18. Manage Your Weight, Tackle Sleep Disturbances and Feel Amazing, as We Transition Through Menopause.

Imagine stepping into a new phase of life with confidence, armed with the knowledge to not just survive, but thrive through menopause. That's precisely what we're bringing to the table today. Tune in to learn more!

From understanding the brain's hormonal ballet to tackling joint pain and weight shifts with grace, in this episode, we discuss the best ways to embrace these changes.  If you're grappling with sleep disturbances or stress, empathy is key - I understand you and I've been where you are.

Prepare to be empowered as we go through the nitty-gritty of diet and exercise during menopause, dissecting how what we eat directly influences inflammation and our overall health.

You'll be equipped with a toolkit brimming with tips to manage symptoms and maintain a healthy weight, all tailored to the metabolic nuances of this life stage. Learn why tossing out those french fries and sugary drinks in favor of Omega-3-rich foods can revolutionize your body's response to inflammation.

And if the scales have become a source of frustration, discover how portion control and conscious eating can keep that pesky belly fat at bay. Tune in for a conversation that's not just about getting through menopause but transforming it into a period of vitality and purpose.

Are you looking to kickstart your weight loss journey? Join my one-on-one coaching program for the support you need as you go forward! Looking forward to hearing from you soon!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi, everyone, welcome, welcome. Today we will be talking about menopause and the things that we can do just to make ourselves feel great. Menopause is that time of transition. A lot is happening, the hormone levels are changing and so we start to experience symptoms, naturally, and most of us get to a point where we just don't feel great. So, again, I've been doing quite a bit of research in menopause. I'm 54, so I've done quite a bit of research in just checking in to see the things that matter the most to me and what I can do to feel better. I have narrowed this down into five main topics. We'll be talking about mindset, joint pain Somebody asked me that question this morning things to do to lose weight, make ourselves feel better, sleep and stress. These are all the things that we may experience during menopause.

Speaker 2: 0:57

Welcome to the Thriving Through Menopause podcast. Dr Anaka Yembe, your host, is dedicated to helping you navigate the transformative journey of menopause and perimenopause, particularly focused on achieving menopausal weight loss and reducing belly fat. As a post-menopausal physician herself who has helped thousands of women experiencing the significant life stage, she understands the unique challenges you face. Listen in as we explore a wide range of topics aimed at supporting you in your health and wellness journey. Hopefully, the practical tips and strategies offered potentially help you adopt an empowering approach towards menopausal weight loss and belly fat reduction. And now here's your host, Dr Anaka Yembe.

Speaker 1: 1:42

All right, I'm Dr Yembe, dr Anaka Yembe. I'm a board certified family medicine physician currently practicing full-time in ER in Louisiana, and part-time I run a weight loss clinic. I also have an online weight loss program called the 10 21-day Boot Camp. The link is somewhere there in my bio. So type in the chat introduce yourself, let me know where you are calling from, let me know if you're in my boot camp or not. Type that in there.

Speaker 1: 2:14

Somebody cannot hear me. I hope you can hear me. If you can hear me, give me a thumbs up Now. If you are watching this later on YouTube, go ahead and hit that like button, subscribe to my channel and hit the notification bell also so that each time I put out a video like this you get notified. So if you can hear me loud and clear, please give me a thumbs up. Somebody said they cannot hear. I have my show notes so you will see me referring to everything. Thanks for the thumbs up. You'll see me referring here so that I don't miss anything.

Speaker 1: 2:48

So what really happens during menopause? Studies show. Of course we know menopause is a time of transition. The estrogen levels are dropping and because of that drop in estrogen, we start to experience multiple symptoms. One of the things that we may or may not know is that we have multiple estrogen receptors in the brain. In fact, estrogen helps your neurons, your brain's nerve cells, utilize glucose effectively. So for that reason, of course, when the estrogen levels start dropping, most of us may feel a decline in our mood. We just don't feel like doing anything. We start to have that brain fog, forgetfulness kicks in and things like that. Another thing that happens is declining estrogen causes decline in dopamine levels and that area the dopamine, the pleasure centers that still causes us to have mood swings. The things we wanted to do in the past, we just may not feel like doing those anymore, and then we start to get irritable, some of us get anxious and then some of my sisters actually end up becoming depressed. All right. So things like brain fog, decreased focus, headaches, forgetfulness, lack of motivation these are all things that are very, very common in menopause.

Speaker 1: 4:10

So there are a few things that I can I'm going to discuss with you now. How do you feel? Amazing? One of the things that I know is that the woman's body is made to change. As a little girl, we go to puberty. That's common for boys and girls, of course. Then we get older, hormones change. We get pregnant we embrace that, have babies, things change. We get older, hormone levels start declining and then now we are in menopause. So the very first thing that you want to do in menopause is embrace the change.

Speaker 1: 4:42

If you had a young teenager who just started having her cycle, she's having menstrual cramps, she's having some dysphoria or changing her mood because of her cycles, you would encourage her along and say listen, young girl, this happens to women and let me just help you as things change, because we expect things to change as we get older. That's one of the things that we want to also embrace Embrace the change that also is going to happen as you get older. Once you accept things, you have a better chance of feeling better. You know life is going to happen, including menopause. Every woman who's born is going to go to menopause. So once you accept that things are going to change, then your reaction may even be better and make you feel Amazing. How is that? Life happens to everyone. There's a quote about that that the way you feel depends on how you react to that change. So I'm just encouraging you, my sisters start embracing the change. Our bodies are going to change. Our skin may get a little drier, other places may get a little drier, our hair may get thinner, we have the hot flashes, we have lack of energy, you know, get a little bit of belly bloat. All of these things are part of the natural aging process that we want to first embrace with some self-love, because it's going to be that way.

Speaker 1: 6:06

But what is another thing that you can do other than embracing these changes that are happening? The next thing you want to do is live purposefully. And what do I mean? Now is a good time to take stock of where things are, reflect and decide a purpose for yourself. If you're my age, I'm 54,. The girls are 21 and 23. One of them is completely moved out of the house, working, another one is also getting ready to work, and so things change. The baby's leave. Now you find yourself alone. Maybe you don't really get pleasure from the activities you used to do in the past. So there's this complete change in as you get older. It's not only the hormones and the hot flashes and symptoms like that, but your whole environment now starts changing, and this is a good time to stop and take stock of where you are, decide your purpose in life, because when you leave purposefully or when you define that purpose that you have in life and you live it daily, that's when the beauty of life kicks in. Of course, you'll feel amazing.

Speaker 1: 7:15

If you live purposefully, a very good thing to do is just journal. I'm old fashioned, so you see my notes. I like to write everything down. I'm very old fashioned, so I like to write things down. If you just sit and reflect, why am I just feeling blah? Okay, it's not only just hormones. The things that we were used to environment and things like that have changed. So sit down, make some notes, write down your three top purposes, things that you really want to do for you. Yes, somebody said I love to travel, and that's one of the things I do with no regrets Travel. Now the babies are gone, I don't have to sit home and watch them like I used to. That's one of my goals. When you live purposefully every single day, that is the best way for you to crush it in life and feel amazing. All right, let's keep moving.

Speaker 1: 8:07

The next thing that happens during menopause you know that decline. Like I said, the estrogen levels drop. Those pleasurable centers that were kept up and kicking, kicking by estrogen, they also drop. So your mood starts to change and then you have some negative feelings. All these things are happening. You're not sleeping well, you're having hot flashes, you're having lack of motivation, you've got lack of energy.

Speaker 1: 8:36

Sometimes it just gets to us and I'm going to tell you your mind, your thoughts, the things that you think, are so powerful that your thoughts can direct your whole well-being. So one of the things number three thing that I encourage you to do in order to feel amazing is just start to think positive. Look for the positive. I may go out there. It may be too hot. I cannot go in and down that temperature to 90 degrees if it's higher than that. Right now, where I live, it's 100 degrees. As soon as I step up, my hot flashes will kick in times three. What do I do? I protect myself. I say, okay, well, thank goodness there's sun. Maybe it may not sound that great, but thank goodness there is. Get some ice water or something. Again, life is there. What happens and what changes us or influence or impacts us the most is the way we react to the things out there. So your thoughts have power. Guard your thoughts.

Speaker 1: 9:36

Here are a few tips of the things that you can do in order to help your thoughts, because that negative thinking can't just drag or drive us into a negative situation. So what can you do? Number one is practice mindfulness. Pay attention to the moment without judging it. Pay attention to how you feel without actually judging anything. Acknowledge your feelings. Yes, I mean, life goes on. Several things happen, but you want to acknowledge them without judging them. Just accept that you cannot change them, and that's how it's going to be.

Speaker 1: 10:12

The second thing, though, to come right out of the first maybe is to be grateful. Gratitude is huge. It's a fantastic way in order to feel amazing. Listen, I work in the emergency room 48 hours straight, and I have seen things that sometimes are beyond comprehension, and I can also sit here and ask why, why did this happen? But then again, that's the time where you have to. You can sit and say wow, am I not blessed Not to have to experience certain things? Gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions that will help pull you through, especially when you are in menopause. Find gratitude in every single situation.

Speaker 1: 10:57

Next, what I do self-care. We got to give ourselves some loving. Ladies, if you are not practicing self-care, please do whatever you think is doing. If you feel like I don't know having a massage, do it. If you feel like going and I don't know getting your fingernails, your toenails done, practice some form of self-loving. Often For me it's once a week, without failure. Whatever it is, I will practice it once a week because these kinds of things help me.

Speaker 1: 11:28

Women are self-sacrificing human beings. Most of the time, we spend a lot of time giving off ourselves so much that we may be on the back burner, feeling bad and not knowing how to drag ourselves out of it, and nobody else even acknowledging or noticing the fact that we may be feeling bad. Please spend some time with yourself and practice self-care. The last thing that you can do, really, when it comes to that mood, is just to reconnect with your friends, reconnect with the people that you knew in the past and that you may have moved away from them, because the business of life and the children and everything that was happening here got us away from those good relationships that we had when we were younger. This is a good time to now reconnect with those good relationships that we had in the past. Alright, let's move on to what I discussed today Joint pain.

Speaker 1: 12:22

Joint pain is a lonely position, I'm telling you, you can only feel when your own shoe pinches and when you have joint pain. This is what you feel. Nobody else can feel it for you. Now, the decline in estrogen causes the inflammatory markers in our bodies to go up a little bit higher. Yes, there are some other factors that may come into play. Things like being overweight and even genetics can cause us to have joint pain. However, just menopause alone increases the risk of us having joint pain. Now we wake up in the morning, we try to walk. You know our knees, our ankles, the hips, the back everything starts to hurt.

Speaker 1: 13:08

So what can you do? I'm just going to narrow it down to one biggest thing. The biggest thing that you can do, in addition to just moving in any way that you can, is what you eat. Food is medicine, not only nourishment, but it's medicine. So if you put some thought into what you're eating, it will treat so many things.

Speaker 1: 13:29

So there's several anti-inflammatory foods that you can consume on a daily basis that will help you just reduce the amount of inflammation that you have in your body. So, number one I'm just going to touch on a few. There's several others, but we're just talking about a few common ones. Number one is dark leafy greens. I am so sorry, forgive my puppy, she gets excited for no reason. All right. Number one is dark leafy greens, and so things like spinach colored greens, the dark leafy greens, are very anti-inflammatory. Include those in your diet as often as you can.

Speaker 1: 14:08

The next one, though, is fatty fish. So just consider when I say fatty fish. Some people like to eat sardines in a can and tuna in a can, but just keep in mind that the fact that it's canned and it's preserved it also has several inflammatory things. So when we talk about eating fatty fish, try to go for the fresh or the frozen, and not those that are preserved in a can. So the fatty fish may help you. Things like salmon, sardine, trout, those kinds of things. They are fatty and they help you as well.

Speaker 1: 14:38

Next one is the nuts. So flax, seeds, nuts, peanuts, almonds, all of those. They have Omega-3s that are anti-inflammatory as well. Next is fruit. So see where I'm going with this. If you just start eating natural foods in their natural state, number one, that natural food is going to detox your body. The next thing is going to be anti-inflammatory for you. That's the whole anti-inflammatory diet Foods that are not preserved and foods that are in the fresh, more fresh state Fruits. They're anti-inflammatory, especially pineapples Be careful with those. Have a lot of sugar, but I mean it does have some and several anti-inflammatory factors in it. Lastly, coffee or green tea those are anti-inflammatory also.

Speaker 1: 15:22

Now that we've talked about the foods that you want to include in your diet every day, there are five big ones that you want to keep away from your diet because why they cause so much inflammation. Number one french fries. Number one french fries from fast food. Stay away from those. Very inflammatory. Okay, I'm sorry, mcdonald's, they taste good but they are bad for you. Number two is disorders High sugar content. Lots of chemicals cause so much inflammation, including the diet, so let's try to stay away from those. The next one is the processed oils. So margarine, lard Stay away from those oils that are processed, highly processed. And the next one also is processed meat. So if you're eating hot dogs, sausages and those kind of packaged meats, please try to avoid those and just go with the meats that are maybe not that processed like fresh hamburger. Take it, cook it yourself. It's going to be less inflammatory for you.

Speaker 1: 16:24

Now, those are just the really big ones and, last but not least, are the pastries, cakes, cookies, all those pastries, the cooked baked goods. Those are highly, highly inflammatory, especially because of the sugars. Have you consuming too many added sugars? Females more than 24 grams of added sugars per day, men more than 36 grams of added sugars per day? You may be causing significant inflammation in your system. Insulin is going up too high because it's weight gain. I mean, sugar is just one of those things that just causes natural slow death of so many cells in our bodies that we want to reduce the amount of added sugars not natural sugars, but added sugars. The cool thing to do is simply look at your nutrition levels of every single thing that you purchase.

Speaker 1: 17:20

Alright, number 3 way to feel amazing during menopause is, of course, weight loss. Menopause comes again with declining estrogen levels. It does a few things to us. It makes our muscle mass decrease, it decreases our basal metabolic rate and it increases storage of belly fat. For most of us in menopause, we just start to gain weight, even if we were doing the same things for the past 20 years. What about work for you back then, as a teenager, as a young 20 year old female in your early 30s? It's no longer going to work right now that I am 54. So I have to change things in order to stay even the same weight. And, by the way, even most of us who stay the same weight, we now notice that with menopause, we now start to grow belly fat, you know, your waistline starts to change and starts to get a little bit bigger.

Speaker 1: 18:17

I have narrowed down just some tips for weight loss in 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 main things that you need to do to lose weight, especially when, in menopause the first one, common for everyone stay in a caloric deficit. Okay, caloric deficit means that you eat less than you need per day because your body needs energy, so you want to eat a little bit less. One of the biggest ways to stay in a caloric deficit is to decrease your portion sizes, even without changing anything. Decrease those portion sizes. Number two in menopause, to lose weight, you have to eat more protein. Remember, muscle mass is declining. Just make it simple. To make it simple for you If you consume 25 to 30 grams of protein every single meal, assuming that you're eating 3 times a day, then that's going to be a good enough consumption of protein for many people.

Speaker 1: 19:18

Number three move more the order we get, we have the tendency of just sitting and not being as active as we need to be. Even those of us who work out one hour a day, we still go back and sit. So now you're not as active as you were, moving up and down. We want to consciously increase our movement. You don't have to do any exercise, that's not you Find your thing, whatever it is Dancing, walking, cycling, anything but just make sure that you are moving every single day. Now women make it a habit of lifting weights at least 3-4 times a week.

Speaker 1: 19:54

4 menopause and in order to maintain your muscle mass. Water, drink water. Our body composition is made mainly of water, so you want to be drinking water every single day. 25 liters to 3 liters, not a gallon or two gallons is not necessary. Drink 25 to 3 liters of water every single day. Now, if you have not been used to drinking water, make small changes in a positive direction. You know we want to not be so harsh on ourselves by making a huge change that we cannot sustain life long. Allow your body to learn. So, if you are not drinking water at all, start drinking one bottle and give yourself some kudos. After that, start drinking two bottles. Give yourself some kudos, build up slowly, and that's how your body learns.

Speaker 1: 20:46

Lastly, sleep. Sleep is very important and I will give you some tips on how to sleep when you're in menopause. But sleep is also important for weight loss because the hormones that govern our satiety, they are balanced while we are sleeping. So you want to shoot for 7 to 9 hours of sleep daily. That said, we are not perfect, so allow yourself to be about 80% accurate and you are just fine. Nobody should strive for perfection, because perfection or perfection, perfectionism I don't even know the word. If you're striving to be perfect, then that's where you may start feeling.

Speaker 1: 21:25

Moving on to sleep, going through menopause. Studies now show that about 12% of women struggle with some form of sleep disorder during menopause. We have heart flashes that's one of the biggest complaint in the clinic. We have heart flashes and as sleep is just interrupted or disrupted Another thing that happens in menopause that you may not know 2 to 4% of women will develop sleep apnea, and that's the sleeping pattern where you sleep, you snore, your airway closes, mainly because of your weight, and then you wake yourself up and then you sleep again, snore, your airway closes and then you wake up again, on and on and on, and it disrupts our sleep, sleep pattern. Lastly, one of the things that you may not think about that happens during menopause is restless legs. I mean, we're constantly moving our legs. Sometimes it's because of anemia, sometimes it's because they just hurt for whatever reason. So restless legs, hot flashes, sleep apnea all of these things can cause just inadequate sleep through the night.

Speaker 1: 22:33

So what can you do? Number one, the very first thing, of course, let's talk about overall sleep toilets. Keep the devices like a TV or your phone or your iPad or your laptop. Keep these things out of the bedroom. In fact, studies show that if you don't look at your devices for two hours before you sleep, that flickering light, that signal, keeps you awake. So don't look at your devices for about two hours before you go to sleep. And some people say how is that possible? Now, everything is possible with practice. Okay.

Speaker 1: 23:04

The next thing is to avoid nap time in the afternoon. If you're like me and I've been working all day, all the time, I mean somewhere around three o'clock, four o'clock, I may just throw myself down on the couch and just fall asleep. Try not to do that, because it may prevent you from having adequate sleep later on in the night. Next one is a bedtime routine. Our brains, our bodies, they learn with training. So set your bedtime routine and make sure you go to bed at that time. In the beginning you may not fall asleep. You may not fall asleep. Eventually your body starts to say, hmm, okay, it's bedtime, and then you start falling asleep. So long as you maintain that bedtime routine.

Speaker 1: 23:46

Other things are alcohol. Alcohol will impact your weight. One of the things that we don't know about alcohol is that, of course, it may help you fall asleep when you drink it, but studies now show that alcohol makes you wake up. It doesn't help you stay asleep. You're going to wake up once the effect of the alcohol wears off. In fact, if you're in menopause, you should not drink alcohol on a daily basis. All right, even if it's that few sleeps at night. You want to avoid that. Some things that you may do you want to ask your doctor about this is take a natural sleep aid like melatonin. It's natural. You can take that at bedtime and it may help you rest.

Speaker 1: 24:27

All right, let's move on to our next topic is stress. Stress is another thing that happens during menopause. Hormone levels flock to weight is very common for women to be irritable, to be anxious, and some women actually develop anxiety and depression during menopause. Has that ever happened to you? Life changes are happening, a lot is happening in the family and in the world, and then last thing we need is this fluctuating hormonal levels, with decline in estrogen, increase in the stress hormone, cortisol, which is also increasing the belly fat.

Speaker 1: 25:02

What can you do to control your stress levels though? A few things. Number one is practice positive affirmation. Remember, in the beginning I talked about how your mind is the most powerful part of your body. Your mind can actually make you feel bad or make you feel well. So if you practice positive affirmation by just telling yourself five positive things every single morning, then your body starts to act out the things that you tell it. Just tell myself I can't tell myself oh, you know what I'm going to have a good day today, regardless of what happens out there, and you know what I'm going to have a good day. I'm going to do well in this. I'm going to work out today. Give yourself this positive input by you every single day, and you notice that your body starts to act out what you tell it.

Speaker 1: 25:48

The next thing is meditation. Sometimes we just don't withdraw and sit and think. Practice meditation either. Read your Bible, pray however you want to meditate, just think about it. Everyone is different, but it will help you with stress. Next thing practice deep breathing. Other things like yoga, exercise and just practice in self-care also is another thing that may help you with stress.

Speaker 1: 26:17

Lastly and I have done this myself and I disclose that openly to everyone there was a time in my life that I was totally, totally, totally so stressed that it was very debilitating to me and I did not want to be on any kind of medicine. So I sought the help of a specialist, of a therapist, who taught me several coping skills that I apply even to date. So, if you're having a lot of trouble, find someone professional that can help you cope with stress and teach you some things that you can do just to help you overall to cope with the things that are happening in life. All right, I think we've come to the end. If you have any questions, we are totally out of time. If you have any questions, type those in the chat box. I will come back and reply to your questions.

Speaker 1: 27:09

If you haven't done so yet, the link to my bootcamp. I have an online weight loss and coaching program in my bio. Click that link is just $1 per day. You can work out with me nutrition guides, coaching and accountability. We have a private Facebook group and you are accountable to me once a week. And then I also have the biggest one is a live meal prep. I bring you into my kitchen once a week, so you see how I prepare my meals for the next week. All right, everyone Bye.

Speaker 2: 28:07

Connect with us on social media, where we share additional resources, tips and advice to help you along your path. Once again, thanks for listening in and we hope you'll join us again on the next episode of Thriving Through Menopause. Until then,