Towards the end of each year, before the holidays take over, I spend some time with the question ‘What If…?’
I started asking ‘what if?’ in the summer of 2012 when my health and energy entirely collapsed and all the joy was sucked out of my life due to my permanent tiredness and overwhelm. I asked myself these questions…
What if my doctor doesn’t understand that something is really wrong with my health?
What if I don’t want to ‘feel my age’, exhausted and shitty in peri-menopause?
What if losing weight was not the only answer to all the symptoms I felt in my body?
I think I am eating healthy with salads and no-fat skinny lattes. I read health magazines! What if I don’t know as much as I think I do?
What if I get a full nights sleep, lose my anxiety, get my energy back and start exercising more?
What if I felt happy in my body? Mind blown! I had not felt this feeling from age 15years old.
What if I make my health my priority in life?
I moved through life on autopilot in the summer of 2012. Taxied kids between summer camps, planned day trips, booked kids haircuts, made visits to the dentist, cleaned out the kids closets and donated clothes, packed the bags for swimming at the pool, bought the snacks and taxied to the mall. My world revolved around the health and happiness of my family.
The whole time, I ruminated on my what ifs and honestly, I felt guilty and sick to my stomach at the thought of making radical change.
One day while driving, I heard the ad for The Canadian School of Natural Nutrition on the radio. What if I enrol in Nutrition School and commit to taking action on my health and wellbeing?
1 week before the school year started, I took a leap of faith, filled out the application and booked an interview, sight unseen.
My world changed completely from this one commitment to myself.
As soon as I reached out to claim the thing I wanted, I entered a world of learning, enrichment and fulfillment, I gained the skills I needed to understand and manage my personal health and wellbeing and the future health of my family and I began to feel empowered and more like myself again.
It goes so much further than this…I made new friends in a new community, I tasted foods I had never eaten before, I cut through the mixed nutritional messages to learn the science, I got my sleep back, I challenged my previously held beliefs around healthcare, food and my body, I began to prioritize my needs and gently began to accept my bodies messages of fullness and hunger, I started to nap when I felt tired for the first time in my life and began to value and build healthy daily habits.
I fell in love with my body and my body sighed a huge sigh of relief, started to release the stress keeping me awake at 3am every night and the weight accumulating around my middle. I began to feel at home and comfortable in my body and woke each morning with a bubbling feeling of happiness inside instead of the dread I was used to.
As I poured all of my knowledge into the curriculum for my year long program, Menopause U I held all of these ‘what if’s’ in my mind and the ‘what if’s’ I collected over the years from all of the women I have worked with.
What if we talk about the power of food and nutrition to reduce menopausal symptoms?
What if we talk about our sexuality, our vaginas and how we can get empowered by opening the Pandoras Box that is all the taboo symptoms of menopause!?!
What if we smash through the shame around menopause?
What if we actively unlearn diet culture and instead work on nourishing our bodies for health?
What if we learn the language of symptoms that is our body talking to us all of the time?
What if we reframe Menopause as powerful opportunity for positive change?
What if we step out of being a victim of our ‘lady parts’ and recognize the pleasure and creation that comes from being in a womans body and care for our bodies appropriately?
What if we think about building health in our beautiful bodies for the next chapter instead of bypassing menopause and seeing aging as being all downhill?
As we approach the holiday season, I am sat with my what ifs for 2023.
What if I renew my PADI diving certification and get to dive in the kelp forest in the ocean where I live? (Just like Nutrition School, this is a big yes! from my body and I am going to claim this!)
What if I find a dance class and have all the pleasure of meeting new people and moving with rhythm and sensuality in my body? (This is a big yes! too! I am going to be busy!)
What if I get to support and hold space for a like minded group of women in Menopause U and they get to fulfil the ‘what ifs?’ they have for their own lives and bodies? This desire I am building into reality and it brings me such joy and excitement!
What are your ‘What ifs?’ for you, right now?
Grab a piece of paper and feel into your greatest desires for your health and life. It may feel challenging to put your needs first but take that leap of faith and grab what you desire!