Today's topic
Today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I'm going to be talking about how to maintain a healthy routine at home and how it can help you with your menopause.
With everything that's going on at the moment, there are so many things that are out of our control. It can make us feel helpless. But these are things that we have to accept for the time being. However, there are so many things daily that we can control, especially if we follow a good routine.
So today, I'm going to look at how you can set up a good routine and how it can help with your menopause symptoms.
Why is a routine really helpful just now?
Well, it gives us a sense of stability and order when everything around us feels out of our control. It helps to instil in us the good habits that hopefully, we've been building up throughout our menopause to help us both physically and emotionally.
A good routine also helps us to avoid some of those bad habits that can have a negative effect on our symptoms. It allows our body to adjust better to new situations that are going on. And a good routine also helps us to identify any symptom triggers.
And for those of you that have been watching for a while, you know that, very often, it's something that you're eating, or doing, or thinking that tends to be a trigger for your menopause symptoms. And if you are in a good routine, then these negative things are less likely to have an impact.
These types of negative impacts can cause hot flushes, they can cause us the palpitations. They can also allow our nervous system to go even more out of control.
How can you create a good routine?
1. Drink a glass of water upon waking
When you get up, first thing, remember the water and set a timer during the day to keep reminding you of when to drink.
This is one of my biggest downfalls. I'm afraid when I'm at home, I just find it so much more difficult to drink water. It's so easy just to go into the kitchen and make a cup of tea rather than having healthy water. However, this is a really important one for your symptoms and also for your emotions too.
2. Stick to a bedtime routine
Go to bed and get up at the same time. When I first started working from home, I thought, "This is great. I don't have to get up so early. I can have a long lie. I can stay up later." But the problem was that I was still waking up at the same time every morning, as I usually do to go to work.
And I was wasting that time and I just thought, "This is really silly. I could be getting up at the same time, having extra time to do things before I started work at home." And it's made a huge difference because I either do my exercises or I can tidy the house so everything's neat for the rest of the day.
I can also do some meditation or mindfulness before I even sit down to work. And that, for me, has made a huge difference. So that's a really important one here.
Going to bed later and getting up later can affect our body clock, too. And, you may find that at the weekend, you have a lovely long lie and you just find that you don't seem to have as much energy during the day.
By going to bed later, then getting up later, it can make us sleep less well and that can have an impact the next day. We might find we're a bit more sluggish, a little bit moody, and maybe don't have quite so much energy.
3. Have set mealtimes
Have your meals at the same time you would have done had you been going out to work. This is really important because even if you're at home, you're still doing things.
I have to work. There may be those of you that are having to look after people who are not well or you have other things to do, too. So eating well is still really important, even though you might be at home the whole time.
4. Set times for your snacks
Again, I find if I'm nipping in for extra cups of tea, then it's really easy to snack at the wrong time as well. And you might find out that you're snacking two or three times in the morning, instead of just once. And again, especially if it's the wrong food, that's going to have an impact on your symptoms.
I've just decided I'm not going to bring any tempting foods into the house at all. So, I have my usual healthy snacks at the same time that I would have done had I been at work as well.
And don't forget breakfast, it's the most important meal of the day to help you go through the whole of the day, regardless of what you are doing.
5. Schedule some ‘me time’ each day
The other thing is to remember to have that "me" time, even though you may be at home, you might be thinking, "Well, I'm not doing quite as much as what I'm doing at work. I don't need to bother." Honestly, at this particular time with everything that's going on, we are more stressed, we are more anxious, we are worrying more.
So that 30-minute "me" time and just doing your mindfulness or just relaxing with some really nice music is going to be even more important than it usually is.
So, I hope you found these tips helpful. I'm trying to follow them myself as much as I can. And next time, I will be back to answering questions that I've had regularly from many of you that are going through the menopause.
Until then, take care and I'll see you next week.
