I've been there too...
Experiencing my first fatigue crash in December 2016 came as a massive surprise. I was pretty healthy and had never given my physical resilience a second thought. I worked at a gym providing nutrition advice, I ate healthily and loved my energetic Zumba classes.
But my body had other ideas and after a period of lots of stressful events and a viral infection my life came grinding to a halt. I described it as "losing my play button". I just could not push through any more. I needed to stop - there was just no other option.
Initially I was bedbound. There were lots of dark days and I found it excruciatingly difficult to see everyone else's lives carry on as usual. One of the hardest things at this time was seeing the enormous impact my fatigue was having on my husband, who was trying to care for me as well as work and look after our children. I also felt like I was letting my children down as I was unable to be the mother that I wanted to be. I felt so guilty and frustrated that I couldn't just do more.
Gradually I started to feel a bit stronger. But this is when I discovered "post exertional malaise". There was always a big dip after any physical, mental or emotional exertion.
This yoyoing of energy lasted a couple of years and while I could leave the house for short periods of time, I was always really cautious about how much I could realistically cope with, so life was very restricted.
This led to my first real breakthrough - the importance of pacing. How much could I do consistently without crashing. Identifying my baseline was difficult. It meant leaving work, asking for help, saying no to commitments & obligations, closely monitoring my physical and emotional activity and letting go of my desire to be "all things to all people". But this was a crucial step in my recovery and one that I knew I had to get to grips with.
Alongside pacing, I was able to use my own nutrition knowledge to run a series of functional tests, optimise my diet and review my supplement schedule.
These two areas laid the foundation for my recovery but this wasn't the whole picture. I tried many different therapies, clinics and treatments. These included sessions with The Optimum Health Clinic, Graded Exercise Therapy (GET), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), hypnotherapy, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Havening, essential oils, Transformational Breathing, psychotherapy, counselling, Yin Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Tension, Stress and Trauma Release (TRE) and Internal Family Systems (IFS). I also spent a lot of time researching nutrition and trying out the things I learnt along the way. I carried out lots of testing on myself and learnt so much in the process. This desire and determination to be ‘well’ for me and my family, was the fuel for my journey, some things worked amazingly well, others less so, but I was learning every step of the way.
Experiencing such a wide range of therapies and experimenting on myself as part of my recovery, has enabled me to really understand the possibilities that each of these might offer to my clients. There is no ‘one size fits all’ and I am now able to understand which approaches might work, for who and when - thus removing the need for you to try 'everything' in your bid to recover.
One of the most powerful things that I did was test my own genetic variances with a company called Lifecode GX. I later qualified as a testing practitioner with them and use these tests as an invaluable part of my recovery work with clients. Nutrigenomics tells us that the expression of genes is impacted on by the foods we eat and our lifestyles, so knowing about your own specific genetic variations can really help you to understand how to best support yourself and optimise your energy production. I learnt that:1. My stress hormones are quick to trigger and slow to break down. 2. My body struggles to use B12 (so while I might have satisfactory B12 blood tests, my body might not utilise it optimally)3. Certain parts of my metabolism function better when I eat a little bit of meat or focus on ensuring a quality supply of certain nutrients found mainly in animal products (I had been vegetarian for 25 years)4. My digestive system is likely to need ongoing support because I have a variance that impacts the microbial balance of my gut.5. My body struggles to move fats into my cells which means that a keto diet would not be suitable for me. This was just the tip of the iceberg; the reports were so informative. All of these factors can have a considerable impact on energy levels and the reports gave me the information that I needed to focus my own diet, supplement and lifestyle plans even more – a truly personalised approach to optimising health & vitality.
I am so grateful for my recovery journey and everything that I have learnt along the way. I am now able to travel, socialise, work and do the things I love. I spend as much time as possible near, on or in water and love the freedom of being able to travel and go on adventures again.
I take nothing for granted and will always prioritise my wellbeing. I know what my body and mind needs to stay healthy and this feels like the biggest gift of all.
I look forward to being able to share my knowledge and experience with you and helping you to find your "routes to recovery".
Wishing you all the best with your recovery journey whichever path you take!