I hear this a lot from clients, and indeed have experienced this myself.
You sit down to get something done, open your laptop, and your eyes start closing.
Or maybe you make it through the afternoon, but only with coffee and something sweet.
When your energy levels feel inconsistent, everything takes more effort. Work, family life, making dinner, even deciding what to make for dinner. It can leave you wondering where the old you has gone.
Feeling exhausted every day deserves some attention. Here are a few useful places to start.
First, don't automatically blame menopause
Menopause can be part of the picture, particularly when symptoms disrupt your sleep. But fatigue can also have other causes, including medicines, stress, anaemia, thyroid problems and sleep disorders.
If tiredness has lasted a few weeks, affects everyday life or comes with other symptoms, book a GP appointment. Mention snoring, gasping during sleep or excessive daytime sleepiness, even if you think you sleep for enough hours.
Look at what happens before the slump
Think back over your morning.
What did you have for breakfast? Did you even have breakfast? Was lunch a proper meal, or whatever you could eat while answering emails? Have you had anything to drink apart from coffee?
For the next few days, make a note of your meal times, sleep and when your energy dips.
Make lunch something you can rely on
A useful starting point is a meal with a source of good-quality protein, some carbohydrate and vegetables or fruit.
That could be:
A jacket potato with beans and a side salad
Eggs on wholegrain toast with tomatoes
Leftover chicken or tofu with rice and vegetables
Lentil soup with bread and a yoghurt
Take a look at my recent Instagram post on quick lunches.
If you're hungry between meals, have a snack. Fruit with yoghurt, oatcakes with hummus, or wholemeal toast with peanut butter are all practical options.
Give yourself an afternoon pause
Go for a quick walk after lunch. Have some water. Take a few minutes to get back into work mode.
And keep an eye on when you have your last coffee of the day. Late caffeine can definitely make bedtime harder.
Choose 1 change this week
Don’t try and change everything at once – that never works!
Pick 1 thing you can work on this week, then once that becomes a habit you can pick the next thing to work on.
Perhaps you can focus on a good-quality, protein-rich breakfast this week.
Or go for a 10-min walk every day after lunch.
Or no coffee after 2pm.
If you feel like you’d benefit from some help getting started, then please book a free Midlife Wellbeing Call with me HERE, and we can talk about what you're finding difficult and whether working together would suit you.