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Athletic Women and Fatigue

• December 2010
• Hi Steph Simple Living Vegan

Hi Steph. My name is Sue. I’m a climber and general mountain/desert/Creek rat, and I’ve seen/read about you a lot you over the years in the climbing world. Thank you for your inspiration! I looked at a link to your site from the Chicks Climbing FB page (I worked for Kim for a year as her Office Goddess, great job!), and I noticed some of your recipes are no wheat and no sugar…

Here’s my deal; I’m 45, dealing with adrenal fatigue, hypothyroid, anemia, gluten intolerance, and a bad reaction to processed sugars. I was a highly motivated climber, mountaineer and mountain runner for years, and I drove my body to a troubled state. I’ve been meeting a lot of very athletic women in their 30s and 40s who are dealing with the same health issues, and I wonder about this cocktail of body stuff. The highly motivated, hard core athletic, competitive woman who drives her body too far and it breaks down. Do you have experience with this? I am trying to network with people who have experience with it, out of curiosity and the intention of creating a support network for women experiencing similar issues and concerns.

I have wanted to build a list of gluten and sugar free recipes, and I was thrilled to see some on your site. I would like to be vegan, but I literally can’t right now and support my body’s need for balance and healing. Do you know of good resources about being super strong while vegan? You’re obviously a very motivated individual when it comes to physical strength and endurance, so I thought you might have some words of wisdom.

I know you are probably way too busy to respond at length to someone you don’t even know, but if you have anything to share, I’d love to hear it! At your leisure.

Be well, and thanks for your inspirational way!
Sue

Dear Sue,
It has been a while since you wrote (I’m sorry!).
I’m wondering how you are doing now, a couple of months later.

And I have talked with several friends, male and female, about adrenal fatigue. It does seem to make sense that when you ask a lot of your adrenal glands, that they sometimes max out. A lot of people I know, again both male and female, have gone through a phase of feeling like this, including myself. Sometimes it’s really easy to pin down, after going through an extreme near-miss accident, or a huge physical effort or a rough emotional patch. Other times it seems more cumulative and hard to define, in terms of when or why. But I think it happens to a lot of people who push hard.

A few years ago I was feeling very out of sorts, similar to what you’re describing. At that time, I took DHEA and L-Theanine, daily. I think it helped–I even noticed a difference in mood an hour or so after taking them each time– and I stopped taking those supplements when I felt back on track.

I’m a big believer in overall healthy lifestyle choices, which for me fits in with a simple, whole foods (vegan) diet, avoiding refined sweeteners and white flour and rice, and also avoiding wheat as much as possible. But I’m also a big believer in discovering supplements that work for you (for everyone, because being vegan does not mean you are more lacking than meat-eaters, I think people who eat animal products will also benefit from supplements), and I notice the effects of taking them consistently.

I did notice that when I quit eating sugar, I no longer had that feeling of bonking or blood sugar crashing, and it was a very dramatic difference. I also got less hungry when exercising. When I started to cut way back on wheat, I noticed that my energy levels improved a lot, and I also stopped having stomach aches (especially at night, which I used to have trouble with). So those two changes alone made a big, positive difference in my health and energy.

Right now, I take several supplements to a good, balanced vegan diet. I take calcium/magnesium, B-complex, iron, biotin, lysine and flaxseed oil capsules. If I could only pick two, they would be the B-complex and iron. The biotin’s just kind of an extra, because it’s good for your hair and nails, and the lysine is for general immune health. I take the calcium and flax oil because I’m in my thirties, and doctors recommend those for bones and joints.

Recently, thanks to a comment someone added on this site, I decided to start taking creatine, and I am really happy with it so far, feeling like I notice a difference in the gym. I tend to be a slacker when it comes to swallowing pills consistently, but consistency is the only way to get the benefits. So what works for me is to make a routine of it. Every morning I add a packet of Emergen-C to a liter of water and just swig them all down, and then I’m starting the day with good hydration too.

I hope these ideas will point you in a good research direction, to figure out some things that will work for you. This is a topic where it would be great to hear some history and solutions from others too.
🙂 Steph