How Has Life Shaped You? Midlife weight gain is not only what you eat.

If you’re like most women I work with, you’ve probably been watching your body since you were a teenager. Trying to stay in shape. Trying to do the right thing. Trying to feel good in your skin. Note the notion - Try…

Then midlife arrives. You may not be doing anything dramatically different, but your shape begins to shift. Your clothes fit differently. Your digestion feels off. Your body is changing, discomfort feeling and questioning who am I now… and you are not sure why.

From a Chinese medicine perspective, these shifts are not random or just about food or the old calorie in calorie out math. They often reflect how life itself has shaped you. What you have carried, what you have pushed through without time to process. What you have held in and mostly what we hold onto. .

This medicine looks beneath the surface.

We look at the Spleen, the organ system responsible for digestion and transformation. It does more than process food — it processes the ongoing demands of life. Worry, overthinking, cold foods, erratic meals and emotional overload can all weaken the Spleen. When it becomes tired, you might feel sluggish, puffy, heavy or emotionally stuck.

We look at the Liver, which governs the smooth flow of energy, emotions and movement. When life has asked you to stay still, to hold in your anger or put others first, the Liver often gets stuck. This can show up as irritability, bloating, tightness in the body or weight that seems to come out of nowhere.

And we look at the nervous system, through the lens of Qi. If you have been running on empty for years, your system may be braced — alert, tense and unable to settle. This keeps you disconnected from your natural cues. You might not know if you are hungry or full, tired or wired, calm or just pushing through.

So what does the body do?

It holds on, more….
To water, to waste, to pressure, things unsaid or unexpressed and the shape, your shape - it shifts.

But it does not have to stay this way.

In clinic, I support women through this transition with gentle abdominal work, somatic practices that reconnect the body and mind, and shifts in lifestyle and nutrition that meet you where you are now. We support the Spleen, move the Liver Qi and soothe the nervous system.

This is not a battle.
This is not punishment.
It is a pathway of discovery. Who are you now….

To rhythm.
To understanding.
To feeling safe in your skin again, perhaps for the first time ever. As many women express.

With so much love,

Anny ♥️