050: Why You're Always Tired in Summer (It's Not Just the Heat)

Why You're Always Tired in Summer (It's Not Just the Heat)

Feeling exhausted even though it's summer?

If you've been wondering why your energy feels lower than expected, you're not alone. While many people blame the heat, there are often several hidden factors quietly draining your energy.

In this episode of Wellness Reset Thursday, Fredricka Davis uncovers the real reasons so many women experience fatigue during the summer months and shares simple, practical strategies to help you restore your energy naturally-without relying on more caffeine or simply trying to "push through."

You'll learn why fatigue is often your body's way of asking for support and how small, consistent changes can help you feel healthier, stronger, and more energized all season long.

In This Episode You'll Learn

•  Why fatigue is a symptom-not the problem 
•  How dehydration affects your energy, mood, and mental clarity 
•  Why blood sugar swings can leave you feeling exhausted 
•  The importance of protein and nutrient-dense foods for sustained energy 
•  How poor sleep impacts your hormones, immune system, and recovery 
•  Why chronic stress and an overloaded nervous system can contribute to fatigue 
•  How learning to listen to your body's early warning signs can help prevent burnout 
• Bonus: The truth about electrolytes, when they can be beneficial, and why they're not the right solution for everyone 

This Week's Wellness Reset

Before you reach for another cup of coffee or try to power through your day, pause and ask yourself:

"What is my body asking for right now?"

Maybe it's water.

Maybe it's protein.

Maybe it's rest.

Maybe it's better sleep.

Maybe it's simply slowing down long enough to listen.

Small, intentional choices practiced consistently create lasting wellness.

Bonus Resource: Electrolyte Balance

During this episode, Fredricka shares a bonus conversation about one of today's biggest wellness trends-electrolytes.

While electrolytes can be incredibly helpful for some people, they're not something everyone needs more of. Your activity level, the amount you sweat, your overall diet, your health conditions, and even the medications you take all influence whether additional electrolytes are appropriate for you.

Want to learn how to determine whether your body actually needs electrolytes?

Join our free Limitless Living Facebook community, where Fredricka shares an additional training that dives deeper into:

•  How to know if you're low in electrolytes 
•  When electrolytes may improve your energy and hydration 
•  Signs you may already be getting enough (or even too much) 
•  Simple ways to support hydration and electrolyte balance based on your individual needs 

Come join us, continue the conversation, and discover practical wellness strategies designed for real life.

Reflection Question

What's one simple change you can make this week that would help restore your energy instead of simply pushing through your fatigue?

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a little more energy this summer.

Until next time...

Be rooted. Be resilient. And be limitless.

www.fredrickadavis.com

Grab Your Free Reset Guide and more at www.fredrickadavis.com

Continue the conversation inside the here: Limitless Living community.

If this episode resonated with you, you can also send Fredricka a message through the Fan Mail link in the show notes. Your questions may be featured in a future episode.

And if you know someone who needs to hear this conversation, please share the episode with them.

Your reviews mean the world to Fredricka and help other women discover the show.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Hello and welcome back to the Limitless Living Podcast. I'm Frederica Davis, your host, wellness expert, coach, and creator of the Limitless Reset Method. Today is Wellness Reset Thursday. And whether you are listening while you're out for a walk or driving or maybe doing the laundry or sipping a quiet cup of coffee, I am very happy you are here. I hope these next few minutes encourage you and give you a few practical ideas that help you feel healthier, more energized, and more like yourself. So today I want to talk about something I'm hearing a little more than normal. And it's that statement from clients and friends, you know, I just don't know what's wrong with me. I'm so tired. I just feel so tired. It's summer and I want to have all this energy, but I'm just so tired. So if you are feeling any version of that, this is for you today. So if you're waking up tired or you're hitting that afternoon wall, and this can be any time of year, but sometimes around the summer, we just feel like we should have all this extra energy and we don't. Or if your workouts are feeling harder and you're dragging yourself throughout the day and your brain feels a little bit more foggy. We often tend to assume it must just be the heat this time of year. And it's been a pretty hot summer here. If you're assuming it's just the heat, that may not be wrong, but it may not be the whole picture. And here in Pennsylvania, I can tell you, we've had days recently pushing 100 degrees, and with the humidity, it has been literally feeling like you're breathing pea soup. And that kind of weather absolutely does take a toll on their body and causes fatigue. In my experience, though, after more than 40 years helping people improve their health, it's usually not just the heat. So fatigue is rarely the actual problem. Brain fog is rarely the actual problem. More often than not, it's something else. It's the fatigue, the brain fog, the hitting a wall in the middle of the afternoon, all of those things are your body's way of communicating. Your body is incredibly intelligent and it's constantly giving you feedback. So the question isn't whether your body's talking to you or not. The question really is all the time, are you listening? So today, what I want to do is walk you through several hidden reasons that you may be feeling so tired, and especially this summer, along with some simple things that you can do to start feeling better. So, hidden reason number one is that you might just be more dehydrated than you think. I start with this because it's one of the most common reasons: dehydration. Now, here's what's really interesting, too, is that most people they often think that they'll drink water when they get thirsty and they wait until they get thirsty. But the problem is by the time you feel thirsty, your body has already started telling you that it's running low and you are dehydrated on some level. So during the summer, we're naturally losing more fluids. We sweat more, we're outside more, maybe we're gardening or walking or traveling, whatever it is that you're doing. Maybe you're playing with the grandkids or going to festivals, all that yard work and pickleball and all the fun things, enjoying a few cocktails around the pool, whatever it looks like for you, your body simply needs more water in the summertime. So even mild dehydration can contribute to things like fatigue, headaches, dizziness, brain fog, poor concentration, and muscle cramps. That's just to name a few. Now, one of my favorite strategies, because I hear this all the time, like, oh, I can't, Freddie, I can't get all the water in and I'll, or I can't drink all that water, I'll be up all night going to the bathroom. Or I just don't really like water. So I've got a couple hacks I want to share with you. And one of my favorite, favorite strategies is something I call front loading your hydration. Instead of spending the entire day later or in the middle of the day and on trying to catch up with the amount of water you need to drink, you need to start early. So it's half your body weight in ounces of water that you should be drinking. So for a 150-pound person, you're talking 75 ounces of water. So you can do your own math. And if you wait and you start drinking mid-morning, midday, mid-afternoon, or even after work, you're never going to get your water in. So front loading is drinking the water first thing in the morning. Not all of it, certainly you'd float away. But if you plan to drink a big chunk of it, I will give you an example. I take up with me to bed every night a big glass or a big insulated water bottle with 30 or 40 ounces of water in it. I started out doing this with 20 ounces until I kind of got used to this. And I take it up to bed with me. I don't drink it before bed, of course. So I don't, I'm not up all night. But if I do wake up once in the middle of the night, I will have a sip of the water because, of course, your mouth is a little dry and whatnot. And then in the morning, first thing in the morning, I will drink some more. And I will keep taking big gulps of it as I'm getting dressed, brushing my teeth, doing my hair, my makeup, whatever's going on. And by the time I hit the kitchen, I have gotten in me no less than 20 ounces of water, usually 30, even sometimes 40 ounces of water in before breakfast, before coffee. Sounds like a crazy amount of water, but just depends on the day. But if imagine if you need to drink 60 ounces of water because you weigh 120 pounds, and you start your morning out with 20 or 30 ounces, it's not that much for the rest of the day. So you're going to get it in. So front load your water. Start early, drink it first thing in the morning, and then continue consistently sipping throughout the day. Or if you're a teacher or a hospital worker, healthcare worker, and it's really hard, then get it the biggest amount in the beginning of the day. And then wherever you can later, get a small bottle or a small glass wherever you can fit that in so that you can be healthier too. So don't wait until dinner to realize that you barely had two glasses of water today. You'll just never get enough in and you'll always be dehydrated. And it leads to complications in emergency situations. I watched this with my mom as she got older. She just didn't want to drink a lot. She didn't want to go to the bathroom a lot. And every time she needed an IV, every time she needed a surgery, there was always a bit of a challenge because her veins were not hydrated. So they would collapse. And IVs were harder. And there's a million and one reasons, everybody, a million and one. I know I'm going off my topic today of fatigue and brain fog and all the things that kind of wear us down and how we correct that. But a lot of times we don't really realize how important it is for the hydration part. So it's a small habit, but it will make a ginormous difference for your health. I recommend aiming for about half your body weight in ounces of water each day as your starting point. Every individual may need different amounts based on activity level or the weather or your health, certain medications and so on. But it's a good guideline to start with. Now, hidden reason number two, you're running on treats instead of fuel. So let's be honest. Watch people do this where they drink Starbucks or a sugary drink in the morning to get going. Maybe they're having a donut or a bagel that turns into sugar, and you're carb loading right away, or it might not even be desserts, but you're getting more foods that turn to sugars in your body, or more foods that outright start with sugar. So let's be honest. You know, summer is full of celebrations. Amazing, wonderful foods, ice cream cookouts, vacation foods, barbecues, uh, birthday parties, funnel cakes, and French fries and great grandma's famous potato salad recipe. All of those things are delicious. They're all part of it. And I do not ever think that it works when we tell ourselves to never have anything ever again. Life is really meant to be enjoyed. And sometimes these are part of the enjoyment. I don't believe wellness should make your life smaller. I believe it should help you enjoy your life more. So one of the philosophies I teach inside my wellness programs and I practice all the time is something I call gifting your body what it needs first. I love this mindset because it doesn't start with restriction, it starts with nourishment. So before you have the brownie, give your body protein. Before the ice cream, give your body vegetables. Before the chips, drink your water, before the dessert, feed your body something that actually fuels it. Protein, healthy fats, fiber, vegetables. And then if you want the dessert, enjoy the dessert. So one of the reasons I recommend eating protein and fiber first at every single meal is because it slows down your digestion and it can drastically reduce the dramatic blood sugar spikes that often leave us crashing soon thereafter. And it sets your body up to be digesting slower, even if you choose to have the dessert. So again, it's not about perfection, it's about helping your body while still enjoying your life. Now, hidden reason number three, this is that you're living at 100 miles an hour. Now, this one surprises a lot of people. Summer is supposed to be relaxing, but for many of us, especially women, it actually becomes busier. We have family visits and cookouts to plan for and grandchildren and planning vacations and we're keeping people entertained and we're trying to make everybody else's summer magical. And often we're trying to squeeze in relaxation because it's summertime and we don't want to miss it and we want to have fun, all on top of what we were already doing. Instead of giving ourselves room for that, this can actually be a giant cause of why you might be experiencing the fatigue or the burnout or the brain fog or any of those things that we talked about in the very beginning. So somewhere along the way, we tend to forget about ourselves and then we stay busy. I mean, can you relate to this? Do you stay productive 24-7 every day, all the time? How about, you know, being responsible, feeling like we're responsible for so much and adding all these things in? And we never really get a chance to recover and enjoy. So it's really important to build these things in. So sometimes we're physically tired, sometimes we're mentally tired, sometimes, yes, we are emotionally tired, sometimes we're all three. And your nervous system was not designed to run at full speed all the time, 100% of the time, 24-7. It needs moments of recovery. And recovery doesn't always have to mean taking a two-week vacation either. Sometimes it's just 20 quiet minutes on your porch by yourself, or just sitting quiet or connecting with a loved one, a walk outside, getting the sunshine, resetting your circadia rhythm without your phone, without distraction, without an earbud, or reading a book, stretching, deep breathing, all of these things, sitting outside and listening to the birds. I can tell you I have this amazing little squirrel that now comes to visit me and some gorgeous birds. And the squirrel literally knocks on my door for his peanuts. And I absolutely love to have my morning coffee and just kind of take 10 minutes most days and just set my intention and smile and take that moment. And it really creates space to calm the nervous system, to reset and increase capacity in my body to handle all the things that I want to do. It can be that little. It doesn't have to be big. Hidden reason number four, you might be feeling fatigued or run down or hitting your walls more often is that sleep has quietly slipped for you. And sleep, we all know we need sleep. Okay. I know you know you need sleep, but summer has a way of throwing our routines off. We stay up a little bit later, we travel or go to fireworks or have family visiting. And maybe you have college kids like I do that come home, and that kind of changes the schedule a little bit, or grandkids visiting, the days are longer, and we're squeezing more things in throughout the day. And before you know it, we are trading. You are trading an hour of sleep for one more episode on Netflix or one more evening sitting outside. And when we're doing that every once in a while, that's perfectly fine. But when it becomes the new normal for one month, two months, or three months, your body really notices. And sleep is when your body actually repairs itself. It's when your brain processes information. It's when your hormones regulate themselves, and when your immune system actually gets a chance to do some of its best work. So if you've been sleeping five or six hours a night, or six and a half hours, or seven hours even, wondering why you're still exhausted, the answer might be really simple. And it means that you need your seven, eight, or even nine hours. So protect your sleep. It's not a luxury, it's one of the most powerful wellness tools in your toolbox that you will ever have. Hidden reason number five: maybe your body's been whispering to you for a while, but you've been too busy to hear it. So one of the things I have learned after all these years in wellness is that your body whispers before it shouts. And I have ignored my whispers from time to time as well. So chances are you have too. First, it might be the fatigue. And then maybe after that, when we don't listen to the fatigue and address that, giving it what it needs, then maybe our body starts to give us headaches and or brain fog, or we start craving sugar. We crave that caffeine boost, that sugar boost, the carbs. Maybe your muscles start cramping, or maybe you notice you're more irritable than usual. And one day, all of a sudden, you wake up and you've got a summer cold, or you've got an autoimmune condition that flares. I'm a poster child. When if I've done something that wasn't quite right or didn't have enough sleep, you'll see it on me right away because of my autoimmune conditions. Or maybe you get completely burnt out. You just feel like you're burnt out. The symptoms did not appear overnight. All those things did not appear overnight. The summer cold did not appear overnight. It came in because your system was run down a little bit. This is just how it works. Your body has been trying to get your attention probably for weeks and sometimes even longer for months. And then all of a sudden, it's no longer whispering, it's tapping on your shoulder, and then it's screaming at you. So we just get really good at ignoring it. Have you gotten good at ignoring some of these little sonics? As I'm talking about these, are some of these really striking a chord? Like, oh yeah, I do need more sleep. I don't know, I'll figure that out. You know, whatever is going through your mind. Try to take a mental note. Listen to whatever comes up for you as you're listening to this. One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is learning to become curious instead of critical with yourself. So instead of saying, Oh, what's wrong with me? Why don't I have more energy? Try asking, what is my body trying to tell me? This one shift can change everything in how you approach what your body's telling you and how you feel ultimately. Before we finish, I want to leave you with this one bonus because it just does not get talked about nearly enough. And it's your electrolyte balance. Electrolytes have become one of the biggest wellness trends over the last couple of years here. I've been seeing it more and more and more. And all these companies are popping up, all these ads are popping up, and you see it on social everywhere. And it seems like everybody is adding electrolyte packets to their water. The question that I think we should be asking first is do we actually need them? Well, the answer to that might be maybe. So one of the things I teach in my wellness programs, when we're talking about nutrition, is that wellness is not about following trends. Whether we're talking about financial wellness, uh, mental wellness, emotional wellness, spiritual wellness, physical wellness, it's not about following trends. And it's really more about understanding yourself. So with what we're talking about today, it's really about understanding your body. And electrolytes are not necessarily good for you or bad for you. They are a tool. The question is going to be whether or not they're the right tool for you and do you need them? So your body absolutely needs electrolytes, such as sodium, potassium, and magnesium. They are involved directly in your hydration, regardless of whether or not you're drinking enough water or not, if your electrolytes are off, things will be off. They are involved in your muscle function, your nerve function, and many other important processes. So the question isn't necessarily whether you need electrolytes, because you do. We all need electrolytes. The question is whether you need more electrolytes. And that depends on your lifestyle, such as are you exercising hard? Are you sweating? Are you perspiring enough that you need them? Are you working outside in this heat? Are you gardening, playing pickleball, hiking, spending hours and hours in the heat? Those will be indicators that you may need them. Or are you mostly moving from an air-conditioned house to an air-conditioned car to an air-conditioned office and back home again to do it all over again? Those two lifestyles are very different in your hydration needs and your electrolyte needs. So then I would be asking yourself, how much water are you actually drinking? And what does your diet look like? And one of my favorite free tools is an app called My FitnessPal. I'm not sponsored by them or anything. I simply use the free version, but I use it to log my food for several days every so often. Not because I'm dieting, but because I'm, or and not because I'm counting calories, but because I'm collecting information. It's data. I'm looking to see if I'm getting enough of things like protein, fiber, but also potassium, magnesium, and yes, how much sodium am I actually eating? So sometimes what we think we're eating and what we're actually eating are two completely different things. Me personally, I cook most of my meals at home. I eat very little processed food. I often discover that my sodium intake is actually lower than I expected. That doesn't automatically mean I need electrolytes every day. It simply means it's another piece of the puzzle. So that's really what wellness is all about. It's collecting this information, looking for your patterns, making informed decisions. And if you've been feeling unusually fatigued or getting headaches or muscle cramps or dizziness or things like that, feeling lightheaded, uh, especially after being outside in the heat or sweating heavily, then electrolytes may definitely be one of the pieces of the puzzle that's worth exploring for you, but not the only piece, just one piece. So if you want to learn a little bit more about that, I'm actually putting together a bonus training inside my free limitless living Facebook community where I will go into this topic a little more deeply, show you how I personally think through whether electrolytes make sense on any given day or not. And I'll put the link in the show notes for you to join the group and hop on in there. It's free. Uh, I'd love to have you join us. So I'm gonna drop that in later today. Now, one more thought about your mid-year wellness reset, because it's July. We're officially into the second half of the year. And it feels like summer just started. Yet, honestly, for me, every year, once we get past the 4th of July, it somehow feels like the rest of the summer just flies by. So maybe you have not gotten to your health goals that you started the year out with, and maybe life got busy or whatever was going on, and you simply got off track. This is your reminder if that's you. And you, first of all, you're not alone. You don't have to wait until September. You don't have to wait until January to start. And you definitely don't have to wait until Monday, even. You can just reset today. One bottle of water, one healthy meal, one walk, one earlier night to bed, or one hour extra of sleep and better decision. All of those, these are all small resets. When we repeat them constantly, that's where the change lives. It's not in perfection, it's in the consistency. And before we finish today, I want to leave you with one question for this episode. What is your body asking you for right now? Not next month or next year, but today, maybe it's just a little bit more water or protein or sleep. Maybe it's less stress or more movement and recovery. Maybe it's simply asking you to slow down long enough to give yourself a chance to listen. Thank you so much for spending part of your day with me today. If today's episode encouraged you, I hope you'll share it with a friend because I think every one of us knows someone who's been saying, I am just so tired lately. And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe so you never miss a wellness reset Thursday episode. Of course, this Saturday will be all about passion, purpose, and identity. And if you would like more practical wellness tips, encouragement, and a community of women who are learning to care for themselves from the inside out and become who they are meant to become. Come join us inside our free limitless living Facebook community. The link is in the show notes. And remember, your body isn't working against you, it is talking to you, learn to listen. And until next time, be rooted, be resilient, and be limitless.