I'd be really interested to know what you make of her ideas and whether you decide to try any of it.
I decided to give it a go because I read/heard some interviews where she described some issues I was having. Losing strength & muscle, not recovering well after working out, eating less and training more no longer leading to losing weight. Some of her solutions seem counter-intuitive. E.g. that restricting food may lead to gaining fat and losing muscle and that long mid effort exercise can lead to muscle loss (because menopausal women's bodies are particular prone to turning energy costly muscle into energy storing fat when under stress).
To put it briefly, she recommends training mainly super easy or very hard indeed e.g. Sprint interval training and heavy weight training and making sure you eat plenty of healthy and high protein food, especially immediately after exercise.
I've been trying to follow some of this advice for the last few weeks, it will be interesting to see if I notice a difference over the next few months.
I had stopped weight training a few years ago (so probably early peri) because I found I was feeling really depressed the next day. I don't know if it's HRT I'm using now or because I'm eating well straight after, but I've been really enjoying it and feeling better than before.
Although last week I got carried away with how much I thought I could deadlift and had to take a weeks rest with sore muscles 🤦🏽♀️ Lesson learned!
I've also started to incorporate some sprint intervals into my cycle rides home in the evening. I hate them! It really shows how unfit I am, I feel like I'm going to die and feel anxious for most of the day when I know I've got them planned.
Luckily it's over quite quickly, I guess I'll start enjoying them if/when I feel like I'm making progress.
So much of the advice we are given assumes we weren't active in the first place, or tells us that we should just do a bit less.
It's great to get a more positive message, aimed at already active women.
I've always been a bit of a pootler when it comes to outdoor activities, but this last year I've really lost confidence in being able to join my friends (same age but male) on bike rides as I'm slowing down SO much, getting aches and pains and feeling like I've done 100miles when I've only done 20. It feels like quite a loss, I used to really enjoy the headspace of a day spent cycling with friends.
I'm hoping I can get in a position to get back to the things I love next summer 🤞🏼🌞💪🏼