Sickness and lockdowns, facemasks and faceshields, quarantine and social distancing, vaccines and boosters…hell of years 2020-2021 for the whole world! This have brought a not-so-pleasant impact on menopausal women, and why is that? The answer is simply “weight gain”. Somemenopause women who are still working in the office before, were placed in a work-from-home set up. As a result, weight gain. Because those commutations and steps they take on weekdays going in and out of the office serve as their treadmill. Those work bags along with papers and folders and a bag of groceries at times (before going home) serve as their dumbbells.This pandemic has put a stop on the routine.Working at home setup has “froze” them to chair, sitting up 8 hours a day on their laptop, foods are just hand-reachedaway to consume anytime while working. To make things practically easy (and worse), online orders of foods have become enjoyable as compared to cooking under the heat of the kitchen. Once these savory, flavorful, delicious foods get into the tastebuds, you definitely can’t help to try for more.As a consequence, less body movement and accumulation of body fats. Postmenopausal retirees who have a regular Zumba and aerobic dance exercise have unexpectedly ended because of lockdowns and prohibitions to go out in which senior citizens were the first in the list.Generally, outdoor exercise is best achieved with companions. Most gyms, clubhouse and recreationswere in temporary closure until further notice. All these have been deprived from us by the pandemic on COVID19. Staying at home made us safe and comfortable but made us also anxious and gain extra pounds as well. Recalling inside the pandemic years, I realize the 3 things that cause the struggle nowand I identified it myself. I’m sure some of you can relate.
1. Laziness:
- we sometimes set the alarm clock to a certain time for some exercise- a walk, biking, dance, yoga, you name it. Only to find out that we’re still on our beds because nothing can compare to the feelings of the comfort that these soft things give us that it becomes hard to drag ourselves out of bed. Then hearing ourselves saying, “I’ll start tomorrow”. This goes on and on until the weight we have to lose adds up.
2. Overly entertained
- lockdowns have brought us to find entertainment and events inside our homes. Movies, film series, subscription to streaming services for TV, online games, social media, etc.Entertainment comes with great food – pizza, cheeseburgers, muffins and other unhealthy foods. Our bodies are brilliant! They only get the calories theyneed; the rest is stored as fats.
3. Mental fatigue
- relative to the overly entertained, it was only our brain that gets the exercise, making it alert mentally. For when it gets exhausted, we tend to sleep. Physical body is left out.
Now, the whole world starts reopening its doors. Establishments are fully operational. Gyms are resuming again and so are dance exercises. That means going backto gyms, Zumba, aerobic, yoga class and other sports classes in the struggle to get fit again. I, for one, is no exception. I went to the gym, have my weight and surprisingly, I am overweight for about 8 kilos according to my BMI (Body Mass Index). My only clamor is just 1 kilo is hard to shed off, how much more is 8 kilos! A real struggle! But then, nobody can help us but ourselves. Yes, we are in our 50s but its never too late to start removing the weight. As for me, just the other day I started to-
1.Set a goal
- waking up in the morning at 5am and start walking for 30 minutes. Then, a 15 minutes ab and arm workout. So far, I’m coping. My goal is to do that for a week. Then let’s see what level would that bring for the succeeding week.You can plan your own exercise schedule.
- The struggle: Continuity
2. Stick to the plan
- Dream body does not happen overnight. Sometimes we tend to change our work out plan for reason of boredom or doing the same routine. With the modern technology nowadays, no sweat losing weight is just one click away andhappens to speed up and see the results immediately.Stick to achieving your dream body in ways that your body moves, muscle function and heart works. For example, if it’s dance exercise, stick with it and wait to see the results.
- The struggle: Consistency
3. Healthy eating is healthy living
- make your own meal in which you’ll enjoy eating without compromising your health. Remember that once we enter pre menopause or perimenopause to ages of about 30s to 40s, our metabolism decreases its functions. Foods that are low-cholesterol, high in fiber and protein, nutrient-dense, with calcium and anti-oxidants like oats, eggs, berries, lean meat, fish and all green leafy vegetables. These foods help us to manage our fitness. Of course, we crave for ‘’other kinds of foods” and it’s always safe to have a little of everything.
The struggle: Sticking to healthy meal
In life, we work hard to achieve what we longed for – career, family, assets, a happy life. We ought to overlook the most important framework for us to achieve these things – our bodies. Would that be possible if we don’t have a healthy body? I don’t think so. For us, menopause women, after providing for everyone for a long time, it’s time to set another lifelong journey- Fitness.
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It may be one of the fears of every woman as she turns 50like me. Looking back to those younger years of energies - building my life, my dreams, my own family