The Healthy Living Blog

If you’re in menopause or peri-menopause, you might be feeling frustrated, exhausted, or stuck. And you might be blaming yourself for not having the energy or results you used to get.

But here’s the truth — this is not a mindset failure. It’s biology.

As Dr. Stacy Sims points out in her research, menopause is a natural phase where your hormones, especially estrogen and progesterone, decline. This shift changes how your body handles:

• Energy and fatigue

• Mood and motivation

• Muscle recovery and growth

• Stress and sleep quality

What this means in practical terms is that your old habits — the ones that worked for you at 25 or 35 — might not work anymore. For example:

• Eating less to lose weight can backfire by raising cortisol (stress hormone) and slowing metabolism

• Trying to “push through” tiredness can actually increase fatigue and delay recovery

• Training with too much volume or cardio can cause more stress, not less

So what mindset does help?

Let’s flip the script on aging

We’ve been told it’s about slowing down.
That things get worse.
That we should accept being tired, soft, or sore.

But that’s not the whole story.

Midlife is not the end — it’s a turning point
With hormonal shifts, yes — your body changes.
But it also responds — when you train and fuel it the right way.

As Dr. Stacy Sims puts it:
👉 “Women are not small men.”
We need specific strategies to support our physiology in perimenopause and postmenopause.

That means:

✅ Lifting heavy to maintain muscle and bone
✅ Eating enough to support recovery (especially protein!)
✅ Prioritising rest and sleep
✅ Letting go of old training rules that no longer serve you

Why strength is your best tool for aging

When you lift heavy and build muscle, you’re not just changing how you look.
You’re changing how you age.

Here’s what muscle helps with:

💪 Joint support
🦴 Bone density
🔥 Metabolism
🧠 Mental clarity
🩺 Insulin sensitivity
🛏️ Sleep quality
💃 Balance and mobility

And this isn’t just...