The Monster's Weakness

An essential read for:

• migraine sufferers, especially hormonal migraine,
• hot flash sufferers, especially during perimenopause and menopause,
• anyone at risk of developing type 2 diabetes or suffering from the early warning signs - fatigue, nausea or dizziness,
• and the people who support them, especially fitness instructors.

This book explores what we know and what we don't yet know about our metabolism, about hormones, insulin resistance, migraine, stress, hot flashes, sleep disorders, fat and other health issues. Ultimately, it's all about energy, how we store it, release it and harness it to be able to live the lives we want.
It offers new hope for migraine sufferers, with a new program for preventing migraine.
It offers a new understanding of hot flashes and why we may or may not want to prevent them.
And it reframes the conversation about obesity, type 2 diabetes and exercise, based on scientific studies, offering new hope for anyone who wants to build insulin sensitivity, lose weight, eat healthy, reduce their waistline or just get their groove back.
If migraine or other ill health is the reason you're not exercising, or exercising enough, it's time to think again. This might be the quick fix that changes or even saves your life.
In 2019, migraine was categorised by the Global Burden of Disease study as "the second cause of disability in the world and the first among young females".
Type 2 diabetes is a condition which affects around 15% of people in the US, including those yet to be diagnosed and, in the UK, accounts for 10% of the NHS budget.
I managed to overcome chronic migraine in one week with an ambitious fitness program, but first I hit rock bottom, with an optician flagging changes in my eyesight and then ending up in hospital with a migraine. I started this program because I simply couldn't carry the burden migraine was causing me anymore, and I was astounded by how quickly it worked.
Insulin sensitivity is our ability to handle blood sugar highs and lows, whether caused by food, drink, hormones, stress or anything else. Insulin resistance is what happens when that sensitivity drops.
What I have discovered, and what seems to be ignored by our healthcare system, is that insulin resistance, way, way before it appears as a clinical problem, is enough to ruin people's lives, like mine, to take away our quality of life.
On the one hand, what I am saying is highly researched and scientific, on the other, I am talking about an area where no one has put two and two together yet (it takes a mathematician, like me, to do that).
The scientific jury is still out on the importance of losing weight. The magic bullet, the quick fix, is exercise. The trouble for most of us is that exercising seems like an impossible dream. It's like going to the moon when we are struggling to get out of bed.
As an expert fitness instructor, experienced in working with people suffering from disabilities and other ill health, I know what it takes to get moving when everyone has given up on you, when you've even given up on yourself. I've also had the extraordinary privilege of seeing countless miracles, even in people's very last days on this earth. Anything is possible.
What I am doing is working, I'm getting my energy back, I'm putting my migraines back where they belong - a rare occurrence, not a daily battle, I'm getting back my muscles, my healthy appetite (not just eating whatever I can to hold off the nausea). I feel like I'm getting me back, my sanity, my hopes and dreams.
I've had to rehabilitate my body before, after surgery, after injury and this is no different except for one thing - it's much quicker. Healing injuries, building muscle, losing weight and reducing your waistline - these things all come as you continue and you may find, like me, you are so much closer to defeating the monster of migraine or other ill health than you can imagine.