19/06/2026
Your body isn't failing you. It's recalibrating.
I want to share something a little closer to my heart than usual.
In a few months, I'll reach the age my mother was when she died. Thirty-three years ago, I watched her — as a teenager — battle breast cancer. I watched her body change in ways no one should have to endure: a mastectomy, lymphedema, and towards the end, a colostomy. Her body was cut and sliced and reshaped by illness and by everything the doctors did to try to keep her here.
And yet. She remains, to this day, the most beautiful and amazing person I have ever known, alongside my dad who became a single parent of 4 kids in his early 50's (and is now 85).
I think of her often now, as I approach that same age. And it has me pondering something I wish more of us talked about: What does it really mean to honour our bodies as we age?
Because here's what I remember — my mother would have endured anything for more time. More years. More ordinary days. Her body, scarred as it became, was never the problem. It was the vessel that carried her, loved us, and held on as long as it possibly could.
So when I see how much energy we're encouraged to pour into shrinking ourselves — eating less, punishing ourselves harder, chasing a number on a scale — I gently want to ask: what if we aimed for something deeper than smaller? What if we aimed for strong, well, functional, vital, and here?
This is especially true in perimenopause and beyond. The old script — eat less, move more, push harder — actually works against us now. Under-fuelling signals threat to your body, and it responds by holding on and slowing down. Strength, nourishment, protecting your muscle and bones — this is what helps us stay capable and alive in our own lives.
And please hear this too: if you struggle to love your body, you are not failing. We live in a world that has made it genuinely hard to feel at peace in our own skin. There's no shame in carrying that. I just want to offer a different invitation — one rooted in care rather than criticism.
I'm walking this road alongside you, as a dietitian and as a daughter who learned, far too young, just how precious and worthy these bodies of ours really are. And also now in my late 40's.
Let's care for them like they're worth keeping. Because they are.
For a different approach to Nutrition care, and a different style of Dietetics I work weekly in Orange and Dubbo, and consult vie Telehealth.
Appointments (for anywhere) can be made by calling my reception team in Dubbo on: 6884 1804
or you can book online at: https://helen-barnett-dietitian-and-nutritionist.splose.com/online-booking/88074892-2a7f-427d-b389-f73091a82792
