Welcome to Back to My 5 Day Crash Course for Women - Fitness in Midlife and Beyond!
Good morning! How did you sleep last night?
Today is our last day of Midlife Fitness and Beyond! I have to admit that I had really tough time deciding what we would focus on today. There’s still so much that we could discuss!
Today we’re talking about our brain, energy levels and food!
Every organ in our body has estrogen receptors including our brain. As women move to peri/post-menopause, we sometimes see symptoms like menstrual migraines, brain fog, trouble focusing, symptoms of ADHD, hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, memory lapses, depression, and anxiety. Is that all?!
Wondering why is this happening? Lisa Mosconi, author of the XX Brain, describes it like this, “Estrogen are not only involved in reproduction but also in brain function. And estrogen in particular, or estradiol, is really key for energy production in the brain. At the cellular level, estrogen literally pushes neurons to burn glucose to make energy. If your estrogen is high, your brain energy is high. When your estrogen declines, though, your neurons start slowing down and age faster. For women, brain energy is usually fine before menopause, but then it gradually declines during the transition. And this was found independent of age. It didn't matter if the women were 40, 50 or 60.”
So what do we do to boost our brain power and energy?
Give yourself a pat on the back, you’re doing it! You’re getting in your cardiovascular activity with sprint and high intensity intervals and you’re doing resistance training. Aim for 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week. The intervals count as vigorous. And, aim to do 2 sessions a week of resistance training. Physical activity is basically like Miracle Grow for the brain. You’re also now working on your sleep quality which helps our brain. And, you’re working to control your stress and cortisol levels.
2. Consider trying a Mediterranean Diet. This style of eating has consistently shown to be excellent for our overall health, brain health and weight management. Women on this diet have a much lower risk of cognitive decline, depression, heart disease, stroke and cancer. And they also have fewer hot flashes. The Mediterranean diet includes grains, legumes, vegetables, fruit, fish and nuts and can include small amounts of meat, eggs, dairy and alcohol. Also, this way of eating is rich in the phytoestrogen foods that we touched on yesterday. Phytoestrogen containing foods are ones like flax seeds, sesame seeds, dried apricots, legumes and a number of fruits.
And how did I bury the lead? Dark chocolate contains phytoestrogens, too.
3. Be sure that you’re consuming enough food. Women tend to overestimate how much they’re consuming. As you’re ramping up your activity, you will need to be sure that you’re meeting your energy needs. If you’re not meeting your energy needs, you have symptoms of what is called Low Energy Availability(LEA).This can look like fatigue, muscle soreness, muscle aches, irritability, headaches, mood swings, brain fog and energy dips. Looks similar to some other symptoms too, right? Over time, this can impact our bone health as well as our reproductive and endocrine systems. You’ll sort of feel like on phone that’s on 5% and needs to be charged.
Want another reason to keep our food intake up? When we don’t consume enough energy, our body thinks that food may become scarce and slows down our metabolism, increases our appetite and begins to store away energy in the form of fat in our abdominal region. Eeks!
4. Our brain prefers carbohydrates so be sure to maintain a healthy intake. In peri/post-menopause, we are particularly sensitive to carbohydrate restriction. Eating enough quality, nutrient dense carbohydrates like unprocessed or minimally processed whole grains, vegetables, fruits and beans also helps us maintain a healthy immune and stress response to exercise, manage weight and helps moderate cortisol. They also help to improving our adaptations and recovery from exercise. Peri/Post-menopause women are particularly sensitive to carbohydrate restriction.
I don’t like people to be overly concerned with calories. Instead I’d like for you to listen to what your body needs and how it feels. This is called intuitive eating. An easy way to keep on track is to have protein, a high fiber carbohydrate, veggies and a healthy fat at every meal. This will help supply you with all the macronutrients to keep your training, your muscles, your bones, and your brain strong. This can also help to keep your blood sugar levels constant which helps with brain fog and the symptoms we talked about above.
So, there are your tips for today! Put these together with our tips from this week and you’ll be feeling great!
Congratulations! You completed your 5 Day Crash Course on Midlife Fitness and Beyond!
I’ll be sure to keep you posted with other tips for midlife fitness. If you’d like a more personalized coaching or fitness program, reach out to me!
Let me know if you have any questions! And, remember, you are only getting more fantastic every day!
Laurie
Need a review? Check out previous days here.
Day 1 - Reducing the Midsection with SIT