Q: Why am I always tired; fall asleep really early, but wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep; feel run down and achy all the time? I can't start working out and stuff if I feel this way.
A: This is something I hear quite a bit of. It's not that the person is trying to make excuses for not getting on top of their fitness, they genuinely feel miserable most of the time and have very odd sleep issues. While there may be a genuine medical issue going on (so be sure to talk to your doctor before starting a fitness program), a quick look at your lifestyle may hold all the answers you need.
For the person who asked me this, I had the privilege of seeing their diet on a regular basis. It consisted of basically all take out, and the take out consisted of really poor choices - everything was fried, sitting in a heavy, sweet sauce, dessert was often included and many times the only thing that actually got eaten. Veggies? No, not really. Regular meal times? Not so much. Candy and other junk food? Yes. Soda? Uh huh. Coffee? Yup. More coffee? Yessir. Chips, crackers, etc? By the bag full. Processed sugar and carbs? Tons of them.
See, this is where my spidey sense started tingling. OK, I don't have spidey sense, but if I did, it would tingle. They are eating horribly. Horribly. Their body is getting a sugar rush several times a day and slammed with all sorts of chemicals and preservatives. So their body keeps going through these ups and downs, and never gets what it needs in terms of vitamins or 'good' fuel. Protein comes in small doses that don't suffice, and never come very cleanly as those doses include sugar and carbs and other junk.
How could you expect to feel marginally ok with a diet like this? How could you expect to sleep well when your body is constantly going through these sugar ups and downs, and left empty of what it needs (so you wake up hungry and uncomfortable)?
While I could preach at this person until I'm blue in the face, for it to really work, they need to come to their own realization. They could make slight changes to start feeling better. That progress would beget more changes and progress.
More than anything, I know they want to be feeling better. The desire is there. The path is fairly obvious (or at least these things need to change whether there's a bigger medical issue or not, and you can't really figure that out before you clean up the 'garbage in' approach that's leading to a 'garbage out' feeling).
How about you? What's your diet like? How do you feel every day? Could you do better? Do you want to feel better? We could all pretty much answer yes to those last two questions, so let's enlighten our bodies.
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