How To Stop Dieting and Ease Your Menopause Symptoms

How To Stop Dieting and Ease Your Menopause Symptoms.

Are you ready to join me on a journey to break free from the restrict-binge cycle and dieting mindset once and for all?

When I became a nutrition therapist, I knew my goal wasn’t to help people lose weight. Instead, I wanted to challenge the idea that being thin equates to being healthy. 

True health comes in all shapes and sizes, just as disease does.

What I did know is that I wanted to share my love for real food and show how it should be used to nourish both body and soul, whether it’s through daily meals or special celebrations. 

Eating is essential for survival, but it can also be a joyful experience, full of flavour, connection, and pleasure.

Since I first wrote this blog post over two years ago, my practice has evolved to focus on hormone health (the body is run by hormones, not calories) helping women navigate the transition into, through, and beyond menopause naturally and with vitality. 

A key tool in my 8-step SHIFT System is intuitive eating, a powerful, non-diet approach that supports hormone balance and helps heal the metabolism during this natural phase of life.

Over the next few weeks, leading up to Yuletide Festivities, I’ll be sharing insights on intuitive eating based on my study and practice and the revolutionary concepts from books like Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. 

I hope that this paradigm shift will inspire you to nourish your body during menopause, rather than punish it with restrictive diets in pursuit of unrealistic weight loss goals.

Make no mistake, long-term weight loss is possible, but not through outdated strategies that harm your metabolism and deplete your body of essential nutrients causing further hormone disharmony.

My Dieting story

About seven years ago, I made a lifestyle change. I got off the dieting bandwagon by ditching fad diets and diet foods.

I gave up artificial sweeteners, anything labelled low-fat, and even my beloved Diet Coke.

I decided to take an intuitive eating approach to nourish my body, which included listening to my fullness cues and honouring my hunger cues—even if I thought, “I can’t be hungry, I just ate” or “it isn’t time to eat yet”.

I ditched all food rules and restrictive eating by giving myself unconditional permission to eat. There were no more forbidden foods.

This was the first step, and it felt like being set free.

Mentally, however, the transition wasn’t as easy.

For the first couple of years, I struggled with the urge to return to dieting and the compulsion to weigh myself.

My weight did go up with this new approach, but on the flip side, I noticed a more positive relationship with food.

I no longer felt the need to finish all the treats after a special occasion just because I was going to “be good” from now on, and these foods didn’t fit the diet rules.

I listened to my body’s natural hunger and fullness cues and used my knowledge as a nutrition therapist to nourish it in a sustainable way, which meant enjoying wine and cake—essentials for me!

Today, my energy is always steady, I feel happy most days and symptoms such as joint pains, dry skin, heartburn and hot flushes are managed. Fat loss is slow and steady and my daily thoughts are no longer all-consuming about what I am eating and how it will affect my weight.

I’m still not immune to the marketing messages constantly telling me I need a smaller body, but I know that my long-term health is far more important. While I still have a goal to lose weight, my focus is on losing excess fat in a healthy, sustainable way.

One Last Diet

Most women have tried at least one diet. 

Some have gone through many, while others claim to be “diet-free” now. 

However, diet culture is sneaky, it often hides behind so-called “healthy habits.”

Even if you think you’re not dieting, do any of these resonate with you?

• Counting carbs or macros
• Sticking to “safe” foods (fat-free, carb-free, or low-calorie options)
• Pacifying hunger with diet drinks or coffee
• Skipping meals (not by Intermittent Fasting, this is another topic completely, read more HERE)
• Only eating at specific times of the day
• “Earning” food through exercise or “being good”
• Reducing food intake below metabolic need
• Changing your eating style (e.g., going vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free) with the goal of losing weight
• Calling any of the above “a lifestyle”

What’s happening is that many of us no longer trust our bodies. 

We’re constantly looking to a governing body, whether it’s the latest diet trend, an expert’s advice, or an app, to tell us what, when, and how much to eat.

This loss of trust is part of what some call “nutritionism”—a reductionist way of thinking about food, where its value is measured purely by its nutrient content (which is identified in vitro) rather than by the way it nourishes us holistically. 

We’re encouraged to obsess over isolated nutrients (like carbs, fats, calories and even micronutrients), which disconnects us from our inner wisdom and natural hunger cues.

Our ancestors didn’t suffer from this. They understood how to nourish their bodies intuitively, using whole, natural foods to maintain balance. 

They weren’t plagued by the chronic metabolic issues and diseases we see so much of today. By relying too heavily on external rules and the latest ‘health’ trends, we’re being hoodwinked into doubting our instincts about what our bodies truly need.

I understand that ‘dieting’ can be hard to let go of because it offers a sense of control but in the long run, it just puts you at war with your body and to achieve hormone harmony you need to be aligned with your body’s needs. 

You may think, “One more diet, just to get to the size I want—then I’ll stop dieting.” But this mindset traps you in the dieter’s dilemma.

The Dieter’s Dilemma

For every time I’ve been on a diet and lost weight, that weight has come back—and then some, especially around my midsection since entering perimenopause. 

Dieting is, in essence, a form of starvation, and our bodies are wired to protect us from starvation. 

When the body experiences starvation, whether through extreme dieting, prolonged calorie restriction, or skipping meals, it triggers a survival response. 

The body is hardwired to protect itself, and when it perceives a lack of food, it fights to maintain homeostasis, which is the balance necessary for survival. 

To do this, the body slows down its metabolism, conserving energy by burning fewer calories and prioritising essential functions. 

Hormones like cortisol are released to help cope with the stress, while hunger hormones like ghrelin increase and make you feel hungrier. 

At the same time, fat storage is prioritised because the body views fat as a critical resource in times of scarcity. 

This is why diets often fail long-term and why no study has shown lasting success from diets beyond two years. The body is actively fighting to protect itself from perceived famine, creating intense cravings, which have nothing to do with your willpower, slowing down weight loss, and often leading to weight regain once normal eating resumes. 

The result is a constant battle against the body’s natural balance, undermining your efforts to lose weight and leaving you further from your health goals.

As you can see from the graphic below, the dieting cycle is a losing game. 

It’s time to get off this merry-go-round and learn to listen to and nourish your body for true health and well-being.

Dieting and Menopause

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve your health AND lose weight during menopause. 

Eating well and moving more are great ways to support your body through this transition not to satisfy the ‘calories in v’s calories out’ faulty concept but to nourish every system in your body while keeping it strong and supple.

So what does this look like?

If you’re in menopause now, chances are you grew up in the 1960s or 70s. 

During that time, studies suggested that high LDL cholesterol was linked to heart disease, and governments pushed the idea that we should all eat fewer saturated fats and more carbohydrates, especially from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Unfortunately, not only has this study proved to be incorrect, but the message got lost in translation, and all people heard was, “Fat is bad, carbs are good.” The food industry capitalised on this by flooding the market with low-fat, high-sugar products.

The problem? 

Low-fat foods are often loaded with sugar (the real cause of heart disease), and the lack of fat and protein in our meals leaves us relying on carbohydrates, which eventually convert to glucose (sugar) in the body. 

Insulin is released to manage this sugar, but if our meals aren’t balanced with healthy fats and proteins, we release more and more insulin. Eventually, the cells become resistant to it, leading to insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance is just one part of the problem. 

We need healthy fats and proteins to produce hormones and neurotransmitters. 

Stress, too, plays a significant role, restrictive dieting and over-exercising can both cause stress on the body. When stressed, the body prioritises cortisol and adrenaline via the adrenal glands over reproductive hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.

This imbalance, along with other factors, contributes to menopause symptoms. 

How To Stop Dieting and Find Balance  

Our bodies are constantly trying to achieve Homeostasis.

Homeostasis is the ability to maintain a relatively stable internal state that persists despite changes in the world outside. All living organisms, from plants to puppies to people, must regulate their internal environment to process energy and ultimately survive.

Live Science

When we restrict food to lose weight, the brain releases chemicals to stimulate appetite and protect fat stores, because fat is essential for survival.

As a result, you’ll constantly think about food and experience cravings, not because of a lack of willpower, but because your body is signalling its need for nutrients. 

Dieting sets you up to fail, not just physically but mentally as well. 

The $60 billion diet industry thrives on this failure.

The solution? 

Eating well-balanced, nourishing meals that honour your hunger. 

This will naturally curb cravings and give your body the nutrients it needs to thrive.

Changing your mindset about dieting is a slow process, there’s no quick fix. 

However, if you’re willing to have an open mind to alternative strategies and put in the work, you can find food freedom and optimal health.

There are many steps to take, and progress won’t always be linear. 

If you choose to stop dieting, you might feel left out when friends talk about the latest fad diet.

Others may not understand your journey, and you might sometimes want to fall back into old habits.

When that happens, come back to these steps set by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in Intuitive Eating, A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach:

• Recognise and acknowledge the damage that dieting causes.
• Be aware of diet mentality traits and thinking.
• Get rid of dieters’ tools, especially the scales!
• Show yourself compassion.

If you invest in professional help you may be able to navigate this path quicker than struggling alone as I did. Discover your unique pathway HERE.

Join me on a journey to Stop Dieting 

Over the coming weeks, I am going to share with you the main principles of Intuitive Eating and how you can incorporate them into your life so you can start to take control of your menopause health naturally and find the joy of food freedom.

Book a Menopause Solution Session. The Menopause Solution Session is a powerful 30-day hybrid program designed to help you stop chasing individual health concerns, treat the body holistically and start addressing the root cause of your menopause symptoms.

With personalised 1-on-1 support, we’ll dive into your unique menopause experience, identify what’s really going on with your hormones, and create a clear, actionable plan to help you feel energised, balanced, and in control again.

You’ll learn how to nourish your body with real food, ditch ineffective diets and supplements, and stop following societal ideals that leave you feeling malnourished.

In just 30 days, you’ll walk away with the tools and knowledge you need to transform your health and thrive through menopause and beyond.

Ready to take charge? Click here to learn more and sign up.