Shannon Peterson

In my 20's & 30's, I exercised constantly & intensely, successfully qualifying and competing in the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon World Championships - 3X and completing 40 marathons by age 40.

And I did it as a fat and protein-phobic woman - eating mostly fruits and vegetables. So as a personal trainer, when women 10-25 years older than me were complaining they'd gained 20 pounds "overnight", even though the weren't doing anything differently - I honestly thought they weren't trying hard enough.

And then age 48, perimenopause hit.

I finally understood the complaints of my female clients all these years - my body was no longer responding to what traditionally worked to keep me looking and feeling my best.

I was gaining weight, feeling lethargic, demotivated, and honestly pretty pissed off -- all the time. And this was not okay with me because 50% of our lives can happen AFTER perimenopause.

So I delved into the newest research finally being done on hormonally shifted women and realized my old tactics for exercise and nutrition weren't working for a reason... we metabolize calories differently and lose muscle and bone at an alarmingly high rate when estrogen drops.

The only way to feel good again, to feel like me again, was to flip the "eat less and exercise more" decades-old script. And it worked! Not just for me, but for all of my female clients, too.

My 40 & 50 year olds have more energy in the time of life when many women are both mom's and parental caretakers, working full-time -- being Wonder Woman.

My 60 & 70 year olds can see their muscles again and their waistbands no longer feel tight. My Gramma completed her first 5K at age 86.

So while menopause is inevitable, feeling like sh*t is not.

Women have more control over their physical and mental health than we've ever been lead to believe.