Hot and Healthy – Thriving Through Menopause One Pound at a Time – Day 19 (2/29/2024)

Naturally, the day I had planned did not work out. My friend D is in town, and she moves quick. If you want a chance to see her, you clear the day and just become available. D has a high profile job and lives in a state far, far away, where I met her, and I get so few chances to see my friend, I unclogged my day and waited to hang out. 

During my wait, which was not long, I managed to fit in a quick morning workout. Short but sweet. 

You can watch it here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g4z0gFlfpA

After D showed up, we just hung out. No work, no phones, just chilling and it was really nice. It’s been a long time since either of us has had time to just “kill off a day”, but we did. 

We trucked down to Waikiki for lunch. I had a wedge salad with a champagne vinaigrette, she had loaded nachos. Then we walked to the beach for a few, checked out the surfers, and then just came back to the house. 

D and I got to chatting about menopause off and on during our visit, as we are close in age, and I remembered one of the first blogs I wrote talking about the Menopause Banshee from “Big Mouth” the cartoon show on Netflix. (Full disclosure, I had read about this from someone else). Season 3, Episode 5, titled “Florida”. While this episode does not focus on menopause, the episode has a lot going on, it does show Menopause (and Florida) in a funny, yet true, way that will make you laugh. The rest of the episode, if you have ever been to Florida as I have, is so spot on, you will double over in laughter. 

So we watched it and laughed and chatted about menopause, which D has not entered yet. She is still perimenopause. And we just talked. 

D was taking off that night for another state, so I dropped her off and we said, “see yah later”. 

Desperately needing my sea salt, dark chocolate squares and yogurt, I went to Whole Foods and then came home.

Tomorrow is weigh in day. I feel like I have lost some weight this time compared to last time, but as I said yesterday, I am starving myself a little, which is NOT healthy, I know it, and am going to do better. The protein shakes fill me up and I don’t like that “over-full” feeling like I had when I was a bulimic. I can’t go there again. 

They say booze can be a peer pressure thing, well, so can food. When people see me eat, they are always offering me more food. This has nothing to do with D, she did not pressure me to eat, others do though, and have my entire life. My husband does it. Does your spouse? Parent? Child? 

You tell your spouse/parent/child, whomever you live or spend a ton of time with, that you are trying to get healthy through this stage in your life. That healthy eating will mellow your symptoms, help you sleep, help your body in general. 

What do you get?  

Offers of Oreos or ice cream. Questions of “Have you had enough?” “Are you sure you ate enough?” “Would you like some more?” (for the 3rd time). 

NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO 

Just stop. It’s bad enough that you still eat that crap, I want no part of it so please do not offer it to me. Yes, I buy that crap for my husband because he still wants it and eats it. He doesn’t have menopause weight gain or high cholesterol. Fine. Just fine. But don’t offer me any. I can watch you eat it but it’s the offer. That is the pressure because when you say “no”, they never leave “no” alone. 

They come back with “Are you sure?”, “I’m going to eat the last one...”, “I’ll split it with you.” 

Peer pressure. 

And we need the resolve, the determination, the strength... to just say no. 

How hard is it to say No when you are changing the way you eat? When your food habits are evolving? When you no longer want poisons flowing through your body? 

It’s fucking hard.  

I can try and make a potato chip at home, and they are delicious, but in no way are they as tasty as the ones in a bag. Same with ice cream, French fries. Whatever preservatives and additives they add, make the food taste yummy, I won’t deny it. But those foods are NOT healthy. They are processed foods. When I do buy these products, I do my best to find a healthy alternative, even for hubby, and he has learned to semi-like healthy. 

I doubt I could ever switch out the Oreos. 

Let’s see what tomorrow brings...weigh in day. I ‘m hoping for decent results.

You can find all the videos I workout to on my YouTube Channel.