Nouriched: Eat, Move and Rest Your way to Wellness

Earlier today I read Lisa Hanna’s Jamaica Observer article on why she weight lifts. It inspired me to pick my pen back up. I decided to continue my “Peri-menopausal March” series because my own recent journey with muscle-building has been yielding modest, yet positive results.

For those of you who don’t know, Lisa Hanna is a Jamaican politician and past Ms. World (1993). She’s now 49 and looks just as amazing as she did at 19. This line from Ms. Hanna stood out:

Recently I was invited to speak on a panel about perimenopause. I had to respectfully decline. Not because the topic is irrelevant, but because I’m not experiencing the symptoms that typically define that stage of life for some women my age. No hot flashes. No mood swings. No fatigue. I believe that my long commitment to lifting weights, combined with mindful nutrition and movement, has helped me move through this life stage with more ease than many women are told to expect.

– Lisa Hanna, “Lifting Heavy weights and why more women should start earlier”, 2025.

She’s 100% right.

It was only after some turbulent teenage years, a PCOS diagnosis, and a life in my 20s that can only be compared to a 70 yr old’s rapid decline to the grave, that I made some changes. I optimized my nutrition (nouriched “EAT” pillar) and stress (nouriched “REST” pillar) until I reversed my diagnosis!

What I didn’t do was optimize exercise (nouriched “MOVE” pillar) – particularly weight lifting. When I moved, it was restorative for stress management. Furthermore I was “lean” and struggling to gain weight at different points in my life. Now, that I am preparing for my 40s and the normal shift into perimenopause, I have decided to shift my fat-to-muscle ratio. Its no secret: normal BMI or not, many of us are predisposed to metabolic syndrome. This is not because we’re fat, but because we are “under-muscled”.

Dr. Jen Gunter, OB-GYN and menopause myth-buster extraordinaire, says it best: “Muscle is protective.” As estrogen levels start their slow rollercoaster descent during perimenopause and menopause, our bodies become more vulnerable to things like insulin resistance, bone loss, and unwanted weight gain. But here’s the good news—building and maintaining muscle can help buffer all of that.

The Science in a Nutshell:

Muscle helps with metabolic health.
As estrogen declines, our risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes increases. Muscle tissue improves how your body uses glucose, keeping blood sugar steady and energy high.

Muscle supports bone health.
We lose bone density with age, but resistance training stimulates both muscle and bone. More muscle? Less breakage risk.

Muscle increases resting metabolism.
Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does. That means your body works more efficiently just by existing. Yes, please.

Muscle helps with mobility, balance, and independence.
Who wants to struggle with stairs or lifting luggage at 55? Not you. Functional strength now = freedom later.

Whether you’re 35 and prepping for perimenopause, or 50 and in the thick of it, it’s never too late. You can pick up some weights (or your body weight) and build that muscle. It’s not about getting bulky—it’s about getting strong where it counts.

As Dr. Gunter says, “The best time to start strength training is yesterday. The second-best time is today.”