In this blog, you will discover my transformative insights and practical advice to fuel your journey toward a vibrant, energised new year and new life! From the basics of eating, and drinking, moving and thinking through to how hormones affect our wellbeing, which is much more than you think!
Eating
Eating protein and regular meals is a great way to stabilise blood sugars and help your body manage energy better. Staying away from sugary snacks is a great idea though I would highly recommend that you find something else instead rather than deprive yourself, at least to start with.
Eating a balanced plate with plenty of protein, not too many carbohydrates and a good variety of vegetables can help us to keep these hormones more stable.
Drinking
It’s a great idea to have a glass of water each time you feel that need for a snack or a meal.
Drinking water can increase metabolism by as much as 30%. Even mild dehydration can decrease the metabolic rate.
Moving
Maintain your muscles as you age to keep the weight off and increase the way the body uses insulin.
Thinking
Having a regular calming practice in your life is a great way to teach your nervous system that it does not need to react to every little thing. Another thing you can do is ask yourself “Am I safe?” when you are faced with a situation that provokes anxiety.
Why Hormones Play Havoc And What We Can Do About It
I think we all want more energy and most women, including myself, have a constant dance with hormones, whether that is insulin and the appetite hormones or thyroid and stress hormones, the dance is present particularly during and after menopause. During this dance most of us are also watching the scales, feeling the fluctuations in energy and having to deal with changes in our mood. This may stop once menopause is “over” or it may need to be watched for many years.
For me it’s mostly about the energy, I want to be able to do the things I love like swimming, helping other people, caring for my elderly parents and spending time with my husband and sons.
It’s also about weight around the middle, which thankfully I seem to be able to manage with the way I eat and move, though it is something I’m very aware of.
And I certainly have had to learn about managing stress and anxiety over the last 10 years.
Weight gain around the middle during and after menopause is caused by a combination of hormonal changes and various factors that affect metabolism and fat distribution.
Why is this? What happens to our hormones that makes us change so dramatically and why do so many of us (women in particular) develop diabetes or thyroid issues?
I see it a bit like a Swiss watch, when we go through menopause our sex hormones change and the cogs shift, this means that the other cogs (hormones) also have to shift to keep up and they don’t always manage it.
We have to look at insulin in this dance, it is the conductor of the orchestra and if it has to work too hard the whole orchestra is out of tune.
Insulin Resistance: Changing Female Hormones
As oestrogen levels decline during menopause our insulin sensitivity is very often affected. This means we end up having to make more insulin to get the sugar into the cells for energy and this extra insulin makes it easier for the body to store fat, particularly around the middle. This is known as insulin resistance and is the starting point for Type 2 Diabetes.
Eating protein and regular meals is a great way to stabilise blood sugars and help your body manage energy better. Staying away from sugary snacks is a great idea though I would highly recommend that you find something else instead rather than deprive yourself, at least to start with. I work hard not to suggest that my clients are not cutting things out but adding things in, it makes it so much easier to implement change.
And then there are the thyroid hormones
Thyroid Hormone Changes: Metabolic Regulation
Thyroid hormones play a crucial role in metabolism, I call them my Duracell, my battery and they decline with age unless we work at them. They are also affected during and after menopause which impacts our energy and the way the body burns calories. The difficulty with a malfunctioning thyroid is that it often takes a long time to show up on blood test results and sometimes it just runs along at a low level for a long time making us feel tired and anxious and finding it hard to cope with everyday living.
Keeping an eye on your thyroid hormones by having regular blood tests is a great way to monitor this. If you are constantly being told that your blood tests are normal and you know you’re tired a lot of the time or ultra anxious, then please reach out to get help. The first thing to do is to look at the ways you manage stress, see below for some thoughts on this.
Other hormones that come into play are the ones that influence appetite.
Ghrelin and Leptin: The Appetite Hormones
Less oestrogen after menopause causes a decrease in Leptin, the hormone that suppresses our appetite and tells us when we’re full. Ghrelin on the other hand tells us when we’re hungry and it increases when our sleep patterns are disrupted.
Eating a balanced plate with plenty of protein, not too many carbohydrates and a good variety of vegetables can help us to keep these hormones more stable.
Also, Ghrelin may decrease when we stay hydrated. So it’s a great idea to have a glass of water each time you feel that need for a snack.
And last but by no means least I have to mention the stress hormones
Stress Hormones: The Fight or Flight Response
If you’re feeling stressed, your body releases stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Cortisol provides the body with glucose by tapping into protein stores which should give you an energy boost for a ‘fight or flight’ response. Over long periods, elevated cortisol levels consistently produce glucose, leading to increased blood sugar levels and the need for more insulin. This is why you reach for sweet treats when you are going through a stressful period in your life.
Designed for you to run away from danger your body produces sugar to give you energy. If you run away you use up that sugar. If you argue, miss a train or get anxious about a meeting, the sugar stays in your bloodstream.
Stress is known to increase our risk of disease but how do we deal with it? It’s not so much about stopping the stress in our lives (although that is a part of the equation) it is about the way we manage stress when we are exposed to it.
Having a regular calming practice in your life is a great way to teach your nervous system that it does not need to react to every little thing. Another thing you can do is ask yourself “Am I safe?” when you are faced with a situation that provokes anxiety. Most of the time stress and anxiety come from past or future events and not from the present moment, and in the present moment “We are safe” and that simple thought can calm the stress mechanism.
Ageing and Muscle Loss: Muscle Metabolism
With ageing, there is a natural loss of muscle mass. Since muscle contributes to the body’s metabolic rate, this means that a reduction in muscle mass can lead to a slower metabolism and increased fat storage, often around the abdomen.
This is why it’s even more important to keep moving and maintain our muscles as we age to keep the weight off and increase the way the body uses insulin.
I hope that I have explained all this in simple terms that you can relate to you and your body. However, if you’d like to find out more or have any questions about healthy eating and hormones then book a free 30-minute Discovery Call where I can answer your questions in person. Sometimes it is just best to talk things through!