Why Understanding Your Hormones Changes Everything in Perimenopause

Feeling like your body isn’t playing by the same rules anymore? You’re doing everything “right,” but the weight won’t budge, your energy is gone, and your mood is all over the place?

Your Body Isn’t the Problem, Your Strategy Is

For decades, women have been told to eat less, exercise more, and just "push through" perimenopause. But that advice wasn’t designed for a body whose hormones are shifting. If your body isn’t responding the way it used to, it’s not failing you - it needs a different approach.

Your body isn’t broken. It just has different needs now.

If you don’t understand your hormones, and especially how they're changing, you’re going to keep wasting time, energy, and money on things that don’t work.

But when you know what’s actually happening under the hood, everything changes!

In this episode, I’ll show you why understanding your hormones is the missing piece, and how it changes everything for your weight, energy, and overall health.

You’ll Learn:

• Why perimenopause isn’t a problem to fix, but a transition your body is going through.
• The reason your old health strategies aren’t working anymore, and what actually does.
• How understanding your hormones gives you back control, so you stop feeling stuck and start feeling good again.

Sneak Peek:

"Perimenopause isn’t the phase of hormone balance, it’s the phase of hormone change. And that’s why those old tricks, like cutting calories and doing more cardio, don’t just stop working, they actually backfire."

Listen Now

If you’re tired of guessing, blaming yourself, or feeling like nothing is working, don’t waste another day stuck in frustration. Hit play now and learn how to work with your body, so you can start feeling like yourself again.

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

📌 Free training: Why You’re Gaining Weight After 40: 4 Hormone Shifts You Can’t Ignore
📌 Chaos to Calm episode #47: Quick Fixes and Magic Bullets

Find out more about Sarah, her services and the Freebies mentioned in this episode at https://www.ThePerimenopauseNaturopath.com.au

• The Perimenopause Decoder is the ultimate guide to understanding if perimenopause hormone fluctuations are behind your changing mood, metabolism and energy after 40, what phase of perimenopause you're in, and how much longer you may be on this roller coaster for.
• For more, follow on Instagram at @theperimenopausenaturopath.

WORK WITH SARAH THE PERIMENOPAUSE NATUROPATH:

• PerimenoGO (because who wants to pause anyway?!) A self-guided program to help you reverse weight gain, boost energy, and reclaim your mood — without extreme diets or cutting carbs. Perfect for women who want a realistic plan that fits around kids, work, and actual life.
• The Chaos to Calm Method: A 1:1 personalised program for women who want a more personalised plan and support — especially if you’ve got 10kg+ to lose, other health issues, or feel like your body’s just stuck. Includes comprehensive blood testing and analysis, Metabolic Balance ...

Transcript

Have you ever felt like your body's betraying you? You are eating well, exercising, doing all those right things, but your weight keeps creeping up. Your energy's tanking and your mood swings are hitting harder than a nineties boy band comeback. If that sounds familiar, you are in the right place because today I'm breaking down why understanding your hormones changes everything. So make sure you stay tuned until the end, because I'm gonna share the one mindset shift that can completely change how you approach your health in perimenopause, so you can stop feeling stuck and start making changes that actually work.

Hi, I'm Sarah, the Perimenopause Naturopath, and I've helped hundreds of women over 40 navigate perimenopause with confidence, feel great in their bodies and reclaim their mood and energy. So if you are feeling like your changing hormones are hijacking your mood, energy, and weight, and you wanna change that in a realistic, sustainable way, then this is the place for you because each episode I share with you my views on what is happening in your body, why you're feeling the way you are, and how you can change that with actionable advice to help you move from chaos to calm and feel more comfortable in your body. So welcome to episode number 86 of Chaos to Calm, why Understanding Your Hormones Changes Everything.

I wanna talk today about something I hear. All the time from women, well, over 35 really, used to be their forties, but I talk to a lot more women in their late thirties now, and they're all saying the same thing. They say I, look after myself, Sarah. I eat healthy. I exercise. I don't eat junk food. I've cut back on alcohol or wine, sweets I'm not eating much of anything, but nothing is working. And I like to tell them that, your body, it's not broken. It's not got a personal vendetta against you. It's just different now. You know it's not about willpower. It's not about just cutting down how much you eat till you are eating almost nothing.

It's about your hormones, and if we don't understand what's changing, then it's really easy to get stuck in this cycle of frustration, self-blame and guesswork as well, or just continually reducing and cutting down your calories and trying to increase that calorie gap with more exercise.

But those old weight loss rules extreme calorie cutting of restriction, lots of cardio, that high intensity workouts, skipping meals they're I would say they're not actually, that, it's not designed for anyone's body, but particularly not for a body going through perimenopause or menopause.

Because the truth is that our hormones drive everything in our body, our weight, our energy, sleep, mood. And if you don't understand or know what's happening under the hood, what's happening with your hormones, that's when it feels like you're working against your body or your body's working against you, and and rather than you working with it. So today that's what I want to talk about. I want to share five powerful ways that understanding your hormones will change your life. And maybe I, do think that we've probably all grown up in this era where we handed our power over to the doctors.

We grew up in era and the boomer parents that trusted in the the doctor. And the doctor had that power. There was a power hierarchy and the doctors, we trusted them to know everything that we needed to do and to tell us what to do. It's a bit more like that paternal relationship.

A doctor tells you what to do, you do it. Whereas, and we didn't we didn't feel like we needed to understand or know why we were having that operational. Taking that medication or whatever the doctor said, we did it. We did it. So I want to try and reshape, that. I wanna try and reshape that for us and therefore for our children as well.

And because I want to explain to you today the importance or just five ways there's, there'll be, there's other ways that it can impact you, but I'm just gonna talk about these ways today, that understanding hormones can change your life and your experience of perimenopause. And why understanding your hormones and how they're changing is really key to feeling not just good but amazing in your body again and in perimenopause or menopause.

'Cause there is that sense that we are kind of resigned to not feeling great in this time. That's kind of what the mainstream message is, that you can't expect to feel good through perimenopause or even menopause. It's just, you're gonna feel rubbish. You're gonna have all these symptoms and it's gonna be a horrible time.

I'm here to tell you it's different and that's my main purpose is for you to understand and know that it doesn't have to be that way. Let's talk about those five ways to that understanding your hormones changes everything for you. So the first one I wanna talk about is you're gonna have less frustration and more results.

Who doesn't want that. And that's where if you feel like your body's working against you, it's fighting against you, you know it's not behaving, it's because you are using the wrong strategy. You know where most women hit perimenopause and you keep trying to force your body to behave in the way that it used to in your twenties and thirties or, and to respond to the things that you used to do in your twenties and thirties to manage your weight and, your health.

But it's that's like taking your old Nokia 3310 brick phone and trying to use that your Apple iPhone charger on it. Like it's just not gonna work. It was like using an Android charger on an Apple phone.

Perimenopause isn't a problem to fix, and that's important to keep in your mind. It is the transition your body is going through. It's getting used to the changes in your hormone levels. It's a learning to adapt and adjust, and the problem is that most women are trying to force their body to behave in the way it used to.

Trying to force hormone balance on their body when it's, this is not the phase of hormone balance. This is the phase of hormone change. And that's why those old tricks, your old things you used to do, cutting calories, doing more cardio, skipping meals, they don't just stop working. They can actually backfire and work against you.

Once I think once you understand what's going on, you stop asking, why isn't this working? Or why isn't my body behaving? And start asking. What's my body telling me? What does my body actually need from me right now? That's where you get the results to happen. What I teach my clients is interpreting those signals, those symptoms, those messages from their body so they can give it what it needs and helps support and nourish it.

And I think the key to feeling great in perimenopause and beyond is, helping your body better adapt and adjust to those hormone changes, that's where your symptoms tend to go away. All right, so number two, more energy, better sleep, and a mood that doesn't swing like a teenager's. Okay? So I know for lots of you, you're waking up feeling just as tired as when you went to bed, maybe more but then at nighttime you are wide awake, you feel wired.

But you know, not able to wind down. And also you feel like the tiniest thing sets you off. Maybe your partner's chewing too loud or breathing too loud. Kids keep asking you more questions or for more things, or to do more things. You just don't have that patience that you used to have and really irritated or irritable.

I want you to know it's not just a natural part of getting older. You're not embracing your grumpy old woman face or era in your forties. It's your hormones at play again. And once you understand how they impact your energy and your mood and why the changes of perimenopause are making you feel like you have zero energy and making you feel happy one moment and enraged the next. You can actually do something about it. So that's the thing, like what I was saying earlier, you don't have to accept that this is just part of perimenopause and this is just how it is. You can actually do a whole bunch about it. It could be tweaking your nutrition, what you're eating, what you're drinking boosting your stress, resilience in that same way, and or maybe it's what you do, like those lifestyle shifts to help your body better adapt and adjust to the hormone changes of perimenopause and menopause.

So when you understand what's going on and particularly what's going on for you, then you can address that, meet that need that your body has, and reduce those symptoms. And I think the best thing is you don't need to then, you don't need to rely on caffeine to wake you up or a glass of wine to wind you down.

Your body just feels good. You can certainly choose to drink those things if you want to, but it's because you want to and you enjoy it, and not because it's a need or a craving. And so let's talk about that as well. Talk about food freedom, because I think for a lot of us, we've grown up with some very dysfunctional eating habits because we grew up in the diet era, the seventies and eighties, low fat and all those things.

So yeah, maybe you think it's your a lack of willpower or it's your fault that you're not strong enough to beat those cravings for chocolate after dinner, or you're feeling really hungry between your meals or you can't stop eating carbs and you've been told on the internet by some influencer that you must cut carbs if you want to lose weight.

Your cravings aren't random at all. Your hormones and your neurotransmitters, those compounds that our brain and nervous system used to communicate with our body, they control your hunger, fullness, your cravings, and so again, when you understand what's happening with those, you can stop trying to like white knuckle your way through those cravings and start eating in a way that's going to work for your body and give it what it needs.

Because it's not about willpower, it's about your hormones and neurotransmitters. Those cravings are just a signal, a message from our body about what it needs. And it probably doesn't need the wine that you're craving for, but it does need perhaps a dopamine hit or maybe you need a bit of timeout or a break.

And no. Yes, yes, no, you don't need to cut out carbs. It's really just about how you eat them and eating your meals generally in a way that supports your hormones instead of spiking and crashing your blood sugar all day long. All right, number four. No more wasting time and money on things that don't work.

I think this has been a bit of a theme through all three earlier things as well. But you know, I know lots of, you've bought expensive supplements because you saw an ad on Instagram, or an influencer told you that they'll balance your hormones or help you lose like 10 kilos by next week. Maybe you've done a juice cleanse to reset your metabolism or fasted or followed a meal plan that maybe your PT gave it to you at the gym and it was really low calorie.

I saw a post in a Facebook group the other day of a woman that was eating only 900 calories per day because that's what her doctor had told her she needed, and she couldn't understand why she felt so tired and lethargic and was gaining weight. Let me just say that is not even enough for most women's bodies to meet their basic metabolic needs, let alone the nutrients that your body needs.

Yeah, it's insane. There's plenty of those types of meal plans around that leave you starving and tired because they're just not even meeting your basic nutrition needs as well. And I think we can buy into those for a number of reasons. We all want a quick fix, and I have done a previous podcast episode on quick fixes and magic bullets and why they don't exist.

But they don't. But our human nature is we want things to happen and change quickly without using much effort. And our brain is hardwired for that, it's hardwired to wanna use the least amount of resources to keep us upright, alive, and happy. And it also is hardwired to avoid change.

So if we can take a supplement or take a pill and change our body or lose weight or get rid of our symptoms without having to change the rest of what we're doing. Our brain is totally on board for that. It loves it. But you know what happens then when you stop taking those things? Or you don't, you can't afford it or you don't wanna buy it anymore.

And let's face it, some of those supplements are really expensive. You are not understanding what's actually happening in your body, and so you can't address or give your body what it needs to help create that change or create that better health in your body. It's easy to waste time and money on things that sound good, but don't actually help when you don't understand what's happening in your body.

Knowledge is power. We've all heard that before. It's also really empowering. Because it gives you the opportunity to make informed choices about what you eat, drink, do what you buy, what you put your dollars in there as well. Understanding your hormones, how they're changing in perimenopause and menopause, what your body needs to to better adapt and adjust to those changes.

That means you get to cut through the noise and you know exactly where to focus your efforts and what to focus your efforts on. And yeah, so you make informed choices. Sort of throwing like spaghetti at the wall, hoping something sticks and works. But then also, if you're doing all these different things all at once, how do you know what's working right?

So you need to make those informed choices. Change one or two things at a time so that you can see the impact of those changes. All right. The last thing I wanna talk about is. Setting yourself up for a healthy, active future. So when you understand your hormones and how they're changing perimenopause is a time, a of massive change in flux, mentally, emotionally, physically.

So it makes it a really opportune time for us to support our bodies, think about what we're eat, eating, drinking, and doing. And we get to in that way by thinking about it. Now we get to influence how we age. So perimenopause isn't just about getting through like here and now or, looking after yourself in perimenopause isn't just about getting through today or this short phase of life.

It's actually a really great time to lay the foundation for your long-term health, 'cause the choices that you make now affect your metabolism, right? So you don't just accept weight gainers inevitable now or into the future. The choices you make now impact your bone health. Osteoporosis isn't just a post menopause problem.

It's a thing we need to think about in our twenties, but it's still not too late to think about it in our late thirties and forties and fifties. And your heart health. Declining estrogen impacts your cardiovascular system. But and as well, the other thing too is that we inherit genes from our parents and we can see, and I know for a lot of us, we have concern because maybe our parents or grandparents had dementia, and we don't want that for ourselves. Now this is where what you eat, drink, and do has influences those genes being switched on or switched off. So yes, we might have inherited that genetic predisposition for developing dementia, but that doesn't mean that we are going to develop it.

If we are thinking about what we eat, drink, and do. Now in perimenopause, we get to switch those genes off. And reduce our risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome, diabetes. There's a lot of the things that women come to me and talk about I don't want to be like my mum and develop diabetes or have high blood pressure or autoimmune conditions, thyroid conditions, dementia, any of those long-term chronic diseases. Now is a really great time to do something about them. And I know it's hard to think about because we are like here and now, and that could be 10, 20, 30 years away. But you do have the opportunity and now is a really good time to be thinking about it.

And any time or effort that you invest into your health right now is gonna pay dividends for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years. That's a good investment, I think. And again, once you understand how your hormones are changing now, how they'll change into menopause as well. You can start feeling more in control and feel empowered to make choices that serve you and are gonna serve you for years to come because you don't wanna just survive this phase.

You need just to get through it. You really wanna thrive and you can, that's what I'm here to tell you today. Understanding your hormones and how they're changing what your body needs as it goes through this change, helps you thrive, helps you feel amazing, and you can feel amazing in perimenopause.

It can be a great phase of life. It's not all doom and gloom. So if you are sitting there thinking, all right, that makes sense. I like the sound of that Sarah. Excellent. Where do I start though? I've got a free training for you called Why You're Gaining Weight After 44 Hormone shifts you can't ignore. 

For weight gain's not a problem for you, I still encourage you to watch it because you can learn about the four hormone shifts and the other symptoms or things that they can do within your body. And then you know this, I'll, I walk you through in the training, you know those four big hormone shifts that are affecting your metabolism, your energy, your mood, why that traditional health or weight loss advice eat less, move more, why it stops working in your forties.

And I'll talk to you about the changes that make the biggest difference. So the strategy that you need to feel amazing again, not just in perimenopause, but menopause as well. So you can watch that anytime you like the link is in the show notes for you to watch it on demand. And yeah, that is all for today.

Thank you friend for tuning in and sharing your time with me for today's episode of Chaos to Calm. I hope you've enjoyed it and if you found it helpful, please do make sure you're following the podcast. Rate it, leave a review. Feel free to leave a comment about what you'd like to hear more about next time.

I love that. It makes it really easy for me to give you what you need and the content that you want. But if you can rate and review, it does help more women find this podcast or be shown the podcast so they have the opportunity to learn more and understand how their hormones are changing and take back control of their health as well.

So until next time, I wish you a wonderful week and keep transforming your perimenopause from chaos to calm.