Kathy Smith's Moving Through Menopause: The Complete Program for Exercise, Nutrition, and Total Wellness

A Change for the Better

This cycle is something you live with so long it becomes an inseparable part of you. You know just how much you'll bleed, how much you'll bloat; you know which day of the month you'll burst into tears for no reason, or find a pimple on your face. When that cycle finally starts to change, it's as though some natural law had been repealed. Nothing feels the same anymore—and you don't feel like the same person.

The strangeness of your cycle changing is just the beginning. Equally disturbing is what the changes symbolize. It's one thing to conclude, rationally, that my reproductive capacity is only part of who I am-a large and vital part, yes, but still just a part. Yet what woman can watch those first interruptions in her cycle and not feel a pang of loss? This is true at whatever age the change occurs, whether or not she has had children. That's because it marks far more than the end of reproduction.

A friend of mine, a university professor, told me: Watch a group of students over the course of a semester. The first five or six weeks drift by leisurely: The students joke around, they skip class to sunbathe. But right at week six, everything changes. Some unconscious sense tells them their time has been cut in half. Suddenly the jokes stop, the concentration level goes up, and they do the work of ten weeks in five.

My friend calls this realization the halftime bell. It applies not just to school, of course, but also to our lives, and there's something deep and universal about how we respond.

Sensing the Change

I began to sense this change in a kind of dream—a fitful half sleep in which I tossed and struggled, night after night, to fall back to sleep after hearing that bell toll repeatedly in my psyche.

I was having terrible bouts of insomnia. I'd always been a good sleeper, accustomed to waking up refreshed. Now, a healthy and active forty-nine-year-old woman, I felt as if a cloud hung over me. I'd toss and turn for a few hours each night and wake in the morning feeling cheated of a good night's sleep. There was a leaden heaviness in my body. I felt full of anxiety. I'd kick off the sheets; I'd pull them back up, shivering. In my journal, I charted my ordeal:

Last night...disturbing sensations in my body...upset stomach....an uncomfortably warm feeling (notice I'm not using the term hot flash; I think I'm in denial!). Awake at 4:00, tossing until 6:30. In those hours, as I drift in and out of sleep, I have the most outrageous dreams....What on earth is going on?

Deprived of sleep at night, I was a raw nerve by day. I'd see the world through layers of gauze. I'd shut the bathroom door and sob. Was I going crazy?

Relax, It's Only Menopause

Like many women, I had resisted the idea that I might be perimenopausal. How do I know if I am? What does it mean? What will it feel like, and how long will it last? Most of all: What should I be doing to cope with the unique stresses of this transition?

As someone who's spent her life promoting the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, I assumed I already knew a lot of the answers. But in many respects, this is new territory. And while it's true that the basic rules of healthy living are as important now as ever, there are new reasons for following them. Regular exercise and healthy eating now take aim at symptoms and problems I'd never encountered before. And there are new questions to consider—important decisions concerning various conventional or alternative medical therapies.

And so my personal exploration began and grew into this book. My goal was to design a special plan for this time in my life, one that would address all the areas on which menopause would have an impact.

In the upcoming chapters, I'll share the answers I discovered, and help you find your own answers, to help in your journey. Everyone's experience is different. Lifestyle measures are not necessarily a substitute for hormone therapy or other medication, and some women may choose to do both. However, lifestyle improvements will build a healthy foundation for anyone and, in that sense, they are the best medicine of all.

The goal of this book is to help you take charge of perimenopause and menopause in three ways:

The Lifestyle Plan

When I first realized I was perimenopausal and began researching the subject, I was overwhelmed with advice and input. At every party I went to, I seemed to attract an eager group of women all bursting to share their stories. Anytime I'd drop the M word in conversation, the breathless response would be "We gotta talk!"

My OB/GYN immediately said, "Let me put you on a low-dose birth control." Meanwhile, the women at the parties were all asking me: "Have you tried black cohosh?" "Do you think yoga would help my sex drive?" "How much soy do you eat?" And so on, until my head started spinning.

How does anyone evaluate all this information—all the medical treatments, all the folk remedies? For me, it's been a major project. I now have an entire shelf devoted to menopause books. I've read scores of personal stories from visitors to my Web site. And for months now, I've been meeting with doctors, alternative practitioners, and other experts, interviewing them about their various philosophies.

Here's what I've learned:

I've learned that menopause is an elusive subject, because women's experiences differ so widely. For one friend, menopause hardly mussed her hair; for another, it was like the sky falling. One woman frightened me with vivid descriptions of having to change her sweaty sheets two and three times a night. Should I be preparing for symptoms like that?

I've also learned that, scientifically, menopause is complex. The physiology of hormones and their effects on the body are downright inscrutable. And as most women know, there's great controversy about whether to treat menopause with hormone replacement therapy. One camp considers HRT dangerous and unnatural; the other considers it an indispensable wonder drug.

Fortunately, in the midst of all this, everyone agrees on one thing: A healthy lifestyle is the most important factor of all. Good nutrition, regular exercise, a minimum of stress—these are the things that can help any woman move through menopause with relative ease.

Change Is Nothing New

For many of us, our forties is a critical, pivotal decade. It's when you either start becoming interested in health and begin doing the things that will sustain you in the long run, or (I hate to say it) you really start to go to pieces in a way that's tough to bounce back from. For women who've neglected their health, menopause comes as the coup de grace that leaves them feeling hopeless about their bodies and about ever looking and feeling better. The natural process of aging seems to be going into a steep nosedive that they just can't pull out of.

If you're like many women, you're dreading the change. But take a closer look. You've been changing all along. In fact, there's no period of life that's not marked by physical change.

The fact is, your body naturally reaches a peak of vitality in your twenties and then begins a long and, at first, very gradual decline. Muscle mass shrinks, bone density declines—and with them strength, endurance, balance, reaction time, and mental clarity. All of these changes are developing five, ten, or even fifteen years before the hormonal fluctuations that precede menopause even start. They are simply the outcome of being alive. So much of what we're experiencing around menopause is really the result of these age-related changes.

This calls for some glass-half-full thinking:

I believe each of us has a vital potential at every stage of life—a peak level of vitality that we could be experiencing—if we were doing everything possible to reach it. That peak will naturally be a little lower at sixty than at thirty. That's life. But the exciting thing is this: Most of us have so much room for improvement that we're poised to experience huge gains in well-being, just by actualizing our potential.

By adopting healthier lifestyle habits—especially exercise and better eating—we can push our vitality higher and higher on that scale, closer to our peak potential. In this way, it is literally possible to feel better at fifty than you ever have in your life!

The point is to get you, and keep you, as close to your full vital potential as possible at whatever age you are.

Everyone's heard the joke about youth being wasted on the young. Middle age, though, need not be wasted on anyone: At fifty, you can have all the ingredients of a fulfilling life—experience, wisdom, and the physical vitality to do something about it.

How Much Room for Improvement Do I Have?

Just for fun, take this little test. There are no wrong answers; just be as honest as you can. This will give you an accurate picture of where you are today and how you could make healthier choices to improve your vitality.

Spot some room for improvement? The more areas you found that need improving, the more you've got to gain!

With that in mind, let's take a look at the elements of our plan. Our primary goal throughout this book is to discover how much we can improve our sense of well-being around menopause through exercise, diet, and other lifestyle modifications. Remember...

...If you do all this, you'll still go through menopause. But it will be a completely different experience than it otherwise would have been, and it truly can be a change for the better!

The Elements of the Moving Through Menopause Lifestyle Plan

There are three major themes of menopause: first, the immediate hormonal symptoms, such as hot flashes and mood swings; second, a need to reexamine your life and find a deeper sense of meaning; and, finally, longterm health issues, specifically heart disease and bone loss.

My Moving Through Menopause Plan is a simple, six-point approach that addresses all three of these themes. Let's take a look at each of the points, one by one:

•Exercise for Physical Conditioning and Mood

There's hardly a menopausal symptom that exercise doesn't improve: From fatigue to mental alertness, from low libido to insomnia—exercise is my candidate for a wonder drug. When I first got involved in running, I discovered what a miraculous mood booster it could be. I could go from "I can't do it; nobody likes me..." to "Hey, I'm a superstar!" in just forty-five minutes of running. Beyond just exercising to feel better, though, we'll cover several types of exercise aimed at other goals as well, including strength training to steel your skeleton, and Kegel exercise to keep your pelvic muscles healthy and your sex life humming.

•Phytoestrogens and Herbs for Symptoms

Over one quarter of today's prescription drugs are derived from plant sources, many of which were folk remedies for centuries before being "discovered" by Western medicine. Several herbs traditionally used for menopausal symptoms offer safe and effective alternatives to conventional medicine for making you more comfortable in the short term. In addition, certain foods, such as soy, contain substances that have a mild estrogenlike effect on the body, offering both short—and, possibly, even long-term health benefits.

•Good Nutrition for Energy, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health

Healthy eating principles haven't changed. But now there's a whole new list of incentives for following them, including maintaining strong bones, easing the risk of heart disease, and countering menopausal weight gain. Good nutrition can also keep your energy high.

•Attending to Your Inner Self

More than just a physical transition, menopause is a spiritual journey. It's apt to be a time of restlessness and reassessment, when we search for positive new ways to see ourselves and our future. Coping with the psychological and emotional issues of the time is one of the major challenges of midlife.

•Yoga and Relaxation Techniques

Lowering stress is one of the best safeguards against midlife problems, and yoga provides the perfect combination of techniques to accomplish the job. In fact, yoga breathing techniques may even help with hot flashes. In one study, researchers at the Lafayette Clinic in Detroit found that paced respiration (similar to yogic breathing) reduced hot flashes by up to 40 percent. By calming the nervous system and improving circulation, yoga can pull you back from emotional plunges and rejuvenate your energy supply. In addition, certain postures affect the endocrine and reproductive systems, which can help balance erratic hormonal shifts and awaken the sex center.

•HRT

Although our focus will mainly be on improving your health through lifestyle changes, everything we'll cover can serve as a foundation for hormone replacement therapy, if you decide to go that route. I've included a chapter on HRT, so you'll have the basic information you need to discuss this very important topic with your physician.

Finally, I've provided templates of daily pages you can use to track your symptoms, your workouts, and other lifestyle improvements.

Your Journal

A big component of my plan is your journal. Keeping a journal is a great way to review your day, making note of the people, places, and things that may have triggered hot flashes, stress, and emotional reactions. My journal has been my constant companion through perimenopause. I find that the act of writing itself releases anxiety and clears my mind of negative thinking. From time to time, I'll be giving you exercises or suggestions about issues to explore in your journal.

Your journal can take whatever form you want. It might be a bound, blank book that you fill with a thoughtful record of your experience. Or it might simply be a yellow legal pad where you can vent your feelings in frenzied scribbling, afterward crumpling the pages and throwing them away. Do whatever suits your personality or your mood. The main thing is to find a way to chart your inner journey.

Journal Exercise

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CLUE?

The first indication that I might be perimenopausal was a sudden shift in my sleeping patterns. It wasn't until I started exploring this issue in my journal, though, that I really got a sense of the implications and how I felt about them.

What was your first clue? What tipped you off that things were different in your cycle and psyche? Even if you're not certain you're perimenopausal yet, write about your intuition concerning the changes in your body.

Time to Get Moving!

However varied women's experience of menopause may be, however complex the physiologic changes, I believe it all comes down to this simple formula: The healthier you are, the easier your menopause will be. The sooner you take charge of your symptoms, the better you'll feel. And the sooner you get a running start on the long-term consequences, the better you'll feel later, when your symptoms are gone and life starts anew. So whether menopause is way out on the horizon, or staring you in the face, the time to start is now!

Copyright © 2002 by Kathy Smith Enterprises, Inc.
Excerpt posted with permission from http://www.twbookmark.com

Many thanks to Time Warner Bookmark (Little, Brown & Company, Warner Books, A Time Warner Company) at: www.twbookmark.com. We appreciate their cooperation with OfSpirit.com to share this chapter of their book with our visitors for education, entertainment and empowerment.