How are you feeling?
Before you automatically reply, ‘fine’, be honest. How are you really feeling?
Are you feeling a bit… off? Not been running or to bootcamp in…well… a while? Keep thinking about joining a yoga class but never actually getting round to booking a session? Feeling knackered and can’t remember when you last had a good night’s sleep? Know what you need to do to improve your health and fitness and be more positive about perimenopause but don’t have the motivation to do it?
I get it! I qualified as a nutrition and lifestyle coach with the Institute of Health Sciences precisely so I could help women like you – and me.
You know how passionate I am about running?
Well, I believe nutrition and lifestyle coaching goes hand in hand with movement for midlife women…
Personalised coaching for perimenopause
In addition to being a run leader and mentor, I now offer nutrition and lifestyle coaching for those in and around menopause, helping them to understand and manage their symptoms with exercise and lifestyle change.
My approach is about taking simple – but effective – steps to support your health and wellbeing and working with the demands of your lifestyle to make the most of where you are. It’s about making small changes that can add up to a big difference in how you’re feeling.
These can include strategies and recommendations to support weight management, sleep, and optimal energy, helping you to develop an exercise routine you enjoy and will stick with. We can look at strategies for managing hot flashes, techniques for dealing with stress and confidence-stripping anxiety… and any other areas that you personally wish to work on.
Good health in and around menopause – that’s IAM Health.
So how can I help you make your perimenopause easier?
Perimenopause is a transition, a time of change, and a time to re-evaluate your habits, your lifestyle, and your nutrition – after all, we now live up to a third of our lives after menopause!
By understanding your lifestyle, your symptoms, and your dietary and lifestyle patterns, I can support you to identify and take action to improve your wellbeing, to understand your symptoms and help you to stabilise some of the fluctuation in your hormones which may be making things worse.
Perhaps you’ve tried to do this already on your own and given up after a few weeks because it was just too hard? This time will be different because you’ll have accountability and support. As your coach, I will help you to make steady progress towards the goals we create in collaboration.
So how can I help?
Some of the ways include -
Strategies and recommendations for nutrition
to support weight management, sleep, and optimal energy
Guidance and accountability around developing activity/exercise routines
Suggestions for improved sleep
Strategies for managing hot flashes
Mindfulness techniques for stress and anxiety
Guidance around supplements
For example, if weight gain is a problem for you, I can look at what is happening in your life overall. For example, struggling with menopause symptoms such as tiredness may be causing you to turn to comfort food. Knowing that, I can point you to lifestyle changes and evidence-backed natural solutions that may help. In addition, I may ask you further questions to find out how the physical symptoms of perimenopause may be affecting your emotional health.
Remember, you don’t just to have to ‘put up with it’ – there is so much that you can do to your diet and lifestyle to help improve your quality of life in and around menopause.
And as a nutrition and lifestyle coach, it’s my role to support you by providing knowledge, accountability, and motivation.
How will we work together?
When it comes to health, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. And this is true in and around menopause as well. What worked for your mum, or is working for your best friend, may not be what works for you.
When it comes to health, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. And this is true in and around menopause as well. What worked for your mum, or is working for your best friend, may not be what works for you.
This is a highly personalised approach, specifically designed around your unique needs, finding solutions by working on your nutrition, movement, mindset, stress management, relaxation, and sleep. The recommendations that I will provide are based on you, your goals, your current health, and your lifestyle.
Why? Because research shows that personalised health recommendations are not only more likely to be more effective, they’re also more likely to provide sustainable healthy changes over time.
You’ll decide how you want to be supported throughout your six-week programme, too. You can combine face-to-face meetings, email, text, phone, Zoom…. Whatever suits you best. Most of my clients opt for an hourly meeting or phone call.
We’ll start by looking at your health history. I’ll ask you to keep a detailed food diary so I can take an in-depth look at your diet and look for red-flags and deficiencies and run through a series of detailed questions so I can see how your lifestyle may be affecting the way you’re feeling. We’ll then work together to integrate positive steps towards achieving optimal perimenopausal nutrition and health into your life.
We’ll delve deep so you’ll learn why your hormones are out of sync, why you may be gaining weight around your tummy, are feeling low in energy, experiencing hot flushes, low mood, anxiety, joint and muscle pain, brain fog…and quite possibly haven’t had a good night’s sleep in months! I’ll then show you what you can do to help minimise and cope better with these.
From there, the follow-up calls will discuss the strategies and recommendations made on the previous calls and continue to build on these to support you in feeling your best. Alongside these, you’ll be supported with a host of resources to support your journey.
In each session we will cover and discuss a new area of concern to you and with this in mind, work together to build an action plan to relieve your personal pressure points in this area.
Rather than making unrealistic sweeping goals that are impossible to reach and maintain, we will look to achieve small changes that you can implement, one at a time, to achieve change. We can work together to set goals and strategies and build on these week-on-week to help you to believe in yourself again and plan with purpose for the next phase of your life.
Why should I consider it?
- Health history breakdown
- Food diary analysis
- Suggested meals and personalised supplement suggestions
- Exercise advice & plans
- Weekly calls or meetings, plus text support
- A host of resources to support your journey
- Weekly goals and strategies
- Controlling your symptoms – instead of your symptoms controlling you
Sounds just what I need - how do I get started?
First, let’s schedule a call to see if we are a good fit. Health coaching is a highly personal approach, and it’s important that we click! We’ll have a brief chat to work out where you are now, and where you want to be.
Perimenopause is a transition, a time of change, and a time to re-evaluate your habits, your lifestyle, and your nutrition – after all, we now live up to a third of our lives after menopause! As your coach I’ll help you to feel excited and in control of your health for the years ahead.
