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It’s Sunday! Welcome back to another weekly roundup of menopause news. We are just over halfway through Menopause Awareness Month and yesterday was Menopause Awareness Day. In case you missed it, this years theme was Lifestyle Medicine, and I’ve been looking at each of the Lifestyle Medicine pillars and how they fit in with my Eight Dimensions of Wellness coaching philosophy. Links are below if you missed any in the series so far.

What You May Have Missed This Week at BLF:

• 10/01: Menopause Awareness Month
• 10/08: Role of Diet & Exercise in Lifestyle Medicine
• 10/15: 13 Expert-Backed Ways to Keep Your Locks Lucious
• 10/15: The Role of Stress Management in Lifestyle Medicine
• 10/17: Don't Skip the Squish

This week at the Fork That Kitchen Club we kept things fast & simple with Mango & Cranberry Coconut Kefir Yogurt Bark, Mini Pear Crisps, and Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins that are just as good as anything you’ll get at your local bakery.

Holiday Self-Care Tips

With the weather finally starting to cool down a bit and the end of year holidays fast approaching, I wanted to pass along some self-care tips over the next few weeks. If you want all of them at once, you can check out my September blog post but for today, we are focusing on tracking your symptoms, creating a cool down kit, and moving with joy.

Tracking Your Symptoms

How many of y’all are like me and immediately forget literally everything as soon as you sit down in the exam room? We know these questions are coming, yet we still totally blank when asked, and that was BEFORE the perimenopause brain fog shenanigans.

This one isn’t hard but it’s also not easy. Our plates are already full so adding anything more feels like the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back but the first thing your doctor is going to ask you about when you go in for help with the symptoms dragging you down is “what are your symptoms?”

Tracking doesn’t have to be fancy, nor does it need to be pages and pages of data. Knowing what your symptoms have been for the last week is far better than nothing but striving for a full month of data is a good goal to have as it ensures you can track a good portion of your cycle, even if it isn’t regular anymore.

Create a Cool Down Kit

This has been a life saver for me, especially as the summers get hotter my hot flashes get worse the closer I get to reaching menopause. I’m a born and raised Minnesotan so dressing in layers is nothing new to me but the handheld fan and the cooling towels have been super helpful. I’ll even grab an ice pack and stick that on the back of my neck too. The key here is having kits everywhere you might need them; the car, at work, in your purse, and even on your nightstand.

Move with Joy

I said it in my original post but it’s worth repeating: No pain, no gain always has and always will be bullshit. You should never exercise in a way that causes pain. That pain is your body literally telling you to ease up a bit. Now more than ever, we need to heed that warning as our bodies don’t heal like they used to.

This is why I’ve started to focus on movement rather than grueling 60-minute exercise sessions. I’m also more aware of how much I sit and make a point to get up and move around for at least 5-10 minutes every hour. Even if it’s just doing laps around the kitchen island or turning the music up and dancing my little heart out while making dinner.

Bottom line: menopause is a massive upheaval of our entire life and with the holidays approaching, we need to make sure we are taking care of ourselves too.

Ok, folks, that’s all for this edition of the roundup. Stay tuned either here or on my socials as we’ve got another busy week coming up!

Coming Up This Week:

• 10/22: The Role of Restorative Sleep in Lifestyle Medicine
• 10/24: The Menopause Industry
• 10/29: The Role of Connectedness & Substance Avoidance in Lifestyle Medicine
• 11/01: Influencers, Coaches, & Doctors, Oh My!

The Fork That Kitchen Club has you covered this week with Dalgona Whipped Coffee, Maple Cashew Chocolate Fudge, and Butternut Squash Grilled Cheese, which you can also find in my Fall Favorites recipe collection. Sign up for the Fork That Kitchen Club newsletter to get these and more recipes delivered right to your inbox daily!