Why We Need to Calm the Fluff Down in Perimenopause

Last week I took off, out of season, to the wet and wild West Coast of Vancouver Island.

My mission: to deeply take care of my nervous system after the bustle of the holidays and new year celebrations.

Here are my quick seven steps to busting stress based on the action steps I took in the week.

1. I gave my phone a wake-up time and bedtime so I had my mornings and evenings phone free.

2. I put myself to bed at 8:30pm and woke with time to journal and meditate with my free Insight Timer app.

3. I took long walks on the beach, deeply immersing myself in nature and stopping to notice the small things.

4. I took with me deeply nourishing foods like bone broth, Thai Chicken and Vegetable Coconut curry and my protein rich Morning Glory muffins.

5. I drank no coffee to give my body a break from the cortisol and glucose spiking buzz.

6. I sat with a pot of cleansing and calming herbal tea to watch the rain while I let my mind dream and wander

7. I booked the most gorgeous massage.

I found a 'new' normal.

Down-regulation of your nervous system is a commitment. It takes boundaries and intention but comes with big rewards. Paying attention to creating a stress free environment or time can boost your energy, save your adrenal health, protect your brain health, inspire creativity and help you to reframe your life.

In our highly stressed and over-busy world, if your are feeling overwhelmed and if your are a woman in peri-menopause, consideration of your nervous system is a necessary life-skill.

In the natural process of menopause, the ovaries pass the baton to our adrenal glands so they can drip feed us low levels of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone to maintain our libido and protect our bone, brain and heart health.

Our experience of menopause is directly ties to our stress levels and adrenal health. Cortisol, our stress hormone will steal the building blocks for our juicy hormones which leaves us to Crash into peri-menopause with amplified symptoms of hot flashes, lost sleep and aches and pains in our joints and muscles.

Stress has stolen our adrenal health, the buffer to our menopausal symptoms.

Does this describe you…

Are you a woman who wakes feeling DREAD around your overpacked schedule each morning (or worse at 3am in the night)?
Do you run through your day with not one minute to yourself and rely on caffeine for energy and wine to relax at night?
Are you a perfectionist and currently not feeling happy with the state of your house, your lawn, your body, your fitness regime, your kids lives, kids grades or kids behaviour?

If this is you…

you need to take action now to reduce your daily stress and down regulate your nervous system for the sake of your hormonal health!

What boundaries can you create or what action can you take this week that will create a less stressful environment for your body?

Let me know in the comments below

High Protein and Fibre Morning Glory Muffins

If you get your information about menopause online, you would think your levels of estrogen and progesterone were the only hormones creating menopausal symptoms in your body.

In reality brain fog, weight gain around the middle, low libido, mood swings and dry ageing skin are also caused by raised levels of insulin and cortisol our stress hormone. Both of these hormones are raised when we are not balancing our blood sugar levels and eating a diets high in carbs and over processed foods. Raised insulin and cortisol also drive inflammation in our bodies which also makes our menopausal symptoms feel worse.

Cortisol, our stress hormone is also a hormone stealer as our bodies will use the building blocks for our juicy hormones to build our stress hormone in a survival mechanism called pregnenolone steal.

The mechanism for a woman’s menopause has been the same for thousands of years. Our ovaries pass the baton for producing estrogen, progesterone and testosterone on to our adrenal glands which drip feed us protective low levels of these hormones when we are post menopausal.

In our modern world, our adrenals are overworked from managing stress, exhaustion and poor metabolic health and they simply do not have the capacity to drip feed us the low levels of our juicy hormones we need to reduce and eliminate our uncomfortable symptoms. We crash into symptoms of menopause and lose the protection these hormones offer our brain, bone and heart health.

It feels like we are falling off a hormonal cliff at midlife, contributes to poor thyroid health, deteriorating metabolic health, anxiety and depression.

When we manage our diet to prevent our blood sugar form spiking and crashing everyday, it takes stress off our body and our adrenal glands can catch a break to start producing estrogen and progesterone.

A diet rich in protein, fibre and healthy fats will help us to balance our blood sugar levels, reduce our insulin and cortisol levels and in turn reduce our symptoms of menopause. Hormonal change is very much a metabolic event for women and we need to adjust our sails and be proactive with improving our diet and lifestyle so we can take care of our health.

I took a recipe for Morning Glory Muffins, often considered a healthy choice, but when you buy it in Starbucks it is packed with sugar and dialled up the protein and fibre to make a moist and flavourful muffin, delivering dense nutrition that is easy on your blood sugar level in the morning.

The first step was to replace grain flour with almond flour to add more protein, fibre, healthy fat and heart-healthy vitamin E. Eggs, Greek yoghurt and pumpkin seeds boost the protein content in the muffin.

Blackstrap molasses is used as the sweetener and is rich in iron for energy and to support thyroid function as well as calcium, and other trace minerals. It is an unrefined sweetener, packed with nutrition and gives the muffin a delicious malty flavour.

When our hormones start fluctuating, our body needs dense nutritional support and this muffin offers our bodies the fibre, protein and minerals we crave.

Ingredients
4 large eggs
1/2 cup greek or Icelandic Yoghurt
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup coconut sugar
1 tbsp Black Strap molasses
2 cups almond flour
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup grated apple (about 1 medium apple cored, keep peel)
1 cup grated carrot (about 2 medium carrots)
1/2 cup raisins or unsweetened cranberries
1/2 cup walnuts
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F 180 C
2. Line a 12 hole muffin pan with muffin papers
3. Whisk the first five ingredients together in a bowl
4. In a separate larger bowl stir together the next 6 ingredients, through to the ground cinnamon.
5. Add the grated apple, carrots, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and raisins or cranberries to the dry ingredients and stir through so the fruit and nuts are coated with the almond flour mix. This stops the heavy fruits and nuts falling to the bottom of your muffin.
6. Add the bowl of wet ingredients into the dry and stir together to combine to make a batter.
7. Portion the batter into the 12 muffin cases and bake in the over for 40 minutes or until a chopstick poked into the muffin comes out clean.
8 Cool on a rack and enjoy.
9 Because these muffins are so full moist and of fresh ingredients, they are best refrigerated or frozen individually to stay fresh.

Creamy Carrot, Chickpea and Tahini Soup

In each season of our lives there are different foods to support our health.

In perimenopause, foods rich in fibre become important in our diet as they help us to manage excess hormones in our bodies, encouraging us to ‘detox’ spikes in hormones when we do our daily poop.

In Menopause, foods with specific fibres which act as phytoestrogen support our overall health, as the choices we make with our meals can drip feed us estrodiol as these lignans and isoflavins protect our brain, bone and heart health.

When we understand nutrition and how food is a tool for us to powerfully step up and support our bodies in hormonal change, we understand we have the power to manage our menopause experince and and reduce our hormonal symptoms.

You have way more power in your hands and on your plate than you realize.

Chickpeas and sesame seeds are packed with phytoestrogens and sesame seeds are also rich in easily absorbed plant based calcium. I wanted to bring these two ingredients together with collagen rich bone broth and Middle Eastern flavours to make a soup that deeply supports our joint and bone health and at the same time reduces our menopausal symptoms.

Onions, garlic and thyme form the flavour back-bone of this soup with cumin, lemon and chilli pepper flakes freshening up the flavour palate.

When the chickpeas are blended into the soup, they have a smooth and creamy texture and tahini paste adds further unctuousness, without having to add dairy.

Top with 1/2 a diced avocado to extend the creamy on creamy vibe. Or serve with softly boiled eggs and cheese on toast for a perfect lunch, as I did below.

Ingredients

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion finely diced
3 medium carrots chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp ground cumin
1 x 14 oz can chickpeas
450 ml beef or chicken broth
Juice of 1/2 lemon
4 tbsp tahini
1/2 bunch parsley

Instructions

1. Add the olive oil to a soup pan and sauté the onion, carrots, garlic, thyme, red pepper flakes and cumin on a gentle heat until the onion begins to soften.

2. Add the broth and juice of 1/2 a lemon and simmer until the carrots are soft.

3. Add the chickpeas and simmer for another 5 minutes to combine all the flavours.

4. Put the soup in a high speed blender adding 4 tbsp tahini and 1/2 bunch parsley or add the tahini and roughly chopped parsley to the pan and blend with a hand blender until smooth.

5. Season to taste and serve with chopped vegetables and pitta bread.