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?