It can be quite traumatic when your body is going through changes that you don’t feel you have any control over and menopause can make a lot of women feel that way.

The onset of menopause signals a new chapter in your life and it delivers some lifestyle changes at the same time. Learning how to cope with these hormonal changes to your physical and mental health can be challenging, and support sites can often provide some useful lifestyle pointers to help.

Also, it is well worth taking a look at the sort of lifestyle changes you need to anticipate as a result of going through menopause.

Watching your weight

A hot topic of conversation surrounding menopause is how it impacts your weight.

In fact, menopause does not cause you to experience weight gain itself, however, it can prove to be highly influential in terms of the hormonal changes you experience and how that might impact your mood.

Mood swings can lead you to feel the need to comfort eat or drink too much alcohol, both of which could lead to weight gain.

The problem with weight gain is not just that it is unhealthy, in general, it can increase the symptoms of menopause such as having more hot flushes.

If you can try and maintain a healthy weight it should help you manage menopausal symptoms more easily.

Changes to your wardrobe

The challenges of hot flushes mean that you can often feel like you are wearing the wrong clothes to cope with changes to your body temperature at random points throughout the day.

A good tactic would be to make some adjustments to your wardrobe by wearing clothes in layers that you can easily add or remove depending on how hot or cold you are feeling at any point in the day.

Look to wear sleeveless blouses and choose natural fibers that are breathable so that you can stay cool even when your body temperature is on the rise.

Dietary changes

You will soon learn to spot certain triggers that prompt you to experience a hot flush and if you can adjust what you eat and drink it could reduce these triggers from being set off.

Spicy foods are renowned for exasperating menopausal symptoms, so turn the heat down if you can on what you are eating. Alcohol has the propensity to induce a hot flush and you may well find that the frequency of your flushes is reduced if you reduce your alcohol intake.

Taking a holistic approach

Menopause is physical and mentally challenging and that is why it pays to take a holistic approach and adopt some mind and body-based therapies to help you cope.

Relaxation techniques can help you to stay calm and feel more in control and if you can learn some useful breathing techniques this can help minimize the feelings of anxiety that often come with experiencing hot flushes.

Lifestyle changes and improvements could improve your wellbeing and help you to cope with the challenges that you face when going through menopause.