By: Reneé Blanchard, Founder Bossy Like Me & Church Alley Coffee Bar
We are all exhausted and stressed out right now. But you probably need more than just a few extra days to catch up on sleep and a hot bath. Running and growing a business means you have to have a sustainable lifestyle that allows you to accomplish all your goals.
Chronic fatigue and brain fog can be linked to vitamin and mineral deficiencies as well as thyroid disease, and chronic pain. If this is causing a problem or has been part of your life for a while, then it may be worth it to speak with a Dietician or your Doctor to make some sustainable changes and get to the root of the cause of your discomfort. This often means a round of blood tests and a physical exam along with a few follow up appointments.
After speaking with my Registered Dietician, getting additional blood work done by my General Doctor, and answering a ton of functional medicine questions over several weeks to see trends, we realized my current chronic fatigue and brain fog were symptoms of an autoimmune thyroid disease, for which I am now being treated. While chronic fatigue has been the story of my life for years, it wasn’t until two failed pregnancies within eight months of each other did my Thyroid finally start causing some problems. Thyroid issues are very common after pregnancy, whether they are full term or not.
I want to share some health and wellness tips that worked for me. In this series, I’ll talk about how to add just a few tricks to what you are already doing that may help lessen fatigue and brain fog in your day to day.
The idea that in order to be successful we must push through feeling bad in our body now to see results later is a harmful culture of business that we must move past. Not sleeping enough, being chronically stressed, and not taking sufficient vacations will cause burnout and will in the end harm your business. The bigger picture of this series is to question that maybe ignoring the habits we have created to be successful at all costs is what is holding us back from achieving all our goals, including living a full happy life.
I’m going to break this list up into a series because there is a lot of information to digest around fatigue and brain fog. The more I think about this issue, the more topics I want to touch on for you. What works for me, may not work for you, but in this series we will talk about four big pieces of what could be contributing to your chronic fatigue and brain fog.
The Parasympathetic System, Deep Breathing & Gentle Movement
Vitamin D
Fiber, Leafy Greens, and Colorful Meals
Drink Lots of Water, I mean A LOT of water, Plus Enough Salt
The Parasympathetic System
The Parasympathetic System is a part of our Nervous System. The Nervous system can be divided into two: the Central Nervous System and the Peripheral Nervous System. The Peripheral Nervous System further divides into the Somatic and the Automatic Systems. One more division later in the Automatic Nervous System you get the Sympathetic (Fight or Flight response) System and the Parasympathetic (Rest and Digest response) System. By activating our Parasympathetic Nervous System we can calm our bodies and promote healing, digestion, and a more resilient immune system.
Learn More: Take a look at this video on the details of the Automatic Nervous System and how it relates to your emotions. It’s just over 10 minutes long and goes into the differences between the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems. Discussions on activating your Parasympathetic Nervous System are popular, but this video will help explain exactly what is happening in your body.
The Parasympathetic System impacts your heart rate, blood pressure, stomach, intestinal function, and glandular tissues. Your Sympathetic system is activated by stressful stimuli, like a car crash or chronic stress, like when you have unhealthy boundaries. This was helpful when we roamed and killed for our food, but now our Sympathetic system is stimulated by the constant stress in our lives to our determinant instead for our safety.
Your Parasympathetic System is activated when you calm your body and breath. By regularly activating your Parasympathetic System you are better able to recover more quickly from stressful situations as well as keep your immune system in good shape to tackle things like seasonal allergies or the flu.
Deep Breathing & Gentle Movement
Yoga, meditation, massage, and gentle movement activate your Parasympathetic System.
Possible Action To Take: Setting aside even 10 minutes in the morning for 5 minutes of meditation/prayer and 5 minutes of foam rolling, a few yoga poses, and some gentle movement can help boost your mood and immune system. And in the evening legs up the wall and a few seated twists will help calm your adrenal glands and help your quality of sleep. Do not go hard here. It is only in calming our Sympathetic Nervous System will we reap the benefits.
Possible Action To Take: Scheduling regular massages can also keep your fascia loose (along with regular foam rolling), impact your overall stress levels, and improve your immune system. Fascia is the connective tissue between your skin and your muscles. It helps hold everything in place. But as you hold your stress in your body, your connective tissue can get knotty and make you feel very uncomfortable in your own body if not massaged or rolled out in some manner.
Over the years, my energy levels were dictated by all my injuries and chronic stress. My fitness routine created through the years is all about creating more mobility and strength to keep them at bay. Because of a labral tear in my left hip, two torn discs in my lower back and arthritis, I also keep a regular schedule with my Pelvic Floor Therapist, massage therapist, and a daily workout routine that includes yoga, weights, and foam rolling. I created this schedule with trial and error and over a long period of time and it has been instrumental in keeping mobility. Something that is essential in the hospitality industry.
The soft tissue massage from both a Pelvic Floor Specialist (problems with your pelvic floor can create problems from your quads to the middle of your back and this kind of specialist knows more about those connections than your general PT) and the occasional massage was the needed extra step to keep me injuries in check.
At the beginning of COVID lockdown as our cases and deaths in New Orleans were rising, rivaling the early days of Italy, my back went out for a good 6 days. My PT and massage therapist were closed. I suffered from a fatigue I had never experienced. 12 hours of sleep and rest was never enough and is what I needed every day for nearly four months. Magnesium and vitamins were not enough. Eating loads of dark leafy greens and drinking a ton of water was not enough. I was recently able to go back to them for soft tissue massage. In the hours after my second appointment, my energy levels finally spiked. My body released and I felt a 100% lighter. My connective tissue was so tight causing mobility issues that my body was forcing me to lay down and rest but regardless of the amount, my body was still experiencing so much stress even though I was in no pain.
I want to stress again how helpful the combination of gentle movement, deep breathing, and soft tissue massage can do for your energy levels. All of these things activate your Parasympathetic Nervous System.
Be Patient With Yourself. Finding why you are suffering for chronic fatigue and brain fog is complicated. There’s no way around it. It takes a lot of awareness of your body and knowing that you deserve to be healthier. You deserve to take care of yourself and to feel good. You deserve to do what is necessary to make that happen.
*Also I want to flag how lucky I am that I have the ability to keep searching for the answers. I have money for this path and I have health insurance.
In my next post we will discuss Vitamin D. Looking forward to sharing with you soon.
