Why do I feel sooooo "burned out"?

If you carry weight in your stomach area, you have to read this post.

At the beginning of 2008 my life changed dramatically. My energy levels which used to be very high, hit rock bottom. I used to be up at 6 AM easily without the alarm but it started to get very difficult for me to get out of bed. When I did, I never felt rested. I couldn't really get my ass in gear until mid morning and then I would crash again mid-afternoon. My emotions were raw and my threshold for handling stress was very thin. I relied on coffee to get me through the day and had INTENSE cravings for sugar. When it really hit home that something was seriously wrong was in April when Jon and I hired a personal trainer.

Our trainer would come at 6 am in the morning and really work us out 2-3 days a week. Some days I would be strong, others I could barely squeeze out 5 pushups before collapsing. But EVERYDAY when he left, instead of being energized, I crawled back into bed and slept for an hour or two. After 6 weeks of training, my body was not releasing fat at all in fact I had put an inch on around my stomach. WTF right???? It was then I realized I was suffering from something called ADRENAL FATIGUE.

The adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys and their responsability in our bodies is to regulate stress by producing hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. If you experience prolonged or severe periods of stress, your adrenals can become burned out. This stress can be emotional, physical, or psychological. This means a death in the family, stress at work, an infection in the body, an athlete training too hard, or a divorce can all cause adrenal fatigue. In my case, I had a very bad virus prior to my wedding and then my wedding, plus work stress. The personal training was enough to push things over the edge.

Signs to look for are:

• Trouble getting up in the morning even if you went to bed early the night before.
• Never feeling rested and always tired for no reason.
• Feeling overwhelmed with life and all that is on your plate.
• Gaining weight in the stomach area.
• Needing coffee or sugary snacks to keep you functioning. Crave salty foods.
• Feel best after 6 pm.
• Decreased sex drive.

Now, I figured this out on my own and then it was confirmed by my homepathic doctor and generally you can decipher using the symptoms above if it is an issue for you. You can also see your regular or Naturopathic doctor and they can run some tests. When you know what the issue is, you can move forward in treating it. It is virtually impossible to lose weight when you are suffering from Adrenal Fatigue. This is why I was working out more than ever and actually gaining weight, I was putting my body under additional stress that it could not handle.

Digest this stuff and I will write more about how to help rebuild the adrenals later. As Oprah would say "This is HUGE people!!!"