Morning Routine for Menopause: Energy and Strength at 52

Nikkiey: This is my morning routine as a 52-year-old who's been in the fitness industry for over 30 years. Every single step is built around one goal: giving a menopausal body exactly what it needs to thrive today. So if you're a woman over 40 who feels like you're doing everything right and still not seeing results, this video is for you. Stay until the end, because step three is the one most women get completely backwards, and it might be the reason you're stuck.

Before I walk you through my routine, I want you to understand why mornings matter so much more once you hit your 40s and 50s, because nobody tells you this and it completely changes how I approach my day. What actually happens every single morning is cortisol naturally spikes when you wake up. It's the hormone that gets you out of bed. But for women in menopause, that spike is bigger. This means the first 60 to 90 minutes of your day are either working with that cortisol spike or piling more on top of it.

Before I figured all of this out, I would just fight and fight against what I could tell my body actually needed. I thought if I pushed harder, I'd be able to get more done. I was actually sabotaging my days. Sometimes I was jumping straight into 90 minutes of cardio, black coffee before anything else, and then eating nothing until 1 p.m.

So let me start at the very beginning. Step one starts the night before, but it shows up in how you wake up. I wake up at 7 a.m. consistently, even on weekends. Before I grab my phone or make coffee, I check three things on my Oura Ring. I always check the amount of sleep. I've learned that sleep quality genuinely changes in menopause: lighter cycles, more wake-ups, less REM. Once I started treating my sleep like the foundation it is, the rest of the routine started working in a way that it never had before. Most women over 50 are operating consistently on poor sleep and don't even realize how much it's costing them.

What I do the first 30 minutes after waking is what I really want to get into. The very first thing I do when I get out of bed, even before coffee, is immediately drink 24 ounces of water. My cortisol is already elevated, so I don't go straight for the caffeine. I give my nervous system time to wake up naturally before I stimulate it further. If it's warm outside, I go out there and put my bare feet on the grass so I get morning sunlight and spend some time grounding. I spend some time journaling or I'll do a guided meditation. I focus on gratitude and visualization, and just let my mind naturally wake up. I know a lot of people don't have this time, but I try to find time. It makes a difference.

Then comes my green juice, my gut health, my macronutrients, along with collagen and creatine. I want to talk about creatine for a second, because women over 40 are massively underusing it. On days that I have a lot of meetings and need to be mentally sharp, or if I've lacked sleep the night before, sometimes just doubling up my creatine, I notice a huge improvement in my cognitive function. Creatine is not only great for muscle building and body support, but more and more studies are showing how important it is for your mind and your cognitive function.

Here's where we get into the part of the morning that most women get completely wrong, and I know because I got it wrong for over a decade. I spent five years eating in a four-hour eating window. I thought I was being disciplined by skipping breakfast, fasting through my entire morning, working out on nothing, and then finally eating at 1 p.m. I did this for five years, and my body, after cooperating for a while, completely stopped responding to this. What I didn't realize was the stress it was putting my body through and how I had to fight even harder to stay within that eating window. I had to really fight to put on muscle because my energy was lacking in the gym.

Now I eat an hour after waking up, and I'm very specific about what I eat. I like to split up my protein throughout the day. I usually get 35 to 40 grams of protein: eggs, mostly egg whites. That protein in the morning is a non-negotiable for me. Eating enough protein early sets your blood sugar up for the entire day. Then 35 to 40 grams of carbohydrates, usually oatmeal, fruit, some whole food.

By this point, my morning cortisol has naturally come down, and a coffee gives me a push for the gym without sending my nervous system into overdrive. This was a hard one for me to get hold of. I was used to really pushing through, or if I did any sprint training or cardio, really feeling drained.

Everything I'm sharing in this video, from the nutrition to the training to the way I fuel this body at 52, is all built on the macro method. It's specifically designed for how a menopausal body actually works, and it's helped thousands of women go from being stuck for years to finally losing the stomach fat and building real strength in their 50s. So if you want to download it for free, the link is in the description.

Next is where I have to tell you about the shift that I genuinely believe is the reason my body looks and feels better at 52 than it did in my 30s and 40s. I go to the gym most mornings. It energizes me. It gives me clarity for the rest of my workday. But if an early meeting takes priority, I just adjust and go later. When I'm there, I lift with intensity, but I'm not rushing. I'm enjoying my time there. I never go without a plan. If I'm in a hurry, I can usually get it done in 45 to 60 minutes. But I don't like to rush through. I like to take my time. I like to rest in between my sets so that when I am lifting, I can do it with the intensity and the purpose I need to make my body adapt, and really put that stimulus on the muscle so I can build and grow.

The last thing I do when I get home from the gym is honestly the most important part of my entire morning. After everything I went through mentally, the antidepressants, the depression, the thoughts I never want to go back to, this part of my morning is not optional. One of my first signs of declining estrogen, progesterone and testosterone was the depression that set in. The anxiety that set in. The worry that I could never explain. I would go to bed with this worry. I would wake up with nightmares, thinking it meant something. I would ruminate all night about conversations that happened during the day. Everything felt too big to handle. That is what lack of hormones will do to a person.

What I do now is simple, but it changed everything. First, I make my bed. I get to start with a win. I go outside: bare feet on the grass, morning sun on my face. I do meditation, which includes prayer, a gratitude focus and visualization. Sometimes I journal and get stuff out on paper.

That's my entire morning routine, to start my day off with momentum, to stay on top of my goals, and to build energy and strength throughout the day. If you're ready to take what I've shared today further, the macro method is the nutrition and training foundation I'd point any woman to who's done guessing and ready to build a body that actually works for her at this stage in life. It's already helped thousands of women over 40 find out exactly what their bodies need. Take Tina, for example, who was able to lose over 35 pounds in just a few months. Or Paige, who was able to go from eating 1,088 calories to thriving at 2,280 calories in under a year. Thanks for watching.