[00:00:37] Vesna:Welcome to the Peak Revival Podcast. My name is Vesta. I'm gonna talk about the body changes that occur during menopause and perimenopause and why nothing works anymore.
So in this podcast, I really wanna talk about what is going on there, why nothing works, and what you should be focusing on. So the common physical changes that women notice is the weight gain, particularly the belly fat. Okay? So you're starting to get [00:01:00] more fat around the waist.
So the muffin top or the spare tire, and. Also muscle loss. And so you may find that you got, you know, the arms are hanging, the butt's gone really flat. you're just losing muscle all over, and that's called sarcopenia. And that is common in our forties and accelerates with perimenopause and menopause.
But there are things that you can do to prevent and reverse that. The other thing that women notice, along with the weight gain and the belly fat and the muscle loss, is the muscle pain and joint pain. Shoulder pain, any kind of joint pain, any kind of neck pain. and also the puffy face and the puffy neck.
So I know that this is really frustrating and it's a concern for women because nothing works like it used to it. Kind of freaks you out because you wonder if anything is gonna work ever again or you're stuck in this place and that this is the way that it is from now on. And so normally what I see is that women would do different fad diets and cutting outage food groups and doing [00:02:00] all crazy things, which doesn't bring them the relief that they're looking for.
But this yo-yo dieting is going to affect the metabolism, more in not the way that you want. Okay? So while it is frustrating. I wanna give you some solutions and things to give you some ease because you really have to understand that it's only a temporary stage of your life okay? This is only a temporary stage.
And so look at anything else in your life. If you've ever gained weight before, if you've been pregnant, right? And look at that in the same way. This is a very temporary stage, and it will pass. And so some things need to be realigned. There are some things that catch up with us as we get into our forties, and so we need to rebalance those and I'm gonna talk about those.
Mm-hmm. The other thing that I wanna touch on is that unfortunately and very sadly in our. Well today, particularly with social media, is that aging is just like not acceptable, right? It's not seen, it's not mirrored for us in a very healthy way. We see celebrities that look younger than what they [00:03:00] really are.
We see social media, we filters. And so even when you look at yourself, I think, I don't even look like that, of course, because you don't have a filter on your face when you're looking in the mirror. And so it really messes with our head and really messes with our psychology. And sadly, that is. a part of life that it is today.
And I think it's really important to find people that are aging really well, in a sense of taking care of themselves, have their vitality, have energy, have a youthful nature about them. Like it's one thing to, physically see the signs of aging. It's another thing to see someone who is very youthful and so quite often.
You'll see people who have a lot of energy and a lot of vitality, and they will be mistaken for much younger. Now, I'm not saying that in a way that you shouldn't accept that the number that you're at, but what I'm am saying is that energy and vitality is very youthful. It doesn't matter your age. Okay?
And so it's really good if you can focus there rather than your, you know, dress size or how many wrinkles you have or whatever it is.
So let's get into it. [00:04:00] What are the solutions that will help you with the physical changes? So, number one, and I did a podcast on this in episode 46. Make sure you're not programming yourself, okay? I don't know about you, but I think the conversation about perimenopause and menopause, but particularly perimenopause has absolutely exploded online.
Everyone is talking about it from Oprah to celebrities to everyday influencers. Everyone is talking about the symptoms of perimenopause. All these crazy symptoms. I've heard things like dry ears and you know, frozen shoulder and a twinge in the back, and obviously the hot flushes and whatnot. But I want you to make sure that you're not programming yourself because when we are taking in all of this information constantly, and because we're being bombarded with it, that information has a way of programming us in a sense to say.
Oh, well this is a part of getting older. Well, this is what happens to a woman in her forties, or this is what happens to a woman going through perimenopause. So I want you to make sure that you [00:05:00] limit that information. Some of it may seem really helpful the more that you know, but I promise you more information will not put you at ease.
More information is only going to program you to expect that, and it's going to put that in your psychology. It's going to put that in your body, okay? And so we wanna make sure that number one, you're not programming yourself. So limit the information that you're reading about perimenopause. Limit the people that you follow you find end, especially that when you are listening to them, that you feel.
Oh yeah, that is perimenopause. Oh my goodness. That's really bad. Like something that feels heavy for you, but even not even if it's just way too much information. Okay. So minimize the information so you're not program yourself.
The second thing I wanna talk about is the metabolism and the metabolic control center. So it's. Very common for women at this stage to go, okay, that used to work for me my whole life and it doesn't work anymore, so now I'm going to restrict my calories even more. I'm going to go hungry, or I'm [00:06:00] going to cut out major food groups, or I'm just gonna exercise so much more, In order to lose. The weight. And the thing is, women can feel more hungry, they get more cravings and they feel powerless around their cravings. And so what I want to touch on is that the metabolic control center, or our body's metabolism has kind of this, inner a control center that regulates how much we burn during the day, how much body fat that we burn, and whether or not we feel hungry and whether or not our cravings are really low, almost non-existent. Okay. You don't control that yourself. Okay. When you're not controlling that mentally, you're not controlling that by the number of calories that you're putting in, right?
The metabolic control center is controlling that. So the frustrating thing can be, well, I've done all the right things. Why isn't it working? And maybe restrict more. But that's not going to change what the metabolic control center does. That's its job, but we can influence what is going into the metabolic control center. basically we [00:07:00] influence the metabolic control center and then it does what it does, which is regulate our metabolic burn rate, our hunger and our cravings.
We don't actually have, control over that. That's part of a system that's automatic. Okay? So just like breathing and your heart beating, you can't control that. Okay? I mean, you can hold your breath, but not while you're sleeping. so that's an automatic process and that is how I want you to see your metabolism.
the information that the metabolic control center picks up on, which then adjusts all the levers and the buttons and adjusts. Everything inside is in what changes our metabolism. So the information that's going in our sleep, our sunlight, our stress, our food sources, whether they're processed or whole, those are the things that influence the metabolic control center.
That's what we can do. So are you getting enough sleep? Are you getting enough sunlight? Are you seeing the, the sunrise in the morning, right? Really big impact on our metabolism. Where is your stress at? are your stress levels too high? Are you not doing anything to reduce mental stress, reduce emotional [00:08:00] stress?
You have nothing in place to help your body feel more calm? And what are your food sources looking like? Are you going for more processed food? Packaged food? Are you too busy to cook? Are you cooking at home or are you eating out? That information tells a metabolic control center what to do. And then from there, it influences.
Actually how much fat we have in our body or how much we're burning off. And I hope that makes sense because I know that it feels like you should just be more restrictive, but that's not the answer. The other systems to look at are the thyroid and gut health. So as we enter perimenopause and menopause, it's a very precarious time for our thyroid health, or our thyroid gland, or our thyroid hormones. So our thyroid hormones, our T three, our T four TSH, they all help to regulate our metabolic burden rate.
So really the thyroid is the queen of the metabolism. And what happens in our forties is that Basically any bad habits that we've had throughout our life catch up with us. the time of the thyroid, where we can [00:09:00] have, you know, thyroid issues or thyroid imbalances, we are looking at, in the beginning at puberty we are looking at pregnancies and then perimenopause.
So they're the times that it gets a bit rocky for the thyroid. And so looking at thyroid health, checking your thyroid hormones. You know, your TSH, your T three, your T four, your reverse, T three, your antibodies, all of those to make sure that your thyroid health is, where it needs to be. Okay? And that's a very common symptom or very common imbalance in perimenopause and also gut health.
Okay? So looking after gut health. So that should really go hand in hand because our gut influences our thyroid. Most of our undirected thyroid conditions are due to our gut. The other system to be wary of or to address is the HPA axis. So this is part of the stress response system. So when you are looking at, you know, I talk a lot about burnout or adrenal fatigue.
The symptoms of adrenal fatigue and burnout look a lot like perimenopause. And the reason being is that as you are going through [00:10:00] perimenopause and menopause, it's your adrenal glands that start to be more active. To work with your body fat to produce more of the hormones that you need to transition with ease, right?
And so if you're burnt out, if you're exhausted, if you've got adrenal fatigue, if your cortisol's high or low, then that transition is going to be harder because those glands are already preoccupied with the stress response system, right? they don't have the capacity to do the other work, which is hormone production.
They can only help with the stress hormone production, so they kind of get hijacked, and that means a harder transition into menopause and a lot more perimenopausal symptoms. the final thing I wanna say is really be careful with hypervigilance. Okay? So it's around this time because of the body changes.
You don't like it, you can't accept it. I've never been like this. I've always been able to manage it, and it really throws women off center and they really feel like they don't have control over the body. Okay? And one of the things that can happen is I become [00:11:00] so focused on it, right? Why am I not losing weight?
Why isn't anything working? But I'm doing all the right things. Tomorrow I'll cut out this and then I read another thing and then take another supplements, but it's still not working, but I'm doing everything that constant hyper focus or hyper vigilance on the symptoms, right? And I get that it's frustrating, but that hypervigilance is keeping you in a stress response.
All day long, those stress hormones are interfering with your thyroid hormones, which is the queen of the metabolism. It's sending the wrong information into the metabolic control center, telling the control center that well, it's a very stressful time. We need more carbohydrates, so more cravings, right?
It's not safe to burn body fat for fuel at this time, so we'll storm all. So the hypervigilance or the hyper focus. Is actually a barrier to you getting the results that you want. So you really have to come to a place of acceptance and really just kind of lean back a little bit. Try to stay calm and.
Except right for [00:12:00] a lot of women, they can't accept that. And I'm not saying that acceptance means you are never going to change and you won't take the right actions in order to get your health back to what it was and reduce some of these symptoms. But acceptance is not fighting against your body.
It's not being a stuck in a state of hyper vigilance, which is resistance to where you're at. The resistance is gonna create more stress and it's going to keep you stuck. It's probably one of the number one things that I see in. All chronic conditions that keeps people stuck is a resistance to their symptoms.
Okay? And so that constant focus is resistance. Okay? So. Be wary of hypervigilant. So there, there is a lot that you can do. The number one thing is be kind to yourself, right? Just look at this as a transition period. It's temporary, it's not permanent, and just ease into some of these things, right? Looking at what you can do to get your system back on track.
Leave a comment below and let me know what you are experiencing. What are your symptoms at the moment that you are kind of seeing as [00:13:00] perimenopause?
