How can I lose weight during the Menopause
How can I lose weight during the menopause?
A common question asked by many women going through the menopause is “How to Lose Menopause Weight”, and especially how to lose the menopause belly! The good news is that with the right lifestyle choices you can look at losing middle age weight gain and getting your waistline back.
But the trick is to make sure you do the right exercises, alongside focusing on other important factors such as healthy food choices and the right portion sizes. Let’s start by looking at exercise. And as a trainer with over 20 years experience and over 225 Million views on my YouTube Channel I have helped literally millions of people feel and look their best.
When it comes to Perimenopause and Menopause we want to look at working on bodyweight moves, as this helps to reverse the effect known as Sarcopenia – this is where our muscle tissue starts to deactivate which will reduce our natural calorie burn. BUT THE GOOD NEWS is that with these exercises we can change this and naturally increase your body’s abilities to burn more calories and get back to how we felt and looked before.
The Menopause Belly Workout
(and do read down below for top tips on what to do and why and also what not to do)
MENOPAUSE EXERCISE ONE
This calorie burning move helps to shape and sculpt your waist as well as working on your balance and flexibility.
MENOPAUSE EXERCISE TWO
This step-back move is a great full body move and tones you all over, and this bodyweight exercise helps to strengthen your bones to help prevent osteoporosis.
MENOPAUSE EXERCISE THREE
This one is amazing for the menopause as it ticks all the boxes – a great fat burner, shapes your waist, tones your arms and legs, works on your balance, improves your flexibility and strengthens your bones
MENOPAUSE EXERCISE FOUR
Another great *MCM & *MDM exercise that has exactly the same benefits as move three.
MENOPAUSE EXERCISE FIVE
This floor-based move is great.You strengthen through the bones in your arms and shoulders, and it does wonders for lifting the bust, as well as shaping and sculpting your arms. If you find it to hard to come onto the floor you can do this leaning into a wall or a worktop.
What to Avoid
One common mistake many perimenopause and menopausal women make, in a bid to get their waistline back, is to do exercises like the Plank and Sit-ups, and these actually can end up broadening our waistline. So instead we need to be doing standing cardio ab exercises, as this increases the calorie burn, helping to reduce excess belly fat. And by doing a special combination of MCM and MDM (stands for multi compound moves and multi directional moves) you draw in the waist muscles and increase the amount of body fat your body burns.
The other form of exercise is cardio, as this helps to keep your heart strong and is also great for energy and reducing stress. This can be my Free Indoor Walking Workouts or simply going for a run, bike ride, swim, or anything that is going to help get your heart rate up.
And this is where exercise is truly a girl’s best friend going through the menopause, as it will help control your weight, shape your waist, keep your heart strong, reduce anxiety, keep your joints supple, and most importantly make you realise that this is simply a new chapter in your life where you can still look and feel your best.
More Blogs on the Menopause click here
Quick healthy lunch recipe
Quick healthy easy to make recipe.
RAINBOW JEWELED RICE
Ingredients:
50 grams of brown rice
1/4 yellow pepper
1/4 red pepper
1/4 green pepper
Small red onion
Handful of cherry tomatoes
Several blueberries
Several pomegranates
1 tbsp of Greek Natural Yoghurt
Few mint or coriander leaves
Pinch of smoked paprika
METHOD
Cook your brown rice as instructed on the packet.
Then wash thoroughly your peppers, onion, tomatoes, and
blueberries.
Then finely slice all the ingredients into tiny squares.
Add to your rice mixing all together. In a small bowl finely chop up either the fresh mint or fresh coriander, then mix into your greek yoghurt.
Add a dollop to the top, then sprinkle on your smoked paprika and garnish with your chosen fresh herb. Enjoy!
How to keep fit at home
With so many gyms closed, fitness classes cancelled and hands on personal training a thing of the past, we have to look at the new way of keeping fit which is now Home Fitness.
Home fitness for me has always been a winner, I have been teaching this for over 15 years. The benefits are endless and I have helped literally millions of people all over the world and especially through lockdown.
My YouTube Channel was officially the most watched Fitness Channel in the UK through lockdown. Here are just some of the headlines YOU MAGAZINE
Interview on THIS MORNING ITV Click here to watch the Interview
And click on any of the other pictures to read the article:
As a trainer with over 25 years experience in Fitness, Weight Loss and Health I have hundreds of effective and FREE home workout videos on my YouTube Channel that range from my Indoor Walking Workouts, 7 Minute Calorie Burners, Kids Exercises to Seated Workouts. I really do have something for everyone as my passion has always been to give the gift of fitness and health to everyone for FREE.
The great thing is these don’t require any equipment, they cost nothing and most important of all, they work.
Check out my Transformations here you will see incredible results. My most popular workout video ever on YouTube is my 7 Minute Lose belly Fat Workout which has been viewed nearly 88 Million times (again, because it works).
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So to make life easy I have grouped together some of my workouts making it easy for you to select the ones you want.
INDOOR WALKING CLICK HERE
ABS CLICK HERE
7 MINUTE CALORIE BURNING HIIT CLICK HERE
FULL BODY CLICK HERE
SEATED CLICK HERE
LEGS CLICK HERE
ARMS CLICK HERE
20 MINUTE CARDIO CLICK HERE
DANCE STYLE CLICK HERE
GLUTES CLICK HERE
SENIOR FITNESS CLICK HERE
7 DAY CHALLENGES CLICK HERE
How to lift your bust naturally with exercise
7 DAY NATURAL BUST LIFT CHART
It is very easy to complete. Here is what you need to do. Firstly take a screen grab or photo of the chart below, so you can print this off. Then for the next 7 Days complete my 8 Minute Natural Bust Lift Workout, each day you have completed it simply tick it off.
My aim of this challenge is that by the end of 7 days you will have naturally lifted your bust. To get really good results from this 7 day challenge you could combine this with my 7 Minute Arm Challenge ( you can see this here)
7 Day Ab Challenge
TAKE ON MY 7 DAY AB CHALLENGE
It is very easy to complete. Here is what you need to do. Firstly take a screen grab or photo of the chart below, so you can print this off. Then for the next 7 Days complete My 10 Minute Love Handle Workout, each day you have completed it simply tick it off.
My aim of this challenge is that by the end of it you will have reduced your love handles and muffin top. To get really good results from this 7 day challenge it is important to also focus on healthy eating.
Please tag me on any of my social media [email protected] Facebook LucysSquad if you are following the challenge by using this hashtag #LucysSquadAbChallenge
READ THIS BLOG HERE WITH SOME TOP TIPS ON IDEAS ON HEALTHY EATING TO GET YOUR BEST RESULTS
10 thousand steps a day challenge
As your online trainer and motivator I always want to encourage you simply to be the healthiest version of you. So I came up with a fun active challenge for you and I have grouped together 6 existing walking videos of mine to create a 10 Thousand Steps in one day Playlist.
This idea sprang to mind whilst we have all been in Lockdown over the world, as many of us have reduced our daily step count. This is a fun way of actively increasing it back up again.
To do this free challenge simply follow the 2 steps below to complete the challenge.
Please note that if you are new to exercise then it is always a good idea to consult with your doctor first. This is a tough challenge and it is important that you only do what feels right and if you need to rest then do. Please see below for full details on Health and Safety•
Make sure you are in comfortable workout gear, I would recommend even though you are doing this at home still wear your trainers and for the ladies even though this is a low impact workout I would still recommend wearing a sports bra with your workout gear.
Have a glass of water to hand, make sure you have good internet connection as you will need to be online to view my virtual walks.
This Playlist has 6 Indoor Walking Workouts, each one varies in length and location (which makes this fun so you won’t get bored). To complete the challenge will take just over 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Make the most of the breaks in between the videos to have some water, they will automatically lead straight on to the next walking video.
So it really is that simple, all you need to do when you are ready to take on this challenge is hit the play button below.
On completion of the final walk, it is important that you do the full cool down stretch that I recommend.
Once you have completed your stretches, then come back to this page and take a picture with your phone, or a screen grab of the rosette and share it on social media, so all of LucysSquad can give you a virtual “high five” for completing this challenge. Be sure to tag me @LucyWyndhamRead and this use tag #LucysSquad10kChallenge Why not share this page and challenge with anyone you know to do 10 thousand steps in a day.
FUN FACTS ON WALKING
Ten Thousand steps a day is approximately 5 miles.
Walking Ten Thousand steps will burn on average between 800 to 1000 calories, this will vary with everyone as it is dependent on our age, sex and weight so this is an approximate guide.
Walking is one of the most natural exercise we can do.
Hands down walking is a winner when it comes to focusing on all components of health and wellness. It is great for our joints, it helps tones us up all over, it helps lift our mood, it helps burn calories, it conditions our heart and it is low impact free to do and can be done anywhere.
Six Thousand steps a day will improve your health.
Ten Thousand steps a day will help aid weight loss.
In a lifetime we walk on average 65,000 miles which is equivalent to walking around the earth 3 times.
Walking is a great way to help beat off depression and anxiety as it helps release and boost our feel good hormones.
The average person walk at a speed of 3 miles per hour.
* HEALTH AND SAFETY NOTICE: IT IS ALWAYS ADVISABLE BEFORE YOU START A NEW FITNESS PROGRAMME THAT YOU CONSULT WITH YOUR DOCTOR , PARTICULARLY IF YOU HAVE SUFFERED WITH AN INJURY OR ARE A COMPLETE BEGINNER TO EXERCISE. IF YOU FEEL UNWELL
OR EXPERIENCE ANY DISCOMFORT AT ANY POINT, PLEASE STOP EXERCISING IMMEDIATELY AND SEEK MEDICAL AID.
No bake – Homemade granola bars
You will never want to buy a granola bar once you have made your own, as this is only bar you will want to snack on.
This recipe shows you how easy it is and cost effective.
INGREDIENTS
1 Cup of Mixed Nuts (*if you can’t have nuts swap for seeds)
2 Cups of Wholegrain Oats
2 Tablespoons of Peanut Butter (*if you can’t have peanut butter, instead try Soy Nut Butter but always be sure to thoroughly check the ingredients )
2 Tablespoons of Honey
1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon of Coconut Oil
Handful of Dark Chocolate Chips
Half a Cup of Dried Fruit
METHOD
1. Pour oats and chop mixed nuts into large mixing bowl.
2. In a small saucepan, add the peanut butter, honey, coconut oil and cinnamon and mix on a low heat till all combined.
3. Pour into bowl with oats and nuts, stir and let sit for half an hour
4. Once mixtures cooled completely, add in dark chocolate chips and dried fruit
5. Line a baking tray and pour mixture in – tightly pack the mixture into the tray and you do need to press and compact this really tightly (using the bottom of a glass works well)— the more tightly packed, the less crumbly your bars will be!
6. Let set in fridge for an hour before cutting them into squares.
7. And if they are a little crumbly then eat with a spoon, because one thing for sure is they will taste delicious.
Sweet potato and avocado Buddha bowl
This beautiful savoury dish is bursting with colour and also bursting with vitamins and minerals.
Ingredients
1 Sweet Potato
1 Avocado
1 Lime
1 Small red onion
2 Tomatoes
Pinch of Italian seasoning
Handful of coriander
Small packet of Wholegrain Rice or Quinoa
Method
Preheat your oven to 240ºC (220ºC fan).
Wash, peel and chop your sweet potato, then drizzle in oil with Italian seasoning and roast in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or until cooked.
Prepare your salsa mix by finely chopping your onion, tomato and coriander, mix together, then squeeze over the juice of your lime.
Cook your rice or quinoa as per instructions on the pack.
Once your sweet potato and rice is cooked, start layering up your Buddha bowl by first of all adding your chosen grains, then add your sweet potato, then your slices of avocado then finally your salsa. Finally give an extra squeeze of fresh lime juice all over.
This is such a delicious way to eat a healthy meal that is full of goodness, with our healthy fats, carbs and protein, all in one pretty bowl.
Blueberry & berry smoothie bowl
GOODNESS IN A BOWL
Handful of blueberries
Handful of strawberries
1 Banana
Handful of ice cubes
Tablespoon of Greek yoghurt
(Optional) Teaspoon of honey
TOPPINGS
Healthy snack
SIMPLE BANANA & CHOCOLATE SNACKS
Super easy snack which taste delicious!
It’s super tasty too!
INGREDIENTS
I banana
A few squares of 70-85% dark chocolate
Handful of milled seeds (or you could use any seeds or crushed nuts, or even desciated coconut)
Simply melt some 70-85% dark chocolate (dark chocolate is full of minerals and antioxidants and has considerably more health benefits than milk chocolate!) and dip sliced bananas into the chocolate🍌and place on baking paper!
Sprinkle over some seeds or leave as they are! I used milled seeds and 70% dark chocolate for this recipe! 🍫
No, its not the healthiest of all snacks, but the banana, chocolate and seeds provide so many health benefits!✨It’s sure tasty too!🤩
Give this snack a go if you’re feeling peckish, or what to calm those chocolate cravings without feeling guilty!💖
Take on the 7 day quarantine belly fat challenge
HOW BEING IN QUARANTINE CAN BE INCREASING OUR BELLY FAT! AND HERE’S HOW TO LOSE IT!
It is not surprising as our routines have changed drastically overnight, being in quarantine can lead us to being more sedentary and comfort eating. The big knock on effect of this inevitably is weight gain. One of the biggest concerns is the weight we gain around our belly. It is important to have some fat on our body, and what is important to understand is there are two types of fat which are: Subcutaneous Fat – this is the fat stored just under the skin and this is generally all over around our abs, legs and arms. Then we have: Visceral Fat – this is often referred to as active fat and is stored within the abdominal cavity, near to our vital organs – this is what we want to reduce.
HOW TO REDUCE YOUR BELLY FAT
The first thing I would say is do not panic, because, as your online trainer, I can show you how to easily reduce this measurement at home and if anything, be excited as right now you and I are going to take control of your health.
To reduce belly fat, we need to focus on several aspects and obviously what we eat has a massive impact on belly fat, so aim to have a healthy well-balanced diet. Avoid over eating and you don’t need to be calorie obsessed but be calorie aware. On average for women to simply maintain weight they should be looking at 2000 calories a day, for men 2500. So if you are having more than this daily (and not exercising) this will clearly lead to gaining weight. Whereas if you stick to the recommend daily number of calories as above this will help you maintain weight. So, to then successfully lose that belly weight, you could look at reducing your calorie intake by taking in between 200 to 500 calories less a day, combined with doing my suggested home workouts. You will then successfully start reducing excess belly fat.
WHAT IS THE RIGHT EXERCISE TO DO TO HELP STRIP OFF BELLY FAT?
Well it is not the “plank” or “ab crunches”, they will not help in reducing fat at all. What you need to be doing is what I call MCM & MDM (multiple compound moves and multiple directional moves). This means you are engaging lots of muscles all over your body and not just major muscles, but also smaller muscles that help with stabilizing the body. This way your body is burning so many more calories. In addition, this is also helping to reduce the stress hormone known as cortisol which can be guilty of causing excess body fat.
SO, THE GOOD NEWS IS I HAVE CREATED YOU A FREE 7 DAY HOME “BEAT THE BELLY FAT CHALLENGE”
You simply do the 3 recommended 7 Minute Belly Fat Workouts – one in the morning, one at lunchtime and the final one later in the day. Do this for 7 days consecutively and if you stick with healthy eating and smaller portions. You will notice a reduction in your waistline when you recheck your measurements.
SO HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU ARE STORING VISCERAL FAT?
There are ways of testing this but they are expensive and time consuming, such as CT Scans, whilst we are currently in lockdown this is unobtainable – also do we really need to do this when we can tell so much from simply looking in the mirror at our tummies!
An easy way to measure this and see if you are likely to be carrying Visceral Fat is to measure around your waist:
Measure your waist in line with your belly button. Do this on bare skin,make sure you are not breathing in as you take the measurement and stand with good posture, use a flexible tape measure.
For women if your measurement is above 31.5 and for men if it is above 37 then we definitely want to look at reducing your belly fat.
Here are the Free 7 Minute Belly Fat Workout Videos simply click on the play button for the free video.
WHY NOT TAKE A SCREEN GRAB OR PHOTO OF THIS CHART BELOW SO YOU CAN PRINT IT OFF AND TICK OFF EACH TIME YOU COMPLETE THE WORKOUT
How to cope with the different emotions of quarantine
WHICH OF THESE CAN YOU RELATE TO TODAY?
Through this challenging time that the whole world is going through, I felt it would be important to appreciate that we are all going to experience so many different emotions and that we are on a “roller coaster ride” of feelings. As your online trainer, I wanted to be able to suggest ways to help with your current emotion which ever one of the 9 faces you may be. Please stay at home and remember by staying at home you are helping to saves lives. We are all in this together. Lucy xx
STRESS
If you are getting stressed and feel like pulling your hair out with worry, or simply the fact you are stuck indoors, a good way to disperse any stress and anxiety is to do a short workout. This is a great way to induce the natural feel good happy hormones such as dopamine, oestrogen and serotonin. With the bonus that exercise also helps to reduce the stress hormone known as cortisol. So try this workout here when you are feeling stressed and anxious. Click on the play button.
BORED
Get creative and make the most of the time we have as this is a rare thing in our lifetime that we have time on our hands. Normally we are always rushing from here to there. So explore your creative side and maybe you could start drawing, write a story, learn to bake, or if you are lucky enough to have a garden then get some fresh air and discover your green fingers. There are so many ways we can keep occupied and also by doing this we then help prevent those other faces creeping in such as A, E and F.
LONELY
Being and feeling lonely at a time like this can be very tough. Now more than ever, we need to still connect with others even though we cant be with each other. No matter where you are in the world right now, if you have the internet then you never need feel lonely. If you want a conversation, if you want a friend , if you want just to feel part of somebody else’s life then please come and join our Facebook Group as we are all here to hold each others hands through this challenging time. The love and support will help you overcome the lonely face of isolation we can all feel. Click on the Facebook Icon to join our group.
POSITIVE
As we experience this rollercoaster of emotions, we will also possibly have the burst of feeling positive. So for this, really embarace how you feel and bottle that feeling. What is a great idea is to write down a positive quote, something that personally makes you feel good right now and stick this somewhere in the house so when you have a day or a moment of struggling, go to that space and read out loud your positive thoughts and quote from that moment.
LETHARGIC
It is so easy when we are having to stay at home to have a lack of energy, this can then leads us sitting around more and the less active we become the less energy we have – this becomes a vicious circle as then the more lethargic we feel. So the key is to reverse this and do some sort of movement, but when you don’t feel like it it can be impossible to get the desire to do a workout. This is why I came up with the perfect solution – my 5 Minute Energy Booster – the great thing with this is it is not like a traditional workout, just these light movements will help increase your blood flow and energy levels. Best of all, you don’t even need to put on fitness clothes you can do this in your jeans or even your pyjamas. Click on the play button to do the workout. 
OVERTHINKING
Overthinking can be very self destructive and realistically a totally pointless exercise, as the truth is, we have no idea what the future holds, so trying to figure it out really is mission impossible. So instead, swap over-thinking, for living in the moment. Try and focus on what you can do today and just plan for tomorrow. Keep your mind busy, instead of worrying about something you cannot control. So swap over thinking for mindfulness and if you do find that hard then distract yourself with a nice light workout and get your body exercising as this will help you feel more positive. Click here for a lovely Indoor Virtual walk in France with me now.
GRATEFUL
Being grateful is such a gift in itself, and now, more than ever, people are realising how important this is. Be grateful for the things that really matter in life, like our loved ones, our amazing Dr’s and Nurses working for the NHS and other frontliners saving us all right now, like the birds, like the flowers, the list goes on. And when you are feeling grateful why not write it down and send this or post it on social media to show someone just how grateful you are. 
SAD
This is totally normally – how can we not be sad right now at this desperate time. It is also so important that if we want to cry we allow ourselves to. We should not bottle up this emotion and just remember you are not alone, the world is with you and we have to find the inner strength to carry on. On a day like this it is an idea that after you have released these emotions why not lose yourself into a magical films or a lovely book. Go for some truly inspirational film (my recommendation would be “Eddie the Eagle ” or even a fairy tale). But remember this feeling is normal just like all the other 8 feelings we will experience through this period, And you know you can always come and talk to someone in our Facebook group. So please do not feel sad on your own. Click on the Facebook icon to join our group.
CONFUSED
There is no denying that this is a very confusing time in our lives and one that we never expected. If it were a film or a book we would think this is so over the top, so feeling confused is to be expected. The key thing is now we just focus on ourselves and use this confusing time while we are all staying safe at home to learn about how we can improve on our own health and wellbeing. So learn now and make it part of your daily life to do free home fitness, learn about how to cook from scratch and make healthy meals, so processed foods are now a thing of the past. Learn a new skill whatever it is as this confused state the world is in will pass, so we want to be ready when it goes back to normal that we step out of the front door aiming to be the best versions of ourselves, teaching this along the way to our loved ones and friends. Click to join my YouTube Channel for free home fitness for evermore.
STAY HOME. STAY SAFE. KEEP WELL.
Love Lucy xx