Berry and Hibiscus Smoothie

Many of the women I work with arrive on their Free 30 minute Zoom call feeling at war with their bodies and not knowing where to turn. Peri-menopausal symptoms are ruining their days, weight gain is crashing every shred of confidence and they are anxious and exhausted from not being able to sleep at night.

Many women have already turned to their healthcare provider, looking for a fix to their midlife symptoms only to be told that it is normal to feel that way, to be offered an anti-depressant or to hear the absolute worst advice for a midlife women; Eat Less and Exercise More.

It can seem like magical thinking when I reassure women who are having a really hard time in menopause that food and nutrition is powerful and because We Are What We Eat, they can improve their sleep, feel more comfortable in their bodies and release weight when we are working together.

This is because real whole foods provide nutrition that is recognized and absorbed easily by the body and what nourishes us in one area of our body will nourish us across the whole body having a compounding positive impact on health.

You get to feel better than you even imagined you could.

Let me break it down :

You decide to eat more vegetables to get more fibre in your diet, because fibre is the midlife womans best friend and helps you to detox excess hormone out of the body.
BUT
​​You notice that you feel less tense in your body and are sleeping better at night, your mood lifts and you feel more mental clarity in your day.

​​Whats up with that?

Let me break it down

From the vegetables you eat you are getting masses of our relaxation mineral magnesium which supports your nervous and cardiovascular systems, promotes sleep and helps your muscles to relax naturally. It even helps you to poop (your daily detox) and you feel less bloated and constipated noticing that your favourite jeans fit that little bit better.

Greens also contain tons of easily absorbed calcium which build strong bones for future you and are packed with non-constipating plant based iron and anti-oxidants which dampen down inflammation, promote longevity and help you to feel very much more energized daily.

See?

The compounded effect of more vegetables in you diet truly impacts your health across your entire body and you start to feel really good all over in a way that you did not think was possible.

I decided to compound the positive effects on womens midlife health when I created this smoothie and married Hibiscus Tea with that nutritional power house; Berries.

Both Hibiscus and Berries are packed with anti-oxidants that help to prevent cancer and prevent aging.

They both help to lower blood pressure, support heart health and offer important micro-nutrition to your liver to help with detoxification.

Fibre from berries helps with constipation, supports the elimination of excess hormone from the body and helps to balance blood sugar levels which the nutrients in Hibiscus can do for you too! Double the benefits!

More importantly, both Hibiscus and Berries contain plant based chemicals that mimic estrogen in the body so you are drip feeding your beautiful midlife body a gentle form of the hormone your body is missing. It is going to make you feel goooood, relocate your libido and protect the health of your vagina.

This smoothie is for women who have lost their mojo, are missing their juicy hormone, see sex as just another chore and are overheating with uncomfortable hot flashes.

Give it a try and enjoy ALL of the benefits.

Ingredients

1 cup Raspberries
1 cup Blueberries
1-2” Fresh ginger chunked
1 tbsp Coconut oil
2-3 cups Hibiscus Tea

Instructions

Add all of the ingredients to a blender and whizz up on high until smooth.
Pour into a tall glass and enjoy as a pick me up in that afternoon slump.

Sleepy Time Chocolate Cherry Smoothie

For many of us, our first indicator that we are experiencing hormonal change is a loss of sleep and a rise in our anxiety levels. We lie awake at 4am every night running over our to-do list and putting the world to right.

Peri-menopause is the mother of all wake up calls for women and symptoms are the language our bodies use to tell us to listen in and take action to meet our own needs…perhaps for the first time in our lives.

Loss of sleep and heightened anxiety are telling us that our stress hormone cortisol has become dominant in the body as estrogen our juicy hormone depletes.

Lack of sleep speeds the aging process, puts at risk of dementia 10 to 20 years down the line and effects our mood on a daily basis. Sleeping too few hours at night is linked to weight gain and sugar cravings.

It is time to take responsibility for your sleep at night and establish healthy sleep hygiene.

1. Sleep hygiene begins first thing in the morning when it is helpful to get exposure to daylight on rising to ‘prime’ the sleep hormone melatonin released in the brain in the evening.

2. A good nights sleep can also be destroyed by your morning coffee, so switch to a Matcha Latte or herbal tea to avoid spiking the natural cortisol morning spike that is a part of your circadian rhythm. Shift your caffeine intake to the middle of the day between 11am and 1pm.

3. Move your body during the day and sweat.

4. Set a reminder on your phone to turn off all electronics by 7pm so that you can avoid the blue spectrum light that prevents melatonin your sleep hormone from being secreted.

5. Form a night time routine that helps you to relax in the evening. Go analogue and read a book or soak in an Epsom salts bath with lavender oil, knowing that your skin is absorbing the relaxation mineral magnesium into the body.

6. Keep your bedroom cool. The best room temperature for sleep has been found to be 60 - 67C.

You can add this adrenal gland supporting smoothie to your evening routine to promote sleep.

Vitamin C rich cherries are a rich source of naturally occurring melatonin (our sleep hormone) and the B group of vitamins. With the addition of the healthy fat, coconut oil, this smoothie supports the health of tired adrenal glands. When our adrenal glands are exhausted it indicates that cortisol our stress hormone is running high in the body, we find it hard to drag ourselves out of bed in the morning but can get a second wind and feel frazzled and wired in the evening unable to sleep.

This smoothie contains protein and raw cacao which actively boosts our happy neurotransmitter serotonin. This is important as serotonin and melatonin share the same building blocks in the body and serotonin is the pre-cursor to our body producing melatonin to help us to sleep at night. You do not need a clinical trial to tell you that your happiness and sleep are related!!!

The addition of valerian root serves to relax you and promote restful sleep. A randomized placebo controlled (This is the gold standard ladies) study of post menopausal women with insomnia found a statistical significant number of women registered better sleep outcomes when taking valerian.
Taavoni S, Ekbatani N, Kashaniyan M, Haghani H. Effect of valerian on sleep quality in postmenopausal women: a randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial. Menopause. 2011 Sep;18(9):951-5. doi: 10.1097/gme.0b013e31820e9acf. PMID: 21775910.

As the evening draws in and the body registers the natural darkness, without disruption from electronics and screens, melatonin is released to start the natural sleep cycle.

Midlife is the perfect time to get empowered around your sleep hygiene to turn off your electronic devices at 7pm, make yourself this smoothie, release the stress of the day and allow yourself to relax.

Ingredients

½ cup hot water

2 tbsp raw cacao powder

2 tbsp hemp hearts

1 tbsp organic virgin coconut oil

1 cup cherries, thawed if frozen

10 drops valerian extract

1 pinch sea salt

Instructions

Put all ingredients into the blender and liquefy until smooth.

Morning Detox Smoothie

This smoothie is adapted from a recipe by Dr Mark Hyman and is packed with dense nutrition. It is as thick as any thick shake you can buy form any diner and one hundred times more nutritious.

This Shake is a reset every morning to educate your taste buds and curb your sugar cravings.

Notice there is no banana in this recipe, no fruity mango or sweet dates.

Here the berries provide the sweetness and all other ingredient are mineral dense, protein rich or healthy fats to satiate your body and eliminate your cravings.

You are going to feel FULL after this shake, satiated, replete and will power through your morning without that sugar squirrel brain that keeps shouting muffin, candy or chocolate inside your head. It is a blessed release.

Let’s run through some of the gorgeous nutrition that is is this glass.
Berries bring the anti-oxidants, vitamin C and fibre
Avocado Loves us up with healthy fats, fibre and vitamin E, Avocado is also anti-inflammatory.
Almond Butter, Pumpkin Seed Butter, Brazil Nuts and Walnuts offer us health fats, protein and minerals.

When we do not get the minerals in our diet that we need, our brains start to get antsy and send us the message, via cravings, that we need to eat to eliminate our deficiencies. Often the only message we hear is sugar or salt, but the deficiency is far more subtle than that.

Pumpkin seeds are backed with zinc for healthy gums and tissues and to ensure a healthy immune system.
Brazil nuts are rich in selenium, a powerful anti-oxidant mineral that is highly supportive of our thyroid gland. Our thyroid gland is responsible for the big cycles in our bodies so a healthy thyroid gland means fired up metabolism which makes it ease to maintain our ideal weight, a smooth circadian rhythm with lots of great sleep and a regular menstrual cycle.

Minerals are important and are can be the reason why we are overweight but malnourished.

Hemp and Chia seeds give us a healthy dose of plant based protein, fibre and anti-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acids.

This shake is rich in anti-inflammatory nutrition because sugar is inflammatory to our bodies and the fat cells built up on our bodies by eating too much sugar in the diet release inflammatory cytokines into our bloodstream. Sugar creates a negative cycle that causes inflammation in the body when it is eaten and results in our bodies being systemically inflamed. You might call this depression, brain fog and physical pain.

The nutrition in this shake helps us to break that cycle.

Do you see what we are doing here?

This is not about cutting down on food to get yourself thin! This shake is all about deeply nourishing yourself in the morning to give your body the nutrition it needs so that you reduce your cravings for sugar and can finally stop beating yourself up inside your head for failing.

And as this is the case, this Morning Detox Smoothie is transformative.
Drink one each morning for a week and see how you are feeling, notice if your cravings have abated and recognize your body when it is fully and beautifully fuelled.

Ingredients

1 cup coconut, hemp. oat milk
1/2 cup filtered water
1 cup blueberries, raspberries, cherries fresh or frozen
1/4 lemon including skin and pith
1/4 avocado
1 tbsp almond butter
1 tbsp pumpkin seed butter (optional)
1 tbsp coconut oil or butter
2 walnuts
2 Brazil nuts
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp hemp seeds

Instructions

Add all ingredients to a high powered blender and blend until smooth
Use as a smoothie bowl base adding more fruit and nuts as desired or drink as a think shake