Category: Women's Health

Ep 13. Fitness & Womxn’s Blood Rites: Tracking Menses, Not Macros and Embracing Menopause with Rachelle Ballard-Clayton

8/7/2020

There is a lack of representation of women aged 40+ in fitness. Rachelle Ballard-Clayton is shifting that pattern by basing her approach to training womxn on their shifting internal landscape and cyclical patterns.

In this episode:

A little pre-interview solo ramble on systemic racism and unrecognised privilege in yoga/wellness/spirituality worlds
Training womxn and running a fitness business, without body transformations or weight loss challenges (!)
The importance of strength training – as opposed to just cardio and yoga - for womxn, especially those over 30 years of age
Movement and the menstrual cycle: adapting your training to the hormonal fluctuations of one’s menstrual cycle - or mood cycle for peri-menopausal womxn
What movement might look like for a midlife womxn
Why we might find ourselves at this stage of life feeling less likely to move, more burnt out than ever and what we can do about that
Throwing all expectations of what we should be doing out the window
Understanding what our bodies are doing by tracking cycles
How to work with and not against your body
Why some weight gain around menopause is normal and protective
“Focus on what you can do, and understand YOU better”

PLUS, some post interview-thoughts on:

Rites of Passage in womxn’s lives, also known as the blood mysteries – menarche, childbirth, menopause
The phenomenal benefits womxn get from strength training
Better indicators of fitness than six pack or how lean you are
“Does weight training make you bulky?”
#YogaEveryDamnDay – with no other form of movement - is non-sensical
What yoga is missing that strength training can provide
What my own personal movement practice looks like

About Rachelle:
Rachelle Ballard-Clayton owns MEE Active a Womxn’s health and movement coaching practice on the Gold Coast, Australia and delivers her programs worldwide. She creates a safe space for midlife womxn to step off the sidelines & connect deeply with their mind & body.

Rachelle's Website, Instagram & Facebook

Resources mentioned:

Wild Power by Alexandra Pope
The Optimised Woman by Miranda Grey
The work of Jane Hardwicke-Collings
Casey's articles on why strength training is especially helpful for breastfeeding women here and here
Will Lifting Weights Make Me Bulky?

Support the show!

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Chickweed Magic & Medicine: Soother of Fires, Maiden Strength, Priestess of Inner Knowing

10/5/2020

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Chickweed. Softly spoken, yet with an equanimity as clear and bright as the vast blue autumn sky. She is able to distill clamour into calm, and stores her power, waiting patiently for the right time to act. When she does respond, she does so quietly and clearly even in the face of aggression. True to the Maiden archetype, she lives from the heart, un-jaded by the pain and inequity of the world, and feels empowered in her unique strengths and gifts.

With soft cooling hands she soothes the fire of inflammation and anger. She dissolves long-held cysts, and long-held grudges. She is not afraid to create boundaries to maintain her wellbeing, and bestows the knowing that you can be as gracious when you say no as when you give your agreement. She reminds one to never be cruel, or snap or condemn simply because it would be easier to do so. She restores grace, levity, and peace.

It's autumn, and Chickweed (Stellaria media) has been popping up in semi-shaded glades and pockets of dark, rich soil all around the countryside where I live in South-Eastern Queensland. I have been waiting for six months for this delicate little plant to reappear, eager to ask her to lend a soft and soothing hand to the wind-burnt, dry skin and irritating eczema that plagues my family as the weather gets colder and drier.

On a deeper level, I have found that Chickweed has a vast ability to soothe not only physical maladies where inflammation and dryness is involved, but emotional and interpersonal ones. Wherever long-held hot anger is involved, a once vivacious spirit has been desiccated by the whipping winds of unfair judgement, or one has simply lost their way amidst an emotional storm, Chickweed softens hearts and dissolves grudges.

No sooner had I harvested my first basket of Chickweed that an ongoing family feud came to loggerheads, and I needed her soothing, gentle but firm spirit more than ever. More about that in a bit.

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Rock Your Menopause

27/4/2020

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Women in midlife are at a crossroads: either we can continue living with jobs, relationships, and poor health situations that we have outgrown, or we can do the inner work that our bodies and hormones are calling out for.

A full 85% of women suffer hot flushes, vaginal dryness, and emotional turbulence during menopause, and to top it off we are told that our risk of heart disease and of osteoporosis is rising! But does it have to be this way? Most of us know some women who seem to sail through menopause, and come out the other side stronger, wiser, and full of vitality.

In the last decade more women than ever have woken up to the power that menopause can bring, and have used it to their full advantage. Some of the most beautiful, intelligent, and luscious women I know are in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond. In a seniors’ yoga class I ran at a medical centre, one sparkly-eyed 90-something-year-old lady unhesitatingly shared with me the secrets of a good marriage – and a good sex life: “Eat lots of good food, drink good wine. And tell him what you want, because he wants very much to please you.”

A few years ago I learnt something very interesting about the way women’s hormones behave once we’ve passed through menopause. We have two hormones LH (luteinising hormone) and FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) – anterior pituitary hormones that direct the behaviour of an egg developing in either of our ovaries. In pre-menopausal women, these two hormones normally peak around ovulation and stay low for the rest of the cycle. So at every ovulation, the point at which we are most electric, irresistible, and open to inspiration from all sources, our levels of LH and FSH peak drastically – but they don’t stay there.

However, once we have stopped menstruating and are officially menopausal, these two hormones remain at high levels for the rest of our lives. It’s akin to AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current) when thinking of the flow of electric charge: before menopause, we are alternately open and closed to the changing current of universal wisdom. After menopause, we are wide open to a direct, constant current of intuition and wisdom.

They aren't called the wisdom years for nothing.

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The call for wise, old women

31/7/2019

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"A village without elders is like a tree without roots."
- African proverb

Winter, 2018

I'm frustrated.

I crave the presence of old, wise women. The sage, the elder, the crone. The wise old woman, or man.

Like an open wound craves soothing balm and mending and tenderness, I crave the smell, the words, the energy of the mature feminine archetype. And of actual old, wise women.

Where are they?

We have an ageing population, but - as Michael Meade, host of Living Myth podcast so eloquently states - instead of getting older and wiser, it seems people are just getting older.

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The Wellness Diet Cycle

17/7/2019

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The typical person I see in my clinic is female, in her 20s, 30s or 40s.

She goes to yoga and only shops at organic markets. She makes her own bone broth, vegetable juices, and paleo "treats" (because gut healing is good, and dairy and sugar are "bad").

She spends a small fortune on vitamins, probiotics and herbal supplements.

She is very health conscious, sometimes bordering on being obsessively so.

She has seen numerous health practitioners prior to seeing me.

And despite her utmost efforts to be healthy, she has long list of seemingly obscure health conditions. The list of signs and symptoms I see in these women goes something like this:

Headaches, migraines, intense cravings, cold hands and feet, sleep problems, rough dry skin, brittle hair, hair loss, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), dizziness, brain fog, low energy levels, low body temperature, constipation, low libido, bloating, indigestion, frequent need to urinate, anxiety, panic attacks, loss of muscle mass, heart palpitations, frequent colds and flu / thrush / UTIs / herpes outbreaks, unpredictable emotional swings, severe PMS, irregular periods, missing periods, infertility.

The woman in question usually doesn't have every single one of these (although some do), but she will have a significant number (around 80% or more) of them.

By the time they've come to see me, many of these women have attributed this long and baffling list of symptoms to candida. Or a food intolerance. Or simply "being too fat".

And they've come to the conclusion (via Google or some health guru) that the obvious solution is to embark upon yet another restrictive diet. Anti-candida, low-carb, paleo, keto, GAPS, SCD, vegan, intermittent fasting, and raw are the usual go-to's right now.

And herein lies the root of the problem.

The Big Thing most health-conscious people are missing (that's ruining their health)

Most of the women I see in clinic do NOT have a food intolerance, candida, or an allergy to grains. I should add that I have been trained to recognise and treat food sensitivity and intolerance so am well aware of what that looks like. Although it is a valid and very real issue, about ninety percent of the time, food intolerance is NOT the causative factor.

The root of these women's problems is this: They are trying too hard to be healthy and as a result, they are eating too restrictively.

The biggest mistake I see women making today is trying too hard to be healthy.

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periods, fertility & eating disorders

21/5/2019

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"I have my period. So I mustn't have an eating disorder."

For years I thought that if a woman was menstruating regularly, she was displaying one of the ultimate signs of health.

I thought that if a woman had a regular period she must be well nourished. That the moment her caloric intake dipped below her requirements, her body would stop ovulating and periods would disappear.

That Mother Nature never lets our bodies grow babies - a highly energy intensive endeavour that demands massive amounts of resources - in a perceived famine.

For years, I was wrong.

In my time as an eating disorder dietitian, student naturopath, and having lived through an (undiagnosed but still very harmful) eating disorder, I have learnt a thing or two about periods and under eating. Here I'll attempt to bust some common myths around periods, fertility and disordered eating.

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Calling out BS in the Mama, Yoga & Wellness Spaces

15/10/2018

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I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Fiona Sutherland, host of the Mindful Dietitian Podcast and founder of the The Mindful Dietitian, which provides non-diet and body inclusive training for professionals and groups in Melbourne, worldwide, and online.

She’s not only a highly skilled dietitian trained in eating disorders, body image, mindfulness-based practices and HAES, but she’s dedicated to sharing her expertise and light-hearted but deep wisdom with other health professionals and groups. Her questions made it clear that she’s well-versed in podcasting and, being a dietitian, yoga teacher and mother of two herself, she's also very familiar with the overlap between the motherhood, yoga and "wellness" spheres!

I was especially humbled to hear that she’s read several of my articles and totally rates them! Wow. I can’t think of a better compliment.

If you want to hear us wax lyrical about motherhood, yoga culture and the BS inherent in the "wellness" spaces (including hear me share about my recent experiences as a new mum of two), tune into Episode 36 of the Mindful Dietitian Podcast.

Listen here or search iTunes for the Mindful Dietitian Podcast (Episode 36).

Here’s an overview of our interview:

The pressures on women to be the "perfect" mother, and how we get sucked in through patriarchal systems
On being a working mum, mum guilt, and inadequacy in motherhood
Earth Mothers VS Creative Rainbow Mothers
Nurturing our children, ourselves AND our projects
Breaking away from diet culture messages in the yoga and wellness spheres
The Sexy Successful Spiritual Woman - what is it, and why it hurts us
How diet culture infiltrates the way health professionals and yoga teachers market their services
Ayurveda and Chinese medicine - separating the wisdom from diet culture dross by first getting into your body and learning to eat intuitively
And so much more!

Did you enjoy this interview?

Tell me about it in the comments below! Also, feel free to share any questions you have about yoga, motherhood and wellness in the comments, so I can address them in future blog posts/interviews.

Until next week,
Casey

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"You're a yogi. WHY THE EFF ARE YOU POWERLIFTING?"

8/5/2018

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Strength training is awesome for women. Especially if you're a mother. And especially if you're a breastfeeding mother, as I discussed at length in this post.

Of all the forms of strength training I could have chosen, I chose powerlifting, which is just lifting weights on a barbell. I also do a bit of free weights and kettle bell stuff, but right now powerlifting is my jam.

I've practised and taught yoga for over a decade, and for nearly that long I was about as open to weight training as I was to having someone pull my wisdom teeth out with a pair of rusty pliers (I still have all of my wisdom teeth BTW.)

But life has a way of changing the way you see things. Having babies lead me to develop unexpected tendon weaknesses which were compounded when I practised the yang form of yoga I was used to. Unable to handstand, I started training with a friend who was a PT. He introduced me to lifting weights. And the rest is history.

And the main reason I like weight lifting as my main form of strength training?

Three words: efficiency, convenience, and badass-ery (not really a word, but it's just so much fun to say!)

Powerlifting is time efficient. The big compound movements you perform in a typical powerlifting program are predominantly the squat, benchpress, and deadlift, which use the major muscle groups meaning maximal effect for minimal time. Plus, you get all of the hormonal benefits I've already mentioned here.

It's convenient because I can do it at home. Anyone with small children knows that convenience is crucial! It has to be consistent to provide the positive benefits I mentioned, and to be consistent it has to be doable on a regular basis. I train three times a week: twice at home and once with a coach at a strength training gym.

And it makes me feel like a badass. I mean, I can do pull ups again. I haven't been able to do those since 1999.

For the record, I also do near-daily yoga and (occasional) pilates. Mobility becomes even more important when you're lifting heavy things. No one wants to end up walking like a robot!

IS BEING STRONG REALLY THAT IMPORTANT?

As a mum I find being strong just makes life easier. But I get that even though I prefer to feel strong, there are plenty of people who don’t give a shit about being strong, and that is totally fine.

Rather than telling you what you "should do” with your body, I'd much prefer to share my own experiences to help you discover all the options, and explore as you please. You can then choose what’s right for you, and that may well be ballet instead of bench pressing; pilates (which I also love) instead of pull ups.

Then again, badass-ery.

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Why "pre-baby body" is a bullshit concept

29/12/2017

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Let me tell you a story...

Once upon a time, a beautiful princess decided she wanted to have a baby. So she instantly fell pregnant and had a perfect pregnancy where she grew a "cute little" bump and didn't gain weight in any other part of her body. Her face didn't explode with pimples in the first trimester whilst her body adjusted to the crazy hormone fluctuations, and she was never EVER a mega bitch to her husband, the prince.

She kept exercising five times a week and eating one salad a day throughout her whole pregnancy like a respectable lady ought to. Then she had a wonderful birth and the next week returned to her pre-baby body so she could continue her life as a professional fitness model as if nothing happened.

Her belly never resembled a cake sagging in the middle from overdoing the baking powder. She never once accidentally shat her pants or peed whilst reaching for a box of cereal in the supermarket, no way. And her baby was perfect and sleeping through the night by zero weeks of age, just in case you were wondering. And she lived happily ever after. The end.

...

So many normal and necessary changes happen to a woman’s body - and life - during pregnancy and after birth. And yet society and the media gloss over all the (literally) shitty stuff and instead feed us the unicorn fairytale version of what motherhood and parenting is "supposed" to look like.

No where is this more evident than in the whole idea of getting your "pre-baby body" back.

Diet culture is relentless in sending new mothers messages about needing to fix their so-called imperfections - that they need to "bounce back", lose the baby weight, and flatten their newly soft and stretched tummies within weeks.

Sadly, the way many new mums attempt to live up to this impossible standard is through restrictive dieting and over-zealous exercise, often taken on before the pelvic floor and abdomen have had a chance to repair. Neither of which are in the best interests of mum or baby, especially if mum is breastfeeding.

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My Third trimester: lows, highs, and a podcast!

29/12/2017

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Ok, I'm going to attempt to summarise the main events of the third trimester of this pregnancy. I say attempt because it feels like a LOT has happened! We've been camping, unexpectedly moved house, I've sat uni exams, finished work for the year, written a bunch of articles ahead of time for a magazine I'm a columnist for (to prepare for the next few months of newborn amnesia mode), and I was a guest on a cracking anti-diet podcast!

And at 38 weeks pregnant, I'm on the homerun and finally sliding into rest, nap and birth preparator mode after what's been a bloody exhausting third trimester full of ups and downs...

With the fambam, 37 weeks pregnant

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Casey's blog

Ep 13. Fitness & Womxn’s Blood Rites: Tracking Menses, Not Macros and Embracing Menopause with Rachelle Ballard-Clayton

Chickweed Magic & Medicine: Soother of Fires, Maiden Strength, Priestess of Inner Knowing

Rock Your Menopause

The call for wise, old women

Winter, 2018

The Wellness Diet Cycle

The Big Thing most health-conscious people are missing (that's ruining their health)

periods, fertility & eating disorders

Calling out BS in the Mama, Yoga & Wellness Spaces

Here’s an overview of our interview:

Did you enjoy this interview?

"You're a yogi. WHY THE EFF ARE YOU POWERLIFTING?"

IS BEING STRONG REALLY THAT IMPORTANT?

Why "pre-baby body" is a bullshit concept

Let me tell you a story...

My Third trimester: lows, highs, and a podcast!

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Casey's blog

Winter, 2018

The Big Thing most health-conscious people are missing (that's ruining their health)

Here’s an overview of our interview:

Did you enjoy this interview?

​IS BEING STRONG REALLY THAT IMPORTANT?

Let me tell you a story...

Categories

POPULAR POSTS

ARCHIVES

MORE CATEGORIES

IS BEING STRONG REALLY THAT IMPORTANT?