Good morning. Day 10.
If this worked in your thirties and stopped working, I want you to hear something clearly.
Nothing is wrong with your discipline.
Two things changed, and neither one is about willpower.
Your estradiol started declining. Estradiol supports insulin sensitivity, so as it falls through perimenopause, the same meal produces a bigger insulin response than it did at 35. Nothing about the food changed. The response to it did.
Estrogen also decides where fat gets stored. Higher levels favor hips and thighs. As levels fall, storage shifts toward the middle.
Same woman. Same food. New address.
Now put that next to what we covered on Day 1. Cortisol from a life that got busier, and less estradiol buffering the insulin response. Two forces pushing in the same direction at the same time.
That is the whole picture, and almost nobody explains it to women. They get told to eat less and move more, which is the exact strategy that stopped working, and then they get told they are not trying hard enough.
There is one more piece. Muscle is where glucose goes when insulin is doing its job properly. Every year past 40 that muscle matters more, which is why the movement in this challenge is about building something, not burning something.
What to do with this: nothing today except understand it. If perimenopause is part of your picture and you want to know what your hormones are actually doing, that is a conversation with your provider, and it is worth having with labs in hand rather than from memory. We test, we do not guess.
Today's action:
Think back. When did your middle first change? What else was happening that year? Write it down. That timeline tells you more than any number on a scale.
See you tomorrow.
Yours in health,
Dr. Shallanda Hunter, PharmD, MBA, CFNMP
Hunter's Holistic Health
huntersholistichealth.com
For educational purposes only. Not medical advice. Nothing here is a diagnosis or a recommendation about hormone therapy. Always consult your licensed healthcare provider.