How To Best Recover From Adrenal Fatigue & Be Healthy

It has taken me YEARS to recover my health after my split from my ex, and the baby years. Starting my new life as a single mom, no income, completely burned out, my health kept taking a hit. I was working my way out of the stress from the past, while dealing with a whole new stressful way of life.

I can still remember going through cycles of ups and downs in my health. Feeling better but then pushing too hard only to crash again. During one of my health crashes in 2013, I finally went to see a local herbalist in my town. I had been to all my doctors already and received zero real answers or support to help me.

I remember laying on the herbalists massage table before she did nutritional response testing on me. As soon as she began the muscle testing on me, she asked me if I was getting any sleep at all. The crazy thing was, at the time my sleep was pretty good, but I was still exhausted (even with 9+ hours of sleep a night). She was observing the years and years of me not being able to treat my body as well I could have. She could detect my deeply drained reserves.

Years of intense stress, years of having small kids, little sleep, the physical demand of breast feeding on top of little sleep or rest and taking care of several other young kiddos at the same time had all taken it's toll. Then ushered into a new level of stress, trying to work and take care of 4 kids on my own with very little physical and financial support. My body was wasted and crying out for help.

I remember that session full well. It was eye opening to say the least. She told me I needed to start using adaptogenic herbs and find more ways to reduce my stress. She gave me an herbal tincture to help me sleep very soundly and taught me how to start using herbs. She gave me some key supplements to use. We created a minimal food plan to eliminate anything my body couldn't tolerate.

Even as a nutritional therapy practitioner, I needed my own practitioner to see more objectively what could be done to help me recover.

That first session with her is  why I recommend nettles infusions so emphatically to women who are even remotely feeling a bit of burnout.

Nettles are a gentle 'adaptogenic' and nourishing way to support your overall health without having any functional testing yet to determine your specific needs. Deciding on appropriate adaptogenic herbs takes a bit more info and support, but nettles is  amazing herb anyone can get started with.

I share this story to say my burnout, call it adrenal fatigue if you want, took years to recover from and to this day I still have to protect my energy.

I am sharing this as a warning ladies to not 'let yourself go'. Learn how to treat your body well NOW, so it won't revolt against you later. There are only so many warning signs the body will give before it starts to really kick and scream and by then it could be incredibly challenging to turn things around.

Be kind to yourself. If you have been neglecting your health (for whatever reason) with poor nutrition, lack of exercise or lack of sleep it's time to start addressing these issues.

The good news is, you can start to take positive actions to resolve your burn out and your body can recover. If you, like me, have been struggling with the stress of life taking you down in all ways, healing is on its way as long as you start on a healing journey.

Healing takes patience, time and commitment to YOURSELF. Which is why I spend so much time encouraging you, my dear readers, around mindset.

Restoring my health took far longer than I wanted it to, but I had to remind myself how long I had been declining. I couldn't expect overnight miracles, I had to learn a whole new way of life. A lifestyle that deeply nourished me from the inside out.

Here are some of the tops steps you can take to gently recover your health and come back from the brink of total collapse and be healthy again.

1. Clean Up Your Diet

This means getting rid of foods that you are sensitive to and foods that cause inflammation, and eating lots of brightly colored vegetables (up to 6-9 cups a day), lean clean protein, and whole grain gluten-free carbs.

In my case this meant eliminating gluten, which it turned out I was sensitive to, eating more cooked vegetables, and eating more carbs. A strict no-carb or even low-carb diet can stress the body even more, worsening your burnout. Of course, I didn't go and eat cookies and cakes, but rather more nourishing starchy carbs like; winter squashes, sweet potatoes, some legumes, good quality rice cooked in bone broth.

2. Go to bed early.

Getting to bed before 11pm is a must in any stage of adrenal fatigue. Many people get a second cortisol surge after 11pm, which further disrupts sleep patterns. Your body wants to work on it's own hormonal time clock in sync with the sun. I focused on a 10 pm bedtime at the latest and still to this day go to bed between 9-10 pm most of the time.

3. Flood your adrenals with B vitamins.

B vitamins (B5 and B6 in particular) are food for the adrenals. B12 and folate also help with energy production. Your body burns through it's B vitamins during stress. B vitamins promote energy and help keep your nervous system healthy, as well as help your detox pathways work more effectively. My favorite B complex is this one HERE.

4. Curb inflammation.

I had to lower my systemic inflammation (a common issue in burnout) so my adrenals and health could recover. Inflammation creates stress in the body - and poorly managed stress creates inflammation. A vicious cycle indeed!

I did this by only eating healthy fats (avoiding bad fats is crucial), getting more omega 3 fatty acids. Partnered with the other dietary changes I mentioned already, these dietary habits are the basics necessary to decrease systemic inflammation, allowing your health to recover. Sorry, there's no one magic pill to curb inflammation.

Including whole food vitamin C was a HUGE help and one I recommend to every single client. Your adrenals LOVE vitamin C, your body can't make it on it's own, and it can't store it either. My favorite vitamin c is HERE.

As well, I added some immune supportive herbs like astragalus to my bone broth and used several key essential oils for stress.

5. Replace important nutrients.

Minerals and vitamins are all important for proper thyroid function adrenal function, energy and stamina. Stress will cause you to burn through your mineral reserves. If you are not consuming them, digesting them or replacing them you will eventually be running on empty. I had to learn what key supplemental nutrients to take through functional testing (such as Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis) so I could rebuild my body and health. Unfortunately, food alone won't always cut it, especially when your reserves are depleted.

6. Focus on hydration.

Dehydration is also a classic symptom of adrenal fatigue. It's important to not only drink enough filtered water per day (1/2 your weight in ounces), but it's critical that your water has electrolytes. I started including trace minerals so I could absorb more water into my cells. You can also add fresh lemon juice or Himalayan sea salt to your water. One of my favorite options is sole ( a salt solution) in the morning or these Nuun tablets (1 per day).

7. Use adaptogenic herbs.

Adaptogens modulate our responses to stress (physical, environmental, and emotional) and help regulate and support the interconnected neuroendocrine and immune systems. This re-regulation of an unbalanced or highly stressed system is achieved by the actions of metabolic regulators such as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.

Adaptogenic herbs support the entire neuroendocrine system, in particular adrenal function, thus counteracting the adverse effects of stress. They allow our bodies to sustain an adaptive response and minimize the damage that a prolonged stress response can cause.

It's important to work with someone trained to know the right adaptogenic herbs for your current health picture. Some of my favorites include; eleuthero, schisandra, holy basil, astragalus and licorice root (only in some cases and short term). There are others but those tend to be my favorites

8. Build rest into your day.

The thing I needed most was to avoid high intensity situations, including exercise so I didn't further burn my adrenals out. I added really gentle yoga into my schedule twice a week and taught myself to take two 20-minute rest or meditation breaks a day; not naps, but time outs alone to breathe and restore. Sometimes it would be just a 15-20 minute walk in the woods to breathe and let nature therapy refuel me.

Nutrition and supplementation can only bring you so far, you must tap into your mind to experience a complete holistic mind, body, spirit approach

9. Change your perspective.

Is your daily routine or lifestyle killing you? In many cases, what you perceive as important to get by in modern day life is driving you into adrenal overload. Learning to internalize the idea that "it" doesn't have to be perfect to be great made a huge difference in my stress levels. I don't have to have a perfectly organized home, I don't have to have all my ducks in a row. I also don't have to 'do it all'. Rather, I get to live a balanced and very sane life. And to do that I had to slow down and be okay with less than perfect (whatever that even is anyway).

Over the years my perspective has changed from one of reacting to life and letting it happen TO me to one of giving myself permission to create a lifestyle that preserves my health.



Ultimately, if you want to learn how to beat burnout so you can live an empowered and radically transformed life, you have to learn a whole new way of life. As I've said before, you can't heal in the same environment that got you sick. You have to be ready and willing to take all the steps, even if it's just one at a time, on your road to recovery.

It's the biggest gift of self-love you can ever give yourself. And when you learn how to invest in taking tender loving care of yourself, you will be able to recover from adrenal fatigue and not only be healthy but stay healthy.

Ready to get more clarity and support on your health so you can recover your energy?
Right now you can save $75 when you sign up for a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis with me. Use code: MINERALS when checking out. Get all the info to sign up HERE.

Now, I'd love to hear from you. Are you struggling with burn out? Does your health crash every time a stressful series of events occurs? Have you ever thought you had 'adrenal fatigue'?  Let me know in the comments.