I'm too tired to get healthy!

I’ve heard this a few times from people, and it weighs on me. On the one hand, I’m empathetic to the situation. It’s hard to imagine spending more time in the kitchen or at the grocery store or doing research when you feel like you can barely manage to get by, day to day. I get that. Just the thought of it can be overwhelming, especially if you feel like you’ve ‘already tried everything' and nothing has given you relief from your symptoms.

On the other hand, can you really afford to continue as you are? Are you willing to accept a future full of days just like these where you can’t do what you want? Where you aren’t living the life you imagined? Where you give up hope of ever living a truly vibrant life?

Chronic disease sucks. So many of us are suffering from these diseases every day, and in most cases, we don’t have to. Just because other people in your family have ‘it,’ doesn’t mean you’re destined to have it, too. One of my favorite quotes is, “Genetics loads the gun, but environment pulls the trigger.” This means that the choices you make every day regarding your nutrition, your toxic load, your mindset, your sleep, and your exercise have a HUGE effect on whether genes associated with certain conditions are expressed (turned on) or not.

This puts the power in your hands!

I want to be clear that this isn’t just a ‘suck it up, cupcake’ kind of message. Maybe what you need are some strategies for relieving burdens in other areas of your life, so you have the energy to make changes that get to the root of your health issues. Let me give you an example.

Let’s say Mary (named changed to protect the innocent) is at the absolute end of her rope. She’s exhausted, crabby, flabby, and she knows she just doesn’t feel right, no matter what the doctors say. She sleeps horribly almost every night and wakes up groggy. She rushes through her days taking care of everyone, tries to eat ‘right’ (when she eats) but doesn’t succeed very often. She knows she needs to exercise but can’t even imagine having the energy to do that. She is so overwhelmed that the thought of working on herself makes her want to cry.

Mary needs help.

Mary begins working with a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (yup, you guessed it) who starts investigating the root causes underlying her symptoms. Together, they come up with some temporary strategies to free up her time. As incremental changes are made at a pace that Mary can handle, she finds she’s sleeping better. During that good sleep, her body is healing and detoxifying metabolic waste that’s built up over the years. Imagine if you only changed a little bit of the oil in your car every time instead of all of it - eventually that’s going to impact performance.

When she’s more rested and ‘clean,’ she notices a little more energy returning. This is encouraging! During the process, she finds out there are some specific food sensitivities taxing her body, and she eliminates them. There’s a little more energy. She heals her digestive tract and begins absorbing her food well. Energy bump. She learns how to drink water (yes, believe it or not, most people do it wrong) to optimize her hydration. Energy bump. She balances her fatty acids to reduce inflammation and help her hormone level. Energy bump.

After she’s been working on herself and achieving these milestones, her poor immune system finally has the resources to fight off a hidden infection or two that’s been dragging her down. Now, she’s got enough energy to add in a little exercise. Then she … well, you get the picture.

Mary is now bounding out of bed in the morning, charging into her day, happy as a clam wondering why she didn’t do this years ago!

Be like Mary. I promise you, it’s worth it.