Welcome back everybody. It is Becky Williams and today I'm going to be talking to you about the 5 Ways To Naturally Beat Adrenal Fatigue. And so adrenal fatigue has been kind of a hot topic here lately. But I want to explain what it is and then on the tail end of this, talk to you about ways to be able to get past it, get through it. It is a process. It's not going to be an overnight thing. It's not something you can take medication for and that makes it a little bit more difficult to be able to feel better.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel. So I want to explain to you about what it is today and then what you can do to help with your symptoms. So before I dive into adrenal fatigue, I first want to talk about your adrenal glands. So your adrenal glands are actually glands that sit on top of your kidneys. They produce sex hormones like testosterone, estrogen, hormones that affect blood pressure, water retention, electrolyte balance. They help produce hormones like cortisol, which is going to affect your metabolism and your immune system.

I've talked about both of those before and also the adrenal glands also produce adrenaline, which is you know, a lot of times what we think about which is going to have to do with your fight or your flight response. Now all of these hormones are very important to our bodies, right? When they're in balance we feel okay. Stressful situations here. I got this. I can handle it. But before modern living like now our adrenal glands were used to help. If you're being chased by a predator you're being threatened by another person so it had to do with the like dealing with stress of famine or environmental conditions, people who lived a long time ago. We did not have homes that they could put their alarm systems on and you know all these fancy protections and stuff and so that fight-or-flight was a lot more real for them than what it is for us today most of the time.

Unfortunately, the stress of our modern lives also cause our adrenal glands to constantly be producing hormones. So your body doesn't know hey, my life is in danger versus I'm so behind at work and I need to get this stuff done and the kids are screaming and I don't have enough time and I'm eating poorly and all these things your body just knows stress. It doesn't know where it's coming from, alright. So all that your body knows is that you're stressed. So your adrenal glands are going to keep producing stress hormones like cortisol. 

Here's a little hint. Cortisol is going to help to keep weight on your body. All right, so a lot of times when people say, okay oh, I'm at a weight stall and they're confused why they're there and I say what is your stress level on scale of one to ten? And they're like, oh, it's an 8. I'm like that you got to get rid of the stress or you got to reduce that stress with this weights not gonna let go. So producing all of the stress hormones was a lot of demand on your adrenal glands and they start to run out of ingredients, so to say, to make the hormone. So over time, they begin to produce less of the compounds that your body's gonna need. This could just throw your whole body out of whack at this point, okay. So your adrenal glands stop working as well as they used to and you start to experience symptoms of adrenal fatigue.

Let's talk about if you think okay, I'm really really tired, but I don't know if I have adrenal fatigue. I don't know if this is just like regular sleepy stuff because I'm not getting enough sleep or if this is an actual adrenal fatigue symptom. So I'm just gonna give you a whole bunch of them here so that you can kind of know. All right, here we go. You feel tired exhausted even when you've gotten a really good night's sleep. You feel a rundown for weeks or months at a time. We're not talking about just you know, this one week the kids had a lot of soccer games and we had a lot of late-night homeworks and things like that. No, this is like weeks and months at a time. You're not feeling well, trouble coping and stressful situations like something comes up. it's something that you would normally be able to deal with but it's just like blowing your mind. Okay, you're having trouble with dealing with it, thinking clearly, paying attention. You just you feel like you can't focus no matter what you would what you're trying to do or how important something is to you. Anxiety, depression, getting sick more often than you used to, your allergies are way worse than they normally are. 

And let's see, you feel cold all the time, like physically cold in your body. You have low blood pressure, those two kind of go together. You have dry scat especially on your face. You have weight gain. Sometimes even if you're eating well, you're exercising, you're like I'm doing all the things and I still have weight. You crave salty foods, frequent use of caffeine or sugar to help perk your mood and your energy. So if you are always craving salty and sweet, these are big signs of adrenal either you may not have a very fatigue yet. It may just be stress on your adrenals that your body's trying to say. Hey, we need help over here, you know. We're definitely an operant like we're supposed to. We need you to pay attention to us. Also disinterest and be intimate with your partner. This is also another symptom or sign of adrenal fatigue. Now if you're like, oh man, there's so many of those on that list that really, I feel like they're happening to me or they're happening to my spouse or someone that I love. 

Here are 5 ways to naturally help your adrenal fatigue. The first one is to get more sleep. So one of the hallmarks of adrenal fatigue is that you're tired all the time, right? So You might think all right, I have adrenal fatigue. I always sleep. No matter what. I still feel tired. Well, it does make a difference. Even though it may seem small and it may seem really slow in your recovery, sleep does make a difference. Sleep is when your body heals guys. So over time getting adequate sleep is going to help your body to get back into a normal. Healthy circadian rhythm, it helps you to overcome adrenal fatigue. Look for 7 to 8 hours a night.

The second one, stop doing hours and hours and hours of cardio. Cardio used to be praised as like this really huge thing that's gonna help you to lose weight. But the more cardio that you do, the more calories you burn right which should lead to weight loss. That's what we've always been taught. Unfortunately that story really oversimplifies. Doing a lot of cardio actually puts stress on your body. 

What is adrenal fatigue? It's that your body is in a chronic state of stress. So when you're working out really really hard, especially doing cardio you're adding more stress to your body. Remember your body does not know the difference between running for hours to escape predators or if you're running for hours just to lose weight. It doesn't know the difference. Long cardio sessions can actually contribute to worsening your adrenal fatigue. You should definitely keep working out. Movement is important. We've always talked about that here. But switching out long cardio for things like HIIT training or burst training or weight lifting things like that, that's not going to be the sustained long prolonged time where you're putting your body in a stressed state. And you can actually burn more fat doing HIIT workouts anyway in my opinion.

The third is to practice self-care. Overall stress in your life, it's gonna greatly contribute to adrenal fatigue. There's just no other way around it. Whatever the stress is from, is it from work? Is it from money? Is it from relationships, kids, something else. Go back and listen to the previous videos that I've done for you.

I did one on the Enneagram so you can understand your relationships with other people. I've done one about inviting wealth into your life. I've done one about changing your mindset and being able to attract those good habits, things like that, all right. I've done episodes for you on all of these things. So if you need a refresher, go back to the previous videos that I've done. If you're gonna overcome your adrenal fatigue, you have to start taking care of yourself. And there's just no way around that. Start prioritizing activities that help you to de-stress in a healthy way, things like taking a long bath, reading a book, going on a bike ride, walking around the neighborhood, taking time play with your kids, play with your puppy dog. Whatever it is that brings you joy and brings you happiness, and brings your stress down. Do more of those things.

Also try to avoid de-stressing by drinking alcohol or eating sugary foods. These can make adrenal fatigue worse guys. Almost done for reduce or eliminate sugar. So a lot of you, you know, you're in this program and you've made it this far week 28

I think it's week 28. Anyway, you're probably already doing this but just in case some old habits have creeped in at this point, if you're relying on sugars to give you a pick you up. If this is not going to help you to overcome your exhaustion, it's actually gonna make it worse. Okay, this is adrenal fatigue is already gonna result in high levels of inflammation and then adding the sugar in as well, you're just making excess inflammation and it's just making it worse. You also could get sick more often. Your allergies are worse. You'll have digestive issues. You feel more anxious. You feel more depressed. Your concentration is worse. You see how this is just like making the symptoms that you already have worse. So don't add the extra sugar to help with your, with feeling better with adding to making you have joy if that makes sense. All right.

When I get off of my notes, I start to not make sense on things. So I'm trying to stay focused for you. Also natural sugars like if you are doing a paleo meal plan and you do include fruits into your eating plan. That's okay. Just be mindful of how much you're taking in because sugar is sugar and even though fructose is you know a better sugar for you than a processed stuff with the chemical stuff. It still adds up in your body.

And the fifth one is you could follow a ketogenic diet, if you're not already. So a ketogenic lifestyle or a modified keto lifestyle to where you're not doing maybe like a more of a low carb than just keto. It can help you to overcome adrenal fatigue. So a keto diet or a keto lifestyle, whichever you prefer by definition, eliminate sugary foods that can make adrenal fatigue worse. So this is why it's recommended. It also helps fuel your body with natural healthy foods loaded with nutrients that your body is going to need to recover and to heal. So if you're gonna follow a ketogenic lifestyle to overcome adrenal fatigue, just make sure that you get guidance from somebody who knows adrenal fatigue and who understands how keto is going to play a role in that. Because a lot of times when people start their adrenal journey trying to heal that and they start with keto, they'll jump at and they'll not do it correctly and it actually makes their adrenals worse.

And so they're like, oh keto didn't work for me. It didn't help. So make sure that if you're gonna do keto that you're working with somebody like our team who understands how adrenal fatigue and keto will work together? Alright.

So hopefully this will give you the results that you are looking for. This will help you with the fatigue that you're feeling if you feel like you have adrenal fatigue. Of course, work with your doctor. We're not medical professionals, you know. We're health coaches and we have other certifications in that type of thing. But we never ever say to overstep what your doctor tells you. So go and get checked out by your doctor if you feel like you have adrenal fatigue, and these are 5 ways that you can naturally. Go ahead and start today with feeling better and feeling more like yourself. So, I hope that you are well, I'll see you next week with another bonus video. Have a great week guys. Bye.