Dear Rose # 49 - Beyond the Calorie-Counting Bullshit: Redefining Exercise in Menopause
Rose is an amalgam of us - women in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond who are looking for somewhere they are seen, heard and listened to.
Dear Rose,
Me wearing those stupid, sexist bloomers circa 1984
I’m hoping that maybe finally, at the ripe old age of fifty-two years and 255 days, I’ve actually got my shit together about exercise. And this is from a person who has a certificate in personal training and has done hundreds of hours of yoga teacher training.
I guess I got fucked up about exercise a little bit in my childhood. I started ballet young, and that can enforce the need for perfection around bodies and how they look while they move. I also played basketball and had to wear those stupid, sexist bloomers that were mandatory in the eighties.
After a knee injury in my mid-teens, and being told to give up basketball and ballet, I didn’t think about exercise again until my metabolism started to slow down slightly in my thirties. Then I thought about exercise a lot. Probably too much. I counted calories and exercised more so I could have an extra glass of wine (oh yes, so healthy), and weighed myself every day. I even quit my job to become a personal trainer. That’s how obsessed I was.
But five years later, I needed a hysterectomy and went straight into menopause. And I thought my metabolism slowed in my thirties... ha ha ha.
Since then, I’ve had a kind of like/mostly hate relationship with exercise. Especially strength work. Big workouts followed by painful muscles, followed by long breaks before trying again. Sometimes that muscle pain was an injury—and when you’re our age, they take so long to heal.
But my physio has convinced me that I won’t get better without strength. I’ve started a course on using resistance bands, and I’m determined to get strong again without all the calorie-counting bullshit. I’ve done four strength workouts and I can feel the change in my body already.
I hope it sticks this time. Wish me luck.
Love, Em xx
