The Menopause Mind, Mouth and Muscle.

The Menopause Mind, Mouth and Muscle.

By Dr. Pamela M. Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP; Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Maryland

Featured Contributor

As a woman courses through her perimenopausal years, she confronts challenges at multiple levels. Mentally, there are those mismatched shoes mornings, forgetting to lock your car door days, and the old favorite “I know you but can’t remember your name” events. Nutritionally, we eat like we’re 30 and mysteriously pack on pounds, while our appetites are going haywire. Physically, we discover to our dismay that our body parts are heading south, and the belly becomes the new bane of our existence. Lest you give up hope, I’ve got a solution.

I figured out that there is a simple way to help each of you. I created the MMM (Mind Mouth Muscle) template. This is a holistic, integrative plan to optimize your mental and physical fitness and help you sustain this achievement for life. Here’s the basic template:

Think about the choices you make every day: MIND

Think about what is going into your mouth throughout the day: MOUTH

Think about how, when and where you can move your body: MUSCLE

As I detail in my books Body for Life for Women and Fight Fat after Forty, I ask women to jot down in their journal each day something in each of these three categories.

What choices did you make? Did they support your goals or were they self-destructive?

Did you plan your snacks and meals? Did you turn to food as an anesthetic to neutralize your pain?

Did you do physical activity today? If not, why not?

Writing in your MMM journal becomes both a history of your menopausal self care journey as well as a daily pledge to yourself to keep moving in the right direction.

The MIND rules as you embark on self-improvement. Menopause presents a golden opportunity to regroup. OK, you’ve gained weight. Your waist now sits in another county, and you can’t walk more than a few blocks without speed dialing 911. It’s time to regroup, reassess and Redefine Normal for your body. You’re 45 or 50 or 60 and you need to redo your daily lifestyle habits to support the many changes that your mind and body have experienced as your hormones continue to vacillate on their way to a post-menopausal resting place. Here’s great news. You can do this!

Train yourself to think each morning to prioritize living a healthy lifestyle-centric way of life. That means you work everything around your good nutrition and physical activity, as well as some chill out time. Most women do the opposite and suffer for it. They’ll prioritize their work and other care giving tasks and lump self care on top of it all, or try to wedge it in there somewhere. That doesn’t work. Women who do that, look, feel and live like it, too. There’s a better way.

Let’s look at good nutrition. After the ages of 40 and 50, you want to eat foods that taste great, are satisfying and also boost your immune function. Fresh whole foods are the mainstay of your menopausal nutritional blueprint. Vitamin and mineral rich fruits and vegetables are coupled with whole grains and lean protein. Choose menopause friendly foods that support your body’s needs. If you consume a food like soy, you’ll be getting 40% protein, 20% oil and 40% healthy and fiber rich carbohydrates. Make sure to take an age-specific multivitamin every day to round out your nutritional plan.

Finally, you can’t stay strong and toned if you don’t move your body. It’s imperative that all menopausal women stay consistent with exercises that address endurance (cardio), strength (weight training), core (ab exercises), balance (which declines after age 50), and flexibility (stretches). As I’ve said repeatedly, all of these elements can be managed gym-free. Use your home, living and work environments to keep you in shape. It’s easier than you think and very accessible. If you haven’t been physically active in a long time, don’t despair. Hop into a pair of sneakers and just start walking. Add intervals of intensity to escalate calorie and fat burning.

Menopause does challenge you to adapt and adjust to changes in your mental, nutritional and physical spaces. However, if you stay vigilant and mindful of your changing needs, you’ll be rewarded with a mental and physical transformation that is sustainable for life.

woman health, menopause, wellness