2018 peri-menopause started. None of the regular issues, but oestrogen dropping like a brick caused me to be hungry 24/7. Even while having dinner, right after dinner, STARVING! Not eating caused bloodsugar dips and trembling muscles and serious brainfog as the body was withdrawing glucose from these places to compensate.
In other words: BIG problem. I had turned into a zombie, couldn't do anything for lack of energy and being so hungry...

That's when the snack-hand began to wake up. The hunger thing got sorted by birthcontrol, but by the time that scored effect the snake hand had gotten out of hand, hihi.

I put on weight. Not a helluva lot, but more than I wanted, yet at the same time I didn't give a chit. For the first time in my life I didn't care about how I looked in that sense. It made me realise I'd always cared because of what I thought others would think. After-effect of years of bullying at elementary school.
So however odd it may sound, it was incredibly liberating to me to simply not give a bleep.
But then last week I decided I was fed up with it. I want to lose weight and get back to where I was before this started in 2018.
I wasn't using the snack-hand so much anymore, but I'd gotten into the habit of eating the wrong stuff just because I HATE cooking, hihi.
Meaning ready to eat salads which always have pasta in 'em, ready to eat meals for the microwave etc. which always have potatoes or mashed potatoes. If there's anything that makes you fat it's potato.

So now it's back to sober simple dinners, nothing elaborate as I hate cooking, but none of the stuff that has pasta or potato. Just greens and beef or chicken or fish.
Not a strict diet, I don't believe in diets.
Just healthier meals, drinking lots of water, moving more.

I hope it's going to work, it's how I always kept my weight nicely steady. I could eat everything as long as I didn't overdo it. The occasional bacon slab, fries & mayonnaise, cake, no problem as long as you don't eat it often.

Anywho... fingers crossed!

Good luck!

Thank you!

maybe using fitbit
watch might help calorie ways etc.

only thing not sure how accurate the watch is

I understand where you are coming from Crystal, and I had the same issues. Like you I don’t believe in diets or counting calories etc as a balanced diet and exercise should keep us on the right path. I have a sweet tooth so I started keeping in lots of fresh fruit and low calorie yoghurt so I could get my ‘sweet’ fix, I also keep in lots of salad, which is obviously great at this time of year. I have managed to lose the few pounds I put on during lockdown, and that has made me feel more motivated and determined to carry on. I have also swapped to skimmed milk and decaf coffee and tea.

Good luck

Thank you!
We'll both get there :)

I had to get bathed and dressed and decided to weigh myself.
I've lost just over 1 kg!
I must say that I started my new way of eating & snacking about a week & a half ago. That's why I was curious to see if it was paying off. I thought so, I could feel & see it.

One reason for beginning to eat the wrong type of snacks at night (potato chips kind) had to do with my teeth. I daren't really eat nuts anymore like I did before. I love nuts and they're no way near as fattening nor bad as the potato-chips type of thing. But I daren't. The cost of my dental work the since 2018 had sky-rocketed. Yet I need something in the evening to chew on, hihi.
Now I'm back to cashews as these are a li'l softer.
Another thing I realised... you don't keep eating nuts like crazy whereas with the potato chips type you easily keep scoffing, and it's really bad for you.

Oh well... now for the rest. I don't expect that to go as fast but I'm off to a nice start!

Well done Crystal!

Keep up the good work

Thank you!

One thing I have learned from being diabetic is that nuts work
for both hypoglycemia (low) and hyperglycemia (high).
So have at them.
They are high in fat but will tell you it is the good kind.
Diverticulitis is when the nuts build up in the colon...in a bad way ;-)

I've been about 165lbs for the last 10 years.
I've fluctuated a bit but mostly my weight stays the same.
I do drop from time to time to about 158lbs but it always comes back.
The most I have ever weighed is 178# but that was before I was disabled.
Years ago, after a bout of dysentery I dropped to 145lbs but when I got rid of it, it climbed back to normal.

Oh, I didn't know about the blood-sugar thing!
Thanks for the info!

Generally speaking my weight is pretty stable but I'm very sensitive to changes in oestrogen level. The same gland in the brain that regulates hormones -like oestrogen- also regulates the hunger / satiated mechanism. I believe the pituitary gland.
Not entirely sure how it works, but whenever my oestrogen levels change a lot, my hunger / satiating mechanism flies of the chart.
I had that during both pregnancies although I didn't know this back then.

Anyhow, it is something that many women experience around/during menopause times, but it's one of these things that very few know as a menopausal symptom.
And I'm one of the lucky ones to have it too.
Not complaining though, as I haven't any of the other symptoms that are more known. (knock on wood).

But that kind of thing does affect your weight for sure!

i hope you have watched "forks over Knives" and "eating you alive " both movies (?) on and available on Tubi .... its all about food we put in our bodies . Dont let the title fool ya .....

Hi crystal ., I eat tonnes of wholegrain pasta and complex /fibrous carbs ... I think it is the secret to plump hydrated skin lol , improved fibre and hydration . Carbs definitely love H20. I do balance that with a very active lifestyle . I avoid the high fat , high protein fads (that many swear by).. rarely eat takeaways , fried or processed foods . Personally , I rely more on portion size as a control vs expenditure . Intermittent fasting has become popular as it doesn’t restrict food groups .. but rather food intake ( for example 2 non consecutive days in a week a much lower amount of food is consumed ). Many find it a flexible , achievable way to maintain weight goals ., with minimal impact on lifestyle (have never tried it myself ) .

Hi Blondey!
To be honest I'm not very keen on pasta, certainly not wholegrain, hihi. I ate pasta when it was in a ready-to-eat salad. The salmon one had wholegrain penne. I never buy it as I cannot stomach penne esp not wholegrain.
I do occasionally eat spaghetti but of late I buy spelt spaghetti. I only eat spelt bread too, have done for years.
As for the rest it's pretty regular except that I rarely eat potato and pork.
Eating less a few days a week is not handy when you tend to get extremely hungry and have bloodsugar dips due to lower oestrogen levels, and it makes me very cranky too.

I think everyone has their own way of either losing weight or keeping it stable.
And like you, I prefer to have a healthier life-style that you can maintain forever than some quick fix thing.

I'll see. I have a fave pair of shorts that is my gauge, haha. Right now I cannot wear it. Once I can wear it comfortably again, I'm happy!

Well, my losing weight took an odd turn, hihi.
After taking a certain supplement for a few days, my entire system got out of whack. As in seriously out of whack.
And I put on weight, got bloated like you wouldn't believe. And I was hungry again, my big problem with peri-menopause.
I also had to burb, it felt like my food and drink couldn't go down, and I had one instance of bad reflux.

Then I had to see my osteopath for my neck, but I've learnt to tell her everything that's off. And good thing I did.
Turned out my stomach acid levels are off-kilter, likely too low.
This causes the bloating of the belly, reflux, having this gnawing insatiable hunger etc. It's got more shocking side-effects so a good thing to address.

So she worked on that for the most part, not so much my neck.
It still has to sort itself out, but... my weight has gone down again!
In the meantime working with Chinese energy medicine to support my stomach, oesophagus sphincter etc. But I may have to go back for a 2nd session.

In any case, VERY VERY happy my bloated stomach has gone down again, as well as my weight!

When I gave up dairy, the reflux went away ;-)
It was so hard, I am a milk girl ;-(

I like milk as well! And it's what I drink in the morning so I don't start with coffee. And then there's cheese... What to do if you cannot eat that? Hihi.

It should be possible to sort with osteopathy (in my case). I never had reflux, it got upset by that supplement.
Nevertheless, I started with drinking 1/2 - 1 tbs apple vinegar cider (with the mother) in water before breakfast.
Usually the problem is low stomach acid which has the sphincter become lazy. If you add a li'l acid it gets triggered again to do its job: close off the oesophagus to stop acid rising up. When acid levels are too low it doesn't get the signal to do that anymore.
The health issues that can be result of low acid levels are quite shocking. I had NO idea!!

The upside of that drink is that ACV is good if you want to lose weight as well.

Fingers crossed!!

the older you get the harder it is to lose weight , because by that time , your body and the fat , have become real goid friends!! Just saying!!! good luck anyway!!