Question
Stacey Michaud
What are good realistic goals for someone dealing with the common menopause weight gain? What is a lifestyle goal to stick with and prevent or reverse it?
Answer
Stacy, you're not reversing menopause. I'm sorry, that's not, um, it's something you go through. It's, it's, I I had this question last night and I looked up a source for you because the queen of menopause is this physician called Christine Northrop. And she has been working for 30 years in this area. And besides dealing with weight gain, weight gain there, menopause is about both the physical, the weight gain, the hot flashes, the palpitating heart, um, as much as it is about your emotions and where you are in your journey in life, like your soul, right? What does this mean? What does this transition mean? And most cultures have a celebration during this transition. We in states just look at it as this bad, awful thing that's happening to us that we wanna get rid of. So I have a link to a book, um, that I I really hope that you dig into when you have, when you reach menopause, having the lack of estrogen is going to increase your risk of heart disease. Um, you're going to need to make sure that your bone, your bone health is going to decrease if you don't have enough calcium in your diet and activity that's going to, um, like you need to put weight on your bones in order to keep them healthy and and strong. So you're looking at foods that are heart healthy, that are bone healthy, and really it's a plant forward diet that I just went over. And maybe seeing a clinician, maybe you need to go on some supplements, somebody who's in the functional medicine or a naturopath to help you ease through it if you're having a really hard time. Some people breeze through it and some people really, really suffer. So depending on where you are on the spectrum, choose the help that you need. Um, so the lifestyle goal, another one is definitely slowing down. Being mindful the stress is gonna cause the hot flashes to come. The more stressful you are, the more hot flashes you're gonna get. And um, it's just gonna perpetuate and not being able to sleep at night because of the hot flashes. And it's just this whole big thing. So I would suggest you start with embracing yourself and if you can get to a place of, wow, look what I did and now what am I gonna do with the rest of my life?
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