By Samantha Pruitt, Founder & CEO, Race SLO
Winter is fast approaching and it’s time for me to check in with my Race SLO Tribe. I am following many of you and want to share how you are inspiring me at our many Race SLO events, around town and what I see from you online. As a fellow Tribe Member, your daily victories and positive momentum deeply resonate with me. Across the nation countless others are depressed, heading indoors and pulling out baggy layers to cover up their growing pie belly, but YOU are not. Therefore neither am I!
As a community of like-minded lovers of badassery, we choose a different path. As I shared in my last blog post, I took time dialing back this Summer to recover, evaluate and strategize about all aspects of my health so I could level up. You see, Lady Menopause got her nails into me and tried to take me down but that’s a HELL NO! Apparently she has no idea just who she’s screwing with. And she certainly has no clue about the strong Tribe who has my back.
When I was told this last August, just turning 47, that I was in menopause, I was not totally surprised due to how crappy I felt. However, I truly WAS unpleasantly startled because it was Meno round 2 for me. I figured this time it was imperative I study up and become an expert (I went through my first round back in 2012 after a hysterectomy and Celiac’s issues).
Dictionary: “Menopause represents the end of menstruation. While technically it refers to the final period, it is not an abrupt event, but a gradual process. Menopause is not a disease that needs to be cured, but a natural life-stage transition. Symptoms are hot flashes, loss of hair, increased body fat, insomnia, anxiety, irritability, fatigue…”
Oh well that sure adds some sexy clarity, and frankly, I know no shortage of both women and men who act like it is a disease! They allow the biological physical changes to rule them, but not me. Instead I am looking her in the eye and seeing this transition as a sign to step UP my game and take BACK my body. Hack that!
Dear WebMD, please replace your antiquated and disparaging definition with the following:
“Menopause is the body’s natural way to offer an opportunity to hit RESET. Technically it refers to the physical, spiritual and mental process of reflecting, assessing, strategizing and activating change. Menopause (both the female and male version) is roughly a midpoint in one’s life where they make space and time to change their narrative before round two.”
WooHoo! Now sign me up for that. Of course none of us want to live by someone else’s definition, story or ideas of whom we are. Regret is an option, but so is RESET! Complaining, sweat pants and couch indentations are also options. For me and those in the Race SLO Tribe, education, empowerment and inspiration are our only multiple choices.
Thanks to both the daily feedback of game changers like all of you and the endless supply of resources for me on nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, life style and business practices, I got emPOWERed. With my body I decided not to accept the extra 5lbs. of body fat that found its way under my skin. Instead I found new ways to move by learning to mountain bike, joining a WOD BOX WTF Cross Fit Gym and embracing hot pilates and yoga.
While NOT zipping up my skinny jeans, I had the revelation that I only get this one body. But no matter what it looks like… I still have full control over how it will perform! In wild liberation I cut off my hair, shifted my slacker wardrobe and put together a solid plan to ensure I’d chip away at my next level UP rather than downgrade. I set my personal goal of becoming the fittest 50-year-old possible over the next few years and then throwing down at the Senior Games. WooHoo!
Last month, Deepak Chopra fired me up and taught me just how fast we actively regenerate our own bodies:
5 Days — NEW Stomach Lining
30 Days — NEW Hair and NEW Skin
45 Days — NEW Liver and NEW DNA Cell Material
49 Days — NEW Bladder
60 Days — NEW Brain Cells and Tissue
90 Days — NEW Skeleton
120 Days — NEW Red Blood Cells
121 Days — OLD Body Is Gone!
In remembering that our nutrition and environment are what builds this glorious lifetime machine, I decided to try the Ketogenic plan that calls for bare bones complex carbohydrates (zero simple) and very select organic, grass fed, non-crossed natural foods. Good bye to my popcorn and cereal for dinner addiction and hello to bullet proof coffee and healthy fats. Within a week I was through the brain fog and out the rainbow side feeling totally energized all day long. Time to plant an avocado tree at this rate.
For months I had not been sleeping through the night and had hell fire hot flashes that woke me drenched. Knowing that sleep is a critical piece of athletic recovery and overall health I decided to use bio-identical hormones and a natural sleep aid (Tranquil Sleep by Natural Factors) to put an end to that grumpy cat cycle. How do you like meow?
It is also important that we take off the beer goggles and look hard at both HOW you’re spending your time and WHO you’re spending it with. Understand you are a one body, one life human being made of energy. Energy in, energy out, energy shared, energy given, energy received. Make daily choices to exchange all that energy with positive not negative ions. This is why human connection to a like-minded healthy Tribe environment is so important. Ever notice how after years together spouses and friends start to look alike? To act, eat, be and think healthy and fit you need to surround yourself with people who are already doing that. Run like hell from the good ol’ negative comfort zoners.
Grey hairs and wrinkles are a sign of wisdom in many countries and I say it’s time we unite to redefine middle age and menopause. On the bright side of aging is the wealth of life experience we each have. Come on, after all these years you know you are tough from all the crap we’ve been through. So together let’s stand tall, flex our guns and stare Mr. & Mrs. MenoP in the face. Don’t go soft now, and also do not go “gentle” into that good night! Your entire future and happiness depends on it.
