At forty, I considered myself pretty healthy. I remember talking to a friend about how I was already getting night-sweats. She looked at me and said, “Are you sure that’s normal?” When I went to my doctor and explained the changes I was experiencing, instead of getting answers I received: “Well, that’s what happens to women your age.” I didn’t explore it further.
Then other things happened. Inexplicable changes in my breast tissue. Multiple breast biopsies. Mood changes. Sleep changes. Through it all, I pushed through as many women do. I worked. I took care of my two children. I exercised. But something wasn’t right.
By late 2014, I began to crash and by January 2015, I plummeted. I mean REALLY plummeted. I had no energy. I couldn’t handle ANY stress. I was exhausted. I gained weight. My cycles were all out of whack. I knew in my heart something wasn’t right with me, with my body. Only this time I began to listen; AND began to seek answers.
Here’s the funny thing. Hormones can be really sensitive and small alterations in them can cause a cascade of problems in the body. As women, I think long ago we accepted that our hormones fluctuate, and we have to deal with the outcome. It just comes with being a woman, right? Unfortunately, that isn’t the whole story.
Yes. Age-related hormone changes happen. However, what you experience during these times can be impacted by what you eat, your lifestyle, stress, as well as the products you use in your home or on your body.
When I began my career as a nutritionist I did so because I wanted to understand how food impacted our bodies. As a trained integrative clinical nutritionist, I learned that and much more. I now work with clients with a variety of issues but working with women is one of my special focus areas. Why? Because women are caretakers. Whether it be of children, parents, siblings, spouses or even of coworkers, women tend to take care of others, often at the expense of themselves. Most of these women have also simply accepted the various hormone-related changes that happen to them without understanding what is happening, what to do about it, or how making proactive changes to potentially avoid the development of other conditions.
This is why I created this series with Jen. I want to expand women’s knowledge and empower them to take care of themselves and become their own, educated advocates for their health with their doctors.
Living within each of us is a goddess shaped by the beautiful aspects of being a woman. It is time to step into and celebrate that because life is too short to accept anything less; it is time to live vibrantly.
Cheers to your health and well-being!
Join Christina and Jen for a workshop or for the 6 part series in learning how to navigate the changes of life HERE!
Christina Brockett, MS, CNS, LDN
Integrative Clinical Nutritionist
301.874.2957
www.eiwellness.com