Blogging Burnout. Makes you just want to go bbuurrrnnnnnn in the school playground with your friends after a bad one-liner. But, because we’re not on the playground you’re going to have to imagine that totally happened that way ok? You’re the best!
Let’s start off this awesome tale at the start of 2013 — Que in way more wedding bookings than we’d ever had before {woohoo} and way more website work than we’ve ever had at once {woohoo} and then — a Book Deal. *Gasp* I know, I know a book deal on top of it all! What was a girl to do? Load up on caffeine and watch the Hobbit: Part 1 on Re-Run about a million times to get through the websites, lots of emails, photographing and writing the book. Then Boom we moved, shot lots of engagement sessions {really pretty ones} and the shot a TON of weddings {really pretty, fun ones}. This also meant lots and lots of coffee, not as much water and crazy eating schedules.
By the time we finished our last wedding of 2013 {in December}, my brain was fried. We ended the year on a bang, my sister ran the photo booth and we Mr. POAB and I pretty much destroyed that wedding {ok so we’re kind of violent with our terminology — I work with Mr. POAB and my Sister so it fits/works!}. So with the crazy year behind us + the Holidays I kind of just fizzled out. It wasn’t pretty. I was a slug, I was pretty freaking burnt. Like to-a-crisp-burnt. I didn’t want to blog, didn’t want to take pictures, I just wanted to read on my little corner of the couch.
About two days before New Year I snapped out of my brain-melt-down really took stock of my symptoms. Not waking up right away in the morning — literally it could take an hour for me to wake up, needing naps constantly, darker circles under my eyes, I was dehydrated and not my normal “natural” chipper self. Not to mention I was sneezing all.the.time. Literally I’d have a few sips of decaf at night and I’d be like sneezy from the seven dwarfs {insert short joke here!}
I figured out from my awesome reasoning skills that a mix of coffee and stress we’re the cause of my issues. More the stress started everything and then the coffee just made it WAY worse than it already was.
So New Years Day I gave up coffee cold turkey, and here we are 17 days later. I’m wicked happy to say that I wake up now and I’m awake. My tired spells in the afternoon aren’t lasting as long and I can make it through without napping if I don’t have time to. The skin under my eyes looks a-mazing. I’m pretty much my normal hyperactive, chipper self and I’m not one of the seven dwarfs anymore. And I don’t have blogger burnout! Woohoo. Back to normal!
So what am I doing instead of my morning coffee? I’m drinking Green Tea and chugging water like no one’s business. I’ve also been watching my carb intake. I noticed during wedding season I gravitated more towards overloading on sweet potatoes and less on munching on extra veggies — so I’ve been way more mindful of that and that seems to be really helping too.
I’m also much more mindful of my work schedule and working on “office hours” and not stressing out over the little things. The more I stress, the more I think I need to keep working which means I need coffee to stay up and it’s a wicked icky cycle. I’m also working on doing more yoga and giving myself a break in the afternoon to recharge.
So why did I just tell you my long winded story? Because paleo cures a lot and I mean a lot of things — but sometimes it isn’t just paleo that will cure everything {like we want it to}. You might need to look into the rest of your eating habits or just habits in general that you don’t think about applying to paleo if something still isn’t right. Even after being paleo for a while, you might notice that you need to re-adjust things again. And that’s totally fine, it’s actually awesome. And that’s totally normal. Just because you’ve been paleo for so many years doesn’t mean you don’t need to keep evaluating how you + your body are feeling.
So when you’ve got some downtime just check in with yourself. Say hi, make sure you guys are still friends and you’re not fighting each other like I was with my body. And if you are fighting with your body, figure out the why and fix it!
And that concludes my awesome story. Leave me a comment with your thoughts or if you have questions!
xo
Liz-
P.S. I’m in no way saying you have to give up coffee — that’s what’s working for me. It might not be what works for you, so do what your body needs!
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