Lately, it feels like my nervous system has been on overdrive. For years (quite literally), it feels like I’ve been in a constant state of fight-or-flight. It’s that low-grade, buzzing anxiety where your mind is always racing, your jaw is clenched, and you’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Combine that chronic stress with the uninvited arrival of perimenopause, and my body doesn’t feel like my own, anymore. Ugh.
Waking up at 3:00 AM and feeling disconnected with myself isn’t working anymore. I’m getting older, and I need to figure out how to reset to make sure my mind and body are getting the things they need right now. I want to feel at peace and comfortable in my own skin. Is that too much to ask?
Living in Flight or Fight
Living in a state of chronic stress does a number on your physical well-being. When you operate in fight-or-flight for too long, your cortisol levels spike out of control. For me, that looks like waking up before the alarm, mind already spinning with a running to-do list. It’s an exhausting way to start the day. This kind of survival mode doesn’t just drain your mental energy. It leaves your physical body feeling tight, uncomfortable, and utterly depleted. Recognizing that this isn’t just being busy, but is actually a nervous system overload is the first step in trying to slow things down.
Enter Perimenopause
As if that wasn’t enough, perimenopause (or maybe now it’s actual menopause) feels like someone rewired my body without any input from me. Some days, my joints feel stiffer, or I burst into hot flashes. I have days where I’m just fatigued, and days when I am so ravenously hungry my stomach hurts. Keeping up with these changes is exhausting and frustrating. The things I used to do to stay nourished and in shape are no longer effective, and I’m scrambling to figure out a new plan.
Navigating My Relationship With Food
When you want to shift things to feel healthier and better, the immediate instinct is often to look at nutrition. But for me, that comes with a very specific set of boundaries. I am the proud survivor of a serious eating disorder in my 20s, and I work hard to avoid the minefield of triggers that comes with scales and calorie counting. For me, those things can quickly spiral into something restrictive, rigid, and controlling, and it’s not a battle I want to fight again. Shifting to a healthier lifestyle right now cannot be about elimination or strict rules; it has to be about nourishment, intuition, and adding things that make me feel strong, rather than taking things away.
Redefining What “Healthy” Feels Like
Because the old metrics don’t fit this current season, I’m working on redefining what being healthy actually means to me right now. I want to feel good and strong and energized. I don’t want my runs to feel like slogs. I want to sleep and feel rested, even when I’m stressed. To be honest, I’m not loving this season, and I want to fix it so I can enjoy the adventures to come!
So Let’s Figure It Out
There’s no quick fix or magic pill that solves the intersection of a decades-long stress habit combined with my body’s hormonal shifts. It is a daily, sometimes hourly, practice of trial and error. Some days I get it right with a rest day and firm boundaries. Other days, the panicked wake up wins. But I’m willing to try to restructure things to get it right. My body depends on it.
How do you cope with major shifts in your body? What’s one great way you’ve learned to reset?
Link Up With Tuesday Topics
Welcome back to Tuesday Topics, as Jenny, from Runners Fly joins Jenn at Runs With Pugs to co-host this link-up! Please join us every week for a new topic! Write on our weekly prompt or choose your own topic! Make sure to add your post to the link up, link back to your hosts, and comment on the other shared posts!
Oh, this sounds tough, Jenn!
Juggling long-term stress plus hormonal shifts is not easy, but I like your approach in tackling this challenge: not just pushing through but analysing what changes are needed.
For me, regular exercise (running, walking, strength) and healthy nutrition are key. Nowadays I can also focus more on getting to bed early, which has helped a lot!
Oh, I feel your pain, Jenn! This time of life is such a whirlwind but it’s so important to get aware and take action for our health and wellbeing. Stress is a big one and can be so hard to figure out! Today it’s almost impossible to avoid stress unless you disconnect and hide away in a cabin in the forest.
I think you’re on the right track with nutrition, from what I’ve learned reading here and there, cutting calories or food groups and undereating makes everything worse because it spikes cortisol even more. Adding, adjusting and eating enough to make us strong certainly is the way to go.
I 100% thought I was entering menopause some year ago and until recently because my entire being was in chaos and there was always a next thing to worry (read catastrophize) about. But recently everything has settled down while I’m still not “officially” in menopause (yet) so I don’t know… and I’m 52!
I wish you all the best with figuring out what works for you. Take care of yourself!
I think it’s been a year since I had my last period (I would get to 364 days and then bam, she would show up), so I think I’m official. And that’s fine. Besides the hot flashes it wasn’t so awful. I just know I’m operating at high levels of stress and I need to get that under control for my own wellbeing.
Lots of hugs. These are the things they never told us about and we have to figure it out on our own.
I’m so sorry to hear you’re going through so much stress and anxiety, Jenn. One of the best things I did was go on HRT after hitting menopause. My sleep improved, I no longer needed prescription creams for dry cracked skin, my eyes were no longer painfully dry, and the constant hot flashes ended. I know it’s been a controversial topic since those incomplete studies that were done many years ago, but recent studies show how important maintaining hormone levels are as we age. Maybe talk to your doctor about it since you’re struggling?
I go back and forth about it. HRT has been great for some and awful for others. And then I kind of also want to go on a glp1, but again… what does that look like long term, and it’s really just for my vanity. And the expense! I’ve never been a great sleeper. My hot flashes have been ok. It’s just the soft, heavy feeling in my body that is really upsetting me. I work out and I cut out ice cream and some other things and nothing. which means I have to break down and start with more protein and get on the strength/resistance band wagon. If I’m working out and not eating my favorite food, I want at least a little something to show for it! And then of course, my social media algortithm has decided to show me stroke/fatty liver/diabetes content on loop and while my bloodwork is unconcerning, it starts to get in my head!
I hear you. I have a cortisol problem from having a stressful childhood. I’ve just started counting my menopause (hooray!) as I took my progesterone only pill late on 18 April and did not get the usual bleed 2 weeks later for once. Yay. I have learned a) prioritise sleep. I go to bed at 10pm when i possibly can as I wake early naturally. This has helped with afternoon slumps. And b) rest more, so no long runs back to back or hard gym sessions. I know you can get through this and flourish in what I call the White Trouser Years! (no sudden periods!)