My Wellness Journey
I decided to include a wellness tab in this blog because in the last two or three years, wellness has become a top priority for me.
I am 53 and two and a half years ago, I started my menopause journey - if you are woman near my age or older, you understand how difficult this can be and if you are a younger woman, it might help you to know what to expect and how you can hopefully go through menopause gracefully. If you are a man, it is good and important for you to know what this experience is like for women - as far as I am aware, I don’t think men experience anything like menopause and it might help you to more sympathetic and understanding to your partner or the other women in your life.
My entire life, I have been active and thin-ish. In my 30’s, I started to gain weight but managed to keep it off with exercise and fad dieting. In my early 40’s, I was at the peak of my fitness. I was at my ideal weight, I was strong and I felt amazing. In my mid 40’s I started peri-menopause. This is the period of time when a woman’s hormones begin to decline as she approaches menopause. I also sustained a foot injury that held on for two years at which point I gained about 20 lbs. I still remained as active as I could but the injury in combination with my lack of discipline when it came to eating healthy did not serve me well.
In September of 2021, I hired a personal trainer. This was a great financial sacrifice to me at the time and still is but I knew that I needed consistent guidance, motivation and accountability. I was referred to my trainer, Adam Davis, by my friend Lauren and for the first four months, we trained remotely on FaceTime. I am lucky enough to have a decent gym set up in my garage. It was Covid Times. I was 100% committed. I followed his nutrition plan and fitness plan 100%. In four months I lost 25 lbs. Then my period stopped and I stopped losing weight. I managed to keep it off for a year but one year ago, the weight started to creep up and with that extremely frustrating reality, my nutritian discipline wained.
I am being honest. I was no longer following the nutrition plan 100%. I was, I would say - 75% consistent but would binge on sugar from time to time which (when you are going through menopause) you simply cannot do and expect to see results. Menopause makes losing weight for a woman extremely difficult. You are tired because you are hot flashing and up several times in the night to pee or because you need to rip the covers off. When you are tired, your resolve can be weak and temptation can win. Temptation has won over my resolve too many times to count. One thing I never stopped doing was my three times a week strength training sessions (now in person) with Adam and with that - this straight arrow of determination to overcome my weaknesses.
A month ago, I hired an Optimal Health company to do a complete blood panel to address my menopause systems. I am not ready to recommend them just yet as I have only been on Hormone Replacement Therapy for two weeks. I am told it usually takes six to eight weeks for the HRT to kick in for your menopause symptoms to subside. At that point, they re-test your blood to make adjustments. The goal is optimal health.
I am adding in this tab to re-commit to my full health journey with Adam. I know that I am capable of being disciplined and 100% committed. The feeling I get when eating sugar is something I wish I could remember in the moment and something I still need to work towards. Sugar makes my joints ache, my arthritis to flare, prohibits weight loss and promotes weight gain, inhibits sleep and mentally messes with me more than anything.
I am super strong physically. I climb steep mountains, I just did a Spartan Race. I can still run three miles (if forced LOL ). I want my body to reflect how hard I work. My mind needs to follow suit.
I hate New Years Resolutions so this is not one of those. The reality for women is that at a certain point, most of us need to change how we eat permanently. I think that once we get where we feel good, we can manage to get away with a 90/10 approach which I think is livable and sustainable if not denying reality.
So to begin this new commitment, these are the ten principals I, personally, am going to adhere to:
Drink 90 oz of water daily
Track my Macros
Three Strength Training Sessions Per week
Four Zone 2 Cardio Sessions Per Week
Mobility Work and Pain Free Work Daily
8000 steps a day (I am setting this low because effort is still involved to get to this step count but it is still achievable).
7 hours of sleep per night (I have to get up so early every day that getting 8 hours is not possible unless I got to bed at 6:30 - which…I really can’t do.)
Take my supplements/meds/HRT Daily
Meditate Daily (even if it’s just for five minutes)
Practice kindness and grace with myself and others.
Here’s to a Happy and Healthy 2024!
