Over-exercising // Are you punishing yourself?

One of the most surprising things I learned when I was trying to recover from adrenal fatigue was that over-exercising is just as harmful or more harmful than not exercising at all.

What is over-exercising? It’s when you’re addicted to exercise and you keep exercising beyond receiving a positive result. If you’re feeling exhausted after exercise; if you’re dragging through the day and if you’re unable to sleep or recover from your workouts you’re over-exercising and your adrenals are talking to you. 

The adrenal glands are located above the kidneys and are in charge of secreting stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline. Cortisol is intricately connected with your liver in blood sugar regulation. When your cortisol is high, your blood sugar starts going up. Other roles of cortisol are reducing inflammation, suppressing the immune system and helping in nutrient metabolism. 

So, what’s the story with weight loss resistance and cortisol? During a short term stressful situation, the body relies on the adrenals to prepare for defending against danger. Blood sugar goes up to provide energy for the muscles and to decrease non-essential functions, like digestion and reproduction. After danger is over, all hormones go back to normal. However, when stress is chronic, when it lasts longer than a few moments and it becomes part of life, whether it’s in the mind or the body (as in exercising excessively), the body reacts by holding onto energy (fat) and refuses to burn it for energy, anticipating it’ll be needed later. 

The moral of the story, then, is to exercise moderately and efficiently and not to try to get rid of the excess calories you’re eating. If you’ve missed the previous posts on hormone balancing, please feel free to go to my website, where you will find them.

The body is connected to itself. All systems in the body are like a fine tuned orchestra, when all is working well. The body is always trying to achieve balance. We need to get out of the way and be in tune with what it’s communicating to us. Listen and you will learn to get out of the way and allow the wisdom of the body to bring you back into balance. 

Please feel free to share this with your friends and family and in the meantime...