final aspect of sleep, this was the big game changer for me when I started to really look at managing my weight, and this was late night snacking. So late night snacking can be a challenge for all of us. At the end of the day, you're kicking back on the couch, you're just unwinding, and it's very easy to reach for the crisps or the chocolate.

It's like, you know, that reward at the end of the day after a busy day, and it's a busy day where possibly you're managing navigating menopause, challenging menopause symptoms as well. So we like the reward, but I'd invite you now to flip this thinking and enjoy those treats after dinner and keep the evening for water or herbal teas.

So, what that means now is you're Allowing your body maximum time for, you know, the cleaners are going to come in as soon as you go to sleep, your body says, okay, I'm going to shut down the kitchen. No more foods coming in. I'm going to get the cleaners in. I'm going to start and do repair. I'm going to clean.

I'm going to restore. And that happens all while we're asleep. The beautiful thing is that if we've left ourselves a good number of hours before we do go to sleep, it means that as the body is working hard, any energy it needs, it will use from food, but then when it needs extra energy, it will go to fat storage.

And this is why. We know that we can lose weight as we sleep. So ideally, we're looking for a minimum of 12 hours overnight. And the longer your body gets to rest, restore and replenish during your sleep without processing food, the better. So maybe you stop eating at 7. 30pm. And you have breakfast then at 7.

30am the next day. So, in the evening, remember, you have your dinner, maybe you have your little treat after, then you ideally stop around 7, 7. 30. And then maybe after that it's your water, your herbal teas. And then you go the next morning till minimum 7. 30am. And then you have breakfast, but bingo, you now have a full 12 hours where beautiful things start to happen in your lovely body, all while you sleep.

Now I'm not a fan, this to my personal views, I'm not a fan of intermittent fasting, but I am a fan of fasting overnight because I see the benefits, just in terms of restore, but also weight management, et cetera. This was the very first step that I took in relation to managing my weight. I really cut back on the snacking.

I just eliminated it. I made sure it was water, herbal teas after 7, 7. 30 every single night. Some nights I, or some mornings I'd be able to go 12 hours. Other days I managed to go 15. I think if you can go anywhere from 12 to 15, I think that's really a sweet spot and, you know, where you're really encouraging optimum health.

in relation to weight, but also digestive health as well, but make it work for your lifestyle. And you know, that's key. It has to be what works and supports you. So very much just play around with it and see what works for you and just start with small changes. It might be just that you taper back, um, what time you're eating at night time.

Then it might be just cutting back on the snacks and just gradually start to make small improvements, um, over weeks. I found that over probably, I was in February when I started reducing the late night snacking. And I probably found in between February and March, I lost probably It's about three to four kg, just by making that one change.

It was the only change I made because I wanted to really see if I started making small changes over time, you know, how it would all impact. And I wanted to be in a position that I could share it with you so that you could learn from, um, experience, um, I had. Just be mindful. One thing to be very mindful of when it comes to sleep is caffeine.

Now. Caffeine, we all love a cup of tea or coffee, right, or a fizzy drink or the foods that do contain caffeine. So don't just think about it as coffee, there's other sources of caffeine, but be very mindful that caffeine will disturb your sleep. And if you have any sleep issues whatsoever, I would encourage you to stop drinking caffeine probably at 1pm in the day.

And as I said, remember, it's not just coffee, it's tea, fizzy drinks, foods with caffeine as well. Remember, caffeine encourages cortisol. So, caffeine is going to want, that's why we take it, you know, if we're trying to cram, or, you know, if we want to keep ourselves awake, we drink caffeine because it keeps us awake.

And, That is fantastic if we really need it, but when you're trying to get a good night's sleep, it's going against you. It's basically encouraging your body to stay awake, when now what we want is the calming lullaby hormones that are going to put us to sleep. So be very, very mindful of cortisol. And, you know, remember too, that cortisol is back to, you know, point number one, as I said, stress.

Stress will encourage cortisol production as well, so just be very mindful of that. So if we look at it, this first key area we talk about is sleep. And when we look at it, just remember that when you sleep in hand, it's small changes. Rome wasn't built in a day and your menopause symptoms don't run away in a day either.

So it's just taking it step by step. And when we look at sleep, the Cree, the three Cree. Key aspects I would encourage you to look at. Number one is stress in your life. Number two is routine and rhythm. And finally, as I said, is late night snacking. So I will continue this in next week's episodes where we will delve into the other two crucial steps that will support your life as you go through these years and also will support in relation to weight management.

If you haven't picked up a copy of my book, All You Need to Know About Menopause, your symptoms are real, you're not alone, there is help for you and it's here. Everyone's journey through menopause is different, but we all need support through the challenges it brings. I'm on a mission to shatter the taboo around menopause and I've already provided life-changing information to thousands.

So the book will help you gain control of your physical, mental and emotional symptoms, assessing the pros and cons of HRT and complementary therapies, how to negotiate menopause in your workplace, which supplements are best for you, how nutrition and exercise can help and explore and delve into my lovely six M's of menopause, which I'm extremely passionate about.

So if you haven't yet, please do check out my book. It's available on Amazon and your local bookstore.

Thank you for listening to Menopause Uprising with me, your host, Catherine O'Keeffe. I really hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Don't forget to like, subscribe, rate and review as it really helps the show.