Salt and Spinach

After a wonderful vacation but still feeling exhausted, I tried something new this week.  Over the past month I have been adding more sea salt to my diet.  I have never been a big salt person in terms of adding in to food, and often would leave it out of recipes.  Through some research and thinking about my diet, I realized it is likely I was deficient in sodium because after removing grains (which are loaded with it), I had virtually none left.  So I put it on my eggs, salad, and cooked vegetables now, along with on potatoes.  Part of my research was into adrenal issues - adrenal fatigue and addison's disease.  It is quite possible that I am somewhere on this specturm - trouble losing weight, hair falling out, skin darkening, joint/muscle pain and weakness, low blood pressure, headaches, and the dizziness and extreme exhaustion. 
I have also made an effort to increase my carb load by being sure to have a starchy vegetable (potatoes) at least once a day.  Generally I've been having this at dinner.  I'm not sure if this is impacting me or not, but I wanted to try it.
And the final thing I did was add spinach.  One morning this week I didn't have spinach for breakfast and I was noticeably more tired before lunch.  Perhaps I need the vitamin A or C in there on top of my vitamin supplements?  Not sure, but if that's what it takes to have energy again, I'm certainly willing to do it.  I might even try making some smoothies for breakfast to change up how I'm eating it.  I've heard spinach with some berries can be really good.
So, yesterday I didn't nap because I was working.  We were also having a garage sale, so I did some lifting and moving around more.  I weeded the garden (what I think are weeds) and we went for our normal walk.  I didn't have my 5pm energy plummet and it didn't happen at 7pm either.  The walk wasn't completely draining and at 9:30 I decided to go to bed because it was late, not because I was struggling to keep my eyes open.  What an incredible difference!
I haven't lost any weight in the past month, but I have maintained and according to my scale lost body fat.  Considering I didn't work out at all, this is interesting.  Although I certainly did a lot of carrying and catching of 26-33lb children while on vacation (catch me Mommy!)  I'm thinking my body was doing some type of repair work though, hence the extreme exhaustion.  It will be interesting to see if I start to lose again from here.  I still fit into my old jeans too, this time on the first day of my cycle, which normally would not happen.  And on top of that, I haven't had ANY cramps!  How can that be, a person who used to need 500mg naprosyn in order to function normally?  Clearly my body is doing some type of restoring and on this end of the journey I'm all for it.

Adrenal Fatigue?

After a day with much researching, I think this may be my issue.  With our vacation coming up, there's not much that can be done right now.  But I happen to have magnesium and some other vitamins in the house that I see mentioned on many of the sites.  I also remember the cocktail of vitamins that Dr Hain had me try 3 years ago working at least a little for the dizziness.  I dismissed it at the time, but perhaps taking it for 2 months was just what my body needed at the time.  And then of course I got pregnant again and life took off.  So starting tonight I'm taking magnesium before bed as it's supposed to help with sleep, and everything else will be in the morning.  I'm also going to stop trying to do any sort of fasting and go back to eating snacks throughout the day.  Part of adrenal fatigue is the body's trouble with regulating blood glucose.  I also think that I may be eating too low carb.  So once we return from vacation I'm going to be sure to add in more safe starches to get closer to 100g/day, since I'm closer to 50g, if that, right now.  It feels good to have some idea of what direction to head in.  Hopefully by July I'll be feeling a little better.  For now I'm going to just sleep when I get tired and with my work slowing down that will be easier.

Here's to hoping that this works, because being this tired really sucks!

SO TIRED

I am so tired I almost want to cry.  But that would take way too much energy.  Seriously, for the last 2 weeks I can barely keep my eyes open.  When I wake up in the morning my eyelids are super heavy.  Yet I wake up at night for seemingly on reason and have a lot of trouble getting back to sleep.  If I can resist napping in the afternoon, I am completely drained by 5.  If I give in and nap I'm done by 7.  I can't go on anymore like this, but I have no idea what to do.  Jon wants me to go back to the doctor.  But they couldn't find anything wrong last time, so why would now be any different?  I just want to live a normal existence without fighting my body every step of the way.  It's a good thing I don't have soccer tonight, because I doubt I could stay awake long enough to drive to the field.  I've been yawning while getting James ready for his nap, at 12:30!  I tried eating more food and carbs today, thinking maybe that was the issue.  Instead I just find myself full and exhausted.  The dizziness is horrible too, I can't take it anymore!  Has anyone else ever experienced this?  Thank God Jon is home right now, I don't know how I'd function without his help.

We're going on vacation Sunday and to the Sox game Saturday.  I am praying that I will have the energy to get through the game and then play with the kids at the beach and waterpark.  I've been looking forward to this vacation for several weeks, but now I'm afraid I won't enjoy it because I'll be so tired.

I have to find out what is going on!