by Lisa LeStrange

Don’t believe that headline? Well, it’s true!

Let me start by telling you a little about myself. I am a 55 year old breast cancer survivor and have been in full blown menopause for four years. I also have Hashimoto’s disease, which means my thyroid pretty much doesn’t function.

After measuring thousands of people’s body composition, using state of the art technology, for corporations, hospitals and at my own studio for over the 20 years as fitness professional, I have seen the same results over and over again. About 98% of the people who follow these diets had high body fat and very low muscle mass.

Stress comes in many forms. Environmental, toxic burden, internal and interpersonal stressor, physical including exercise and diet. To limit the negative effects of stress we all should practice, stress lowering strategies on a daily basis.

Exercise only to where your body can adapt to the stress of your exercise session.

According to a study by the Department of Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, “the physical stress of overtraining may cause the hormones produced in the adrenal glands to become depleted.”

“This adrenal insufficiency refers to the inability of the adrenal glands to produce a normal quantity of hormones, which leads to a reduced ability in the individual to cope with stress.

When we are in perimenopause or menopause, our bodies become more stress-reactive. This is one of the major reasons why we can’t lose the belly fat. Being more stress- reactive means our reaction to stress is quicker and more extreme, and our recovery is slower.

Part I: My Story
“It is rare to find that premenopausal women who does not have some degree of adrenal dysfunction” *
Oh my god, what happened to me?
This is the story of a personal trainer who lost her “body” during the change of life.

Part II: The Solution
In Part I, I shared my story as a woman and a fitness professional going through the change of life. In this piece, I want to explain more what happens to our bodies and how we can make this a positive transition.

First, here is a look into how weight gain happens during the shift into menopause.

Yesterday, I received a phone call from a past client who called to tell me I was right.

Honestly, it is really nice to get phone call like this once in a while! 

She got a Groupon and decided to try a local Extreme Fitness bootcamp.

The first blog is the hardest! I have been told by many of my clients that I should blog, because both women and men need to hear what I have to say about health and fitness. Over the years, I have taken all that I have learned through my experience and education and implemented it with my clients with great success.

I was curious to see what information was on the web for “women over 50 and exercise.”
Specifically, I was looking to see if there was any article that I could relate to. I consider myself a healthy 50+ women who is trying to stay as fit as possible and who wants to increase the number of my healthy years, not years of diseases.