Letting go of Diet Mentality
Diets don’t work. We all know this but sometimes continue to search for the diet that will give us the results we are looking for long term. A diet that is sustainable and seamless to integrate into our life. If, like me, you were a teenager in the 80s, diets were everything we obsessed about, and yet, we never had body confidence because we were always striving for the supermodel figure that we were never going to achieve. We were never happy with the body we were given because society expected something different to what we were, and to be accepted…….the cycle continued.
Diet Mentality of the 80s
Teenagers from the 80s are now 50-something menopausal women, who, in some cases still have the diet mentality and strive to achieve a body that isn’t sustainable to maintain. When I see my menopausal clients, many of them are coming to me because they have gained weight around the middle, which is very common in menopause and aging. They are very distraught about it, and rightly so, I was too. However, it isn’t just the weight gain, it’s all the other symptoms that are coming for the ride also – low energy, brain fog, mood swings, hot flushes, disturbed sleep, and just not knowing who you are anymore. The weight gain feels like it’s everything because that’s always been our yardstick, but the confusion about what is happening clouds any reasoning to even know where to begin. So, we go back to what we have always known, what has worked in the past…….only to find that dieting and exercising as we used to is not the answer. It’s not working anymore.
Letting go of diet mentality in Menopause
Menopause brings with it a change in our physiology and metabolism, mostly due to lowered oestrogen. What many women don’t realise though, is that a diet alone is not the answer. Punishing yourself with exercise isn’t either. Neither is calorie counting. Depriving yourself of macros…..nope, not that either.
We have to let go of the diet mentality.
What we do have to do, is look at our overall lifestyle, what I call the Pillars of Self Care. Women are generally givers, and people pleasers and rarely have themselves at the top of their priority list. We generally cope with this in our 20s and 30s and don’t even give it a second thought. If you have spent years looking after everyone else, and rarely looking after yourself, Menopause will most often be the time in your life that you don’t have a choice – you are almost forced to make yourself a priority. It is imperative for your long-term health, management of your symptoms and understanding of what is happening to your body in menopause.
The Pillars of Self Care
As a nutritionist, who is now post-menopausal, I too, experienced all the debilitating symptoms. I had no idea what was happening to me – but I knew that I was miserable, confused and f#*king tired. Something had to change if I wanted to see a glimpse of my old self. And that’s how the Pillars of Self Care came about – Nutrition, Joyful Movement, Stress Reduction, Sleep Strategies and Connection to self and others.
At the time I was finishing my nutrition degree and had heard of “Body Positivity” and “Healthy At Every Size”, which intrigued me to know more. I read a book called Healthy at Every Size by Lindo Bacon, in which for the first time in my life, I felt freedom in the choices I made in my life and health. I no longer felt like I had to deprive myself. It was okay to accept my body and myself exactly as I was. If I wanted to eat cake, I could do that without any guilt whatsoever, and enjoy every mouthful. It was freedom, and acceptance and was so liberating for me. Around the same time, I also read Rushing Women’s Syndrome by Dr Libby Weaver – which was a real turning point for me in my own menopausal experience and self-care. Everything in that book resonated with me – It made me aware of the life I had been living and enabled me to connect the dots to how I was feeling in my menopause and change it.
Dieting is not a part of the Self Care Framework
The Self Care Framework I use when working with my clients does not include a diet. You will not get a menu plan, or shopping list and I don’t ask you how much you weigh. Instead, we work together, with my guidance to improve your health, your symptoms and overall wellbeing. It is a slow and gentle approach, that is individual to you and your circumstances and allows you to clear the confusion and start understanding certain aspects of your lifestyle that can be changed to improve your quality of life.
Making yourself a priority, health before weight and addressing the 5 Pillars of Self Care is the answer to your midlife and menopause experience. Let go of the diet mentality. Nothing changes, if nothing changes.
Needing help to understand your body and health in menopause and want to make your self care a priority? Book a Discovery Call here.
