“Whatever you are doing in this decade is going to help you in your next”
Thoughts on how we age
Coach Rosie
Hi ladies
I must talk about the menopause and its effects at least once every shift! Or every time I meet up with a group of Curvettes!!
There’s absolutely no doubt that our bodies change when we go through the menopause or as we near it. It’s not an “illness”. It just happens to us all and some ladies sail through it and some ladies really suffer mentally and physically.
There are days when I jump out of bed and could clean the house from top to bottom and there are other days when I think everything aches and I cannot get going. Yes this is ME! Tigger! BUT the difference since I’ve been doing Curves regularly for 4 ½ years is massive.
I never realised that we start losing our muscle from 30 + and by the time we’re menopausal it’s around 7%. The only way we can help this is by strength training which develops the lean muscle, and this helps our joints. All our joints, elbows, knees, hips. Sometimes even my ankles seemed to ache! But not now. As you know I walk miles most days and I dance twice a week too.
Many ladies hitting the menopause have finished work, or their children have left home around the same time. Our lives change. We change. We can feel like we are losing our identities.
After quite a busy career for a long time I suddenly found myself thinking I’d no purpose in my day and I felt quite lost. This is when it’s so good to join somewhere like Curves and get the support. Get back into a routine and set a structure for your week. Our hormones are all over the place and we can doubt ourselves and lose our confidence. How can you go from being this strong, career minded woman and suddenly feel so anxious and worried about stupid little things that become HUGE in our minds! AND we can be so HARD on ourselves. I’ve heard ladies absolutely rip themselves apart with criticisms about themselves and their bodies, which is really sad.
It’s all natural. The number of ladies who have said to me “That’s so right!!!” when I say how we feel. We feel we are going mad! But we’re not. Our bodies are changing and rather than give in to it, embrace it! Embrace the things that make you feel insecure. One little innocent comment from our partner or anyone can tip us over the edge, and we can hate parts of our bodies because of this. We produce the hormone cortisol which makes us feel sad when we’re down and anxious, but hand on heart, when ladies come in and I can see they are not “feeling it” …. none of them go out feeling worse! The happy hormone has done its trick which is produced when you exercise.
I did a “practice sale” with a long-time member, and she said her X Factor was “to give her body something back after everything it has gone through”. I felt really emotional writing this down. Think what our bodies have gone through over the years? Let’s give it something back. Let’s be kinder to ourselves.
And don’t get me started on the ……. “I can’t do this …. I’m in my 60s!!!!”
My answer will always be …. “Whatever you are doing in this decade is going to help you in your next”.
Because you are going to make it to your next decade.
But you will be stronger,
and you’ll love yourself more!
Coach Rosie with members Jane and Stacey - looking and feeling fabulous across the decades