Menopause Monday ~ Give Yourself Grace

Hello, ladies, and welcome to a brand-new week! I hope everyone had a fun, but relaxing weekend!

After all of the rain we received these past few days, I’m sure a lot of us are looking forward to some sunshine this week!

I’ve got my dark roast coffee poured, and I’m ready to start this beautiful day! Thanks so much for stopping by.

I have decided that every Monday it will be Menopause Monday here on the blog! Now, you might be thinking, well, that’s a fun way to kick off the week! LOL

However, I truly believe that it is important for us women to find a community and discuss the things that we are going through during this phase of life. Let’s face it, menopause can be a lonely time in a woman’s life.

Moving right along to the one thing that has been driving me crazy on this menopause trip…menopause weight gain struggles! These struggles are very real and extremely frustrating.

For me, it all started about four or five years ago. I suddenly noticed that my clothes weren’t fitting quite the same anymore. Some days they were more snug than other days. Now ladies, I knew this wasn’t all in my head because the scale was confirming what my clothes were already telling me!

Those pesky few pounds went up and down like a teeter-totter. Not to mention that they love hanging around my middle section. It actually became a chore to get my favorite jeans zipped, and if I could button them, well, that was like winning the lottery! Woo-hoo!

Now, I used to be hard on myself, especially with the fluctuating weight. Like I mentioned before, it drove me bonkers! Because no matter how much I adjusted my diet and exercise routine, that ugly scale wasn’t being nice to me.

So, I started thinking more positively about this phase of life that I am in. I’ll be completely honest, it wasn’t an easy thing to do.

Thankfully, I have finally reached a point in my life where I’m not going to feel bad about myself if that scale doesn’t move in the direction I want it to.

Of course, I’m going to continue to eat a healthy diet with my fruits and veggies and exercise, but, and this is a BIG BUT…

I’m going to eat that warm chocolate chip cookie that just came out of the oven! I’m going to have that occasional, refreshing margarita when I’m out to dinner with my husband! And when my body isn’t feeling a workout, I’ll nudge it a bit, and if it is telling me, “not today,” then I’ll take the day off from exercising!

All with ZERO guilt!

Because, as I’m sure you will all agree, going through menopause is hard enough. We are dealing with hot flashes, insomnia, night sweats, anxiety, and the list goes on and on. We don’t need to pile guilt on top of all of that!

Don’t you feel that our menopause journeys can be a little bit smoother if we are kind to ourselves?

So please, give yourself grace. And remember, ladies, we don’t have to have it all figured out. We’re simply taking this next chapter one day, and one cup of coffee, at a time!

Have a wonderful Monday!

~Chelle Noelle~