Sometime after having kids, I became very aware of how TIRED I always felt.  My husband used to tease me that I would fall asleep riding in the car, no matter how long the drive was.  It was true.   I needed a nap virtually every single day – 2-3 hours at least, just to make it through to dinner time. 

I knew that didn’t seem normal, but I had no clue why it was happening to me.  And if I’m being honest, I couldn’t even blame it on the kids – for years I had been dealing with low energy.  It was not an abnormal thing for me to get 9+ hours of sleep (sometimes as many as 14) and still spend the whole day fantasizing about how to squeeze in an extra 20 minutes.  This was high school, college, my twenties… 

So while it was nice to finally (sort of) have an excuse for being so tired, I knew deep down that this still wasn’t normal, and that not ALL moms are that tired.   I knew I wasn’t the only tired mom, but I also knew that there were moms out there who had more energy than I did, and that what I was experiencing was not the life I wanted.

I started looking for answers.  I worked with doctors, natural practitioners, chiropractors, napropaths.  I asked questions of people in Facebook groups, read articles anywhere I could find.   

That led to having blood tests for thyroid, supplements by the dozens, hair analysis, genetic testing…

One practitioner told me what I was dealing with was “Adrenal Fatigue.” 

That led to so many more questions… especially “now what?”  How to I reverse this?  How do I get my energy back?  His recommendations were cancelling all exercise outside of walking slooooowwww and yoga, & going to bed earlier.  I really enjoyed my workout routine, and was devastated by his answer.  It was a hit to my identity in many ways. I viewed myself as strong and athletic, and now I couldn’t do those things at all.

There had to be more to the equation.  He had explained to me that the adrenals create stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, as well as many other hormones for bodily functions like metabolism, immune system, blood pressure, sex hormones, and more.  And that it’s like a switch – either they produce the stress hormones, OR they produce the hormones for other bodily functions, but not both at the same time. 

I needed to figure out how to turn down the fight or flight response in my body. 

But why was it so overactive/burnt out to begin with?  It couldn’t just be exercise.  Plenty of people (including those other moms) exercised more than I did, and they didn’t have the fatigue issues I was dealing with.  There was more to the equation.  It couldn’t just be nutrition – I had spent a lot of time cleaning up our diet, and ate really clean (cleaner than those other moms too). 

Some of the genetic testing revealed that my body had a more limited ability to detox compared to “normal”. 

But I gotta be real with you – I wasn’t done living life!  I didn’t have any desire to be the mom who skipped out on everything because she wasn’t feeling good. 

There’s more to genetics than just accepting that whatever you are dealt is the way it is.  Some of what I learned is that our genes are like switches.  Just because you have a predisposition to a certain trait, health issue, etc, doesn’t mean that switch has to be turned on.  The other factor in genetics, and I would venture to say the more important one, is what we do with our switchboard. 

If we keep our switchboard clean, and pay attention to what factors flip the switches, maybe there’s a way to be the mom with enough energy to keep up with her kids. 

We live in a world where toxic chemicals are the norm.  But our bodies are designed to be in nature, with plants, smelling the leaves, the flowers, the dirt, and the air.  The genetic switches stay where they should be when they aren’t overloaded with garbage, toxic air, and polluted water.   Our bodies love what is natural, and they send up alerts by flipping the genetic switches when they are exposed to pollutants. 

You can’t supplement your way, medicate your way, or test your way back to health if you aren’t willing to take the chemicals out of your environment.

If I were to give a recommendation on how to move forward from wherever you are right now, it would be to get a Premium Starter kit with the diffuser of your choice.   (I love the Desert Mist – it’s beautiful, budget friendly, and durable!)  There’s oils in there that will help you enjoy more restful sleep, more energy during the day, and so much more!

Moving forward doesn’t mean just one step

It means one foot in front of the other.  One step at a time.  As you learn about those first 12 oils, start making swaps.  Household cleaners, hand soaps, toothpaste, hand sanitizers…  In your second month, grab the Thieves Essential Rewards kit.  That was my next step, and it was a very important one. 

After that, keep going!  Laundry soap, dryer sheets, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, skincare, makeup, deodorant, moisturizers, home fragrance…  ditch the chemicals and replace them with trusted products from Young Living.

Now, maybe you are required to be in an environment where you don’t have full control to ditch the chemicals.  There will always be environments we don’t have control of that flip those switches…  Maybe the cleaning products at the gym or work, it could be the soap at a friend’s house, or the fragrance inside a store.  Do you best with what you have in your own control.  Help spread the word – everyone starts somewhere, and you could be the person who helps bring change for so many just be speaking up! 

And for the exposures we experience outside of our control, we incorporate Ningxia Red as part of our daily lifestyle.  It helps our bodies gently detox the chemicals which helps reset the genetic switches, provides amazing nutrition, and tastes delicious!  It’s an antioxidant supplement that is packed with vitamins and minerals (quite literally too many to list on the bottle).  Our whole family drinks 2-4 ounces (sometimes more) each day.