Thank you to the great group of ladies who attended our, “Let’s talk, Managing Menopause’ event at the Wellbeing Hub in Bridgeton last Thursday. We had a great evening covering topics related to Food and Mood with Kelly and Behaviour Change with me.

Kelly explained how daily stress results in cortisol production, forcing energy (glucose, sugars) to our muscles to help deal with that stress (our fight or flight mechanism). The cortisol also inhibits insulin production, which under normal circumstances is produced to help the glucose enter our body’s cells and provide us with regulated energy release. When the glucose doesn’t get to your cells (ie, because of the stressful situation), your body thinks it is starved and sends even more hunger signals to the brain. You can see how this might become a disordered cycle of cortisol production and insulin inhibition which can in turn lead to lot of unwanted health symptoms. Kelly also explained how we can swap ingredients in our diet for a much healthier outcome and in doing so, we never feel as though we are denying ourselves of food.

My presentation covered two main topics: decision making and comfort zones. We investigated how our decision making might change the outcome of a situation for the better and how much control we have over the decisions we make. We used a simple psychological tool to do this by asking ourselves, “if I made the opposite decision, what might have happened?” By pausing before making a decision (however significant) and reviewing the outcomes in this way, you can bring control back into your court. When we looked at our comfort zones, the ladies all agreed that being ‘comfortable’ was nice, but could lead to becoming stagnant or bored and that might lead to us feeling the need for change. When we considered being uncomfortable the vocabulary was sometimes less positive but it also opened up opportunities and could be seen as exciting. We looked at ways to assess our readiness for change and our confidence and competence levels within this.

The feedback we’ve received has been smashing, “I had never thought about the timing of eating. I had never thought about making myself ready for change or about grading my change ideas to see which are most important,” and, “Lots learned and definitely looking for more events like this.” We’ll gather more feedback and start planning our next event with your ideas, thoughts, concerns and questions leading the way.