Stirring the Meno-pot
One of the most difficult things for perimenopausal and menopausal women to adjust to in our culture is the change in body shape that occurs in most women at this time of life. While our bodies have very good reasons for doing this - and there are ways to avoid some of it, if we understand what our body is trying to accomplish - it is difficult to accept in a culture whose ideal of beauty is so unrealistic. The models that are used to exemplify our cultural ideal are younger and younger every year and have body types that only about 3% of women share. Add to that the current cultural obsession with various diets and workout regimes and women are made to believe that they can look like they are 30 into their post-menopausal years, if they just work hard enough at it. This creates behaviors that actually work against what the body is trying to do, and therefore are not effective. In fact, they sometimes make things worse. Women feel like failures and many begin to despair.
As the ovaries begin to wind down their hormone production at menopause, it is Nature's plan that the adrenal glands and fat cells take over this task for the second half of life. During this time, many women develop what we jokingly call the "meno-pot," an extra five pounds or so of fat padding their waistlines, which is needed for making hormones. This both confuses women (as they have not changed diet or exercise rhythms) and distresses them, as it is one more thing that feels out of their control. If we understand though, that this fat has a hormonal component, connected to our adrenal glands and to stress, then we can see a path forward toward giving our body what it needs, cutting down on excess formation of this belly fat.
Our stress levels have the single greatest impact on our menopausal symptoms, and the meno-pot is no exception. Since the work of the adrenals increases at menopause, if they are already tired or barely keeping up with day-to-day stress, they are unable to fulfill their menopausal tasks. There are many cortisol receptors in this new belly fat, and since stress produces cortisol, it stimulates even more growth of belly fat. Women often return to strategies that worked earlier in life, like dieting and increasing work-outs, however this further stresses the adrenals and will cause the opposite result at this juncture. Engaging in behaviors which support the adrenal glands, will help minimize your meno-pot. These include:
- creating a rhythm in your life, so that you are not 'over-spending' your energy
- balancing your hormones
- keeping your blood sugar stable, so that your adrenals are not wasting energy managing it
- getting adequate high-quality sleep, beginning at 10-10:30pm at night
- moving your body in a natural way, rather than high intensity work-outs
- creating some regular 'down time' for your body to de-stress
- bringing more pleasure into your life
Chapter 6 of Making Sense of Menopause: Harnessing the Power and Potency of your Wisdom Years addresses these issues in detail.
