Why Blog - Oversharing About the Menopausal Journey

In person, I'm a fairly private person. Most of the people I know firsthand don't know I write, though a few close family members know I write for one site or another - just not how many - and a few close friends know I write for large businesses - but the personal stuff. like this blog - my secret - in other words, no one in my "real" life knows about Fat and Cranky.


This is because I like the sense of being able to honestly just say whatever's on my mind - sure - it's not total anonymity, but it's pretty close.


Even with as old as I am, someone is always trying to run my life and tell me what to do. I get that it's because they care about my best interest - at least sometimes - but it still leaves me completely isolated ans alone - no matter how many people are around me.


But, you know what? If I haven't handed the reins over to anyone in 51 years, I'm probably not going to now - and this leaves me without one single person in the world I can talk to - so I share here - information I find about menopause or weight loss - my feelings - in the hope someone will stumble across the site and either be inspired by my efforts to be healthy, or feel like they've found a friend in a  world that can be really cold and hard, or that information I have found in my own quest to be healthier during menopause can help someone else.


I recently made an appointment with an attorney to discuss divorcing my husband of over 20 years. It wasn't an easy call to make - I cried, holding the phone and looking at the number I had entered for a long time before hitting send - and it would be so easy to chicken out and just stay here - unhappy - but without the nastiness of a divorce. I haven't met with him yet, but I'm sure after I do, I'll be back here, oversharing, because it's part of the journey and it's authentic. A lot of women find themselves on one end or the other of divorce during menopause.


Do you ever feel like that? like there's not a single person in the world you can talk to?  If you need to share but would like to do so in anonymity for reasons like mine, feel free to drop an email to info@fatandcranky.com and - with your permission to share - we will share  your story here under a pseudonym.

Do Menopause Supplements Help?

I will share my experience, but would really like to hear your thoughts on this... Have you tried taking supplements to ease menopause symptoms?

As a person who gets sick (I actually vomit) after taking regular, everyday multivitamins, I was really skeptical about the idea of taking menopause supplements.

I did a little research to find out which supplements I needed most for my symptoms - mainly crankiness and weight gain - and the home remedies that came up the most often for me were green tea capsules, evening primrose oil (which didn't surprise me because it used to calm my PMS symptoms completely when I took it regularly. My results were mixed - or maybe I should say indefinite... I felt about the same but I quit taking them after about four weeks, so I didn't really give them a fair chance.

I also jumped on the green coffee bean extract wagon to help with quicker weight loss - it worked for me - really quickly - but I didn't stick with it long either - I just don't like taking pills.

I have also heard great things about some of the blended supplements, available in pharmacies, that contain black cohosh.

How about you? Have you tried any of these blended supplements, and if you have, do you recommend them based on your experience?