In this episode, Brooke Davis of Elysian Women’s Wellness discusses perimenopause and menopause lifestyle habits for hormonal balance. She provides practical and sustainable habits that can help balance hormones, support overall wellness, and empower women to live their best lives during this time.
The topics covered include morning habits, mindful eating, exercise, supporting detox pathways, reducing environmental toxins, stress management, and the importance of community. Brooke also emphasizes the importance of sleep and provides tips for improving sleep quality.
Ready to hear how you can foster healthy perimenopause and menopause lifestyle habits? Listen for more!
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Contents
Welcome to the Fitness Simplified podcast. I’m Brooke Davis, women’s functional nutritionist and fitness specialist with Elysian Women’s Wellness, and I’m here to simplify your fitness. Today, we’re diving into a topic that is close to the hearts of many women navigating their 30s, 40s, and beyond.
That is going to be for hormonal balance during perimenopause and menopause lifestyle habits. Menopause is the natural transition in a woman’s life, but it comes with its own set of challenges. From fluctuating moods, unexpected weight gain, hot flashes, and so much more, these symptoms can make everyday life feel like an uphill battle.
But here’s the good news. With the right lifestyle habits, you can actually manage these changes quite effectively. You can really maintain your energy levels, your physique, and everything that you feel like you are losing through this transition. In today’s episode, we are going to explore some practical and sustainable habits that you can do to help balance your hormones, support your overall wellness, and really empower you to live your best life during this time.
So, whether you are just beginning to notice the signs of perimenopause or in the thick of it. This episode is packed with valuable insights and actionable advice to help you thrive. Let’s dive in. So, number one I want to start with is first thing in the morning, waking up, morning, WATER.
Not only is this going to start you off with hydration. You can add some lemon, apple cider vinegar, electrolytes. All of these are going to help support your digestion. They’re going to help support bowel movements and clearing out your GI tract first thing in the morning.
It can also help support your blood sugar for your first meal. Next is going to be morning sun. This is really important for circadian rhythm regulation.
I know that sleep is a huge issue in perimenopause and menopause due to various reasons, but making sure that you are getting that morning sun is going to help with your melatonin production, which is part of that circadian rhythm regulation. The other part of it is going to be absorbing vitamin D. So if you can actually get your abdomen exposed for about 15 to 20 minutes in the morning sun, that is going to be the best way to absorb vitamin D, which plays a huge role in balancing hormones, hormone production, and energy levels as well. It is a hormone itself, that is.
Next, as a lifestyle habit during perimenopause and menopause, we should eat within one to two hours of waking up. This helps manage morning cortisol or stress response. Most women are guilty of having just coffee for breakfast, which prolongs the elevated morning cortisol.
Cortisol actually helps balance your blood sugar. So, when blood sugar is low, cortisol will rise, increase glucose in the blood. This is a normal and completely necessary response from the body. Especially at this age and the stress of life, along with your changing hormones, we want to mitigate our stress response as much as possible. Chronically elevated levels of cortisol interfere with sex hormone production, which is what the body is already kind of rollercoastering on.
Next up, and along with your morning meal, we want to make sure that we are eating mindfully. So, getting into that rest and digest state, that parasympathetic mode, and out of that stress response. So you can do a few things:
During perimenopause and menopause lifestyle habits, you can take just a few deep breaths before your meal, in through your nose, out through your mouth. You can say a prayer. Express some gratitude for your meal.
Eating slowly to make sure to really savor your food. You will also taste it, smell it, and actually pay attention to what you’re eating. Chewing 20 times per bite.
It’s actually 30 times per bite is like optimal, but going for 20 can feel like a lot. Putting your fork down between bites can be really helpful to just slowing things down, being again, a little more mindful. It actually takes 20 minutes for your stomach to send your brain the fullness cue.
And so if you finish a meal prior to that 20 minutes, you may have actually missed your fullness cue. So part of eating slowly can be listening to your fullness cues. As long as you are, again, past that 20 minutes, then you should be able to easily do that.
Durin perimenopause and menopause lifestyle habits, stopping before you’re completely stuffed. I like to say that stopping when you’re about 80% full can be really helpful. And then also eating mindfully.
So paying attention to your hunger cues and seeing if it’s actual hunger, or if you’re just bored or you’re eating out of habit, which can be really common. The next part of this is going to be exercise. Of course, we know exercise is important.
We are not going to get into the deep nitty gritties of this. I have a whole ‘nother podcast planned on actually designing a proper strength training and cardio plan specifically for perimenopause and menopause, and being able to adjust that based on how you feel. The results you’re seeing, all that good stuff. But in general, okay, we want about two to three hours of cardio per week. And that can include walking, walking is exercise.
This completely depends on you, your hormones, what else you have going on. Again, this is going to be very individual. Then you also want to make sure that you are getting two to three strength training sessions per week. You want to ideally be in the six to 12 rep range. Pushing your RPE or rate of perceived exertion, making sure that it’s hard. Those two to three strength training sessions can be 45 minutes to an hour, 30 minutes can be also very beneficial if done efficiently. And then we also want to make sure that you’re recovering.
So doing too much high intensity exercise can elevate that cortisol and stress response. However, it can also be really beneficial. So again, completely up to you, totally individual, based on the results that you’re seeing, and then supporting your detox pathway.
So exercise is a great way to do that. Sweating is one of the very beneficial ways to do that. Getting massages, dry brushing, and then, of course, through your nutrition, which we have a whole other podcast on. Making sure you’re getting enough fiber and enough protein are some really key players in supporting your own detoxification pathways and mechanisms within your body.
You don’t have to do juice cleanses, like please don’t. In fact, no juice cleanses. No cutting out entire food groups to detox, no apple cider vinegar cleanses, nothing like that. Just eating whole, nutrient-dense balanced foods. Eating enough of them is going to be the best thing you can do to support your detox pathways.
And there are some various herbs and supplements that can help support that. Maybe I’ll do a whole podcast on that as well. But as of now, focus on those simple things to do that with.
And as far as sweating goes, you can do a sauna, 15, 20 minutes in the sauna, even warm baths, showers, things like that. Being outside and exercising, running, whatever it is, getting your sweat on is super helpful. With that, we’re trying to reduce overall stress and load on the body.
Again, that cortisol response is really a main culprit in some of the big triggers for symptoms in perimenopause and menopause. Again disrupting the production of sex hormones. And so, another part of that can be environmental toxins. This is just another thing that’s added on to the stress that your body is going through right now.
While all these little things may be “little things,” and while all of these products may have “under the toxic amount” of toxins in them, of chemicals in them, they all add up. Especially when you think about our air, our water. There is just so many things around us and in our life, our food, that are loaded down with these environmental toxins. Some of the major offenders are going to be household cleaning products.
So things like bleach is a huge one, your laundry detergent, tile cleaners, any kind of surface cleaners, dish soap, things like that. And then air fresheners. So if you have either Glade plugins or things that sit on your counter or the sprays, Febreze, Lysol, all of those things are just really adding to your toxic load.
There are non-toxic swaps that you can make for that. And we do have a guide for that. I will link it in the show notes here for some less toxic products.
And then of course, beauty products. So it’s something like when a woman walks out of the house, they have over 100 different kinds of products on them. And that also includes a ton of different kinds of toxins. You’re looking at shampoo, conditioner, lotion, makeup, perfume, skincare, et cetera.
Those all are going to, unless you are intentionally finding non-toxic brands, then all of those are going to add up. And when you’re putting them on your skin, your skin is your biggest organ. You are absorbing them into your body.
That is probably one of the most important things to swap out when it comes to reducing your toxic load. And then we have… air purifiers are amazing. And then water filters.
So depending on where your water comes from, that can be a very important thing for you. If you’re in the city, I would highly, highly, highly recommend prioritizing a water filter. And then coming into just overall stress management.
There’s tons of ways to do this. Of course, fueling your body properly, making sure you’re getting enough calories, enough of the right macronutrients and micronutrients is going to be step number one of stress management. That’s going to be really supporting your body and giving it the energy that it needs to do all the things it wants to do.
But the next one is just letting things go, right? Finding time to play, to dance, to listen to music. You can do intentional things like breathwork and meditation and journaling, going on meditative walks. I know a lot of people have trouble just sitting down and being still and meditating, right? Or getting- quieting their brain down.
So just going for a walk and listening to the sounds of nature. Ideally, if you can get out in nature, not in the city, you can do a little more intentional things like getting a massage, a mani pedi and or taking a nap. That is a huge form of self-care, if you are able to do that, and also comes into the sleep portion, which we’re going to talk about here in a second, and making sure that your body is able to recover from everything that it’s going through right now, because it’s going through a lot.
So if you feel like you need to take a nap, let yourself take a nap if you’re able to. Then of course, we have gratitude journaling, letting go of things that need to be let go of, things you can’t control, keeping in mind that you’re only getting control of one thing and that is your thoughts.
So let that shit go. Setting boundaries, saying no. If you have people or a job or a boss that are constantly asking you to do things that are beyond your capacity, say no.
Learn how to say no. That is one of the best things I think people can learn for themselves is setting those boundaries and keeping them. Because whether people know it or not, a lot of times most people don’t know that they are asking too much of you.
If you tell them, if they care about you, they’re going to understand. If they don’t, you don’t have to explain it. Just know that it’s okay to say no.
One of my favorite things that I read recently was it was talking about somebody was asked to do a speaking engagement. Their response was, “my calendar is as full as I would like it to be. I appreciate the request. As of now, I don’t have the capacity to do that. Thank you for thinking of me.”
My calendar is as full as I’d like it to be. That’s it. That’s the only response you need. My calendar is as full as I’d like it to be.
I don’t have another second because you might have another second, but you don’t have to explain that to people. So that was one of my favorite demonstrations of that boundary setting.
Then, maybe learning something new. Find an instrument to do or to play or a new sport to play. Going back to things you enjoyed as a kid, coloring, playing outside, finding maybe you have kids or grandkids that you can play with, setting aside time for that. Then of course, there’s reading, getting outside in nature, grounding, getting your feet on the ground into grass, your bare feet into the ground and grass.
There is scientifically proven energy that comes from the ground that can help support our overall wellbeing. Then lastly, and this is kind of a component of stress reduction, but also just a support of your goals in general, and that is community. Making sure to surround yourself with people who love and support you and vice versa is extremely important for mental health in general, but also when it comes to physical health and lifestyle change.
Multiple studies have shown that the people you surround yourself with have a huge impact on your success in so many areas of life, but especially when it comes to health and fitness. There’s one study in particular, it was called the Framingham Heart Study, and they found that people were more likely to become obese if they had friends, siblings, or spouses who were obese. The effect was stronger among friends even than family members.
So, this tells us that behaviors related to diet and exercise spread through social networks. This influences your likelihood of gaining or losing weight and really emphasizes the importance of community and having social support when you’re trying to reshape your own health behaviors and achieve your goals. Long story short, be aware of who you’re surrounding yourself with and what habits they have, and if they are in a habit of trying to better themselves or improve their habits and lifestyle, always something just to keep in mind.
One thing about perimenopause and menopause lifestyle habits is I feel like my lifestyle kind of does that naturally because I have these priorities. If somebody doesn’t want to work out with me or go on hikes with me or come to kickboxing with me, then generally I’m probably going to have a really hard time spending time with them because those things are kind of non-negotiables on my to-do list. Then of course I have my kids and my husband and those are going to be in my family.
So my schedule is pretty well set, and I have little pockets of these things, but if something that my friends want to do is not going to be serving me… like I basically don’t have people that invite me out to wineries or things like that because they know I don’t drink. And while it might be fun to go out and have lunch, that’s just not generally the kind of thing that I’m going to find myself doing or being even invited to.
Food for thought. And then lastly, as we work our way through the day, is making sure to get enough sleep. And I know it sounds redundant because you’re like, “I am having hot flashes.
I’m waking up in the middle of the night. How am I supposed to get these seven to nine quality hours of sleep?” So, there are a lot of different things you can do to set yourself up for success. Obviously, some things are unavoidable.
However, making sure to prioritize a few things, and I have a whole podcast on this, so I’m going to direct you mostly to that, but the kind of key takeaways from it are going to be: having a nighttime wind-down routine sets your brain and your body up to get into that sleep mode. The morning sun is a huge one, again, based on melatonin and circadian rhythm regulation. And then making sure that as a part of that wind-down routine, you are cutting out blue light exposure at least an hour, but really two hours is going to be optimal when it comes to reducing the melatonin prohibiting impact that blue light has on your body.
Trying to cut out that blue light throughout your routine is going to be the best thing you can do for making sure that your brain is not starting to get wired before you go to sleep. That is the main takeaways of a sleep podcast. But if you want to get into the nitty gritty of it, then go listen to it. It’s episode 11, I believe.
And otherwise, we have covered quite a few different components of how to set yourself up for success when it comes to hormonal balance. I have some podcasts coming on supplementation, but I wanted to emphasize that your nutrition, your lifestyle, those are going to be the key factors when it comes to establishing and rebalancing hormones, finding some homeostasis in the roller coaster that is perimenopause and menopause, and making sure that this is your foundation for change.
I hope this was helpful. It was insightful. If you have any questions, of course, you know how to reach me.
I am going to link the full hormone guide in the show notes, so feel free to reach out there. We also have a hormone analysis that you can take and jump on a quick free call to get some more in-depth information on how to support your body through what you’re going through specifically.
If you have any questions, suggestions for future topics, or just want to chat, feel free to reach out to us on Instagram at Brooke underscore Elysian and Facebook linked in the show notes or via our website, ElysianWomensWellness.com. And if you enjoyed what you heard today, we’d be thrilled if you could take a half second to leave us a review.
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See you soon.
Coach Brooke Davis Links:
Website: bdavistraining.com
LinkedIn: Brooke Davis – Owner – Davis Fitness
Facebook: Brooke Davis, CPT
Instagram: Brooke Davis (@brooke_elysian)
Free Community: Women’s Fitness Simplified: Lean down, tone up, build confidence!
Healthy Hormones Guide: https://elysianwomen.myflodesk.com/ki1a5240ag
Hormone Analysis: https://brookedavis.typeform.com/to/quKUjmTI
Bye Bye Toxins Guide: https://elysianwomen.myflodesk.com/xfuykuxuas
Schedule a Free Discovery Call!: https://calendly.com/elysianwomenswellness/strategy-call-clone
Women’s Functional Nutritionist & Fitness Specialist along with CEO of Elysian Women’s Wellness.
God, family, fitness – in that order. Fitness isn’t my job, it’s my passion. My favorite things include traveling the world, being a mama and making a difference.
14 years of experience in the wellness industry has brought me to an understanding that when you’re ready – you’ll do it. So when you are, we’re here to keep you simply well.
The last “program” you’ll ever buy. Your individualized training & nutrition plan that teaches the why & how to create lasting changes with me by your side every step of the way!
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