Feeling Fatigued? | The Plant Powered Approach to Total Wellness

It’s easy to feel tired when you start changing habits, perhaps you’re not used to making meals properly or you’re not sure what you’re supposed to be eating. This week, Lorna shares the top energy zappers and how to help yourself.

Today it’s all about the number one thing zapping your energy.  You may think that I’m going to start with food. Wrong, this approach begins and ends with our thoughts and emotions.

The number one obstacle zapping our energy is stress. Everybody feels it. But very few of us take our stress seriously and understand the threat it has on our health, our joy and our life expectancy.

Even our doctors treat it like it’s an afterthought. While they are good at treating physical symptoms, they can miss the mark when it comes to the life style choices that cause those symptoms. Over 75% of doctor visits are stress related. Yet only 3% of doctor visits include a discussion about how to reduce stress and beat fatigue.

Stress is actually the first thing we need to address if we want to feel our best. It’s at the heart of our food cravings, addictions to stimulants, slow metabolism, hormonal issues, emotional highs and lows and fatigue. 

So, what is stress? To our bodies, stress is just another way of saying flight or fight. It’s our ability to get up and go when there is a lion chasing us. It comes in handy from time to time, that’s for sure! But in today’s busy world, we are in a constant state of panic and it’s harming us.

Living with stress day in, day out, puts us on a cortisol rollercoaster. And as you can imagine, this wreaks havoc on your energy and on your body.

But just as we have a stress response, we also have a relaxation response. Your Movement For Modern Life subscription is providing you with amazing resources for tapping into your relaxation response. Practicing these can be a powerful tool in training our bodies to handle stress better.

>>Try out the video at the bottom as a perfect accompaniment to reducing your fatigue.>>

But did you know that the food we eat also affects our stress levels?  

A single meal high in animal protein can nearly double the level of cortisol in the blood within only a half hour of consumption (and that’s without even being put into a stressful situation).   

Now imagine if you eat animal protein meal-after-meal, day-after-day. You could chronically stimulate your stress response.  All of this extra cortisol release has been linked to increased risk for elevated blood levels of insulin, triglycerides, and cholesterol.

Cortisol has been implicated as a factor in motivating food intake, even when you’re not really hungry.  Those who experience these high chronic stress levels are more likely to opt for fatty, sugary, comfort foods like chocolate cake. Opt for fruits and veggies when given the choice.

So how can you halt and beat fatigue and the cortisol rollercoaster?  Simple. Choose to eat more plant based whole foods.  Start now by downloading Part Two of The Plant Powered Approach to Total Wellness.

Studies have shown that stress hormone levels actually reduce after eating plant based meals. As opposed to rising which is what happens after eating animal protein.  

Not only do people following plant based diets tend to experience less stress, but they have more energy, better skin, better sleep and faster resting metabolisms. People eating plant-based diets also have lower rates of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and various cancers and greater life expectancies.

Now is the time for action. Switching to a whole food plant based diet can reduce the cortisol swirling around your body in less than 10 days.  

You can change your life by changing what you eat. So right now I want you to download Part Two of The Plant Powered Approach to Total Wellness, just click here.  Part two focuses on making healthy delicious whole food plant based lunches.  

As you go through this series remember, it’s the little things that matter. Simple daily practices add up over time, making you stronger and stronger and healthier and healthier. Even if you only improve a little each month, it all adds up to beat fatigue.

Lorna’s journey to plant-based eating was fuelled by both her personal health challenges as well as family illnesses. It kickstarted 5 years of study in plant-based nutritional therapy, iridology, living foods, and herbology — and hundreds of hours counselling patients through transformations via diet, alone. Now, she’s making it her life’s mission to help others discover and excel on their own journey to more mindful nutrition.  Sign up for her free course to learn more about plant based eating.

This Yoga Nidra is a great support when looking to beat fatigue, do it daily>>