Experience the incredible journey of women transforming their lives after 40! From opera singers to stay-at-home moms, teachers to physicians, and truck drivers to entrepreneurs, these women may seem different on the surface, but they all share a common desire to become the best version of themselves. If you're searching for ways to achieve midlife weight loss, you've got to meet this menopause and hormone coach.
But here's the twist: I never expected to be in this position. With a host of health issues and setbacks, including a stroke and a flesh-eating bacteria infection, I was constantly battling my own body. However, this journey led me to a profound realization and a career change. Armed with education and personal experience, I became a personal trainer and earned a second master's degree in health and nutrition education. As a Mayo Clinic Health & Wellness Coach today, my success rate with my client towers over 90%.
Why a Menopause & Hormone Coach?
When I started working with women over 40 in 2004, I took a different approach than most trainers. I wanted my clients to not only get fit in the gym, but also build functional strength that would benefit their everyday lives. What's the point of lifting weights if it doesn't translate to picking up a heavy box or preventing injuries outside the gym?
It turns out, when it comes to fitness, this approach really worked for my over-40 group of women. This was then and is now my approach to getting women strong - and it works!
This approach proved to be incredibly successful for women over 40. But that's just part of the equation. With my second master's degree in health and nutrition education, I gained a deeper understanding of the impact of hormones on weight loss, muscle gain, energy levels, and more. Meal planning became a cornerstone of my coaching, helping women navigate the challenges of menopause and beyond. I love empowering women and showing them that age is never a barrier to achieving their goals.
Unlocking the Power of Hormones
Educating my clients about their hormones and how they affect their bodies and lives is the game-changer. Once they understand how to "read" their hormones, they can take control of their weight, gain muscle, and achieve lasting results. As a menopause coach, I offer a holistic approach that combines fitness, nutrition, and hormone education to help women lose weight and reshape their bodies.
As a menopause coach, this is how I help women lose weight over 40
My path was messy, but here I am - armed with empathy, knowledge and a formula that helps women of all ages lose unhealthy visceral (belly) fat - not to mention improve their diets and develop muscle! It simply works. Peri-menopausal, menopausal, post-menopausal. My clients are able to change their bodies, gain control of their lives and lose belly fat.
Here is some of what I focus on with my clients.
Getting fit over 40: what's your lowest hanging fruit?
I could never imagine my clients thriving with a one-size-fits all approach Every body is different, largely because of our hormones, so different considerations need to be taken into account. What someone should eat or not eat, how much someone should exercise or ease off, and approaches to managing stress all vary greatly from person to person.
I begin working with my individual clients by really getting to know their goals. Then I help them refine their goals and get crystal clear on what they're willing to do to get there. I also work with them to understand what it is that nudged them to approach me in the first place.
Excess body fat is a symptom. The cause is always unique for every woman.
I never assume the reason women gain belly fat is because they just sit around eating junk food. That's usually not the case.
By the time a woman approaches me for coaching or one of my programs, she's motivated...and I already know she's smart. Those are the two bricks in the foundation of any successful collaboration.
Lowest hanging fruits might look like:
- Working 50+ hours a week
- Kids absorbing the ability to prioritize healthier choices
- Choosing wine over workouts
- Opting for take out instead of taking the time to meal prep
- Fad diet cycling (metabolism messer)
- Peri-menopause and menopause
- Medications that have side effects
- Unrealized diet hangups
- Not sleeping enough
- Relationship stress
- Over-caffeinating throughout the day
This is a very short list of how my clients have gained belly fat. It's usually not by eating sleeves of cookies day-in and day-out.
A BIG part of what I do is explain how the most unsuspecting things in their lives shift hormones within their bodies that trigger the accumulation of belly fat.
A Coach Through Menopause: What Do Hormones Have to Do With It?
Hormones touch every part of our body every minute of our lives. Young, old and in between, we are in the passenger seat while our hormones are at the wheel. Trying to outsmart our hormones, or tinker with them - usually without know it - often results in weight gain.
As a menopause coach of women over 40, hormone discussion is a must. We have dozens of different hormones circulating throughout our body all day, every day. When one hormone is excessive or deficient, it throws off other hormones. A good example of this is how cortisol and insulin respond to one another.
If you are stressed, your stress hormone, cortisol, rises. When cortisol rises, it releases sugar from your liver into your blood stream. This naturally causes your blood sugar levels to rise. When your blood sugar levels rise, insulin rises to pull the blood sugars back down. Insulin doesn't put the blood sugars back into your liver, rather, insulin deposits the sugars into your fat cells. The result, even in the absence of eating anything, belly fat.
Most women over 40 who want to get fit know that their relationship to their hormones becomes more involved and complicated. Women's estrogen levels can vary wildly from person to person. Some women begin their peri-menopause phase in their mid-30s, and others in their late 40s. What happens until a woman completes menopause can be an unforgiving roller coaster of physical and emotional swings that leave many of us not knowing which way is up.
Menopause Misconceptions
Long gone is the notion that once a woman hits menopause, weight gain is expected and life will never be as pleasant as it used to be. That's BS as far as I'm concerned. We women have much more control over our bodies that we realize. It's just a matter of connecting the dots from hormones to diet to exercise to rest. Everything from that point on falls into place.
Our hormones are the receivers of signals we send our body. Women need to turn the dial and change the signal.
When women over 40 want to get fit, understanding what your hormones respond to is crucial for not just weight loss, but easing stress and anxiety, developing muscle as well as regulating appetite and cravings.
The Menopause Coach Talks Lifestyle
As a coach who helps women over 40 get fit by focusing on hormones, an essential part of their program is developing a fitness program for them that won't overwhelm their current life, but still stretch them so they change.
We've all seen the pictures of little old ladies too weak to do much of anything. Even though muscle loss can be expected, it's not as if we wake up one morning and poof...our muscle is gone. The average person loses 1 to 3% muscle mass every decade over the age of 40. This is true for men, too. Muscle loss is a slow, steady process that can be buffered by exercise.
No one needs a membership to a gym to stay fit, but a commitment to prioritizing the time to exercise is needed.
Even if weight loss or losing belly fat isn't a concern for my clients, fitness should still be a priority. With muscle comes other elements of fitness, including mobility and flexibility. All three contribute to greater overall health, improved metabolism and a significantly reduced risk of injury.
Moving in a way that keeps joints more open and muscle stronger needs to become of a lifestyle commitment.
