Latest / Empower Your Menopause / Episode 59: The Stress-Weight Connection — How Chronic Stress Impacts Metabolism in Menopause

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Episode 59: The Stress-Weight Connection — How Chronic Stress Impacts Metabolism in Menopause · Empower Your Menopause

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hello there, welcome back to Empower Your Menopause, the show about health, hormones, and happiness for women 40 and beyond.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Julie here with Coach James from Fabulous Beyond 40.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Just want to give a quick heads up before we dive into our episode today.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Our free 360-degree feel better challenge is starting on the 15th of September.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Over the course of five days, we're going to cover five life pillars: how you think, eat, move, relax, and sleep.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And there's going to be a short daily live video, one simple action that's actually doable for you, and some friendly accountability in the private Facebook group we've set up for this challenge.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's even a prize draw.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: So you could win one of many prizes, including a three-month VIP membership to Club Fabulous Beyond 40.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And who doesn't want that?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're ready to feel more like yourself again, maybe better, grab your spot at 360 feel better challenge.com.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the link's in the show notes just in case you need to refer to it.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, all right, today we are unpacking how stress messes with your metabolism, especially in menopause, and what you can actually do about it.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, James, over to you.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's be blunt, right?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: We say this all the time, and we're probably gonna say it until we're blowing the face.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Stress is the absolute enemy of women in midlife.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Now, many new clients, when they first come to Sears, they talk about weight gain first.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of the things that most people are concerned with.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And before they come to seeers, they will happily try eating better and training harder because that is usually the advice that we're all given, right?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Eat better, train more, and things will work themselves out.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: But the thing that is usually holding them back, one of the things that we find a lot, is a mindset, but B, they're ignoring the stress load that's quietly wrecking all these plans.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's an uncomfortable truth.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Estrogen, our old friend estrogen, it does all this amazing stuff until you hit the menopause transition.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about it before, we've talked about how it helps with bone mineral density, we've talked about how it helps with blood sugar balance, which will factor into this a little bit.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about how it helps with your muscle mass, etc.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: But as oestrogen also has a really strong effect on helping moderate, modulate the stress system.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: There's something called the HPA axis, you don't really need to know what it is, but it's basically three glands: it's hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal glands, and that controls your stress response.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: And estrogen, when it starts to drop, the way that HPA axis responds to stress, it actually weakens.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: And what does that result in?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: In layman's terms, the signals of a hormone called cortisol, which is the one that tends to affect weight gain and play around with metabolism when it comes to stress, the signals of that get louder, right?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so that is just a biological thing.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: What's happening hormonally?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Then you've got to add into that the fact let's layer in some other things that are going on.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, the menopause, it's stressful of itself, right?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's a time of change, it's a time when you might be going through empty nesting, as people are leaving.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: I was talking to a client about that the other day, she's absolutely devastated, she's gone and bought herself a puppy because she's so concerned about empty nesting.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: You've got the change that's happening on your hormones and your body, so there's lots of stress going on just inherently throughout the menopause transition and the effects that it has on us from a mindset perspective.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: On top of that, you've got to factor in some of the other challenges.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: Many of the people who come to see us, and many of the people that we speak to actually wear busyness in midlife as a badge of honour, and so many women feel as though they've got to hold it together even when they're absolutely overwhelmed.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so, again, I was talking to somebody about this the other day.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: She was overwhelmed at all the stuff she had to do, and then she was doubly overwhelmed at the fact she had to pretend to all her friends that she wasn't overwhelmed, so she's got a double overwhelm there.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got this perfect storm going on.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got east we've got estrogen playing up, we've got menopause being stressful anyway.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: We've got the busyness of midlife when it comes to women.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: And what does that all come to?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: What does that perfect storm cook up?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, more irritability, more anxiety, poorer sleep.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Poor sleep then goes on to affect stress levels, which then exacerbates the cycle.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about that down the road.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: More brain fog, hotter, hot flushes, and yes, a nudge towards that more central weight gain.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And let's call them those sort of like carb-seeky cravings, whereby when we're flat on the floor from a stress level, an energy level, lack of sleep, first thing that we start reaching for in the kids' snack drawer is all the carby stuff.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's alright getting your protein right and doing your deadlifts in the gym, but if you're marinating in cortisol 24-7, your metabolism is going to notice and it's also going to be affected.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: So today we're going to show how stress drives things.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about the physiology and not fear-mongering, because it's really important, right?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about what's different in menopause, what changes.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk a little bit about where HRT, hormone replacement therapy, may or may not fit in.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, because after all, we're not endocrinologists, we are nutritionists and health coaches.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll talk a little bit about that, and we'll talk about some practical levers that might actually move the needle for you.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: So let's go through this one by one.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Starting off, Julie, I'm gonna hand this over to you because it feels like it's right in your wheelhouse.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Why does cortisol in inverted commas absolutely love people's waistlines?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and it does, for sure.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, this isn't just for women in menopause, this is for everyone because this is what cortisol does and what stress does, but it's especially true for women in menopause because our bodies naturally want to store more fat around the middle.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And again, we'll talk more about that in detail.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So there are two different kinds of stress, right?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: We have acute stress and then we have chronic stress.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Acute stress is when a car is swerving toward you and you evade the accident and you get on and you have that moment of heart fluttering and breathless, and you feel that surge of adrenaline through through your body.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then you return, you take a breath, you return back to normal and go on with your day.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Chronic stress is when that response stays elevated and doesn't stop.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Your our stress cycle, that HPA axis that James talked about has a way of functioning where we respond to the stress, our body um cortisol and adrenaline, our stress hormones all surge so that we can escape the danger.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're supposed to close that loop and come back to balance.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: But today's lifestyle doesn't really permit us to do that.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's all this stuff coming at us from so many different directions, and then you add on to that um menopause and busy lives and overwhelm, etc.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: So it flips on that alarm internally and it just doesn't shut off.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, your body is releasing cortisol when it shouldn't be.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And cortisol is actually useful when we have it at the right time of day.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, what we want is to again close that loop and let cortisol go back down to where it needs to be.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So when we have you know that short and sharp stress response, that's that's useful for us because it helps us avoid a dangerous situation or respond well.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: But when it's constant, it it means trouble.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: So when we have that long-term stress going, cortisol is going to increase our appetite.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it is going to make us crave the kinds of things that are comforting, like the carby and sugar and high-fat foods that we tend to turn to, whether that's cookies or chocolate or crisps or you know, whatever that might be.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And because of the way cortisol works, it will shift the fat storage preferentially to your midsection.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that abdominal area becomes well, you can have a beer belly without ever drinking beer, right?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because that comfort food is our is like a self-medication and it just continues to add on.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Even though we don't advocate counting calories, we do need to be careful about taking in excess calories, especially when we are constantly stressed.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So this isn't about this isn't about willpower.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is about your biology.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: But the good thing is that we can modify this because we can modify the way we respond to stress.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one other thing I'll say is that you know increased cortisol also messes with insulin, which is the hormone that regulates your blood sugar balance.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And again, that's something that women in midlife really need to be focused on.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you can think of insulin as sort of the traffic cop of the sugar in your body, right?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: When there's too much cortisol circulating in your body, it confuses the traffic from going where it needs to be.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So high blood sugar can end up causing your body again to store more belly fat.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: So when you add in other stresses and the loss of sleep that we tend to have at this stage of life, and people are you know proud of the fact that they can get by on four or five hours of sleep when we know that's not healthy, losing sleep acts like a stress multiplier.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, in um, there's been some research done, and in lab and real-world trials, restricting sleep actually pushed daily intake up by more than 500 calories on average.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And extending sleep time reduced intake, food intake, and created a negative energy balance.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that means that sleep can actually help you lose weight.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's when your body repairs, it's when those cycles get back to normal, it's when you calm and restore.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll get into menopause in a bit.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: But when you have that estrogen going normally, it regulates your stress activity.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: But when we that change happens and we lose those protective effects, again, as James said, it can it can alter how that HPA axis behaves and it can mean our stress loop stays open.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I mean, just curious if you can think about this on a scale of one to ten, how has your personal stress system felt this week?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And did your food choices mirror that?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's an interesting thing to journal on because we can often see those correlations that we don't see on a day-to-day basis.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when stress goes up, so do our specific food choices.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: So there's your physiology.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, why does midlife turn the dial up?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Menopause, cortisol patterns, shifting toward belly fat and HRT, which may or may not be a fit for you.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um so, James, your turn.
• 11:47
  unknown: Yeah.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I sketched over this a bit earlier, and through midlife, most women notice a shift towards more fat around the belly area.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: And that can sometimes happen, even if the scales don't necessarily take a huge jump.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: So your scale can be saying the same the same thing, but it may just be feel as though the fat is accumulating more around your body.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's not you imagining that it does actually happen.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: Studies show an increase in fat across the transition.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: The challenge with this is that having more of what they call visceral fat, that's the fat that is around your tummy, around your gut, around your organs, is more linked with both metabolic and heart risk.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously, there are two things that also are challenged by the fall in estrogen as well.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's it's almost layering one thing on top of another.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Again, we sketched over this before and Julie mentioned it a little bit, but estrogen also manages blood sugar in and menopause.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: So that is a really, really important thing.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: When estrogen is not cushioning that blood sugar response, the body is going to be more prone to store fat in the midsection.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing within all this, of course, is that when you are super stressed through the menopause transition and estrogen has dropped, your body needs estrogen from somewhere.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: So there are two natural sources post-overy stopping making it.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: One is in your adrenal glands, in your in your stress glands, and therefore, if you're stressed all the time, they won't preferentially produce estrogen.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then the second one is in your body fat.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: So your body's absolutely working against it because your body wants to store fat because it acts as an part of the endocrine system and actually starts releasing estrogen itself.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: So your body is more prone to wanting to hang on to it.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we know that studies show that the more stressed women women are at this time of life, the more their metabolism is imbalanced.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really, really important.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a quick word about HRT.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about this before.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: There are some studies that show that hormone therapy has been linked with less gain when it comes to deep belly fat.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's important to realise that HRT is not a fat loss drug, it's not for everyone, it's something that you really need to talk to your clinician about.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: As I said, we're not nutritionists.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, sorry, we are nutritionists and coaches, we aren't endocrinologists, so it's really, really important.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I suppose if you want a one-line metaphor for all this, maybe think of metopause as a body changing its storage postcode.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: So there's less fat going to be stored in your hips and thighs, and more around your tummy.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: But there are things you can do about this, of course, that we'll come on to in a little bit.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: So the biology kind of sets the stage for it, but it's not the absolute end goal of all this.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start by talking about the effect that all this has stress affecting metabolism, affecting our dietary choices.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: And again, Julie, I think this is kind of like one of the bits when where you can come in and offer your own insight.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, why is it that women at this stage of life end up being so snacky?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: What's going on with that sleep, stress, snack loop?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it it really is a loop.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, women are more prone to emotional eating anyway.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: So when things are fluctuating and we're feeling stressed at this higher stress, I should say, at this phase of life, it tends to feed into that, if you'll excuse the pun.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so when you're when you're not getting enough sleep, your body needs energy from somewhere.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we tend to want to eat more because that's our natural go-to to get energy.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when we want quick energy, we're I don't know anyone who craves broccoli.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, so so the first thing we tend to go for are those carby, snacky foods that are quick to eat, readily available, um, convenient, and they soothe not only that need for quick energy, but also that emotional need to manage our stress a little bit.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we don't get enough sleep and we're looking for that extra energy, it's really common for women to eat more, especially at night.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Feeling that um I've heard a lot of people talk about struggling with late-night eating, um, even after they've had a reasonable dinner.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: So um it can cause, again, while we don't advocate counting every calorie, when you're talking about hundreds of calories at a time, it can make a big difference.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Also, during this phase of life, your brain changes, and when you're not sleeping properly, you get um your brain is designed to want to seek out those things that are going to give you some energy.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: So the reward centers of your brain are going to light up when they see those things like chocolate and crisps and biscuits.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: So the the thinky part of the brain, if you will, that was normally will put on the brakes thinking logically, like I don't really want that right now, it's not going to make me feel good later.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Those parts of the brain are are more sluggish.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: So junk foods look better to us, and it becomes a lot harder to say no.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one of those, what it's one of those habit loops because our subconscious mind gets used to something.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I did this once and it made me feel good, and therefore, next time I want to feel good, I'm going to seek out that thing.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it becomes unconscious that we do that because we just get into autopilot, but we can actually change that.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the other thing is when we look at things that happen during menopause, our routines change, right?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the kids are getting older or leaving home, and we don't have that same routine that we had.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, late nights, a lot of people are working longer hours, erratic meal times, especially if you're working a night shift.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: It can really dial down the amount of energy that you burn, and it can affect the way your body controls blood sugar, and you end up becoming more insulin resistant, you have higher cravings, and you know, you're sleeping even less.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you get that constant cycle going on.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: However, as I mentioned before, even adding one hour of sleep, um, the research showed adding one hour of sleep to people who were continually sleep deprived led to lower calorie intake in a real-world trial.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we're always talking about small steps and small steps leading to big changes, and I think that's pretty significant.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you can fit in and work up to that extra sleep time, you will very likely see a difference.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: So some of the some of the things you can do, and again, these we realize these have to fit into real lives of real people.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: So when you can actually give yourself some window time, ideally 60 to 90 minutes before bedtime, most nights start turning the lights down or some of the lights off, get rid of those screens.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's hard to do, but try reading a real book for a change or or just listening to some music.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe take a warm shower, lights out, same time every night.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: That really does help.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you feel like you really, really need a snack, doing something that's pre-planned, that that has protein and fiber that you actually like, so you will eat it.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, like Greek yogurt and berries or an apple and cheese, these are things that that won't, what do I want to say, sabotage your well-being quite as much as some of those things that come in packets.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, before you go into the kitchen, this is something that's helped me because when I'm not having a stressful work day, I often find myself standing in the pantry looking for food.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Give yourself a two-minute break.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Just take some some do some deep breaths, um, maybe take a lap around the house.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: I do that uh regularly to take two minutes to play with the dog, and then decide if you still really want the snack.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's just a matter of of stopping that that uh breaking that chain and stopping that um unconscious activity.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: And when you wake up in the morning, if you can get some outdoor light within about an hour of waking up, it'll help your body clock reset and your circadian rhythms reset so that if you get up at a consistent time and you go to bed at a consistent time, and you're exposed to some natural light that can really help the way your brain processes some of that stress and helps you get to bed.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's lots of other things that you can do.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Planning ahead, planning ahead is so helpful because we get to decision fatigue at the end of our busy and stressful days.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: So knowing what you're going to eat, you know, planning the next day, even if you don't plan a whole week at a time, planning the next day what you're going to eat, uh, so that you don't have to end up lost for what to decide and just grabbing whatever's convenient and comforting at that at that point.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we we worked with a client who added somewhere between 45 and 60 minutes of sleep and a pre planned default snack.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Her waste actually changed before the scales did.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: So again, this isn't this is real life stuff.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're not just saying, oh, wouldn't it be nice if you could try these things?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: So if you added 30 to 60 minutes of sleep to your routine this week, where would it fit?
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Where would it fit?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: How could you fit that into your schedule or how could you start?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if you decide that you can't really give up that late night snacking, what would your default healthier option for a snack be?
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: So think about that.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if your biology is nudging you toward all those snacky beds, um, let's talk about why you're not stuck and see where we can stack some other habits that are going to move the needle, even when you don't feel like you have any space left to change things.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: James?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's the key thing here, isn't it?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: Not that this is anything new on what you've just talked about, but more talking about what specific actions can you do?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: Small actions that where you can pick one or two and see if you can do them well for a week, right?
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: So this is about bringing in some habits.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: We fully cognizant that it's really hard to talk about balance at this stage of life.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: If we sit here just saying, Okay, we know you're stressed out, you know, go and do 60 minutes of yoga, go and do uh half an hour of Pilates, go and take a Tai Chi lesson, you know, sit and meditate for an hour.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: Most of you are gonna say, F that, we're not doing it because we don't have the time to do it.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so you know it's important when we talk about advice to make it as real-world advice as possible.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, what are the little things?
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: Julie talked there about sort of like protecting your sleep window and how can you do it?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about how trials show that by improving your sleep you can actually reduce your weight.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: So, so what could you commit to?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: What is one small thing?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: Is it you know putting your phone down before bed an hour before bed and moving it to a different room?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Is it buying some uh earplugs that will make the room um quieter for you?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: Is it sort of like buying some blackout curtains that will actually black out the windows and make sleeping better for you?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: So think of one thing that you can do when it comes to sleep, any of those things we do, you may have your own ideas, okay?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: That idea of breathing or going for a walk before you before you hit the kitchen.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you might not have time to go outside and do a 10-minute walk.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: So could you just take four to six really big deep belly breaths before you actually reach for the snack?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: That could be a habit that you could pop in as soon as you head to the thing and leave a post-it note on the cupboard if that helps, saying breathe.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's all it's got to say.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody else has to know about it, right?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know, we talked about before trying to get more protein into your diet is really, really key.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: More protein and more fiber, they're the two things that are gonna help best with blood sugar balance.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now, recommendations are sort of like you know, trying to get around 35 grams, 40 grams of protein per per meal, you know, or a palm-sized portion, we prefer to talk about it, so you're not sitting and weighing things out.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sitting here and going straight off and saying, right, I'm gonna hit that with every single meal, it's gonna be a challenge, and it's just gonna add to the extra overwhelm.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: So just pick one meal where you could do that.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, is it breakfast, is it lunch, is it dinner where you could just add a bit more protein in or a little bit more fibre?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: That could be something as easy as if you have some yogurt and some fruit in the morning, and adding some more fibre could be as simple as just sprinkling a spoonful of flaxseed over the top of it, yeah, to help.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: Really, really simple.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, gym work is always going to help when it comes to both reducing stress and helping your metabolism as well.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: Lifting, talk about it a lot, lifting some weights, heaviest weight, heaviest weights in the gym.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: If you join our club Fabulous Beyond 40, we give you tons and tons of workouts that you can do, all specifically designed for women in menopause.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't want to join us, that's absolutely fine.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Find a friendly personal trainer who can come up with a menopause-friendly program for you.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't you don't have to be doing it five times a week.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: Choose two 30-minute sessions during the week where you can do that and bring it in.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: It will help massively.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then for me, the number one thing out of all the things you could habit stack.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna stack anything, Julie touched on it before, pre-planning is so key to all this.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say meal planning over the course of the weekend, when hopefully things are a little bit stressed because most of us work Monday through Friday, kids won't be at school then.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: You can sit down for half an hour, plan out your meals, plan out your snacks for the week, and then go and execute it by going to the supermarket.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: You will gain so much control over what enters your body when you're feeling stressed, which is one of the challenges when it comes to this whole metabolism thing, by actually knowing what you want at certain times.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Plan it plan it down to your snacks, you know, really, really simple, and then just buy that stuff in.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: If it's pre-packed, you know, packages of beef jerky or something like that, that is your go-to protein snack, absolutely perfect.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: If it's just a piece of fruit, plan it in.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because if it's planned, you're less likely to reach for something else.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, pick two of those things.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: I've just suggested there are a litany of them, and Julie suggested some before, you know, and do them boringly well.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: Be as boring as you can for the next seven days by just doing them consistently because your metabolism is going to notice what you do on most days rather than just what you do on a Monday.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: So pick two levers, do them boringly consistently.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um Julie, do you just want to do a final recap of everything that we've talked about then?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Before we Yeah, totally.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we talked about chronic stress, keeping your alarm system on, nudging up your appetite, making your choices more likely to be those quick hit foods, and favoring fat storage around the midsection.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a character flaw, it's your biology, but you can work with it once you're aware.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Awareness is key.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, secondly, we know the dial shifts when we're in menopause.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: We have less estrogen, which means those alarms can ring louder, and our default storage becomes the waste.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's common and changeable, although we do need some of that fat to produce estrogen, but lowering stress would be even better so the adrenals can take on their share.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the the things that work aren't fancy or complicated.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: We see all of these push for these special programs and special supplements.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: When you start by protecting your sleep window, maybe use that two-minute breath or a little walk before you before kitchen or pantry raids, you know, anchoring your meals to protein and fiber.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: These are the things lifting weights, moving your body most days in some way, making plans ahead.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to negotiate with your snack foods.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have control over you.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: But these are the things that are boring and unfancy, but they work.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: They're boring and unfancy and they work, they just don't sell big fancy programs.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Not that it's easy, but it is simple.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, of course, we're here to support you if there's anything that we can do to help you get that on track.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, James, you want to wrap us up?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, if this hit home and you want some help putting some of the things we've talked about into practice, join our free 360-degree feel better challenge.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: It starts September the 15th.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, in about this drops on a Friday, so 10 days' time.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: Over five days, we'll talk about five different pillars.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about how you think, how you eat, how you move, how you relax, and how you sleep.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: Short daily live sessions with myself and Julie on our in our Facebook group where we'll be jumping on for 15-20 minutes and we'll give you one double action a day.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: The whole thing should be wrapped up in about 15 minutes.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: If you do that and you're consistent, we talked about consistency before, we'll give you a little scorecard.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: Fill that in you, send it back to us.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: We'll enter you into a prize draw where the top prize is a three-month VIP spot in our club Fabulous Beyond 40 membership.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's worth uh just under 500 pounds or around 650 dollars if you're listening in the US of A.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: If you're listening anywhere else, I'm sorry, my mind right now can't do all the currency calculations, but hopefully you'll be able to work it out from that 450 pounds, 600 uh 480 pounds rather than 650 uh US dollars.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: So grab your place at 360 feel better challenge.com.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: We'll put the link in the show notes as well so you don't miss it.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, next week we'll be talking about another really interesting subject.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's the gut connection.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: Why our digestive health affects absolutely everything.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's a big one.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk you through what's going on in your gut, we'll talk you through how to test what's going on in your gut, and we'll talk about what you can do if you test and you get those results.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks for listening.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: We've been James and Julie from Fabulous Beyond 40.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: We will see you next week.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: Stay strong, stay fabulous.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: Take care.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.