Friday, August 27, 2021

I Love The Alltrue Community!


 I received the most amazing box of goodies from Alltrue a few weeks ago and I am in love with their products! Let me share a little info about the company (taken from their site): 

Alltrue is a membership uniting a community that stands for good, seeks truth, and takes action — connecting socially conscious individuals everywhere who are out to build a better world. Best known for their flagship seasonal subscription box, they're adding new features every season to help you find your people, explore your values, and discover the brands and products that are making a difference. 

Truth is at the heart of everything they do. As product curators and community leaders, they find the facts and share them with you. They also encourage and empower women by offering opportunities and support that foster personal growth and professional achievement, within their walls and around the world. 

Alltrue believes that the community we build – one of shared values and conscious choices – can benefit everyone. By being a source of encouragement, inspiration, and just plain good, the everyday choices we make together have the power to change the future of global consumption. 



When Alltrue reached out to me to try their products, I was happy to do so once I saw all the wonderful things they were offering to send. First, let me say that the box itself is really pretty and super sturdy---the kind of box I can use for storing all sorts of things in an attractive, organized way. Here is a list of items that came in the summer box I received:




1. MPOWERED--Luci Solar String Lights. These cheerful, conveniently-packed lights are bright, decorative, and PERFECT for outdoors and camping trips.

2. Eco Eyewear--Avala Tortoise Cateye Sunglasses. Love, love, LOVE these stylish, lightweight glasses! I've been wearing them every time I go out and have received tons of compliments. They protect my eyes and flatter my face shape. Excellent!

3. Pepper + Vetiver--Set of 3 Nesting Bowls. Oh my goodness, these bowls are practical and look beautiful on my dinner table when I use them as serving dishes. 

4. Sanctuary Project--Thick Gold Hoops. These are my comfortable, go-to earrings. Since they are small hoops, I use them whenever I wear my hair in a ponytail or bun. 

5. Volim--Love Scrub. This amazing Microderm exfoliant is a 3-in-1 scrub with Hyaluronic, Red Tea, and Seaweed. My skin feels as smooth as a baby's butt after using it! 

6. Adesse New York-- Power Couple Nail Care Duo. This is a nail growth optimizer and cuticle oil duo. I just started using it, so it will be a bit before I see any results. Otherwise, I think it will work well on my nails because right now they need a lot of help. 


Also in my box was a comfy pair of Maggie's Organic Heathered Slouchy Socks (soooo soft!) and Wyld Konjac Facial Cleansing Sponge---which I have not tried yet. But judging by the hard, grainy surface, I think this sponge is up for the job! 

Interested in becoming a member of Alltrue to receive your seasonal box of goodies? This is how it works:   

Alltrue Membership "is a quarterly (4 times per year) membership - the box ships directly to you for free! There are 2 types of memberships: quarterly and annual

Quarterly Members pay $54.95 per season to receive their box. Annual Members pay $199.80 and commit to a full year in advance, which allows them access to better pricing ($49.95 per season; a $20 yearly savings), and Annual Members also get access to Box Customization, which means that they have access to choose their products in every choice category every season. Quarterly memberships have the opportunity to choose in up to three choice categories every season.


Both Quarterly and Annual Members get access to the seasonal Add-On Market, which is open for around a week at the start of every season. Members can shop the best socially conscious products at prices as low as 70% off! The add-on market has over 800 products from favorite household name brands – everything from toothpaste to handbags.


In addition, the members-only Essentials Shop just launched. The Essentials Shop is an always-open market featuring hundreds of replenishable household essentials, from the cleanest dish soap to the most sustainable toothpaste. Items purchased in the Essentials Shop will ship within two business days. More about the Alltrue membership can be found here.


Alltrue recently launched a podcast too! There are so many perks to the membership.

Alltrue’s curation commitments and 2020 impact report can be found here. Alltrue works with artisans worldwide and emphasizes the importance of women's empowerment."


I was very impressed with all of the products I received, most of which would be super expensive if bought individually. With the Alltrue Membership, you get a LOT of products for a much lower price, which makes it totally worth joining the community. Besides, it's a lot of fun to receive a box of goodies every season---like Christmas morning four times a year!


Interested in joining? You can become a member now and get their new fall box here: https://alltrue.com


Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Will Menopause Fatigue Last Forever?

One of the things I disliked most about menopause was the lack of energy I experienced. I was constantly tired and falling asleep in the middle of the day. It took a while, but I finally figured out how to get myself back on track. If you feel sleep-deprived, check out this great advice from the good folks at Bossa Bars Menopause Energy Bars


Will Menopause Fatigue Last Forever?

by Dr. LaReesa Ferdinand, MD OBGYN & Advisor,

Bossa Bars Menopause Energy Bars



“There will be plenty of time to sleep when you are dead.”  — Benjamin Franklin


Yikes! I’m sorry Benjamin Franklin, you may have been one of the greatest inventors and writers of American history, but obviously, you weren't speaking to menopausal women!


Sleep is literally the superfood that has the most impact.  The true nectar of life. The super fuel you need. Frankly, this is where the magic happens.


With the decline of vital hormones during menopause, sleep disturbances are very common. With the vicious cycle of sleep deprivation and the load of stress, it can take much of the joy and ease out of transitioning into menopause.


Research has found that those with higher perceived stress experienced shorter sleep durations. In fact, moderate to severe sleep deprivation produces impairments similar to alcohol intoxication, or blood alcohol levels of 0.05%.


Did you know that about 61% of menopausal women struggle with sleep issues?  This means that out of every 10 women around the age of menopause, 6 will have sleeping difficulties.


And maybe you’re one of them. You head to bed, exhausted. Yet, you toss and turn all night. Or you find yourself getting up every night between the hours of 2 and 3 am, struggling to fall back asleep. You then go about your day in a fog. You just don’t have the energy to function at your peak capacity. Ugh!


Enough is enough! 


3 Power Tips to Ease into Restful Sleep


1. Prioritize sleep at the top of your day


If you are a night owl, lean into that. Vice versa if you are an early bird.


Simply explained, set yourself up for sleep success. Go to bed and wake up at the same time. Be mindful of meals and excess snacking throughout your day. Limit caffeine to only before noon. Ideally, consume the least heavy meal toward the end of the day so your body has less of a detox burden during sleep. This improves energy for memory storage and creativity that you need to power through the next day. This is directly impacted by what you do and what you put in your body.


Here’s a nifty tip we often forget: adjust your supplements or medications since some may make you more drowsy versus alert. This forces your body into its natural circadian rhythm.



2. Maximize your sleep environment


Sleep is maximized on a light spectrum. Quiet, cold, and dark areas are ideal. Use a sleep mask to optimize darkness. Red light or specialty sleep bulbs help reduce excess blue light exposure. Avoid sleeping with the TV on or using electronic devices at least 1-2 hours before lights out. This is vital during bedtime to help melatonin, our sleep-inducing hormone, work its menomagic. The goal? You want to get your body out of a stressed state and transition more into a relaxed and calm one.



3. Track your sleep


The science about sleep may be up to the physicians and researchers, but you can still arm yourself with your own personal KPI (key performance indicators). To better evaluate adjustments and modifications in your sleep, following trends is an added bonus of what technology can do. This goes a step further than just total time spent asleep; it recognizes and brings daily awareness to patterns that you may miss. It connects the missing links between sleep duration and your body’s response during sleep stages, reactions to stress, and efficiency. These key insights can help navigate making the necessary adjustments to improve productivity and memory consolidation that is a natural defense system for cognitive decline as we age.


Let’s think about what goes on during a typical day. Our brain processes millions of movements, thoughts, and patterns, most of them without our awareness. However, one of the greatest energy expenditures occurs during sleep. This is the time when our cellular mitochondria, the powerhouses in our DNA, go to work orchestrating the repair and recovery productions. These repair mechanisms are controlled by the communication of our brain and body with our natural clocks, rhythms, and hormones.


But generally, when you’re stressed, sleep and high levels of energy don’t come easy.

Stress is one factor that can impact your telomere length.  Thus, stress can actually cause you to age faster (probably no surprise there) but it can also decrease your longevity. Sleep Disruptions can lead to a propensity toward obesity and metabolic disorders, and affect the extent to which we are able to express energy and harness our power to push through the next day. 


The goal? You want to get your body out of this stressed state. To do so, you want to look at optimizing your biological and bedroom environment. The lack of sleep impacts your daily energy, recovery and repair mechanisms, weight loss goals, cognitive performance, and immune system. 


Fatigue doesn't last forever if you are intentional about sleep. Start with these 3 steps as a foundation to sleep like a beauty, so you can go beast mode the next day. That’s menomagic

at work!

Check out the Bossa Bars Community here: https://bossabars.com/pages/community and use Code MENOBOSS10 for 10% off your first order!


Sources:


https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Association+between+Sleep+Duration+and+Perceived+Stress:+Salaried+Worker+in+Circumstances+of+High+Workload&hl=en


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5923838/


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2749064/


https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-017-1308-0#:~:text=Oxidative%20stress%20is%20associated%20with,and%20thus%20decrease%20telomere%20length


Codes of longevity. Be Ageless and Limitless. Dr. Melissa Grill Petersen. Contributing author Dr LaReesa Ferdinand, MD. December 2020.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4997656/


https://www.webmd.com/menopause/guide/sleep-disorders-sleep-menopause#1


https://www.sleepadvisor.org/sleep-statistics/



Friday, August 20, 2021

Fly On The Wall: All-Time Favorite Remarks Part 5


     Welcome to another edition of Fly On The Wall group blog postings hosted by Karen of Baking In A Tornado. Today, 4 bloggers are bravely opening their homes to you for a sneak peek at what goes on behind closed doors. 

     The fly buzzing around my home right now is eyeing my diet breakfast---forget it, buddy! I'm eating every scrap of that tiny portion of bland oatmeal myself. No sharing!


     In other news, I'm feeling quite cranky because lately, I've been dealing with a broken A/C unit (it's 89 degrees out), a picky editor, a carb-free meal plan (ugh!), and of COURSE, my cable TV & internet has been going in and out.  Soooooo....in my preoccupied state of mind, I haven't had much time to snatch up quirky comments from my family members. Instead, I will (hopefully) inject some humor into today's post by sharing some of my favorite remarks from past FOW blogs---this one coming at you from 2018 (May-Aug. posts). Enjoy!




"You need to put a heating pad on your leg."
"Did you say an EATING pad?"
"No! A HEATING pad."
"Well good, because an EATING pad would probably take a large chunk out of my calf."



"Our cockroaches in south Florida aren't just normal-sized bugs; they're chupacabras."

"I just cleaned out the vegetable drawer in the freezer. I found a three-year-old, fuzzy lime in there that required a hazmat team to remove it."

"The requirements for renewing my driver's license at the DMV are ridiculous. I need a ton of paperwork just to prove my identity. They might as well ask for a urine sample or the results from my 23 and Me test. But I draw the line on sperm samples!"



"I was thinking of baking a potato for dinner tonight."
"Idaho?"
"No, you-da-ho."

"I burn about 1000 calories every time I struggle to fit into this pair of Spandex."


"Guess what? My female finch just laid an egg in her cage!"
"So....we're having omelets tomorrow for breakfast?"

"


"It's amazing that the leatherback turtle can lay her eggs and then leave them to hatch on their own."
"I wish I could have done that with our four kids during their teen years."


"Stop sunbathing so much---your skin will end up looking as weathered as the paper the Constitution was written on."

"My spirit animal is a sparrow."
"Keep eating like that and it will be a manatee."

"You know your daughter loves you when she uses her own electric trimmer to help you pluck your eyebrows and your nose hairs."

     Well folks, wish me luck with the cranky AC, the fussy editor, and the sketchy internet. I'd love to pour myself a nice libation right about now, but this damn diet......ughhhhh..... 

***WANT MORE MENO MAMA? Check out my latest article for Always Pets HERE

 

Buzz around, see what you think, then click on these links for a peek into some other homes:

 

Baking In A Tornado                  

https://www.bakinginatornado.com/2021/08/hopping-on-the-couch.html

Never Ever Give Up Hope             https://batteredhope.blogspot.com

Menopausal Mother                   http://www.menopausalmom.com/

Wandering Web Designer      https://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog

What TF Sarah                     https://crazymamallama.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

6 Ways Younger Women Can Prepare For Menopause

I get it---you're young and not really thinking about menopause yet. You're probably still dealing with periods and buying feminine products in bulk from the store. But guess what? Menopause is coming sooner or later, so you might as well start preparing for it. Today on the blog, the content team at Sophia & Grace has some great tips on preparation for menopause to share with you!


6 Ways Younger Women Can Prepare for Menopause


If you’re a young woman, menopause probably seems a long way off — but it might be closer than you think. Some women begin having early symptoms in their 30s and even their 20s, and it’s never too early to start preparing for menopause. Here are six things you can do right now, no matter how young you are, to start preparing for the transition to menopause to be as smooth as possible:


  1. Learn about menopause.

The first thing you can do to learn about menopause is to learn about it! Menopause is often treated as such a hush-hush topic that you may know very little about it, if at all. Most doctors also receive minimal-to-no training about menopause — especially if they don’t work in
gynecology, so they may not actually be as much help as you might think. Seek out trusted information from sources such as Medline Plus, the National Institute on Aging, and others. While there’s a certain level of disinformation on the internet, if you stick to trusted sources you can learn a lot about menopause with a quick Google search. You might be surprised to discover what you didn’t know about menopause and bloating, incontinence, and more.


  1. Don’t forget perimenopause either!

While menopause isn’t super well-known, perimenopause is even more mysterious to many women. Perimenopause begins when you start to experience certain signs that indicate menopause is incoming, such as irregular periods. While perimenopause starts when most women are in their 40s, for some, it can happen as early as their 30s — and it can last for years prior to fully entering menopause. Learning about the symptoms of perimenopause, how to identify when you might be perimenopausal, and the difference between menopause and perimenopause will go a long way towards helping you get menopause information early and often once you do finally enter into this life phase.


  1. Check out your hormone levels.

Perimenopause and menopause occur due to changing levels of the hormones, mostly estrogen, produced by your ovaries. That amount of change is relative because everyone has a different natural baseline of hormones. What’s normal for you may be low or high for another woman. It can be hard to tell just how much your hormones are fluctuating later in life if you don’t get tested before you enter perimenopause. One thing you can do to prepare for menopause as a young woman is to get your hormones tested so that you know what your baseline is. This involves drawing a tiny amount of blood and sending it to a lab for chemical analysis. Your primary care physician can order this kind of test for you. Make sure to ask for a copy of your results and store it safely with your other medical files so you can refer to it in later years.


  1. Talk to your older female relatives.

Each person does experience menopause in a unique way, but there will likely be certain similarities between you and your relatives based on genetics. Talking to your mom, aunts, grandmothers, and any other older female relatives about their own menopausal experience will give you a better idea of what you personally might experience later down the line. It will also help you identify if there is any family history of menopause-associated medical problems. Bear in mind that some of your older female relatives might be a bit reticent to talk about their menopausal experiences. It’s still kind of a taboo topic now, and it was even more so in past years, so they may not be comfortable talking about women’s health issues yet. Explain to them why you’re asking these questions and listen with an open mind.



  1. Establish healthy habits now.

Many of the recommendations for menopause relief will come as no surprise: eat a balanced diet, maintain a healthy weight, exercise regularly, stay hydrated, get enough sleep, and so on. However, you don’t have to wait until menopause starts to begin building these healthy habits! In fact, it will be easier to cope with menopause if you already have these building blocks in place. It can be hard to suddenly start an exercise routine or overhaul your diet as you’re trying to deal with hot flashes and night sweats. If you start making these changes now, it will be one less thing you have to deal with whenever you actually enter menopause. Plus, it can help lessen your symptoms before they even begin.


  1. Be open about women’s health issues.

Part of the reason why menopause isn’t talked about openly is that our society has a culture of minimizing or ignoring women’s health issues, including menstruation, fertility and pregnancy, and other issues. This culture can only change by everyone being more open about discussing women’s health — not only menopause, but also periods, birth, and more. You can be a part of this shift by talking about women’s health issues in your trusted circles, such as close family members and friends. Menopause isn’t something shameful to be hidden away or ignored. It’s a natural part of aging that every woman will grow through once she gets old enough. By talking about it more openly, you can help others grow comfortable with the idea as well.


Small changes that you make now can really make a difference later in life in terms of easing your menopause experience. It’s never too early to start preparing for menopause, and you can do just that starting with the seven items on this list.



Friday, August 13, 2021

Hormone-Free Relief From Hot Flashes And Night Sweats With Relizen


*Bonafide is the sponsor of this post*


The first time I experienced a hot flash, I ran over to check the thermostat, convinced that it

was broken or that someone had dialed up the heat to rival the sun's

temperature. But according to my house, the air conditioner was working just fine, sitting at a cool 74 degrees. 


The hot flashes started happening again more frequently over the next few days and began disturbing my sleep. I woke several times a night on bedsheets that were soaked with sweat.

The internal flashes of heat were so intense that it felt like I was sleeping

over a BBQ grill, the flame roasting me to a nice medium-rare each evening.

 

At 50 years old, I still had my period but noticed that my cycle had become irregular. I blamed it on my recent weight gain and just shrugged it off. However, the symptoms didn't stop there; my family noticed that I was more irritable, moody, and exhausted from bouts of insomnia. A visit to my doctor quickly confirmed what I was reluctant to admit---that I was in the throes of menopause. 


According to The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), hot flashes are reported by as many as 75% of perimenopausal women in the U.S. The average length of these symptoms can last anywhere from 6 months to 2 years. For others, it is closer to 3-5 years, and in some cases, like mine, the hot flashes continued sporadically for 10 years or more.

 

My mother's generation seldom discussed "the change of life" due to the stigma surrounding

menopause, as if it were something to be ashamed of. It was a taboo subject and

considered improper for discussion, leaving most women on their own to deal

with the uncomfortable symptoms they were experiencing. Furthermore, society

has often looked upon this phase of woman's life as the end of their vibrancy, believing

that aging and menopause rendered them invisible. 



Thankfully, women today have broken through the stigma surrounding menopause and now have the freedom to candidly discuss their physical and emotional struggles. This openness has led to more scientific research and the discovery of solutions to help reduce the severity or even eliminate disruptive symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, fatigue, weight gain, vaginal dryness, loss of libido, brain fog, anxiety, and depressed moods which have often been linked to menopause.

 

Hot flashes occur when blood vessels near the skin's surface expand to cool off. This creates a sudden burst of sweat which may be accompanied by a rapid heart rate and chills. When

hot flashes occur during sleep, they're called night sweats and very often

prevent women from getting a good night's rest.1 

 

Several things during menopause can trigger the onset of hot flashes, such as stress, heat, alcohol, smoking, caffeine, spicy foods, and tight clothing. But there are plenty of

non-surgical and non-prescription alternatives for combatting the intensity and

frequency of hot flashes. Regular exercise, change of diet, lightweight

clothing and natural supplements are often suitable preventative measures for

decreasing the unpleasant side effects of menopause.



One powerful product for dealing with hot flashes and night sweats is Relizen, a supplement that provides hormone-free relief to women so that they can stay cool and dry both
day and night. Safe and effective, Relizen is also recommended by 7,600 doctors for reducing the severity and intensity of these specific menopausal symptoms and for helping women to achieve better rest and less fatigue.* Made with plant-based ingredients, Relizen works with your body’s internal thermostat to give your body back its natural ability to regulate its temperature, without the side effects that can occur with prescription medications. Survey data from clinical studies show that most women who tried Relizen experienced relief from their hot flashes and night sweats by month three.2

 

If you are interested in reducing irritability, fatigue, and improving your sleep*, Relizen is now

available for only $35 a month when you subscribe and can be conveniently purchased HERE using this promo code MARCIA25. Follow the directions by taking 2 of the easy-to-swallow tablets daily for at least 2 months to achieve the best results. 

 

 

Rescources

  1. https://www.webmd.com/menopause/guide/menopause-hot-flashes

  2. https://hellobonafide.com/products/relizen

 


 

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