Fatigue and feelings of burnout are so common in our fast paced, high pressure lives. Stress is at the root of all fatigue and feelings of burnout. The key is learning what stressors you can control or eliminate!
The source is rarely ever just one thing and we need to be looking at all possible areas. You don’t have to settle for suboptimal energy or succumb to the feelings of burnout.
The many things within the source, however, all point to one main thing…stress!
You can do A LOT of healing on your own.
You also have the option to find someone who can support you and help you investigate each area. This is the root of the Resilient Mama Method.
Contributors to Fatigue and Burnout
All of the factors below lead to the end result of stress, both external perceived stress and internal hidden stress!
Mental and emotional stress
Under eating
Parasites, pathogenic bacteria, and yeast
High toxic load and heavy metals
Blood sugar imbalance
Excessive exercise
Nutrient deficiencies and poor nutrient absorption
Mental and emotional stress
Mental and emotional stress can be intermittent or chronic. It can brew internally from the negative self-talk where you are constantly criticizing yourself or cutting yourself down. You know those extra-long looks in the mirror or the judgment you pass on yourself for just “not being good enough” all of that matters.
One that we are all facing right now during Covid 19 is the constant stimulation from the kids being home from school while still trying to maintain a household and work. Big-time constant stimulation, which literally exhausts the mind and body.
A sense of lacking purpose can create a mental drain as well as guilt. When you feel torn from motherhood duties and wanting to pursue an education or a career, it can create a lot of stress. These are just some of the emotional stressors that can drive fatigue and burnout.
Under eating
Chronically or even intermittently under eating tells the body there is not enough food, and that it needs to conserve energy.
This is NOT a good thing and leads to slowing down of the thyroid and down regulating your reproductive hormones.
The low blood sugar levels caused by under-eating trigger a stress response in the body which can cause a cascade of ill effects and halt energy production.
Parasites, pathogenic bacteria, and yeast
It is very rare that I run a GI MAP that does not come back with some form of gut infection or overgrowth.
The risk of infection goes up when you are stressed. Finding my own gut infection and bacterial overgrowth brought on by stress was the turning point in my health journey.
When you have parasites, bad bacteria, or yeast your body becomes stressed and produces extra cortisol. Which becomes abnormally high chronically and leads to exhaustion.
High toxic load and heavy metals
Toxin exposure comes from:
Food and water
Makeup and skincare
Furniture and mattresses
Cooking tools
Menstrual products
Constipation, which causes recirculation of toxins
Metal fillings (mercury)
Plastic
Environment/air
Receipts
Toxins given off from bad bacteria
Personal care products
Guess what, our body even makes our own toxins during metabolism. We are built to process toxins but not the 80,000 chemicals we are exposed to.
This overload of toxins leads to a sluggish liver. That's no bueno because the liver is where we convert thyroid hormone which controls our metabolism and where we filter hormones. This massive internal stress could also be a source of fatigue.
If your liver is overloaded because of too many toxins it causes thyroid issues, hormone imbalance, fatigue and big time frustration.
I start all my clients first with an examination of toxic load. Start here if you are struggling with fatigue and burnout.
Blood sugar imbalance
This probably should have been number one…fatigue, burnout and blood sugar imbalance go hand in hand! I talked all about how stress and blood sugar imbalance work together in this blog post.
When we are stressed our body tells the liver to release sugar so we can react to that stressor. This raises our blood sugar level which eventually leads to a low blood sugar.
Every time we release that blood sugar we have to release insulin to store whatever is not used. This puts you on a blood sugar roller coaster that leaves you feeling wired and tired one minute and eventually exhausted.
Excessive exercise
Every workout should end with you feeling better and more energized than when you started. Many women fall into the trap of exercising excessively as punishment or to earn food. This type leaves you feeling crushed, sore and broken down. Fatigue and burnout are very common with this type of exercise.
Think about exercise the same as nutrition. It should be customized just for you. My Resilient Mama Method includes a whole pillar dedicated to individualized exercise dose.
Exercise is a stressor. It causes your body to release cortisol. If you already have a lot of underlying stressors the added stressor can push you over the edge and lead to hormone imbalances and burnout.
More is NOT better with exercise. Let go of the marathons and excessive intensity…this leads to burnout. The best way to measure your success with intensity is gauging how you feel after your workout. You should feel better when you finished than when you started.
When you end feeling completely wiped out you are crushing your nervous system, draining energy for the rest of life and causing hormone imbalance.
This is my jam and my favorite area to bring into focus with clients…the joy of movement and passion for exercise.
Nutrient deficiencies and poor nutrient absorption
I understand the hurry and stress that comes with meal time, oh boy do I ever. I understand eating in a rush at breakfast and lunch and feeding kids while trying to inhale food quickly. All of that leads to poor nutrient absorption, which leads to nutrient deficiencies.
Nutrients are needed to repair and build the body up. As adults, we are too often concerned about getting smaller, aka losing weight. In the process of trying to lose weight we cut out and don’t add in. When we do this we lose nutrients needed for hormone production, thyroid health, recovery and muscle growth.
Did you see yourself in these causes of fatigue?
If you are ready to recover your energy, lose the constant burnout and truly begin to build your health, look at the above components and assess where you need to make changes.
My Resilient Mama Method addresses all of the above topics and uncovers the real reasons for your fatigue. Always remember you don’t have to settle!!
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