The Menopause Menu….Top Nutritional Tips for Fuelling the Change

Where’s my f*cking keys?!🤯Sound familar?…….My story to get to that point begins⤵️

So I was going great guns up to about the age of 42. I was working in the bank when I turned 40 and the obligatory Tesco party cake with white chocolate shavings was rolled out and the cringe rendition of Happy Birthday sang while I smiled (dyin inside). One of my work colleagues came up to me and said “Oh my god your 40, honestly you look 30!”. I was chuffed and felt great… but fast forward to 44, birthday came again, same cake, same TUNE sang and not a dicky bird about my youthfulness!😲

Now at 47 the JOYS of entering into a whole new world of THE MENOPAUSE!

-        Hot flashes

-        Night sweats

-        Losing my mind

-        Mood swings

-        Difficulty sleeping

-        Fatigue

-        Forgetfulness

-        Irritable

-        Weepy

-        Angry (lot of rage!)

-        Brain fog

-        And the list goes on…..

Ladies NO MORE, I’m here to pick you up and share with you how “what we eat” can really impact our hormones which in turn affects our energy, mood and how we live our lives and our sanity!!

My Top 3 Tips:

1.      Regulating blood sugars – ESSENTIAL, but how do we do it?

Try not to leave big gaps between meals or worse still skip meals. This nearly always results in low energy and mood (dip in our blood sugar levels) which inevitable leads us to grabbing for the most convenient usually less nutritious food choices.

Why? We need SUGAR and fast to give us energy, unfortunately brown rice or quinoa with mixed vegetables isn’t generally top of the list. It’s usually something sweet, quick and processed to give us the “sugar hit” we need to keep us going. These blood sugar fluctuations can lead to energy crashes and mood swings which adds fuel to the already menopausal fire!

So try and break the habit and have readily available nutritious snacks like a handful of nuts with some dark chocolate, oatcakes with hummus and cucumber, a banana dipped in nut butter or Greek yoghurt with seeds, berries and a drizzle of honey. That way you will be kept topped up, less likely to grab for the sugary snacks, feel more energised and make better food choices for rest of the day. Give it a go!

2.      Carbs = Energy (think colour “white to brown”)

Close your eyes! Now in your left hand your holding a slice of Pat The Bakers white sliced bread, your right hand a slice of wholemeal or brown bread. Feel how light, spongey (like an accordion) and soft the white bread feels compared to the heavier, denser and roughness of the brown bread. That’s the difference, brown bread basically has more bang for its buck in terms of nutrients, fiber, vitamins and minerals compared to white. So a simple swap will ensure you are getting a wide range of nutrients which can provide numerous health benefits including stabilising blood sugar levels, weight management, digestive health as well as heart health. The wholegrains provide essential fiber which is important for bowel and gut health as well as helping us feel fuller for longer. So make the simple swap “White to Brown”.

3.      Eating Healthy Fats

Fats are not the enemy, I promise!  Next time you’re in the shops and your grabbing the 0% yoghurt, reduced fat coconut milk, low fat mayonnaise or low fat butter spread, have a look at the labels.

Quite often these products take out the yummy delicious fats and substitute it with additional sugars and ingredients you don’t’ recognize and scarily can’t even pronounce. Your left with a far inferior product which let’s face it lacks flavour and tastes pretty poor. Our bodies need fats for hormone production. Healthy fats found in foods like avocados, seeds, nuts, extra virgin olive oil are essential for hormone production. During menopause hormone levels fluctuate so an adequate intake of healthy fats can help support hormone balance.

If you feel like you’re on a very fast treadmill and want to slow down, you want to start taking simple steps to support you and your hormones, incorporating the above simple 3 steps may help you feel less frazzled, low in energy and out of sorts and a little bit more in control.

Remember it’s the little things that are realistic, doable and long lasting that will make for the bigger overall transformations to your Health and Hormones…

Now seriously all jokes aside… “Where the F*ck are my keys!”

Until next Blog

Much Love
Susan

XXX

👉Junes Edition - GETTING OFF THAT SUGAR TRAIN is my most popular voted Blog to date! You can sign up to my Free newsletter (link below) and be the first to receive your monthly newsletter on all things Health and Nutrition.