Shedding Your Menopausal Middle
Hormones are the most powerful messengers in our body, and if they are out of balance, they cause similar symptoms in every woman.
Are you finding it harder and harder to keep the weight off (especially around the belly) as you get older? feeling bloated? having problems sleeping, concentrating at work, finding the energy to even get up in the mornings let alone exercise? and lets not even talk about the low sex drive...as if all the myriad of health problems were not enough to deal with!
For the most part, women experience stubborn hormonal weight gain. They are frustrated about the lack of information or guidance they've received from their doctors, and they are tired of being told to "eat less and exercise more." They want real answers and they want real results. These are vital women in the prime of their lives, and they are not about to sit back and accept that this is the way the rest of their lives are going to be. They just want to feel and look like they used to before hormonal havoc took place. For each and every woman, eating a hormonal-friendly diet and living a hormonal-friendly lifestyle are key to getting back to themselves and enjoying their lives. This, combined with a course of acupuncture treatment provides women with the jump-start they need to make real progress as well as the necessary tools to continue their hormone-balancing journey.
If you are a woman nearing or going through menopause, you will want to read on. Most women find that the changes they experience before and during menopause can be upsetting, unexpected, and confusing. However, we feel that no woman should have to suffer through this new phase of her life, so we want to bring you a holistic treatment plan that can balance your hormones, ease your discomfort and get rid of the menopausal middle weight gain.
We are all different. We all have our own unique biochemistry, metabolism, nutritional deficiencies/excesses, genetic makeups, and lifestyle issues. That said, hormones are hormones. The amount and severity of symptoms may differ for each woman based on the above factors. As our hormones fluctuate we naturally become more carbohydrate-sensitive, which is a factor not only in weight gain but weight gain specifically around the middle.
Abdominal belly fat, or the menopausal middle as it is known, is the number 1 complaint and most annoying symptom among women ages 38 to 65. If you're someone who is struggling with this, and totally frustrated with your lack of results, no matter what diet and exercise plan you've tried, acupuncture may be your solution. This highly effective treatment, will give you natural hormone-balancing plan to get lean and eliminate excess bloat and even eliminate menopausal symptoms. By the end of a typical course of 10-12 treatments and along with a change in diet and lifestyle that is hormonal friendly, you'll get back to the way you used to look and feel before the hormonal havoc took over. Amazing results can be expected after just a few treatments, most women report feeling less bloated, having improved digestion, better sleep, clearer thinking, increased energy, and improved mood.
So just why do women going through menopause often end up with a belly and/or cellulite that didn't exist before, and why does it come on so suddenly? this is actually the result of hormonal fluctuations that have been occurring over time, a combo of bloating and deep visceral belly fat.
In perimenopause (the period of time before menopause) declining estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone levels and elevating insulin, cortisol, and leptin levels redirect fat from our hips, legs, and butts to our bellies. In addition, if our diets are full of inflammatory and hormonally unfriendly foods (refined and processed foods), this makes matters worse by adding bloat to the equation. Fluctuating estrogen, in particular, is the main hormonal culprit in the development of cellulite. It triggers fluid build up in fatty tissue and puts a strain on collagen fibres beneath the skin's surface, creating the lovely orange peel texture and appearance we know as cellulite. The other factors that contribute to cellulite production include being overweight, dehydrated, inactive, and having poor muscle tone, which are all addressed in the acupuncture treatments.
Research shows that gut, liver, and adrenal health all play a significant role in hormonal regulation. If your hormones are wreaking havoc, it's a sign that these three areas need some love and attention. To achieve optimal hormone balance, you have to heal your gut, cleanse your liver, and de-stress or nourish your adrenal glands. Acupuncture helps eliminate excess stored fluid from our bellies, naturally cleanse the liver and start burning deep visceral belly fat, and nourish the adrenal glands so that we can achieve a natural hormonal balance. All three steps work together to ultimately shed our menopausal middles.
If your gut is in need of repair, you will have issues with digesting your food and absorbing nutrients, as well as producing the neurotransmitters you need to feel happy and relaxed. If your liver is sluggish, your fat-burning capacity will suffer, and your hormones will build up and become unbalanced. Most important, if your adrenals are stressed or exhausted, you won't stand a chance of achieving a healthy hormone balance and will be in full-on belly-fat storage mode. Systematically addressing and optimizing each area by implementing diet and lifestyle solutions will help you achieve the perfect balance that will take you from hormonal havoc to hormonal happiness.
There is a lot of misinformation out there about calories. All calories are not equal. The calories from protein, fat, and carbohydrates are not metabolized the same way by our bodies. For example, you can gain weight by eating a 100-calorie snack bag of cookies and lose weight from eating 200 calories of grilled chicken. Why? Because our bodies go into fat-storage mode in response to eating refined carbohydrates (cookies and bread) and go into fat-burning mode in response to eating high-quality protein and healthy fats. Don't misunderstand, I am not saying that calories are not important. They certainly are, but it is more important what those calories are made up of rather than the actual number of calories a food contains.
Women in menopause can sometimes suffer from low libido. Stress can deplete all of the sex hormones. For a lot of women, their libidos have fallen as a result, and that way of living have become their new normal. Addressing stress by nourishing our adrenals is important for not only shedding belly fat but to resurrect a non existent libido. Poor adrenal health, usually caused by stress of any kind (emotional, physical, mental, poor diet, poor lifestyle), will result in depleted sex hormones, which results in low libido. Basically, you cannot make sex hormones if your adrenals are in a state of stress or exhaustion. This is why I have dedicated a lot of time talking about adrenal health and how to nourish them back to life with acupuncture.