Festive Season Survival in Peri and Post Menopause

December doesn’t have to drain your energy or derail your goals. I'm reframing the festive season with a calm, hormone-aware game plan so you can enjoy the food, the parties, and the people without the restrict-then-regret rollercoaster. If perimenopause or menopause has made social months feel harder, you’ll learn what’s changed in your body and how to work with it.

I break down why midlife physiology reacts differently to stress, alcohol, poor sleep, and sugar, and how small shifts create a big buffer: protein-first plates that stabilise glucose, planned drinks that protect sleep and mood, and short post-meal walks that flatten spikes and clear your head. You’ll hear seven simple non-negotiables for December, from not “saving calories,” to prioritising movement and strength training, to treating sleep as a superpower. I also open up honest strategies for emotional triggers—grief, family dynamics, comparison, or loneliness—and swap guilt for compassionate tools like boundaries, journaling, and choosing pleasure on purpose.

This is a maintenance-first mindset for the holidays: protect anchor habits, avoid all-or-nothing swings, and restart at the next meal rather than waiting for Monday. With clear structure and gentle accountability, you can step into January energised, proud, and in control. If you want tailored support and a plan that matches your hormones and lifestyle, explore the Glow Protocol and set up your Peri Weight Loss Assessment for January.

Are you a woman feeling stressed, flat and experiencing the challenges of perimenopause or menopause?

It’s time to reclaim your youthful energy, radiance and self-assurance (and your ideal weight).

I’m here to help with my proven method.

Here's how I can support you -

1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Peri Weight Loss Assessment with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book your call here. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@the.perimenopause.path

3. Join the waitlist for my innovative NEW 8 week group program, In Your Skin™️, for women in perimenopause and post-menopause who want effective solutions to manage skin changes at this time of life.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Festive Season Framing
• 2:35 Why Midlife Bodies React Differently
• 6:40 The Restrict-Overeat Cycle Explained
• 9:20 Seven Non-Negotiables For December
• 20:11 Protein First And Smart Alcohol Choices
• 26:26 Walk, Strength Train, And Protect Sleep

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and Autumn Podcast. I'm an age-defying naturopath and clinical nutritionist, and I'm here to bust myths around women's health and ageing so that you can be ageless and awesome in your 40s, 50s, and beyond. The Ageless and Awesome Podcast is dedicated to helping women through perimenopause and menopause with great health, a positive mindset, and outrageous confidence. Hit subscribe or follow now and let's get started. Hello, gorgeous one, and welcome to this week's episode of the Ageless and Awesome Podcast. So we're kind of on the countdown down to Christmas, right? And today's episode is one you'll probably want to kind of save. You may want to share it with your friends. I'd love it if you do that. I get so many more podcast listens when you share, and it really does help women and help them to kind of, I don't know, take a little bit more care of themselves. So I think you'll probably want to come back to this podcast because we're going to talk about how to survive the festive season with energy, maintaining your weight, particularly if you're in periopostmenopause, without feeling deprived, guilty, like, oh, I'm going to need to start all over again in January. Because, you know, let's be honest, December is not just about food. It's more social events, more alcohol. It's disrupted routines. My gosh, my routine has been so disrupted by all of the different kinds of activities and catch-ups with friends and family and that kind of thing. Less sleep, emotional triggers. Christmas brings up a lot, and the festive season generally brings up a lot for many people. Family dynamics and a whole lot of pressure. It's pressure we put on ourselves, don't we? And also pressure potentially from others to drink more, to eat more, to go out more. So for women in peri and postmenopause, this can be the perfect storm for weight gain, for inflammation, for exhaustion, blood sugar chaos, and the dreaded January regret. So today I wanted to reframe the festive season for you and give you some practical, realistic strategies that actually work for midlife bodies. So let's get into it. So let's talk about why the festive season can hit midlife women a little harder. So first, you know, let's clear something up. Like if you find December harder now, or the festive season, let's refer to it, the harder now than you did in your 30s, it's really not in your head. Your hormones, your metabolism, your nervous system are different. And here's why. The progesterone decline makes sleep lighter and makes it less easy for you to cope with the normal stressors that you would cope with. Cortisol is more reactive, and that will also influence your blood sugar level. Recovery from alcohol is slower. I have really noticed this, particularly over the past 12 months. And I'm post-menopause for a couple of years now, and I'm really, and interestingly, and I'll talk about this in a future episode. I'm wearing a smart ring. I started wearing a smart ring maybe four or five weeks ago, something like that. It has been so eye-opening. Um, and my body, and particularly my heart's response to alcohol has just been incredible to watch when you actually can see it tracked. So I am gonna do an episode on this one. I've just had a little bit more time working with this smart ring because it's really interesting, and I really, really recommend that maybe you put that on the Christmas list uh because it's pretty awesome. So, yes, recovery from alcohol can definitely be slower uh for women in midlife. Inflammation is definitely gonna rise more easily because of our lowered um estrogen and progesterone, and of course, our muscle mass is declining naturally in our 40s and beyond, and that lowers our metabolic flexibility. So things that you once got away with, like late nights, sugary foods, skipped meals, alcohol, now can show up quickly as bloating, weight gain, sleep disruption, fatigue, anxiety, sugar cravings, and the rest of it. But this doesn't mean you can't enjoy the festive season, right? It just means that you need a different strategy, not more restriction, that's for sure. And the biggest mistake I see women make at this time of year is they swing between restriction and overindulgence. Have a think about that and how that might look for you. Do you find yourself doing that? This can kind of look like saying, like, I'll be good today because I'm going out tonight. I'm gonna save my calories for tonight. So you skip meals, maybe, maybe you're avoiding carbs, maybe you're under-eating all day, and then you're overeating at night, you're drinking more, maybe your sleep is impacted, your blood sugar is all over the place. That leads to next day cravings. It also leads to that emotional stuff, that guilt, that negative self-talk, that self-loathing uh that many of us experience when we feel like we've let ourselves down. And then that cycle just starts again. And this pattern is a recipe for weight gain. It's a recipe for hormone disruption, which of course is gonna impact your mood. It's gonna make you feel down on yourself. That can lead to emotional eating uh and fatigue. And when you're fatigued, you've got less ability to cope with stress, you're probably more likely to head for the sugar and the caffeine because that's gonna potentially give you more energy for the short term. So it is a really um bad cycle to get into. So restriction before indulgence almost always backfires, especially in peri- and post-menopause. So the goal isn't perfection, the goal is stability. Okay. So the festive season kind of advice that I give my clients, I'm just gonna go into now. And these are look, I kind of call them non-negotiables, but I'm also a big believer in, you know, we're all grown-ups and you can pick and choose a little, but if you follow like more of it as a non-negotiable, and some of us really like to have rules to follow and just go, yep, this is exactly what I need to do to survive this season, then consider these non-negotiables that I share with women inside the Glow Protocol. And they work beautifully. So eat normally during the day. Like, don't save calories in adverted commas. You know how if you've listened to the podcast for a while, you know how I feel about calories. Um, and if you want more information about that, please message me on Instagram at theperimenopause path. I do have little dots between the and perimenopause and path. Um, or you can email me hello at susegarden.com. So do not save calories. And what I mean by this is don't sort of semi-starve yourself during the day so that you can eat more at night because you know you're going out, or you want to save calories so you can drink more. And I used to do this uh when I uh this is more than 10 years ago now, before I studied nutrition, I would literally put everything in my fitness pal and then would go, right? I want to have a couple of drinks tonight, so I need to save about 300 calories. So that's got to come from somewhere, and it just leads to some pretty disordered eating. Well, certainly did with me. So make sure when I say eat normally during the day, eat protein at every meal. So eat protein at breakfast, eat a balanced lunch, and if you're on like a personalized nutrition plan for my clients that might be listening to this, like eat your normal um nutritional meals that have been provided for you. This leads to stable blood sugar and better choices later. Uh, rule number two, if we want to call them rules, is protein first always. So if you're at an event, scan the table for protein first. And in fact, if you know that the first thing that's gonna happen when you arrive at your family's place or if you're arriving at a party or whatever it is, if you know that the first thing's gonna happen is you're gonna get a drink put in your hand, then before you actually get out of the car, just have a handful of almonds. Take some raw, skin-on almonds with you and just have like a small handful of almonds. That's your first bite of protein, and that will just help you manage your blood sugar. But if you're inside, scan the table for protein first and build your plate around that and also add what you enjoy. Protein protects muscle, it stabilizes glucose and insulin and it reduces overeating. Um, and I would also add to that chew your food really well because that will also help prevent overeating. So being more mindful when you're at events, particularly if it's at like a stand-up event where there's hors d'oeuvres and things coming around. It is so easy to overeat when you're just not even keeping track of that food. So, rule three, choose pleasure intentionally because not everything on the table is worth it, right? Ask yourself, what do I actually love here? What do I want to eat? And eat the foods you truly enjoy, not everything out of obligation. I think these days, at this time of life, you can say no. Like if someone really builds up a plate for you, you don't have to eat everything on the plate. You know, treasure your body, really look after yourself. And if you're getting loaded up a huge plate and expected to eat it, that's not fair. Like if they haven't taken into account your the fact that you're female, the fact that you you might be smaller than the average male. Um, you know, it's we are most of us in our generation have been raised that you eat everything on your plate, and it's rude not to, but I think really you just got to look at your portion size and keep to that. Leave stuff behind if you don't want to eat it. Don't force feed yourself to please somebody else. Okay. Learn to say no. That's I guess the take-home message from that. Uh, rule four, alcohol is optional and you can be strategic with it. Alcohol, and this is what I've learned wearing this ring, my gosh, it disrupts your sleep. I mean, I already knew that. Um, but what it's doing to my heart, the the fact that I'm not getting to my normal low heart rate during sleep, which is really important. The fact that my heart rate variability is not as good as it is when I'm not having a drink. And literally, I had one drink on Saturday night just gone, and the difference it made to my sleep, the difference it made to my heart rate, and my heart rate variability was unreal from one drink. So it's I'm learning so much from wearing this ring. Um, anyway, back to it. Uh alcohol disrupts sleep, it raises your cortisol, it destabilizes your blood sugar and increases fat storage. I mean, once your body detects you've got alcohol in your system, it stops a lot of other processes to detoxify it and get rid of it because it is a toxin. Your body will recognize it as such. So, you know, really consider do I need to have this drink? There are so many fantastic non-alcoholic options these days that um you can mix and match a little. So decide before the event. And this is really important, actually. Decide before how many drinks you're gonna have. You know, decide how many days am I gonna drink this week and stick to it. Perhaps make yourself the designated driver. Everyone will love you for that, and then there's no pressure to drink. I find I do that a lot because it does take a lot of that peer pressure off. And always, always eat before drinking. As I mentioned before, even if it's just like a handful of almonds, that is a bit of a game changer when it comes to how quickly alcohol will um get into your bloodstream and start to kind of wreak havoc. Rule five, move daily. And I really recommend walking. Walking reduces the blood sugar spikes, it lowers cortisol, it supports your digestive health, it improves sleep. And you know, 10 to 20 minutes is fantastic. And if you eat, sorry, if you walk after eating, that's actually even better. So a lot of us, I mean, I'm driven by the desires of my dogs, so I don't get a choice. But um, you know, I get up and I walk immediately. But I found that if I like eat lunch and then go for a short walk during the day, it brings my energy up, brings it clears my mind, and I know that it helps manage my blood sugar from the meal that I've just eaten. So if in your routine, particularly over the holidays where our routines are a little bit all over the place, um, if you can manage a walk, even if it's a short 15, 20 minutes after eating, that's gonna be way better for you than doing it on an empty stomach. So there's a hot tip. Um, but yeah, if if you can do more, so that's my next point is strength training, uh, then that's still matters. You, you know, like I would suggest that you continue to train at the level you're training. Um, obviously, if you're on holidays or you're away from home, that's a little different. But even, you know, maybe just get a pass for a local gym and try something different. Go to some classes, perhaps if you don't feel motivated to train on your own. Maybe go to some classes that that are fun and will get your body moving. But if you can still continue your strength training, my gosh, a muscle is your metabolic safety net during periods of indulgence like this. Particularly also, like a lot of us, I know it I do it all a lot as well. Like in that period between Christmas and New Year, that new year, there's a lot of just sitting around, isn't there? There's a lot of sitting around, eating leftovers, and not doing very much, particularly because we have Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere and certainly in Queensland, where I am, very, very hot, very hot. So you don't really feel like doing much. So if you can walk, if you can swim, if you can do your strength training, do some sort of movement, dancing is fantastic, then do that. Uh, rule seven is prioritize sleep over everything. Late nights add up quickly. Even one poor night of sleep increases hunger, reduces your insulin sensitivity, raises cravings. So protect sleep where you can. It will really pay you dividends. So let's move on. They're my seven rules. I might just recap them very quickly, actually. So eat normally during the day, don't save calories. Protein first, always. Choose pleasure intentionally. Not everything that's presented to you is actually worth it. Alcohol is optional and you can be strategic about it. Walk or move every day. Strength training still matters and prioritize sleep. So, how to maintain your weight, perhaps over this festive season without depriving yourself without dieting and inverted commas. You know, I hate that word. Um, because I'm a real believer in personalized nutrition and having nutrition that is a lifestyle. So here's the mindset shift that changes everything at this time of year. So, unless you're specifically, and I do have some clients that right now are actively working on weight loss and are about to even start their weight loss plans in this next week or just over this last weekend have started, and that is great. Um, but if that's not for you, don't sort of try for fat loss in an environment where you are really feeling pressured to be socializing and you've got a lot on. You know, even if you maintain your weight, that is awesome. So, and maintenance means, you know, staying within a range, not gaining momentum with weight and starting to put on a couple of kilos. There are some stats, and I can't remember the exact, but it's something like every Christmas period or this festive season period, the average, I think Australian, I think it's Australian data, it might be American data, puts on, I think it's two to three kilos. And the majority of those people do not take that weight back off again. So, and that is a real driver of long-term weight problems. So try to stay within a range of weight. Try not to sort of gain momentum with weight gain. Protect your habits. As I mentioned before, my routine has been really out, which means I've not been doing all of my reformer Pilates. I've got my PT in place. That's non-negotiable because that's you know a very specific appointment. But my reformer classes I can book in and book out as I like. So I've had the last few weekends just not doing it because I've had other things on, and I'm really feeling it and seeing it in my body. So really trying to protect those good, healthy habits is key. And I've locked it all in this week, and I'm just not that there's non-negotiables happening with that because I can really, as I said, feel it and see it. I also avoid extremes. Um, don't as like, and then what I mean by that is more like not flogging yourself with exercise because you've had a couple of big meals, not um having all of that negative self-talk when you've overeaten. Love yourself, respect yourself, be kind to yourself. That that's what this season is all about. Rest for many of us, we've we've worked really hard. This year has not been a great year for many of us as well. So use this time to rest, regenerate, restore, recoup, uh, be kind to yourself. And doing this alone reduces pressure and self-sabotage. So, some other maintenance strategies that do not weigh yourself daily. Okay, focus on how your clothes are fitting. Maybe weigh yourself once a week, maybe take a measurement of your waist once a week and priority, prioritize consistency over intensity when you're looking at movement. And if you feel like, oh, I've had a massive blowout, I'll restart eating well on Monday, don't wait for Monday, just restart at the next meal. That's what I love about working with nutrition is you can go out and And eat and enjoy yourself. And the very next time you have a meal, you can go back to what you know works really well for you. One meal never ruins progress. Okay. One month of chaos, however, can. What I always say to my clients is, you know, if you think about the month of December. And for many people, our festive season with work parties and things like that starts maybe mid-November even. But let's just work it over one month, just for ease of maths. So there's um, excuse me, there's 30 days in September. That's three meals a day, let's say that's 90 meals. 90 meals. If you have 10 meals that are a bit extreme, 10 meals out of 90, it's kind of just a blip. It's not a massive problem. So please don't beat yourself up over that. If you can keep your breakfast as close to a normal breakfast for you as possible, if you can make sure you're always eating protein, all of that sort of stuff, that's really going to make a huge difference. One meal never ruins progress. One month of chaos can. I also just wanted to bring up a little about emotional eating and festive triggers. And I think most of you will know what I'm talking about. The festive season brings emotional landmines, family, family that you possibly only see at this time of year. Maybe going and staying at someone's house that you know you may not know them particularly well, but they're family. Um, there can be grief if you're missing loved ones at the table this year for potentially the first time, or just for a long time. There's comparison, of course, often happens with family when it gets when you get together, hearing what other people's kids have done and how amazing they are. And there can be loneliness if you don't have people to spend this time of year with, and also expectations that maybe just don't get fulfilled. And food often becomes comfort. And instead of asking, why am I eating this? Try what do I need right now? What do I need right now? Sometimes it's rest, sometimes it's boundaries, sometimes it's connection, and sometimes it's nourishment, not necessarily nourishment with food, but nourishment of the soul. There is no shame in emotional eating, but awareness gives you choice. I think that's probably all I want to say about that at the moment. But yeah, maybe doing some journaling on what do I need right now? Why am I eating all of this when I know I'm not gonna feel good either physically or good about myself? So, what do I actually need? Why am I doing this? So I want to talk a little bit about how I support women through this season. Um, because having that accountability and support is critical if you're wanting to make changes to the way you eat, if you're wanting to get your good health back, you're wanting to maintain healthy moods, you're wanting to get your energy back, you're wanting to sleep better. When you have a personalized plan and you have support and accountability, you don't go off the rails so easily. You don't fall into shame, you don't feel alone, you have a clear plan, accountability, mindset support, permission to enjoy yourself and a strategy that works for your hormones. Um, and you can enter January feeling energized, feeling proud of yourself, feeling in control and feeling ready for the year and not just depleted and dragging yourself into January. So if you're heading into the festive season or in this festive season feeling worried, feeling nervous, or you're already exhausted, let me leave you with this. You don't need to be perfect, you don't need to miss out, you don't need to punish yourself in January because you feel like you've been bad in inverted commas over this festive season. What you need is structure, you need nourishment, you need self-compassion and support. So, you know, if that's something that you would love, if you'd love to have some guidance, know exactly what to eat and the exact portion sizes and how much water to drink and what meal timing works best for you. If you want accountability and mindset support, I'd love to invite you to explore the GLOBE protocol. So it's my signature program for women in peri and postmenopause who want sustainable weight loss, energy, peace, relief from hormonal chaos without extremes. I am fully booked for December. Just wanted to put that out there. I think I may still have some appointments left for peri weight loss assessments. If not, book yours for January already because I am already booking uh people into January. I've already got quite a number of people starting their protocols in January. Um so yeah, find you'll the link is in the show notes here, or email me hello at susygarden.com if you want to see if I can squeeze you in for a very weight loss assessment this week. Um so thank you for spending the time with me today. If this episode helped you, please share it with a friend navigating this same season of life. She'll thank you. Um until next time, take care and enjoy the festive season with confidence. Thanks so much for joining me on the Ageless and Awesome podcast. If you would like this episode, please make sure you click the little plus button if you're on Apple Podcasts, or the follow button if you're on Spotify, so that you get each new episode delivered to you every single week. If you feel like writing me a five star review, you would absolutely make my day. If you found this episode resonated with you, head over to my Instagram and DM me at the Perimetaports Park. I would love to connect with you.