From: Shawna Kaminski & Lisa Bullock
If you’re a woman over 40, you know that you have more than a few challenges with your fitness, fat loss and health.
You might have hit your 40’s and seemingly overnight your body has changed with an expanding waistline and scales that just keep going up. Nothing that you’ve tried in the past works anymore and you’re on a downward spiral to lower energy and a larger pant size. It’s easy to feel frustrated and helpless.
Right now you probably feel like you’re running around like a chicken with your head chopped off: work, volunteering, organizing everyone, cooking, possibly driving kids or even your parents places.
Women over 40 are sort of in the ‘between’ stage…still parents to children and sometimes parents to parents.
‘Caregiver’ is an understatement, except when it comes to ‘self care’.
Sound familiar?
Probably the ONLY person that gets neglected is YOU.
Who has time to go to the gym? Yet that ever expanding waistline is concerning! And let’s not even talk about those changing hormones!
Actually, we SHOULD talk about hormones.
Mid-life weight gain isn’t inevitable and there are definitely some strategies you can be using right now to slow if not actually reverse the aging process.
Here are three suggestions from them to help get your hormones in check:
1. Avoid Excessive Sugar
This may seem obvious and surprisingly, it’s not just about calories…
You could eat precisely the right amount of calories to theoretically put you in the fat burning zone, yet still be frustrated with your results if you’re eating sugar…
That’s because all the sugar is messing up a hormone called insulin.
Insulin is a bit like your body’s own personal Fedex. It picks up packages—nutrients like protein, carbs and fat—and delivers them to your cells. You NEED insulin to live, thrive and perform at your best. But too much sugar sends the system out of whack. Packages start getting delivered to all the wrong places.
You start storing more energy as fat because you’ve become “insulin resistant” and your lean tissues aren’t answering the door anymore when the delivery guy comes calling — EVEN IF you are in a calorie deficit.
Stop blaming your hormones, sure things change after forty, but there’s still plenty you can do to boost your metabolism.
2. Wind Down Early
Normally, levels of the stress hormone cortisol drop at night to help you wind down and sleep. If you become anxious or tense in the evening — like when you work late or check emails before bed — this causes your cortisol levels to surge. Cortisol is responsible for much of the menopausal weight gain that women can expect to experience in their 40s and 50s.
High cortisol also prevents the release of melatonin—the “sleepy hormone.” And that’s bad for two reasons.
First, some studies have linked insufficient melatonin with weight gain or hindered fatloss…
Also, when you sleep, levels of a hunger-related hormone called leptin surge, signaling to your body that you don’t need to eat. Toss and turn all night, and your body won’t produce the right amount of leptin—so you’ll feel extra hungry the next day and be more prone to eat more and weight gain
3. Get Enough Exercise
Without regular exercise, your body won’t produce and release the optimal amount of endorphins. They’re the “feel-good” chemicals that make you feel positive and alert.
Endorphins also keep your immune system functioning well and increase levels of sex hormones so you even score a libido lift. The more you move, the more endorphins your body will produce.
You’ll also want to get the RIGHT kind of exercise. Long slow cardio not only suppresses fat burning hormones, it makes you hungry! Lose the “more is better” mindset, you need a different kind of exercise – a smarter and more efficient way to move. Keep workouts short and intense. You’ll keep cortisol levels in check and boost that sluggish metabolism.
We understand how easy it is to be overwhelmed by conflicting fitness and nutrition advice. We’re both over 50 and living strong, active and healthy lives. And we can help you do the same. Because we know what it’s like to walk in your shoes. We’re both over 50, leading busy lives so we understand how many women struggle to look after themselves.
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