Alyssa Chavez [00:00:01]:
Hi, my friend, and welcome back to the Endo Belly Girl podcast. I can't believe, as I'm recording this episode and looking ahead on my calendar, that by the time this episode airs, it will be June. We're actually getting into summertime here, which feels pretty nuts. I don't feel like it has been. We are that far into the year already, so that's pretty crazy. June is really a fun month for me because it happens to be my birthday month, so that's super exciting. So at the time this episode airs, my birthday will be coming right up towards the end of June. And also this year in 2024, it's the month that I'm going to be officially launching my endowarrior circle membership, which is something that's been a long time coming.
Alyssa Chavez [00:00:50]:
It's an idea that popped into my head quite a long time ago, actually, and just something that I've really seen a need for in the endo community. And from conversations that I've had with people along the way and just things that have been going on, I've been really feeling a need to build an actual community where we can connect with each other on a whole different level other than just on social media and things like that. So anyway, I have all of that in the works behind the scenes and just summertime fun, right? Hopefully. We actually don't have any travel plans as of yet, but we're planning on making plans, if that makes sense. So hopefully later in the summer. My husband and I love going camping and being up in the mountains and things like that, so we'll probably make plans to do something like that. Although we should probably get on that now that I'm thinking about it. But anyway, so many exciting things.
Alyssa Chavez [00:01:47]:
Love summertime. It's a time that we get to get outside and enjoy some sunshine. So make sure that you'd make that happen. Make that a priority for yourself. Have some fun this summer. That is your official recommendation from your friendly neighborhood functional nutritionist over here. Get outside and have some fun. Episode done.
Alyssa Chavez [00:02:05]:
Okay, not quite. Actually, what we are going to talk about today is something that comes up a lot. In fact, it's a symptom that I would say is probably one of the most prevalent symptoms that I see in my clients and just endowarriors who I have conversations with, which is fatigue. Right. Right up there with pain when it comes to endometriosis. As far as just how common that symptom is and how severe it can be for some people right now. The tricky part with fatigue, I often get the question of something along the lines of why fatigue happens, where it comes from. You know, how can I fix that, basically? And at the end of the day, fatigue is just kind of one of those vague symptoms that can actually point to many different imbalances in your body.
Alyssa Chavez [00:03:04]:
So today, what we're going to do is unpack some of those underlying imbalances and where to actually begin in to investigate when you're struggling with fatigue. I wish that it were as simple as if you struggle with fatigue, this is what you should do. But, you know, I don't want to sit here and lie to you. I want to give you real information that is going to help you along your journey. So got to be real with you here. It can come from many different places, but we're going to talk about what some of those potential sources of fatigue can be or some of the underlying imbalances that can lead to fatigue can be. But starting out, I would like to just talk about what's normal when it comes to energy levels with endometriosis or just in general. Right.
Alyssa Chavez [00:03:53]:
So, for me, I found out that I had endometriosis in my late twenties. I, looking back, had symptoms back in my late teens, but had no idea, never really looked into any of it until I was in my late twenties. That's when I went off of birth control. And as like so many of you experienced, started pretty quickly experiencing some dramatic symptoms of endometriosis. And that's when I went into a doctor and started kind of digging deeper, figuring out what's going on. Turned out it was endometriosis. And along the way, as I was going through, definitely that time after I had gone off birth control, I think, is probably when those symptoms really came in. As far as, of course, the pain and things like that that come with endometriosis, but the fatigue as well.
Alyssa Chavez [00:04:45]:
And I would say that maybe even had started a little earlier than that, before I had gone off birth control. And the funny thing about it is that if you would have asked me at the time, before I knew what I know now, I don't think I would have even told you that I struggled with fatigue, because it's one of those things that can kind of come on slowly but surely to the point where you don't really notice it. And the best analogy that I can make for this is when I was a kid, I got glasses when I was about eight years old, somewhere in there. And I had no idea that I needed glasses. Right. Because it's not like you wake up one morning, and your vision is fuzzy. I mean, it happens just very slowly but surely over time. So who knows how long I actually needed glasses.
Alyssa Chavez [00:05:34]:
But much of my family has vision problems. It's very common. So my mom brought me in to get me checked out with the eye doctor, and it turned out that I did need glasses. In fact, I don't think I had a super high prescription at the time. I do now, but that's a different story. But I did need glasses, and I put them on for the first time, and I was just. It was like a mind blown moment, because all of a sudden, I could actually see, and I had no idea that I couldn't see before then, which sounds very weird, but any of you who have experienced that knows what I'm talking about, right? You go from just day to day, that vision kind of slowly deteriorating, and then all of a sudden, you put on the glasses and you can see it, and it's life changing. And I would say that I actually had a very similar experience with my fatigue.
Alyssa Chavez [00:06:26]:
I didn't know or understand or was able to see that I had fatigue at the time. But as I started doing the deeper work that I've really gotten into this functional type work that the deep nutrition and gut healing and all of this different stuff that I've done to help to bring balance into my body, all of a sudden, I noticed myself having more energy. I was able to get through the day without feeling completely worn out and exhausted, and I've noticed just massive changes. And it's not a symptom that I was really addressing directly, but just because of everything that I was doing to support my body in other ways, because I was experiencing a whole lot of pain and infertility and just general discomfort. Oh, and the gut symptoms, I won't go into the full story of all of my endosymptoms today. Cause I know I've talked about that on previous episodes, but, yeah, I wasn't really even thinking of fatigue, of like, oh, I really would like to have more energy. I just was going about my day with the energy that I had available, and then all of a sudden started to get more energy. And then that got me wondering, well, why did that happen? What was the catalyst to me all of a sudden getting more energy? So, anyway, that's kind of my story.
Alyssa Chavez [00:07:53]:
Some of you may have similar stories. Some of you may be in the middle of that, having fatigue and not really being aware of it. So I wanted to start out this conversation today by taking a look at what is actually normal. So what's normal? And what would warrant kind of digging deeper and figuring out what's going on in your body? What is normal? Just feeling tired at the end of a full day. Right. We're built to naturally kind of wind down towards the end of the day. So feeling tired at the end of the day? Yeah, that's fairly normal. What's not normal would be feeling completely exhausted after working just a few hours or after just taking a little walk, something that shouldn't be terribly straining.
Alyssa Chavez [00:08:43]:
Right. What is normal would be having a little bit lower energy during certain phases of your cycle. It's pretty common that during the late luteal phase, which is that time after ovulation, but before your next period begins, it's common to have a little bit lower energy, especially in those last few days leading up to menstruation. And also during menstruation, it's common to have lower energy because your hormones just kind of drop off a cliff when menstruation begins. And so it's common to have a normal. To have a little bit lower energy during that time. Maybe even ovulatory time for endowarriors can look kind of similar because menstruation and ovulation are actually both naturally inflammatory processes. Processes, I guess you would say.
Alyssa Chavez [00:09:32]:
And we'll take a look in a little bit on how inflammation connects with fatigue, because that is something that's important. What would not be normal is feeling absolutely exhausted every day of your life and having trouble even getting yourself going or just getting out of bed in the morning. Right now, fatigue can come from different sources, like we talked about before, and can really look different for everybody. But what I would encourage you to do is to look at the basics before you really go down any crazy rabbit holes. And I bring that up because we'll take a look at some of the deeper things that can contribute to fatigue later on. But it's one of those, like, you don't even want to address that stuff or look at that stuff until you have given yourself a nice foundation. You know, that you've looked at the basics. So what are those basics that you can start with? And this is all stuff that you can be doing on your own starting today.
Alyssa Chavez [00:10:35]:
Right? Sleep sounds obvious. Definitely still a thing. If you are not sleeping well, you're probably going to be tired, right? So yes, you may have endometriosis and, you know, you have this chronic condition going on, but prioritizing sleep is absolutely still going to impact your energy levels throughout the day. Right. So definitely thinking about how you're sleeping, are you prioritizing sleep in your life, or are you constantly sacrificing sleep for other people or for other things that you feel like you need to get done? Right. How is your sleep hygiene? Meaning what are the things that you're doing to prepare yourself to go to sleep? Are you one of those people who's just on your laptop until midnight and then shutting it down and trying to close your eyes and go to sleep? Or are you actually taking steps to help support your sleep? Right. Are you, you know, having some calming chamomile tea in the evening to help to calm your nervous system? Are you shutting off screens at some point? I usually recommend at least an hour to 2 hours before bed so that you're not getting that blue light exposure that can disrupt your sleep. Are you going to bed at a reasonable hour? Right.
Alyssa Chavez [00:11:55]:
Or are you staying awake till all hours of the night? Are you getting direct sunlight exposure and actually, believe it or not, getting that sunlight exposure first thing in the morning, like within 30 minutes to an hour of waking up makes a big difference in your sleep because it sets your melatonin pattern for the day. Right. It kind of tells your body, oh, okay, we're awake now. The sun is up. We don't need melatonin anymore. It kind of shuts down that production, and then that melatonin production slowly amps up throughout the day until nighttime, when it's time to go to sleep. If, however, and your cortisol rhythm as well is kind of a similar idea. If, however, you are not exposed to sunlight and your body really doesn't understand that it's daytime even though you're awake, that can actually impact your sleep later that night.
Alyssa Chavez [00:12:50]:
So some of the things to think about, I'm not going to go super in depth on sleep hygiene today, but those are some of the simple things you can think about to help to support better sleep, because you absolutely cannot support fatigue without starting with your sleep. So if that's all you need to know, feel free to stop the episode, move on with your life, and just work on sleeping. Done. Okay. All right. But there are more things that we could think about if you're listening going, yeah, I sleep great, and I still wake up just feeling fatigued or having energy fluctuations throughout the day. So let's look at that again. Basics.
Alyssa Chavez [00:13:31]:
Are you moving your body? Right. Movement is actually something that's pretty key when it comes to your fatigue. And I know that can be a little bit of a challenge to navigate that because when you are feeling fatigued, you don't necessarily want to move your body a whole lot. But then when you're not moving your body a whole lot, you're living more of a sedentary lifestyle. You're laying around all day and certainly not throwing any blame on that if you're really not feeling well, sometimes you just need to lie around all day. So by all means. But when it's possible for you, when you can, are you moving your body so that again, you're sending those signals to your body of, like, when to produce energy, when not to produce energy. Like, your body kind of needs to get some feedback from you on that.
Alyssa Chavez [00:14:22]:
And if you're just sitting all day long, it's kind of hard to gauge that. And actually, movement can give you energy at the end of the day, you've probably all experienced that at some point or another, right? You're feeling kind of exhausted, and then you just go out for a quick walk outside, a little walk around the block, and all of a sudden you feel a little bit rejuvenated. So kind of goes to show you right there. So those are like the basic basics that you can do just starting from scratch here, if you're. If you're working on figuring out the puzzle of your fatigue. But I did want to mention a couple other things that I would still categorize within the basics of supporting fatigue that are super simple. But a lot of people miss, and I even see a lot of practitioners miss this kind of stuff if you're not really thinking things through and looking at the whole picture, because, you know, it's easy to get excited and think about all the things that could potentially be causing fatigue, all the gut stuff and the hormone stuff and whatnot, which we'll talk about. But what about the basics? Right.
Alyssa Chavez [00:15:26]:
One of the most basic things you can check for that can have a huge impact on your energy levels is your iron, right? Are you anemic? Is there an anemia trend or an anemia pattern happening in your body? And actually, when I'm talking anemia, there's actually two types of anemia. Anemia, two main types, I should say. There's iron anemia, which is kind of the more widely known anemia, I guess, but there's also a type of anemia that's b twelve and folate. Anemia. Right. Basically, it's kind of just a need for those nutrients in your body or a way for your body to use those nutrients, and those both can have major impacts on your energy. How do you know if those are an issue? Simple blood panel, right? Something your doctor can probably run if you talk to them about that, or someone like myself, like as a functional nutritionist, I actually am able to order blood panels as well, to look at things like that and review blood panels to see if that's potentially an issue. And the solution to that can be as simple as just increasing your iron through food and b vitamins as well.
Alyssa Chavez [00:16:40]:
A lot of the. The sources of b vitamins and iron kind of overlap, not for everything, but that can be a very simple solution. So iron, that can be things like red meat. There's also some in chicken, turkey and eggs. There is some iron in plant sources, like spinach is one of the main sources of iron from plants. However, I will say that any of the plant sources of iron are not as bioavailable. So even if the food contains a lot of a certain nutrient like iron, it has to be in a form that your body can actually process and use. And I have to say, the animal sources of iron, like red meat in particular, are just enormously easier for your body to use.
Alyssa Chavez [00:17:27]:
It's much more bioavailable. So just something to consider. You can also just think about cooking some of your food in cast iron. Just cooking in cast iron can add a little bit of iron stores into your food, especially if you're someone who's not eating red meat or not eating a lot of red meat. Cooking in cast iron can actually be really helpful. So a couple of thoughts on that. I don't typically recommend supplementing with iron unless you are really monitoring levels, like checking in regularly, because you don't want to overdo it with iron either. Right.
Alyssa Chavez [00:18:02]:
It's the Goldilocks zone. You want to find the sweet spot. And supplementing with iron, especially certain forms of iron, can actually impact your bowels. Right. So if you're somebody who struggles with constipation, you would not want to be taking iron supplements as a general rule, because that can, that can worsen what's going on. That can make that constipation worse. So a few considerations with that. When it comes to b twelve and folate, if it's more of a b twelve, folate, anemia, I think it's pretty commonly known that B vitamins can impact energy.
Alyssa Chavez [00:18:38]:
I hear that tidbit of advice thrown around quite a bit, like, oh, okay, you're struggling with energy. Why don't you take some B vitamins? Again, there are some considerations for that. The first is, like, what form of B vitamins are you taking and is it something that your body's actually able to use? Otherwise you might just be throwing your money out the window. And I will say, actually, again, start with the food sources. We hear of your body needing certain nutrients and we often want to jump straight towards, you know, supplementing and that can be warranted. Right. Like when I run a blood panel, if I see certain markers elevated, like homocysteine, right. If I see homocysteine elevated, I typically will recommend supplementing with B vitamins because of the information that that marker gives us.
Alyssa Chavez [00:19:31]:
And I'm not going to go super in depth with that today because this is not like a lesson on breakdown of blood chemistry, but just from the information that that gives me. But if you have an issue with, with b twelve and folate, if you have that, B vitamin anemia can also be related to methylation issues. You know, how your liver is processing it. If you have the MTHFR mutation, you know, that's something that you want to consider too. As far as the form of B vitamins that you're taking, oftentimes methylating methylated vitamins are recommended, but not necessarily for everybody. It doesn't mean everybody should be taking that. There's different forms of B vitamins. It's hard for me to recommend exactly what form you should take on a podcast because I have many different listeners with different needs.
Alyssa Chavez [00:20:20]:
But just know that not all B vitamin supplements are created equal. Some are going to be more bioavailable than others. And that's not a general idea because what's bioavailable for one person might not be for somebody else. It just depends on your unique needs. Food sources of B vitamins are always the best place to start because those are bioavailable, right? They actually come from food. So that's going to look like meat, poultry and eggs. Egg yolks in particular are very high in folate. Dark leafy greens are also very high in folate.
Alyssa Chavez [00:21:00]:
Brussels sprouts and broccoli are actually really good sources as well. So there are both some plant and animal sources of B vitamins that you can get. It is very common for somebody who is vegan or vegetarian to be a little deficient in B vitamins and actually iron as well. So that's something to consider if you're not eating a lot of meat, because again, it comes back to the bio of availability of the nutrients in your food. All right, so that's a little note on anemia. That can make a huge difference and fairly simple, right? Just a matter of kind of what you're eating and potentially supplements that you're taking to help to support your body. But again, I don't recommend just diving into b vitamin or iron supplementation without either. Well, I should say without testing for sure, especially when it comes to iron simple blood tests.
Alyssa Chavez [00:21:50]:
Right. And or just working with a practitioner who can help guide you on that stuff. I see so many people, you know, with the best of intentions on supplements just kind of missing the mark on what their body really needs, if you're just guessing and or going with kind of more generalized information. So just a couple of notes on that. All right. Beyond anemia, the main thing that I look to when it comes to fatigue is inflammation. Right. Because if you have endometriosis, you probably have some inflammation in your body.
Alyssa Chavez [00:22:27]:
The primary symptoms of inflammation, just in general, are pain and fatigue, which, oh, look, some of the most common symptoms of endometriosis that I hear people talk about. So inflammation is a pretty complex topic, really. What inflammation is, is your immune system at work. Right. Inflammation is created by your immune system because it senses that there is something foreign in your body. Right. Why is that happening? Well, that's really the big question, and that can point to many different things. That's where inflammation is a little bit complex, because it's not like, oh, there's one thing that causes inflammation for everybody.
Alyssa Chavez [00:23:14]:
That's not really how it works. So when it comes to addressing inflammation, I'm going to go over just some of the potential sources of inflammation that you can be thinking about. Again, it's going to be very individual like when I work with clients one on one, we're really digging in to see what the sources of inflammation are in their unique body. But these are just some ideas. I will say that if you're really struggling with inflammation, the pain and fatigue, you can certainly start out with some inflammation. Triage is what I call it, which is just some food supplements that can be very powerful anti inflammatories. I say food supplements because these three things I'm going to mention can actually be either or. Omega three s are a very good food supplement to take for anti inflammatory purposes.
Alyssa Chavez [00:24:11]:
So a high quality omega three supplement, nordic naturals, makes some pretty good ones. And or, well, I should say, and if you're going to supplement, you definitely want to be thinking of food sources as well. It's always food first. So, food sources, you're looking at your fatty fish, like salmon, mackerel, herring. You can also be looking up some plant sources, like walnuts, hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, things like that are really high in omega three s. Pasture raised eggs are actually really high in omega three s as well. So some options there. A couple other things that are really powerful.
Alyssa Chavez [00:24:51]:
Anti inflammatories. Ginger, right? And ginger you can take in capsule form, in tea form, you can cook with ginger, and you can grate some on top of your salad. You can make a smoothie with it. There's a thousand different ways to use ginger, but it's shown to be very anti inflammatory. And another one that I really like is turmeric. So turmeric is a spice. It's that spice that makes things turn yellow. So be aware of that, right? But you can cook with it, right? Season your meat with it, or even veggies with turmeric.
Alyssa Chavez [00:25:27]:
You can also do teas. There's all kinds of different teas you can even look up. There's tons of recipes out there for a beverage called golden milk, which is a blend of turmeric and some other spices, and usually uses coconut milk or almond milk. And you heat it up and drink it, and it's quite yummy and also has some nice anti inflammatory properties. You can also take the supplemental form, which is called curcumin. It's basically the active compound in turmeric, so it's more concentrated when you're taking it in supplement form. The real work though, that I would like to highlight is to figure out why you are inflamed in the first place. Right.
Alyssa Chavez [00:26:11]:
Just taking some of these supplements is not going to fix your life. You need to figure out why you are inflamed in the first place. First place to look diet that probably doesn't come as a shock to you if you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, but food can be a huge source of inflammation. So a general anti inflammatory diet would be eating whole foods, avoiding processed foods, sugar, vegetable oils. I'm not going to go super deep into the diet piece of it today, because I just did that super recently on episode 34, demystifying the endometriosis diet, which I will link to in the show notes, if you want more information on that. But just know that diet can absolutely be huge when it comes to inflammation. There are some foods that are much more commonly inflammatory for people, and those include gluten, dairy, corn, soy and sugar. So you can also just experiment with kind of doing an elimination diet with those foods.
Alyssa Chavez [00:27:21]:
Just keeping in mind that you don't want to be super restrictive long term but sometimes doing a little elimination diet and seeing what actually works well with your body and what doesn't can be super beneficial. All right. Some other potential sources of inflammation can include your blood sugar balance. And I know this may not be an immediate connection that you take, but it's huge. Honestly, when I see it in inflamed body, when I'm seeing symptoms of inflammation and actually fatigue in particular. Blood sugar is huge, right? Because when your blood sugar is constantly fluctuating up and down, you're getting blood sugar spikes and crashes throughout the day. That actually has huge impact on your overall inflammation in your body. And I see that actually come up in blood work when I see, when I get people's blood work back.
Alyssa Chavez [00:28:14]:
We're looking at some of those blood sugar markers, like fasting glucose and insulin and HBA one C, and, you know, kind of looking at the overall pattern as well as the lipid markers, right? Like the triglycerides and cholesterol and different things like that. And, you know, it's very common in an inflamed body that I see those blood sugar markers coming back elevated. Even if you're someone who's struggling with low blood sugar, let's say you're feeling hangry a lot or feeling shaky and irritable between meals, all of those are signs that you really could use some support with your blood sugar balance, right? Definitely. That's something to think about as well. Actually, I did an episode on blood sugar as well, and I'm trying to remember what episode number that was. It wasn't too long ago. Okay. It was episode number 21 called Blood Sugar, the key to hormonal balance.
Alyssa Chavez [00:29:13]:
So it was specifically talking about the connection between blood sugar and your hormones, but it also just dives into why blood sugar is important in the first place. So that can be a good resource for you if you are, you know, wanting to learn more about blood sugar and how it impacts your body. I plan to do some more stuff coming up on blood sugar as well, because it's such a huge, important topic. All right, so what else. What else could it be? I want to just give you kind of some ideas of where you can look. Right. Stress. Stress is huge, right.
Alyssa Chavez [00:29:53]:
Because I want to talk really just about overall stress load in your body, like, how much your body can actually handle. And the way that I like to think about this is the stress bucket analogy, right? So picture that you have this bucket. It can only hold so much before it starts spilling over. And that's kind of how it works in your body, you can handle so much stress. We're all going to have stress in our lives. But when that stress bucket starts to fill up and over fill, right. That's when we start to see some of the downstream effects of that. And absolutely, fatigue can be a big part of that, because stress directly impacts your adrenal glands, right? Causes them to fire more, and that can impact your overall adrenal health.
Alyssa Chavez [00:30:43]:
Right? Which adrenal health and blood sugar and all of that is intimately connected, but just helping to reduce your overall stress load and just helping your body to manage stress. Huge piece of the puzzle when it comes to fatigue, right? In fact, trying to overcome fatigue without managing your stress load is going to be pretty hard. It's a pretty important piece that a lot of people overlook. Stress has huge impact on your body. Now, everything I've mentioned so far is all stuff that you can, at least to some extent, think about on your own. Some of it involves some blood work and things like that that you'll want to work with, at least work with your doctor on to kind of see those test results. But a lot of it is DIy kind of stuff, right? Thinking about your stress, thinking about your diet, thinking about your sleep, thinking about how much iron and b vitamins you're getting in your diet, thinking about how much you're moving your body, right? Those are all things that you can be thinking about doing on your own. I did want to mention some other things that can absolutely impact fatigue, but that you might need deeper support with, like things that I really wouldn't recommend diying.
Alyssa Chavez [00:32:05]:
So those would include things like gut infections, overgrowth of bacteria or parasites or fungi can be a, highly inflammatory, and b, can super impact your energy level levels, right. Thyroid health is another big one. This is something that I see a ton with people with endometriosis, and some people may actually have diagnosed hypothyroidism or hashimoto's, which is an autoimmune hypothyroid condition. But really, I see a lot of people just are kind of in that suboptimal thyroid range, right? So, just to give you a little bit of an idea, when I am thinking about thyroid, I run functional blood panels, meaning I'm looking at markers, and some of these markers might be the same markers that your doctor runs. In fact, they probably are, although from a functional perspective, we tend to add in some extra markers as well. But what I'm really looking at is, are your thyroid numbers within the optimal range, like the range they should be for optimal health. Not just do you have a disease or do you not have a disease? And that can make a huge difference, right? Because it allows me as a practitioner to kind of see patterns and trends that your body is showing before it becomes a diagnosable condition. If it already is, maybe you already know you have some hypothyroidism going on.
Alyssa Chavez [00:33:33]:
Well, that can absolutely impact your fatigue. In fact, fatigue is one of the major symptoms of hypothyroidism. And you know what? A simple blood test can check for that stuff. So just something to think about if that's something you have not investigated before. I will say, though, if you're checking into thyroid health, if you're working with a doctor or any sort of practitioner, make sure that you request a full thyroid panel. If your doctor is or any practitioner is only checking TSH, which is thyroid stimulating hormone, it's not enough to give you the full picture of your thyroid health. So full thyroid panel, always other considerations for deeper things that you might need to look at. When it comes to fatigue, how is your liver doing? Right.
Alyssa Chavez [00:34:24]:
A sluggish liver, an overburdened liver, because our livers can become overburdened very easily these days because we're exposed to so many toxins and environmental things and foods that can impact your liver. Caffeine and alcohol and sugar and all these things that your liver has to process and that can cause that liver to, you know, struggle a little bit, become a little sluggish. And when that detoxification process in your liver becomes a little bit sluggish, well, it can end up impacting your energy levels. Adrenal health is another consideration. How's your cortisol rhythm looking throughout the day? That comes back to that stress piece we were talking about before, right. Are you in a place where you're just under stress a whole lot and your cortisol pattern is thrown out of whack? Or you're just overall elevated cortisol? Or maybe you're to the point where you have overall low cortisol because your body just got tired of handling all that stress again, that's something that you can take a look at through testing if you really want to see what's going on with your adrenals. I run, you know, adrenal patterns in my practice where I can look at people's cortisol rhythm throughout the day. That gives us some good information on that.
Alyssa Chavez [00:35:42]:
Again, not something I would recommend just addressing because you think you may have high cortisol, because you can end up doing more harm than good in some cases. Now all of those last things that I mentioned, the gut infections, thyroid health, liver health, adrenal health, that's all the more advanced work. I just wanted to mention that because I wanted to use this episode to kind of give you a more complete picture or at least an idea of where your fatigue might be coming from. If some of those things are kind of striking a chord for you. But I want to just remind you that that stuff is not a starting point. Start with the basics and go from there because we tend to forget as humans how powerful the basics can be. And you know what, even as a practitioner I find myself constantly reminding myself to go back to the basics. Your sleep, your diet, your stress, your movement, get those dialed in before you start diving into any sort of fancy protocols, right? It's something that I find myself even supporting my clients on quite a bit.
Alyssa Chavez [00:36:53]:
Right. You know, they come to me wanting these fancy gut healing protocols and we do, and I don't know if I'd call them fancy, but we do things to support all of that stuff. But honestly, a lot of the work that we do is that the basics? Right. Supporting the foundations, because you can't build a house without building a strong foundation first. And I just want to remind you all also that any supplement you are using is intended to be supplemental. You cannot out supplement a poor diet or lifestyle for that matter. You can't cheat good healthy. It's all about the little habits that you're taking each and every day.
Alyssa Chavez [00:37:35]:
All right, I know that's a lot, a lot of information on fatigue there, but I hope that's helpful for you. At the very least. I hope you take away some of that foundational work that you can do on your own. And yeah, I'm all excited and gung ho about opening up the doors to the endowarrior circle. I've got quite a few on the waitlist already. So you guys of course will be the first to know. You'll have the first opportunity to access the endowarrior circle. If you're not on the waitlist, I highly recommend hopping in there when I open up doors to the endowarrior circle membership, which if you haven't heard this before, it's going to be basically a community of endowarriors that I am building.
Alyssa Chavez [00:38:22]:
Right? And it's going to include live Q and a's with me. It's going to include some guest speakers along the way, it's going to include a whole library of information where I'm going to be sharing all the things that you, as an endo warrior really need to know about diet and lifestyle and all the things that you can be doing to support your own body because there's so much that you can do to support yourself. But I think it's all about having an actual process and not just trying random things here. And there's what I created this membership for so that you can have all of that information laid out for you in an accessible, easy way and also have access to a practitioner like myself who you can kind of talk through things with along the way too, as you are working on changing your habits and slowly but surely changing your life. So the link to join the waitlist will be in the show notes I hope to see you in there. Doors will officially be opening on June 24 and it will be a short little enrollment period. It will be open from June 24 to June 28 only. It's not going to be a doors open all the time sort of membership because I want to be able to focus on the members in the community most of the time.
Alyssa Chavez [00:39:45]:
So if you're listening to this at a later date and that time period has already passed, don't worry. Just go to endobellygirl.com join and you'll be able to see the next enrollment dates on there. If you're listening to this in real time, hop on that waitlist and you'll be the first to know when doors open. Can't wait to see you in there. In the meantime, my friend, if you're loving the podcast, I'd love it if you can leave me a review and let me know. Truly means the world to me when I read those. I hope you have the most wonderful day, my friend, and we will talk soon.