Far 2 Fabulous

Is this perimenopause… or is it burnout?

• Julie Clark & Catherine Chapman • Episode 90

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Episode 90

Your body thinks there's a tiger in the room, but it's just your overwhelming to-do list. That constant state of fight-or-flight is driving you toward burnout, even if you're still functioning on the outside.

Most midlife women don't recognise the subtle signs of burnout until they're completely exhausted. You wake feeling unrefreshed despite sleeping. Small irritations trigger disproportionate reactions. You catch every cold. Sugar, salt, and caffeine become necessary fuels. Your libido vanishes. Yet you dismiss these warning signals as "normal life" because everyone around you is experiencing the same struggle.

What's actually happening is fascinating: your adrenal glands, responding to constant perceived threats, eventually become depleted. Your thyroid tries to help by "putting the brakes on" to conserve energy—essentially forcing you to drive with your foot on the accelerator while the handbrake is engaged. This biological response depletes essential nutrients and disrupts your entire hormonal orchestra, creating symptoms easily confused with perimenopause.

The good news? Burnout is reversible with consistent small actions. Three deep breaths when you feel overwhelmed signals to your body that the "tiger" isn't actually present. Mineral-rich vegetable broths replenish depleted reserves. Adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha help regulate stress responses. Even 30 seconds of cold water at the shower's end can reset your nervous system.

Remember, reaching burnout isn't a personal failing—it's your body doing its best to cope with demands it wasn't designed to handle. You don't have to make this journey alone. Connect with us in our Facebook group where we're sharing practical techniques like tapping to help you recover your energy and reclaim your wellbeing.

Got a question or comment? Send us a text message here!

Thank you for listening.

You can continue the conversation with us in the Far 2 Fabulous Facebook group. Come and connect with other women on a journey to empowered health.

For more information about Julie Clark Nutrition, click HERE
For more information about Catherine Chapman, click HERE

We look forward to you joining us on the next episode.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Far Too Fabulous. I should have Julie and Catherine. Join us on a mission to embrace your fabulousness and reading findfulness. Get ready for some feistiness, inspiration, candy chat, and humour as we journey together towards empowered well-being. Let's dive in. Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Far Too Fabulous Podcast. I don't know if it ends up as the same little singing song now or if it changes every time I've got. Oh, you've definitely got some kind of little theme tune going on there now. I love it. It's the old-looking microphone as well. It just makes me feel like I should be singing along. Anyway, anyway, welcome back. We hope you're having a lovely week so far. This week we thought that we would talk about something that I think most midlife women, if they haven't experienced it, could probably relate to in some way, and that is burnout. And I also think that as we are talking about this, more and more of you are going to be going, oh that's me. Oh no, that's me. That I recognise that. And maybe have never ever given it a a name. And actually, as I'm saying this, this was this was totally me. Maybe about 10 years ago now, I've totally lost track, thankfully, when I was acutely anxious, but I did not recognise it as anxiety. And remember, I was a nurse at this point, yeah. Did not recognise it as anxiety, and and it wasn't until I thought it was the other way around. I thought that all of my symptoms, so things like like gastro upsets and like shaking and fatigue and just exhaustion were were the thing. That was what was wrong with me. Not that the anxiety was causing all of those things. And again, it wasn't until somebody said to me, That sounds like anxiety, that I that I even that I even realised that something was was going on. And that was, yeah, that was mum mum says now, I think you had a bit of a breakdown. I was like, Yeah, you think mum?

SPEAKER_01:

Just a little bit of one. The breakdown is what maybe it used to get called, and and we'd also think that this exhaustion or burnout would literally be collapsing on the floor, not being able to function. Yeah. But it but it isn't that really. No, it's it's way more subtle. So I see it a lot in my clinic, and I see it come up in the test results. This is the bit that I find fascinating, especially on the hair test, because it's looking at the adrenals and that thyroid connection, etc. And I can see that someone is at burnout, but most of the time they will not recognise it. They just think I'm well, I'm just busy and I've got a lot going on, but you know, I'm carrying on, I can keep going. Yeah, they are what did what have I called it vertically ill.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, yeah, absolutely, and because they've done it for so long, and they see everybody else doing it as well, like my mum doing exactly the same, and yeah, and women all around me doing exactly the same. And well, this is you know, this is how I've always functioned. And I remember saying to the doctor, how come everybody else can can carry on juggling all the balls, spinning all the plates? What's the matter with me? And he's like, They're not, they're all functioning the same as you, or unfunctioning the same as you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. It is an interesting one, and I think that it can get tied up with the hormone side of things because it tends to kind of hit women in their 40s and 50s. We see that a lot. There are there are going to be there is going to be a change in the hormones, and that is going to mean that you don't necessarily bounce back in the in the same way that you did, or that stress is going to be your resilience to stress is going to be lowered, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. And in in every way, mentally, physically, you are yeah, you cope with things differently.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it's it's little signs like you know, that dragging yourself out of bed. You get up in the morning and you don't feel like you've had sleep. Even if you have had, even if you have been in bed for that sleep, you get up in the morning and you don't feel like you've had sleep, or you get that feeling like you've got a hangover in that first half an hour to an hour of getting up, that is because you've not got the cortisol level coming in at the right at the right level. Yeah, and then you're snapping at people, yeah, and you're tired during the day, but then you get a second wind at night, or you're tired and you go to bed and you can't switch off, so that tired and wired feeling, but you're exhausted and you feel like you've just lost that the v-vum sort of thing, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely, and I guarantee there are people nodding their heads going, yeah, that's how I feel. And you wouldn't, again, you wouldn't identify that as burnout necessarily if you didn't if if we weren't sort of talking about it now, you'd just say this was just normal life.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but it's uh it's an overload of the stress system, so we get stuck in that fight and flight because of just the the way that we keep going and we keep going and we keep going, and we've got all these different things coming at us that we start to impact that nervous system and the way the that endocrine system works with the hormones, the adrenals, and the thyroid and the rhythm of the cortisol and the melatonin, it's that go, go, go, go, go that gets that switch stuck, and then it starts to drain your resources.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. And I don't know about you, but the the feeling of burnout, the feeling of breakdown, is is terrifying, but you just think I I can't stop. Like there's no time to stop. There's no time for me to have a breakdown.

SPEAKER_01:

No, and there isn't, and you know, we are as women really good at pushing through, aren't we? Yeah, we're really good at pushing through, and we just keep working and caring and showing up and doing all the things, but there's always like little things that start to happen.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, the the cracks start to appear, definitely, and it is the things like the the the poor, the disturbed sleep, or like you said, waking up the next day, even if you've had, even if you have been asleep and just still feeling like shit, yeah, digestive issues, weight gain. So lots of these things we put down to other things, right? Uh, yeah, weight gain, mood changes, thyroid problems. We could just be going, oh, you know, we're just going through the menopause. Yeah, yeah. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and and there will be a connection there because in perimenopause, when we lower, you know, the estrogen and project, well, remember, estrogen goes crazy at first, but overall, when they start to lower, then they're going to we they normally buffer us against stress, but that that kind of buffer is being taken away at this point, so then our stress tolerance really drops, and yeah, we just we don't have that protection, I guess is what you would call it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But what comes first? Is it the adrenal stress or is it the change in hormones? Because the adrenals are supposed to help us out when the sex hormones drop, but they can't if they're dealing with the stress, so it's a bit chicken and egg, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it is, and our modern life is so go go go. So even before we've got into this stage of life, the the stress and the the amount of stuff that we're doing in our 20s, in our 30s must have like our adrenal system must be like, I don't know, I don't know what I'm doing, just keep going, yeah, just keep blasting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and and current life is nothing like our bodies all expect either. And we've spoken about this before about what the body perceives as stress, is no different from getting that ping on your phone that says you're overdrawn in your account versus a tiger coming round the corner. Yeah, it's the same response in the body.

SPEAKER_00:

So no, absolutely. Will you just we as we were talking about this earlier on, and you were saying about the um the adrenals and the thyroid, will you say that? Because that was really made that really clear and it made it very obvious why you feel like I often said I felt like I was walking uphill, um, up a treacle covered hill in welly boots. That's how I felt all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so it's the thing that I like about the body is that it will always try to help, it will always try and maintain a balance. So if you are adrenally stressed and your body perceives that there's a tiger coming, there's a tiger coming, or the tiger is in the room, and you're looking at all the things like your life loads, you're juggling your kids, you're looking after parents, you're working, you're trying to do your fitness, and you're you're doing all those things.

SPEAKER_00:

Which is the thing at this time of life as well, isn't it? Like the kids are going through lots of changes, you're going through lots of changes, your parents are potentially getting more dependent on you. There's a lot going on.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so you're doing all those things, and a lot of the time, especially around this 40 mark, is where the career demands come in. Because I mean, I spoke to a lady this week who is in her early 40s and she's going for a massive promotion at work, but she said, I've got to sort my hormones out because I am forgetting stuff and I'm messing up and I cannot go for this promotion. Yeah, but yeah, that's that's the age where you are climbing if that's what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00:

Maybe you're less time with your kids through the day, yeah, so you can pay a bit more attention to your career.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. So all of these things are like a tiger, another tiger, another tiger, another tiger. So inside your body, your adrenals are responding to that tiger, tiger, tiger, tiger, but it can't do that indefinitely. So then what happens is because that orchestra and the endocrine system, other parts of that, all of those things that are connected, notice that. Oh my goodness me, look at that. The adrenals have gone absolutely crazy, they are burning through all our nutrients and our energy. We can't carry on like this, so the thyroid will put the brake on. So the adrenals is like the accelerator and the and the thyroid will put the brakes on, and it will do that to conserve energy and nutrients. But if you put the brakes on the thyroid and you start to slow down that metabolism and everything that's involved in what the thyroid does, then the symptoms are mood issues, weight gain, tiredness, all of these things are thyroid symptoms. And I know so many of my clients that will come to me and say, I thought I had a thyroid problem. I went to the doctor, but my thyroid test is fine. Your thyroid test will be fine. We're looking at that whole system because the body's doing its very, very best to keep everything balanced, yeah. Yeah, but that is naturally what the body will do, it will just put the brakes on, and I think it's so clever.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's like it's like driving with your pedal to the metal with your handbrake on.

SPEAKER_01:

It is exactly that because the thyroid cannot lift the accelerator, it can only put the brake on. Yeah, and in the hair test that I do, because we look at the stress response, and it's such an amazing test. You can see, especially on a retest, you'll see high adrenal activity on the adrenal minerals that are involved there, and then you will see it crash, so it will go from high to low, and you'll see the thyroid ratio shoot up because it is trying to help. The adrenals have burnt themselves out, they've run out of fuel at this point. Yeah, the thyroid has got the brake on, and now the brake is stuck on. Yeah. No, that's really interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

And when the thyroid kicks in, do you then see less burning out of all the minerals and vitamins and things within the body, or is it just still so unbalanced?

SPEAKER_01:

It's too late at that point, so yeah, there is a huge imbalance, and then this is where you come in and support with nutrition.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, in an ideal world, we come in a long before then, would we? But we're dealing with human beings that that that don't come and look for help, especially female human beings that don't come and look for help until they're on the floor.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and the thing about when you put the nutrition in is that a lot of the people that I see, their nutrition isn't too bad. But because they've had, you know, they've had such a big stress response, they've used up all their reserves, they're then into into a position where they need what I call a therapeutic dose of nutrients, a luxury supply of nutrients, because they need to replenish those reserves, and then the normal things that that like a molte or I'm eating you know, eating my vegetable is not enough at that point. That's where you've got to put the therapeutic doses in.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, absolutely. So, if you are recognising some of these signs, we're gonna make them really, really obvious for you now. So, signs to look out for that are probably hidden, or you've probably put them down to something else is that tired and wired feeling all at the same time. You're exhausted, exhausted, but your brain just won't stop, it's just whirring all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it won't want to switch off. If you think about it logically, if you had a tiger in the room, you would need to be on high alert because you don't want to get eaten, right? And that is what your body is doing is trying to protect you. So even though you're tired and exhausted, it won't let you go to sleep because you've got to be hyper-vigilant in case that tiger comes at you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, absolutely small things that trigger big emotional reactions.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, this is so true when you've got when you're in a situation where your adrenals are really overworked, that trigger on the emotion, that is such a classic one. If I see again, if I see clients and they start telling me about what's going on and then they burst into tears, yeah, I'm thinking burnout here.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And even the it's when the adverts set you off and you burst into tears, you're like, or yeah, just anything just sends you into floods of floods of tears, or screaming rage, yeah, anger.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you've just rode right over really and it and later you're you'll realize as well, and you'll think, Wow, I totally overreacted to that. And then normally you have to go and apologise to a member of your family, don't you?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and eat some humble pie. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Caught every cold that is going around.

SPEAKER_01:

So when you're in burnout, like I said, when you get that high adrenal activity, but then it plummets, what that does is it impacts your immune system. You've got just nothing to defend yourself. Yeah, you've got no protection there, so yeah, you've got nothing to defend yourself, plus your nutrients have been depleted anyway, and your gut's going to be compromised because if you're in fight and flight, your digestive system's not going to be working as good as it would. So you don't have the levels of acid in the stomach, which is a major barrier for illnesses.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, this is this is a bad picture, and oh, here's it. I mean, I just I know that people are nodding to these. You're craving sugar, salt, or caffeine just to get through the day.

SPEAKER_01:

So sodium is a key component for the adrenals, it's one of the key minerals. So often you will crave salt when the adrenals are starting to decline. Yeah. So that's a common sign. You'll crave sugar because your body's looking for the energy and that's the the ingredient that it needs. Well, you think your body feels like it's running a marathon every day. Yeah. Just in its head. And the caffeine, I'm sure I've spoken about this before in other episodes that caffeine will punch the adrenals. So it's almost like you've put jump leads on the adrenals. Yeah. But they're already, they they can't respond at this point, but you keep prodding them.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think that's a habit as well, isn't it? Like people think, oh, I'm I'm tired, I'll have a cup of coffee. It's like a it's like a thing, or good god, the blooming monster things, or the what are they called, Red Bull things that are just I mean, they're double terrible, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, really, really bad.

SPEAKER_00:

In those, and that's yeah, and it's it's like it's counterproductive as well, isn't it? Because you might get that rush of of like energy or what have you, but then you are just gonna plum it even deeper.

SPEAKER_01:

And if you think about it as a punch to the adrenals, how many times can you keep punching that poor organ that is struggling? Yeah, you just can't carry on with doing that, so yeah. Libido has vanished. That is such a classic one tied up with stress, and it's such a huge one for women. Again, this has come up so many times with people that they've said, you know, my I still love my husband, he's still I still fancy him or whatever, but I've just got no desire. Yeah, we know that there's an impact on hormones like testosterone, and it will come into play around perimenopause, but the biggest libido crusher is stress for women.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, yeah, absolutely. Again, if you go back to your back to your tiger in the room, your body is not going to be going, yeah, let's reproduce, let's let's rig some babies into this lovely situation. It's gonna be like, No, no way, no thanks. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Apart from the fact you haven't got the energy to do it as well, the energy factor as well, and that mood, and and then it ties in with when things are changing in your body because of that thyroid to put the brakes on, you've got to carry in a bit more weight, so you don't feel as good, and yeah, all of those things. Yeah, it's quite a sad picture actually. But I mean, we're we're the way that we're putting it across, it sounds horrendous, but this is what I talk to women about all the time when I'm in my clinic, and they've just brushed it off as being not a big deal, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

As yeah, because everybody else that's like this is is behaving like this as well. This last one that that feeling foggy, unmotivated, or stuck. I mean, yeah, I I see that all of the time, and I can I associate with it actually uh some of the time as well, definitely. And these are so similar to just just plain old perimenopausal, I mean, like symptoms that you're gonna have. It's and and I mean we ask it painting a kind of a bleak picture, however, it doesn't have you don't have to have all of these all at the same time.

SPEAKER_01:

No, you don't, but you could have a lot of them, but still be a fully functioning person.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But underneath, you kind of know, yeah, I am struggling to get to sleep, yep, small things are causing, you know, I'm reacting, I am catching more colds, I am craving things, all you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And just know that you can't keep doing this. I think that's the you kind of you've you can start to recognise that that these you've got these signs and symptoms. Is it this is the point to stop brushing them under the carpet?

SPEAKER_01:

And this being stuck applied to stuck with weight, yeah, stuck with fitness goals, you haven't progressed.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, just with just with like life goals or job goals or yeah, anything, or like you know, projects in your house, projects in your garden, hobbies and things, you just yeah, you f you haven't got the energy, like, and again, it makes it obvious. Your your tiger analogy makes it obvious. If you're worried about a tiger in the room, you're not gonna be worrying about your pot plants.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, you've just got no capacity for it, basically. But you are still doing all of the things that you need to do. Get up in the morning, you know, get make sure the kids are all right, go to work, check on your parents, get five a day, all of those things you'll still be able to do because you know you're a frigging amazing woman, but underneath, if you're really pushing that stress response in the body, then this is the this is what can happen, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And these are your signs because something is gonna give eventually. So let's let's stop the bleakness. Let's actually let's first say this is a really, really important point that it is not your fault, it's not a character flaw. You're not failing as a human being or as a woman or as a mother or as a wife or any of that stuff. Just using these as a sign that your body is telling you and your mind is telling you that I'm running on empty and I need oh it needs to stop.

SPEAKER_01:

And if you need to see it in front of your face, then please go and look at getting the hair test done. It is so good, it's not expensive, it's easy to do, and then you can actually see am I depleted? How well is my stress response working? Where do I need to support it?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, or is this just plain old perimenopause that I'm being beaten over the head with instead?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and again, you can see you can really see that from the test. It is so, so useful.

SPEAKER_00:

No, that's really fab. So, what can we do about it? That's the most important bit, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and we spoke recently about when you haven't got time, and if you're in this situation, the likelihood is that you haven't got time. So it's about doing the small things again, small, consistent, daily things. So, the one that I will often get my clients to do, and I do make sure I do this myself, is when you wake up in the morning at the start of the day, and you can do this at the end as well, to help your nervous system. It's almost like you're you're reminding your nervous system, okay, the tiger's not here. I don't need to be in fight and flight, and you can do that through your breath. So freaking powerful and easy to do.

SPEAKER_00:

So, so easy. I love the one that you shared about about breathing in and then sipping in that last little bit of breath, holding it for a few seconds, and then just completely letting it go and doing that three times.

SPEAKER_01:

Three times, that's not going to take long to do, and the difference in how you feel is so huge.

SPEAKER_00:

It's incredible. So, that point where you are just about to yell until your veins pop out of your neck, that point, just before that point, at the kids, at the husband, maybe just at the television or the dog, do those breaths. It's such a great tool, like at any point through the day. And perhaps you can start to factor this into your routine. Like you've said, you get up in the morning and do that. Maybe you are adding breath work, maybe you're adding meditation to your daily routine, because it will not only help you right there in that moment, it will mean that you've practiced it. So when you really need it, because I hear very often that people say, Oh, I can't, I can't meditate.

SPEAKER_01:

The people that can't meditate are the ones that need this the most. The most.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you are absolutely right, absolutely right. But yeah, just because it's passive, just because you're sat there doing nothing, does not mean that it is an easy thing to do by any stretch of the imagination. It takes some practice. So if you've if you're doing this regularly, you will you'll get the practice. So when you really need it, and hopefully, if you've been doing it regularly, you won't really need it. But if you really need it, you can sort of call on it really quickly. Go just going back to that point you were saying about time, it that we don't have time to do this, yet we want the quick fixes, don't we? And so we don't start doing these little things like breathing three times because we think that that's not going to give us this big impact, cure all impact that we are that we are desiring. And I get it, you want it all done right now, you want it over with, so you can just get on with your life. Unfortunately, that's not quite the way it goes, and that these little and often things that you can do through your life that might not feel like these big gestures are the things that you need to do.

SPEAKER_01:

And the more tigers you've got, the more you need to tell your system that everything's okay, you need to retrain your body to switch off because this switch has gone on and you get stuck in that stress response. And so the more you remind your body, and you can do this through breathing because we know that bre breathing is connected to sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system. If you just do that, every time you went to the toilet, if you took three breaths, it's not going to take very long. No, absolutely, it's just a little reminder to your body to switch off.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that everything's okay. We talk about things for your like resetting your nervous system is taking things out of your life, like the screens, like the bombardment of things that you cannot do anything about, like the news reels, maybe, maybe on the radio, maybe on the TV, maybe on your on your social media. I mean, at the moment there is so much going on, yeah, and and I can't do anything about it, but it upsets me a lot. And so having to take having to just take a step back and just take yourself out of those situations and even like the just the normal drivel on social media, just be aware of the people that you are surrounding yourself with and the things that you are consuming, whether it's on social media, whether it's on the TV, is this adding to it? Is this adding to how you're feeling? Could you be doing something instead that would help you?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. Um, balancing your blood sugar because when you've got when you're in burnout, you get blood sugar chaos at the same time. They go hand in hand, and it's because your body is looking for a quick fix of energy, and it only knows how to signal for you to have sugar because it expects you to go forage for the berries. It doesn't expect you to go to the corner shop or the garage over the road or wherever else you might go, the cupboard in your kitchen. You've got to focus on your protein at every meal. Do not skip meals. This is so detrimental when you're in burnout to skip meals is not your friend. And then just watch the things that are punching those adrenals, the caffeine. If you're craving the salt or the sugar, understand why and just address it so that you don't get that roller coaster of sugar high, low, high, low.

SPEAKER_00:

Worst thing. And it's so characteristic of somebody that is going through this. Is that you know, I'm too busy to have a meal, I've got too much to do, I've got to look after so and so, I've got to go and do this, and so you'll skip a meal. Or I this for me, I just didn't have any appetite. Yeah, I didn't I felt I actually I felt sick most of the time, and I really and I knew that I needed to eat, but I just that even putting something in my mouth was really, really difficult. So for me, things like like making protein shakes and things was the thing that started stuff off, and then making sure that I was putting the berries and the nuts and stuff in those so that I could get it in me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's it is a key one, the appetite, you're quite right to bring that up because again, when we're looking at depletion of nutrients and the impact on the digestive system, you're going to be depleted in the nutrients that stimulate appetite for a start, and then you've got a digestive system that is switched off because it thinks you need to go fight or run from a tiger. Yeah, absolutely. It's not worried about you having your next meal, it's worried about you getting away from the tiger. Yeah, exactly. But you've got to put those nutrients back in because you are very depleted in burnout, yeah, and be very mindful about what you're putting back in because again.

SPEAKER_00:

Your need reaction is to go for the high sugars, to go for the caffeines, isn't it? Which is gonna make it worse, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Eventually, yeah, yeah, it's gonna make it worse, absolutely. I mean, you do want to replenish your minerals and nutrients, but it's I I think this is a bit more difficult to do on your own. I think you do need a bit of help, and I do think the testing is good for this, but just understanding that you are depleted and that those minerals play a key role. Sodium, potassium, magnesium are all under pressure again, all under pressure when you're in stress because those particular minerals are involved in how the adrenals are working and everything, but you can help yourself by using food. Yeah, you know, foods high in minerals are going to be a lot of vegetables. Vegetables are going to be your friend if you've got that lack of appetite. This is one that I tell loads of my clients, it's one of the most common things that I that I say people to do when they're in this state is to cook vegetables like your grandma did to death so that there's no colour in them, and then you strain the liquid and you just drink it. Oh, it's got so many minerals in, and then you can add your, you know, you could put some turmeric in to help the infl inflammation, you could put some garlic or ginger in to help with the immune system, and you just cook that in in water and you just strain it once you've literally extracted everything out of you could put you could do it in a slow cooker, yeah. You could just put a load of stuff in the slow cooker, include the skins, yeah, and then just strain it on the water.

SPEAKER_00:

All the leaves, all the everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Everything put it in there, strain it, and just drink a cup of that every day.

SPEAKER_00:

Brilliant, brilliant, yeah. No, that's a that's a great one to uh to be able to adopt quite easily.

SPEAKER_01:

So there is something that again I use a lot, it's can be so beneficial when you're in this burnout and you've got the adrenals have crashed, and you know that because you've got symptoms or you've done the test. Adaptogens are really really helpful. So things like Ashwagander, Rudiola, holybasol, you'll see these in adrenal type supplements, and they're often a lot included in perimenopausal um supplements as well. So they're an adaptogen. So what they do is they help support the adrenal. So if they're overactive, they help to bring them down. If they're crashed and they're burnt out and they're on the floor, they help to lift them up.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01:

So adaptogens when you're in burnout can be really, really beneficial.

SPEAKER_00:

And again, can you would you take all of them? Would you how would you take them in a supplement? What how would you know? How would somebody know what to take?

SPEAKER_01:

Again, you'll get a combination of a lot of them in adrenal type supplements, anyway, or stress support supplements will often have magnesium, B vitamins, and something on the adaptogen side. You don't have to use all of them, you could just use one of them. So you might find a protein powder that's got added ashwagandha, something like that. There's a really nice company that do a hot chocolate, which is a healthy hot chocolate with adaptogens in, and the idea of it is that you take a minute to switch off, yeah, and you sit and drink your hot chocolate, which is high in magnesium because cocoa is high in magnesium, yeah, and you've got your adaptogen in there. Really nice, actually.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll have to find the name of the company and put I've got some in my cupboard. I'll I'll put the link in the show notes too.

SPEAKER_00:

And that brings us really nicely on to the next point about giving yourself permission to rest. You said about hot chocolate, so often when I I want that um sweet fix after a meal, but we don't I don't have any desserts in the house, we've got fruit and stuff. I go and make myself a cacao with a couple of dates in it. Yeah, and there's I it this is like a habit stacking for me, is the minute that I have made that, and I'm I'm almost ceremonious about making it, I create a space to to consume it. I like give myself that permission and make it feel very luxurious, and it's still it feels like a a treat, it's like a hot chocolate, and it's yeah, so it's that habit stacking for me that means that I create that space and time for myself, and I'm having the goodness of the cacao and the dates and all that sort of stuff. So being able to give yourself like again, the um half of the problem of getting to this point is that we've not given ourselves permission to rest. No, so it's all well and good going, yes, just lay down, yes, just take a few minutes to yourself. We're not wired that way. This is what's got us here in the first place. So being able to attach rest to things like making making a cup of tea, making making your favourite tea, making a a herbal tea. If you want to change something, go and find a herbal tea that you that you actually like. Yeah, taste of.

SPEAKER_01:

And you can get herbal teas with adaptogens in as well. Ah, there you go. Yeah, so there are lots of there are lots of ways that you can help support your body. B vitamins are really important because you really deplete these when you're stressed. Magnesium just runs out of you when you're stressed, and vitamin C really important for the adrenals.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Oh, fantastic. With the with the rest, uh, I mean, I love a little desco nap in the middle of the day or a nanna nap.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I know you do. I I don't I can't get on with that, but I will do a downward dog, is often my reset. So if I've done lots of clients and then I've got a 15-minute gap, I will do a downward dog, or I will lay on my roller to open up my chest because often when you're on the computer you tend to kind of hunch over it, don't you?

SPEAKER_00:

So this is a change is as good as the rest, isn't it? Gonna go and do something. Go and get outside in the I didn't say the sunshine. It's so I don't know, it's it's sunny at the moment, it was raining a minute ago. Get out into nature, see if you can just bring your vibrations back down to a more healthy, more normal level. That I mean, just yeah, go for a walk. Don't take your devices with you, just go and chill, go and hug a tree.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, I'm all for that hugging a tree. And if you can, if the weather is suitable and you're able to do if you can put your bare foot feet on the ground, yes, that is a reset for the nervous system, and you haven't even had to do anything. No, you've just just gone out and stood out there, stood out there, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

That's that's such a great one, and it's so quick and easy. Yeah, so good. What about things like uh tapping as well? I think would be really good at this at this point. Another really simple, so simple, quick thing to do. If anybody's well, we won't go into it now, but if anybody is wondering, it's um emotional freedom technique, and you can you can look up all sorts of things and don't get don't get bogged down in the technicalities of it, it's just very simply tapping on points around your body, it's research proven to just bring you down, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And again, it's switching you from sympathetic to parasympathetic, yeah. So, yeah, really, really good. In fact, what I'll do is I'll do a video in the Facebook group for the tapping. That's a good idea, yeah. Because then once you know the points, you don't even have to say anything. Well, you can just tap on those points and you will feel a change.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, fantastic.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a really good idea. So I think to summarize, if you're if you are listening and you're in your 40s and 50s, which most of our listeners are tend to be that age group, don't they? And you're recognising yourself like Catherine said at the start, you're going to be thinking, Oh my goodness, me, that's me. The burnout is not who you are, it's a state your body is in, and it is reversible. I've done this so many times with women in my clinic, we've reversed burnout, and so you can get back to feeling like yourself again. So I think it's just like we we I know we keep saying this, but just finding one small thing that you can do and just do it every day and be consistent with it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you just said one small thing. I've been watching the uh Michael Mosley one small thing series. If you've seen that, I haven't watched that yet. It's and the first thing is a cold shower, and again, and I know that that might feel really vile for you when you're feeling like this, but 30 seconds at the end of your shower, not even putting it on your head, just around your shoulders, your tops of your arms and your body, 30 seconds, another absolutely incredible way to reset and be able to start to boost those good hormones to support you. It's again really super quick and and easy.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and if you can only start off by five seconds initially, yes. If 30 seconds sounds horrifying because you're not someone that likes the cold, especially don't forget if the thyroid has put the brake on, you are most feel cold. You do feel cold. Yeah, but this is a good one. But I think the breathing and the tapping is a really good place to start.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and um this isn't this isn't you, this isn't normal. I know that every woman in your life displays this as normal, but this isn't normal, and your body can't do this forever. There will there will be a point that if you don't do something, it will flaw you, it will stop you, it will make you so poorly that you can't do anything, or you just you you can't function normally. So take the early signs, and if they're not early, you've probably been doing this for most of your life. Yeah, but yeah, take the early signs and and make yeah, make those make those small incremental changes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and we I don't want to see you go from vertically ill to horizontally ill. Oh no, so yeah, get I think awareness again, be aware of what's going on, notice that it isn't normal, and then just little changes. And if you're someone that is has got a lot going on and you need support, then come and see someone like myself or Catherine because we can help you with this situation.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you're not alone, you don't have to do it alone. I again that's women all over, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. So and so yeah, if Julie does that video in the Facebook group, that would be very, very cool. Come and share your experiences. Um, if anybody has been listening to this and we're like, oh my god, that's me, then uh we would we'd love to hear from you. Yeah, so we see you inside the Facebook group. Take care. Thank you so much for joining us today. We love creating this for you. We'll be back next week with another great episode.

SPEAKER_01:

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SPEAKER_00:

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SPEAKER_01:

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SPEAKER_00:

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