Lorna

The eggs in the morning thing. I was sceptical but I've been doing something similar for a while and the afternoon does feel different. Can't promise it'll work the same for you but it's not nothing. Hope the GP takes you seriously. x

Writing down the timing and what you'd eaten is exactly the right thing to do. I brought a simple log to my GP and she actually requested a blood panel including thyroid. Didn't get everything I wanted but it was more than I'd have got without the notes. The tinned fish idea is solid, I do similar. x

Snap on the butter beans. 30p a tin and genuinely filling. I add them to almost everything now. The walking after dinner is something I started a few months back for the same reason, that sluggish feeling is real. Good call on tracking your weight before the GP appointment. Saves the shrug. x

I could have written this word for word. The googling in the car park is so real. For the GP appointment, what helped me was writing three specific questions down beforehand and just handing the list over. Mine were around blood sugar, vitamin D, and cholesterol. The GP actually seemed relieved I'd done that. Good luck with it x

Snap. Cold chicken at 7am is completely valid. I do leftover salmon sometimes and my husband thinks I've lost the plot. The afternoon crash was the thing that made me actually change breakfast rather than just think about it. Protein in the morning, the rest of the day is just easier. Simple as that x

Probably not coincidence. Toast alone spikes and drops. Eggs hold you. Worth a week of it to see if the pattern holds.

The Greek yoghurt with peanut butter is exactly what I do. Big cheap tub, spoonful of peanut butter, sometimes a handful of oats stirred in if I can be bothered. Holds me until lunch, which nothing else reliably does anymore. And yes on the weight note for the GP. I did exactly that, just a rough list with dates, nothing fancy. She actually thanked me for it. Made the conversation much more specific than it would have been otherwise. x

Yes. Crackers are not lunch. Took me ages to accept that. Protein holds you. Crackers just delay the crash by about 40 minutes.

Snap on the breakfast thing. I do eggs or full fat Greek yoghurt with a handful of nuts most mornings. The difference in how long I last before needing to eat again is noticeable. Three dinners planned is also genuinely enough, I do the same. Sensible idea to ask for bloodwork at the GP, thyroid is worth checking. x

Snap on the 3pm thing. I started noting it too and it was almost always on the days I'd had toast or nothing for breakfast. Greek yogurt with a handful of nuts made a difference for me. Small change, easier to stick to than any actual plan. Hope the data collecting helps when you speak to your GP. x

The eggs at breakfast thing is real. I switched to protein in the morning about four months ago and the half three crash got noticeably better. Not gone, but better. Worth mentioning to your GP alongside the energy question, the timing of when you eat seems to matter. Good that you're writing it down.

Just popping back to say thank you, especially Joan. I read all of these with a cup of tea and had a little cry, in a good way. This community is such a relief sometimes.

Snap! Eggs have been the one thing that actually holds me through to lunch. No drama, no biscuit emergency at half ten. That's a proper win. x

Snap on the tinned fish. Cheap, quick, protein sorted. For the GP, I asked specifically for ferritin, B12, thyroid and vitamin D. Said my energy had been unreliable for months. Got all four done. Worth being direct rather than vague, in my experience they respond better to a specific list than general tiredness.

Snap on the eggs. I do a tin of sardines on toast a couple of times a week, sounds grim but it keeps me full for hours and costs almost nothing. Also Greek yogurt with a spoonful of peanut butter stirred in, no weighing required. On the GP thing, yes worth raising and worth noting roughly when the weight change started. Even a rough timeline helps.

The notes app idea is a good one. Doctors appreciate specifics. If you can name the symptoms clearly it saves time in the appointment. The pasta thing I understand more than you'd think. It took me about two years to cook for the right number of people after my kids left. You adjust eventually.

The pattern-tracking is exactly the right thing to take in. GPs respond much better to 'here's what I've noticed over three weeks' than 'I feel a bit rubbish in the afternoons'. I found breakfast made a bigger difference for me than lunch, protein early seemed to flatten the whole day out a bit. But everyone's different. Worth mentioning to see if they'll check your bloods too.

Lentils in the bolognese is genuinely one of the best things I started doing. Nobody notices, the protein goes up, and it stretches further. I do the same with red lentils in a tomato sauce, just blitz them in. The walking after dinner thing I've heard a few people mention recently and it's on my list to actually try. x

The toast guilt is real but I think the protein at breakfast thing made more difference to my afternoons than cutting anything out. Eggs, Greek yogurt, leftovers, whatever. Just something that actually fills you up before 11am. That's the only change that stuck for me. The rest of it, seed cycling included, I have no idea. x

Welcome. The three meals approach is sensible. Trying to do the whole week at once usually falls apart by Wednesday anyway. Small and consistent tends to stick better than ambitious and exhausting, in my experience.

Snap on the diary. I took a rough log to my last GP appointment, nothing fancy, just times and what I'd eaten and when the crash hit. She actually looked at it properly. Didn't get fobbed off. Can't promise it works every time but it gave me something concrete to point at instead of just sounding vague. x

The writing it down thing is worth doing. I did the same before an appointment and it completely changed how the conversation went. GP actually took me seriously when I had specifics rather than just 'tired'. On the dinner front, tinned mackerel on toast with a fried egg on top is about four minutes and genuinely keeps me going. Not glamorous either but it works. x

Snap. I swapped to eggs about six months ago. The 4pm slump got better within a week. Nothing dramatic, just... less desperate. Keep logging it, the pattern becomes obvious pretty quickly.

Snap. Sick of it too. I was undereating for years thinking that was the answer. It wasn't. Protein at breakfast made more difference to my energy than anything else I tried. Mute those accounts, honestly.

Not just you. Chicken thighs are a good call, decent protein and they keep you fuller longer than breast. I've stopped apologising for thinking about this stuff. It matters.

The wine and 3am link is real, I cut back for different reasons but noticed the same thing. Worth mentioning to the GP actually, shows you've already been paying attention. And yes, fight for the HRT conversation. You're not being dramatic, you've got evidence. x

Snap. I did something similar with the energy crashes. Time, what I'd eaten, how long since I'd eaten. Took it to my GP and she actually looked at it properly instead of just saying stress. The log made it real. Good luck with the appointment x

Still doing this at 56. Sleep has been patchy for years and the notes are the only reason my GP takes it seriously. I'd add energy by mid-afternoon too if you can be bothered, that's where I started noticing the walk connection most clearly for me. Not telling you what to do, just what I found useful. x

Yes to the hollow feeling. Bloods coming back fine is frustrating when you clearly feel something. I switched to eggs or Greek yogurt most mornings a few months back. The crashes are less severe. Not gone but manageable. Worth sticking with it long enough to actually see a pattern.

Ask for thyroid panel and fasting blood glucose. Both are standard. Say you want to rule out anything metabolic before looking at lifestyle. That framing tends to work. Good luck x

The diary thing is genuinely worth doing. I started noting crash times and what I'd eaten before my last GP review and it changed the whole conversation. GP actually engaged rather than just nodding. Even two or three days of notes is something concrete to point to. On dinners: tinned fish is my lazy default. Sardines or mackerel on toast, egg on the side if I can be bothered. Done in ten minutes, no prep. x

The breakfast observation sounds right to me. I noticed the same pattern a while back. What helped at the GP was being specific, not 'I'm tired' but 'I crash between 3 and 4 most days, here are the dates, here's what I ate'. Harder to dismiss when it's written down. Worth asking about blood sugar too, not just hormones. Good luck with it.

That's a good idea. Simple and it actually works. x

Tinned sardines on toast. Cheap, quick, protein. Eggs are good but if there's no time, a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter on wholemeal does the same job. The key for me was just not having something sweet first thing, it set me up for crashes all morning. Nothing fancy required.

Writing it down before the appointment is the right call. I did the same, the pattern, the timing, what helps a bit. It stopped me getting flustered and accepting a vague answer. The breakfast thing is worth mentioning too if it's affecting your energy pattern. Hope you get somewhere with it x

Yes, and the timeline idea is good. I did something similar. I wrote down when the weight started shifting, when sleep got bad, when the energy crashes started. Having it on paper stopped the GP just saying eat less, move more. Still took two appointments but at least I wasn't fobbed off quite as fast. Good luck x

Snap. I had almost exactly this conversation with my GP and got the water comment too. What actually helped me was going in with a written list, dates, times, what I'd eaten. She took it more seriously. The lentil and egg lunch sounds like exactly the right direction. Protein at lunch made a noticeable difference for me as well. Worth tracking another couple of weeks before your appointment if you can. x

Chicken thighs absolutely count, they're better value and honestly more flavour. The three nights thing is smart, I stopped doing full week plans for the same reason. Re bloodwork, I went in and just said 'I'm tired all the time and I want to rule things out' and asked specifically about thyroid and iron. GP was fine with it. Having the words ready helped.

Snap. Toast and coffee was my entire morning for years and I genuinely didn't connect it to the afternoon wall until someone on here mentioned blood sugar a while back. Eggs made a real difference for me too. Not every day but enough that I noticed. For the GP, I just asked for a full blood panel including thyroid and fasting glucose and said I wanted a baseline given my age. That felt less like I'd been googling and more like I was being sensible. Which, to be fair, we are. x

Ran. Ate protein. Logged it. That's a solid morning by any measure. The flush was just the body adding its own commentary. x

The walk after dinner is the one thing I've actually kept up. Ten minutes, doesn't matter what the weather is doing. The cheaper meals thing is real too. Beans and lentils cost almost nothing and nobody in my house has noticed either.

Snap on the afternoon thing. I started keeping a note on my phone, just the time and a one-word description, "gone" is actually a perfectly useful word for a GP. Turkish eggs, frittata, lentil soup with a fried egg on top. All family-friendly enough and nobody in my house has complained yet. Greek yoghurt stirred into mashed potato sounds odd but it works.

The chickpeas-in-the-sauce trick is exactly what I do. Nobody clocks it and the meal actually fills me up. On the GP front, worth asking specifically about thyroid and iron when you go. I had to push for both. Saying 'mid-afternoon energy crash, not just tiredness' seemed to land better than just saying I was tired. x

I could have written this word for word. The 1200 calorie thing especially. I've tried it. I was ravenous by 11am and useless by 3pm. What actually helped me was just making sure breakfast had enough protein to last. Nothing dramatic. No plan to follow. Just that one thing. x

For the GP appointment: ask specifically for a full blood panel including thyroid and iron, not just a general check. Say 'energy crashes at a specific time daily' not just tired. That framing helped me get more than the standard response. Quick dinners: tin of chickpeas fried in a pan with whatever spices, egg on top. Ten minutes, decent protein. x

The one-thing-at-a-time rule is the only approach that makes any sense to me. Otherwise how do you know what's working. I'd add: write down how you feel before you start anything, even just a few words. It's easy to forget your baseline after a few weeks and then you can't tell if anything changed. x

Snap on the eating something real beforehand. Sounds small but it genuinely makes such a difference to how present you feel. Well done for going. x

I keep Fulfil bars in my desk. Chocolate caramel flavour is the least offensive one I've found. Aldi also do their own high protein bars which are much cheaper and roughly similar. That's about as exciting as my bar knowledge gets, but both are easy to find without ordering online.

Twice in a week is a solid start. The ridiculous feeling does fade. Took me about a month.

For the GP, try saying it affects your ability to work or concentrate rather than just that you feel tired. Doctors respond better to functional impact. "I can't get through my afternoon without it" is more useful than "I feel low energy." On dinners, Greek yoghurt as a side, tinned fish on the table as an option, eggs stirred into things at the end. Small additions rather than a separate meal.

Snap. I tracked mine for two weeks before my last GP appointment and it genuinely helped. Not because the GP had magic answers but because I stopped shrugging and could actually say "this happens at this time, on these days." She took it more seriously. The eggs thing matches what I found too. Toast just doesn't hold me. x

Snap! The Instagram stuff is relentless isn't it. Eggs have been the one thing that actually works for me too. Two scrambled on toast, nothing fancy, and I make it to lunch without raiding the biscuit tin. The 10.30 wall is real and I used to think it was just me being lazy. It's not. Keep going with the notes, it's worth tracking x

This is exactly what I needed to read today. 56 and still in the thick of it, some weeks feel like a different body every morning. The bit about learning your body again, yes. And the boring breakfast thing, I started doing the same a few months back, same protein, no decisions, and it genuinely helps with the afternoon crashes. Gives me hope that the frightening part does eventually quiet down. Thank you for coming back to tell us. x

Snap on the tinned fish, my husband is the same. Lentils in everything is a good shout, I've been adding them to things I'd normally not bother with and it does seem to help with the three o'clock slump. Worth writing down what you want to say before the GP appointment, the energy crashes specifically. Easy to get in there and forget half of it. x

Tinned fish on toast is my honest answer. Sardines or mackerel, bit of lemon if I have it. Two minutes. I know teenagers might object but mine have learned not to comment on my dinner when I look a certain way.

Two sessions done is two sessions done. The knees thing is real but that sense of getting back to yourself is worth a lot. Good week. x

Write it down before you go in. Genuinely, a list on your phone. I asked about thyroid, iron, B12, and vitamin D specifically and it made the conversation much more straightforward. GP was fine with it. The afternoon crash is worth mentioning too, describe when it hits and how bad. They take it more seriously when you're concrete about it.

Snap on the 3pm crash. What shifted it slightly for me was making sure my lunch had more protein in it, nothing dramatic, just adding eggs or leftover chicken to whatever I was already eating. Not a new food philosophy. Just more of something I was already eating. The walk idea is worth sticking with, there was a thread about this a few weeks ago and a lot of people found it helped with the afternoon slump.

Yes, my GP took it seriously when I mentioned joint stuff. Writing it down beforehand really helped, I did exactly what you're doing. I listed which joints, what time of day, and how long it had been going on. She didn't just put it down to age. Good luck with the appointment x

Salmon fishcakes. Make them yourself and they look completely normal. Add a tin of drained cannellini beans mashed into the mix, nobody can tell. High protein, no texture drama, husband thinks it's just fishcakes. Works every time.

Just popping back to say thank you, especially Nicola. I read all of these with a cup of tea and had a little cry, in a good way. This community is such a relief sometimes.

Snap. I started doing this about three months ago, eggs or Greek yoghurt, and the afternoon energy dip is genuinely better. Not gone but better. The coffee-and-nothing breakfast was not holding me at all. Good that you're tracking it.

I remember that foggy stage of not knowing what was what. The tracking idea is solid. Even a few days of notes made my GP conversation feel less vague. x

Can't help with the telehealth comparison, wrong side of the Atlantic. But the protein breakfast thing, yes. Noticed the same. Less crashing by mid-morning. It's one of the few things that's made a practical difference without being a whole production. x

Snap on the weight appearing without a clear start date. Impossible to track. For cheap family meals, lentil soup with whatever veg is on offer, or a big batch of chilli with kidney beans to stretch the mince. Both freeze well. The walk after dinner is a good one. x

Tinned mackerel fishcakes and teenagers eating them without complaint is genuinely impressive. I've been doing a similar loose three-dinner plan and it's the only thing stopping me from standing at the fridge doing nothing. Good luck with the GP appointment. Writing the list beforehand really does help. x

Oh love, the 3am waking with that low dread. I had exactly this for about two years before I even connected it to perimenopause. Regular periods, no obvious flushes, just that horrible wide-awake-heart-racing thing at the same time every night. You are not being dramatic. And well done for writing everything down, that log is going to be so useful when you go back. Push for the full conversation this time. You deserve to be heard properly x

Just popping back to say thank you, especially Philippa. I read all of these with a cup of tea and had a little cry, in a good way. This community is such a relief sometimes.

Oh love, the wrong train. I once drove to the supermarket and then sat in the car park for a moment genuinely unsure why I was there. Eleven years. I know. The fog doesn't announce itself, it just quietly dismantles things you assumed were automatic. Good that your GP is taking it seriously. The referral wait is frustrating but you're on the right path. x

I could have written this word for word, honestly. Same story with my GP, blood tests normal, physio for the hips, and the hormonal question just sort of left hanging. I'm postmenopause now and the joint stuff did ease once I got onto HRT, but I can't say whether that was cause and effect or just timing. Worth pushing for a proper conversation about it rather than letting it drop. x

I use the BetterYou spray, have done for about a year. Can't say it's a miracle but I do sleep a bit more solidly on nights I remember to use it. I keep it on my bedside table which is the only reason I actually stick to it. Boots own has worked fine for friends of mine. I wouldn't overthink the price. x

The notes document is a good idea. I started doing the same before appointments and it changed what actually got discussed. Six weeks goes fast.

Three weeks is about the point where I would also have no idea if something was working or if I had just adjusted to it. I did something similar last winter, not yoga nidra specifically, just lying still with headphones. It helped with the lying awake part more than the getting back to sleep part.

Eight weeks is a useful timeframe to have documented. I found my own first few weeks very hard to read, not bad, just unclear. The anxiety shift you mention is interesting. Mine moved later than that, closer to three months.

Bringing actual notes to a GP appointment makes a real difference. I started doing the same when my father was in and out of hospital last year. The doctor asked questions I could actually answer instead of me just saying I was not sure.

A month is a reasonable window. Travel always disrupts sleep for me regardless of what I'm taking, so I'd discount that week entirely and start the count from when you got home.

The distinction between unsettling and devastating is a useful one. I have used it myself, or something close to it, when trying to explain to my husband why I was not in crisis but was also not quite alright. He found it confusing. I found it accurate.