Kiki and Holistic Nutritionist, Christine Fosberg, tackle the menopause and discuss how to support women over 45 going through hormonal changes with Meal Garden

Why you should listen to this episode...

Christine Fosberg is a Holistic Nutritionist and specialist in coaching women over 45 who are struggling with menopause, weight gain and are just feeling like they can’t exercise like they used to.

Hear how she has made it her mission to help them by creating a powerful nutrition and exercise program to help women to avoid the pitfalls of menopause.

If you or your clients are finding this area of nutrition and health difficult or you’re curious about how Christine has developed her program, this is a podcast you’re going to not want to miss!

Firstly, why is this area of nutrition and health so important?

Over 45 is when most women start to experience some menopausal symptoms and hormonal changes. These can be subtle, like finding it just that little bit harder to lose weight, irregular periods or feeling more lethargic.

Often we all don’t realise or think about these symptoms in relation to hormone changes. But, as we all know, these symptoms can have a profound physical impact on our health and can change how we live our lives day to day.

For Christine, it all started at 48.

“After being diagnosed with breast cancer I had to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment and all of a sudden this whole journey fast forwarded me into menopause a little earlier than I expected. I was experiencing extreme hot flashes, and when the treatment was over I found out they didn’t stop and I said ‘Oh, welcome, this is it’.”

— Christine Fosberg

So what led Christine to begin research into nutrition for hormonal change?

For Christine, menopause meant that nothing seemed to work anymore when it came to health and fitness. She tried to get back into her normal exercise routine but the post-workout exhaustion had her tired for the rest of the day. She tried to talk to her doctors but the information just wasn’t there.

So, she took matters into her own hands…

“I had to find out for myself and I realized that when your hormones are going all over the place, you really have to change your workout so it keeps working. It took me a lot of time to find out more about this.”

As a nutritionist, her first step was to start with her diet, to find the best foods to support her hormones. There are so many foods that support hormone balancing but there are also foods that do the opposite. So finding the balance for her and her body was key.

How did Christine develop her over 45 hormonal program...

She focussed on two things: diet and exercise.

Firstly she developed a program to introduce hormone balancing foods into your diet.

Secondly, she spoke to many different trainers, especially trainers that specialized in exercise for people who have been under a lot of stress. Just like external stress, hectic family life, menopause is a form of stress for your body.

Working with one trainer in particular they collaborated to build exercise for stress relief into her program. Christine also worked with a yoga teacher who is specialized in hormone balancing yoga and menopause postures like yoga postures for example a breathing yoga pranayama breathing that supports hormone balance.

So, it’s all about stress management?

For Christine, yes, menopause is a form of stress response that your body is trying to deal with so dealing with stress management is a really big part of managing the symptoms.

We’re all dying to know, what are Christine’s favorite hormonal balancing foods for this demographic

The first is flax seeds because they’re very hormone balancing. During menopause estrogen really declines, so we should be looking for foods that contain phytoestrogens which are plant nutrients that mimic estrogen in the body. These include chia seeds, soybeans, tofu, tempeh, sesame seeds, wheat, berries, oats, barley, dried beans to name a few.

We can use these foods to naturally even up the lack of estrogen and balance out our hormones.

How can you introduce these into your or your client’s diet…

The hardest part is not necessarily introducing these new foods but restricting certain other foods. Avoiding foods is a big learning curve and adjustment for everyone.

As we all know, we are all different and our experience of menopause will be different, so tailoring the program to individual needs is so important.

Most of the time building a recipe selection is really useful. Plus, a great tip is to plan ahead so you have your meals planned out and you don’t run into a situation where you have to grab something that is going to have a negative impact on your body.

Finally, what is the one thing that Christine wished she knew at the start of her journey…

“I wish I had realized earlier the importance of knowing the impact of any form of stress that affects the body. This included getting obsessed with what I ate and when, as this can cause huge amounts of stress that can cause more harm than the actual foods that you’re eating or not eating.”

Connecting with Christine

You can connect with Christine on Facebook, Instagram, or her website. She’d love for you to get in touch.

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