My husband and I rented a cabin for a week just to get away from our house. And on the drive up, I felt so much gratitude for my Google Maps app. No paper maps to carry and try to refold; no memorizing routes and hoping for the best. Isn’t the Internet great?
And it makes life so easy – the moment you have an obscure question, you can have the answer at your fingertips!
But all this access to knowledge and information isn’t always what’s best…especially when it comes to our health.
Because the #1 mistake that women make when they want to get rid of their exhaustion and burnout is to turn to Dr. Google.
Who Fixes A Broken Arm?
I’m baffled, really.
Because if you were to break your arm, where would you go? Who would you ask for help?
Probably not Dr. Google, right? Unless you’re out in the wilderness without anywhere to turn…
But the moment you could get to a doctor, you would, I’m guessing. Because you know that a doctor has the expertise to set your broken bones for faster, easier healing.
Imagine what would happen to your broken bone if you did try to set it yourself? Crooked, painful, probably have to be rebroken at some point, maybe even surgery, right?
In a nutshell, if you tried to fix your broken arm on your own, you would make it so much worse, and the healing process would take so much longer. And you could be left with permanent damage.
Which is exactly what is happening to women who try to fix their fatigue on their own.
The Problem With Doing It Yourself
Bottom line, if you don’t know the reasons why you’re living with chronic fatigue, you will end up focused on the wrong things.
Think about your chronic fatigue like a tree.
Almost every “fix” that pops up with your Google “how to get rid of chronic fatigue” search is focused on the limbs and leaves of that tree.
But the real causes are in the roots…and if you don’t do anything to strengthen and nourish the roots, the whole tree suffers.
If you only focus on the limbs and leaves, you create bigger and bigger problems. Your body gets more imbalanced and your nutrient deficiencies increase.
Yet, the key to unlocking your energy production is to reverse nutrient deficiencies.
So how are you making them worse?
3 Phases to Systematic Reversing Chronic Fatigue
The #1 mistake – trying to fix your fatigue on your own – leads you down the wrong path.
Whether it’s supplements, fad diets, vitamin shots, self-care, restorative exercise like yoga, or drinking more water, all these so-called “solutions” to reverse fatigue are never going to work.
Because they are all Symptom-Focused.
And when you only focus on symptoms, you skip ahead to the final phase in your energy recovery journey – the Restore phase.
When you try to fix your fatigue on your own with Google, books and magazines, you skip over the 2 most important phases of this system:
Remove the triggers that keep your root cause health imbalances stuck in “energy shutoff” mode. (The stimuli making your tree roots weaker and weaker.)
Repair the body systems that have become weakened by the root causes and any nutrient deficiencies they’ve caused. (Like the fertilizer your tree roots need to become stronger.)
Then, and only then, once these two phases have been completed, do you focus on the Restore phase. (Or, pruning the leaves and keeping any pests out of the bark.)
Forget Symptoms, Focus on Root Causes
Most women I talk to look for solutions based on their symptoms.
And this isn’t their fault – it’s symptoms that they’re feeling all the time. They know they’re exhausted. Their brain fog, mood swings and anxiety are unbearable. Sleep is a nightmare and something just doesn’t feel “right” with their health.
It’s great to know your symptoms; but, when all you focus on is the symptoms, you jump over the real reasons those symptoms keep showing up.
If you don’t remove the triggers and strengthen the imbalances first, the symptoms will continue to come back.
And you’re left wondering what to try next!
Let’s cover some common symptom-specific solutions that don’t fix your fatigue!
B12 shots are known to help with energy, right? But, the real problem isn’t lack of B12. The real problem is chronic stress that’s led to an unhealthy gut microbiome, which is what makes most of your B12 vitamins. (And, the real B vitamins missing in most chronically exhausted women are B5 and B6.)
What about thyroid?
The thyroid is always the first place doctors look and the first hormone women think about when energy tanks. That’s normal – the thyroid hormones do regulate energy metabolism.
But, if you’re living with chronic fatigue, the underlying problems regulating stress are the real reason your thyroid hormones aren’t doing their job. Your body is still producing a healthy amount of thyroid hormone BUT stress hormones are preventing it from connecting to your cells to do its job.
When you miss the root causes, you end up wasting time, energy and money on the wrong solutions.
And you suffer with chronic fatigue unnecessarily.
Keep the Google inquiries to your Trivia Pursuit nights and enlist the help of a nutrition expert who specializes in identifying your root causes of chronic fatigue and in helping you follow the systematic approach to regaining your energy naturally.
If you’d like some help in finding out what’s causing your fatigue, then book a call with me today. That’s what I’m here for, to help you uncover the real problems so that you can get some real solutions that work.