The early bird and the resuscitation of the dead frog

If it sounds like a fairy tale, and it is.

Fairy tales usually have happy endings.

If you want to skip right to the ending, take note that the early-bird discount for Revitalize: A Truly Food Winter Cleanse ends on Sunday at midnight eastern time. click here to learn more

If you’ve got a moment, stick with me for a quick weekend story that leads you to a much happier ending. . .

In 1780 an Italian anatomy professor discovered that a spark of electricity could cause the limbs of a dead frog to twitch. Yesterday I used this historical tidbit in conversation with a client who was concerned that she had become a “food addict”.

This self-proclaimed “food addict” is a gorgeous woman who’s been through some rough patches in her adult life. She’s highly capable and well-versed in the ways of making healthy food choices and taking good care of herself.

The “food addict” knows how to make herself a batch of date-sweetened and flour-less raw brownies instead of grabbing a sugar laden one from the corner bakery. She knows to sip her green tea instead of caving for the cup of coffee she’s craving in the late afternoon.

And yet, she surrenders to old patterns more often than she’d like.
The result?

• more fatigue

• bloating

• puffiness under her eyes

This is the point in the story where we come to a fork in the road.

One road leads us down the path of exploring food addiction and the psychological reasons we eat when we’re not hungry. The other road leads us toward the physiology behind those decisions; what might be happening internally that takes hold of the steering wheel and sits solidly in the driver’s seat?

While it’s true that both paths may need to be explored, let’s take a look at what’s down the latter path for our “food addict”, what’s happening inside her body that’s driving her decisions to grab that cookie or latte?

Sitting before me were the recent labs for the “food addict”, labs that showed:

1. depleted iron levels (iron carries oxygen to the body’s cells for energy)

2. sluggish thyroid hormone production (thyroid hormones control your body’s energy

supply, regulating metabolism and body temperature)

3. depressed cortisol production (cortisol is one of the hormones released from your      adrenal glands that allows not only for fight-or-flight but also your daily get-up-and

go. . . ie. ENERGY!)
Can you see where the jump start of the dead frog comes in?

What the self-identified “food addict” and I were able to see by looking deep through the physiological lens is how the psychology or patterns of behavior were driven not only by mind games, but also by several hormonal and nutritional imbalances. She was eating to try to boost energy. She was eating in an attempt to enliven the dead frog with a spark of electricity (in the form of sugar or caffeine).
There are better ways to achieve a more solid and longstanding spark, ones that won’t leave our you or our “food addict” feeling fatigued, bloated, puffy or, addicted!

Where to start?

Start by nurturing the adrenals glands,

learning how to restore your baseline energy production.

The adrenal glands produce myriad hormones, several of which affect your energy levels. Stress and inadequate nutrition are precursors to altered hormone production and can easily lead to substantial fatigue. There are a good number of stressors that tax the adrenal glands and contribute to this fatigue.

They include:

• lack of sleep

• poor diet

• physical trauma

• emotional trauma

• chemical toxins

• excess exercise

• infections

• anxiety or depression

• prescription drugs

• pregnancy

• and, let’s face it, the

  fast pace of everyday living!

And there are a number of ways to address that fatigue from the core.

You don’t need to feel like you’re jump-starting a dead frog each morning or afternoon.

The frog’s not dead. It just needs a little help getting its hop, skip and groove back.

Come join us for Revitalize: A TrulyFood Winter Cleanse, where we focus on your adrenal health and learn how to revitalize what feels like the dead frog within.

And don’t forget that the early-bird discount ends on Sunday night at midnight eastern time!

By: Andrea Nakayama, FxNA Founder & Functional Medicine Nutritionist

Functional Nutrition Alliance provides the comprehensive online Functional Nutrition training in the Science & Art of the Functional Nutrition practice. Learn to address the roots of your clients’ suffering with client education, diet & lifestyle modifications.