Steps To Take the Pause Out of Menopause

Let’s face it, women fear growing old. The prospect of wrinkles, body aches, fatigue and especially menopause adds to negative feelings about aging. Menopause is defined as the point when a woman’s ovaries stop releasing eggs. Ovulation stops, and as a result, production of the female hormones estrogen and progesterone also comes to an end. You can’t pause menopause, but you can prepare for its arrival. The signs of menopause can be both subtle and blatantly obvious and how you handle it will have a lot to do with how you’ve prepared.
Mental Preparation For Menopause

As with anything in life, being mentally prepared for challenges ahead can help you win the battle to come. Preparation for menopause includes having that important talk with your doctor and discussing the signs of menopause, treatment options and the effect it can have on you and those around you. It you know what to expect, then you will know how to react to it. Like the pre-menstruation phase, menopause can cause emotional ups and downs. So instead of actually believing that the world hates you, you will recognize that it’s just your hormones playing tricks on you and you can control those false sentiments. Instead of having that “why do I feel this way?” day, you will be able to identify exactly the cause and nip that feeling in the butt.
Physical Preparation For Menopause

You might have noticed that this is a common theme of many of my articles, but it’s so true… exercise, exercise, exercis! Exercise can solve a lot of our health problems if we only would put down the remote and go do it! For menopause, exercise is helpful in many ways including preventing the rapid onset of osteoporosis. Exercise can come in many forms. It can be regular walking, 3-4 sessions a week at the gym for both cardio and weight training, yoga, swimming, cycling, dancing or simply being active in a team sport. It doesn’t matter what you do, just do something to get that heart rate up and those pounds down.
Dietary Preparation For Menopause

Your diet during your 30’s is vital to handling the signs of menopause. Foods rich in calcium can help strengthening bones, which become weaker as women age. After the age of 30, a woman experiences regular bone loss and while it’s only minimal each year, it can add up to significant levels by the time you reach 50. Not only is it important to eat healthy to maintain healthy bones, but also healthy eating can help lower the risk of heart disease. Healthy eating with regular exercise can significantly lower any risk of problems settling in.
Menopause can be a challenging time in the lives of many women, but being prepared for it can make the transition easier. Life after menopause can be as healthy, independent and fulfilling as any of the younger stages of a woman’s life. While it may mean that you can no longer bare children, it also means that you don’t have to worry about that annoying monthly “friend,” which should actually be called “enemy.” So don’t let menopause put a pause on your life. Live, eat, dance, play! Enjoy the freedom that this new stage of life brings and feel younger then you ever felt before. So stay young, and stay pretty.