today we are talking about how to beat
menopausal belly fat hi for those of you
who don't know me it is so feet here and
today we are going to be talking about I
am actually going to be giving you my 5
top tips rock solid tips for beating
menopausal belly fat also known as
middle-aged spread or middle-age spread
now what I am not suggesting is that we
should all be walking around after the
age of fifty with washboard six-pack
stomachs that would be the exception to
the rule and honestly the only women
I've seen over the age of 50 who do have
that kind of a stomach or body builders
and they pump iron 6 to 7 days a week
and some of them even take steroids but
seriously the amount of work and dietary
control that's really not what I'm
talking about
so to get a little bit of softness all
over our body and in the belly area as
we get older particularly as a homers
diminish forty five-plus is normal and
natural and particularly those of us who
are mums I'm a mom and there's you know
there's a lot of loose skin and
imperfections I should say but I'm 55
I've been through menopause
I don't normally ever show my belly in
any kind of picture or video or anything
but I do just want to show you that this
is me I'm not gonna pull my shirt
completely up so I'm too embarrassed but
that's my sort of belly and I actually
prob I would say my belly my midsection
is in better shape now than it was 15
years ago and I put that down to the 5
tips that we are going to go into right
now and stay along to the end and watch
all of them because
they're all super duper important tip
number one get your hormones thyroid and
cortisol levels checked get that lab
work done now I'm not a doctor I am a
board certified nutritionist and because
I'm not a doctor I'm not going to do
obviously a deep dive into hormonal
health and thyroid etc however what I do
know from my own personal experience the
work that I've done on myself and
leading hundreds of clients through you
know health and wellness coaching is
that if you don't do these tests and
then start to you know take the right
action to balance your hormones to make
sure your thyroid is firing properly to
make sure your cortisol levels are
balanced that you're not in full adrenal
burnout etc then it is going to be an
uphill struggle for you in terms of this
menopausal belly fat it's really really
hard and I don't want it to be hard for
you and that's why I've put this tip
number one because you can do all the
others but you can make it hard if not
impossible for yourself if your hormones
are flatlined so if you have zero
estrogen zero testosterone zero
progesterone you just flatlined all of
those let's say you have a low firing
thyroid let's say your stress hormones
or cortisol and whatever are sort of out
of whack that burned out then one of the
symptoms of all or some of these being
out of balance is mid-section
weight gain particularly during and
after menopause I have done some videos
with dr. Rachel West who's a functional
doc
a link to one of them I think is already
out underneath this video make sure you
subscribe to my channel so that you can
get all of those because we she actually
does go into this topic and it's really
really interested interesting complex I
will say but very interesting so within
this tip number one find yourself a
functional or an integrative doctor if
you haven't got one already because they
will test you beyond the usual range
that a regular doctor might test you
they'll really want to help you to do a
deep dive into your hormones really
getting to the bottom of that some of
them also might be able to prescribe
bioidentical hormones for you and so
that that is my absolute number one tip
particularly for menopausal and actually
not just menopausal perimenopausal which
can start as early really as forty all
the way through to menopausal and post
menopausal tip number two what do you
eat so this is perhaps my favorite tip
for me and has had the biggest impact on
me and why I am sitting where I why at
the age of 55 I'm able on a public
YouTube video to stand up and actually
show you my belly because I think that
the way that I've been eating for the
last six or so years really has changed
my body shape and it's kind of slimmed
and sort of shrunk everything down
significantly so this is I eat a whole
food plant-based diet and I really
believe from my own personal experience
and guiding hundreds of clients through
this way of eating i 100% believe that
eating a whole food plant-based diet
that is low in oil and very low in added
sugars will significantly decrease your
mid-section
belly fat
if that hasn't started to sort of spread
there's a reason why they call it
middle-age spread if it hasn't even sort
of started for you or you're like yeah I
think this is on its way now is the time
to start I promise you that all these
trendy restrictive weight loss diets you
know like the keto and the Paleo and all
this you know it's quick weight loss but
you put all of that weight back on and
some it's not sustainable as a diet it's
not enjoyable switching to a whole food
as unprocessed foods way of eating is
100% the way to go now if you're
thinking okay Sophie I hear you I get
you but how am I going to get my protein
you know I like my meat I like my cheese
or whatever it is it sounds like way too
much hard work I can't cook whatever I
run these challenges throughout the year
if they are called at the 31 whole food
plant powered challenge and I take you
by the hand and for 31 days guide you
every step of the way and I make it
super easy doable fun and delicious so
if you're interested in one of those
challenges click the link below this
video there is one coming up there may
still be room on that and if you're
watching this video at another time and
there's not one immediately coming up
click on the link anyway so that you can
get on the list to be the first to know
but you know regardless of whether you
do one of my challenges and these
challenges will move the needle the
average weight loss on these challenges
is 9 pounds
and some people 2 to 3 pounds we've had
people lose 17 to 18 pounds and that's
within 31 days and although it's not
about weight loss per se it's about
getting healthy and you know having a
trimmer waist or a trimmer body actually
all over you know generally speaking is
is healthier too so tip number 3 this is
also something that I do and I think
this
contributes an awful lot to you know me
feeling kind of decent and I'm pretty
good about my own body right now is
resistance training now I am so sold on
this because probably before menopause I
my workouts were more yoga I'm a yoga
teacher so I would do quite a lot of
yoga and I do cardio so if I went to the
gym or hiking or whatever it would be
the elliptical there was a little bit
more of a focus I should say on on
cardio and yoga but then I started to
understand and really learn the how much
muscle mass we lose every year actually
starting at the age of 35 but then past
50 it dramatically declines it's called
sarcopenia you actually lose your
muscles and and and that's why you see
women who are a little bit older with
with with you know no muscle tone and
the truth is it's really hard to get
muscle tone after the age of sort of
4550 you have to work doubly hard what
you might have done when you were 30
you're gonna have to do double that now
in order to get strong muscles and so a
lot of women when they start working
with a trainer or go to a gym now mike i
don't want to bulk up you wrote bulk up
unless you're doing 2 to 3 hours of
heavy heavy weights and multiple reps
but mainly heavy weights you won't
that's a myth trust me you have to work
so hard just to maintain your muscle
mass but the reason why this is so
vitally important right now
while we're talking about this
midsection belly fat is that when you're
working all the muscles in your body and
you're building that muscle mass in your
legs and your glutes and your arms
you're turning your body into a
fat-burning machine while you sleep it's
as simple as that and you know an hour
on the treadmill ain't gonna do that
but once you start really getting this
muscle mass I promise you you're going
to crank up your
tabble ISM your fat burning' is
happening even while you're not working
those muscles out and it's not it your
muscle gain or your muscle strength
doesn't necessarily pertain to a certain
area so let's just say you were just
doing lower body your legs you're gonna
see it all over your body the weight
loss and the lean and another
misconception about this is that when we
start getting this belly fat this
middle-aged belly fat is spread we start
doing so much ab work we do endless
crunches and it really although we do
need to do our core work don't go too
crazy with that because the ab muscles
are harder to build I want you to really
focus on building the muscles in your
legs your glutes and your arms just as
much as your abs so I really hope you
get that point I feel so passionate
about it and just those three that I've
outlined so far I mean you've got to
stick around for the other two but just
those three that I've outlined so far
you're gonna see a massive massive
difference and I want this for you
because I don't want you to walk around
unhappy thinking oh I don't feel so good
about myself
neither do I want you to be hoodwinked
by all these silly diets that you see on
the magazine covers at the checkout
stand at the grocery store or them on
Facebook or whatever because they just
let's be sensible they just don't work I
don't want you to waste your money time
get your false hope up you know there's
just let's be sensible about it and
everything that I teach and if you go a
little bit more into the challenges and
stuff that I do you'll find that every
single thing that I teach is underpinned
by evidence-based science I'm a stickler
for it it's not my opinion
I'm gonna tell you what I do but it's
the opinion of multiple sources all put
together
that's called a meta-analysis of
evidence-based I let the science or all
available alright let's move on to tip
number four tip number four is to avoid
alcohol
and I know this ticker like oh wait a
minute I knew that one was coming but I
will say that even just having a couple
of glasses of Y of wine a night can
start building odd it is those extra
liquid calories and I'm actually going
to add into this point soda as well so
liquid sugar because you've got your
liquors liquid calories so whether it's
a glass of wine or whether it's a
cocktail or whether it's a diet well
let's just say a sugary soda actually
for now you're drinking your calories
and that is just you may as well be
mainlining calories the other thing
that's really important to me about the
alcohol is and everything that I teach
is for disease prevention every single
one of these tips the beauty of them are
not only are we talking about reducing
your menopausal belly fat but we are
also talking about disease prevention
and even two glasses of wine a day every
single day can i significantly increase
your risk for breast cancer as can
eating meat a dairy etc so stay with me
on this one and you know by all means
have the odd glass of wine but have it
as a treat the main thing with this
point is if you can try not to get into
the habit of every single night like oh
I'm gonna kick back now and have a
little bit of wine or ever switch it out
have a beautiful sparkling water or a
glass of kombucha or something else and
just save your your wine or your alcohol
for a very special treat and tip number
five is late night snacking and late
night eating and this is really really
important because I think a lot of us
who are stressed we get tired we're
exhausted by the end of the day so it's
a sort of double whammy because not only
are we tired and when we're tired our
resistance to smacking to staying out of
the fridge or the freezer or the area of
the pantry the
snacks that resistance diminishes
because you're tired so you might wake
up first thing in the morning and you're
all guns blazing and yeah we're gonna
help him and have my smoothie gotta have
my healthy snacks I'm gonna stay away
from all that but then come the
afternoon
there's the slump you know that's a
that's a tricky time as well but if
you're gonna have your little snack or
whatever I'd rather you have it
mid-afternoon than evening because any
time after dinner you just basically so
you have your dinner at 8 o'clock that's
it at the end of dinner when you finish
831 m kitchens closed cabinets closed
fridge and freezer is closed and this is
for two very important reasons one
because obviously if you go to bed and
you're with snacking you've got food
that's undigested and you're you're not
using up with activity those extra
calories and they can mount up you can
just though I'm just gonna have a handle
of nuts or a little bit of ice cream or
whatever it is but it slowly slowly
mounts up when you're sitting just
watching TV I love to sit and watch TV
in the snack but it's just something I
don't do because I know over time as I'm
getting a bit older over the age of 50 I
just know where that could go
so my sweet tooth is a saged by a-1
square or maybe two squares of a really
dark chocolate that completely satisfied
my mice tape my sweet my tip my taste
buds needing a little bit of sweet at
the end of the meal so I've had that
after dinner or maybe about 30 minutes
after dinner and I'm done and I'll
really savor that chocolate I'll often
have a dark sugar-free chocolate and
it'll be delicious and I'm absolutely
that's it but the other thing is is this
business of intermittent fasting which I
think there is a lot of value to it
intermittent fasting but it does you're
not to make a big deal out of it it's
simply just fast for 12 hours every
single night so if you finish your
dinner
or you'll finish your last mouthful I
should say at 8:30 you do not eat
anything until 8:30 the next more
if you finish eating at 7:00 then you
don't eat anything until 7:00 the next
morning and you give your body that
window that 12 hour window just to
recalibrate to reset so the or
metabolism can reset it really will help
you significantly so those are the five
tips please follow every single one of
them they are all extremely important
for taking care of this middle-aged
weight gain you know excuse me
slight allergies here it can happen to
men it can happen to women but I am
talking mainly about women here because
we're talking about menopause they it
can happen to all of us and the real key
is live it in the bud before it it runs
away with you because once you've got it
and it's really sort of spread it's a
little bit harder to get a handle on but
if you even if you are there and you're
like oh Sophie I'm just I'm beyond that
and it's gonna be so hard don't despair
please follow those five tips you want
to follow them for a little while give
me three months you know or six months
then get back to me come back to this
video you know connect with me on my
blog I'll put the link below or Facebook
or whatever I'm on everything and let me
know because this such exciting thing
and the thing that just makes my day is
when I've taken women either through you
know personal coaching and but mainly
through the challenges because all the
challenges we are all in a private
Facebook group and we really support
each other and we share all of our
triumphs and it makes me so happy to
read the comments in those groups
because women are just like oh my gosh
this is amazing I feel better I look
better than I've looked in 20 years and
that is of course what I want for you so
check out some of my other videos as
those other videos with the functional
doctor come up I'll just keep on linking
them underneath this video because I
think you'll find them really
interesting but the sure way that you
can go that you could not miss any
any of these is obviously to make sure
you subscribe and please leave your
comments I'm dying to hear what you have
to say your thoughts your struggles
about about this particular topic
because it is a big topic and it's
something that you know it affects all
of us and and you know and my sort of
hope and strength for you is that that
it doesn't have to so I'll see you next
time bye
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