Your Menopause Toolkit

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Here at ‘In Her Own Skin,’ we love sharing with you things we find that actually work, because unfortunately there is a lot of junk out there and products that promise results but don't deliver. Some of us stumble across these things after a glass or two of wine while googling ‘menopause relief,’ ‘where did my brain go?,’ or ‘are my bones crumbling with every year?’

There are key things we can do to help our bodies weather the menopausal storm BUT these three things ask that we do something we women are not so good at – that we prioritize our bodies and ourselves. I know. Yikes. Here a few of our favorites from our menopause toolkit.

1.     SLEEP. As we age, most of us experience changes in our sleep patterns. Sleep can become fractured. Insomnia becomes more common. Night sweats are a huge disrupter of sleep. Hormonal fluctuations, particularly in estrogen and progesterone, play a significant role in these disruptions. Add to that, sleep is protective against many things including cognitive decline which only makes us more stressed that we aren't sleeping. We’re not fans of over-the-counter sleep aids as they knock us out, but then we spend the next day walking through a fog.

We are excited to see companies making effective sleep cocktails – a mix of evidence-based supplements that support sleep. We heard friends of ‘In Her Own Skin’ talking about youtheory’s Sleep Powder. We were skeptical – until we tried it. We mixed it with a bit of water and took it about a half hour before bed. What we noticed about 15 minutes later was a deep feeling of being relaxed, a lovely yet foreign sensation since our brain usually prefers to launch into a hyper alert spin-worry cycle when it’s time to sleep. This time, we peacefully drifted off to sleep, slept through the night and woke up rested. Umm, I think we need to buy stock in this stuff.

We keep this on auto order. It's a necessity in the menopause toolkit

Youtheory Sleep Powder: https://amzn.to/3WdX46t

 The key to youtheory is its use of magnesium which studies have shown is beneficial for a multitude of functions in our bodies, including sleep. Magnesium glycinate is best known for promoting sleep. Youtheory uses 3,000 milligrams of l-glycine and it is the game changer ingredient. But it also has other good stuff including L-Tryptophan, the stuff in turkey that makes us drowsy after Thanksgiving dinner, along with L-Theanine (promotes relaxation and helps boost brain levels of GABA and other brain calming chemicals), and L-5-HTP(raises serotonin levels in the brain which can help sleep). What’s interesting is the sleep powder only includes a microdose of melatonin, .3 milligrams -- far lower than any melatonin supplement we've seen. The makers of youtheory say .3 milligrams replicates the amount normally produced by our bodies each night. Makes sense. It's not a drug, not addictive, and we are snoozing away. Say no more.

Single youtheory sleep powder packets are great for travel:https://amzn.to/3RX2L66

 

2.     STEPS. Obviously you can do whatever form of cardio you want, but sometimes we make things more complicated than necessary. We think we need to drive to the gym. We think we have to make a class at a certain time. How about just putting on your sneakers and walking out the door every day?  Or on your lunch break. Or after dinner. Research has shown that as little as a ten minute walk after dinner can lower blood sugar levels, which tend to increase as we get older.

Just 30 minutes of walking a day will increase your cardiovascular fitness, strengthen your bones, reduce excess body fat and boost muscle power and endurance.

3.     STRENGTH. The evidence is clear. You have to strength train. We lose 3-8% of our muscle mass every decade starting at 30! After 50, that number jumps to 5-10% loss per decade. Strength training helps counter that loss. It also builds bone and we need it desperately because women lose up to 10% of their bone mass in just the first five years after menopause and continues after that. One study even showed that menopausal women who strength trained had fewer inflammatory chemicals linked with heart disease. One easy way to incorporate strength training into your busy schedule is to wear a weighted vest while you walk, a great twofer. We wrote in detail about the benefits of weighted vests here.

Here are some we like.

This compact vest which is cuter and safer for our backs than our backpack with dumbbells rattling around: https://amzn.to/3x588c0

We like the variety of colors and the reflective strips

This vest starts at 6 lbs and goes up to 30. https://amzn.to/3Vq2xql

we really love the iPhone/wallet/air buds pocket

 These are growing in popularity -- all the strength training benefit without the bulk. https://amzn.to/3yCPbhg

you can wear this at the grocery store or running errands and get that strength training benefit