Constantly exhausted? 5 Ways to overcome Fatigue
How ready for the day do you wake up on any given day?
When you ask most women from their late 30s onward, there’s a persistent re-emerging feeling of fatigue.
It sounds a bit like this:
“I am so exhausted, I don’t know why”
“I woke up a bunch of times last night, couldn’t fall sleep or couldn’t go back to sleep because I was thinking about a million things”
Fatigue can be the result of hormonal imbalances or a decline in essential hormones.
It can also be a result of inflammation, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, mental overload, high-functioning anxiety and nutrition deficiencies (*just to name a few).
It can be very common to be in a foggy state of mind and for that to be the “normal” within our society, when in reality we should not be in a constant state of fatigue. Our bodies should feel balanced, refreshed and be able to maintain constant energy throughout the day, without relying on that large next coffee or sugary treat, to keep us awake and our heads from falling forward. Fatigue is not “normal” and can be a lot more difficult to deal with, than we expect.
Symptoms of fatigue:
chronic sleepiness
headaches
dizziness
sore or aching muscles
muscle weakness
slowed reflexes and responses
impaired decision-making and lack of good judgment
moodiness, such as irritability
When we interviewed women for Vitelle, one of the main things we heard, that women looked to get out of our platform and community, was to feel rested, refreshed, energized and full of vitality.
So let’s dive into it.
Obviously we acknowledge that hormones mess with our energy levels, as we can see each cycle, when our menstruation begins we start to feel more energetic and more drained as we approach the next one. However, being told that a drop in estrogen is responsible for our fatigue, isn’t very actionable.
Being metabolically healthy, means having ideal levels of blood sugar, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, blood pressure, and waist circumference, without using medications. These factors directly relate to a person's risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and stroke and according to Healthline, only about 12% of Americans are metabolically healthy.
When any of these factors are out of balance, we can often feel it in our energy levels.
The good news is, that the above values can:
a) be checked through blood tests and are more stable than hormone levels
b) affected by lifestyle changes in a lasting and measurable way.
In our solutions recommendations, rather than looking at fatigue as an isolated symptom, we relate it to the other symptoms we believe can be powerfully affected by lifestyle changes.
Fatigue can also contribute to these other symptoms. For example, being tired, makes us less inclined to exercise and more likely to choose quick energizing foods (i.e. sugar), it affects our mood within (anxiety) and without (low libido). Fatigue can also affect physical attributes like our skin health which in turn influences how we see ourselves and accept our bodies - a vicious cycle.
5 Ways to combat Fatigue:
A 5 day sugar reset: cut out all sugar, alcohol and if you can, lower your overall carbohydrate intake. The goal is not weight loss but removing the craving for sugar by eating a diet high in proteins and fats. Examples for foods to incorporate more of: all types of nuts, lean meat, full fat yoghurt/ greek yoghurt, coconut flesh or flakes, avocado, vegetables (especially fermented ones), hummus, cheese like feta, halloumi and cheddar, spaghetti squash, eggs, tofu, seitan, other forms of meat replacement proteins. Make sure to keep your digestion healthy, and increase your fiber intake, for example by adding nutritional yeast.
Replacing one cup of coffee with black tea, green tea, matcha or mushroom beverages like Mudwtr or Four Sigmatic. You can also try dandelion tea, which has a similarly nutty flavor to coffee.
Starting your day with a cold shower or a cold shower ending of 1-5 minutes. Alternatively if you have access to a cryotherapy studio, you can get fast effects with 2-3 minutes in as low as -160°F or - 110°C.
Breathwork and shifting your perspective. When we are in constant fight or flight mode, consciously shifting to breathing deeper and reframing our thoughts, takes discipline. Start with box breathing once a day where you breathe in for 4 counts, hold your breath for 4 counts, and breathe out for 4 counts. Bonus points if you can find Theta wave frequencies and listen to them for 5 minutes or more, tuning out and resisting the urge to scroll on social media.
Exercise in increments: On days when you can not fit in a full workout or class, set a goal for 100 squats for the day. Do them right after you get up, stand up from your desk and do a few. Do them after meals which is attributed to metabolizing your food better, so you get double points. Work your way up to a higher daily number and watch your body change.
The main point of these suggestions (and we have more) is to remove the emotion for each of the goals that you set. Override your feelings about how you are going to implement even one of these plans, with discipline and consistency. Make it non negotiable, hold yourself accountable or ask a friend to do that for you. The results will speak for themselves and make you very happy.