There are 1.2 billion menopausal women in the world, 85% of them have symptoms, 50% never seek help, and 25% have considered resigning due to menopause.

The first symptoms of perimenopause are often related to brain and mental health, as many women experience overwhelm, loss of confidence, inability to cope as well as before, anxiety, irritability, forgetfulness, brain fog, poor memory. And one of the things that makes all this even worse is stress.

April is Stress Awareness Month.

Stress is a word used a lot these days but as most of us feel stressed regularly and have regular stressful periods in our lives, it’s not a surprise. But have you ever thought what stress actually is?

Stress comes in many forms. It’s not just the busyness of our day-to-day lives that is causing stress and havoc in our bodies, it can also be…

Physical stress

Illness, injury, strain, physical inactivity, i.e. sitting for long periods, or too much exercise, noisy environments…

Chemical stress

Physiological imbalances such as blood sugar imbalance, hormonal imbalance, menopausal transition, digestive issues… as well as exposure to toxic compounds from pollution, ultra-processed diet, chemicals in our household, personal care and cosmetic products, smoking, alcohol, spending all day indoors…

Emotional stress

Past trauma, adverse childhood events, loss, grief, mental health issues, such as chronic anxiety and depression, feeling overwhelmed with life in general or your own health, work, family or relationship difficulties, financial struggle…

Why Does This Matter?

All of these can put your body into the ‘fight or flight’ mode. And if you stay in that mode for prolonged periods of time, your health will suffer.

So do you remember to put aside time for self-care? Or is everything / everyone else always more important?

If you have a stressful demanding job as well as a busy family life, with kids still requiring a lot of your attention, it can be difficult to find time for and make the effort to get some downtime for yourself.

Many women, particularly, take care of everyone else before they take care of themselves.This leads to stress and often sub-optimal diets and constant cravings.

This then causes your blood sugar to fluctuate a lot, with spikes and crashes during the day, making you to grab quick and easy high sugar/refined carbohydrate treats (they are difficult to resist because your body’s signals are very powerful so don’t beat yourself about it, know that it’s completely normal physiology but something relatively easy to change!).

You can’t meet your targets at work and perform at your best, particularly when it comes to team work, when stressed out and riding on a blood sugar rollercoaster and feeling “hangry”. You can’t look after your kids and family, or elderly parents, if your own health is suffering!

A good regular self-care routine will not only crank up your productivity and performance at work and home but it will also help you feel much better in your own body so that everyday challenges aren’t such a struggle any more. It will allow your nervous system to calm down so your body switches from fight-or-flight mode to rest-and-digest mode which, as the name suggest supports better digestive function and better sleep.

So if you have been neglecting your own self-care, you need to start putting yourself first and creating space in your daily life for things you enjoy doing!

How to Manage Stress Better (and have a smoother menopause transition)

👉🏼Make some time to do something for yourself, because YOU love it. And make that your reward instead of a sugary treat. Make it regular and put it your diary.

👉🏼Make your diet as nutrient-dense as possible so it will work hard FOR you rather than AGAINST you.

👉🏼Don’t make excuses for not doing it because you know you need it and your family / your employer / your own business needs you to be healthy.

👉🏼Be selfish, for once! For a good reason! 

Here’s how you can be a bit selfish and get accountability and support in a group setting now in May-June. 👇🏼

Join my 6-week online group programme The Food-Mood Connection: A Nutrition Journey for Midlife Women. (Not available currently, more online courses/group programmes coming soon.)

I’m on a mission to help women feel more empowered and in control of their health during this time of their lives. I will teach you my tools that I use with 1-1 clients that are very doable and can make a huge difference in how you feel everyday at work and in family life.

On top of the main sessions run by me, there will also be some bonus sessions with expert guest speakers as well as an intuitive healthy cook-along.

Are you ready?
Let’s do it together! JOIN NOW!