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!
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