Well here I am, in menopause…another season of life that comes with changes and challenges.

Like my wise friend and book author Tara Renze says, “You’re never gonna arrive. You’re never going to get to the point where you think–yes, this is it!! And then just coast to the end.”

For women in menopause that quote from Tara resonates on so many levels!! I read Tara’s book, Be Who You Came To Be, when I was in the throws of menopause and these words jumped out on the page and spoke volumes to me! Just when I felt like I had “arrived”, I was facing a new challenge and it was up to me to embrace it and to overcome it.

How I prepared for surgical menopause at 45!

As an ovarian cancer survivor, I made a personal decision in February of 2020 to have a complete hysterectomy. Prior to surgery I was at my prime, I felt great, I had lots of energy and slept like a baby. I was at a place where I thought I had “arrived”. I was very happy and confident in my own skin, but having the surgery to remove the burden of a reoccurring cancer was more important to me. 

If I’m being honest, this was still a hard decision to make when I knew the struggles that might come with menopause. Hot flashes, night sweats, anxiety, moodiness, headaches, sleepless nights, weight gain, and on and on–all the things you hear about. But regardless, I made the hard decision. I had the hysterectomy and I dove head first into dealing with everything that menopause would bring. 

Right before my surgery I made a commitment to myself and I decided that I would do what I had to do to be the best me regardless of what I would face in this next season. I knew I could use the negative side effects that would come after surgery as my excuse and just let myself go OR I could be proactive. 

I decided to be proactive and I embraced this transition as it came and decided to manage the not so fun symptoms by controlling the things I could control. After surgery I quickly learned that managing this was going to require some changes in my diet and exercise routine!

So why do we need to make changes to diet and exercise in menopause?

As women we’ve been hardwired our whole lives to eat less and exercise more to reach our goals. These strategies are stressful on our bodies and menopause is another stressor so continuing to push the envelope with these things just makes matters worse. 

Stress and menopause are like oil and water– it’s a recipe for disaster so the goal is to minimize stress in menopause. Feeling our best and reaching our body composition and performance goals in menopause requires us to take a different appraoch. 

Here are the top three things I’ve had to change with eating and exercising while going through menopause:

1. I walk MORE and do LESS cardio.

Let me be clear–I haven’t eliminated cardio all together. It still has its place in my routine but instead of doing cardio three days a week, I limit it to only once or twice a week. Instead, I focus on walking more. Walking may sound too easy but don’t judge a book by its cover–this alone has been a TOTAL GAME CHANGER for me!

Too much extreme exercise in menopause over-stresses the body, causes higher cortisol levels, increases cravings, and causes our bodies to hold on to more fat so you might want to think twice about continuing to kill yourself with cardio.

We want to control stress and increase our metabolism and the best way to do that is to increase our NEAT activity. NEAT activity (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) is basically any activity that you do outside of exercise. It’s any movement that burns calories and raises our metabolic rate without the stress.

Examples of NEAT: walking, cleaning your house, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking farther away to get more steps in, doing laundry, going grocery shopping, dancing, gardening, and playing with your kids. As we get older most of us just naturally become more sedentary and this just further slows your metabolism so need I say more? Enter your new menopause BFF–walking! I personally aim for 10k steps a day.

2. I prioritize strength training with progressive overload.

As a nutrition coach that’s always been passionate about exercise I’m embarrassed to admit that I never used to really keep track of the weights I was using or how I was progressing with my strength. I just always “felt like maybe” I was getting stronger. I’d go to the gym and do my thing, but looking back now I know I was just checking the box with my workouts.

I challenged myself but I really had no idea how much weight I was lifting or if I was truly getting stronger because I wasn’t keeping track of anything. In menopause I’ve learned that having muscle is what shapes my body and helps me to optimize my metabolism. I’ve also learned that just going through the motions with my weight training isn’t an effective strategy for reaching my goals. Now I write down the weights, reps, and sets that I do for each exercise and then I use that data as a gauge to try to progress in each workout so that I’m being more intentional about building muscle and strength.

3. I eat protein at every meal.

As we age and go through menopause our muscle and bone strength slowly declines. Protein is an essential macronutrient for building and maintaining muscle, boosting our immune system and strengthening our bones. Consuming enough protein and then pairing that with proper exercise during menopause can really improve strength and muscle tone. This will boost your metabolism so that your muscles burn more fat, helping you to limit weight gain.

Other benefits of protein are that it’s more filling than other foods, and when we pair a protein with carbs and fat it helps us to metabolize those foods differently. I aim to eat 1g of protein per pound of body weight each day. I’m able to hit this goal by building every meal around protein. If I’m having an apple I might pair it with peanut butter or rolled up deli meat to help get that protein in. Eating like this also helps me to sustain my energy through the day and curbs stubborn sweet cravings.

The first step in managing menopause is actually recognizing that you are in fact, in menopause. Perimenopause and menopause are accompanied with many uncomfortable symptoms that many women don’t recognize as being hormone related and they don’t know how to deal with these stressors. Once you embrace this season for what it is and you tweak your diet and exercise, you’ll be able to manage the negative side effects and live your best life again!

Need some support and guidance with your menopausal symptoms? I’d love the opportunity to work with you and help you to embrace this second season!

If you’re struggling to feel like yourself I want you to know that there are things you can do to take action TODAY!

I know what it feels like to wonder if anything is going to work for you anymore. Like will you ever bounce back?

But I’ve got great news…with a few small tweaks you can turn any hormonal setbacks into your greatest COMEBACK! In this guide, I give you the 5 Essential Things to THRIVE in Midlife! Let’s get to it!