When perimenopause hit me, it felt like my body and brain had been hijacked. I was the founder of a company, Menotracker, that was literally built to help women with this, and yet I was a complete mess.

I was averaging three hours of sleep a night. My brain felt like it was wading through mud. I was terrified of walking into a board meeting and not being able to pull the right word from my head.

I knew the science. I was reading the research daily. But there's a massive difference between knowing the 'why' and figuring out the 'how' for your own body.

After months of frustrating trial and error—of trying a million different things and meticulously tracking what worked and what was bullshit—I finally pieced together a system that gave me my life back.

This is it. Not a list of generic tips, but the 6 real, foundational pillars that I built my recovery on.

1. I Stopped Asking and Started Demanding (The HRT Part)

Let's start with the biggest lever. I knew from the data that Hormone Replacement Therapy was a game-changer. But my first doctor's visit was dismissive. So, I did what any CEO would do when faced with a lazy gatekeeper: I did my own homework. I gathered the clinical studies and read books, and I went back in, not as a patient asking for help, but as an informed stakeholder demanding a partnership. Getting on the right HRT protocol was the first, most critical step. It didn't solve everything, but it put out the fire.

2. I Started My Day with a Steak (Okay, Not Literally, But Close)

I stopped thinking about breakfast as a "light meal" and started treating it as the most important metabolic decision of my day. My non-negotiable rule became: 30+ grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking. For me, that's usually a huge scramble of eggs and egg whites with veggies. This one change stabilized my blood sugar, which killed the afternoon energy crashes and the insane sugar cravings that were making me feel even worse.

3. I Quit My Boring Cardio (And Got Stronger)

I hate the treadmill. I always have. The thought of spending an hour on a stationary bike felt like a special kind of corporate hell. So I quit. Instead, I followed the advice of experts like Dr. Stacy Sims and started lifting heavy things 2-3 times a week. It was more engaging, more effective, and I knew it was critical for preventing osteoporosis. I added in a few super-short, high-intensity sprint sessions and made it a goal to just walk 10,000 steps a day. That's it. No more mindless cardio.

4. I Put My Phone to Bed Before I Went to Bed

My sleep was a disaster. The single biggest behavioral change I made was creating a "wind-down" routine. An hour before I wanted to be asleep, my phone got plugged in across the room. I picked up a real, physical book. This, combined with a brutally consistent wake-up time (even on weekends), was the signal my body needed to finally find a rhythm again.

5. I Divorced Alcohol

My sleep tracker data was ruthless. Even one glass of wine would absolutely wreck my sleep quality. It just wasn't worth it. Plus, I had recently quit smoking, and I knew that for me, alcohol was a trigger that could pull me back into old, unhealthy patterns. So, I cut it out completely. It was a strategic decision about performance, not a social sacrifice.

6. I Became My Own Watcher (The Data Part)

You can't fix what you don't measure. I started tracking everything. Not obsessively, but consistently. How was my sleep? My energy? My focus? Did I hit my protein goal? This simple "Daily Audit" was the feedback loop that showed me what was working and what wasn't. It's how I knew alcohol was a problem. It's how I knew the protein breakfast was a solution. It turned the chaos into a system I could manage.

This is the framework. This is what worked. It's not magic; it's a systematic approach to taking back control.

I've compiled all of these strategies, including checklists and the key research I mentioned, into a comprehensive PDF. It's my personal playbook.

I'll send it to you for free when you subscribe to my weekly newsletter, "The Executive Edge," where we go deeper into these topics every week.

All the best,

Sonja Rincón

Founder & CEO, Menotracker