The Blender Girl
Menopause Relief: Diet and Lifestyle Strategies | 008
Are you struggling with menopause symptoms like hot flashes, sweats, sleeplessness, brain fog, and weight gain? You are not alone. Take back control of your body and feel amazing with food and lifestyle changes.
In this episode, I share my menopause story, and how I got rid of the uncomfortable symptoms, lost over 30 pounds, and am thriving through it all.
You can sleep through the night, have tons of energy, feel vibrant, and lose weight without dieting or starving yourself.
It’s all about better digestion. The Gut-Brain connection controls your hormones, blood sugar, and metabolism. I’ll cover how to eat strategically, the main trigger foods to watch out for, and why managing stress is the key to rocking menopause!
Join me to get the strategies my dietitians and I have used to help thousands of women reclaim their health, and transition with confidence and ease.
TESS'S TAKEAWAYS
The Gut-Brain Connection Controls Your Hormones and Metabolism.
You Can Manage Menopause With Strategic Food Choices.
Dieting Causes The Downregulation Of Key Hormones.
Balancing Hormones Goes Beyond Estrogen and Progesterone.
Why Blood Sugar Is Critical During Menopause.
The Key To Controlling Sugar Cravings.
How Stress and Cortisol Increase Belly Fat.
The Foods That Trigger Hot Flashes and Sweats.
ABOUT TESS MASTERS
Tess Masters is an actor, presenter, health coach, cook, and author of The Blender Girl, The Blender Girl Smoothies, and The Perfect Blend, published by Penguin Random House. She is also the creator of The Decadent Detox® and Skinny60® health programs.
Health tips and recipes by Tess have been featured in the LA Times, Washington Post, InStyle, Prevention, Shape, Glamour, Real Simple, Yoga Journal, Yahoo Health, Hallmark Channel, The Today Show, and many others.
Tess’s magnetic personality, infectious enthusiasm, and down-to-earth approach have made her a go-to personality for people of all dietary stripes who share her conviction that healthy living can be easy and fun. Get delicious recipes at TheBlenderGirl.com.
CONNECT WITH TESS
Website: https://tessmasters.com/
Podcast Website: https://ithastobeme.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theblendergirl/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblendergirl/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theblendergirl
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/theblendergirl
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessmasters/
GET HEALTHY WITH TESS
Skinny60®: https://www.skinny60.com/
Join the 60-Day Menopause Reset: https://www.skinny60.com/menopause-60-day-reset/
The Decadent Detox®: https://www.thedecadentdetox.com/
Join the 14-Day Cleanse: https://www.thedecadentdetox.com/14-day-guided-cleanses/
The Blender Girl: https://www.theblendergirl.com/
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today I want to talk about menopause and I am so grateful that we are now in an era where that is not a dirty word women are using the word menopause and sharing their stories openly about their struggles during menopause what they're doing to thrive during menopause and so I want to talk about that today I feel like we are in the era of celebrating older women men is it just me because I'm an older woman or I feel like we're really celebrating the value of older women and what we bring to the world our strength resilience intelligence our Beauty the life experience that we contribute to the world and so if you are a woman over 40 going through per menopause or menopause postmenopause in your 60s 70s 80s and 90s this is the episode for you I shared a little bit about my menopause story in episode one where I talked about um how I used the power of strategic eating and better nutrition to support my dad with his healing Journey from cancer and it coincided with me struggling with menopause and I've received a ton of emails and messages from listeners asking specifically what I did to feel so incredible during menopause so I want to share this with you today so if you are struggling with stubborn belly fat weight gain inability to lose weight you're not sleeping through the night you've got low energy and fatigue you've got horrible hot flashes and night sweats your you've got hair thinning and Bolding or incredibly dry hair um you've got low liido pain during intercourse um anxiety depression high stress feeling like you're going crazy and you just feel completely out of control through this menopause journey and you feel like you're going crazy I hear this all the time from women please know that there is hope you have the power to control how you feel and you absolutely can Thrive during menopause I have done it and I have helped thousands of women do it now so I want to help you as well all right so the sex hormones get all of the press with regards to the menopause story all the menopause Madness press right um it's all about you know optimizing or balancing your primary sex hormones your estrogen progesterone testosterone DHEA that is absolutely part of the story and it absolutely has to happen for you to feel good but it's only part of the story so there are over 150 different hormones in the body and they control how we think and how we feel and so here's the great news you can optimize all of these hormones with strategic eating and lifestyle choices right so when you optimize some of the other hormones like insulin cortisol oxytocin glp1 all of these different hormones and some key neurotransmitters the sex hormones start to come into balance more easily it is magical the human body is an incredible machine when we are strategic about our food and lifestyle choices all right so I'm going to share some of these things with you today so my personal Journey started in my early to mid 40s so I talked in episode one about how when I was a teenager I really leared the value of and the power of better nutrition through my Epstein bar virus journey and my recovery and healing from that so from a very early age I learned that nutrition really matters and I felt it in my body with my healing so in my 20s my 30s and my early 40s I was really thriving because I was very very um attentive to my food and nutrition I was eating very well I was exercising I was flying I just enjoyed good health in my 20s 30s and early 40s and then in my sort of around 4445 I went through a break breakup and it was re you know breakups are hard so I was really sad it was a beautiful relationship but we just knew that it wasn't right and it needed to end but it's still a huge loss so I did a lot of crying under the covers and comfort eating watching romcoms and you know wondering what my next move was going to be you know feeling pretty lost and and upset about it all so to be honest when some of these menopause symptoms started cropping up I kind of just put it down to the fact that I was a little bit depressed and was really sad about my breakup and so I I ignored it for a little bit so I started to not sleep through the night I put on over 30 pounds almost 40 pounds I started to not really care care about my appearance I started moving through the world in sweatpants and kind of hiding really and not really paying attention so I was sort of I just put that down to the fact that I was eating potato chips and french fries and cake and you know soothing my aching heart kind of thing and I thought I know what to do to take the weight off that'll it'll be fine you know no no big deal I got the nutrition thing down right I exercise it's going to be fine but then it just wasn't as easy nothing was staying where it used to stay I used to just be a to eat whatever I wanted to eat and I'll just exercise up and it would be fine well once I hit my mid-40s that wasn't the case anymore what I used to do all the time that was working wasn't working anymore and so that was the first red flag I kind of went okay well okay I'm getting older this is aging I guess this is how it's going to be even I succumb to that myth even I bought into the myth that it's aging and that I just have to put up with it even though I teach this stuff that is emotionally what I still bought into and so then I started to get a few other symptoms you know I was feel feeling pretty heavy and you know I put the sleeplessness and waking up multiple times throughout the night oh this is what older women talk about I guess this is how it's going to be seriously and then it just started to to really start impacting my life I was really really tired throughout the day I didn't feel like working out I was sort of feeling disconnected I just didn't really care anymore but I still put it down to the to the breakup but then the hot flashes started coming and the night sweats and and again in the beginning I went oh gosh is it hot in here is gosh you I put it down to central air conditioning or heating or something you know then I went the penny dropped and I went oh this is menopause this is per menopause this is what all these women are talking about oh this is awful I can't live like this I felt really withdrawn my hair got dry Like Straw you know I mean everything dries up doesn't it you know what I mean right from your hair all the way down to your nether bits right it is just awful and I started getting some food cravings and I just felt really withdrawn and starting to feel pretty hopeless to be honest with you and really I was rescued by my dad's cancer diagnosis because I really had to help him pay attention to his food and by extension it really put a mirror up to me going wait a second Tess you've got some of these some of these symptoms and you're ignoring it and just putting it down to this or this or this or you know and just not paying attention I was so busy with other things I was stressed through the roof you know and so so busy with work and then I had to pay attention right and I was so grateful that I did because I really really learned some stuff that I needed to learn about the relationship between gut health and menopause between blood sugar and menopause and and metabol ISM and menopause and and all the things right and stuff that I really needed to drill down on even though I knew some of the science I wasn't connecting the dots the way that I needed to and we don't get taught this as women this is the other thing right it's like well you know if I have a dollar for every woman that comes into one of my programs and says oh my doctor just said yeah it's menopause you're just gonna have to write it out this is just how it is well excuse me but screw that I'm not doing that I want to be proactive with my health I did not want to keep living living like that so I just started going into massive research mode and I researched with my doctors with dietitians with hormone specialists I thought I want to figure out how to feel better with nutrition and and changing some lifestyle things and I just want to see how this is going to go for me and one thing I'll say about menopause is your journey is unique to you every woman's journey is unique and there is no right or wrong way to navigate your menopause Journey it's whatever feels right for you and what you decide in consultation with your doctor and practitioners right for me I decided that I didn't need hormone replacement therapy because I was a able to to optimize my blood sugar my hormones my metabolism all with diet and lifestyle strategies um but you may decide you want to do a mixture of both right it's completely up to you but what I will say and what I have learned with my team of doctors and dieticians and throughout programs is that any successful approach to to thriving during menopause needs to be rooted in better gut health because your gut controls your hormones controls the way you think and feel controls absolutely everything so if your gut is in trouble your hormones are in trouble if your gut is in trouble the rest of your health is in trouble right and so this again is why all the work that I do leads back to better gut health Health it just is the key to everything and all of the other markers of Better Health stem from that so your gut health your blood sugar your hormones and your metabolism are all connected all right so when I leared that and and and realized the way to harness the power of that biological connection and that science everything opened up for me I lost over 35 pounds and I have been able to keep it off I do not worry about menopausal weight or whether or not I can maintain a weight I don't it's just not even a factor anymore because it's just become so easy to take it off and then maintain it and I've helped thousands of women do the same since that um I started to sleep through the night and I sleep like a baby now like literally like I did in my 20s I wake up with so much energy I don't have any hot lashes or sweats my moods are stable I feel positive energized vibrant my hair has changed I mean just everything has changed my sex drive everything and I'll talk about all of this and the answers were actually very very simple and so a lot of it I was doing prior to this but I didn't have my protein dialed in and I wasn't eating really strategically for my body at this time so I really encourage you to keep a food diary and notice how different foods are affecting your body at this time right and it changes as your hormones change right so I talked about how the sex hormones are only part of the story and how there there's all of these other hormones over 150 hormones and all these neurotransmitters right so the thing about the gut health piece that's so important to understand is that your nervous system has two main parts right so you have your central nervous system which is your brain and your spinal cord and then there's this other thing called the peripheral nervous system and the largest part of the peripheral nervous system is What's called the enteric nervous system and that's what's known as that gut brain connection that gut brain access that you might have heard about that is not some Diet fed or some weird thing it is a real physiological thing in the body and we are learning more and more scientists and doctors how powerful it really is and how it controls everything it's like an information Super Highway your gut sends messages to your brain and your brain sends messages to your gut and it controls absolutely every single thing in your body right so the gut brain connection physiologically it stretches from your your the lower third of your esophagus all the way through to your rectum right so the vagus nerve is the largest one of the biggest nerves that can connects your gut and your brain right but there's all of these other different different nerves right and your gut also controls all these neurotransmitters right to the main ones you would have heard about are dopamine serotonin and Gaba right it's all these like love connection feel good peace and calm you know neurotransmitters right really really important during menopause right the other piece of the puzzle you might have heard about you might have heard someone say or a doctor might have said to you well you really need to be watching your probiotics during menopause right I mean we all need to be looking at this at any age but during menopause it is absolutely Paramount right so I call them the three PS right we don't just need probiotics we need prebiotics and postbiotics the three PS right so probiotics are the beneficial good gut bacteria The Beneficial microbes right so there's a war raging inside our body all the time between there's billions of microorganisms and some are beneficial and some are hostile right so the beneficial microbes are the ones that are going to support Better Health right and then there's all these other microorganisms that are the bad Army basically you've got the good Army and the bad Army and there's just a war raging between the good and the bad and in a balanced healthy body we want the beneficial microbes to outnumber the good army to outnumber the bad Army right but the bummer is that every single thing that we do feeds the bad gut bacteria except for eating well right environmental pollutant stress um drugs prescription and nonprescription you know sedentary lifestyle poor food choices all this stuff pushes it out of our favor so we have to mindfully top it back up again right so that we can stay in Balance all right so really really important stuff in terms of this better gut health piece right I want to connect the dots between this gut health and estrogen conversation though because this is really really key for women right so estrogen which is our primary sex hormone which decreases rapidly uh while we're going through per menopause menopause and then postmenopause right and ends up being a fraction of what it is during our childbearing years estrogen is a protective hormone right so but when estrogen is released it needs to bind to a protein right in order to work properly and it's an estrogen receptor you might have heard that term right there's a lot of estrogen receptors in your gut so it makes sense right that better gut health equals increased estrogen receptiveness right so the other key connection is gut health and your moods right so it's very common to have all kinds of mood swings feeling pretty depressed pretty down teary like I hear this all the time with women if I experienced this too like the slightest little thing can set you off and things that used to just Ricochet off you in your 20s and 30s all of a sudden that the slightest little thing and you're just bursting into tears all the time you feel like your Skin's not thick enough and you can't handle life right you are not going crazy you just need to be more in Balance right and you you have the power to do this with food and lifestyle choices right I felt like I was going crazy and I hear this from women in our 60-day reset all the time right and then with some simple tweaks you feel like you're in control again and that is a great feeling right so this mood thing with gut health is really key right so your gut controls your moods so there is this misconception that the majority of the serotonin gets produced in our brain that it comes from the brain actually it's 5% or less than 5% of Serotonin is actually produced in your brain over 90 5% of it is actually produced in your gut right so the other thing about serotonin this Feelgood neurotransmitter is that when our gut health is not good we don't produce enough serotonin right so it's very much dependent the production of Serotonin is very much dependent on better gut health and digestion right so lower serotonin equals increased appetite and food cravings right I'll talk about that in just a minute because it's so so key what do we feel like doing when we're going through menopause we just want to eat potato chips and candy bars and we have all these food cravings and sugar Cravings why do We crave the sugar because that's the food that's the drug of choice for for the good for the bad microbes I should say right the the food of choice for the good microbes is vegetables is those prebiotics I'll get back to that in a minute right the prebiotics the post the probiotics and the postbiotics right so serotonin is made from the amino acid tryptophan you've probably heard about that with turkey right we've all heard of that everyone's tired after they eat turkey on Thanksgiving or Christmas right your body can't make tryptophan you have to take it in from Foods so animal protein and plant protein right contains tryptophan so just be mindful of that right you want to be eating some tryptophan so that you can stimulate that production of serotonin in addition to your gut health right so going back to this Prebiotic po probiotics and postbiotics right so the probiotics need food right to thrive the good gut bacter the good army needs food right to keep to keep fighting the good fight right and their food of choice is the prebiotics that's the vegetables it's the fiber from plant Foods right the resistant starches from starchy vegetables and Grains that sort of stuff right that's the food for the good gut bacteria so the food that you put into your body you want to be feeding the good army not the bad Army right we want to be feeding our good army that's protecting us right so when the probiotics feed on the the prebiotics when they eat and they ferment those things and they get healthy and strong they produce what's called postbiotics so these are some of them are short chain fatty acids right and one of them is this thing called bucate and that stimulates a hormone in your gut known as glp1 now You' probably heard of glp1 because of OIC and trulicity and all of these glp1 Agonist injections that so many people are on to lose weight to regulate their blood sugar in diabetes or whatever right well go1 is is a hormone that you can optimize with better food and lifestyle choices right it is a hormone produced in the gut and this this butyrate which is the postbiotic stimulates the production of G lp1 so this is where these food choices in this better gut health become so important right so it's a naturally occurring hormone and OIC trulicity all that kind of stuff mimics the action of that and puts it on steroids basically right well we want to have appropriate amounts not crazy high amounts right we want to be what's doing what's appropriate for our body right so why is glp1 so important because glp1 speaks to other hormones in your body right to to to control your appetite your food cravings your hunger your satiety how full you feel and your blood sugar right so gop1 speaks to insulin another hormone so insulin is a hormone that is released by your pancreas right and that that regulates your blood sugar right I'll talk about that in just a minute right gp1 also speaks to to other really key hormones leptin and gin so leptin is your satiety hormone I've had enough I don't need to eat anymore I don't have food cravings right gin I think I remember it like like I'm hungry gin is your hunger hormone right so glp1 regulates how much leptin andrin is released how hungry you are how full you are right that's why these glp1 Agonist medications have been so successful right for so many people right so so poor gut health means less glp1 hormone production so what happens is your body can't process fats efficiently excess fats efficiently right so your metabolism and your ability to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight is all controlled by your gut right so metabolic dysfunction is what it's called is very very common during menopause it's incredibly common that's why so many women in menopause get diagnosed as pre-diabetic or type 2 diabetic or with fatty liver disease that's a metabolic dysfunction related thing right this is why these things are becoming epidemics in society right so many women in our program come in as pre-diabetic hormones out of whack and fatty liver because remember over 25 it's now estimated over 30% of people have liver disease and I'm going to bring in um a liver expert right to talk to you about this because it's so important all right so incredibly important all right so let's go back to this blood sugar piece because blood sugar is is one of the most important indicators of Health at any age but particularly during menopause you need to be monitoring and being mindful about your blood sugar all right so you take in we all take in carbohydrates sugar all carbohydrates get broken down into into simple sugars carbohydrates are the body's preferred source of energy right but we also take in fats quality fats and quality protein and that is how we create fuel right to produce energy right for proper metabolic function so we can live and our body can and do everything we want to do right but the thing about blood sugar we don't want the the sugar to hang out in the blood for too long right the sugar the blood is just a transportation mechanism for the sugar to get into the cells where it's needed to produce energy right so we don't want the sugar to be in the blood for too long we need it to get into the cells so the transportation of the sugar from the blood to the cells is dictated by hormones by these hormones right and some key neurotransmitters like I talked about dopamine serotonin gabber and all these other things right so you may have heard the term insulin resistance it's very very common during menopause right so when you move into per menopause and menopause you can become what's called insulin resistant right so insulin the hormone right very important during menopause right so as I said insulin is produced by your pancreas is to regulate the amount of glucose in your blood right so when your hormones are out of balance your cells can't process glucose efficiently right so what happens your liver then converts the unprocessed carbohydrates to fat and so where does it get stored where does the fat get stored during menopause in our belly that stubborn belly fat around our hips around our thighs around our chin and under our eyes you know that horrible kind of those fat deposits those bags under your eyes right so if we think about it insulin the hormone insulin is a fat storing hormone right so if you are listening and you are really struggling to lose weight during menopause and keep it off this blood sugar piece it's it's really important right to to to listen to this bit right so the other key thing just to connect the dots a little bit insulin resistance pushes estrogen progesterone testosterone and other key hormones out of whack just boom it's just completely out of balance right and as I said before estrogen is a protective hormone right and it's a hormone that supports better blood sugar right so lower estrogen levels through par menopause menopause and postmenopause it throws your digestion out of whx so do you see how it's all connected right so when your gut health is bad is poor is compromised you have excess insulin in your bloodstream right because you got to push more in to lower the blood sugar right so you just got it's just this spiral right so then what happens is how is this blood sugar piece further connected to your sex hormones to estrogen and some other things right your body starts to overproduce estrogen right so that's what helps to cause the brain fog the fatigue the mood swings the dryness The Hot Flashes the sweats and the weight gain right so menopur these menopause symptoms they're all symptoms of insulin resistance right so if you don't regulate your blood sugar with better food and lifestyle choices you can also develop diabetes heart disease cancer and all kinds of other chronic conditions so menopause and aging puts you at a higher risk for all of those condition conditions which is why they are so common in older women right so this gut health piece this blood sugar piece you see how it's really connected with your hormones right and and how you think and feel right your metabolism your ability to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight some women they don't need to lose weight they need to gain weight right so this comes up a lot in our 60-day resear we've got to help women gain weight so you may be listening going well that's not my problem right so it's about maintaining an appropriate weight for your body right whether it's losing weight gaining weight or just maintaining weight right it's all affected by this stuff right the other thing that happened to me and I'm sure you can relate to this is that everything dries up right from your hair your mouth all the way down to your to your nether bits right so staying hydrated during menopause is so incredibly important right so I'll just share some of the things that that I did and some things that we help women in our community do right so drinking water filtered water and water-based beverages like herbal teas and and so forth regularly throughout the day is really really important to stay hydrated so our bodies can only absorb so much water per hour so by the time your lips and skin are dry your mouth is dry you're thirsty you're already dehydrated so you want to be drinking regularly throughout the day so you don't get to that point and so that your body can actually absorb the water that you're taking in right so herbal tees there are some strategic herbal tees that that really helped me and have helped a lot of women in our community chomal tea is a beautiful herbal tea right because it's not only tastes fabulous right it's quite relaxing but chomal te naturally increases oxytocin that love connection bonding hormone right and I'm going to talk about stress and oxytocin a little bit later because it's so so key to this right it lowers cortisol levels to chomal te right cortisol is our stress hormone right and we we just feel stressed and kind of out of control we can feel like that during menopause right there's some also some other tea Blends that I really love um there's a there's some tea blends with licorice uh with sage right these tees have been shown in some studies to help reduce hot flashes or the length and severity of those hot flashes so you may want to try just some natural things like this could also support um your journey uh and we definitely had lots of women in our community experience some great results with those things if you are an omnivore and you consume animal products really high quality small batch or homemade bone broth um can be really really good during menopause right so it's alkaline forming um it's immune boosting it's loaded with collagen which we need for our skin uh it's also contains magnesium which is wonderful to help you relax but it it's also a really wonderful hormone balancing min all I I'll talk about magnesium in a little bit too um it also hydrates you right just for better better digestion skin joints and all that sort of stuff so depending on your dietary Stripes there are some options for you to stay hydrated the other way that we stay hydrated is by eating raw fruits and vegetables these mineral Rich um fruits and vegetables plant foods that contain water right so that's the other way that we stay hydrated so I think you know a great strategy is to make one of your meals a raw meal so a smoothie a salad a gazacho something like that and eating just something little raw with every cooked meal so that might be a side salad it might be some chopped up cucumber really really great strategy to stay hydrated throughout the day one of the other really really key things and it helped me enormously uh and has helped so many women in our community is this sugar piece right I mean Sugar's just a drug it's the most powerful drug on earth right it's just Del delicious let's be honest right it makes everything taste good right but this these debilitating all consuming I feel like it's controlling my life sugar Cravings that that women um talk about during menopause they can really feel like they're controlling your life right and getting them under control is just really key right I mean sugar it's one of the biggest known trigger triggers for menopausal symptoms like hot flashes right and sweats and things like that that's the first thing but sugar at any age it just messes with your brain chemistry it messes with your hormones it sends them out of whack it feeds the bad bacteria the bad Army in your gut it's their drug of choice their food of choice right it also just causes more food cravings and it causes fatigue and it disrupts your sleep right so one of the quickest easiest things you can do to just feel better throughout menopause is just to really really moderate your sugar consumption natural sugars and added sugars right is just to be really thinking about that some other things I'll say there are a lot of known trigger foods that are well documented you know like gluten dairy alcohol caffeine um grains beans corn soy there were all kinds of foods that can really bring on hot flashes sweats um you know mood swings that kind of stuff but again everybody is different so I'll use soy as an example soy is a contains phytoestrogens right in some women eating a little bit of soy can actually help balance hormones and in other women it is a huge trigger food massive hot sweats uh night sweats um hot flashes things like that right so again keep that food diary and just start paying attention to how different foods are affecting you right now keeping a food food and symptom Journal that's anecdotal data it never replaces clinical data having you know medical testing done with your doctor and other practitioners but it can certainly inform the conversations that you can have with them about how you're feeling and how different foods and practices are affecting how you feel in your body right another really easy thing that you can do is just to take in balanced nutrition so I talked about why it's important you know to take in protein and fats and carbohydrates just be looking and just paying attention to the composition of your meals and snacks right so do you have a few different colors of vegetables right I always love to have something green you know do you have an orange do you have a purple do you have a blue do you have an a yellow you know there's just so many different wonderful fruits and vegetables getting in a variety of different different foods and different nutrients is really powerful is there a source of quality protein on your plate do you have some quality plant fats like avocado extra virgin olive oil things like that right so having a source of protein fats and carbs on your plate right the protein piece is a really really big one at any time in life right protein is responsible for every metabolic process in the body from digestion to cell repair but during Menopause the protein strategy is an absolute GameChanger this was the missing piece for me when I went through my menopause journey I was doing a lot of this other stuff that I'm telling you about but I wasn't monitoring my protein I wasn't taking in the appropriate amount of protein for my need needs right and your needs change right your needs are determined by your weight your activity levels uh health status health goals medications you're taking everybody's protein needs are slightly different right and there's different protein gestations we use um a a protein guesstimation tool in in our 60-day reset to help people as a starting point and then we add and subtract from there based on activity levels and all these other factors right so you know this is why it's helpful to have practitioners help you right and people that really know what they're doing to help you navigate this journey right so just know with protein more is just more just like what I was talking about with the water the human body can only absorb and assimilate so much protein at a time so it's around about I'm going to say on an an average of about 20 grams of protein maybe 25 Max there are some exceptions to this of course but as a general rule right what I have found in my personal life just with my family and friends but definitely as a coach and in our program in our 60-day reset our dietitians all the time over half of the people in our program are taking in not even half the protein that they need to be taking in mostly women and not taking in enough protein right and so this protein piece is so key right because protein helps control your appetite right it helps to regulate your blood sugar protein communicates energy status to your brain right so protein helps decrease that that hunger hormone the Gin right it stimulates the production of glp1 right that that hormone in the gut right that controls your appetite and and your blood sugar right and your hunger and ctiy all that kind of stuff so protein is really really key it also stimulates collagen production right and we know that our skin takes a beating during menopause right so just be mindful of your protein right so if you're an omnivore quality sources of animal protein right so we my doctors and dietitians we love um wild CAU fish like salmon and wild CT sardines wild CAU Cod that contains all of those Omega-3s right those anti-inflammatory Omega fatty acids that are so incredible for brain health and and and appropriate inflammatory responses and better better body function bone broth again really really good for that for for additional protein if you're a vegan a vegetarian or you're an omnivore nuts and seeds are incredible and we like the alkaline forming nuts and seeds uh we're talking about walnuts almonds Chia hemp and flax seeds right um beans if you're a vegetarian um really really great but beans can be a trigger food so just be be noticing you know which beans your body tolerates and which ones they don't um and vegetables while they're not a reliable source of protein they do contain amino acids which are the building blocks of protein right so really really important to be looking at your protein I cannot stress this enough it has been an absolute game changer for thousands of women in our community like has completely changed the game for them all right so I I can't stress it enough truly quality fats are also really important so this High old idea of fat makes you fat that is a myth all right there's no one macronutrient that makes you put on weight when you're eating quality fats quality plant fats like avocado nuts and seeds extra virgin olive oil stuff like that right quality fats are actually the building blocks of hormones right they're essential during menopause absolutely essential so again I'm talking about the wild CAU fatty fish like salmon and sardines eggs exision olival avocado walnuts and almonds for those of you that are vegan and vegetarian Chia hemp and flax they all contain Omega-3s right nuts and seeds also contain phytoestrogens right to help regulate you know estrogen levels right nuts and seeds also contain magnesium right to support healthy progesterone levels they also contain phenol alanine right which helps to boost dopamine production in your brain right so nuts and seeds are are the bomb diggity right in terms of strategic vegetables to consume leafy greens you know kale baby boach Choy SP chard all those things I mean they're amazing Foods cruciferous vegetables are also just the bomb diggity right so we're talking about cauliflower broccoli brussel sprouts cabbages kale all that sort of thing clean Pathways your hormones that hormone Super Highway messaging system around your body needs clean Pathways right and nothing cleans things up better than leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables right they've got all these amazing detox compounds that like shooter ballistic missile to the bad Army right aliums are also great unless you're intolerant so garlics onions leaks Etc right so all these foods are alkaline forming they combat the acids they combat the inflammation and the stress environmental pollutants processed foods animal Foods right they hydrate your body they're loaded with vitamins minerals and fiber remember the fiber is the food the prebiotics for the good gut bacteria for our good army right um the other thing to note about these foods and why vegetables are so incredible is that these high fiber carbohydrates Ates they really facilitate the binding and removal of Unbound active estrogens right really important right remember I talked about that overproduction of estrogen right so these Foods all these Foods also help regulate melatonin right which helps us relax and go to sleep right help regulate cortisol that stress hormone right it's also really powerful for cholesterol right and it's very common to get those that that blood work back when you're going through menopause at your cholesterol is through the roof your blood pressure is through the roof you your A1C levels are really high this is very very common during menopause right the other key thing like I talked about with the gut health thing is just fermented foods right eating fermented foods every day that contain all those beneficial microbes The Beneficial probiotics we've got to constantly be replenishing and Topping up our stores of beneficial microbes right so the sauerkraut fermented sauerkraut fermented kimchi um CFA um beet cavar all these different things right and there's yogurts there's just so many beautiful things that you can consume that contain beneficial microorganisms that are going to help win the war every day right between the good Army and the bad Army right some other foods that I want to mention are fresh herbs and spices and dried herbs and spices right really powerful Foods right so turmeric really stimulates the production of some of those key neurotransmitters also combats inflammation in the body uh Ginger is also a really powerful anti-inflammatory agent that can e easily be added to smoothies and to juices and to salad dressings and to soups and stews and all kinds of food right grains all sorts of things Pary and cilantro are natural keyers right so they help to draw toxins out of the body so really great things to add to salads and stir through things and smoothies and all kinds of stuff mint is a beautiful herb because it's got a natural cooling property to it right if you're going through hot flashes and things like that so just a few little tips and tricks there berries are another one I want to mention because not only are they just delicious I mean strawberries raspberries blueberries blackberries I mean they're just yummy yummy but they also contain phytoestrogens and they're also low in natural sugar right so they can really help to boost levels to optimize your hormones you know to support better body function all right so hopefully you're getting the idea that you can eat lots of really incredible foods that can support optimizing your blood sugar in your hormones and your metabolism and also supporting better gut health right so I talked in episodes 1 2 3 and 4 probably like a broken record about how much I hate diets right first of all I love food more than oxygen right I want to eat when I want to eat and I want to eat how much I want to eat and I do not want to starve and deprive myself and limit my experience of life right and to me diets play into that deprivation mentality they are miserable they're not sustainable they're just not fun and food should be fun we're doing it all day every day right and I don't want to limit and restrict myself and I we don't in in our programs we don't support anybody doing that right so if you're listening and you're thinking about staying on a diet on going or going on another diet I really encourage you to really rethink that because Science Now shows us that dieting is one of the worst things you can do when you're going through menopause and I'll tell you why I mean starving yourself is not going to be the answer long term at any age but during menopause science and the studies show us that starvation causes the downregulation of key hormones of the downregulation of estrogen and progesterone and testosterone your primary sex hormones that are already in Decline as you're going through menopause we don't want them to Cline anymore right we want to keep what we've got and we want to optimize right so when you are not eating regularly throughout the day it's not going to help with your hormone balancing right so we see this all the time in our 60-day reset when we get the we we everybody has a um a member questionnaire and an evaluation you get personally evaluated by our team of dieticians it is I'm going to say over half I'm going to say probably three qus of the women in in our community are under nourishing themselves they're not eating regularly throughout the day they're only eating one meal or two meals a day it's not enough so it doesn't mean that you st you you you force feed yourself when you're not hungry but we're just advocating eating smaller meals and snacks even just a couple of bites of something right because it helps regulate your blood sugar we don't want those huge spikes in blood sugar and then crashes right we want to have these lovely little Rolling Hills they call them right just regulated beautiful even blood sugar throughout the day and throughout the night right that's what we're aiming for because every time it spikes and crashes those are blasts of inflammation that's what it is right and how does inflammation manifest in the body as stress how does stress manifest in the body as inflammation right so that's why a lot of women during menopause have chronic inflammation right so there's also this thing called the FED status Factor right so it helps to regulate your thyroid function so it's not a coincidence that a lot of people going through menopause and postmenopause develop thyroid conditions develop autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto and Graves disease it's all connected right so there's also a thing called the cortisol Factor right overeating and starvation interferes with your stress responses right so the thyroid is inextricably connected to your metabolism right you're ability to maintain a healthy weight right to lose weight gain weight maintain it right so really really important right so I talked about cortisol and I I promised earlier that I was going to talk about this stress cortisol oxytocin piece right so cortisol is our is a one of the primary stress hormones right so why do we feel so stressed during menopause why do we feel exhausted and things are spinning out of control and GH right well it's because of these hormone changes right so progesterone has a calming effect on the body right so it makes sense that during menopause when it's in Decline we're going to feel more stressed and anxious right that makes complete sense estrogen levels are also dropping and estrogen is a protective hormone like I talked about right so when estrogen levels drop cortisol levels rise right which causes the higher blood pressure the higher blood sugar and then in turn that causes you to release more adrenaline one of the other stress hormones right that also raises your blood sugar so do you see how this insulin resistance that I was talking about this high blood sugar this elevated A1C happens right so the more stress that's in your body that's going to lead to the anxiety to the depression to the mood swings the headaches I started getting those headaches so many women in our community have debility ating headaches during menopause migraines I didn't get that but a lot of my friends have got it right now right the Sleep problems not sleeping through the night the low energy the fatigue the crippling brain fog oh man did I have the brain fog I don't anymore but I had it and so many women in the program but here's what's really cool it goes away really quickly all right when you start being strategic about what you're doing that inability to concentrate you start to get laser focused again right I know if you if You' got muscle tension I didn't have as much of that but quite a few of my friends are reporting that right now and and people in our program come in with that and then they don't have it anymore right hair loss the thinning the baling um really really dry hair right and of course the weight right the stubborn belly fat this is all connected to stress right and man am I going to give you the gold right now because let me tell you some stuff that I learned about stress and Metabolism right and stress and how we can kind of harness this this reality in our bodies right so I talked about cortisol being the stress hormone right so it's produ produced and released by your adrenal glands in response to stress right your adrenal sit right above your kidneys right so we need cortisol because it's protective it helps us go into fight or flight it helps us protect ourselves from a threat right cortisol also affects your metabolism so how your body uses fats proteins and carbohydrates right cortisol also regulates your blood sugar your blood pressure controls your sleep your energy right so when your hormones are all out of balance your cortisol levels actually stay elevated longer than they need to right and it what happens is when it stays elevated it means that your blood sugar the the the the insulin and the sugar in your blood stays there for too long right so it's all connected right here's the kicker cortisol also triggers a fat storing enzyme in the fat cells around your organs and around your belly right so elevated cortisol levels lead to insulin resistance and belly fat right so when your cells can't process glucose efficiently it gets stored as fat right so here's this this just blew my mind belly fat cells your belly fat cells have four times as many cortisol receptors as regular fat cells they're just like a stress magnet right so we actually want to get rid of that belly fat right because it's just a big stress magnet so the more belly fat the more stressed you're going to be right but here's the really cool thing about the human body your beautiful body is that we have a natural recalibrate vibration mechanism in the hormone oxytocin I love oxytocin right so oxytocin is a hormone that works in opposition to cortisol it helps to balance cortisol so when we raise our oxytocin levels it brings our cortisol levels down right so oxytocin is is the love hormone the anti-aging hormone the connection hormone right so oxytocin floods your body during child birth so it helps you bond with the baby right it also floods your body during orgasm it floods your body during physical touch holding hands kissing cuddling um embracing you can even do it to yourself if you live alone by by brushing your hands and hugging yourself and squeezing bits of your body and you know there's absolutely ways that you can flood your body with oxytocin right so kiss and cuddle it out have sex stay connected all this stuff right now you might be listening going more thanks Tess but my libido is so shot and I've got pain during intercourse because of menopause and I don't feel like having sex right that is a real thing too and I you know I will do an episode about that because there are some things you can do about that too right and I'm going to bring in an expert about that because it's so so powerful right you can absolutely change that too all right so oxytocin also helps to regulate your blood sugar right it also helps to to regulate your appetite right so the more love you feel for yourself and as good as you feel right it's going to help with all of these things all right the other really key part is sleep right often as women we're juggling so many different things and looking after children and grandchildren and elderly relatives and our partner or whatever it is right that we're just running around like a blue ass fly right and trying to do all the things and we don't value sleep and rest and they're not the same thing right so resting has real value right so reading a book you know lying there just staring at the ceiling and thinking about your life I mean whatever right right watching TV lying out in the grass under a tree in the sunshine whatever it is right listening to music listening to a podcast right that's all resting and then sleeping is really really important right so sleep at any age is important it helps us to restore and recover we have to sleep or we die sleep also helps balance insulin helps to balance cortisol the stress hormone helps to balance oxytocin the love connection hormone and all the other hormones it is absolutely essential right so poor quality sleep equals poor gut health poor quality sleep equals more belly fat poor quality sleep equals bad moods right so you got to sleep right so I mean there are some simple things you can do to improve your sleep right it's with the balanced nutrition that I'm talking about meeting your protein needs really really key I can't even tell you what a game changer protein is for sleep it's it's it blew my mind like literally blew my mind turning off your devices and not being stimulated you know an hour before bed keeping your room really dark right helps to stimulate melatonin and all these things right um not eating late at night late night snacking is the kiss of death for better sleep alcohol is the kiss of death for better sleep longterm it might shortterm people think it helps them sleep but longterm it doesn't um science absolutely tells us that right not eating within 3 to four hours before bed is another really powerful strategy that we give everyone in our program and it works right and then in consultation with your doctor you may want to consider taking a magnesium supplement right a natural relaxant many women um deficient in magnesium right you can get magnesium from Foods right but you can also take a supplement and and there's different kinds we my dietitians and doctors like magnesium glycinate because it's easier to digest magnesium citrate can cause have a laxitive effect in some people um a lot of magnesium supplements are a hybrid they're they're a mixture of different kinds of magnesium so discuss that with your doctor and practitioner about what is appropriate for you right in addition addition to sleep and stress and the food piece the other piece is exercise exercise is important for cardiovascular health better Digestive Health better respiratory Health better body function sleep and energy at any age but during menopause it is critical to keep your body moving and whatever floats your boat right whatever you feel great about walking running cycling rowing you know doing an exercise class at the gym rock climbing I mean whatever swimming whatever whatever dancing whatever right but some kind of movement every day right it helps with metabolic flexibility it helps your hormone receptor sensitivity really important resistance training and cardiovascular activity really important for better bone health right we know that our bones take a beating as we age really important for better blood sugar regulation helps to combat you know fatigue helps you sleep better uh it helps with brain fog and concentration helps with mood stability right helps with the production of Serotonin serotonin dopamine and Gaba and it helps to improve your libido I mean so incredibly important right so I really encourage you to get outside in the sunshine as much as possible and exercise Outdoors right to get as much vitamin D as possible vitamin D is the conductor of our immune system right it's just so important for better immune responses but our ability to synthesize Vitamin D from the Sun decreases with age right decreases with age and so it's even more important right just like I talked about earlier about eating raw foods to hydrate the body we also eat raw foods for enzymes right so we produce we produce enzymes but we produce less enzymes as we age right so these these things are more important as we age right so get outside exercise Outdoors get in the sunshine as much as possible so that you can be taking in as much vitamin D as possible the other thing about vitamin D is oxytocin and serotonin so that hormone oxytocin feeling good the love connection and that serotonin Feelgood neurotransmitter are both activated by vitamin D right so really important you know you may want to discuss taking a a vitamin D supplement with your diet right but nothing's going to replace the sunshine right so supplements are wonderful but you may not want to take supplements right so there are natural ways that you can do this right so just really really important so to recap in closing we've got four core principles in the skinny 60 system in the 60-day reset number one is prime number two is is nourish number three is pace and number four is restore so number one prime is we're priming we're gut our gut health and digestion right to regulate your blood sugar and your hormones and your metabolism remember those four things are all connected right if your gut health is in trouble your hormones are in trouble right number two is nourish nourish your body strategically and effectively with quality foods to help your body run better right to help you balance your blood sugar your optimize your met metabolism your hormones and support better gut health right so quality protein quality fats and quality carbohydrates right and all of those micronutrients as well which you're going to get with all those all the vegetables and all the wonderful Foods right number three is pace so that's what I was talking about about regularly you know fueling your body throughout the day right eating regularly smaller meals and snacks more regularly throughout the day even just a couple of bites of something of a balance meal or snack with protein fats and carbohydrates right eating regularly to regulate your blood sugar right to have just that regulated blood sugar throughout the day not those huge spikes and crashes which in turn helps to optimize your hormones and your metabolism right and is also it also supports better digestion so you got the quadruple whammy right that this pace strategy helps with better digestion helps with better metabolism helps with better hormones and helps with with better gut health right and then number four is what I was talking about just with this sleep and rest and energy exercise restoring better psychian rhythms in the body restoring appropriate stress responses restoring appropriate inflammatory responses right just restoring your body and bringing it back into balance all right so remember you have the power to control how you feel with food and lifestyle choices right and again it doesn't matter what else you're doing with your doctor and practitioners to optimize your hormones whether you're on hormone replacement therapy or something or not any successful approach to menopause and thriving like I am and thousands of women in my community are it's got to be rooted in better gut health so what does your gut tell you about your life right so so important you know over 70% of women are constipated they're not moving their bowels every day and if you are not moving your bowels every day there is a problem right so that is indicative of poor gut health and digestion right but here's the cool thing you can turn this around really quickly right you don't have to live with these uncomfortable horrible symptoms of menopause and some people go through and it lasts for 15 years I don't want to feel like I was feeling all those years ago for 15 years I got stuff to do in my life I got dreams I've got traveling to do I want to have energy I never want my physical health to be the reason why I say no to anything I want it to be my no and my yes so take control of your health decide it has to be me it has to be me to figure this out and to do what needs to be done in consultation with my doctors but I don't think we're meant to do this thing called life on our own right so if you want support definitely join my 60-day reset with my team of doctors and dietitians and we'll help you figure it out that's what we do I I it's like a puzzle for me I love it and I'm on a mission I want every woman to thrive dur you know through menopause like I am you know and I intend to keep thriving right I just want every woman to feel incredible and empowered so just know that you've got the power all right and I made a little nutrition menopause nutrition guide for you for free so you can go to it has Tobe me.com menopause guide to get a little bit of a written summary of everything I've been talking about in this episode all right and honestly just start implementing some of these small strategies it's just step by step right we've got a saying in our community good better or best not perfect right Perfection doesn't exist just aim to make the next better choice so if all you did today was just drink a little bit more water and stay hydrated throughout the day win that's already going to make you feel better and then just keep layering on something else right think about the probiotics maybe start eating some sauerkraut or some cafa add some cafa to your to your smoothie or something right that's another better choice right and then what happens is they all all these choices accumulative and you become the sum of your choices and when you become the sum of better choices everything just keeps getting better it is so magical and when you start to feel really great in your body and you start to feel strong and powerful and beautiful again right that's one of the other beautiful things about this people will say you look 10 years younger how do you look like this I mean I get this from women in my program all the time people start to notice and you start to feel really good about yourself you know that thing as women I hear this a lot I feel invisible I feel invisible like I don't matter I feel drab I feel old I feel fat I feel I just feel like I don't matter well you do matter you do matter and you're beautiful just as you are right now but I'm sure you want to be more physically beautiful right and be the weight that you want to be have your skin glowing have your hair and your nails lustrous and beautiful and shiny and fit into your favorite jeans and your favorite dress and just feel good about yourself but more importantly sleep through the night have energy be able to play with your children and grandchildren or go for that bike ride or go on that hike to Paul or go on that cruise and walk around the chinua or whatever your dreams are don't let your physical health be the reason why you say no to anything say a big yes and go it has to be me and you know what I'm going to do next week I am going to invite some women who have done this I don't want you to hear just from me I want you to hear from some other women if I can do it and they can do it you can do it so next week I'm going to have lunch with them and we'll have a little conversation about empowering ourselves through menopause I want to hear about your it has toe me story so head on over to it hasobe me.com stories to share it in our free community you can also join the conversations we're having about this episode and others I'm test Masters join me next week and we'll dive inside another great story to help us go from dreaming to doing
#Menopause #Relief #Diet #Lifestyle #Strategies
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Too much mumbo jumbo.,.
Excellent content. Thank you.