Feelgoodery is recorded in front of a live studio dog
This is feelgoodery, where we let the air out of the stuff that makes us feel like crap so that we have the space and perspective to make things a little gooder. I’m Kyle Buchanan, I’m so glad you’re here because today we are talking about some lesser known reasons you might feel tired all the time. Because that - is NOT fun. Second sparkle coming up here we go.
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Hey my friend, I hope you’re having a wonderful day so far. It got cold REAL fast here in Ontario, which it normally does - we go from 30 degrees one day to zero the next, I’m not even kidding - but this happens every year, you’d think we’d be used to it. But no, the cold comes in hot.
We just had Halloween this week and I kid you not, the morning after halloween, the Christmas Countdown clock was up in my neighbhourhood. I live in Old Toronto in a place called the Distilllery District and every Christmas season for like 7 weeks we have this Christmas Market - which is very pretty and really well done, and SO busy. BUT - it takes lots of preparation which is why everything is being put up now. So it’s full Chritsmas spirit going on downstairs.
Theres always two sides to this. People who LOVE Christmas and start right after Halloween (in Canada anyways - i know in the states these people normally start after Thanksgiving, which we’ve already had in Canada before Halloween) -so anyways, that’s one side - the Chritsmas GO GETTERS I’ll call them, and then the other side is those who don’t want to start putting up decorations until like 2 weeks before Christmas and NOT a minute before.
If I had to choose - I’d lean towards the Christmas go-getters because I am a Christmas fan. And i tend to LIKE people better around Christmas, people are nicer. Christmas is the time of year where we all treat eachother kindly, we recognize that family is important and work comes second at Christmas time. It’s the way of thinking and way of living that we really should be doing ALL year long, but for whatever reason we all forget about those christmas lessons and get back to our same hustle, every man for him self energy come the new year.
So I think I like the christmas energy for that reason. We’re all on the same page. We all love each other right? It’s Chritsmas? Good.
Two other little things before we get to our agenda today.
ONE - is a housekeeping thing - first is something I’ve been forgetting to do the past few episode, and that is to ask that - if you are enjoying this show or have gotten something out of it, it would make a notable difference to me if you took a second and give the show a 5 star rating and or review. Just go to the show’s page, scroll down and where you see those 5 start spaces, click 5 stars and itll be recorded! Takes just a second but it does make an impact to this shows visibility. Thank you if you’ve already taken the time, it means a lot.
SECOND - is just a little mini vent session. A month or so ago, maybe more, I did a whole episode on what really grinds my gears when it comes to the nutrition industry. And if you havent’ listened to it yet, I’d really urge you to go and check it out. So I’m not going to repeat myself. But just a mini vent. LIke a cute vent. Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of posts by people with HUNDREDS of thousands of followers, do VERY click-baity videos all about WELLNESS TRENDS that aren’t worth the hype, and then they go into the research as to why they don’t support the trend.
NOW sometimes - these videos are very helpful. And this is where it’s nuanced. But like - Those weightloss teas? DEFINILEY worth being debunked, and also discouraged. This makes sense.
But lately I’m seeing these videos of either nutritionists or registered dieticians, talking about why THEY don’t believe the hype around BIGGER concept stuff - like intermittent fasting or greens powders or trying the gluten free thing… and what irked me a little bit about these types of videos.. . is that when people watch these videos of notable people dismissing an ENTIRE concept - is that it leads people to believe that they shouldn’t try it in the first place.
And that’s the part that bugs me. I mean a lot of these videos with the creator referencing the studies proving their point - which is fine and great. BUT NORMALLY, with anything, there are OTHER studies that would argue their point but of course - they’re not included. And I’m not here to talk about the studies and science of it.
It’s more of a zoomed out point I want to make.
Because MOST people, if they’re following a person, they trust that person. So theyll take what they say as fact, and if they have studies proving their point even MORE so a reason to take it.
But when it comes to something like Intermittent Fasting or trying the GLuten free thing - these are really POWERFUL tools that can offer a lot of healing for people, once they find what works for them. But they don’t know unless they try.
AND THESE VIDEOS, at their core, convey the message that people SHOULDNT try in the first place. They take hopeful options out of the equation.
And I think that’s what bugs me. Anyways, I’ve been seeing a lot of those lately and it’s just been grinding my gears.
WITH most things nutrition - it’s not a yes or no, it’s a spectrum, and it’s nuanced. And my whole thing is, for the most part - keeping in mind i’m not talking about crash diets or weightloss crappy teas - - you don’t know until you try.
And I know these creators do this because it gets more views but Ohmygosh it really doesn’t do a lot of good.
Greens powders are another one. They’re not worth the hype as creators love to say. Eat your vegetables instead is normally the argument. WHICH i agree with. We should get our nutrients from whole foods.
BUT let’s also meet people where theyre at.
Because the TRUTH is - most of us don’t get enough veggies or fruits in a given day and try as we might, that hasn’t been changing. So if a greens powder means people will Actually be getting more greens in their system in real time, there is merit to that.
There is a HUGE disconnect between the ideal way people should be eating and the REALITY of what most of us are eating. And all of the holier-than-though click bait judgements tend to come from that ideal-world, and not from the reality world where SOME of the trends might actually help.
Annnnd I said that would be a minirant. Who was I kidding. Thank you for coming a long for that ride. But really - dont let social media videos discourage you from trying things on for size. There’s nuance in everything and it is RARELY black and white.
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Now, on to today’s business. Which might be a little bit topical since we’re adjusting to fall and a lot of us might be more tired than normal.
We’re talking about Weird or lesser-known reasons you might be tired all the time.
We did the Weird Ways to Sleep episode in season 1, so by all means feel free to give that another listen. But this is more geared to that fatigued feeling. . . .
If you drag your feet all day, or if you sleep all night but still wake up feeling super tired, or there’s just this underlying feeling of sluggishness you just can’t get a handle on.
Now there are a LOT of reasons you might be feeling this way, and we are only covering a small percentage of them today, but the ones we are covering are the ones that are more common than we might think. Or maybe they’re ones we haven’t even thought of before. Who knows - that’s the fun.
Let’s Get Into it.
Weird Reasons You’re Tired all the time.
REASON NUMBER 1: Poor Digestion
This is a HUGELY underrated contributing factor to feeling tired all the time. Overlooking digestion is mistake number one. As Julia Roberts would say it Big Mistake, HUGE.
Digestion is where it all begins. Any of the nutrients you are consuming are useless unless you’re body is able to break them down, absorb them and assimilate them into your cells. And it’s the break down and absorption process that a lot of us have issues with, without even realizing it.
Because even if you don’t have any digestive complaints persay, doesn’t mean your digestion is optimal.
I’m going to do a whole digestion episode, or multiple ones because it is such a big topic. I’m actually just finishing a program that focused on GastroInstenstinal Healing and Testing and my mind has been blown open.
But for optimal digestion - you need adequate amounts of stomach acid which triggers all of your other gastric juices down the line, you need proper bile for fat digestion, you need good amounts of digestive enzymes that help break down the food you eat, and you need enough of beneficial bacteria to help digest your food and keep the bad bacteria at bay.
There is such an orchestra that happens and for MANY different reasons, especially as we get older, that orchestra starts to fall apart.
I’m going to harp on stomach acid for today- because THAT is our SPARK. That is what starts everything up.
We need stomach acid to digest protein, to help us aborb MINERALS from our food, minerals like IRON which is the normal go to mineral when people are tired, we need it for proper B12 absorption, which is another energy-go-to-vitamin, AND we need it to steralize and KILL any potential pathogen or parasite that finds its way into our food. We also need adequate stomach acid to trigger other aspects of our digestiev system further down the line, things like pancreatic enzymes and proper bile flow. It’s actually called the acid trigger. It’s a signal.
We WANT to be able to produce enough stomach acid. And while mainstream messaging is that if you have heartburn or acid reflux you are producing TOO MUCH stomach acid, the truth is - is that many of us adults, produce to LITTLE stomach acid. So a large part of my practice is actually INCREASING the amount of stomach acid people can produce. It is one of the BIGGEST root cause fixes to helping to fix other issues.
Now I’ll go into the reflux thing on the digestion episode. But to narrow in on stomach acid.
Sometimes it’s easy to know if you’re dealing too little stomach acid, maybe you deal with bloating, or belching, or you deal with indigestion especially when you eat protein rich meals. Other times, you might have NO idea you have low stomach acid. Which is almost more cruel, because you might think you’re making the most of of the food you’re eating but you’re actually not - it’s more or less running through you. And this was the case for me, which I’ll get into in a bit.
I wanted to go over some of the contributing factors for Low stomach acid, which is also called, Hypochlorhydria.
Stress is a big one and is a sneaky little common contributing factor BECAUSE we are such a stressed out society. But beyond that
Alcohol
Excess carbohydrate consumption
A low protein diet **
Defiencies in Vitamin B1 and B6
A ZINC deficiency is a big one because you need Zinc to make stomach acid BUT, you also NEED stomach acid to properly absorb the zinc from the food you eat so that can be a viscous cycle.
SO there are many things that can cause low stomach acid. And long story short - if you’re not producing enough stomach acid, the rest of your digestive juices don’t get the memo and it has a real impact downstream that results in suboptimal digestion of the food you eat.
And NOT absorbing enough nutrients can easily result in you feeling tired all the time. Sometimes, when you fix your gut and optimize digestive function, that can make THE difference to your energy levels.
Now I mentioned a little bit about myself. So long story short, I’m going be bringing in stool testing into my practice in the very near future, it’s a keystone part of the education I’ve been taking in this year. And this stool test, which is called a GI MAP test, is able to offer insight into the landscape of what’s going on down there. It takes the guess work out of working with client symptoms because you can see someones GUT ecosystem in real time and take strategic, efficient steps to heal. So tt tastes a look at digestive enzyme output, your ability to digest fats in addition to getting the landscape of bacterial balance and any potential overgrowth of bacteria, parasites, fungi or viruses in the gut as well as certain inflammatory markers. And while it doesn’t test for stomach acid specifically, the OTHER markers on the test offer the key insights as to whether or not there is sufficient stomach acid being produced. But again - the details of that are for another episode or social post.
But for me - I was shocked at what was going on downstairs. I had extremely low digestive enzymes being produced, an overgrowth of HPylori which is VERY common but thrives in a LOW stomach acid environment, as well as some key bacteria pointing towards a digestive dysfunction issue.
SO - it was made clear, that my stomach acid needed to be increased. And so I’ve put myself on a protocol that has included essentially Stomach Acid Supplements designed to supplement the acid and encourage my own acid. Now I’m not going to go into those details because that requies the supervision and guidance of a health care practitioner, but I will touch on some other considerations. But I say this BECAUSE - since supporting my digestion on a more functional level - my energy levels are SO much better. I’m shocked and wish I had done this sooner.
NOW to point out what might be a question at this point, I have talked a lot about digestive support in the past and I DO and DID a lot to support my digestion on a regular basis. And all of that is not in vain. It has been helping to support my system and actually maybe why I didn’t think my digestion was an issue.
But the truth is I needed some deeper work and deeper healing. And we’re all big puzzle pieces. For me - in thinking back, this actually makes a lot of sense. Because there were a couple of years in my early twenties where I destroyed my gut - I was stressed, I ate like crap, I drank a ton - I did a lot of damage to my stomach and I suspect - even though I’ve changed things a lot these past 15 or so years, I suspect that it neveer fully recovered. I’m also more of an A-Type, and stress really does affect stomach acidity.
So now that I’m getting to the root of things and increasing my stomach acid, other things are falling into place, including my energy levels.
I’m going to be sharing more about the test and different ways we can work together if this is of interest to you in the next little while.
Now stomach acid is ONE thing in the digestive orchastra, it’s a key thing, but there are many other reasons digestion can falter.
But here are some ways you can support digestion so you are able to absorb more of the foods you eat:
First - take a few deep breaths before you eat. Sounds simple, but this is a free way you can calm your system so you produce the most amount of gastric juices that you can.
15-20 minutes before you eat, you can include 1tbsp. Of apple cider vinegar with equal parts OR more of water, ideally dranken through a straw for your enamel), or 1 tbsp. Of lemon juice.
You can also buy digestive bitters and place a dropper full on your tongue and hold for 30 seconds. This can be done 15-20 minutes before you eat as well.
Now with bitters and ACV, this will help you produce as much gastric juices as you are able to - it doens’t necessarily increase the optimal amount youre able to produce. More functional support is needed for that which I will talk about in a later episode.
And of course, CHEW your food. It’s incredibly underestimated.
If you deal with gas, pain or bloat after you eat, you can also incorporate digestive enzymes - but those aren’t to be taken long term.
You can also incorporate more foods that CONTAIN enzymes, namely - vegetables and fruits. The enzymes in these foods not only help you digest those foods, but others as well. So it’s another reason to include more produce. But if these foods are new to you, especially cruciferous foods like broccoli or cabbage, start small and work your way up. Like ¼ cup per meal for a few days before working your way up to half a cup.
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And lastly, cut back on the refined carbohydrates and added sugars. I won’t harp on this, but from a functional standpoint, they really do harm your long term digestive capacity.
ALRIGHT… THAT was long first reason. And it’s a HUGE topic. I just wanted to touch on some parts of it to get the ball rolling in your head. And questions to ask yourself that affect your digestion ..
Have I been under a great deal of stress?
Do I drink a lot of alcohol? Was there a time when I maybe drank more than I should have and it took a toll that I might not realize?
How many rounds of antibiotics have I gone through?
Do I see undigested food in my stool?
Do I often burp after meals?
Does food feel like it’s sitting in my stomach longer than it should?
These are a few of the many questions. But worth consideration.
Okay - The next two reasons are going to fly by in comparison. But I really wanted to DRIVE home how pivotal our digestion is for better energy.
Let’s move on shall we.
REASON NUMBER 2 YOU”RE TIRED ALL THE TIME. YOU MULTITASK TOO MUCH.
One thing we all do, but might not think of as having a negative impact on our energy levels, is multitasking. BUT it really is a modern-day energy zapper. It’s not efficient. Because when we go from one task to another, like working on a project and then stopping to check social media – that switch uses up energy in our brains, it uses up glucose. So when we multitask on a dozen things in a given hour, our brain is burning through energy trying to adapt and refocus. A university of California study found that after each interruption it takes over 23 minutes to refocus. I think the number was 23 minutes and 15 seconds.
And social media has trained our brains to get used to multitasking, where we feel the urge to check in every chance we get. We don’t have attention spans anymore. And that is affecting our energy sadly. There’s a great book called Stolen Focus that goes into this and is really worth checking out, it’s eye opening.
So anyways - all this to say, for better energy and to conserve energy, you want to get really good at monotasking. If you need to put the phone in another room, go for it. It’s muscle but you can get your attention span and focus brain back, it just takes a little bit of practice.
And when you take a break, try not to look at your phone. Allow your mind to wander and do nothing.. We don’t let our brains rest anymore but it for our brains, and our energy levels, it really is important.
Alright moving on to the last Weird Reason you might be tired all the time, reason number 3: You’re sleep schedule changes drastically on the weekends.
If you tend to get up earlier during the weekdays, but sleep in or go to bed way later on weekends . . . this reason for you.
So one of the best ways to have consistent energy is to maintain the same sleep schedule every day. But for a lot of us, when the weekend comes around - maybe because we’re being social or just want to relax, we go to bed later and/or sleep in longer than normal. And this discrepancy in sleep pattern between the weekend and weekdays is known as social jet lag, which can cause you to be fatigued or “jet lagged” when you wake up for work on Monday morning. And it makes sense if every Saturday & Sunday you are essentially resetting your wake-time to a later time.
Now I say this just to inform - sometimes it’s unavoidable.. But if you’re tired all the time, and especially if you find Mondays becoming increasingly hard, it may be worth tightening up your weekend sleep schedule so it’s closer to your weekday schedule, with no more than an hour difference on either end. Again, just for consideration.
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And that sound means its time for today’s feelgood thing, little weird things that make us feel good that deserve a spot in the momentary spotlight, so we train are brains to look out for the good because they are very good at looking out for the bad.
Today’s feelgood thing is forgetting the password twice but remembering on the third try BEFORE you’d have to attempt resetting the whole thing. It’s a modern-day-feelgood thing. But there is nothing like that feeling that arrises when you enter a website you previously have just been logged into for like years, it’s remembered you every time so it’s been a long time since you’ve actually had to LOG IN. But for whatever reason, today, its logged you out so you have to think WAY back to when you first registered for this site.
And normally, if you’re like me, you have maybe 2 max 3 different passwords for your HUNDREDS of things that require passwords. Is is recommended to have that few passwords? Absolutely not. But we do it anyways. SO anyways, you throw up your standard passwords on this thing and it’s a FAIL
And then you rack your brain - thinking back to where your head was at the time you were registering for this site and you try a second time. FAIL. And it’s one of those sites that YOU KNOW will make you reset this thing if you don’t get it right the third time.
AND for some reason, you dont want to go through the hassle of going through the FORGOT PASSWORD route because that, for some stupid reason, seems more difficult than playing this guessing game gamble.
So you think and you COME UP WIHT SOME WEIRD version of what the password MIGHT BE, your’e last shot and you shoot it and enter your password AND IT WORKS.
You cracked this case. You didn’t have to reset it. Youve won today.
And that is today’s feelgood thing.
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Alright my friend.
It’s really not a great feeling to be tired all the time. To not be fully present because you can’t focus, or are just not there because you’d rather be in bed. Now of course - there’s the standard stuff like being too low on iron, or not getting enough b12 or not eating enough protein, OR maybe it’s a thyroid related thing - but those things, all start in the gut which is why I wanted to pay special attention to digestion today. And there will be much more digestion fun to come, in a couple different ways, because it really either the root of healing, or the first place to start before moving on to other areas of the body. And of course, lifesftyle factors play into energy as well -multitasking, sleep hygiene and I didn’t touch on it today, but I think I have in the past, who you surround yourself with ALSO really affects your energy. If you hang around with energy vampires all day who TAKE your energy but but never give any back to you , that can be a big messy thing.
Now if you have been drained lately, or are feeling tired and not exactly sure why - it can feel really overwhelming with all of the possible reasons why. And that can be frustrating. But it can also be sort of exciting, especially if you’ve tried the standard stuff, to KNOW that there are maybe a ton of possibilities that can offer some solutions. And there’s hope in knowing that there will come a day when your energy is back where it used to be. And that’s something to look forward to. And who knows - Christmas IS coming, and maybe a little bit of holiday magic is all you actually need. Here’s to getting the jingle back in your step. Corny I know but it is the holidays soon righttt. I hope you have a wonderful day or night ahead, and I will see you next time on feelgoodery.
And now for the legal stuff. The information provided in this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please always consult with your health care provider.