With the start of the new year, it is a perfect time to address the top complaint I hear from perimenopausal and menopausal women: menopause bloating (and/or excess girth around the middle). Is this you? The age range that women typically experience menopause is between 40 and 58. While menopause is usually defined as a woman having missed her period for 12 consecutive months, the changes and hormonal fluctuations leading up to menopause are called perimenopause and can last for four to eight years.

During this time, the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and osteoporosis increases as hormones begin to fluctuate and decline. Not only that, according to The XX Brain, by Lisa Mosconi, PhD, decline of estrogen (also known as the ‘master regulator’ of the female brain) causes women to become more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease. Having said that, you might think the most common question I receive as a menopause coach would be about how to avoid these deadly...

The holidays are here. Food is everywhere. For some of us, that means guaranteed weight gain and subsequent extreme dieting in January.  But does it have to be that way?

For many, the holidays are synonymous with stress. A survey on holiday stress conducted by Healthline revealed that more that 60% of us feel increased stress at this time of year.  

Whether your stress is about finances, scheduling coordination, gift-giving codependence, or comparing your “insides” (how you perceive your reality) with everyone else’s “outsides” (think Target ads where everyone has perfect outfits and home decorations and gets along at family gatherings), many turn to spontaneous eating to self-soothe. 

Unfortunately, there is a strong correlation between stress and spontaneous eating, in that the more you attempt to address your stress with excess food, the more your stress increases.

What to do? Here’s one holiday stress reliever you may not...

Dammit … It IS Menopause! I was SO hoping it was just a hangnail or something. This was my first response when the menopause symptoms began at age 45. Apparently book titles are super important. Who knew? This being my first book, I had no idea. Never gave it much thought. Having said that, I’d like to give some backstory of my journey, how and why I wrote “Dammit … It IS Menopause!”, and how the book got its name. 

It Began with PIES—The Secret to Loving My Body at Any Weight

My original book title was “How to Avoid Basketball Stomach.” Why? I have maintained a 35-lb. weight loss without dieting for more than 30 years. That said, when I began my perimenopausal journey in my mid-40s, my biggest fear was gaining a disproportionate amount of weight in my midsection. My thinking was, “I have spent ten years loving living in this body. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna lose it now.”

I consider myself a former...