Peri menopause/Meno pause tips, sex, food, nerveussystem

Menopause and the shadow

Lebenswende

Mood swings and menopause
Do you get embarrassed about your reactions during menopause, where you react like a teenager.
Where you're in your crazy mood

Crazy Girl - m.youtube.com/watch?v=J3HwFtdVTfM

You may become more vulnerable during menopause. Being accommodated and understanding of one’s own mood swings is important.

Mild irritability, anger, guilt, self-criticism, mood swings, depression, sadness, PMS, pmdd can make you feel like you do not know yourself anymore.

Serotonin decreases when estrogen levels decrease
Estrogen dominance can cause fluctuations
Lack of sleep affects our mood
Stress can also be the cause of mood swings

Psychological explanations :
Our role as a woman, as a mother, as a daughter is changing
We get a call to take a closer look at ourselves
Identity crises can show up, when you do not have to be a mother to younger children
Around this age you often have to take care of your old parents, so there is a role reversal and you become a parent to your own parents

Unprocessed emotions and unprocessed traumas comes up to the surface during menopause
How good are you at accommodating your own crazy girl during menopause
Are you okay with being touched, cry and being more sensible
Are you okay with setting boundaries - if you havent been before, you can get more angry during menopause
Try to find out if your reactions come from sides of yourself that you have not accepted yet.
They more sides of yourself you havent integrated yet, the more mood swings you will have

Accept your mood swings
Flow with the current state and accept yourself instead of fighting against it. Be curious if these are the same things that are triggering you
Remember tears are stress reducing
As a woman, we do not have the same capacity as before. We get stressed faster

The shadow strikes in menopause
If we embrace it, we can become ourselves without fighting
Emotional states that are not healed can be the cause of mood swings
The blur between the unconscious and the conscious becomes thinner
This gives us the opportunity to become a whole woman

Menopause can be seen as adolescence in reverse
Acceptance and compassion for yourself is important
Can you imagine yourself as a teenager and give yourself some understanding and compassion
Do you give yourself what you need

The stress threshold is reduced
A decrease in serotonin

Boost your serotonin level with:
salmon
nuts
eggs
chicken
Turkey
ceremonial cocoa
chocolate
Exercise
movement
sunshine
fiber in your diet - serotonin is formed in your intestinal flora

Meno pause leave has been discussed in the US and in the UK

Mood swings can become a cultural shadow.
Sociaty and women themselves can look down on women's mood swings, anger, crying lability ect.

It is natural that the neutral zone can create stress. Many women are surprised by what comes up during the meno pause.

There are 3 processes:

- the physical
- the mental
- the spiritual

A transition ritual would be helpful in making menopause an exciting transition in life.

A menopause mentor / a midlife midwife / a hormonal expert

The impact of oxytocin:

The effects of oxytocin are exacerbated by estrogen and minimized by testosterone. The bonding effect seems to last 2-3 weeks in women and 2-3 days in men. This could partly explain why younger women get more attached due to sex than younger men; and why post-menopausal women experience more freedom around sex while older men want regular sex to feel connected to their partners. It also explains why we see each other in a different light after orgasm (it’s orgasm that counts, with or without intercourse).
Both men and women may want to consider the effects of oxytocin. Are you ready for that attachment, either by you or to you? Are you ready to abandon judgment

verilymag.com/2016/05/oxytocin-sex-differences-women-hormones-bonding-sex-trust

After menopause women gets less affected by oxytocin during sex

Have you gained weight ?

If you have also put on and / or gotten a new stomach part, or more, ask yourself the questions:
How do I feel in my body - does it thrive?
Am I giving my body what it needs?
Do I take care of myself?
How am I doing in my life - am I happy and content?

Do not focus solely on the part or the weight gain but see it as an invitation to create balance in you.
A new cure or being restrictive with food is not the solution.
Your stomach part is a messenger or a GPS and if you listen you can help your body get back in balance.
For me, keto has been a guide to start throttling down with the carbs which for many women is what causes weight issues especially the extra of the kind on the stomach.
But stress reduction is just as important because the stress hormones also give you extra pounds on your stomach.

But I do not live the keto lifestyle because I am not so fond of all that meat - I would say that my version of keto is more keto green. I eat predominantly vegetarian but the big game changer for my body has been to combine vegetarian lifestyle with fewer carbohydrates (ie as far as possible no white bread, pasta and rice and as little sugar as possible) and to walk a minimum of 30 minutes every day. It works and I am slowly getting balance in my body again and as a side benefit I sleep better and just feel incredibly good. And it's so cool to be able to see that
I'm approaching being able to fit my old Diesel jeans that I loved - pre my menopause.
But it is not a cure. It's the way my body can heal and find itself in this phase of rebuilding. And I do not believe that there is only one way to weight loss and did not happen for menopausal women.
There are so many factors that come into play and the trick is to find what gives you the belly part and adjust from there.

If you want to loose weight:

Where it often goes wrong is within these areas which are both specifically about what you eat and how much but also about the habits and patterns you have when it comes to food. Here you see a list of the things I have experienced that make a big difference when you want to lose weight and which do NOT have to do with will control. Turning these parameters on can greatly boost your weight loss.

The size of the portions - often we eat either too little or too much
Eat only until you are 80% full - often we eat so much that we actually become oversaturated
Eat only when you are hungry - avoid snacking all day and become aware if you feel hungry outside the meals what are you basically hungry for? Is it really chocolate or are you bored? Do you feel restless? Do you feel something that is uncomfortable and the chocolate soothes it?
Eat when you are hungry - yes I just wrote that but I repeat it with a different angle because there are also women who skip meals and overhear their hunger because they are too busy to eat.
Stop eating after your evening meal and only eat again in the morning, ie fasting from kl. about 7 pm to 7 am(12 hours fasting and preferably more several times a week)
Feel your needs and take care of them. When you overhear yourself and the needs you have then you are basically failing yourself and this has a huge impact on your need to soothe. The failure you inflict on yourself gives reactions in your inner self and that is why it is so common that we use food to give us what we do not get and what we long for.
Become aware of your beliefs about yourself, losing weight and about food. 

One of the principles is to create balance in your blood sugar.
One of the changes that decreasing estrogen causes is that your sensitivity to insulin decreases. Insulin helps the body carry glucose into your cells. Glucose gives your cells energy. When you eat too many carbohydrates or sugars - relative to what the body can carry into the cells - the body will convert glucose into glycogen and store it in your liver or as fat. It often happens for menopausal women that there is an imbalance in insulin regulation. It is also called insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is when the body's cells become resistant to insulin's attempts to carry glucose into the cells. It can cause chronically elevated blood sugar and insulin and can cause obesity, especially on the stomach. It also creates chronically "hungry" cells because they do not get the energy they need.
Hello overwhelming fatigue and cravings in the afternoon. Insulin resistance is actually also one of the root causes of many of the genes that can occur during menopause UD over weight gain. It can cause especially hot flashes, night sweats, fatigue, brain fog and cravings. Therefore, it is super important that you become aware of how your diet can affect both your insulin sensitivity and your blood sugar level and support your body by not giving the food that spikes your blood sugar too much and too often.

You can do this by:
eat by glycemic index
 eat 3-5 meals a day (without snacking beyond this)
fasting after eating dinner until the next morning
eat lots of greens and fiber

Foods that cause your blood sugar to rise are foods with a high carbohydrate / sugar content. The more it affects your blood sugar the higher the glycemic index number it has. Therefore, you need to eat foods with low and medium glycemic index and avoid foods with high glycemic index

The second principle is to eat anti-inflammatory because inflammation partly creates a mess in your blood sugar but also affects your hormones and makes you pack fat. Inflammation has gained a bad reputation and basically it is that the body creates inflammation, a good thing because it protects the body but when inflammation runs wild it can have a negative effect. A large part of the diet we eat in the western world creates too much inflammation and therefore we see epidemics of chronic disorders that have their roots in inflammation such as diabetes, cancer, heart problems and arthritis. Therefore, it is important to know which foods can create inflammation so you can put turn of the 🔥 that may be in your body and thus create balance so you can lose weight.

Inflammation can help create obesity for several reasons. First, insulin imbalances (insulin resistance) aggravate inflammation - and vice versa. A vicious circle quickly arises where weight gain is the consequence. In addition, inflammation can also affect the hunger hormone leptin and make you hungrier especially after the things that are not good for you (hi sugar and carbohydrate cravings) and at the same time make you resistant to weight loss because the brain thinks it should slow down your metabolism (leptin resistance) . As you can see, several vicious circles can very easily arise once the blood sugar and inflammation have gotten out of control. All of this can get worse if you bother with stress, poor sleep and do not get enough exercise.

Foods that can cause inflammation are:
Processed foods (contains many unhealthy additives and sugars)
Refined sugar
Process carbohydrates eg white bread, cakes, pasta
Processed meat eg sausages, bacon, salami
Trans fatty acids such as frying oil
Refined vegetable oils such as corn, sunflower and soybean oil
Alcohol
For some, milk and gluten create inflammation
Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame
Coffee can be inflammatory especially if you drink more than 2 cups daily
Dairy products can be included in anti-inflammatory diet but this primarily applies to kefir, natural yoghurt, cottage cheese, soy yoghurt.
Avoid fatty cheeses, cream, fruit yogurt, sour cream.
Gluten can also be part of an anti-inflammatory diet, but if you suspect that you are reacting to wheat, you can choose gluten-free products such as gluten-free oatmeal, tortillas, gluten-free bread.
However, be aware that many ready-made gluten-free products contain a lot of sugar and are therefore not good for your blood sugar.

Foods that have anti-inflammatory effect:
Vegetables eg spinach, kale, broccoli, white cabbage, cauliflower, beets, sweet potattoes (preferably organic)
Garlic and onions
Berries such as blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, blackcurrants
Whole grains and unprocessed grains eg oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa
Omega 3 fats from eg avocado, fatty fish, flaxseed
Oils from eg olive oil, rapeseed and coconut oil
Herbs and spices
Probiotic foods such as sauerkraut, kombutcha, yogurt, pickles
Beans and lentils
Turmeric and ginger
Nuts and seeds eg almonds, walnuts, chia seeds, flax seeds
Green Tea and Matcha

Macro nutrients are fat, protein and carbohydrates. You need the right amount both in terms of what your body needs but also in terms of you being able to lose weight. Both fats and carbohydrates have a bad reputation but the fact is that you MUST have both - just the right kind and in the right amounts.

Micro nutrients are vitamins and minerals. You must have a good balanced amount so that the organs that break down what you eat can function optimally, eg your liver. Many women enter menopause in a state of deficiency when it comes to important nutrients. Stress drains the body of vitamins and minerals because it takes a lot to produce stress hormones.
Therefore, many menopausal women lack, for example:
C, D, vitamin E.
Magnesium
B12
Iron
Q10

Stress is one of the root causes of both inflammation, blood sugar imbalances and hormonal challenges and therefore it is important to get a handle on any stress if you want to lose weight.

Stress comes in many forms and for many different reasons. You may know about work-related stress but in fact you may be at least as stressed about the thoughts you think, the roles you play and the expectations you have for yourself. Therefore, you need to be aware of how much stress you have in your life and make an active effort to get more calm, rest and balance in your mind as well.
pYou can do this in different ways, for example by:
Practice yoga
Practice meditation
Exercise breathing exercises
Cultivate nature and go for walks in it
Be gentle with yourself especially now that you are changing your lifestyle
Ensure adequate sleep and rest
Become aware of your feelings and your needs

Of course, your hormones also have an effect on your weight, but it's more about vicious circles that create rings in the water and affect each other. For example, the decreasing hormones will affect your sensitivity to insulin, which means that you pack fat more easily. Stress also affects your blood sugar and your intestinal system so your nutrient uptake can be affected. So the fact that your hormones fall in connection with menopause definitely has a meaning and there are two hormonal scenarios that can be particularly important. It is either high estrogen or low estrogen. High estrogen is also called estrogen dominance and means that the ratio of estrogen to progesterone is out of balance. Estrogen dominance characterizes what is called premenopause - that is, the years before the menopause itself. Estrogen dominance has many different symptoms, including PMS, heavy bleeding, mood swings, headaches and weight gain. Low estrogen can also cause discomfort and characterizes especially the time just before even the menopause (the anniversary of you not having your period for a year) and the first years after. Here it is symptoms such as decreased sex drive, depression, sore joints and weight gain that may appear. So when we talk about diet for menopause, it's really important to think about plant estrogens. Plant estrogens have an estrogen-like effect - although much weaker than estrogen - and they can settle on the estrogen receptors and make the body think that there is enough estrogen. Therefore, they can alleviate many of the discomforts that can occur when estrogen begins to change.

PRINCIPLES DO:
Eat nutritious food ie as little processed food as possible
Eat at least 4 times a day.
Drink at least 1.5-2 liters of water
Eat foods from all sources of nutrients (fat, protein, carbohydrate and fiber) with each meal
Eat according to the principle of low to medium glycemic index and feel free to choose foods that are anti-inflammatory
Eat plenty of phytoestrogens - minimum 50g daily
Eat only until you are about 80% full

PRINCIPLES - DON T:
Avoid refined sugar (cake, ice cream, candy, chocolate)
Avoid white bread, pasta, rice
Avoid alcohol
Avoid red meat and pork
Avoid coffee especially before breakfast
Avoid skipping meals
Avoid snacking outside of meals and especially in the evening
Avoid foods that cause inflammation
Avoid foods with high glycemic index (primarily those over 70 and eat only once in between those with index 55-69)
Dont Overthink this (this is not meant to be a project you have to perform. Take it easy and get to know the principles at your own pace)
Dont Eat after 6 pm

Vata, pitta, kapha

If estrogen deficiency occurs, it will usually be a deficiency of estriol and not estradiol. Although most women have too much estradiol, there are also some women who may be deficient in estradiol.

This is especially true of thin women (the Vata and Vata-Pitta types in Ayurveda) who do not produce estradiol from the fat cells.

If you can recognize the symptoms of at least 4 of the 7 points, it could indicate that you are producing too little estrogen.

Lack of concentration and clarity.
No interests - it all seems indifferent
Tired and exhausted all the time.
Lack of desire to exercise and be active
* 1) Breasts have shrunk and have become more sluggish
Loss of bone mass
Emotionally more fragile - especially when you compare to how you felt 10 years ago.
Poor memory. You can walk into a room to do something and wonder what it was or become completely blank in the middle of a sentence
Hot flashes

Anger:

www.drnorthrup.com/why-anger-is-common-during-menopause/

There is a common stereotype of women becoming “crazy” at menopause. It’s our culture’s well-entrenched way of writing off women who, at menopause, often go through the process of reclaiming their lives. For many women this reclamation process includes getting in touch with anger that arises from unmet and unacknowledged needs. When a woman begins to express her anger, especially if she has held her tongue for most of her life, it can seem to come from “out of the blue”.
What’s really happening during perimenopause (the 10 years or so before a woman has her last period) is that a woman’s brain actually begins to change. This is because the hormonal changes that are typical during this time—namely fluctuations in the relative levels of estrogen and progesterone—signal changes in the temporal lobe (associated with intuition) and limbic area of the brain. This is why many women find themselves feeling irritable, anxious, and emotionally volatile.

But while our culture has led women to believe that these emotions are simply due to raging hormones, hormone instability is only part of the picture. There is solid evidence that repeated episodes of stress—whether due to relationships, children, or jobs we feel angry about or powerless over—are actually behind many of the hormonal changes in the brain and body. And stress of any kind, when prolonged, can exacerbate hormone imbalance. This is especially true when we have unresolved or “stuck” emotions as we begin the menopausal transition.

The Connection Between Emotions and Hormones During Menopause
Your thoughts, emotions, desires and dreams are your inner guidance system. The autonomic nervous system is the system that translates your thoughts, emotions and beliefs into the physical environment that, over time, becomes your actual physical body. The “language” your autonomic nervous system uses to translate your thoughts and emotions to the rest of your body is your hormones.
The primary messengers of the sympathetic nervous system (the part of the nervous system that revs up your metabolism to deal with challenges) are hormones called norepinephrine and epinephrine, which are often referred to together as adrenaline, which are produced in the brain and in the adrenal glands. Every time adrenaline levels go up, cortisol (another adrenal hormone) also goes up.
Our state of health depends more on our perception of life events than on the events themselves. When your perception that the events and demands in your life are stressful and uncontrollable, you are adopting a mindset that continually whips your adrenals into producing more and more cortisol. Over time, your adrenals become exhausted. Insomnia is a very common result in this situation, as is immune system incompetence, which increases susceptibility not only to infectious diseases, but also autoimmune disorders and cancer.

The overstimulated sympathetic nervous system also causes and imbalance in eicosanoids, resulting in impaired fatty acid metabolism by cells. This is associated with weight gain as the body breaks down muscle and replacing it with stored fat and excess fluid. An imbalance in eicosanoids is also associated with inflammation, which is now known to be the cause of nearly all chronic degenerative diseases, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Plus, inflammation increases the discomfort felt in a host of chronic diseases such as Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system also causes decreased production of progesterone, your body’s natural calming agent. I have written extensively about the connection between your emotions, your hormones and your health in my book, The Wisdom of Menopause.

How Anger at Menopause Prompts You to Heal Your Past
Certain areas of the brain, such as the amygdala and the hippocampus are important for encoding and retrieving memories. They are also rich in estrogen, progesterone, and GnRH receptors, the hormones that fluctuate the most during perimenopause. This is why menopausal hormonal changes bring a woman’s anger to conscious awareness. The heightened activity of these hormones often brings back the memories of hurts and losses women have managed to forget or minimize. And this makes menopause the perfect biologically supported opportunity to clean up unfinished business from the past. How this ultimately affects you depends to a large degree on how willing you are to make the changes you are being urged to make.
Many women become frightened when they feel anger arising. Or, they say they are “just” irritable, grouchy, aggravated, envious, overwhelmed, even depressed, or that they “just” have high cholesterol or high blood pressure. Believe me, all of these emotions and physical conditions are associated with anger. And anger always arises from a genuine need that isn’t being met. Learning to recognize the situations from which your anger arises is the first step toward understanding the messages behind your anger and ultimately healing.
Here are some situations from which anger arises and the corresponding messages behind the anger:

5 Practices to Resolve Menopausal Anger

Practice releasing toxic emotions. If you have persistent, unresolved emotions, such as grief, the only way to heal is to release them. You can do this as they arise or even create a daily ritual where you work through the unresolved emotion and the event that cause it. If you are unable to work through and release toxic emotions fully on your own, seek help from a professional or support group. This can also provide validation of your emotions, which many women need.

Focus on the “silver lining”. Releasing old patterns of the first half of your life may mean that your relationships change or dissolve. The good news is many women attract their “soul tribe” at midlife.

Resist the urge to fall back into your old ways. Allow yourself to continually move toward success and joy. You’ll be astounded at the new friends and circumstances that present themselves.

Trust your brain and your body. Tune into your emotions and any physical symptoms. Trust that your brain and your body give you the information you need to resolve past trauma at the exact time you are prepared to handle it.

Resist categorizing your feelings. Emotions are neither “good” nor “bad”. When you feel angry, sad, anxious, or depressed, think of these feelings as guidance, use them to steer yourself toward health.

Forgive yourself. In order to heal your past and to fully be able to release anger and other emotions that are attached to it, you must forgive yourself and those involved in your pain. Remember forgiveness does not mean that what happened to you was acceptable. It simply means you are no longer willing to allow the past to keep you from living fully and healthfully in the present.