A real teacher in the room...
Post-menopause myself, with menopause-specific training behind me.I'm Catharine. Certified Menopause Coaching Specialist and Nutrition and Strength Coach. I teach women the foundations that carry them through peri, meno, and post, scaled to the body and week they're actually in.
New here, not sure where to start? Take the quiz.
There is no shortage of menopause transition information out there. There is a flood of it. What is missing is someone who sits with a real woman's body and her real life and translates which foundations actually meet her, in the body and week she's actually in. That is the work I do as a menopause transition coach, and this is how I got here.
Three doctors told me I was fine. I wasn't.
One morning, I couldn't move. Not physically. I was 42, lying in bed after another wrecked night of sweats, and I just could not get up.
I was already coaching by then, with years in nutrition and fitness behind me, mom of three, and I knew every "perfect" rule there was because I taught them for a living. By every visible measure, I was the woman who had it figured out. And I felt like a ghost of the person I used to be.
I had gained 30 pounds without really changing what I was doing. My energy was gone. My moods swung in ways I didn't recognise. The occasional Friday glass of wine had quietly become most nights, and the pyjamas that had been loose for years were suddenly tight and sticky from the night sweats. I'd wake up at 3am and lie there for hours, feeling something I didn't have a name for.
So I went to the doctor. Then a second one when the first waved me off. Then a third when the second ran one blood panel and told me everything looked great. All three said I was fine.
Fine? How could I be fine? I wasn't "me" any more.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, I had an ectopic pregnancy that ruptured. I was 42. My periods had been all over the place for a year and a half, and pregnancy hadn't been on anyone's radar, mine or any doctor's. The emergency surgery saved my life. It also sharpened something I hadn't been able to put words to. My body was doing things nobody around me was tracking, professionally or otherwise, and I was on my own with figuring it out.
What kept me moving was that I kept looking. Some part of me knew this was hormonal, I just couldn't get anyone to confirm it. Eventually I found a doctor who did. He was an older male doctor, of all people, and he listened. Then he said, "this is perimenopause, and we can't fix it because you aren't broken, but we can help you feel a lot better while you go through it."
The next piece was hormone therapy, mostly to give me back my sleep. By that point I was walking around my house from 2am onward most nights, either dripping in sweat or wired with anxiety. Once the night sweats settled and the sleep started coming back, the dark clouds began to lift. My energy slowly returned. The fog cleared enough that I could think again.
And once I could think again, I wanted to understand all of it. I went deep. Online menopause certifications, layered on top of the nutrition and training credentials I already had. As I worked through the coursework, I started to see something I hadn't quite clocked from inside my own crash.
The information itself wasn't the problem. There was plenty of it. What was actually missing was the translation layer. The part where someone sits with a real woman's symptoms and her real life and helps her figure out which information actually applies to her. Once I had the science to compare it against, the noise was suddenly impossible to miss. Myths, misinformation, products being sold to "fix" women who weren't broken, conflicting advice in every direction.
What's missing is a real teacher in the room. Someone who notices you and sits with what's actually happening in your specific body before they hand you a plan. That's the work I do now.
Read the longer version of what happened to me.
What I did once I had answers.
I have been the woman asking what the f is happening to my body, with nobody around who could answer. That is why I do this work.
Since then, I've completed the 2026 CMS Menopause Masterclass with the Canadian Menopause Society and IMPART Levels 1 and 2 with the International Menopause Society. I've continued studying nutrition and training too.
I read the research and menopause society position statements, then explain what they mean for nutrition, training and everyday decisions. Medical questions belong with your healthcare team, and I can help you prepare questions for those appointments.
The foundations. Scaled to the week you're actually in.
I teach the nutrition and training foundations, explain the menopause research and help you consider what's worth your effort. How much makes sense depends on your goals, what you're already doing and what's manageable now.
Nourish, Move and Flourish organise what I teach across the Navigator, podcast and 1:1 coaching.
Nourish
The nutrition foundations. The math underneath what you eat. Tracking as a tool for awareness, not as a forever rule. A way to fuel that fits a real, busy week.
Move
The training foundations. Strength, cardio, walking, and recovery, scaled through symptoms and life seasons.
Flourish
The mindset and long-game pieces. Planning, sleep, stress, doctor advocacy, and the community that keeps you in the work through grief, moves, training cycles, and life transitions.
The official version, plainly stated.
Certified Menopause Coaching Specialist · NASM-CNC · NASM-CPT · PN Level 1 · GGS-1 · Mindset Coaching Certified L2 · NASM Weight Loss Specialist · CMS Masterclass (2026) · International Menopause Society, IMPART Levels 1 and 2 · Founder, The Meno Collective
Menopause transition coach. I've worked in nutrition and fitness for more than 20 years, coaching for the last 12. Earlier roles included working as an associate counsellor with people with eating disorders and owning a supplement store. When my own perimenopause hit and the doctors waved me off, I went looking. Online menopause-specific certifications and coursework, layered on top of the nutrition and training credentials I already had. Not a formal degree. Coursework, study, ongoing learning, and lived experience from the other side of it.
What I do is nutrition and fitness education for women in the menopause transition. I am a Certified Menopause Coaching Specialist with nutrition and training certifications behind that, and I have 20+ years in nutrition and fitness, coaching for the last 12.
The limits are worth being clear about. I do not diagnose, I do not prescribe, I will not read your bloodwork and tell you what it means, and hormone therapy is a conversation for you and your doctor. Medical nutrition therapy is regulated work that belongs to a Registered Dietitian, so if you have a diagnosed condition that calls for one, I will say so and point you that way.
I read the research, explain what it says and help you consider what fits your goals and circumstances. Menopause is a normal life stage, and symptoms or health concerns can still need medical assessment and treatment. My education and coaching work alongside that care.
A log home, a lake, two malamutes, and one opinionated cat.
I'm 53, post-menopause, and live in British Columbia. I have three kids, all in their early twenties, and a husband I've been building this life with for a long time. From our log home on a pristine Canadian lake, I live what I teach. You'll find me on mountain trails, biking with my husband, hiking with our malamutes Zorro and Chilko, or paddling at dawn. Whiskey, the cat who actually runs the household, keeps me grounded.
I still put it all in practice, every day, post-menopause. The foundations didn't stop being the foundations when my last period did.
Three clean routes.
Depending on where you are, here is how the work meets you.
Not sure what's happening
Start with the quiz. Three minutes to learn about the menopause transition and find somewhere to start.
Take the quizWant the live class
The Perimenopause Navigator is my evergreen 10-week program. A menopause transition coach in the room, week by week. Weekly lesson, one weekly Live Room on Google Meet (alternating time slots). A real teacher in the room.
See the NavigatorWant individual support
1:1 nutrition and training coaching through Macros Inc. We look at your circumstances together, agree on an approach and adjust as we go.
Work with me 1:1Less noise. Steady work. Back to yourself.
If you'd like to learn with me, explore the Navigator. If you want individual nutrition and training support, take a look at 1:1 coaching through Macros Inc.
See the NavigatorQuestions? iam@catharineadams.com