If you’ve been reading blogs for awhile, you’ll occasionally see “Adrenal Fatigue” pop up as a hot topic. Which begs the question… what’s up with Adrenal Fatigue? Is there substance behind the fad? (And the real question you want to ask – is adrenal fatigue just an excuse for super tired or lazy people?)
The Kitchen Stewardship® Team dishes out on what your adrenals are, the truth behind the fad status of adrenal fatigue, and ways to support your adrenal health. Catch it all on the video below!
And yes. I know it’s a video… which may leave you tempted to skip watching. Before you blow by, consider clicking on the video and multitasking on some chores (folding laundry, anyone?).
If you’re super pressed for time, check out the detailed listening guide below. But I guarantee you’ll learn something from this video chat between KS founder and editor Katie Kimball, contributing writer Bethany Wright and nutritional therapist Lydia Joy.
Adrenal Fatigue Video Notes
(By the way – feel free to click on the links below as you are watching the video. They should all open in a new window.)
0:50 – Introduction to Lydia Joy.
- Lydia Joy is a nutritional therapist from Divine Health From the Inside Out Health. Curious to learn more? See below for a welcome gift from Lydia.
3:51 – Bethany’s Personal Experience with Poor Adrenal Health
- Get the list Bethany refers to on Adrenal Fatigue symptoms.
5:45 – Adrenals 101
- What are adrenals? Where are they in the body? What purpose do they serve?
8:33 – Discussing the Current State of Affairs of Children and Adrenal Health
- Watch for a guest post on Wednesday from Lydia – I (Katie) asked her to tell us more about this disturbing trend…
9:07 – What Are Typical (And Less Obvious) Stressors To Adrenal Health?
11:10 – Fatigue vs. Exhaustion
- Is there a difference between plain fatigue and adrenal exhaustion?
12:03 – The Three Stages of Stress
If you only have time to watch three minutes of the video, this is it.
- Lydia describes the three stages of stress (alertness, resistance, and exhaustion) and how each stage wears on the body differently.
15:05 – Creating A Good Guy/Bad Guy List When It Comes to Caring for Adrenals
- why staying up late is harmful
- why healthy salt is necessary (more KS articles: 1, 2, 3)
- why gentle exercise is important
- why you should never skip breakfast (Need help planning breakfast? Here’s a Monday Mission to get you going.)
19:01 – The Role Food Can Play With Your Adrenals
21:36 – The Role Reverse Osmosis Water Can Play With Your Adrenals
- Want to know even more? Check here and scroll down to the middle of the article.
22:53 – The Role of Mental Health and Adrenals
- Stay tuned later this month for a post talking about the connection between our mental selves and our physical bodies!
Tired? Overwhelmed? Sugar Cravings? Mood swings? Trouble losing weight?
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Get started today for free with the Adrenal ReCode mini-course!
35:22 – A Word Of Encouragement About Adrenal Health and Perfection
- By all means, take measures to support your adrenals. But remember that the body was designed to handle stressful situations. Yes, the tank can run dry. But that’s why we’re learning ways to support our adrenals better. The goal isn’t to have a stress-free life, but to learn how to support ourselves well while journeying through the stress.
38:10 – Is Adrenal Fatigue Simply A Fad?
- Learn some interesting biological information, including the relationship between electrolyte minerals and adrenals. Don’t forget KS’s recipe to make your own electrolyte drink that will help boost your (healthy) sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium – and it’s also great for rehydrating when you’re sick!
46:18 – How Adrenals Can Be A “Canary In The Coal Mine”
47:16 – Three Tangible Ways To Love Your Adrenals
This is probably the second most important segment to watch if you are tight on time.
1. Why Sleep Matters.
Check out the Kitchen Stewardship® Healthy Sleep Series.
2. Why WHEN you eat breakfast matters.
How what you eat and when you eat it can impact your blood sugar, your adrenals, and your physical well being. Need help getting breakfast on the table? Check out Kitchen Stewardship®‘s The Healthy Breakfast Book.
3. Why a particular resting position can help you decompress and recharge.
Announcing a Kitchen Stewardship® Sleeping Challenge
So hopefully you’ve had a chance to watch the video and learn why sleep is so important to our adrenal health. But can I have a moment of transparency? Since filming this video, I fell off the “get sleep early” bandwagon. And believe me – I can feel it.
Because I never want to be one to call the kettle black (did you read my post about my struggle to exercise? HA!), I’m hereby initiating a one-week challenge.
For the next 7 days, I’m committing to turning out the bedroom lights by 10:07pm.
(Yes, that’s an odd time. I did that on purpose.)
If you really want to go hard core, commit to no blue screens after 9:07pm AND lights out by 10:07pm for one week. I’ve got five more simple sleep tips HERE.
So the question remains: You up for the challenge?
Lydia is a Nutritional Therapist and a single mom of four fabulous boys, on a mission to share her passion for whole, healthy, real foods with the world! She enjoys living life one day at a time, from the inside out! Lydia believes that health is a choice, a right and a gift that we cannot take for granted, and in this day and age, unfortunately, must fight for!
Lydia blogs at Lyida Joy, empowering women to be their best selves. She focuses on traditional, real foods and incorporating the most natural, organic, nature intended foods possible. Thus ultimately leading to a more nourishing way of life!
You can find Lydia on Facebook. Lydia offers Hair Mineral Anlysis to help with healing.
Hearing you helped me understand better what I have been trying to learn elsewhere.
I love your positive attitude, understanding life is life (with stress and all), but we need to take care of ourselves and the little ones.
My mom was diagnosed with severe adrenal fatigue last year. After taking some specific supplements, cutting out coffee and chocolate and some other irritating foods, and making significant changes to her diet, she’s doing a lot better. Adrenal fatigue is definitely real!
I’m in! I need to finish the video before I give my favorite part, too, though the lay down advice is fantastic.
In a saliva test, I tested for low adrenal function 2 of the 4 test times during the day, so I’ve been taking Rhodiola, but I haven’t really thought about what else I might be able to do to help. I’m excited to watch the rest of the video!
Wendy – thanks for the kind words! I hope the video is insightful for you. 🙂
Thank you for this! Very informational. I did not realize some of these things I have are symptoms. I knew it was not normal but have felt so bad for so long yet since it is not the worst (nursing my baby had me so dizzy and tired I could not do anything) I have felt I just push through. Light sensitivity, startling at any little thing, dizziness, weakness and having to eat all day just to have any energy, and I can’t gain weight or exercise, always cold except when I feel like I am passing out because of the heat. Also when I start feeling bad I get so tired, brain fog and irritable. Can’t afford the hair analysis right now but going to start with your sleep challenge. I will aim to be in bed at 9:30 and screens off at 8:30! Yikes! Usually the time after my kids go to bet at 8pm is my work time!
Are there any exercises I can do to heal and start building up my strength, energy?
Any tips for getting of the cup of coffee I drink every am?
Rachel – Oh, dear. That doesn’t sound much fun at all. 🙁 Make sure you are in communication with your doctor about your symptoms. After all, that’s what we pay them to do what they do. 😉
Dehydration can also be a secret nemesis. I’d consider evaluating how much you’re drinking. And gentle exercise can work wonders to rebuild strength and stamina. Did you see this post? (http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2015/05/06/exercising-too-much/)
Hope you get to feeling stronger again quick!
Bethany,
A sleep challenge??? Oh noes! 😉
I’ll be the first to say “I’ll try” and tell you a little back story.
Last night I was emailing Lydia at 12:30a and up later than that. The work went well, BUT the time before that when I stayed up too late (past midnight-ish) working, I was literally falling asleep at the computer. 🙁 I wasn’t thinking well and not able to string words together, but when I tackled the same post the next morning I could feel the wheels turning better (even on 4-5 hours of sleep). I told my husband that I had learned my lesson once AGAIN, that staying up that late wasn’t productive in the long run and I should just get up earlier instead. I decided that this summer, I’d not stay up later than him and we’d get up at 6 every morning.
Notice that i was working at 12:30a last night though…doing “just one more thing” after hubby wen to bed. I broke my own rule already!
And I suppose it’s not good sign that I started this comment at 9 this morning and am finishing it at 11p in a hotel room with my sleeping children behind me…strike one on the goal, which I forgot until I came across this tab. Ugh.
So I’ll just do the two things that I finished in the car and go to bed! For real! (I hope my nose isn’t growing…b/c I’d rather dig into my email inbox than go to bed, but I’m sure I should…)
Thanks for the very challenging challenge, you know I need it!!!!
🙂 Katie
Katie – HAHAHAHA! Though I’m pretty sure “hotel sleeping” doesn’t count for this challenge. Any bit of survival in that situation is a good one! 😉 And I do giggle when I read your time stamps…
I’m in! Except I’m trying to do 9:14, screens off by 8:14. Thanks for doing this challenge! I’m still watching the video so I don’t have a favorite quote yet, but I really appreciate you covering this topic. It’s one I’ve been wondering about for a while.
Good for you, Bethany! How is it going? Get some good sleep tonight. 😉
Going well, though not as early as I’ve been aiming for I’ve definitely been more consistent. Do you find that adrenal fatigue can wake you up in the night? i’ve read enough symptoms to be pretty sure I have it, but I’m wondering if that’s what’s causing my sleep to be rocky, or if it’s something else. I’m planning to head to my dr and possibly get a sleep study, but just wondered what your experience had been?