Start your day right with our five essential tips for a healthy menopause morning routine.
Menopause isn’t called “the big change” for nothing.
Your body really is going through something quite significant. The hormonal cycle that you’ve been living with for probably over thirty years is coming to an end, and your hormones are trying out something new.
Hot flashes, night sweats, mood changes, lethargy and so much more can be completely normal as you go through this phase of your life. However, that doesn’t mean that your way of life needs to come to a grinding halt.
The key is to make some positive changes to your routine that help your body to adapt as it changes, too.
And the best place to begin? When you wake up! Adopting a menopause morning routine that includes healthy habits will help you to get your day off to a great start.
Menopause-Friendly Morning Routine
Here are five things you can do to reduce your menopause symptoms.
1. Start with Hydration
Staying hydrated is always important, no matter what age or stage of life you’re in. But it becomes increasingly important when you’re experiencing heavy sweating due to hot flashes. When you wake up, you need to replenish the fluids you lost overnight as quickly as possible.
Your first glass or bottle of water for the day should be room temperature or even a bit warmer. Cold water on an empty stomach can put stress on your digestive system, which will put your body on high alert unnecessarily.
2. Don’t Skip Breakfast
We’ve all heard it—breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It becomes even more important when you’re going through menopause because your body takes strain as it changes and adapts to new conditions. You should make eating a healthy breakfast a priority so that you have the nutrients and energy you need to stay focused and energized.
It’s important to note that menopause puts your body into high-stress mode. You’re almost in constant fight-or-flight mode while going through this change. If you skip breakfast, your body will start to store energy and slow down your metabolism. This will lead to weight gain that you may find very difficult to shift.
Remember—what worked for you in your twenties is not going to work for you now. You have to change your nutrition habits to suit the period of your life that you’re in.
3. Have Your Caffeine a Little Later
It’s true, most of us feel like we need that caffeine kick as soon as we get up. However, this isn’t good for your body at any stage of your life.
Firstly, tea and coffee are dehydrating, so they’ll undo the good you did with habit number one. Secondly, caffeine will ramp up your nervous system, adding to the high stress that we talked about in point number two.
Caffeine is a stimulant that needs to be used correctly. When you have your cup of coffee or tea right when you get up, and before you eat a nutritious meal, you can trigger several of the negative side effects of menopause. Hot flashes can get worse—and so can your headaches. You may also find that you get hungrier or crave sugar because caffeine has impacted your blood sugar levels.
It’s best to wait until after 9 am to have that first cup of coffee or tea. You want to wake up properly, eat a healthy breakfast, have your water and then enjoy your caffeine. Making this part of your menopause morning routine will help your body to adjust, and you’ll still get to enjoy your coffee.
4. Prioritize Exercise
One of the major concerns facing women going through menopause is that their bodies stop producing estrogen. This hormone does a lot to help prevent heart disease and osteoporosis, which is why regular exercise is so important as you age. You need to counteract this change in your body with an energetic menopause morning routine.
Cardio such as running, walking, cycling and swimming are good for your heart and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. These activities will also help you to get rid of the dreaded brain fog that can settle in with menopause.
To combat the potential onset of osteoporosis, you want to focus on high-impact exercises. It might sound counterintuitive, but you need exercises where you jump around to stimulate the bones and keep them strong. Of course, you must always ask a healthcare professional before starting a new exercise regime, especially if you have a history of weak bones in your family.
It’s also important to focus on muscle strength. Weight training is great for keeping your muscles strong to support your joints. Yoga and Pilates are also excellent for muscular-skeletal alignment. All of these combined will help to keep your body working better for longer.
5. Get the Right Supplements
Supplements that directly target this stage of life are a huge part of the menopause market. There are so many supplement options available, and many of them will help you to combat the symptoms that you’re experiencing. Magnesium, for example, is a huge help with joint pain and headaches, as well as mood swings or anxiety, while B vitamins will help with energy levels and mental focus.
Remember, it’s always important to talk to your doctor or healthcare expert about what your body might need. You can also get blood tests done to check your various vitamin and mineral levels and work out what supplements can help you the most.
Don’t Let the Big Change Derail Your Life
Menopause can cause a major upheaval in a woman’s life. Your body will go through some radical changes over quite a long period of time, and it can be physically and emotionally draining.
However, that doesn’t mean that you have to radically change your lifestyle or hit the pause button on the way you live your life.
Start with a healthy menopause morning routine and then build on from there to optimize your well-being. You don’t have to stop doing what you love, but you may need to make some changes to ensure that you stay happy, healthy and energized as your body goes through a natural transformation.
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