Thank you for sharing all of this with your community. I turn 46 tomorrow and reading this offering makes me feel empowered (not overwhelmed) with aging.
I have said (more than once) that my 40s have been my favorite decade so far. I have friends who look at me like I’m crazy. But I feel it’s the closest I’ve come to figuring myself out. Still working on that (!) but I care more about me and less about what the world thinks of me - which is so refreshing after being a perpetual people pleaser.
This perimenopause is a new land for me but I’m getting my footing. I agree that there needs to be way more conversations about how to navigate these years with confidence and community.
I will come back to this piece again, I am sure. Thank you, Mia 🙏🏼
Happy birthday Allison! I so appreciate your message and your words are inspiring as well. Though I love my 40s (having been alcohol-free the entire time so far), they have also been my hardest years and I still feel like I am in the muck of it all. Not all days, but a lot of the days. Happy to have a community to share it with, while working it out. XX, M
I didn’t quit drinking until after I’d gone through the menopause. I was in peri menopause for about 10 years from my early forties. It was like pushing water uphill dealing with the symptoms, not realising the extent to which drinking was exacerbating them and then finally making the decision to go on HRT. I was resistance training throughout this time and my nutrition was in the main good. So I thought being fit, eating well and then going on HRT would take care of everything. But, it wasn’t until I quit drinking I really got to a place of inner peace and physically feeling well. Alcohol was the rock I didn’t want to look under but thank goodness I got to a place where I accepted it wasn’t serving me at all and I walked away from it. Never once through those years of talking to medical professionals about my peri menopause symptoms was I ever asked about my relationship with alcohol. This really is something that needs to change to help women through this period of their life. I knew alcohol wasn’t good for me per se but I had no idea of the impact it was having on my mood and anxiety let alone the increased cancer risk. Here in the UK it is barely mentioned, you have to go and educate yourself.
Do you know who Lisa Snowdon is? She is from the UK and recently published a book titled Just Getting Started. I have yet to read it, but I really enjoy her IG account. She talks a lot about her experience with perimenopause.
Also, I love the perspective you shared regarding how you first hand experienced the perimenopause while drinking and after you quit. It says a lot!
I know who Lisa Snowden is. I’m going to order her book as I didn’t know she’d written one and I see it’s in paperback now. Thanks for bringing to my attention!
This never gets old, thank you. 💜
xx
Thank you for sharing all of this with your community. I turn 46 tomorrow and reading this offering makes me feel empowered (not overwhelmed) with aging.
I have said (more than once) that my 40s have been my favorite decade so far. I have friends who look at me like I’m crazy. But I feel it’s the closest I’ve come to figuring myself out. Still working on that (!) but I care more about me and less about what the world thinks of me - which is so refreshing after being a perpetual people pleaser.
This perimenopause is a new land for me but I’m getting my footing. I agree that there needs to be way more conversations about how to navigate these years with confidence and community.
I will come back to this piece again, I am sure. Thank you, Mia 🙏🏼
Happy birthday Allison! I so appreciate your message and your words are inspiring as well. Though I love my 40s (having been alcohol-free the entire time so far), they have also been my hardest years and I still feel like I am in the muck of it all. Not all days, but a lot of the days. Happy to have a community to share it with, while working it out. XX, M
I didn’t quit drinking until after I’d gone through the menopause. I was in peri menopause for about 10 years from my early forties. It was like pushing water uphill dealing with the symptoms, not realising the extent to which drinking was exacerbating them and then finally making the decision to go on HRT. I was resistance training throughout this time and my nutrition was in the main good. So I thought being fit, eating well and then going on HRT would take care of everything. But, it wasn’t until I quit drinking I really got to a place of inner peace and physically feeling well. Alcohol was the rock I didn’t want to look under but thank goodness I got to a place where I accepted it wasn’t serving me at all and I walked away from it. Never once through those years of talking to medical professionals about my peri menopause symptoms was I ever asked about my relationship with alcohol. This really is something that needs to change to help women through this period of their life. I knew alcohol wasn’t good for me per se but I had no idea of the impact it was having on my mood and anxiety let alone the increased cancer risk. Here in the UK it is barely mentioned, you have to go and educate yourself.
"pushing water uphill" - um, exactly!
Do you know who Lisa Snowdon is? She is from the UK and recently published a book titled Just Getting Started. I have yet to read it, but I really enjoy her IG account. She talks a lot about her experience with perimenopause.
Also, I love the perspective you shared regarding how you first hand experienced the perimenopause while drinking and after you quit. It says a lot!
xx M
I know who Lisa Snowden is. I’m going to order her book as I didn’t know she’d written one and I see it’s in paperback now. Thanks for bringing to my attention!