Guest blog by menopause nutrition expert Laura Clarke
There are 5 words that belong in every menopausal woman’s health and wellbeing dictionary of life.
Attunement
How we tune into and answer the needs of our body, can be a difficult task when there are so many things that disrupt us in midlife. Menopausal symptoms are so variable for different women, but common ones, such as disturbed sleep, increased anxiety or mood fluctuations will alter how we choose and eat food.
Changes in lean muscle mass, accompanied by increases in fat mass, have been shown to be more down to aging than menopause per se. Never-the-less this change in body composition shifts our calorie need down a tad and influences how we use the foods we eat. For example, there may be a reduced sensitivity to insulin that develops, meaning we don’t process carbs in quite the same way, but this is not the case for everyone.
In those with a previous dieting history weight gain can feel more pronounced and uncertain. There is no magic wand for tackling midlife weight gain, but as you will see later on, perhaps we’re taught to home in on the wrong thing anyway.
To navigate the unpredictability’s of menopausal weight gain, inner attunement is essential but takes practise. Listening to our body’s cues for all things whether that be food, hydration, rest or movement takes focus and we can easily fall out of the habit, especially when we may have had decades of putting the needs of others before our own. This is where the ethos of your workplace is also so key – does it allow you space in amongst the deadlines to see to your wellbeing needs without consequence?
Closely linked to this is introspective awareness; our ability to clock our communication between body, mind and feelings and ultimately our emotional regulation. Food is a common and often powerful strategy to cope with emotional dysregulation – hence why exploring this kind of stuff is so foundational to our food relationships and ultimately our emotional health and fitness. This is how and why I work with clients on a one-to-one basis.
Recording patterns in symptoms and habits is helpful so we can begin to understand what may serve us better.
Self-Compassion
Also linked closely to emotional well-being (and in turn often our food habits) is the concept of self-compassion. If they actually taught us how to administer this, I swear we’d be better at it. For some reason, looking upon ourselves with kindness is associated with words such as lazy or weakness. Far better to give ourselves a good talking to, dig deep into the will power bucket and plough on. This is especially true when it comes to eating and exercise habits. Judgement calls the shots, which in turn can leave us feeling like a hamster on a wheel – going nowhere fast.
Berating ourselves for not doing better can help in the short term to get us back on track, but if we repeat this and it becomes habitual, it can soon make us feel quite drained. We’re so terrified of failing, we feel paralysed and the thought of trying again with another diet, fills us with dread.
Self-compassion allows out true humanness to emerge. Reflecting with curiosity and compassion on our behaviours, helps us understand them, right back to their roots and with this enhanced knowledge comes power. We get to make change from a place of positivity and growth, with an acceptance it is not only normal, it is to be expected.
To realign with what good enough looks like and to realise, especially when it comes to eating, there is no such thing as perfection. Luckily, research backs this up. There is no perfect diet. If there were, it would make the assumption we’re all exactly the same.
Practising self-compassion has also been shown to alter our brain chemicals and take us out of reactive, stress mode. We no longer feel ‘attacked’ so our sympathetic nervous system doesn’t need to respond. This is better for health and probably helps us make better food choices too.
Flexibility
We start each day with a different level of fuel in the tank. Applying this curiosity allows us to assess what is likely to work best today. If for example we’re trying hard to follow an Intermittent Fasting Diet, but we wake up after a rough night’s sleep feeling drained, today we may benefit from eating something sooner. If we’re trying to reduce carbs, but we have a big meeting and we need to make sure we’re focussed and concentrating, then providing our brain with more carb fuel today is going to benefit us. No diet, no matter how tailored, can account for daily fluctuations in hormones, stress levels and the metabolic impacts of less sleep or more activity for example.
Health
Food has the power to support the menopausal women in lots of ways. It links directly to many of the health conditions that come into focus in mid-life. For example, heart health, bone health and our brain function. Sometimes if we’re focused solely on weight loss at all costs, we lose sight of the powerhouse good nutrition can provide our aging bodies. It’s worth therefore looking at our diets from a food perspective. We don’t eat nutrients per se and shouldn’t feel distracted by juggling our macros. Instead, look at what makes it into the shopping basket for improved health and function. For example:
- Are you eating at least 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, ideally nearer 8?
- Are most of the carbohydrates you’re eating of wholegrain variety?
- Do you have calcium rich sources from dairy or fortified plant-based alternatives?
- Can you boost our fibre variety to benefit our gut health by including plenty of different plant-based foods such as pulses, lentils, nuts, seeds and soy.
- Do you eat magnesium rich foods – a key menopausal nutrient to support muscle, cognitive function and mood. Found in wholegrains, dark green leafy veg and nuts for example.
- Do you have sources of omega-3 in your diet, ideally from long chain fatty acids found in oily fish. If you’re veggie or not keen on the smell, it’s worth considering a supplement.
Taste
With so much noise within diet and wellness culture, it can be easy to forget the basics. Food is so much more than nutrition – how we eat, where we eat and who with for example, are responsible for developing healthy food relationships and connections to food. If we truly taste our food it adds to the satisfaction factor, which is turn helps regulate portion control and appropriate cues to eat.
We have to be realistic as to what feels achievable when life is busy, but small tweaks go a long way. Taking micro moments to plan ahead, enable us to keep food and nutrition as a key component of our well-being toolkit in midlife, menopause and beyond.
Our Podcast
Laura has joined us on a podcast all about food. Listen in here
Check out our other blogs on menopause – How To Bounce When Menopause Comes Calling
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