Mind over matter.  With a strong mind, you can do anything.  It’s all in the mind.  Mindfulness over everything.  Your mind is your strongest muscle.

Wow, great quotes, but what if your mind is just not feeling up to all of that heavy lifting?  If there is one thing that can sweep the leg out from under our mental fortitude, it is perimenopause.

Have you recently thought: “What’s wrong with me?”  “Why is this bothering me so much?”  “Will I ever feel the same?”  Or maybe you haven’t even gathered your whits about you enough to have one of these thoughts and instead feel like crawling in the corner and covering your head with a blanket.  It might be your hormones messing with your mind.

For me, depression and anxiety were the most debilitating, but also the least quantifiable symptoms of my perimenopause transition.  It was easy to track the days and months between cycles and the weight fluctuation that came with them.  When I felt good, I had a hard time remembering that I had ever been down.  When I felt low, it was hard to imagine ever finding happiness again.  In order to help me track these swings and identify patterns, I journaled.  Here are a few entries during my low times:

Here I’d just started by cycle after seven months without one:

“The downward emotions came in at least three days before my cycle started. I had no clue it was about to start, so I really just felt a total loss of joy at everything that usually made me happy.  I love my job, and I was thinking it might be time to walk away from it.  Working out is usually the highlight of my day, but I didn’t want to do anything and the workouts I had to do for work I resented.  In my mind’s eye, I was picturing myself like the dirty sludge lining the bottom of a city dumpster.” 

I was used to getting hit hard with a period and my hormones snapping back to normal like a rubber band.   This time it took a full 10 days after the start of my period before I felt like a zombie re-animating.  Here is what I wrote:

“Now I am back to feeling loving, energetic, full of ideas and energy, and ready to conquer the world on the daily.”

Three Months Later:

“Recently I had two fabulous weeks.  I was sleeping well, every workout felt amazing, I had energy and I felt happy.  I knew that great feeling-time would come to an end and it has.  Last week, my workouts were still good, but my exhaustion was creeping up.  This week I am struggling through every single one.  My sleep has been horrible.  I am up in the middle of the night, waking early, and when I am asleep it feels light, rather than solid and restful.  My stomach is sensitive – nauseated often, not hungry, and I feel as if I have overeaten even though I am eating less than normal.  My anxiety is high.  Small things like getting groceries in time or driving the kids around are stressful. 

“Worst of all, I feel sad about everything.  I believe I am not a good mother and I am blowing my chance at creating a fun, relaxing, supportive home life.  I think I am letting these best years of their childhood pass by.  I think I should amount to more in my life, but feel entirely paralyzed to do anything beyond what I am currently doing as I have lost all belief in myself.  Even talking is an effort and my voice sounds flat and joyless.”  

All of these journal entries happened years ago, but reading these bring back all of the emotions I felt at the time.  It was a rough time.  The tricky part was the unpredictability.  When we are menstruating regularly, there is a pattern to our emotions.  We know our period is on the way and a few days after it starts, we level back out.  

During perimenopause, we can go months without a drop of blood.  This can lead to an exaggerated version of our cycle.  The symptoms that used to build for three days before our cycle, now build up for two, three, maybe seven months as our cycles elongate.  No egg is being released, so estrogen builds higher and higher as progesterone stays low.  When progesterone finally increases, estrogen comes crashing down from a higher point than ever.  This pulls our happiness neurotransmitter, serotonin, with it.  The higher our estrogen was, the further serotonin falls and the worse we feel. 

Not only are we more affected by these fluctuations, but because our cycles are not following a clockwork schedule as usual, it is hard to predict when this will come and how long it will last. 

You are thinking, “Thanks, Pamela.  I already know this sucks.  What can I do about it?”

Having an understanding of what is physically happening in you brain can help.  It can allow for you to see your life as a dial.  When you are in that high-estrogen feel-good state, dial up your efforts.  Capitalize on the good times.  Get extra work done, nail your workouts, and do some things to set yourself up for the down times like freezing a couple of healthy meals or being ahead of a project at work. 

When you are in that low phase, treat yourself with kindness and patience.  Turn the dial down.  Give yourself permission to accomplish less, focus on self-care, and make things easier in any way you can.  The hardest part is trusting that there will be a better day ahead, but there always is one coming.

If you are over being frustrated by your body, are tired of being tired, and feel like everything you do makes things worse rather than better, it is time to learn how to take care of your body NOW!

Let me help. 

If you are deep in the Perimenopause transition, you need to REWRITE YOUR SELF-CARE MANUAL with How to Powerup Peri/menopause: the Complete Guide 

Or 

If you are Perimenopausal or menopausal and feel like you are constantly struggling with inflammation, bloating, exhaustion, constipation, and sudden weight gain.  It is likely you suspect it is due to what you are eating, but don’t know what or how to change.  You need the Powerup and Reset Program.

In perimenopause and menopause our hormones are totally different, so our approach needs to be different too.

Best news is, the approach we need does NOT include:

• Punishing amounts of exercise
• Starvation
• Unrealistic goals that take you way out of your comfort zone.
• Fasting
• Keto

It DOES include:

• Feeding ourselves the BEST foods on a regular basis to assure out body it is fed and cared for.
• Editing our exercise to make it efficient and effective so we don’t waste time spinning our wheels.
• Learning to apply easy and strategic self-care to help our hormones settle down.

Have you tried and failed to change your health in the past?  Consider this:

1. Now is the time to take your health seriously.  What we do RIGHT NOW decides if we will spend our golden years sick and broken or thriving and enjoying life.  

2.  Just about EVERYTHING you read or see in Health Media is NOT designed for women in Perimenopause or menopause.  Our hormones are DIFFERENT than men and younger women.  Things that work for other people are likely to make things WORSE for you right now.  

3.  We cannot afford to waste time with-fast fix weight loss schemes that will likely cost us precious bone and muscle, cause us to gain belly fat, and can even cause us to become more at risk for heart attack and stroke. 

Everything in How to Powerup Peri/menopause: the Complete Guide and the Powerup and Reset Program are designed for women in Perimenopause and Menopause to:

• Help you feel better RIGHT NOW
• Find your best health and make it last a lifetime
• Lose stubborn fat, especially in the belly
• Increase or preserve bone and muscle, the key to aging well
• Keep our cortisol levels down
• Decrease inflammation

If you have previously struggled to make real health changes stick, these are the programs for you. 

Instead of presenting a bunch of information and leaving you overwhelmed, with no idea how to apply it to your life, BOTH COURSES are filled with BEHAVIOR CHANGE strategy, tips and tricks, and realistic advice that walk you through how to apply everything successfully into your life and maintain it for the long term. 

These programs have been changing the lives of so many women.  Why not let it be you?

Click here to take a look at these two programs

Select the course you want to know more about and click on FREE PREVIEW to read and watch lessons from the courses and see which one is right for you!