Becoming Empowered in Menopause without Dieting with Amy Ozier, PhD, RD, LDN

Are you feeling out of control with your body during menopause?

With fluctuations in hormones, your body goes through a major transition and can leave you with symptoms like:

• Irritability

• Hot flashes

• Palpitations (like a horse racing in your chest)

• Anxiety

• Painful sex

• Low libido

• Joint pain

• Sleep issues

• Brain fog

• Weight gain

• UTIs

  While this list isn’t exhaustive, it can feel exhausting just reading it, let alone feeling it.

  Going on a diet with black-and-white rules can make you feel in control with your weight and other symptoms, but what’s even better than control is empowerment.

  Whether you are going through menopause or haven’t quite hit that stage of life yet, this conversation is for you if you want to stay connected with God and proactive for your health for life.

  Listen to Episode 51 of the Joyful Health Show for stories, humor, and practical tips for embracing menopause from a godly perspective.

About Amy Ozier, PhD, RD, LDN

Amy is a broken child of God and so grateful the Lord uses her mess for His messages. She is the mother of 3, 2 biological sons and an adopted daughter from China. She is married to her compassionate, hot hubby of almost 20 years. Other golden glimmers in her life are their Golden Retriever, Ozzie, and cat, Kayla. She is beyond blessed to work as a trauma informed somatic nutritionist therapist under Tracy Brown with training in nervous system regulation and how that impacts eating disorders. She praises the Lord he brought her out of strongholds with eating, body and movement so as to share the GOoD news about freedom through Christ!

Connect with Amy here:

www.healbytheword.com

www.tracybrownrd.com

www.facebook.com/tracybrownrd

Want to Connect with God for Your Diabetes Journey?

In this episode of the Joyful Health Show, we dive headfirst into  tumultuous journey of menopause and how to be liberated from the dieting mindset that plagues so many women during this transition. Amy Ozier explores the physical and emotional challenges of perimenopause while shedding light on the deceptive messages surrounding body image and weight gain. Drawing inspiration from 1 John 2:26-27, we uncover the importance of trusting God's design for our bodies and resisting societal pressures. We discuss common menopause symptoms, offering practical coping strategies and emphasizing the purpose in pain.

We discuss:

1. The beauty of aging: Recognize the wisdom and sanctity that come with experience.

2. Listening to your own body: Tune into hunger and fullness cues rather than external indicators.

3. Building a coping toolkit: Equip yourself with support systems and tools to navigate this important developmental phase of the female body.

Join us in this faith-filled conversation and discover how you can move beyond menopause with grace, humor, and a renewed sense of freedom in the Lord. 

Scripture to Self-Examination During Menopause

If you or your loved ones want to encounter menopause from a place of empowerment rather than tight-fisted control, we have a verse for you: 

I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him. 1 John 2:26-27

From this verse, think about:

• Paying attention to how the world is trying to deceive you in regards to menopause. 

• How are you abiding, or resting, in Christ alone during menopause?

• Consider this: can anyone teach you better than Jesus Himself?

• What are the lies you are believing about yourself, or your weight?

• What is God’s truth for you during this season?

• How can you remember what God has already taught you?

Resources for a Grace-Centered Menopause Experience

Here are a few of the resources mentioned in our conversation to help you rise above the stigma and start seeing menopause as an opportunity to grow in the Lord:

• Lost in the Middle: Midlife and the Grace of God by Paul David Tripp

• Feeding Yourself with Love and Good Sense by Ellyn Satter

• Feed Yourself: Step Away from the Lies of Diet Culture and into Your Divine Design by Leslie Schilling

• Ohio study citing benefits of bodyweight during later years

• “When Thinner Isn’t Better: Extra Pounds May Be Keeping Some People Healthier After a Certain Age” by AARP

• Freebies from Tracy Brown, RD: www.Tracybrownrd.com/free-gifts

• Ellyn Satter Institute: https://www.ellynsatterinstitute.org/

• Health at Every Size weight-neutral health information: https://haeshealthsheets.com/

• Body BLoved: https://www.bodybloved.com/

Jokes About Menopause

Amy encourages us to use humor as part of our menopause coping toolkit, so here are a few jokes to help lighten the mood and help us laugh a little when we’re gripping too tightly to a menopausal outcome:

Who finishes their sentences without a period?
Menopausal convicts.

Jokes about menopause and PMS are never ever funny.
Period!

How do you know your fridge is going through menopause?
It’s all out of eggs.

What is Menopause?
When a school of small fish stops suddenly.

Knock, knock.
(Who’s there?)
Menopause.
*awkward silence*

Do you know about the origin of menopause?
It’s called menopause because men would do well to pause before they speak.

Take Our Body Blessings Course to Become Empowered Just as You Are

Do you want to become empowered in your body to know what you need and praise God for His provision?

As Amy recommends, it’s important to know how to tune in to your body sooner rather than later, because it only gets harder while aging (although it’s NEVER too late)! We know that a mindful experience requires having a peaceful relationship with your body, and we believe that starts with God.

If you want to start tuning in to how you were made to move, our Body Blessings Course will walk you through intuitive health tracking pages, prayer journaling, and more exercises to move you from being preoccupied with culture’s impossible standards and leaning into your own God-given body.

If you can answer "yes and amen" to the following, then we think this course would be a great fit:

• Get unstuck with a body image centered prayer practice

• Integrate emotions and sensations into a healthy body image with printable guides

• Discover intuitive eating and movement patterns and respond with kindness

• Uncover how to fully enjoy God in your right now body

• Move from preoccupation with self to worship and praise

Share your menopause without dieting takeaways here:

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