Paula Reed Wellness

Five numbers I wish more midlife women knew.

We’re usually taught to know our weight and maybe our total cholesterol.

I’d expand that list.

❤️ Blood pressure
One of the most important and modifiable cardiovascular risk factors.

🩸 Fasting insulin + A1C
Useful for understanding insulin resistance and longer-term glucose regulation.

🧬 ApoB
Helps estimate the number of atherogenic particles circulating in the bloodstream.

🧪 Lp(a)
Largely genetically determined and can meaningfully influence cardiovascular risk.

📏 Waist circumference
A simple clue to changes in abdominal and visceral fat.

No single number tells the whole story.

But knowing the right numbers gives us much better information than simply waiting until something feels wrong.

Information isn’t something to fear. It gives us options.

The scale can tell you what you weigh. It cannot tell you what that weight is made of. ⚖

Two women can weigh exactly the same and have very different metabolic health.

One may carry more skeletal muscle.
The other may have less muscle and more visceral fat.

Same weight.

Very different physiology.

That’s why I’m increasingly less interested in simply asking:

“How much do you weigh?”

And more interested in:

Are you maintaining muscle?
Is your waist circumference changing?
Are you getting stronger?
How is your glucose regulation?
What are your triglycerides and HDL doing?
How is your blood pressure?
How do you actually feel and function?

Weight can be useful information. But it’s one piece of a much larger picture.

The goal of healthy aging isn’t simply a smaller body. 😉

It’s a stronger, more metabolically resilient one.

Protein becomes more important as we age, not less. 🍗

Yet many women still build meals around vegetables and carbohydrates and treat protein almost like a garnish.

By midlife, that approach can work against what we’re trying to preserve.

Protein provides the amino acids needed to support muscle maintenance and repair. And because we become somewhat less responsive to the muscle-building signal from protein as we age, consistently getting enough matters.

Rather than obsessing over a perfect daily number, I like women to start by asking:

“Does every meal have a meaningful source of protein?”

Eggs.
Greek yogurt or cottage cheese.
Fish.
Chicken or turkey.
Lean beef.
Beans and lentils, often combined with other protein sources.
Protein powder when convenience helps.

Then pair that protein with colorful plants, fiber and healthy fats.

Simple. Not trendy.

But enormously important for maintaining the strong, metabolically healthy body we want to take into later life.

One of the most powerful things a midlife woman can build isn’t a supplement routine.

It’s muscle. 💪

Skeletal muscle is much more than something that makes us look toned.

It is one of the body’s largest sites for glucose disposal.

That means maintaining muscle helps support:

• Insulin sensitivity
• Blood sugar regulation
• Metabolic health
• Bone health
• Strength and mobility
• Long-term independence

And unfortunately, we become progressively more vulnerable to losing muscle as we age. 😫

This is why I’d much rather see a woman in her 50s and 60s focus on becoming stronger than simply becoming smaller.

Eat enough protein.
Strength train consistently.
Walk.
Use your muscles.
Protect them.

Because the muscle you build today becomes part of the metabolic and physical reserve you carry into your 70s, 80s and beyond.

Muscle is longevity tissue.

Your fasting glucose can look “normal” while insulin is already working overtime. 🧐

This is one reason I think fasting glucose alone gives us an incomplete picture of metabolic health.

As insulin resistance begins developing, the pancreas often compensates by producing more insulin to keep glucose within the normal range.

So for a while, glucose may look perfectly fine.

Meanwhile, other clues may begin appearing:

• Rising fasting insulin
• Increasing triglycerides
• Lower HDL
• Increasing waist circumference
• Higher blood pressure
• Eventually, increasing glucose and A1C

This is why I prefer looking at patterns and trends, not waiting until one marker crosses into a disease range.

Metabolic dysfunction rarely appears overnight.

The earlier we recognize the trajectory, the more opportunity we have to change it.

Normal glucose doesn’t always mean optimal metabolic health.

“I haven’t changed anything. Why is my body changing?” 🤷‍♀️

I hear some version of this from women all the time.

The eating habits that worked at 35 may not produce the same results at 50 or 60.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you suddenly lack discipline.

Your physiology has changed.

As we move through menopause, we can experience changes in:

• Insulin sensitivity
• Muscle mass
• Fat distribution
• Sleep quality
• Stress response
• Energy expenditure
• Estrogen signaling

One of the most noticeable changes can be a greater tendency to store fat around the abdomen, even without dramatic weight gain.

And that matters for more than how our jeans fit.

🚨Visceral fat is metabolically active tissue and is associated with insulin resistance, inflammation and cardiovascular risk.

The answer usually isn’t simply “eat less.”

Midlife is when maintaining muscle, eating adequate protein, supporting sleep, managing stress and paying attention to metabolic health become more important than ever.

Different season. Different strategy.

Your heart, hormones and metabolism are not separate conversations. 🗣

One of the biggest mistakes we make in women’s health is looking at everything in isolation.

♀Cholesterol goes up? We talk about cholesterol.
♀Blood sugar starts creeping higher? We talk about glucose.
♀Weight begins shifting toward the abdomen? We talk about calories.
♀Energy drops? Maybe we blame age.

But in midlife, these changes often overlap.

Declining estrogen, changes in insulin sensitivity, loss of muscle, sleep disruption, stress, thyroid function and increasing visceral fat can all influence the same metabolic picture.

That’s why I’m much more interested in patterns than any single symptom or lab marker.

Your hormones communicate with your metabolism → Your metabolism influences your cardiovascular health → Your muscle affects your blood sugar → Your sleep affects almost all of it.

The body isn’t a collection of separate systems. It’s one interconnected conversation.

And understanding that conversation gives us a much better opportunity to support healthy aging. 💚

You can eat beautifully and exercise regularly…and still be missing an important piece of heart health. ❤️

Your nervous system matters, too. 🧘‍♀️

Chronic stress and poor sleep can influence:

• Blood pressure
• Glucose regulation
• Appetite and food choices
• Inflammation
• Heart rate and autonomic balance
• Recovery

Our bodies were designed to move between periods of activation and recovery.

The problem is that many women spend their days in go-go-go mode and never fully come back down.

Work. Family. Caregiving. Notifications. Deadlines. Poor sleep. Repeat.

And sometimes we wear our ability to handle it all like a badge of honor.

But recovery isn't laziness. It's physiology.

Walk outside. Breathe deeply. Strength train. Protect your sleep. Spend time with people you love. Put the phone down occasionally. Give your nervous system opportunities to recognize that it is safe to shift out of high alert.

Heart health isn't built by one supplement, one diet or one perfect lab result.

It's built through the environment we create for our bodies every day. ❤️

Want to do something good for your heart as you age? Build muscle. 💪❤️

We tend to think of muscle in terms of strength, appearance or maintaining independence.

But skeletal muscle is also incredibly important for metabolic health.

It's a major site for glucose disposal, which means maintaining muscle can help support insulin sensitivity and healthy blood sugar regulation.

Strength training can also support healthy body composition, physical function and blood pressure, all of which matter for cardiovascular health.

And after menopause, preserving muscle becomes even more important because we naturally become more vulnerable to losing it as we age.

So when I encourage women to:

Eat enough protein.
Lift something heavy.
Walk.
Stay active.

It's not because I'm trying to turn everyone into a bodybuilder. 😉

I'm thinking about the 70-, 80- and 90-year-old version of you.

Muscle is part of your longevity strategy.

And your heart benefits, too. ❤️

Blood sugar isn't just about diabetes. It's a heart-health issue, too. ❤️

One of the patterns I pay close attention to in midlife women is insulin resistance.

Why?

Because insulin resistance can be developing long before fasting glucose becomes obviously abnormal.

Over time, we may see clues such as:

• Rising fasting insulin
• Increasing triglycerides
• Lower HDL
• Increasing waist circumference or visceral fat
• Higher blood pressure
• Eventually, rising glucose and A1C

These aren't isolated issues.

They're often pieces of the same metabolic picture, and that picture matters tremendously for cardiovascular health.

This is one reason I'm such a believer in looking for patterns rather than waiting for individual markers to become abnormal.

Your metabolism and your heart are having the same conversation.

We need to listen to both. ❤️