Embracing Midlife With Alison Bladh Blossom Your Awesome Podcast

Blossom Your Awesome Embracing Midlife With Alison Bladh

Alison Bladh is a registered nutritional therapist who helps women embrace aging, perimenopause and menopause. 

Alison shares her insights on nutrition and menopause. She discusses her background and interest in hormones and skin health. Allison emphasizes the importance of easily accessible nutrition tips, such as balancing blood sugar and increasing fiber intake. She also highlights the significance of drinking water and taking self-care seriously. Allison encourages women to embrace aging gracefully and change the narrative on menopause. She debunks myths surrounding menopause and discusses the role of hormone replacement therapy. Allison emphasizes the need for a multi-fold approach to health, including avoiding processed foods. She provides practical guidance for women approaching menopause and encourages them to ask for help and support. Allison concludes by emphasizing the importance of moderation and treating oneself.

Takeaways

• Balancing blood sugar and increasing fiber intake are key for menopausal health.
• Drinking water and taking self-care seriously can have a positive impact on overall well-being.
• Embracing aging gracefully and changing the narrative on menopause is important for women's empowerment.
• Avoiding processed foods and adopting a multi-fold approach to health can improve menopausal symptoms.

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Transcript

sue_dhillon (00:00.962)
Hi there. Today on the show, we have got Alison Bladh here with us. Alison is a registered nutritional therapist. She's got all sorts of insights for us. Allson, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the show.

alison_bladh (00:16.603)
Thank you so much Sue, it's a pleasure to be here on your podcast today. Thank you for having me

sue_dhillon (00:22.43)
and you are joining us all the way from Stockholm in a completely different time zone. So thank you for taking the time out of your evening to be here with us and share some of your wisdom and insights. Now give us the backstory, Alison, on how you got into this line of work. So, thank you for joining us. I'm Alison, and I'm a co-founder of the

alison_bladh (00:42.935)
Yeah, my story really started when I was very young because I was very lucky to have a mother that was a professional chef. So, you know, from a very, very young age, I was in the kitchen, you know, watching her cook and that's where I developed my love of food. And then what happened when I was a teenager, I actually developed acne. I had a very bad skin and I really started wanting to know why this was happening and that really launched me into my interest in hormones.

And when I started off my career, I actually started off as an esthetician. So I was working predominantly with women that had hormonal problems with their skin. And this led me into perimenopause, menopausal women as well, because that is a time in a woman's life where you can really suddenly start developing acne and having problems with the skin. And that when when I was working as an esthetician, I realized that

obviously you can really help the skin from the outside, but you need that nutrition piece. You really need that from the inside as well. So that's when I went back and studied to be a nutritional therapist, studied nutritional science and ever since then I've been specializing in menopausal women's health and I've been working in the health and wellness industry for over 30 years now. Really focusing on perimenopausal

menopausal women because it can be a very difficult time for women and I remember my mother and you know the women Around me when I was growing up really suffering and they didn't nobody spoke about it. It was kind of You know, just just get on with it brush it under the carpet and get on with it. It's not Menopause isn't well, it's it still needs to be spoken about more but it

there's a negative hour attached to it, which is really what I'm trying to change and to talk to women and make them feel better through this time in their lives.

sue_dhillon (02:43.958)
Oh, I love that. And now, you know, talk to us about some of this. So, you know, we're taking a realistic approach here with nutrition, and it's evidence-based. So, give us some idea of like, some of the things that are just so easily accessible to us that we don't realize will make such a huge impact.

And just on a nutritional level for men and women, right? Like some of those things that we don't realize just be game changers.

alison_bladh (03:17.507)
Yeah, but it's so true Sue, I mean it doesn't have to be difficult, you know, there's some very easy things that you can implement that you have a very, very easy to do every day and what we have to remember when we go into perimenopause, which is this is the first stage of menopause, so this on average happens around the age of 45 and this is where your hormones all start to become a bit unbalanced and this can go on for many years.

five, six, seven years, it's very individual. So you need to look after yourself better. And how do you do that? With nutrition, with lifestyle, with mindset, the way that you think about things. But when it comes to nutrition, there's some very simple things that you can do. One of them, which is really simple and very basic, is to drink more water. We need water.

When estrogen levels decline in the body, we really find that the skin in particular can't hold on to hydration like it used to. So our skin becomes dehydrated. We need water for the process of nearly all bodily systems. So drinking water every day is really beneficial for health and it's something that we know we should do, but we don't actually do enough of. So that's one very good thing.

A key area that menopause or women, people in general need to think about is balancing their blood sugar. This is so key for health. And what can happen in menopause is that, again, because of the decline in estrogen, that we don't, our body can't process sugar like it used to. Estrogen is needed for all metabolic processes.

and we see an increase in insulin resistance in women as they get older. And one of the factors in this is the decline in estrogen. And when we when we have a diet that's very high in processed, refined foods, very sugary foods, this shoots our blood sugar up and you have a hormone called insulin and this hormone is released into into the circulation.

alison_bladh (05:35.407)
to really help your body utilize glucose. It kind of opens up the cells so your body can utilize glucose. But if you're constantly eating a high sugar diet, you know, your body can't cope. And high insulin levels, high sugar levels in the blood cause inflammation. You know, they just cause an array of negative effects on the body. And they've also been shown in studies to increase menopausal symptoms.

they call weight gain. So blood sugar management really is a key area. And how do you do that? You need to eat whole foods. So really think of avoiding the really refined processed foods, that unfortunately in the food environment that we live in at the moment is very dominated by processed refined foods. But you just need to buy

whole foods, it doesn't need to be complicated, fruit, vegetables, you know, meat if you eat meat or meat alternatives, soya, more of a Mediterranean style diet, you know, all research shows that eating in a Mediterranean style is very beneficial for health, less menopausal symptoms, better blood

alison_bladh (07:01.111)
what does that actually mean? It means whole grains, fruit and vegetables, fish, a small amount of red meat, but lots of nuts and seeds, healthy fats like avocados, olive oils, and really removing the refined sugary foods. A Mediterranean style diet doesn't contain refined foods, it's whole foods.

chicken and broccoli and potatoes etc. So that is a very good style of eating. And then another thing menopausal women should think about is increasing fibre in their diet. We really need fibre is crucial and this is another area that we don't eat enough fibre and we need fibre for the health of our gut.

we need fiber to help us eliminate what we call like the old estrogens because in perimenopause in the first stage of menopause you can actually become quite estrogen dominant because your estrogen levels can be quite high and you need fiber and things like cruciferous vegetables to help your body eliminate estrogen otherwise it can be reabsorbed into the circulation which we don't want.

Also, fibre is great for your microbiome, which is like your gut bugs. And it's been shown again in research that our gut bugs, our microbiome is so important for our overall health. There's actually a, it's really interesting, a gut, a group of gut bacteria called the estrobolome. And these, they found that this collection of bacteria is really needed to metabolize and modulate estrogen.

So there's those particular bacteria that just really help to keep estrogen levels in check in the gut. So there's so many things that you can do. Protein as well is necessary.

sue_dhillon (09:09.31)
And now can you give us a list here of some high fiber veggies like the leafy greens or what is what are some of those for people who don't know?

alison_bladh (09:19.251)
Yeah, leafy greens absolutely. Things like kale, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts.

alison_bladh (09:33.955)
What else have we got? Beans, you know, all sorts of beans. They're wonderful sources of fibre. And also, you know, not necessarily vegetables, but nuts and seeds. They're lovely fibre sources. Flax seeds are great fibre sources and they also contain phytoestrogens, which are plant based estrogens, which are beneficial for menopausal women. So really trying to have half your plate.

full of vegetables and leafy greens and spinach and you know all the asparagus, all vegetables contain fibre, it's just some contain more than others and that's more like your broccoli's and your kale and those sort of things.

sue_dhillon (10:21.842)
And now, you know, as far as water goes, what is, how much water should people be drinking? Because I think there's, people don't realize the importance of drinking water, right? So can you just give us some idea of how much water people should be containing, consuming every day?

alison_bladh (10:39.315)
Yeah, it's quite difficult to actually say exactly because it very much depends on how active you are because if you train a lot and you perspire a lot then you obviously would need to drink more but on average you know a normal activity level roughly around eight glasses a day that's like two liters of water a day is sufficient.

sue_dhillon (11:05.262)
Okay, great. And now, you know, talk to us because I know people just struggle with this and it seems, you know, as far as like little small lifestyle changes and a mindset shift. How do we begin? How does one start leaning into, you know, really taking this seriously? And how does one begin?

alison_bladh (11:33.043)
Yeah, great question because it's, I know the majority of clients that when they come to see me, they're overwhelmed. You know, they're extremely stressed, they're feeling terrible. They haven't got time to do lots of lifestyle changes. So it's really about finding things that you can fit into your life that are going to make you feel better. Even if it's just 10 minutes a day. I think what, first of all, people have to...

decide that they're going to allow themselves to look after themselves because we're always saying I'm too busy or no I haven't got time for that but you have to accept that you need to make time otherwise when you if you leave your health you know you will there will come a time where you have to make time because you will get ill so little things lifestyle changes to help you feel better one key area again

talking about blood sugar balance, if I was to say two key things to a menopausal woman to focus on, it would be blood sugar balance and stress management. Because stress is so detrimental for our health and it has a knock on effect in menopause, it just really triggers off so many symptoms and also weight management can be an issue for women in menopause and if you're constantly stressed it's very difficult to manage your weight.

So stress management, 10 minutes a day, just going outside, going for a walk. Deep breathing is a fantastic way to just calm down. And even if you just do it for a couple of minutes, it really resets your nervous system. It's actually quite difficult to be stressed if you're doing deep breaths. Sitting by the window and drinking a cup of tea, just.

going into another room and sitting down, reading a book. They're all very easy ways to manage stress. But I think the main thing is that we have to allow ourselves to say, I'm gonna put 15 minutes aside a day to do self-care. Otherwise it doesn't happen. A lot of clients of mine, they actually put it into their schedule. They block time out every day to do self-care.

alison_bladh (14:00.875)
whether it's for 50 minutes or half an hour. Of course meditation, yoga is fantastic for stress management but not everyone has the time to do that. So that's the stress management. Mindset I think really is looking at this time in your life and realizing that it's a totally

sue_dhillon (14:14.311)
Mm-hmm.

alison_bladh (14:28.139)
you know, trying to just embrace it with more of a positive attitude, because it's shown if we have a negative attitude, that is actually quite stressful. And, you know, then you're just increasing your stress, increasing the menopausal symptoms. So I know it's not easy to be positive when you're feeling terrible, but really just trying to look at it in a different light, because there is a negative

negativity attached to menopause, which we can see in Europe actually that there's a bit of a menopause resolution going on here and women have, it's changing, the narrative is changing and women have decided that we've had enough, we want to be listened to, but it needs, we need to talk about menopause more and really remove that negative.

attachment to it because it's a totally natural process. Every single woman will go through it.

sue_dhillon (15:30.074)
And I love that you brought this up. I was just going to ask you this now. You know, this kind of stigma around ageism and aging, and especially for women, right? This need to look a certain way or be a certain weight and, you know, not embracing aging. But then you see those women who age gracefully, right? And they do embrace it.

So, and it seems like you are one of those women who's kind of taken this on, you've made it your mission, you're so passionate and sharing and empowering women. So what is the secret there to embracing and aging gracefully?

alison_bladh (16:15.299)
the first thing is just being at peace with yourself and realizing that you're not 20 anymore but life can be fantastic it's a journey isn't it we're very privileged to to be older you know not everyone has that privilege do they we're always going oh we don't want to age and you're worried about wrinkles and everything but there's many people that don't even have the privilege of

alison_bladh (16:45.439)
accepting that you're getting older, staying as healthy as you can and embracing life to the full and enjoying life rather than being focused on having to stay young because it's not realistic. I'm very much a believer in keeping healthy so I can do all the things that I want to do. I want to be able to go hiking and do all the activities that I do as long as I possibly can do.

And that's due to looking after myself and having a positive attitude and spending time with friends, being social. All the things come together really, as you get older and you feel more confident and you feel that you don't have to do, that you've got nothing to prove anymore. You feel more, for me anyway, I feel more confident and more relaxed with myself as I've become older.

sue_dhillon (17:47.214)
Mm, you know, I love that. And there's this element where like when you're younger, you just, there's, you know, things missing there. You're young, you're vibrant, everything's intact, you're running around, right? But there's this kind of deeper awareness on some level that's missing that only comes with age. And so what is your advice to younger women who are kind of, you know, cause I hear this and I read stuff where it's like, oh, aging sucks.

this and that, but what is your advice? Like some really practical guidance for those younger women, like something that they can look forward to as they age.

alison_bladh (18:28.815)
Well, I would firstly say that when you're older, you've got experience. So, you know, you aren't as bothered by things that you would be bothered when you were younger. And I think just remembering it is fantastic being young, isn't it? It's wonderful. You know, the world's your oyster. You can go out, you can do everything. You feel really vibrant and alive. But don't think that that's going to stop when you get older because it doesn't. I mean...

life is a journey and every phase is different and it's really just embracing every phase in your life and living life to the full. Don't get stuck down or don't get embraced in this worry about aging because all the women are wiser and fabulous and you know there's so many

I would look and read so much about older women that start their own businesses when they're 65. They go off and do something that they've always wanted to do but they've never had time like climbing Everest or jumping out of an aeroplane or whatever. They don't have that restriction anymore. It's either way, it's a sense of freedom when you get older.

So I would say to the young woman, it's something to look forward to.

sue_dhillon (19:51.963)
Mm-hmm.

sue_dhillon (19:56.91)
Oh, I love that. That was so beautiful. Now, Alison, let me ask you, are there some myths around menopause that we need to debunk? Is there like something, a really common myth that people who haven't gotten there and just don't know that we should kind of clarify?

alison_bladh (20:18.379)
Yeah, I think one of the things that people don't realise with menopause is that you don't have to feel terrible. There's so much of this, oh I'm going to feel terrible, I'm really dreading going through menopause. That is not true. There are so many things that you can do to make yourself feel better. And some women just glide through menopause. They don't have any symptoms whatsoever and they feel great. It's a very individual experience. So I think it needs to be...

spoke about more that you don't have to suffer. Menopause is a natural progression in life but suffering isn't. Ask for help, that's the main thing. And then I think talking about

alison_bladh (21:17.199)
there is more research needed on women, a lot more research, but the basis and the negativity around hormone replacement therapy was based on studies that came out many years ago. It was the beginning, like 2001, the Women's Initiative study. And things have progressed so much since then. And that was basically reported wrongly. And it set off this huge...

amount of negativity around hormone replacement therapy and most women after reading the headlines in the newspaper stop taking it. But that isn't true. You know, I'm not saying it's for everybody but hormone replacement therapy is it can be very beneficial for some women. So just get all the facts in front of you, find out what is on offer to you and then make the decision yourself. But I think that it needs to be

said that hormone replacement therapy is an area that is very beneficial for some women, not for everybody, and it's obviously an individual choice. But that stigma and negativity attached to it needs to be, you know, really talked about.

sue_dhillon (22:33.618)
Mm-hmm. And now it seems or it's evident that, you know, your approach, it's a multi-fold approach because obviously you're eating and really well taking care of your physical health. You've got the, you know, all the dietary stuff in place, but it's also your attitude. You're embracing the aging, right? Because you could have a great diet, but if you're resisting it, it could still potentially be a stressful thing to go through.

alison_bladh (23:07.132)
If you're going through perimenopause and menopause and feeling terrible, you know, you really have to think, why am I feeling like this? Is it because of what I'm eating? Is it things that I'm doing in my lifestyle? It's all different factors that come together that you have to, you can't just think about nutrition. You have to also think about your lifestyle. You have to also think about your mindset.

you make sure you're getting the nutrients that you need because because estrogen has when our estrogen levels decline, it has an effect on virtually every system in the body. So we really need to make sure that we're eating nutritious foods, getting the vitamins and minerals that we need. Otherwise, you will start feeling terrible and, you know, all eating a healthy, balanced diet.

has been shown in research to prevent or prevent the frequency of menopausal symptoms. So it's really giving yourself the time to put these things in place and it doesn't have to be difficult, you know, really looking at your diet and saying to yourself, I'm not going to eat foods that don't nurture and aren't nutritious, I'm going to go for foods that are nutritious. So you have to have a bit of discipline.

But you can eat so many delicious foods, it's really just cutting out all the foods that don't contain the nutrients that you need.

sue_dhillon (24:43.742)
Mm-hmm. And now what other practical guidance or tips can you offer people who are kind of approaching this and stuck and struggling? Where should they begin? Where do they begin?

alison_bladh (25:00.003)
I would start with some simple things. First of all, I would start with diet and as I was saying, I would just reduce, start to, if you've got a diet that does contain processed refined foods, I would start to reduce those foods and start to add in whole foods, foods that you cook at home. So really getting rid of processed refined foods because this will

If you're eating a lot of refined foods, you will have inflammation in the body and when your estrogen levels are low, you don't have the added benefit of the anti-inflammatory effects that estrogen have. So really removing those foods from your diet. Stress management is key, as we've been saying. And then another big area for menopausal health is sleep. And this can really be an issue for women during this time.

we can find it difficult to sleep, we can wake up in the early hours of the morning, but sleep is so important because it's just a knock on effect of everything if you're not sleepy, you just feel terrible. So really thinking about how you can improve your sleep, even just going to bed 20 minutes earlier, don't do, not doing things that stimulate you before you go to bed, like watching television or playing on your phone, just having...

an hour before you go to sleep of just doing something calm like reading a book or just sitting and talking with your family. Sleep hygiene is very important, I mean that's a huge subject, you could do a whole podcast on that in itself. So sleep is a key area and then really thinking that if you are suffering

Don't be afraid to ask for help. I think we think, oh no, I have to deal with this. I have to cope with this myself. But there's so many really great healthcare professionals out there that specialize in menopause. And if you are feeling terrible, go and ask for help. Because like I say, no one should suffer through this time. It should be a great time in a woman's life. So don't be afraid to ask for help.

sue_dhillon (27:22.77)
Mm-hmm. And now, you know, another thing, if you could help clarify for people, as far as processed foods go, I know people have it so wrong in a lot of times, you know, labels the way they're like, oh, low fat this and zero sugar this and no salt and, you know, blah, blah, blah. But really, those are still processed foods. You know, people think, oh, I'm grabbing the low fat thing. I'm grabbing the zero sugar thing. And they think they're cutting out.

certain things, but that zero sugar is being substituted with something else.

alison_bladh (27:59.019)
yeah totally it's so right what you're saying Sue that a processed food is a processed food if it comes in a package and it's got more than five six ingredients i mean some of when you look on the the packaging of processed foods even if it's low salt low sugar you know low fat whatever it is it has a list of ingredients that you know half of them you don't even know what they are so processed foods

whether they're low fat, low sugar, low salt, you want to avoid them because they cause inflammation in the body. It's not a whole food. It's been refined so much and a lot of them contain highly processed oils which cause inflammation in the body, a lot of seed oils. Your body doesn't like that. Our bodies weren't meant to be fed on foods like that. Our bodies were...

meant to be fed on whole foods. You know, think of a... when you look at a food, you should be able to see what it is. It shouldn't come in a package. Everything should be whole foods. You know, I know that's a piece of broccoli, that's a cabbage. Processed foods, we have no idea what's in there. And also a lot of ones that are low in sugar have artificial sweeteners in. And artificial sweeteners have been shown in research to...

be detrimental to health and they can actually trigger off cravings because they are just so sweet. There's actually sweeter than sugar. So they can make you feel, you know, you're not satisfied when you eat them. So it sends off a sugar craving. So they've seen in research that people that eat artificial sweeteners tend to eat more calories and eat more sugar because they're never satisfied.

sue_dhillon (29:53.506)
Mm hmm. And it's kind of like the margarine, right? Like so many people think, oh, margarine is better than butter. And it's so bad for you, like worse than butter.

alison_bladh (30:06.111)
yeah because it's so highly processed i mean a lot of margarines are actually uh contained plastic they did i saw a study where they'd taken margarine and put it out in the sun and it i mean it just like melted and when it looked like it turned into plastic i mean it's such refined products and a lot of the oils in there have been damaged because they've been heated up so much the best thing is just butter

full fat butter. There's so, I mean, nutritional science changes all the time. I mean, what we thought 20, 30 years ago, we've really turned that on its head and realized, you know, it was the, when I was growing up, fat was a swear word. I mean, you didn't eat fat. That was really bad for you. But now we've realized that actually we need fat and the obesity epidemic in the world is

due to many things, but one of the factors in that is the fact that we've been eating such a diet so high in refined sugars and carbohydrates because the fat was taken out of products and it was replaced with sugar and you know very refined carbohydrates. Fat is great as long as it's healthy fats, I mean there's a very there's a difference in fats, fats like avocado, nuts and seeds, olive oil

butter, coconut oil, they're good fats but when you're looking at you know very refined vegetable oils, seed oils that have been heated to extreme temperatures, they cause inflammation in the body amongst other things so you really should you know avoid those sorts of fats but there's nothing wrong with in moderation of course but we need fats.

We need fats for hormone production. We need fats for many bodily processes.

sue_dhillon (32:09.898)
Mm-hmm. And now, Allison, what is your feeling on, I know some people are very rigid, like, okay, I'm not eating anything, you know, no treats, but if you've got a fairly, you know, healthy diet, you're doing the right things, you're eating your fruits and veggies, like, on a very, I mean, that's just how you eat, what are your thoughts on a treat, like, once a week?

or eating something. Is that just curious on your feelings on that?

alison_bladh (32:43.351)
Yeah, you know, we have to be realistic, don't we? We're all human beings and food is delicious. And there is an array of food out there that is very tempting that maybe isn't so beneficial for your health. However, you can't restrict yourself too much. And as Zach, as you were saying, Sue, if you have a predominantly a very good diet, you know, you're eating a balanced diet every day, the odd treat is not...

going to be detrimental at all. And I think in a way, you know, it's quite healthy because too much restriction becomes unhealthy. And that can trigger off, you know, like binge eating. If you think, oh, I'm not allowed ever to eat any of these sugary delights ever again. You know, it sends off cravings that you might actually go and eat more of them than you would. So it's perfectly okay. Think of like the...

80-20% rule. If you do 80% of your diet is healthy and you're eating balanced and everything, it's okay at the weekends to have a piece of cake or have a glass of wine. It's fine. It's just everything in moderation. I always say we should really eat like our grandmothers did because they ate really well and everything was in moderation and they maybe had a little

drink at the weekends or a piece of cake or a biscuit but they never over indulged in these things it was all very balanced.

sue_dhillon (34:19.162)
Mm-hmm. Wow. Okay, so a couple of things, Allison. First, I just want to thank you for your time today. You've been so awesome and so insightful. You've had so many great practical tips. I'm gonna have links to your website and all of that for people to be able to connect with you. And just wanna say thank you so much. That's the first thing.

alison_bladh (34:43.055)
Oh, thank you. So it's lovely to talk to you about such a such an important subject. So thank you for having me on.

sue_dhillon (34:50.986)
Oh, you're welcome. You've been awesome. And now in closing, if there were one message, your hope for everyone out there, what is that message that you'd like to leave us with?

alison_bladh (35:04.287)
Embrace this time in your life and have a wonderful time as you get older and be happy.

sue_dhillon (35:14.091)
Oh, I love it. That was an awesome message. Alison, you've been so wonderful. Thank you so much.