How to Lose Weight During Menopause: Steps on the Best Ways to Do It

You probably have never wondered how to lose weight during menopause. Maybe because you have never thought about how difficult it becomes for women to lose weight at this stage in their lives. This is normally a natural stage in a woman and it comes with many changes for them. They may be physical and biological as well as social.
One of the major changes is the hormonal imbalances that result in a weight gain. The social life also changes and this woman may not be able to carefully watch her diet due to changes in social life and this too results in a weight gain.
Whenever you find yourself in such a situation, the issue of how to lose weight comes up. The health of this woman becomes more important so in essence, she is not looking for a diet pill or surgery, but instead out to look for the healthiest way to lose weight.
Why is it difficult?
During this period, the hormonal changes bring along some sort of sensitivity to diets. Your body is more in need of some nutrients than it did before, so weight loss menopause only becomes more difficult. The loss of important nutrients such as calcium also leads to some weight gain.
First step: Moderate things
The major problem that a woman in her menopause may encounter is resistance to changes. At this period, completely changing your diet may not be the solution and you may find that it will only make it worse. So as a remedy, try to moderate things. Do not introduce everything instantly but rather give the body some time to register the changes.
For instance, if you deny yourself all your favorite meal because they are unhealthy, it is more likely that you will fail in weight loss. But always remember that you must strive to achieve the healthiest feeding habits you can.
Second step: Exercise
Most women in their menopause find exercise quite impossible. But weight loss is to be made possible, you must try and exercise. Try sticking to simple and less intensive exercise such as jogging and walking at least everyday. Remember you must want to maintain a very healthy lifestyle and such can not be achieved devoid of exercise.
However, be careful as your body is quite fragile at this age and you would not want to engage in exercise that will hurt you in the name of weight loss.
Step three: Everything natural
During menopause, you will find that your body is quite sensitive and to avoid evoking negative reactions, keep everything natural. Try natural herbal tea and other foods and you will find that the body responds positively. This will not only help you in losing weight but will also boost your health which could be quite frail at such a time.
So you now know that how to lose weight during menopause should not be such a hard thing, just understand your body ad feed it with what it needs. Remember staying fit at this time is also essential.
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Eating, Baby Steps and Menopause - A New You, Better Than Ever

I know you so very much want to change things. You want to change this body that doesn't feel like your own. You want to not have menopause symptoms that seem to be taking on a life of their own. But where do you start? I always start at the beginning, where else is there the start. This is a new you, a new body, a new beginning, a new day...so the first question is: What do you really want?
Look at that happiness. See it; see the happiness that thought brings you. Think about how that will feel when you achieve your goal of what you really want. Use the power inside you to move toward that fabulous goal, that wonderful feeling. Use your power to change your life, to be that happy.
What would you do if you were not afraid? What would you aim for; that job, that jean size, that guy, that lifestyle? Pull your boot straps up, and go in there and take care of business. This is you, empowered, going for it. Remember that courage is fear, hanging on, just a moment longer.
Know your weaknesses, your routines, the things that sabotage your success. 4:30-5:00pm was my bewitching hour. Up to that point in the day, I was in control, taking care of what needed to be done, success was mine. At 4'ish I was in total sabotage mode. I would have a glass of wine, then another, and sit down and watch mindless TV.
By the time I served supper, I was a swarm of starved locust descending on my meal. The day and my diet plans were totally blown. Alcohol is a diuretic and inhibitor. It stimulates the appetite and triggers hot flashes. My counter punch to this sabotage was enrolling in an exercise class at 5:00 pm three days a week...it broke the routine.
Your triggers may be the 2:00 mid afternoon raid on the vending machines, the ice cream or fridge raid at 9:00 pm. You know your routine, you know what you are doing out of habit to sabotage you and your goal. That goal of what you really want.
Triggers are feelings of deprivations, also rewards (like me and the wine at the end of my day). They are boredom, overwhelming debt, and feeling of deprivations. Low self esteem play havoc with our goals and so does poor motivation. We can't be the "be all-end all" over night, and that leads to failure with unrealistic expectations.
Rome wasn't built in a day. Losing peri-menopause and menopause weight and belly fat is an uphill serious battle. We have to bring everything we have and want to fight this battle within. Because of us, and our bodies, this is a slow long journey to better.
Are you going to give up and be defeated? Or are you going to be the very best you can be, a better you than ever, and with that prize that is truly what you want, and who you want to be. You are so strong, and smart and wise. You know what it is that is holding you back. You know what that fear is.
Show 'em what you are made of. Go after the golden snitch. All energy shifts, it is always moving...forward, backward, never staying the same for a moment. Use that momentum to get what you really want, without fear, or sabotage or self doubt.
Louis L'Amour said "Victory is not won in miles, but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more. Baby steps, ladies..baby steps.
Corby Campbell Shields
Co-Author Menopause Master Plan
http://www.menopausemasterplan.com/

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Steps Taken 10-20 Years Before Menopause May Significantly Reduce Later Disease Risks

It may seem impossible for any of us to know, decades in advance, when our hormone levels will drop and we are at last rendered infertile. But, in fact, we can make a darned good guess.And it's worth the effort. Research and experience are leading doctors to suspect there is a window of time 10-20 years preceding the obvious onset of menopause when the balance of complementary hormones starts to go off-kilter. These hormonal imbalances can trigger a variety of life-threatening conditions and set the stage for lifelong health problems we'd just as soon skip if we had the choice.
We just need to know when these imbalances are likely to start, what causes them, what the consequences are, and what we can do about them
WHEN WILL IMBALANCES START?
We know that 95% of all women enter menopause by age 55. About 25% get there early (by age 47), and another 50% get there between 47 and 52. We also know that most women stop ovulating and become infertile about 10 years be-fore menopause. Thus, we can estimate that 25% of us will stop ovulating by age 37 and most of us will be infertile by age 45.
WHAT EXACTLY DOES HAPPEN?
Perhaps the most important thing that happens between the time we stop ovulating (ages 37-45) and the time we experience menopausal symptoms (ages 47-55) is the loss of progesterone.
Normally, the ovaries make progesterone during the second half of each menstrual cycle, in the same ovarian follicle where the egg developed and matured before its release. When we don't ovulate, we don't make progesterone.
Unlike other sex hormones that are also produced in organs besides the ova-ries, there is no backup source for progesterone.
Aside from promoting a healthy pregnancy, progesterone is largely responsible for moderating the potentially harmful effects of strong estrogens on tissue cells every month, whether we conceive or not. Progesterone is also critical to the normal function of virtually every organ and system in the body.
If you look at an "org chart" showing the hierarchy of hormones, you'll find progesterone up near the top. Progesterone is made from cholesterol. (Yes, cholesterol is essential for hormone production!) All the other sex hormones (the 3 estrogens and testosterone), plus the corticosteroids, can be made from the breakdown of progesterone in the body.
So it's clear that progesterone is important for much more than making babies. But what happens when we start to lose it?
CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE TO OVULATE
Anovulatory cycles (cycles without ovulation) may occur at random during most women's reproductive years.
On those months when ovulation does not occur, the uterine lining built up by estrogen gets no progesterone to soft-en it and cannot shed as completely as it should during menstruation. The breasts do not develop the number of ductal cells they ordinarily would under progesterone's influence, leaving the secretory cells built by estrogen to fill with fluids that have too few outlets to drain those fluids.
Various cells and systems deprived of this hormone suffer. For example, bones and muscles that depend on progesterone and testosterone to rebuild and rebalance mass lost to normal remodeling processes begin to experience slightly more demolition than rebuilding during the anovulatory cycle.
When it only happens once in a while, we may suffer a light period fol-lowed the next month by an extra-heavy one, perhaps with more pronounced PMS and cramping, but the harm to tis-sues is largely reversed when that next cycle releases an egg and restores normal progesterone levels.
THE "ESTROGEN WINDOW" HYPOTHESIS
Consider what would happen if we knew that for the next 10 years all police, government and supervisory agents of any kind would be on a mission to Pluto.
At first, most of us would go on about our law-abiding lives. But then one day we might decide to run a particularly long red light when no other cars were around. We might pay our taxes late, or lie about our income. Eventually, some of us might even steal or hurt people if a situation seemed to war-rant it.
Estrogen is like the law-abiding citizens in this scenario. It is an important and beneficial hormone. It has critical jobs to do for both reproduction and general health. In particular, it fosters cell growth and promotes blood clotting. These are desirable functions, but when allowed to run wild they cause uterine tissue to grow too much (potentially leading to DNA mutations and cancer), and clotting too aggressively (potentially leading to blood clots and strokes), among other things.
Progesterone is the law- and rule-enforcement officer in our scenario. It puts the brakes on estrogen's wild behavior.
During that 10-year window prior to menopause, when our bodies are still making lots of estrogen but are producing little or no progesterone month after month, estrogen's unchecked wild side can do some serious damage.
HOW DO I KNOW WHEN IT'S HAPPENING?
There are a couple of ways to find out whether or not you're ovulating in any given month. The first is more reliable, but more costly, than the second, which just takes time, patience and a thermometer.
1. Hormone testing. You can get your progesterone level tested, either by going to your doctor to order a blood test at a local lab, or by ordering a home test kit online that uses a saliva sample. You can also use any of the fertility/ovulation prediction products on the market, though none actually measure progesterone.
2. Basal body temperature (BBT). By taking your temperature every morning before you get out of bed, you can chart indications of both ovulation and subsequent progesterone production. Your BBT will typically be on the lower side during the first half of the month (when estrogen dominates). An extra dip even lower around day 14 can indicate that ovulation has occurred. During the second half of the month (when progesterone dominates), the BBT will run toward the higher side.
If you chart your BBT every day for several months and find no little down-ward blip at mid-cycle and no general elevation in the second half, then you have reason to suspect you are not ovulating.
Your BBT evidence combined with symptoms (irregular periods, severe PMS, breast tenderness) may be enough to warrant a visit to your doctor.
WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT?
Here's where things can get sticky: not all doctors will agree that it is necessary or even beneficial to supplement a woman's hormones just because they're low. They resist doing it when we're obviously menopausal, and they will be even more reluctant to do so while we're still marginally fertile.
Yet the "estrogen window" hypothesis suggests that by supplementing progesterone when women first start skipping ovulation on a regular basis they may prevent breast cancer, and potentially other estrogen-dependent cancers as well. (One team even suggests that restoring youthful hormone levels and cycles can help us fight off a host of so-called "age-related" diseases.)
But you can't use a progesterone substitute (a progestin) like that used in Prempro. You have to supplement bio-identical (exactly the same as human) progesterone. And again we hit a snag because many doctors are unfamiliar with bio-identical progesterone.
WHAT IF MY DOCTOR WON'T GIVE ME PROGESTERONE?
If a test clearly shows your level of free progesterone is low (by reproductive-age standards) and your estrogen levels are considerably higher, my ad-vice here has to be: Find another doctor.
You can get progesterone products over the counter (OTC), but some may not actually contain USP (pharmaceutical-grade) progesterone, while others are very weak or may not contain it in a form your body can absorb and use.
And in any case, even OTC hormone replacement should be monitored by a qualified healthcare practitioner.
WHAT ELSE CAN I DO?
There are a number of simple tricks you can implement now to make the second half of your life much healthier.
1. Balance omega-3 and omega-6 consumption to prevent heart disease (the #1 killer of women). Increase your intake of omega-3 oils (from fish and certain nuts/seeds) and de-crease the amount of omega-6 oils (fried foods, cooking oils, fatty meats, nuts and seeds).
2. Eat cruciferous vegetables* to pre-vent cancer. These miracles of nature contain substances that not only prevent cells from mutating into cancer, they can make cancer cells self-destruct. One substance, called indole-3-carbinol (I3C), can influence your body to metabolize estrogen into a benign form, rather than into one that can cause cancer.
*Includes broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and kale.
3. Neutralize your body's pH to improve bone health. Eat smaller portions of animal protein (including dairy) and larger portions of fresh fruits and vegetables. Animal proteins metabolize into acids, but the body prefers a nearly neutral environment. So when you eat protein, the body pulls calcium and other minerals out of your bones and muscles to neutralize the acid (just as we pop a Tums to neutralize stomach acid). Fruits and veggies, on the other hand, metabolize into neutralizing bases and can deliver a much bigger usable payload of bone-building calcium and magnesium than dairy.
4. Reduce the amount of plant estrogens you consume. Soy is probably the largest dietary contributor to estrogen dominance. You may eventually need the extra estrogen in soy at menopause when ovarian estrogen levels plummet, but while estrogen is still high and progesterone is low, it's best not to make the imbalance worse.
5. Reduce the amount of xenoestrogens you consume. Microwave foods in glass containers instead of those plastic storage containers or old margarine tubs, which can contain estrogen-like chemicals.
6. Reduce your intake of hormone-enhanced meats. You don't necessarily have to resort to free-range meats, just consume meat in moderation.
Taking these steps-with or without progesterone supplementation-can improve your life expectancy and overall health considerably, especially if you combine them with other sound health and dietary practices and get regular checkups.
If ever we needed 20/20 hindsight in advance, it's during (and before) that 10-year window of time when potentially harmful hormonal imbalances begin to take their toll. That's when we can really make a difference that matters!
Patricia Copley O'Connell is a professional writer with a gift for making complex subjects easy to understand. Her previous book for medical professionals-What Part of Menopause Don't You Understand?--detailed cutting-edge advances in anti-aging and hormone therapy. She has appeared on Dallas area TV and ABC national radio.
To learn more, please visit: http://www.hormoneguru.com/

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