Prepping Your Peri Body (And Mind) For What's Coming
Last week we talked about grieving the version of you that used to exist. This week I want to shift gears a little and get practical. Because whether we're ready or not, the holidays are almost here.
My Peri Journey
And listen. I say this as someone who's about to walk into her first holiday season without her dad. I'm feeling it. I know a lot of you are too, for your own reasons. Grief. Estrangement. Empty seats. Complicated family stuff. The holidays surface everything.
They also disrupt everything else. Your routine. Your sleep. Your food. Your alcohol. Your workouts. Your mental load.
In a younger body, you could throw all of that in a blender for six weeks and bounce back in January. In a peri body? Not so much.
So this week, I want to help you get ahead of it. Not with a 47-point plan you'll abandon by Halloween. Just one small thing. Which is what we do here.
The Biology Bit - Dr. Flora's Notes:
Picture it. It's mid-December. You've been eating differently for two weeks. Drinking more wine than usual because there's an event every other night. Sleeping in unfamiliar beds. Managing family dynamics that would test a saint.
And your peri body is doing what a peri body does under all of that. Cranking cortisol. Spiking blood sugar. Disrupting sleep. Holding onto fat like it's preparing for winter (which, as far as your biology is concerned, is exactly what's happening).
Here's what's happening. Every disruption compounds in peri because your hormones no longer smooth things out. A late night for you isn't just a late night. It's a late night that spikes cortisol, tanks your sleep quality, spikes your appetite the next day, and takes 3-4 days to fully recover from instead of one. Same for a heavy meal. Same for a hard conversation. Same for an extra glass of wine.
That is not you being fragile. That is a peri body that needs a slightly different holiday than the one you're used to.
And that includes your mind. Because holidays aren't just physical. They're emotional. They surface the missing seats. The old dynamics. The versions of ourselves we're trying to grow past. If you're grieving anything this year (a person, a season, a version of you), the holidays are going to find that grief and press on it.
That's not something to fix. It's something to prepare for.
This Week's Reset
One small thing I want you to do this week:
Pick ONE non-negotiable to keep through the holidays. Just one.
The habit: Look at what has been working for you lately. Your morning walk. Your 10pm wind-down. Your no-alcohol-on-work-nights rule. Your Sunday reset.
Whatever it is. Pick one. Just one. And decide right now that you're keeping it through the entire holiday season. Not everything. Not most things. The ONE thing you know keeps you grounded.
Write it down. Text it to a friend. Whatever helps you commit. This is your anchor. Everything else can shift.
And for the emotional layer: give yourself permission now to skip one thing you don't have to do. One party. One tradition. One obligation. Grief and peri and holiday season is a lot to carry at once. You're allowed to put something down.
Hit reply and tell me your non-negotiable. I'll share mine.
Ready to Get Yourself Back?
If you're heading into the holidays not sure what your body actually needs right now, the fastest way to figure that out is my free Perimenopause Pattern Assessment. It maps what's actually driving your symptoms so your holiday game plan isn't a guessing game.
P.S. November brings new territory for me. First holidays without my dad. I'm figuring it out one week at a time and sharing what I'm learning as I go. Thanks for being here.
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