Nourishing Your Body After 45/55/65 Food, Energy and Finding Balance
I’ve been interested in nutrition and wellbeing for most of my adult life, and one thing I’ve become increasingly sure about is that eating well doesn’t have to be complicated. We are surrounded by diets, rules, conflicting advice and promises of quick results, and I think it’s very easy to lose touch with something much simpler: learning how to nourish our bodies well.
My interest in food led me to study Nutritional Healing for a year and later to explore Ayurveda as part of my wider wellbeing training. I love the fact that Ayurveda has been thinking about food, digestion, lifestyle and our individual differences for thousands of years. I don’t treat traditional Ayurvedic ideas as a replacement for modern nutritional science, but I do think they can encourage us to become more curious about how different foods and routines make us feel.
As women move through their 40s, 50s and beyond, our nutritional needs deserve attention too. If we’re strength training, for example, we need to make sure we’re actually giving our bodies what they need to recover and maintain muscle. Protein becomes an important part of that picture, alongside plenty of vegetables and fruit, fibre, healthy fats, carbohydrates, hydration and a varied diet.
But food is also about pleasure. I really don’t like the idea that becoming fit means spending the rest of your life on a restrictive diet. Food is part of family, friendship, celebration and enjoyment. I think the aim is to find a way of eating that supports your health and energy but that you can also genuinely live with.
I’m particularly interested in the connection between food and energy. Sometimes we automatically reach for something sweet because we’re exhausted, when what our body may actually be telling us is that we haven’t eaten enough, we’re dehydrated, we’re stressed or we simply need to rest. Becoming more aware of those signals can help us make choices rather than constantly feeling that we’re fighting against ourselves.
I also encourage people to slow down a little when they eat. We often eat while looking at our phones, working, watching television or rushing to the next thing. Simply sitting down, noticing our food and giving ourselves time to eat can completely change the experience. This is one of the things I like about bringing mindfulness into nutrition eating becomes something we participate in rather than something we barely notice.
And then there’s weight. Of course some women come to me because they would like to lose weight, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having that goal. But I don’t want the scales to be the only measure of success. If you’re becoming stronger, building muscle, feeling fitter, sleeping better, having more energy and feeling more confident in your body, those changes matter enormously too.
My approach to nutrition is therefore very similar to my approach to exercise. I’m not looking for perfection. I’m looking for things we can do consistently.
Can we add a little more protein? Can we eat more plants? Can we drink more water? Can we cook more often? Can we notice our portion sizes? Can we recognise when we’re genuinely hungry and when we’re eating because we’re tired, stressed or bored?
Small changes repeated over time can become something much bigger.
I want women to feel that food is something that supports them rather than something they have to constantly control. We can nourish ourselves, enjoy our food and still have goals around our health, fitness and body composition.
For me, wellbeing isn’t about eating perfectly.
It’s about learning to listen to your body, understanding what it needs and giving it the nourishment and care it deserves.
Selena Personal Trainer, Yoga Teacher & Wellbeing Coach In Flow Wellbeing Studio, Cheltenham
