Perimenopause & Disordered Eating

Did you know there are over 100 symptoms of perimenopause? Most people think hot flashes and missed periods mean you are in perimenopause, but those often show up long after many of the other symptoms.

In today's episode, we're exploring the surprising and rarely discussed connection between perimenopause and disordered eating. Discover why this phase of life is one of the most common times for women to develop disordered eating habits.

Join me and my guest, Shelby Tutty, certified perimenopause educator and creator of The Periprofessional, for part one of our two-part deep dive into perimenopause and its impact on eating behaviors.

You'll learn:

* What perimenopause really is and its earliest symptoms

* Critical questions to ask your doctor

* Simple yet powerful strategies to feel better from head to toe

* Common mistakes to avoid during this transition

With over 7 years of personal perimenopause experience and a master's in health administration, Shelby brings both expertise and relatable insights to this crucial conversation. She's also a health coach for Perry, a global community platform that offers sisterhood and information for perimenopause support.

Whether you're approaching perimenopause, in the thick of it, or supporting someone who is, this episode offers valuable information for navigating this significant life transition with greater ease and understanding.

Don't miss our upcoming workshop and be sure to check out the links below for more perimenopause resources that are both informative and refreshingly entertaining!

Links Referenced

You Might Be Perimenopausal & Not Realize It - the article we wrote together, including a link to the 100 symptoms of perimenopause.

Perimenopause & Peaceful Eating Workshop - join us on October 3rd or catch the replay.

The Periprofessional - the most entertaining and engaging information on perimenopause I've seen.

Want to know why you struggle with food and what to do next? Start watching The Food Freedom Mini Series today. 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Binch Breakfast. The podcast design to help you finally break through the area. You're out of control. I'm after James Cooker. And I want you to know that no matter how long you think I what you try, we have to do the side. Your journey to body trust starts now. Let's dive in. Hello, trusted listeners. I'm so excited to bring another guest interview to you today. So today uh we are talking with Shelby Tutty. Did I say that right? Teddy? Yes, you did. It rhymes with Nutty. All right. It rhymes with Nutty. Excellent. Shelby Teddy. Shelby is a perimenopause expert. And I wanted to bring her on the show so we could have a discussion about specifically about perimenopause menopause. What happens in our bodies during this time? And how does this relate to disordered eating? One of the things that I've discovered over the years is that this time of perimenopause is actually one of the most common times for women specifically to develop disordered eating. And this fact is really, it's very, it's not very well known. And when you start to understand what's going on in the body, it's like, oh, it makes so much sense. There also are not a lot of people talking about the connection between perimenopause and disordered eating. And so it's a conversation that we're really kind of wanting to bring in. And so we're going to do that uh today with you guys. Shelby and I actually met on Substack. We both have our own uh little spaces on Substack where we provide information um on our own topics out to people. And I think it was Shelby actually reached out to me and connected with me, and we both really connected with each other uh pretty instantly. Shelby does some amazing work. She has the periprofessional on Substack. And Shelby and I actually wrote an article together. We co-wrote an article, and it's called You Might Be Perimenopausal and Not Realize It. So I will link, um, I'll put a link to that article in the podcast show notes so you can go and check it out. There's um a lot of just really great information about perimenopause in general, as well as kind of the link towards disordered eating. So I wanted to take what we talked about in that article and kind of take it to the next level with this conversation today. But before we dive into the conversation, I want to give you guys just a quick bio about Shelby so you know who she is and why she's qualified to even talk about this uh this topic. So Shelby Teddy is the creator and writer of The Periprofessional, a Substack publication dedicated to raising perimenopause awareness and providing education that won't bore you to tears. This I can tell you for sure. If you check out her Substack, she brings humor to a topic that is not very funny. And so if perimenopause is a topic that is of interest to you, but you find it a little overwhelming or a little scary or something that you kind of don't want to know about, Shelby really brings it to you in a way that is um is really quite entertaining and very informative. So she's also a certified perimenopause educator and holds a bachelor's and master's in health administration and has over seven years of experience being perimenopause pausal. So she knows what she's talking about. She's also a health coach for Perry, which is a global community platform that offers sisterhood and information for perimenopause support. So, Shelby, thank you so much for uh coming on the show to talk uh to talk to us. Let's start with um, why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself, just so we can understand um your expertise on the topic and why we can trust you. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Thank you, Jane, for having me and welcome, listeners. I really appreciate the opportunity to come and talk to you about perimenopause. I feel like every day is a perimenopause festival as I engage with all of you and learn about your stories and how this shows up in your life, and then also to be able to assist you with any symptoms or complaints or discomforts or confusion as you go through your days. Perimenopause is extremely impactful to our lives. It is something that is not typically spoken of frequently. We're getting a little bit better now. The word perimenopause was around since the 1960s, and it's not and hasn't been historically frequently used, but it certainly is becoming more and more popular. I'm pleased to announce the very first Perimenopause Awareness Month that's going on right now in the month of September, which is a uh program to expand our knowledge and to provide a community where we can safely talk about this, which is extremely important. So, as Jean has mentioned, I have been perimenopausal for about seven years. I don't know exactly when I started, but I do know when some weird things started showing up in my life. And if you read on the internet, it would have you think that the first signs of perimenopause are hot flashes and skipped periods, which is actually not the case. That is not the first sign that you're perimenopausal. So, going back to when I first started, about seven years ago, there was really not a lot of information available. And what you found online was extremely medical, hard to understand, and it didn't really apply to the things that I was experiencing. So, even though, as health-informed as I am, I never connected the dots that what I was going through was perimenopause.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Um let me ask you, because I'm guessing if I'm having this wondering, I'm guessing other listeners are too. I want to know what are the for typical first signs? If it's not hot flashes in this period, what are typically the first signs of perimenopause? Yep.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

So what you'll find online is most people say that there are two phases of perimenopause. You have the early phase and then the what they call the late phase. Um, but I don't really feel that that captures the experience and the major hormonal changes that are going on in your time. So I actually say that there are three phases: there's the early phase, there's a middle phase, and then there's a late phase. And sometimes I even like to throw in another phase that's in the middle. So you're like early middle and late middle, but I don't want to confuse it too much. You know what?

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Let's actually let's I'm actually sitting here also realizing, let's back the truck up even a little bit more, and let's define, if you would, for us, define perimenopause and then define menopause, if you would.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Sure. So actually, let's start with menopause so that we can all understand what that is. Great. So people typically think, okay, well, menopause means I've reached the age where I can no longer have babies, but they don't really understand what's going on behind the scenes. So when you reach menopause, what that means is you have gone either 12 months without a period, and that includes spotting. That is very important. If you see any blood, that will set you back to day one, and you have to start over counting 365 days until you get to that one day in time, which is menopause. So that can be a confusing term. What menopause medically means is that one day when you do no longer have a period or have seen spotting for at least 365 days. Now look at it.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

So it's not a phase of life, it's a day in your one very one single day in your life, the day you reach menopause.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Yes, it's one day. And then anything beyond that, you're post-menopausal. However, our vernacular, the language that we use around it, is we all just say that we're menopausal. So that's where the confusion lies. But technically, menopause is one day. Now, for those of you who have had a hysterectomy or have had medical menopause, that also needs to be taken into consideration. And those people are actually forgotten about sometimes when we talk about menopause. So a progression towards menopause is 365 days without a period or blood. However, you can have a full hysterectomy, which would remove your uterus and your ovaries, and you will instantaneously be menopausal. You can be put into a temporary medical menopause or a permanent medical menopause. And that would be for something like cancer treatment, where they would um reduce your hormones to menopausal levels to make sure that they could treat your cancer or other diseases that they would do that for.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Got it. Okay, got it, got it. Okay, so we've got menopause is that one day where you've gone 365 days, no spotting, no bleeding, nothing. That's your menopause date. Anything beyond that is postmenopausal. Now talk to us about the perimenopause.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Yes. So what's happened at menopause? If if you haven't gone through medical or surgical menopause, is your ovaries have retired. They've done a wonderful job. They've had eggs since you were a baby in your mother's womb. They've worked very hard for you producing uh chemicals and hormones to support your body and help you with your feminine vitality. And they, by the time you get to menopause, your eggs have reduced to about a thousand eggs from millions. So over time, they have done very hard work for your body. What perimenopause is, are the years leading up to menopause. So they are the it's the bridge between your ovaries working optimally and your ovaries retiring. And that bridge can be long or short. We can go through it quickly in about two years, or it could be dragged on for 14 years. So that's the range of your perimenopause. Um, so again, perimenopause is the bridge between your ovaries working and your ovaries retiring at menopause. It is a change, it is a period of major hormonal changes, and it can cause some disruption, some discomfort. And I can tell you from experience, I mean, today is a great day to be having this podcast because I, as I mentioned earlier, I'm in perimenopause. And right now, I today specifically I have a lot of perimenopause symptoms. So I have hot flashes, I have um my eyes are dry, my ears are itchy, my stomach's a little upset today, but I have all the tools to help me through it, and that's really where my experience has come from. I've researched this inside, outside, upside down. I have been in the healthcare industry for a very long time. Healthcare and healthcare information have always been my passion. So even though, and I say, even though as health informed as I am, this still threw me for a loop when I reached it. It was the most confusing time.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

But tell me this. When you look back, now, now you know, you know, you have so much more knowledge now, which is pretty much all of us, when we look back and we reflect on, you know, some challenge or something that we were going through. When you look back seven years and you kind of reflect on those initial perimenopausal symptoms and you kind of make sense of them, tell us a little bit about like what were your initial symptoms? What were your not knowing that they were it was perimenopause? Like, what was your experience then? And like if you could have a do-over, it would be interesting to just kind of hear if you tell us about your experience and then tell us like if you could have a do-over, maybe what you might do differently.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

I would I would start way back when I was a young girl. That's what I would do differently. Okay. But um about seven, seven years ago, I started to have some really weird things. And just so everybody knows, I'm 54. I'm actually uh I'm older than the average age of menopause in the United States, which is 52. The average age for perimenopause to start is about 45, but sometimes you'll you may enter menopause between 45 and 50, but 52 is about the average. Um, so I was about, I'm 54 now, about 46, 47. The first sign that something wasn't right was I started losing joy in the things that interested me and made me happy. And I I'm a huge reader and I love to travel. And all of a sudden, I lost interest in doing those things. I I saw everything as a burden, and things that were easy before became very difficult. And by the end of the day, I was very tired. I was mentally tired, I was emotionally tired, I was raising twins, um, and I I had a family and uh cooking and schools and and and careers, and it was just it was it was all getting too much. Um, and then from that point, I you know, I of course I didn't figure it out back then, but as the next thing started to progress, I started to notice some weird things with my body. And I I'm very in tune with my body as far as what it does, what I can expect it to do. But all of a sudden, my body became very predictable, unpredictable. And I it was doing things that it had never done before. I don't get allergies typically, and then all of a sudden I started to get allergic symptoms. I felt like I was having difficulty getting a really good breath of air. My skin would react to the sun when I was sitting outside. I was getting itchy ears, I was getting irritation to things that I had been using for years, like my soap. My hair was drying out, I was losing hair left and right. I was like, what is going on? I haven't changed anything, I'm not doing anything different. And I didn't know enough back then to put the pieces together. It wasn't until I started skipping periods, which was about three to four years ago, that then I started putting it all together. And I I don't, I mean, I of course I went to my doctor and I said, I'm not feeling like myself. There's something wrong, and I don't know what it is, and I don't know how to describe it. And they did all of the tests that they would normally do, and they would tell me, Well, you're normal. And I kept thinking, I'm not normal. There's something definitely going on. But the doctors are doing what they're supposed to be doing, they're checking to make sure that I don't have a disease or an illness or something wrong. All of my blood work came back perfect, so there really wasn't anything in there to indicate that I was perimenopause. Um and menopause and perimenopause, they're not diseases. So it it it they're hard to to pull into and understand until you really get into that skipping periods and and hot flashes stage where the doctor's like, oh, you're that sounds like you're in perimenopause.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Yes. So if if if we have some listeners who listening who are like, yes, I totally check, check, check everything you just said. Things that used to excite me no longer excite me. I get to the end of the day, I'm exhausted. I'm kind of in that window of time frame in terms of age and this type of thing, you know. It this could be this could be me. Things just feel like too much. I'm noticing these things with my skin or my hair or uh, you know, various any of these things. What what do we do? What do we do about menopause? We can't, I mean, what what do we do?

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Yes, if your symptoms are concerning you enough, you do need to go to the doctor to get checked out because perimenopause can mimic other things, particularly thyroid conditions. Um, and you really want to make sure that everything is is good in your body. And then that's what doctors can do. They can rule out to make sure there's nothing else causing these symptoms. And if there are, they can help you to make sure that it's addressed early on. It's not a good idea to just assume that what you're feeling is perimenopausal. Um, it's always best to get checked out by the doctor to make sure that there's nothing else serious going on. If they come back to you and say, nope, you're fine, you're healthy, then you can start to look at, okay, maybe this is perimenopause. I am of the right age, and my periods are a little confusing because uh in early perimenopause, I mean, we all think of skip periods, right? But actually, in early perimenopause, you're more likely to have periods that are closer together. Um, you could get heavier bleeding, you could get a funny color that you've never seen before, you can get um, you know, periods that are closer together, lighter, heavier, all sorts of things. But again, even in that instance, you don't want to assume that it's perimenopause because other things like fibroids can cause changes in your bleeding cycle.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

Okay. Are there are there questions specifically to ask if you go to your doctor and you think, okay, I think this could be perimenopause, but I want to rule out anything else. Do what what are there specific questions or items that you recommend addressing with your doctor?

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Well, what you just said was perfect. We really don't want to show up at our doctor's offices and be self-diagnosing. We want to present the symptoms to the physician and let the physician come to the conclusion and suggestions of what he or she thinks. So showing up and saying, I may be perimenopausal, I'm having these symptoms, what are your thoughts? Is really the best attitude to go into your physician's appointment.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Okay, got it. Got it, got it. So if you going back to what we were talking about before, you were saying, gosh, if I had a do-over, I would go all the way back to when I was young. Tell, tell us a little bit about that. I'm I'm intrigued.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Well, first off, I mean, I took my my periods and my menstrual cycles for granted because they were very regular for years and years and years and years, ever since I started getting periods when I was about 12. And I never really paid attention much to them. I knew what the hormones were that were involved with it, but I didn't really understand that that the two phases, the early part of the month, which is called the follicular phase, and a little acronym or thing that you can mnemonic device that you can um remember is that follicular means first. It's the first part of your cycle. And then you have ovulation, which is the day that you release your egg, and around that time is when you can get pregnant, and then you have the last part of your cycle, which is the luteal phase. And between those two phases, there are changes within your hormones that affect how you uh behave, how you think, what you have energy for. And had I known that back then, I would have learned how to adapt to that so that when I got to perimenopause, I didn't crash and burn. Because I had already gotten to perimenopause and I was pretty stressed, as we all are, we're all Under chronic stress, but had I understand how to work with my menstrual cycle instead of against it, I could have possibly prevented the burnout that I felt when I reached perimenopause because I did crash and burn. My nervous system became completely dysregulated. I let the stress of not knowing what was going on get the best of me. And it was education and awareness that pulled me out of that.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

You know, Shelby and I were talking a little bit before we uh before we started recording. And what I was saying is that I find so fascinating about the intersection of binge eating. Well, there's a lot fascinating about the intersection of binge eating and perimenopause. Um, is that in both cases, there's often this sense of what's wrong with me? I must be broken. I don't understand what's going on. I I just don't understand. And in both cases, you aren't, you are not broken, but the the key is the awareness, the understanding and the awareness, what's happening, what's going on that's leading to this. And then once we have this awareness, once we have this understanding, then we can work with ourselves in order to, you know, kind of support ourselves in in whatever way we need to. So that's one of the things that I I find so fascinating about this is like, oh, the more awareness and understanding we can bring to ourselves, to our bodies, to what's happening with our hormones, and and really, oh, but in both, in both cases, if we can get to the, oh, that makes sense, then we can see ourselves, our situation in a new way, and then start to work with ourselves instead of fighting ourselves. So it sounds like part of what happened for you was you didn't have awareness that it was even going on, and then you were kind of fighting yourself because you were, you know, kind of pushing through, as so many of us do. You know, we get these signs, we get these things, and we're just like, oh, I have to keep doing and going and pushing. And then we end up whether we're in burnout or we end up, you know, creating more stress or you know, whatever things for um for ourselves. So I just find it so fascinating to kind of that it really is that awareness and that understanding, then we can work with ourselves. So it's like if even if you're not perimenopausal in this situation and you are still having regular cycles, if you can start to really get to know and understand what happens in your body with your cycle at the different phases of the cycle, what are, because it it does impact so much, not only for what we're capable of, but it also impacts what like our our hunger, right? And our cravings and and all of those things. And so let's let's shift to the conversation around hunger and cravings and hormones and how you know how those things shift, particularly in this phase of the the changes in our hormones through perimenopause. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

And just going back to your your comment, when you look at this like I'm not broken, this is a biological response to a major change in your life. So it would be akin to saying, I sneezed, I must be broken. This does not have anything to do with you as a person, your value, what you bring to this world or your identity. These are biological changes that are happening inside your body. It does not mean that you're weak, it does not mean that you're dumb, it does not mean that you, you know, you shouldn't forgive yourself. That has nothing to do with this. This is a biological response to that. And when it comes to hunger, this is a this is this is prior to like puberty was probably the biggest hormonal shift of your life. But even now, I think this is this is puberty was giving you something that you didn't have. This is taking away something that you've had your entire life. And I think that you know, we've live we've lived a full life by this time. We've cared for our families, we've done our careers, we're supporting older parents, we're doing all of the things, and we've done it for years. And now we've reached a time where our hormonal uh havoc is happening, and we're still trying to live our lives the same way that we did before. But we need to adapt and grow as this change is happening. And when it comes to hunger, there will be times that you'll be hungry more than normal because your hormones are not releasing on the schedule that it is used to releasing. So you've got the the cycle that your body is used to getting its hormones on is off, and then you're not getting the right levels of hormones. And if there's one thing that I've learned specifically in the last seven years, is that when it comes to the body, everything is tied together. What you do in one area is going to downshift to other areas in your body, whether that's a habit or you know, if your shoulder hurts, maybe it's not really your shoulder that's injured. It's another area, but you're getting referred pain. Everything really is connected. So when your hormones are doing its happy dance during perimenopause, it's going to affect hunger cues, your hunger, your drive towards hunger. Those are all very common in perimenopause.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Yeah. Yeah. I think one of the reasons that Shelby and I have connected so much is exactly this. It is this awareness and this understanding that the body is everything is connected. We can't separate what, we can't even separate what we think from what's happening in our body. We can't separate what we're it, it everything there, it's it's all inter interconnected. It's like we are all one. And when we try to look at ourselves as, well, this is what I do, but then this is kind of my body over here, and then I ignore this or I don't do this. That's just not, it's just not the way, not the way that we work.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Right. And that can feel overwhelming to people, but I'll tell you, there are just a few things that you can do to help yourself feel better from head to toe. I mean, it's not like there's a laundry list of things that you have to do. There are very specific things, you know, look at your sleep. Your sleep, if you don't get good sleep, you're gonna be hungry the next day. I mean, something like that, where you're like, oh my gosh, there's so many things that I need to do. And it feels like a full-time job managing my perimetopause symptoms. But there are things that you can do under very large headers that will truly make a huge difference.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

So let's talk about those. Let's give some very practical. I can already tell based on what I know our time availability is. I can already tell there's gonna be a part two of this conversation because there's a lot more that I would love to talk about. And I know that um, I know that our listeners are gonna want to hear about. So there will be a part two to this conversation, but let's make this a very practical and actionable discussion. What are some of these clear, simple things that we can do to feel better from head to toe as we as we navigate this this time in our lives?

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Yes. So the most important thing, and this Jane, is really where you come into play. Manage your stress levels. You understand the nervous system at a very high level. And it wasn't until I went through perimenopause where I realized, yes, I understood fight or flight. And I understood it from, oh, if a bear is chasing you, I'm gonna go into fight or flight. But guess what? That's not how it works in real life. How many times do you have a bear chasing you? That fight or flight response is gonna come from your activities of daily living. So things like an email from your boss can put you into fight or flight. An argument with your spouse can put you into fight or flight. Anticipating danger can put you into fight or flight. You are constantly going into fight or flight all day long. And if you don't have a release valve to get yourself back into that rest and digest or the calm area, it builds up, it builds up, it builds up. It's going to affect your cortisol levels, it's going to affect your hormones. We've known for decades that stress is damaging. And it's even more so when you're perimenopausal, because if you're busy pumping out stress hormones, your body won't have enough resources to pump out what you really need during perimenopause. So it's um really manage, learn how to manage your stress. Look at how you talk to yourself. I didn't realize how mean I was to myself. I was always talking down to myself, and and really no reason. I was always giving my best. I was a perfectionist, which I have had to since let go of uh a little bit, which I'm working towards because everything is a work in progress. But it's recognizing those habits and behaviors that are keeping you in that survival mode. And Jane is a wonderful resource for that. She really understands the nervous system and how it can go from a regulated state to a dysregulated state, because everything in your body is based on your nervous system.

unknown 32:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

A couple of things that I want to say to that. One is with the nervous system and the the threat, it's not just it's it's real or perceived. Real or perceived threats create that stress in our body. So it's like sometimes people are like, I don't even understand, like everything's okay. Everything's okay in my life. Why am I so stressed out? Because there's a perception of a threat. Something might happen. If you are uh one of these uh a woman whose child is recently going off to college or is is, you know, has has left home, the the worry and the anticipated or the um you know perceived threat that they might have in not being under your roof, that also creates stress for your nervous system. So you might be like, I don't understand, like they're doing great, they're having so much fun. Why do I feel so terrible? Because your nervous system has this perceived sense of threat. So it's just good to know that, you know, sometimes we think, again, what's wrong with me? Like everything's great in my life. Why do I feel so terrible? Because there's there's a perception of threat.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Yes. And I had that experience last year. I sent my twins off to college. I came home, and I'll tell you that first week, and because I know about this now, I was able to show myself grace. I was able to give myself the self-care that I needed. But that first week, I was a little moody. I was dropping things, I was tripping over things, which I'm I'm usually very good with my balance. I was bumping into things, I was setting things down and couldn't remember where I put them. So I was very brain foggy, which is another wonderful symptom of perimenopause. But um, yeah, so I I absolutely had that experience.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Yeah. In the the article that we did on Substack, uh, there's a link in that article. How many, how many uh symptoms are there of of perimenopause?

SPEAKER_01 34:23

There are a hundred symptoms, but please don't worry, that doesn't mean you're going to get all of them. And that doesn't mean that you're going to get all of them all the time. So there are times now where my hot flashes are bad. Sometimes they're better, sometimes my brain fog is bad, sometimes it's better. But I am always working towards, okay, how can I give show myself grace during this time? How can I make adjustments? Because it is incorporating adjustments. So, for example, I knew I was going to get thirsty during this call. I have water next to me, which is really important. That's another tip that can help you instantaneously. I can't tell you how many countless women have told me that when they've increased their water intake to the right levels, uh, that it makes a huge difference in their perimenopause symptoms. That's amazing. That I was gonna be, I could be hot, I could be cold. So I have a sweater, I have short sleeves, so I you have to prepare for everything. And nothing happens, I I just go with it. It's like if I have a hot flash with somebody, I'm like, hey, I'm sorry, I'm I have a hot flash.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

Yes, I have to phone and I have to lean into it. One of my one of my favorite sayings is adapt and adjust. We need to be able to, the more we can adapt and the more we can adjust, then this allows us to work with ourselves instead of what gets a lot of people into binge eating specifically is the the rigidity, right? It's like everything is very rigid. We have these firm, this is the way it should be. I'm supposed to have this much energy today, so I should be able to do all of these things I planned. And so if I can't, then I'm going to beat myself up, which is going to create even more stress. And then I'm going to feel even which is going to generate more cortisol and everything else. But if we can keep this idea of adapt and adjust, not only with food, but in life, we're going to then be able to kind of just work with what we have on any given day, which can change. When Shelby and I were um first started talking about this, she was talking about how so many women end up, you know, we we we have our, you know, we're so busy pouring into other people's tank, right? We're trying to take care of other people. We're doing, you know, we're we're so busy and focused on other people, whether it's family, loved ones, people we work with, any but you know, our friends at anybody. And I asked Shelby, I said, tell me this. I said, Does the size of your tank change with perimenopause? And as you change, as age and as the hormones change, and Shelby, your answer was Yes, it absolutely does.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

Because when you know, one of the misconceptions about menopause and perimenopause is that estrogen is a a hormone that affects your reproduction, and that is true. Estrogen does handle that, however, estrogen is much more than that in a female body, it controls everything, it helps with your body's regulation, it helps with your moisture levels, it helps with keeping inflammation at bay, it does so many more things than what it is given credit for. Now, estrogen itself was only discovered in the 1930s, so we really don't haven't had a long time to understand it. Um, it was just in the 1990s that we realized that it was actually played a greater role in a female body than just reproductive health. So once you start losing your estrogen, and and perimenopause and menopause aren't just about estrogen, there are a number of hormones in your body that get affected through this transition. You have progesterone, which is another important hormone that balances out your estrogen. So there's a lot going on, and because of that, I think temporarily your body gets into a state of survival mode because it's not getting the hormones that it's used to getting. And therefore, your stress bucket gets smaller, and things that didn't bother you before are now bothering you. And I've heard it time and time again. Women tell me insignificant things are now feel significant.

SPEAKER_00 39:09

Yes, yes. Oh, all right. We have a lot more to talk about, but we do not have a lot more time for this particular conversation. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna wrap up this conversation with a promise to you, the listeners, that we will come back soon, very soon, um, with a follow-up to talk a little bit more, really dive in. What I want to do next time is dive in specifically to the topics around um food, around body, around how we kind of end up with this kind of link between perimenopause, disordered eating, some of the biggest things that we want to uh watch out for so that we don't end up creating that connection, um, creating disordered eating because of some of the other challenges and things that that come along with these changes in hormones. So that's what we'll dive into the next conversation. But for now, um, let's just say the the key again, the key things that you can do right now that you can really focus on. Um, we talked about sleep, we talked about managing your stress levels, we talked about hydration. Anything else that you talked about specifically? Those are good. Those are the main things. So it between now and our next conversation, really look at your sleep, your quality of sleep, look at your hydration and your overall stress levels. We don't, we don't even have to get into the conversation around, well, what do I eat? What about this? What about that? Those three things to start with are going to be really, really impactful. I also want to tell you, Shelby and I are going to be doing a workshop in the beginning of October on October 3rd. I will put details and a link into the show notes, but we're basically going to have a period of time that you can come, you can get your questions answered. You can, um, if you've liked this conversation, it will basically just be more of this type of conversation between perimenopause, the challenges that come, and also how that to bring in the food and body discussion. So I'll have a link for that in the show notes, as well as links for how you can follow Shelby. She has amazing resources out there and literally I have never seen such um entertaining and enlightening information on this topic than she has in her uh in her periprofessional substack. So, Shelby, thank you for joining me for this conversation. I'm really looking forward to where we go in uh round two. We just simply couldn't get it all done in this time.

SPEAKER_01 41:51

So uh big topic, and I'll tell you it has been an honor to be able to speak with you about this and educate your listeners because that's the key to all of this is education and being aware of what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

Yeah, absolutely. Awareness and understanding. We cannot change anything. Whether we're talking about binge eating, whether we're talking about our relationship with our bodies, we're talking about perimenopause and what's happening specifically, awareness and understanding. That's where it starts. And that's really what we're hoping to provide in bringing you this discussion. So we will uh see you again in part two. Thanks. Thank you for listening to Binge Breakthrough. You can find the show notes and any resources mentioned at binge breakthrough.com. If you like this episode, subscribe to have future episodes delivered to you each Wednesday. And remember, your five-star rating and review will help others discover these life-changing content. See you next week.