It’s March, Nutrition Month, and the perfect time to talk about the launch of our new app, MENO, the first personalized menopause diet app and program.
Fact: Hormone changes that start in perimenopause (as young as age 45!) and continue into menopause change the way your body handles food and exercise.
Solution: Our proprietary and personalized MENO app positions you to build new habits that put you in charge of menopause.
Fortify
It’s all about the protein baby!
Protein in the food we eat (think poultry, meat, seafood, eggs, beans) is broken down in the digestion process into amino acids, which are then used as building blocks for muscle, joints, tendons, ligaments, hormones, enzymes, and even hair. Given all the functions in the body, it’s important to have amino acids circulating in the bloodstream all the time.
How can you accomplish this? By making sure every meal of the day includes protein.
Most of us tend to eat more protein at dinner and the least amount at breakfast. Shifting this pattern to include more protein at breakfast and lunch and less at dinner helps the body function optimally. Consider fruit smoothies made with Greek yogurt and a scoop of protein powder or tofu scrambled with your favorite veggies or leftovers from last night’s dinner. For lunch, add protein to your favorite salad or batch cook chili and stews on the weekends for easy workday lunches. At snack, grab a meat or cheese stick, hard-boiled egg, protein bar, or a small handful of nuts.
Make protein at every meal your new habit.
Food
There are a host of reasons you may be considering more plant-forward eating habits – personal health, planet health, and/or animal welfare. Whatever your reason for choosing more plants on the plate, it’s important to ensure you are getting the protein you need while moderating carbohydrates during midlife years.
Here are tips for meeting your midlife nutrition goals with plant-forward eating habits:
- Some plant-based proteins, such as nuts and seeds, tend to be higher in fat. When making this choice, lower other sources of fat in that meal or snack.
- Beans, legumes, and lentils are nutrition powerhouses and great options for meat-free meals. Think vegetarian chili, lentil salad, or roasted chickpeas as a snack. While they are great plant-based sources of protein, they also contain a fair amount of carbohydrates, a watch out in midlife. Choose to pair these foods with lower-carb veggies such as green beans, cucumbers, peppers, mushrooms, and greens.
- Because it tends to absorb the flavors around it, tofu can be used in many ways from the base of breakfast smoothies to vegetable stir fry to tofu sandwiches or tacos. Its versatility makes tofu a great plant-forward protein.
Check out this recipe “Warm Lentil Salad with Delicata Squash and Cilantro Cashew Cream” (pictured above).
fitness
Hiking our way to health!
The benefits of hiking in nature are endless. Being among the natural world and disconnected from technology helps us ground into our true nature, clear our heads, and be fully present with ourselves.
In addition to the mental aspects, were you aware of the multitude of physical benefits that hiking can have on the brain-body?
Unlike working out on an elliptical or treadmill, hiking challenges many additional aspects within a single workout including our neuroplasticity, spatial awareness, memory, and navigation. This makes it a total brain workout too!
This is very important especially as we age and become more prone to brain loss and dementia. Keeping the blood pumping into the brain can grow and promote gray matter retention and thickness in important regions of the brain, like the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.
Grab and friend and get out in nature, your brain and body will thank you.
For more on hiking and the brain, here is an excellent article.
Frame of mind
Post Pandemic Connection
The “world” is open for business again. 50th birthday parties and group hikes are happening.
Are you ready to re-engage and knock elbows with strangers? Or did you relish the past 2 years of “forced seclusion”? Admit it, there was something nice about not having to shower to go to work.
The fact is that ALL humans – introverts and extroverts alike – need contact with others. It hasn’t been enough to “see” people on zoom calls or hear their voices on the phone.
Be deliberate in your reconnecting. You don’t have to rush out to physically meet up with everyone you used to socialize with. Now is the opportunity to choose those friends you are energized by.
Some key questions:
1) After time with this person, do I feel happy, excited, and full of energy?
2) Is this person generally positive and supportive of me?
3) Does this person really listen to what I have to say, and care?
You know the answers and the rest of the story.
It’s time to get back out there. It’s your chance to rebuild your “band” of people to suit your best life!
She believed she could, so she did!
Not All Who Wander Are Lost… Especially Not “The Wander Women”
We often hear that it’s our responsibility to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, but what does that mean for you?
For Kristi Burns, partner Annette Demel and dear friend Lynn Edmiston, that meant retiring early, selling all of their possessions, and buying an RV to travel around the country and live the rest of their lives filled with hiking, biking, and adventure.
Some of their post-retirement accomplishments included the completion of the Colorado Trail (500 miles), the Oregon Coast Trail (425 miles), the Appalachian Trail (2,200 miles), and most recently the 2,700 miles of the Continental Divide, of which Edmiston was able to join in for a 900-mile stretch prior to returning to work.
Their motto is to “expand the confines of their lives”, while inspiring others to do the same. “You start to get this huge appreciation for what your body is able to do”, says Demel, as we all know age is just a mindset after all. She emphasizes that you don’t have to complete a thru-hike per se, but challenges folks to “go out for a walk and try to notice beauty”.
For many, life on the trail might be a bit too far outside their comfort zone but you will be surprised what feelings might arise when you push past your perceived limitations.
“I always feel like I’m at home when I go to nature”, says Burns.
Perhaps, you’re just one adventure away from discovering what home feels like to you…
You can follow the adventures of The Wander Women on their YouTube Channel.
