The hard facts of aging really hit me when my mom was dying.
She lay in her nursing home bed, and I walked the halls thinking about my own last chapter. What was coming? What did I need? What did I value?
At the time, I valued being thin. I obsessed over calories, fitting my 10k runs into my long workdays, without realizing how this was impacting my hormones, and mental health.
Since childhood, I always felt I was not enough. Not thin enough. I also tried to be all things to all people in my life. It crashed my immune system, and reactivated Epstein-Barr virus in me
So I asked myself:
Did I want to carry this obsession around into my 50’s? How could I give energy to the people I lived, while saving some for myself.
How would I make sure that letting go of restricted living (in all ways) wouldn’t impact my future health?
At first, the answer was food freedom.
Food freedom and the non diet approach felt freeing.
I brought all kinds of foods back into my life (which was a relief, really) and didn’t think about calories—or carbs, sugar or fat.
Then I went for my routine bloodwork. My cholesterol and blood sugar was creeping up. Not only that, the knee pain I’d been battling was stage 4 osteoarthritis, and I had osteopenia. This was a shock.
I thought I did “all the right things” and then some. Was I wrong? And did I need to go back to a strict diet to course correct my health before these risk factors got worse?
I enrolled in holistic nutrition, and loved it.
I have always loved being in my kitchen. I had my own canning equipment in my early 20’s!
I also started to feel growing shame about my consumption of certain foods. I’d grown up in a European household and our comfort foods included perogies. Gluten, glyphosate, and sugar were all touted as evil.
I also had a moldy home, with lurking breast implant illness, and reactivated EBV.
I discovered the concept of bioenergetic testing, and with skepticism, ordered a test. The results were wild. I learned about herbal remedies, homeopathy and the impact of biotoxins on the body.
Still, the discussion of food restriction followed me in this type of wellness space. I knew this wasn’t the way for me. This is when it hit me:
I loved the non diet approach (and still do) but—and this may ruffle feathers—questioned if this was this for me?
How could I take all the things I had learned and share them in a way that helps you discover your own form of wellness.
This is how Making Space for Menopause was born.
Create your own rules of aging with me.
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