This holiday I read The Menopause Reset and Eat Like A Girl. I even subscribed to 3 months of CarbManager and joined the author’s facebook group. I appreciate the work she has done, but I think there are more loving ways.
Ever since reading The Menopause Brain this summer I knew I wanted to shift my diet. And, watching some videos from The Glucose Goddess got me concerned that my Medical Medium approach was maybe doing me a disservice because of the low fat, smoothies and juice. The Glucose Goddess says:
…in addition to “dress your carbs (in fat)” to slow the glucose spikes. She also sells supplements to slow the spike, if you’re not going to follow her recommendation, to have sweets only after a meal.
Back to Eat Like A Girl, all of this, including my issues with sleep goes back to hormones, insulin, and how when insulin is high, melatonin is low, and the drop in hormone availability, and thus the importance, to use and support the hormones we have well, during perimenopause.
I agree with the author, that most of us got a terrible education about our hormonal cycle in school, and I am grateful for the information she provides:
(everything I share is for educational purposes only).
Now how does this look if we don’t want to starve ourselves?
First, make sure there is at least 2hrs between the last thing you eat and when you go to bed. So your insulin can drop and your melatonin can rise and stay high long enough to prevent waking at 12am (gallbladder) or 3am (transition from liver to lung time). Best not to wake before 5am (large intestine time).
Second, for any perimenopausal symptom, soaking your feet in hot RestoreChi water can be very supportive.
Now, for each of the phases in the images above:
Power Phase 1 is about supporting estrogen. We might experience symptoms like hot flashes, bone pain, musculoskeletal injury, frequent urination, or weight gain in this time if estrogen is too low. RestoreChi tracks that can help with this include: hot flash (often needs to be followed by chill release), belt meridian, osteoporosis, tennis elbow, spleen dampness (for muscle), and kidney enhance (for hormones and bone), as well as bladder/uterus chill for frequent urination. Flax and tofu are good things to add to your diet during this window to support estrogen production.
The Manifestation phase (again in the images above) is about metabolizing hormones, this is the job of the small intestines. The book shares that many people will fast until there is no more white stuff on their tongue, suggesting that the bad bacteria has died off, and then they load up on pre/probiotics to feed and support the good bacteria. Another way to say this is “supporting the gut microbiome”. RestoreChi has heart conditioning (heart is paired with small intestine), small/large intestine, tongue wide with white stuff, and belt meridian which might be helpful.
The small intestine should also be boosted to play its role in soaking up excess sugar for people with diabetes, but mainstream doesn’t understand this yet. Hemp, chia, probiotic foods, and garlic are aparently helpful in this phase.
Power Phase 2 is for detoxing out all the hormones that increased in order to trigger ovulation, my guess is this is to prevent storing of hormones thaf we can’t detox as fat, and to prevent a buildup of estrogen metabolites, that result in breast and ovarian cancers. Phlegmatic is the RestoreChi track for detox, and there is also liver detox, kidney enhance, low back clear the bladder meridian (to aid with the exit pathways), and blood sugar balance (not to mention heart conditioning or small/large intestine to help absorb excess sugar). Cinnamon, nut (as opposed to oat) milk, and MCT oil are supposed to help minimize sugar spikes (and thus floods of insulin).
Finally, the Nurture Phase is why the author built this model to Fast Like A Girl, because progesterone needs glucose, and women tend to lose their period (and fertility) when they try to fast like men. Lack of progesterone may show signs of insomnia, belly fat, breast tenderness, hunger, headaches, and anxiety. RestoreChi tracks that can help include breast hyperplasia, belt meridian, and maybe blood sugar balance. Key foods to help with the production of progesterone include: quinoa, lentils, chickpeas or other legumes.
There are also Esogetic Medicine treatments for perimenopause symptoms, but they tend to assume that the person is in the endocrine insufficient bucket (meaning they are not embodied due to shock and they may not know why they are here). This is not the case for me. Regardless of the bucket you find yourself in, here are their food recommendations, based on the hormone, you may be trying to boost:
As for weight loss in general, the person who gave this talk: https://themystictree.ca/event/integrating-energy-medicine-for-effective-weight-loss-with-angela-borgeest/
… shared that it’s not just what we eat and how much we exercise (in fact, a lack of desire or soreness when we try to exercise, is a sign that our spleen could use suppprt), we should also look at our ability to digest and absorb.
The spleen is responsible for making and recycling blood cells and eliminating what is no longer needed. It is very susceptible to dampness, especially if we eat cold foods. The spleen dampness RestoreChi track helps with this.
As mentioned, the phlegmatic track is for detox. You may have trouble getting going the morning after playing this track all night, but once you get moving, you’re generally fine. This is the detox effect.
Heart conditioning and small/large intestines tracks may help with absorption.
The central governing RestoreChi track increases energy (and maybe worth trying instead of eating because you’re tired or bored).
The belt medrian (though it’s intended to regulate the menstrual cycle) helps reduce water retention, especially around the middle.
Liver gallbladder pancreas enhance is for firming, by activating (I might try this for my pelvic floor). The front line service worker is also a good massage, as the low back clear the bladder meridian is good to help things exit
Reconnect 5 organs is to make sure the major TCM organ pairs support each other in the right direction. If the connection is correct, you should feel alive and vibrant. If it’s not correct, Fire and Water cannot cycle above and below the waist, resulting in accumulation and preventing absorption. I’ll definitely try this for my husband, who thinks his belly weight is just due to stress, sitting a lot, and lack of time for exercise and eating right.
While movement and healthy food must still be good, we can also support, regardless of whether we are doing everything we should. We can love and care for our bodies. Not hate it for doing everything it can to keep us alive. Many of us have a story of why we struggle with food or our weight. I hope this helps spark some ideas for you, without making you think you need to do anything to hurt yourself because of how you are.
We all have to do what feels right for us. I’m no expert, just sharing what I know. If you’re going to fast, Medical Medium, Glucose Goddess, and RestoreChi all agree that it will take a toll on your adrenals/kidneys. The RestoreChi tracks to help with that are kidney enhance and water fire balance.
All this said, even if there are ways to undo the bad things we do to our body, it’s still much better not to do the bad things at all, at least not all the time. We have to balance between enjoying life and taking care of our self, and define whether enjoyment means eating something we shouldn’t or feeling good because we didn’t.
My lips are dry above the middle of my upper lip, this diagram suggests a small intestine issue:
I’ve been trying to heal, which includes eating pre/probiotics foods recommended by Eat Like A Girl. But, fermented foods, like kefir and unpasteurized sauerkraut are no-nos for the Medical Medium (because they can cause inflammation), as are vinegar (recommended by the Glucose Goddess), eggs (the complete protein), and all soy products (even if they are organic). Nothing is a problem for RestoreChi. RestoreChi water cards can even, in theory, reverse GMO, clear out chemicals, and rebalance produce that will cause acid reflux, because they is far too yin from growing in depleted soil. There are also tracks to reverse the effects of eat these things, like stomach weak, stomach ye, or stomach fire.
Conflicting opinions is only a fraction of why knowing what to eat is so hard, and why it’s important not to control what our kids eat, but to let them discover what makes them feel good vs sick. Because kids who were never allowed to find their limits are the ones who end up in hospital, when they finally start to drink…
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