Menopause kicked my ass. Here is what it taught me about my health.

Menopause well and truly kicked my ass. There really is no more elegant way for me to say it. For a while, I did not feel like myself. My energy was different, my body was changing, and things that had always worked for me suddenly were not working anymore. I found that incredibly frustrating because I have always been someone who likes to get on with things. When something needs doing, I do it, and when life gets busy, I keep moving. So naturally, my first response was to do what I had always done and push through.

Except this time, pushing through was not working.

Eventually, I realised that I needed to stop fighting what was happening and start listening to what my body was trying to tell me. One of the best things I did was find a great female doctor who genuinely listened to me. That was a game changer. Instead of simply accepting that feeling ordinary was part of getting older, we looked at what was actually happening. We talked about my hormones, how I was feeling and what had changed, and together we started making some adjustments.

At the same time, I started putting more focus back on the foundations of my health. My nutrition, movement, sleep, stress, hormones and the way I was looking after myself all needed some attention. There was not one magical answer that suddenly made everything better. It was a combination of small changes and, perhaps more importantly, the realisation that I needed to start making my own health a priority again.

My definition of being healthy has also changed through this experience. I am no longer interested in trying to do everything perfectly. I am much more interested in understanding my body and giving it what it needs. I have become more conscious of my nutrition, particularly whether I am eating enough protein and getting the nutrients my body needs. I use Cronometer to help me understand what I am actually eating rather than relying on what I think I am eating. For me, it is not about restriction. It is about awareness.

I have also become more intentional about movement, sleep, managing stress and creating simple daily habits that help me feel better. Some days I get it right and some days I absolutely do not. That is real life. What matters to me now is that I keep coming back to the things that make me feel good and support the way I want to live.

One thing I know for sure is that our health really is the foundation for everything else we want to do. We can spend so much of our lives looking after everyone and everything around us. We look after our families, our work, our businesses, our homes and the never ending list of things that need our attention, and it is incredibly easy to put ourselves somewhere near the bottom of that list.

Ultimately, though, only we can take responsibility for looking after ourselves. I have learned that choosing my health is not selfish. Looking after myself gives me the energy and capacity to show up for the people and things that matter most to me. Sometimes choosing your health also means being willing to admit that what used to work for you simply does not work anymore.

I am certainly not writing this from the other side with everything beautifully figured out. I am still learning, adjusting and working things out as I go. I am still very much a work in progress, but I feel like I am getting myself back on track and, more importantly, back to feeling like me.

That is what flourishing looks like to me now. It is not having the perfect body, eating perfectly every day or following an impossible wellness routine. It is paying attention to how I feel, asking for help when I need it and being willing to make changes when something is no longer working. It is nourishing my body, moving it, understanding it and continuing to choose my health.

That is also why I wanted to create this space. I want to share what I am learning, what I personally use, the habits that have helped me and the things I am discovering along the way. I am not sharing because I have all the answers. I am sharing because I know there are a lot of women who have looked at themselves at some point and thought, 'I just do not feel like me anymore.'

If that is where you are right now, perhaps the answer is not another drastic change or trying to overhaul your entire life. Perhaps the starting point is simply paying attention to what your body has been trying to tell you and choosing one small thing you can do to start looking after yourself again.

For me, that is where things started to change.

Ali V.