Owning Your Menopause: Fitter, Calmer, Stronger in 30 Days –  by Kate Rowe-Ham

Likely written in response to the popularity of “Thinner, Leaner, Stronger”, this book has different goals: being fitter, calmer, and stronger.

Which, at the end of the day, must surely be an improvement. While society certainly wants us (women in general, and at least some men) to be thinner and leaner, it’s not always what’s best for us, whereas fitter and calmer? It’s hard to go wrong with that.

Much of the book is given over to detailing the processes involved in menopause, and the ways in which changes can be managed with diet, exercise, and other lifestyle interventions. For example, the author herself quit alcohol partially because she knew it was sabotaging her hormone metabolism (amongst many other things, of course). She also recommends HRT and discusses it in depth, but notes that there are some exceptions, details those too, and leaves us to make our own decisions in consultation with our own medical providers.

The “30 days” in the subtitle refers to an exercise plan and meal plan, and yes, the latter includes recipes. The recipes themselves are a little on the basic side for this reviewer’s taste, but then, perhaps that leaves room for personalization, so it is not so bad.

You’ll notice that we haven’t talked a lot about “calmer”, the reason is that neither does she; it’s mostly a recurrent theme presented as a result of following the other advices, and thus getting to better health in a stress-free fashion. She does discuss recovery and sleep, though.

The style is light pop-science, as one might expect from someone who is a personal trainer by career, not a research scientist or medical doctor. The author is British, so you will see spellings such as “oestrogen”, but we’ll trust this is not an insurmountable barrier to understanding.

Bottom line: if you are navigating menopause and want to stay healthy (or maybe even level up your health and fitness), this book can help with that.

Click here to check out Owning Your Menopause, and get fitter, calmer, and stronger in 30 days!