Do you desire to avoid chronic fatigue, breakdown and burn out?
How does CHRONIC stress impact the WHOLE you?
Chronic Stressors and the WHOLE you!
As you may have heard … my husband Neal and I made a HUGE life change this summer. Due to Covid, or rather a gift from Covid, we were able to work remote and live anywhere! Sadly, my personal training and coaching clients LIVE and IN PERSON changed in the middle of March. Most clients decide to “wait” out Covid and not do coaching online – but I knew this wasn’t going to be a virus that was gone in a month because we all stayed locked up in our homes as a animal in its cage. Now more than ever, we all need to boost our immune system by reducing sources of CHRONIC stress on the inside and out!
In the past six month or more, we all had to adapt to our new life rules being dictated by our government to slow the spread of the virus…but I was on a mission to follow my purpose and passion – to get clients healthy and happy!
Another gift Covid gave to me was to focus on building my new Health (RE) Building coaching program. I have been taking continuing education programs for the past ten years on health and nutrition – and now I am finally able to focus on my purpose. Helping people feel their best self and live their best life.
Are you an ambitious, driven, high performing individual, who has been trying to do all the “right” things but still can’t feel their best or achieve their desired results?
Are you struggling alone to get your body and vibrant self-back again?
Are you stuck in the cycle of “trial and error” trying to lose weight, increase energy and improve mood?
Chronic Stress impacts the WHOLE you.
Non-stop stress, chronic, that doesn’t start/stop, will lead to a domino effect of internal imbalances if left resolved. As a certified FDN Practitioner, we call this breakdown and burnout of internal body systems and unexplained symptoms … METABOLLIC CHAOS®.
Stress that doesn’t stop (intermittent or short bursts/doses) impacts the WHOLE you from the inside out in so many ways.
When we started to lock down and hibernate in March 2020, I started writing articles and researching about the immune system. I even created the “IMMUNE SYSTEM RESOURCE MANUAL” that you can download from free on my website. As a health and fitness coach for 25 plus years, I have learned about the importance of eating real food, balancing our blood sugar, spending time in nature, getting quality sleep and of course exercising in the right amount (most of us athletes over train and under recover!).
Chronic Stress will accumulate and catch up with you.
My life changed in 2013 as I knew it. My old self was a driven, competitive, high performing athlete striving to win her age group in endurance events as Ironman triathlons, marathons and 50k trail races. I started to feel tired on my last 50k trail run (Chuckanut) in February 2013, even though I had a HUGE (too large) of aerobic engine development. My heart rate kept creeping up on the trail run and I took an hour longer than predicted. My husband completed the race/event over an hour before me and had to wait patiently in the car staying warm!
That was one of my first major RED FLAGS that something was changing in my body.
CHRONIC Stress was accumulating in my body at a cellular level.
The end of February 2013, we had our first (and only) Superhuman Summit conference in Spokane, WA organized by the founder Ben Greenfield. I was one of the Superhuman Coaches and we were learning about all about health and biohacking back in 2011-2012 in our program then more at the live conference with speakers as Dave Asprey and Jimmy Moore. We were ahead of the trends- cold plunges, heart rate variability testing, Bulletproof Coffee and eating fat to burn fat!
At the same time, I was realizing I was not feeling myself- energy, mood and recovery from workouts. I went for a group run and noticed I was struggling more even though I was in shape and just came off a busy (overtraining!) season of Ironman triathlons, marathons and 50k races (more is better right!?). RED FLAGS were starting to appear- but I didn’t realize what was going on for another month.
I wish I knew now that I didn’t know then.
There is even a song about it here on YouTube…
and I wrote a book about it and self-published my personal story on Amazon to help other ambitious, driven, top performing individuals avoid going through what I have happen since March 2013.
Lesson Learned: LIFE IS NOT A RACE. LIFE IS A JOURNEY.
Take time out to stop, pause, reset and reboot. We don’t need to be overly ambitious and drive ourselves into a hole.
We don’t need to get so far to the bottom of the hole when we finally realize that our lifestyles are creating more harm than good.
More is not better. Sometimes LESS is MORE!
Chronic Stress accumulates and overfills our beaker of stress.
How can you avoid over filling your beaker of stress?
Our history, “old self”, isn’t always a bad or negative event, but rather an opportunity to learn, grow and improve your “Future Self”.
I still haven’t been able to run a marathon or do another Ironman Triathlon as I don’t feel that my hormones and mitochondria can handle that amount of stress on the body. Any exercise over 45-minutes or so (cardio/endurance/aerobic exercise) can increase your cortisol levels.
My HPA axis and stress hormones as cortisol levels were probably working overtime, technically my HPA Axis, when I was racing long distance events 1999 to 2012, especially more so when I opened my own small fitness studio in 2009 then expanded to a larger location in 2010. My body was in constant stress mode and then I realized (just recently this summer) that I probably got mold toxicity from my building where I worked each day operating my fitness studio (alert when you work on the main level with a restaurant and yoga studio with showers above you plus floods through the ceiling tiles!).
Chronic stress accumulates and it is not just from over exercising in my example. My stress levels starting a new small business with a large (huge) overhead (financial stress), then in a competitive market over the years (marketing stress), just continued to pile on my body (HPA Axis) started a domino effect at a cellular level lowering my self defense and leading to parasites, mold toxicity, H.pylori, poor digestion, candida, microbiome imbalances, hormones depleted, food sensitivities, neurotransmitter deficiencies, leaky gut and more! No wonder I wasn’t able to train, race, get fit or burn fat. My body was under constant stress and constant struggle.
Chronic stress impacts your blood sugar levels.
I was doing all the “right” things way back in 2010 or before with metabolic efficiency training, low carb, eating real food, hydration, fasted morning workouts, lifting weights, doing yoga, and moving each day. The problem can be doing “TOO MUCH” or “TOO LITTLE” in life – and not finding your own unique “GOLDILOCKS” amount in life… the right amount to create a positive effect or impact on your body. My blood sugar was raised, not from the food I was eating, but from the stress levels activating my cortisol levels which raises your blood sugar/glucose in response to the “emergency” or threat.
I was running from the lion or saber tooth tiger every day and all day.
TEST and not GUESS your internal hidden sources of CHRONIC stress!
What are you doing NOW to take care of the WHOLE you from the inside out?
What have you learned from the year 2020 about your eating, lifestyle and work habits?
What are you doing now to improve your FUTURE SELF?
Let me know your experiences and goals!
Click here to schedule a call to dive into your struggles!
Coach Debbie
