Have you ever noticed how some women in their forties and fifties seem to have endless energy? While others feel like they're dragging themselves through the day, probably, to be frank, most of the women that you know in the age bracket are dragging themselves through the day. But what if I told you that the way that you fuel your body, what you eat, drink, and do daily, could be the difference, could be the game changer between feeling strong and energized or completely depleted.

Would you try it? Do you think you could do it? That's what we're gonna be talking about today because last week I competed in a National Box Lacrosse Championship against women in their teens, twenties and thirties, and at 50. I outlasted many of them, and I'm super proud to say that. It was a massive achievement, but it wasn't something that just happened because of genetics or genes or whatever.

There was a lot that went into it. The main difference is how I feel my body and that's not something new to me. It's something that I've been doing for a long time, but I really noticed it. This tournament, I've played in it twice before as well, but I really noticed it this time.

It's probably 'cause I've had my milestone birthday and it's kind of feels like a big. Bigger number, quite significantly different to the women that I was working against. So you know what I've learned from this experience, it's not just about sport, or if you're playing sport, it actually applies to every single one of you listening.

Every single one in perimenopause or menopause. So stay tuned because at the end of the episode I'm gonna share with you exactly what I would do if I were in your shoes and I was struggling with exhaustion, weight gain, mood swings, perimenopause, menopause so that you can start making changes today and you can feel great and keep up with your peers or younger peers. 

If we haven't met. Hi, I'm Sarah, the Perimenopause Naturopath, and I've helped hundreds of women over 40 navigate perimenopause with confidence so they can feel great in their bodies and reclaim their mood and energy. So if you're feeling like you're changing hormones or hijacking your mood, energy, and weight, and you wanna change that in a holistic way, then this is the place for you because each episode I share with you my views on what is happening in your body, why you're feeling the way that you are.

How you can change that with actionable advice to help you move from chaos to calm and feel more comfortable in your body. Welcome friends to episode number 83 of Chaos to Calm. Today I'm sharing what to eat, drink, and do daily to feel better in perimenopause and beyond, of course, because I am menopausal now, not just perimenopause.

So let's go back to the lacrosse tournament. I wanna tell you about it because I just love it. Played lacrosse for a long time. But box lacrosse is the version that we were playing at the tournament. It's fast-paced, full contact, nothing like the non-contact field version that I've played for 36 years.

It's exhilarating. There's an adrenaline rush. It's, I just love it. You, but we do wear lots of heavy padding, a helmet, a thick shirt. And in this tournament, we are outside on a court and the court temp can get up to 36 degrees before they call the game off. So you imagine it's intense. Oh. And the games go for two hours.

But at 50 I played every single game. That's a game every day for two hours. And I played the whole game and ran my little heart out. And I outlasted many of the younger players. I'm tough. I have resilience mentally and physically, and I don't say that to brag, but I say it because I watched other women struggle, not just physically, but mentally because they weren't supporting their bodies properly.

Some skip meals or grab whatever's easiest. Others don't realize they need protein to help their bodies recover or to fuel their bodies to keep going, and some just weren't conditioned for the endurance. They didn't have the endurance because their nutrition and lifestyle weren't supporting them properly.

And like I said, this is not just about sports, it's about perimenopause and menopause. Because whether you are competing, juggling a demanding job, running after your kids, caring for your kids and your parents, or just trying to get through the day without crashing at three o'clock, how you fuel your body makes all the difference.

I know men, many women. Might think or believe that you need a new diet, detox, reset, whatever. Thinking you need to start over, be on a diet, to be looking after yourself or doing things well, maybe you think you need a new supplement. Maybe you need a fancy new test.

This is a lot of, this is marketing messages that we get for sure. You want that quick fix. There's lots of supplements being marketed at us. Maybe you think you need to train harder, cut your carbs, cut your calories, eat less, move more. Maybe you think you just need to try harder, but you know, the truth is that none of that is what works.

What works is fueling your body properly every single day at least 80% of the time. Balancing your meals to support your energy production, your metabolism, and your hormonal health. Especially in the time of change that is perimenopause and learning how to listen to your body, how to interpret its signals and signs and symptoms so you can really understand what it needs from you and then be able to give it.

So if I were in your shoes, if I was struggling with weight gain, exhaustion, mood swings, and let's face it, I was just five years ago, this was where I was at. I was 20 kilos heavier. Than I am now. I was exhausted. I was angry and irritated all the time. And so these are the things that I focused on, and particularly in this tournament in the last week, I focused on these things, but these are the things I eat, drink, and do every day I, this is what I do to look after myself so that I can be in my best state of health, regardless of what phase of life I'm in and what's happening in my body.

So first of all, you need to prioritize protein and some carbs and some fat at every meal. Now you need protein. I know everyone's talking about it. It's kind of obvious at the moment. But carbs are important too, because if a lot of women will cut carbs, thinking it's the answer to weight gain or the key to weight loss, but I really want you to reconsider that, because carbs really help fuel your workouts and recovery.

Your muscles need the carbohydrates and the glycogen from it to function. You wanna support your metabolism so severely, and cutting carbs can impact your thyroid and many other things as well. Carbs are really important for your hormones. Low carb diets can really mess with women, particularly in this phase of life, and create extra stress in your body there as well.

So what you can do instead is you can start your day with some protein, fat, and carbs. Eggs with a really great quality rice sourdough, Greek yogurt and oats, or even a steak or poultry or something like that. It's some roasted pumpkin. I want you to notice how like coffee on an empty stomach doesn't make a feature here, and don't let lunch be an afterthought.

We're going for three meals a day and they're all real meals. Protein, carbs, fat, and phytoestrogens. Remember I did an episode on the perimenopause diet. You can also check that out for more detail on why I include those things in my meals and make your dinner count as well. This is a great time to add some starchy vegetables or some slow digesting carbs because it will help you sleep better, amongst other things, there as well.

So the second thing that I do is hydrate intentionally, and I cut out those things that you know are gonna drain me and not work for me. So most women aren't drinking enough water, but they're drinking lots of other things that work against them. So I want you to start your morning with water, not coffee.

Coffee, first thing, spikes your cortisol, your blood sugar level, and fuels stress. If you're gonna use electrolytes, drink them strategically. I always choose a low carb one with no artificial sweetener or flavors. Only if I need it. So only when I'm playing, like in a tournament, we're playing for two hours and it's hot outside.

Otherwise, water and salt on your food is. More likely gonna be more than sufficient for you? I don't drink often. I don't drink alcohol, that is so cut back on it or cut it out altogether. 'cause it really just messes with your hormone sleep, your mood, everything. And especially recovery if you are playing sport.

Sleep. I prioritize sleep. Like it's more important than your workout almost. And I always think if you're getting up at 5:00 AM to exercise, but then you're only getting five hours sleep or less because you're getting up so early, you're really sabotaging yourself. You're working against yourself and sort of.

It's detrimental what you're doing. It's not benefiting you or your body. So I want you to aim for seven to nine hours of sleep per night. I know it's harder to get in perimenopause sometimes, but you need to give yourself a fighting chance to do that by going to bed earlier, putting your devices down and turning your light off.

Then as well, so anything less than seven hours of classes, you were sleep deprived or in a sleep deprivation state, or six hours actually. So yeah, less than seven, six hours or less. And that will increase your cortisol, increase insulin resistance and also mess with your blood glucose management, your fat storage and slow your muscle recovery there as well.

It's, as I said, eating some carbs at dinner really supports your sleep hormones production and helps you fall asleep faster. And plus it's really great for our female hormones as well. And ditch your screens before bed. I've talked about this a lot before and how blue light suppresses your melatonin.

But what I want you to take away from this is that sleep is as important as your workout. So without it, you don't really get the benefit of the workout. And just flowing on from that, more is not always more. So we wanna stop overtraining and train smart instead. And this is something that I've always done and particularly doing now as I'm getting older.

Strength training is a must. At least a couple times a week for your muscle metabolism, your bone health. Strength and flexibility are really key for us here. And like I said, more isn't always more, it's not always better, more intense, longer workouts or more frequent. That's not always a great thing, especially if you're exhausted or stressed.

Then more is definitely not more. It's just gonna add to that. Physical and mental load on your body, there as well. And along with your workout, you wanna prioritize your recovery, like I just said about sleep, stretching, stress management, that's all just as important as your workout itself. You really wanna think about not just the workout, but what you are doing, what you're eating, drinking, doing around that, that's going to help support your body to build that muscle or to get the most out of that workout.

And I think that's something that again, this is not to brag, I'm just talking about this from a factual perspective. No judgment or criticism of the women that I was playing with or playing against, because you only know what you know. And I'm just lucky enough that I've studied nutrition and naturopathy and all of the things in food as medicine to be able to do this.

But I think I really kind of refined it and nailed it. I felt like I really nailed it this time. Maybe, perhaps, what I might do next time is actually add in even a little bit more carbs for myself, because I found after about day four, I wanted a packet of chips. I sent my roommate out when she was going to the shop to get me a packet of crisps.

And then I had chips with my, a steak dinner that night, as well as I just felt that real drive and need for those carbohydrates in my body. So perhaps if I had added a bit more in earlier in the week, that I might have avoided that craving by. And that craving was just my body letting me know what it needed.

But I have been, yeah, increasing my protein quantity and my vegetable quantity and my fruit around that as well. Even after the tournament, so it's five days after the tournament's ended, I'm still. Fueling myself at a higher rate, going with how I felt like I was feeling quite tired afterwards and after the drive home.

Responding to that. I haven't done any training this week. I've just done some sauna for recovery and some stretching and prioritised my sleep. And I'm going about to head off to the gym for a Pilates workout, which is my first workout post games and tournaments. And I'm just gonna do that as I feel able to.

So I'm not gonna push myself too hard there. There's lots to consider and sometimes it can be really difficult to do that. Like I said, I've been refining this over the past three tournaments, the last three years, as well as hmm, how long have I been studying and working for a long time and refining that there as well.

And, working on it too. So it can be really tricky to just Google and try and get this done on your own. So, what else I want you to know and take away from this episode today is that if you are thinking, I want a plan that works for me or for my body, we can help you that.

Do that now, here like the perimenopause naturopath, we are offering. Pay as you go, like one-to-one sessions. So you don't necessarily have to work with us through our programs, our PerimenoGO or the Chaos To Calm method. We might think that one of those is best for you, but you can actually just book us and talk to us one-to-one, and we can create that plan for you and help you get that personalized plan that you need to address. Whatever's going on in your body in terms of perimenopause or menopause, or if you've got an event coming up that you are working towards and you wanna perform well at, that's the sort of thing that we can definitely help you out with as well.

And yeah, have personal and professional experience there as well, and what I want you to take away from, this today is that you know what you eat, drink, and do most of the time, 80% of the time is really important for that, I guess 20% of the time that per 20% of the performance time there as well.

So, how you fuel your body, if we are thinking about that, is applying to sport, sure. But this is also applying to perimenopause, the way you fuel your body by balancing your protein, your carbs, your hydration, that recovery that resetting and rebalancing, that's the game changer. That's what separates women who feel strong and energized and great through perimenopause and menopause and those who feel depleted or stuck in like just surviving through perimenopause.

There as well. So what you eat, drink, and do daily is really important and that's the difference there as well. And of course I still eat and drink and do other things that aren't healthy. I. I love a bit of chocolate. That was part of my pre-game. And post-game recovery was my dark chocolate with some almonds in it for sure.

But it's all about how you do it sometimes, and how, little tweaks and changes that we can make to help it support your body rather than detract from your health. So thank you for tuning into today's episode on What To Eat, drink, and Do Daily to feel better in perimenopause and beyond. If you found this helpful, please do follow the podcast so you don't miss future episodes.

And if you could take a minute to rate, review and even share it with a friend, it helps more women find this information and be able to transform their perimenopause from chaos to calm. It means a great deal to me. Of course, you are very welcome to let me know what you want to know about 'cause that makes it easier for me to make podcast episodes that are relevant and helpful for you.

So please do include that I read all of the reviews and respond to them myself there as well. So until next time, friends, keep taking care of yourself and moving from chaos to calm.