E064 | Protocol fatigue is real—Here’s what no one tells you

Are you constantly chasing new protocols—but still feeling exhausted and stuck?

You’re not lazy, and it’s not a lack of willpower. The real issue might be something no one warned you about: protocol fatigue. 

It’s what happens when healing becomes a full-time job—and your intuition gets silenced by perfectionism, plans, and pressure.

When you’re stuck in the cycle of doing everything “right” and still not getting better, it’s time to pause the noise and listen inwards.

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING TO THIS PODCAST EPISODE, YOU’LL DISCOVER:

 🔸 Why your healing efforts might be keeping you stuck—not moving you forward
 🔸 The hidden cost of chasing protocol after protocol without real results
 🔸 A 72-hour Protocol Detox mini-experiment to help you reset and reconnect with your body

This is your invitation to stop performing wellness—and start building body trust.

OTHER LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Book "I wish I knew" by Donna Ashworth

E062 | Why willpower isn’t healing you—and the body-led shift that finally will

E063 | Effortless doesn’t mean passive. It means precise.

Join our free Facebook group: Embrace Your Healing Journey

Explore the Body Wise Healing™ Framework

📧 Write to me at anindita@aninditarungta.com – I’d love to hear from you!

Transcript

You followed the plan. You've done the labs. You've cut out gluten, dairy, sugar. And you've tracked every symptom, every bite, every flare. But instead of feeling better, you are exhausted. Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually. And no one talks about it. In this episode, I'm talking about why the chasing healing through protocols is so exhausting and what to do instead when it all starts to feel like too much. So if you've ever thought, why am I doing all of this and still not getting better, then this episode is for you. 

Welcome to Embrace Your Healing Journey, a podcast for women with autoimmune and other chronic conditions to help them navigate their illness without fear of isolation and uncertainty, and find relief from their symptoms. Your body is your guide and ally in healing. If you're ready to embrace this journey with compassion and awareness, then this show is for you. Tune in weekly as I, a Functional medicine Certified Health Coach, deliver tips and insights that demystify the healing process, guiding you towards the relief you deserve so that you can feel healthy and happy once more. 

So you are not lazy. You are definitely not uncommitted. You are just exhausted from trying to do everything right because you followed the protocols. You've eliminated the foods that they have asked you to eliminate. You've taken the supplements. You've done the test, you've seen the practitioners. But instead of feeling better, you feel stuck and more overwhelmed than ever. Because that's not a personal failure. That's protocol fatigue. And that's what I you know, I coined the term protocol fatigue because that's what it actually is and no one is talking about it. And in today's episode, I'm naming what women silently battle the burnout that comes from chasing healing like it's like a full time job.

In this episode, you will learn why the next best protocol might be blocking your progress, what your fatigue is really trying to tell you, and how to break the cycle without giving up on healing. So if you've ever thought I just can't keep doing this, then this episode is for you. So in the last two episodes, we've talked about letting go of willpower and perfectionism as the engines of healing. If you haven't read, if you haven't listened to them, then go back and listen to the previous two episodes. I'll share them in the show notes below. 

Today we are taking it further. I am exposing the hidden cost of following protocol after protocol and still not getting better if the protocol is working for you. If the treatment is working for you, then obviously that's the right fit. But for so many women and so many men, I am assuming they end up chasing something that is not really suited to their bodies requirements. Uh, but before I even get into that, I want to start this episode by sharing one of my favorite poems from the book, I wish I Knew by Donna Ashworth. The poem is called Or You Could Just Live and it goes like this. 

You're going to wish your body was more. You're going to wish your body was less. You're going to wish your body would change. You're going to wish your body would not. You're going to wish your body was many things between now and the day you live. Leave this mortal coil. And one day, as is always, the day you will look back and see that your body was always as it should be, doing its best to be you, for you, and you are then going to wish that just once you had told your body, I accept you as you are right now and that maybe you had done this, you would have spared yourself a lifetime of wishing for something you didn't really ever need. That what it was you should have been wishing for, in fact, was the courage to accept the strength to embrace the wisdom to really see what you have. You want to wish for many things when it comes to your body, or you could just wish for health and live your life flawed and beautiful. 

 I've shared this poem in letters that I've written to my friends. I've shared this poem on other platforms like Substack, because I find them to be really grounding and grounded in self-compassion and self-trust, especially when it comes to topics like aging, uh, like body wisdom, body awareness, uh, self-trust, you know, so it's, uh, beautiful, beautiful poems. Because I find that a lot of us are so determined that our body is broken and needs to be fixed, that we completely lose sight of the fact that it's just trying to keep us alive. In fact, today, I was having a call with somebody. And, you know, I'm on Substack and she's on Substack, too, and we've decided to write for each other, guest post for each other, and, uh, yeah. And I was I was just sharing with her that, uh, you know, we, I do this activity with my clients. It's called befriending your body. Like, I think we've become so accustomed to thinking that a body is, you know, an adversary that we have to fight. We have to medicate that it's really keeping us stuck. So today's episode is actually about. About understanding your body, why your body is not something to be controlled or overpowered. It's your home. It's your safe space. It's the material expression of your soul. This is the only home that you have on this. You know, on this, on this planet. And too often we take our bodies for granted. We abuse our bodies, don't take good care of it. 

But most importantly, we don't really understand that healing is not linear. It's seasonal. So your body is ever changing. And it all starts by accepting the way it is right now, right? It's only trying to protect you. I think that's that's a theme that runs through all my episodes, all my writing. Um, and I come coming back to the fact that healing is seasonal. It means that your body is constantly undergoing changes. But how will you really understand what what changes and how to change your approach and. Unless you're paying attention. So what worked for you last month may not work this month. You know I need it. It will change and it will change through life. So real healing requires flexibility and adaptability, not rigidity. And have you know, I've realized this much to my detriment so many times that, you know, I've ignored it and I have had to pay a price for it in some way. But usually because I am tuned to my body and I've been doing this work for a long time, I'm usually get in front of it. 

So if you're obsessed with following a particular protocol with rigidity or perfection, this can block you from listening and making the changes. Uh, you know, when you really need to. Now let's talk about what protocol fatigue actually feels like. It's not just a concept, it's actual lived experience. And chances are that you've been living with it without even having a name for it. 

So you know, you're dealing with protocol fatigue when you wake up more tired than when you went to sleep. And sometimes even after 9 or 10 hours of sleep, um, you are dreading your planning your next meal. Not because you don't care about food, but because the list of things you can't eat feels longer than the list of things that you can eat. And every bite feels like a decision. You're afraid to even stop the protocol. Because what if everything gets worse? But you're also afraid to continue because it's exhausting and you start skipping your supplements, not because you forgot, but the very fact of thought of swallowing them makes you feel sick. Not just physically, but emotionally, because your body has been whispering no more. And deep down, maybe you've started to believe that the problem is you, that if if you only tried harder, pushed, follow the protocol, better push through, you would get better that you finally heal. And I want to repeat this and I have been, you know, repeating this throughout my episodes, that you're not the problem. There is usually something else at play. And in this case, what I'm talking about today, the healing model is an issue. 

You were never meant to heal by suppressing your intuition. You were never meant to heal by overriding your body's signals, not even paying attention to them. Because healing is not a performance. It's a conversation. It's a conversation between you and your body. And if your body has been saying that it's too much, you need to pause and learn how to listen to it. So it's this is your invitation to pause, to pivot and to listen. Because, see, chronic illness has already taken a lot from you. If you have been dealing with it for a while, you know this to be true. Whether it's your energy, whether it's your clarity, whether it's your time. And then if you know, because the protocols tend to add on, do this, don't do that. Take these, eliminate that. 

So if if you are spending every ounce of your energy, of your capacity managing your health but not feeling healthier, then it's a problem, right? So something is not right. So let's uncover what's really behind your symptoms right now. Because it's not just autoimmunity. It's not just inflammation. It's not even burnout from life. The real problem is protocol overload. This is true for so many women. I talk to so many people I talked to. And because they're trying so hard to get well. So. Obviously this is you know, this is I, I don't blame anyone, but it's really unfortunate that the very thing that they're trying to get better, they're doing to get better is actually keeping them stuck, because they have been led to believe that if I just follow the right plan perfectly, I will finally feel better. 

But, you know, the thing is, healing doesn't work like an algorithm. It works like a relationship. And the relationship has to be with your body, so, and nobody can cultivate it for you. You have to cultivate this relationship with your body. And the protocols that you may be following are not really designed for relationship. They're designed for control. So here's what's likely happening with you. You override your inner cues because the plan says to push through. You ignore your cravings, your intuitions, your energy dips because the protocol doesn't account for it. Right now. You stop asking yourself what's working because you're too busy trying to follow the protocol, so it's not your condition keeping you sick at this point, but it's the constant noise of systems that never taught you how to tune into your own systems. That's protocol fatigue. 

And I want to make one thing very clear. It's not that I'm anti protocol. I share protocols with my clients. I share diet plans I share supplement plans. Right. Protocols are important in that sense. But what I am talking about is protocol fatigue of chasing it. You know chasing the performance, chasing protocols blindly or following protocols blindly. That's what I'm talking about. Uh, especially if it's not working for you. If it's working for you, obviously that's the right fit. 

But for so many women, I find the the protocol that they are following is not what their body needs. But it's because of all the distraction, all the noise, all all the inputs that they're getting from outside. It's just drowning at the noise of their body, and they don't know why it's not working or what's working. So and that's the reason when even when you're doing everything right, you're further away from, you know, from what your body is actually always asking from you, which is compassion, which is connection and a customized pace that fits your life. Not just your lab reports or your protocol. So it's not that the protocol is an issue and you should not be having protocols, it's just chasing it for the sake of chasing it and not the right one is really costing you. 

So if you've been trying to solve the problem with more strategy, more structure, more input, more labs, protocols, practitioners, printouts and maybe you've been even doing them perfectly. But instead of feeling clear, you feel conflicted. Instead of feeling supported, you feel scattered. So you know there is actually something wrong. I mean, I don't have to tell you this, so let's see what it really looks like for most people. I mean, this is so common. It's alarming in a way. So you follow the autoimmune paleo protocol and then you because that was not working properly, then you've layered on low histamine, maybe then low oxalate, and you're really depriving yourself of many nutrients that your body actually needs at this point. You've run or you've run GI map, uh, test, Dutch test and some. You know, maybe some other tests. Hoping that one would finally explain your flares. But each time you walked away with a bigger supplement list, or maybe an even longer avoid list. And not really any answers. 

So you exhausted from not from a lack of discipline, but from moving in too many directions. And you've lost confidence. Not because you don't care, but because again, you are being pulled in different directions from different experts, different inputs. So the problem is that you haven't really found the right system, the one that is going to work for your body's requirements. And as I've mentioned earlier, healing is seasonal. It's not going to be it's not linear. It's going to keep changing. So if you are not used to paying attention to what your body needs at this point in time and keep adapting and you know, and adapting to it and be in alignment with it, there will always come a point that you have no clue what's going on, and you have no clue why it's not working the way it should. 

So protocols are not the enemy, but when they become your entire strategy and they override your body's signals. Then it then healing can become a never ending checklist. And that's not something that you want to move towards. And that's actually what hasn't worked. So instead of chasing the next expert approved plan or the next influencer on Instagram or some, you know, some other protocol and constantly tweaking, testing, tracking, you need to create space to think, eye to pause. You need to clear the healing clutter. Not forever, but just for a while. Not all at once, but just for a while and inside my body wise healing framework that I follow. 

The first pillar there are three pillars simplify, reconnect, and sustain. And the first pillar is simplify. And this is exactly what we focus on. So we focus on simplifying the whole process to cut out the clutter so that, you know, you can start tuning into your body what your body needs. But before you can tune in to what your body needs, you need to gently quiet the noise of what everyone is telling you that you should be doing so. 

This is a mini experiment. I'm calling it Protocol Detox. It's a mini experiment that you can do today. It's extremely simple. Each episode I share with you one thing that you can do, uh, you know, each week, which will help you to actually implement what I'm saying right then and there. So step one. Pick one thing from your current wellness routine that you're doing out of obligation, not intuition. So something that you know feels like a drag but you know, but you are doing it. So maybe having 20 different kinds of supplements right now, uh, maybe having magnesium at 5 p.m. and it's, it's not really having an impact, something that, uh, you know, you need to basically, uh, take a look at, uh, maybe the, uh, snacks that you've been told to have three times a day and that ends up, uh, you know, making you feel bloated. So something that is small enough, uh, but you know, that it's maybe an issue, uh, you know, so just just pick one thing that you're doing out of obligation. One thing that you. I have a feeling it's not really working for you. And just pause it for 72 hours if you can, and observe again. You are not doing this forever. You're not doing it with medications or something else that is, uh, you know, that is, uh, going to be life threatening or something that you need to rely. 

And I'm not asking you to stop medications. It's just one. It's just one protocol. It can be one tiny lifestyle change, something that you're already doing. And maybe, maybe it's getting up at 5 a.m. in the morning because you've heard that, uh, getting up so early is good for you. But if you're not getting good quality sleep at night, if you have, uh, if you're sleeping late for whatever reason, then getting up at 5 a.m. may not really work for you. So something like that, which is not sitting well with your intuition. So pause it for 72 hours and just observe. And each night write down what felt lighter today. So the first thing that you can journal on is what felt lighter today. Second one is what did I not miss? And the third one is did my symptoms shift. Did my stress shift? 

So these are the three questions I wanted to ask yourself and journal on what felt lighter today. What did I not miss? Did my symptoms shift? Did my stress shift? That's it. That's all you need to do. So no tracking apps required, no symptom logs, no pressure to get it right. Just just clearing out some of the clutter just for 72 hours. Right. And see if anything shifts for you. Because you actually might be surprised that sometimes a thing that things that you've been clinging to, things that you thought were helping you, maybe it's what's keeping you stuck. And it's only when you clear the external noise that you could finally see it. You could finally hear it. That's what we're doing here. We're actually clearing the external noise. So this is what it does. It restores decision making power to you because now you know for sure whether it's working or not working. It creates room for your own clarity to emerge. It's very, very important for sustainable health and healing.

 Sustainability is the third pillar of my body healing framework. Extremely important because it's not just about getting well, it's about staying well. It's about sustainable healing, uh, you know, which is life affirming. And the third thing is builds body trust, uh, by again, decluttering. So your body does not need more hacks. It needs you back in the driver's seat. It needs you to feel empowered, confident and take decisions for yourself. Because if you don't do this, if you keep following plans that were never designed for your own season of healing, then you will keep trying to heal by performing wellness, but you will not see the results, and you will stay stuck in survival mode. Not because you're failing, but because the system you're following is so loud that you're not able to hear what your body is been trying to tell you, what it's actually asking for.

 So you actually don't need an expert to hand you a roadmap or something. I mean that you are not very clear about. You need somebody to help you tune in to your own internal GPS, your own internal guidance inner guidance system so you can and when you do. So that when you're actually able to tune in to your own inner guidance system, you can finally stop chasing and start choosing what's going to actually work for your body. And this is something that's going to stay with you for life long after you stop following protocols, stop following treatments. If you you know, if you've gone well and it's gotten well and you can stay well. And that's why this is this matters because clarity is not a luxury. It's a lifeline. And when healing stops becoming a guessing game, that's when real momentum begins.

 So I want to as we end this episode today, I want to share the body wise wrap up, uh, bullet points of what we covered today. 

Number one, protocol fatigue is real. So you are not lazy or undisciplined. You're just overloaded from trying to do everything right. 

Number two, the real problem isn't you. It's the constant outsourcing of your healing to external systems, strategies and plans that are not really personalized for your body's requirements. 

Number three, what you've tried isn't working because it was not built for you. Number four, the shift you need is simpler than you think. Because healing begins when you create space to hear your own body signal again. 

And number five, one small step can change everything. I gave you a protocol detox mini experiment. It's a low pressure way to step out of this noise. Just for 72 hours and see what shifts for you. 

So if you've done chasing the protocols and ready to actually understand what your body is trying to tell you, then you will love the Decode Your Symptoms workbook. It's the exact three step tool I use with my clients to spot hidden patterns, connect the dots, clear clarity without more tests, guesswork, and self-blame. You can download it for free and take this first step towards effortless body healing. I'll share the link in the show notes below. I will also be sharing the Body Healing Framework link below. You can take a look at the framework, because I want you to know that your symptoms aren't random. They are the map and I want to help you read it.