Why would you want to eat mindfully?  One reason is that as estrogen drops, we have a tendency toward more eating and getting less movement, which would lead to weight gain. We also have another hormone called leptin that signals that we are full.  When estrogen decreases in menopause, we can become resistant to leptin and may not recognize the signals that we are full.  So you may feel more hungry during perimenopause. Another reason for mindful eating is if you eat when you are stressed, that could lead to eating more food. In this episode, you will learn: -Why you may have stopped eating according to your own needs -How to recognize whether you are actually hungry -What to do if you want to eat for an emotional reason -What a mindful eating practice could look like and how to scale it to your lifestyle.   Book a free 30-minute Menopause Empowerment Call with me.  Download the free guide: Five Action Steps to Elevate Your Vegan Menopause Experience.   

Your body and mind interpret emotions from our physiology, like heart rate, or breathing rate, and perceptions, like safety or danger, sights, sounds, and beliefs.   In peri-menopause, women may notice changes in mood: mood swings, more sadness, irritability, or anger.  And these feelings can become bigger and more overwhelming.  So something that might have been a slight annoyance before might now make you absolutely furious!  Or sadness can turn into full on depression. In this episode, you will learn: -Some of the neurotransmitters that affect mood and how they are impacted in midlife -Which foods can help and which to avoid -Lifestyle strategies that help with mood -A mindset tip called reframing to help shift your beliefs. Book a Menopause Empowerment Call here. Download the free guide (PDF and audio) - Five Action Steps to Elevate Your Vegan Menopause Experience here.  

You have probably heard people talking about inflammation, but may be wondering what exactly is it?  Reducing chronic inflammation can have huge results on menopause because it can bring about more energy and less fatigue, more mental clarity, slow down the aging process, and lead to better overall health and longevity, and better weight management.   Inflammation is a function of your body trying to heal itself. It's a common, natural, response to injury, pain, illness, and stress.  Acute inflammation can manifest as redness, heat, swelling and pain. Without inflammation, injuries would never heal, so this type of inflammation is useful to the body.   However, the other type of inflammation, chronic low grade inflammation continues to last and does not have a purpose in health.  It damages the body and can be the cause of premature aging, aches and pains, and illnesses including heart disease, cancer, strokes, and Alzheimer's.   In this episode, you will learn:   -how chronic inflammation affects the bodily systems   -lifestyle tips to reduce chronic inflammation   -some of the best foods and supplements to add to your diet to help with inflammation.   Free guide: Five Action Steps to Elevate Your Vegan Experience of Menopause.   Book a complimentary 30-minute Menopause Empowerment Call.

Do you find that since perimenopause started, it’s become increasingly more difficult to sleep?  Not only can falling asleep take longer, you may wake up too early, or be awake for a couple of hours in the middle of your sleep. In this episode you will learn: -Why sleep can be more difficult menopause -Effects of sleep deprivation -Four things that always affect my sleep -Other sleep strategies -The mineral that can help with sleep. Check out my 8-minute guided beach meditation available on Youtube.   Grab my free guide: Five Action Steps to Elevate Your Vegan Menopause Experience! Book a complimentary 30-minute Menopause Empowerment Call.  

In this episode you will learn: -how veganism helps with certain health risks in menopause -benefits of fiber -fiber and weight loss -benefits of vegan protein Grab my free download – 5 action steps to elevate your vegan menopause experience.  Have a question about menopause?  DM me on Instagram and I will either answer you directly or include your question in an upcoming episode.

Dehydration could certainly be making your experience of menopause worse and I have some ideas for you to help, beyond drinking water. The Standard American Diet, consisting of high amounts of salty processed foods or fast foods, sugary drinks, and low amounts of fresh vegetables, is very dehydrating, and most North Americans are probably mildly dehydrated. In this episode, you will learn: -How dehydration affects your body and makes symptoms of menopause worse. -How to increase your hydration. -Which drinks increase hot flashes. -How much water is appropriate to drink. -How a vegan diet can help. Ready to elevate your experience of menopause? Book a free 30-minute Menopause Empowerment Call.  

In this episode, I discuss my experience with trying to find stock photos depicting menopausal women for an article in Global Vegan Magazine.  I also discuss North America's youth based culture versus views of other cultures around menopause, my transition from exercise obsession to now doing exercise that is enjoyable, and some thoughts on opening up the discussion around menopause. Check out the magazine for free here. Ready to transform your experience with menopause?  Book a free 30-minute Menopause Empowerment Call.

In this episode, I explore something that you might not have thought of that can really help your experience with peri-menopause -- body awareness. I cover why it is beneficial on a practical level as well as how it can become a meditative practice, with even more benefits.     I am now offering classes in the Non-Linear Movement Method, a somatic method developed by Michaela Boehm, which played a key role for me in developing awareness of and connection to my body, as well as an expanded sense of pleasure. The classes are live and on Zoom, using verbal prompts, music, and done with eyes closed. You can register here.     If you would like to discuss you unique situation and see how coaching might help, book a Menopause Empowerment Call.

In this episode, we explore why weight gain around the midsection is so common during menopause and some tips on what to do about it. This is not about body shaming, and I encourage you to have a healthy body image and to love your body regardless of perceived imperfections. However, weight gain, particularly around the belly, is a very common struggle during perimenopause and something I get asked about a lot, so I wanted to share some information.  Abdominal fat can also mean that fat is stored around your organs which can have health consequences such as cardiovascular disease. So my hope for you is both that you are happy and comfortable in your body and also that you are at a healthy weight without health risks. I will soon be offering classes in non-linear movement, which helps with body awareness and stress release, so if you would like more information about that you can subscribe to my email list. I also invite you to book a free Menopause Empowerment Call to discuss your unique situation and how coaching can help.

In this episode, I address a common question -- how to tell if you are in menopause. Perimenopause, the stage before the one year with no menstrual cycles, can last many years and this is the stage where estrogen is fluctuating downward. That can cause certain symptoms, and the symptoms are not going to be the same for everyone, but I discuss eight of the more common ones. Why menopause coaching can be helpful: if we work on things like reducing your stress, improving your diet or moving your body more, as well as mindset, and things like sleep habits, those factors can help you have a better experience with your transition to menopause. If you would like to discuss this, you can book a 30-minute Menopause Empowerment Call with me. I would love to help you get more clarity and improve your experience. Thanks so much for listening!