You can feel better!

It's been a long time since I've written here, but things have improved.  I stopped nursing my son last October and I wonder if that has had a huge impact.  The dizziness actually got worse right afterwards for about 2 months.  But I'll never know if that was hormone related or stress since we moved and it was a stressful period right before the holidays.  This calendar year, though, things have been better.

I'm back here writing after a conversation with my sister the other night.  We are both discovering that the number of women that experience signs of adrenal fatigue but no one can find anything wrong with them are staggering.  This seems to especially be true after women have babies.  So I wanted to come back and write about how I've been battling towards better health.  All of this is without the guidance of any doctor, because I just can't handle listening to random advice anymore.  I've done quite a bit of research about adrenal fatigue and I always can highlight a huge number of the issues as ones I've experienced.  A few places you can go to check out lists:
http://www.drlam.com/articles/adrenal_fatigue.asp
http://www.naturalnews.com/024985_cortisol_blood_fatigue.html

Going off the first site, here's what I can check off as having experienced within the past 6 months:

Tendency to gain weight and unable to lose it, especially around the waist.  I managed to lose 25lbs, but it has taken me over 18 months to do so.

High frequency of getting the flu and other respiratory diseases and these symptoms tend to last longer than usual.  Not a high frequency, but colds take a long time to work through me - significantly longer than anyone else in the house.

Reduced sex drive.

Lightheaded when rising from a horizontal position.  At times the room nearly blacks out.

Unable to remember things.  I can forget what I'm saying midsentence, and this happens several times a week.

Lack of energy in the mornings and in the afternoon between 3 to 5 pm.  This has been better lately, but I was needing a nap frequently.

Feel better suddenly for a brief period after a meal.

Cravings for salty, fatty, and high protein food such as meat and cheese.

Increased symptoms of PMS for women; periods are heavy and then stop, or are almost stopped on the 4th day, only to start flow again on the 5th or 6th day.  This seems to finally be regulating in the last month or two and my horrible cramping was no more this month.

Pain in the upper back or neck with no apparent reason.  All sorts of back pain!!

Feels better when stress is relieved, such as on a vacation.

Lightheaded.  Yep, actually experiencing this right now.

Okay, so it's pretty clear that I can include nearly every one of the 16 symptoms he lists.  Now, as of lately things seem to be improving slightly.  But this is still an uphill battle and I am striving to get more healthy things into my body to help it heal.  About 18 months ago I cut out all wheat products and most other grains.  I have tried low carb, but that doesn't work for me well in the long term, so we include sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, and rice fairly regularly in our meals.  Eating as many organic foods as possible seems to be working, unless you ask our bank account.  They always say pay for good food now instead of paying the doctor later.  Well, I'm trying to avoid paying the doctor now and later.

My most recent change is drinking bone broth.  We ate organic, free range chicken legs earlier this week and I threw them all into the crockpot with some veggies, spices, and water.  I started it Thursday morning and have left it on since.  Yesterday and today I had 2 mugs of it during the morning.  It served to fill me up a bit and I found I needed less for breakfast, which was interesting.  I'm wondering if this broth will provide some of the missing nutrients my body still seems to be searching for.  I will some again tomorrow and Monday, but am cooking dinner in the crock pot for Monday night so will need to end it there.  I'm going to see how brittle the bones are afterwards as well and consider trying to grind them up for the gelatin.  We'll see how that goes.

I've also been changing up my exercise lately.  Frustrated with my inability to lose weight, I've halted my weight lifting.  I'm opting instead for things that should help to reduce any inflammation in my body and help me relax.  I've taken to nightly walks while Jon is putting the kids to bed.  I've also started yoga/pilates in the mornings when I wake up early enough.  I was going to push myself to get up at 6:30 to have enough time, but with reconsidering that I'm not yet fully recovered from the adrenal fatigue I am going to do it Sat/Sun and any other day that I happen to wake up.  Sleep has been horrible the last 2 nights with middle of the night wakings where I struggle to get back to bed.  The kids have also been up a bunch, which certainly doesn't help.

I'm restarting this journal to reach out to any women that are struggling with similar symptoms.  No, it's not normal to always be tired as a mom.  As your kids get older you should get your energy back!  No, it's not normal to be lightheaded frequently or to have muscle aches that you can't contribute to anything.  And there are things you can start doing today to help you feel better.  I've been battling this for nearly 5 years now, so I can't give you the magic pill to make it all better.  But most of my days are good days now as my body recovers.  And I haven't spent tons of $$ on special supplements or drugs.  I'm doing this the natural way, you're welcome to come along for the ride if you'd like!