Monthly Archives: September 2013

Heart Health During and After Menopause

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Constadina Zarokostas-Vasiliades

First Published in April 2013 at: http://menopausemission.com/heart-health-during-and-after-menopause

You suffered for years with hot flashes, crazy constant weight gain and loss, unpredictable mood swings, and finally your menopause symptoms are beginning to stop. You spent years increasing your exercise regime and following a healthier lifestyle to decrease your menopause symptoms, and now you are at the home stretch, getting better sleep, not snapping at the tiniest irritations coming from your family, and feeling close to your normal self again. Ahhhh, time to celebrate with a piece of chocolate cake!   Continue reading →

Spring Clean Your Body & Balance Your Hormones with a Little Dandelion

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Constadina Zarokostas-Vasiliades

First published in March 2013 at: http://menopausemission.com/spring-clean-your-body-balance-your-hormones-with-a-little-dandelion

Dandelion
Dandelion

When you were a child I’m sure at some point when you saw dandelions you probably thought of them as a weed your parents hated seeing in their grass, but you loved it when they dried so you could blow all the seeds away into the wind like most kids…. I on the other hand, as a first-generation Greek kid, grew up with parents who didn’t use weed killer on them, but dug them up from the grass and used the leaves as food.  Sometimes we would even venture off into the cattle farm-land outside our home city and raid the edges of farmer’s fields in the spring time and relieve them of all their dandelions.  We would collect so many grocery bags full of these dandelion leaves that we would clean and freeze whatever we couldn’t eat by the end of the week, so we would have them throughout the year.   Continue reading →

Hormone Disruptors in your Personal Care Products and the Effects on your Body

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Constadina Zarokostas-Vasiliades

First published in February 2013 at – http://menopausemission.com/hormone-disruptors-in-your-personal-care-products-and-the-effects-on-your-body

In my previous article, Exercise for Better Menopausal Health, I wrote about how hormones are affected during menopause and the importance of exercise to release toxins from the body, as well as get the body’s hormone levels back in balance to decrease and prevent a number of symptoms of menopause.  Your body’s hormone levels are so unpredictable when you don’t take an active role in keeping them in balance, which could lead to extreme reactions in your body such as severe depression and weight gain.  Although we can’t control the toxins in the air we breathe that can affect hormone levels, we can control the toxins, chemicals, and hormone disruptors that can get in our bodies when it comes to choosing cosmetics, face and body creams, as well as soap and bath products.   Continue reading →

Exercise for Better Menopausal Health

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Constadina Zarokostas-Vasiliades

First Published in January 2013 at – http://menopausemission.com/exercise-for-better-menopausal-health

Exercise is a tricky topic when it comes to Menopause. It all has to do with the hormones. For those who lead highly stressful lifestyles when going through menopause, vigorous exercise actually has a counter effect and does not help the body release its fat because the body feels it is under more stress. Don’t take that as an excuse not to exercise, it’s the type of exercise you do during menopause that makes a difference in shedding fat.   Continue reading →

Menopausal Healthy Holiday Season

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Constadina Zarokostas-Vasiliades

First published in December 2012 at – http://menopausemission.com/menopausal-healthy-holiday-season

You’ve been trying to get control over all the changes your body is going through and now it’s the holiday season and you are overwhelmed with the thought that eating healthy and finding ways to exercise and relax are out of the question this holiday season.  Don’t fret, there are a few things you can do amongst the chaos of the holiday season to help you from going overboard and help you ease into the New Year without feeling completely guilty that you overindulged.  Remember getting your body in balance does not happen overnight and certainly is not easy to begin over the holiday season. Here is where you can begin your first steps:   Continue reading →

Effort and Patience – The Crucial Keys to Menopausal Health

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Constadina Zarokostas-Vasiliades

First published at www.menomission.com in November 2012  http://menopausemission.com/effort-and-patience-the-crucial-keys-to-menopausal-health

This is the first of a series on changing your life step by step during menopause. Look for the next article, Menopausal Healthy Holiday Season.

How serious are you about feeling better and overcoming the physical, mental and psychological changes that go along with menopause? This is the question you have to ask yourself, and if you truly want to feel good again, keep reading. If you are going to be selective and not going to put in the effort to work on every aspect of your life stop reading here, don’t waste your time, you are likely to continue feeling bad. There are no short cuts to a healthy life, so know that when you put 100% effort in getting your body in balance you will see results. You just need a little patience, results will not be seen overnight.   Continue reading →

Meditation for a Balanced Life

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Constadina Zarokostas-Vasiliades

First Published at http://menopausemission.com/author/constadina-vasiliades/page/2         September 2012

Far too often when people hear the word “meditation” images of a toga-draped Buddhist sitting in an incense-filled room chanting “OM” comes to mind, but the main goal of meditation is in fact to shut off the mind and focus on breathing.  Our daily lives consist of a variety of stresses leading to us unconsciously holding our breath when we feel tension. This briefly prevents oxygen from getting to our brains, sometimes making us dizzy, confused, and disoriented, and sometimes more stressed.  Stress has a major effect on our hormones and when you are at the stage in your life where you are either about to enter menopause or already going through it, adding one more factor to change your hormone levels can in fact influence how your body copes with various menopause symptoms.   Continue reading →