Back in January 2017 when the menopause was getting the better of me and I couldn’t figure out what to do for the best, I took stock of everything I knew so far and made a decision to find solutions that worked for me.

One light bulb moment was identifying strength training was a style of exercise that was likely to help me in many ways. I opted for the extreme measure of aerial fitness – think Cirque du Soleil and you’ll get the gist. Please note, NOT aerial yoga – two every different things.

Restoring my fitness from a few years prior was a slow hard process, but I stuck with it. I made the effort and the adjustments needed and was consistent with everything I could possibly think of. It was actually quite mentally draining, so in some respects I’m not sure if my anxiety levels and concerns of failure may have hampered the progress at times.

In addition I also opted for some personal training. This was something I never thought I’d do. How useless do you have to be, to not be able to motivate your own self to move around, just a little … but I couldn’t.

I started keeping a food diary for Chris my PT to give me some tips. I actually knew already that there would be very little to comment on, except the wine. At the same time I tracked my weight and mood. I’m not sure why, but I just added comments each day as to grumpy, cross, OK, not too bad, tired, sad – and so the list went on.

These notes turned out o be a bit of an eye opener and an indicator to my hormone fluctuations alongside my periods. It also highlighted when in the month the weight dropped off and certain patterns began to appear.

I didn’t use any kind of fancy pants diary or app, just a piece of paper and each day took photos of the food I was eating.

Try it for yourself and see what you notice