A Magical Life: Health, Wealth, and Weight Loss

How To Harness Your Hormones with Alison Bladh

March 15, 2023 Alison Bladh Season 1 Episode 174
A Magical Life: Health, Wealth, and Weight Loss
How To Harness Your Hormones with Alison Bladh
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Show Notes Transcript

Today's guest is Alison Bladh, registered Nutritional Therapist who is passionate about empowering women globally to reclaim their health during midlife and the menopause transition (perimenopause, menopause, post menopause and beyond) through realistic evidence-based nutrition, mindset and lifestyle modifications. Alison is the founder of the Menopause 5 Step Breakthrough Pathway.

In this episode I will visit with Alison about how hormones change during menopause and perimenopause, tips for regulating those changes, and avoiding excess weight gain during the transition.  There are over 40 symptoms that women can experience during menopause, but Alison helps develop a plan to combat those symptoms.

Alison has a library of free ebooks and meal plans available on her website: https://www.alisonbladh.com/resources

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Magic Barclay:

Welcome back to Your Magical Life. I'm your host, magic Barclay, and today I am joined by Alison Blood and Alison's going to talk about how you can harness your hormones. Now a little bit about Alison. She's a registered nutritional therapist and beauty therapist living in a worlds of Sweden after falling for the charms of a Viking man. Having worked in the health and wellness industry. 30 years specializing in menopausal women's health. She now runs her own online clinic helping women worldwide to manage the negative symptoms of menopause. Welcome, Alison.

Alison Bladh:

Oh, thank you so much, Margie. It's lovely to be here. Thank you for having me on your podcast.

Magic Barclay:

Thanks for coming. Now, come on. Tell us about this Viking. Man. We all wanna meet a Viking. Yes.

Alison Bladh:

Well, what can I say? I was, uh, I was living, I'm originally from, uh, London, from in the uk and I was out one evening with my girlfriends. And, you know, along comes this, uh, wonderful Viking man. And, uh, the, the rest is history really. They, they, they can be very charming,

Magic Barclay:

charming, and from what I've seen, quite rugged and, and alpha male types.

Alison Bladh:

Exactly. Yeah. But very, very manly. The manly rugged and also the charm. It's, it's quite a dangerous combination.

Magic Barclay:

dangerous or fascinating. There's both sides of the coin there. Yeah.

Alison Bladh:

Yeah. So anyway, that's what took me over to, um, To Sweden. So I live, uh, live in Sweden now, which is, is a wonderful country to, to live in. It's, it's so, there's so much nature and, you know, it's got a quite a, a small population, so I'm very spoiled, really living, you know, near a forest and the lake and, you know, it's, it's a very nice way of life in Sweden. Lots of outdoor life and, and, and exercise and fitness, so it's great.

Magic Barclay:

Sounds fantastic. Now you help ladies with menopause. And as we know from a health perspective and something that might seem like a shock to the listeners, but menopause is supposed to be just the switch from your brain over reac access to your brain adrenal. With no symptoms, but many people find, you know, hot flashes or night sweats, irritability, weight gain. And so you help people manage all of those negative symptoms.

Alison Bladh:

Yes, it's exactly as you said, magic. can be a very difficult time for women. We all have a different experience of, of perimenopause and menopause and there can be up to 40 different symptoms that you can experience. So what I do is work very individually with my clients and. And really, you know, I work with a functional medicine model, uh, where you really look at the individual person and it, it's a bit like peeling the layers back off an onion, you know, really finding out what is going on. So, you know, then we can put a health plan together to make you feel better, uh, because that, you know, it is very individual and especially perimenopause, which is the phase before we actually go into menopause. Hormones are, are really fluctuating. You know, you, you, you can still get pregnant, you're still fertile, but your hormone levels are, are fluctuated. So one month they can be up, they can be down. It's a, it's a, you know, it's a bit like a rollercoaster ride. And this can affect you in many ways, you know, anxiety and weight gain and hot flashes and, and it can be really, really tough for women. So I really helped. To get the balance back in your life with the, the help of nutrition and also lifestyle is key, and also mindset. You know, how you approach this period in, in your life because, You know, it's, it's a totally natural thing. It's, it's not a disease. And, and every single woman will go through menopause. So it should really, and I liked it should be a time in your life that you embrace and take it as a positive, aspect in your life. Cuz I, you know, as we get older, as women, we're very wise and, you know, we're, well, I think we're amazing. So it should be a, a wonderful. Time in your life, cuz once you've come into menopause, and then when you're in post-menopause, you know you can live for another 30 years. so that should be a fantastic time in your life. It shouldn't, I think there's a, there, there tends to be a negativity around menopause. We don't really talk about it as much as we should. so I really try to help my clients, you know, embrace it in a, in a positive way and, and help them feel.

Magic Barclay:

I love that, and I completely agree, and guys, if you are listening, please don't switch off because guess what you have. And pores, yes, you can go through fluctuations and things as well in hormones. So maybe you'll hear some nuggets that you can apply to yourself. In our coming episodes now, Alison, I always ask the same three questions of my guests, and everybody's answers are vastly different, which I find completely wonderful and amazing. So here's your first one. What can your expertise do to accelerate health, not just the physical, but emotional and spiritual?

Alison Bladh:

My expertise is a nutritional therapist. I can really get down to what is going on in your biochemistry. So what is happening in the body, through testing, functional testing, and really getting down to the root cause of why you are feeling like you're feeling. and then once we know what's going on, Coming up with a plan and using that to make you feel better with nutrition, you know, all the wonderful minerals and vitamins and, you know, it's, it's amazing how you can make somebody feel better with the power of, of nutrition and also not just with what you should be eating, what, what you shouldn't be eating. Cuz there's, there's many things that we eat that aren't maybe so good for us. Um, And also mindset, you know, really helping people to understand why they feel like they feel and giving them the support that they need. Cuz it's all very well, you know, telling somebody or explaining somebody what they should be doing, but actually doing it is a different matter, isn't it? So really giving them support and the encouragement and the motivation to, to get back their sparkle as I.

Magic Barclay:

Totally. And as you said, we're quite bombarded with things that we shouldn't be eating or drinking or having in our home or putting on our skin. And this can all obviously accelerate the menopausal symptoms, but we'll talk more about that a little bit later. What are your top three tips to creating wealth, be it personal, financial, or emotional wealth?

Alison Bladh:

I think the first thing I have to say is, positivity. Embrace life with a positive attitude and, and try and be as happy as you can because that has a knock on effect. If you are positive, it, your whole life is better and you attract positivity. believe in. Believe that you can do what you want to do, cuz I truly do believe if you really, really want to do something, that you can do it. And also, the third thing would be to take a little bit of risk to push yourself out of your comfort zone. I'm, I'm a great believer in, pushing yourself to do things that maybe feel a little bit uncomfortable, but when you've achieved that and when you've done. Then you kind of come up to another level. So you, you push yourself. Each time you do something that feels uncomfortable, you enable yourself to go further and become a better person and prosper.

Magic Barclay:

Totally. And I'm glad that you brought those up because once we get to menopause, menopause society can often make us feel like, well, that's it. You're no longer childbearing and so therefore you're no longer of as much value. But in fact, we're of more value because we've seen more. We've learned more. Our wisdom has intensified, and now we don't have to worry about nurturing life and giving life. Be more concerned about the bigger picture. Do you find that?

Alison Bladh:

Mm, totally. I totally agree with you. I mean, women as, as we get older, we are, we are real carers, aren't we? We, we look after everybody, but. As we get older, you know, we are so wide and we have so much knowledge, you know, we should be passing that on. We should be proud of, of what we, can do. It shouldn't be thought of as, okay, you're no longer, can bear a child. You're no longer fertile. You know, it shouldn't be thought of in that negative way, and I think it's, it's very interest. Some research that I read, you know, in different parts of the world where they have more of a community, live, more as a tribe, a community that women there are really respected when they come into, menopause. You know, when they become older and they're the wise people. You know that they're the people that lead everybody. and also another interesting point with the research was that in these communities where they treat the women like that, they don't suffer from as many symptoms. So it's very interesting when, when they embraced as being, why is it needed in the community? They don't have as many symptoms as we have in, in the, you know, the western world.

Magic Barclay:

That's actually quite fascinating.

Alison Bladh:

Mm, nice. It's interesting.

Magic Barclay:

Wow. Now we do talk about weight loss here. And many people, especially women, do struggle with their weight and obviously come menopause the weight. Gravitate to maybe a lower region, maybe a lower abdomen where you kind of didn't have issues before. So have you ever battled your weight, and what was your trigger to losing it if you did, and what can you offer the listeners to keep control of their weight, keep it in check, but also to fight stress because we know that's a key issue in weight gain, especially in

Alison Bladh:

yeah. In, in answer to your first question there, I've never had a weight problem. however, I've always been very, active. I've always been very a aware of, you know, what I should eat, in, in a healthy way. so I, I've never really had a weight issue, but I'm, I'm actually perimenopause myself. and I can start to feel exactly what you said. That the something's shifting. You know, you, you go more from, like a pear shape when your hormones start fluctuating, you go into menopause to more, more of an apple shape. So the body fat distribution changes. So it doesn't necessarily mean you weigh more, but you, your body shape changes. So I definitely have, have seen that in, in myself. but yeah, I see that in a lot of my clients that when they come up to this, time period in their lives that they do, have, weight issues, weight management becomes more difficult. And that really is due to many different factors. we still don't. Totally really understand why it is that women during perimenopause and menopause put weight on. the studies that have been done, indicate that menopause isn't a factor in that, it's a bit really. We, we need to do more research. But what we do know is that there, there's. Factors that come into play. And it's also the aging process. You know, you can't blame everything on, on menopause. Some areas for example, like stress is, is a huge, huge area with, weight gain. and even during the, the aging process, you know, you lose muscle mass. A muscle is, crucial. We really need that. muscle uses a lot of energy. so we really want to keep that muscle. But as we get, older, we do naturally u lose muscle mass. We are less active as we get older as well. And then, you know, on top of that, you've got the metabolic changes, you've got the hormonal changes. So there's a lot of different things going on. You know, like blood sugar management, you know, thyroid health, all the hormone imbalances, gut health. So there's many different areas that come into play regarding, weight manage. So what some areas that I would recommend that people you know, think about is two things that I say to my clients when it comes to weight management is manage your stress and manage your blood sugar because they are two key things that will really help you manage your weight and lose weight. If, that's what you are you are aiming to do. Cuz stress is, So detrimental to, to weight loss. It, you know, the, the hormone, the stress hormones that we produce. One, one in particular called cortisol. Is actually a fat storing hormone. So if you are constantly, you know, suffering from chronic stress, you will find it very difficult to lose weight. So I think when it comes to weight management, really looking at that piece first I say to my clients, really think of doing. stress management first before you even really start thinking about anything else, because that will have a knock on effect and you will feel so much better. And blood sugar, you know, really thinking about what you eat, you know, trying to avoid all the refined carbohydrates and, and eating, you know, whole foods, whole nutritious foods. I like to say eating real foods in balance. The refined foods really just go into your system and shoot your blood sugar up so quickly. The, the knock on effect of that and the hormone response to that, again, if you're constantly eating very, uh, sugary, refined foods, you know your body will start storing fat. So it it, it's difficult to lose weight when, when you are, you are eating it in, you know, in that way.

Magic Barclay:

Well said. Now, Alison, people can find you at your website, which is www.alisonglad.com, so that's. A L I S O N B L A D h.com. You're also on Twitter at Pink Tea Room. Instagram at Allison Blad Facebook, Allison Blad Nutrition. Now, we do love freebies here. So what can you offer the listeners and where can they find.

Alison Bladh:

I have on my website, there's a resources page where there's lots of wonderful free, eBooks and meal plans, meal suggestions, from how to boost your menopausal skin to get back your sparkle, so if you go onto the resources page, you can choose which, one you want to download there, or you can download them all, but there's some lovely. Mediterranean styled meal plans, et cetera. So that's probably the best place to go to.

Magic Barclay:

Fantastic. Now, listeners, this was your episode in 1 74 in 1 75. Alison will rejoin us to explain just how you can get back your sparkle. Thank you for your time. Go forth and create your magical life.