Primi, secondi and an ironman on the side
Author: Verstaen Mike, Founder, ex-military recon.
Chronicles of Tiredness
Some time ago I read an article about the growing number of chronically tired people in our Western culture. My urge to dig into the possible causes immediately kicks into high gear, full speed in third gear. Easy, Mike, easy. Take a deep breath in and out.
Fatigue, a symptom of an underlying cause, our body trying to tell us something. Looking broadly is something I was always taught in my training — don't jump straight into the classic discourse. Take a look at the neighbors, or even further away. Cross-cultural research has always fascinated me too, learning from other cultures. How do they experience this, do they even show signs of chronic fatigue at all?
What I noticed in myself, for quite a long time actually, is that I often felt a bit tired throughout the day, as if it was always lingering in the background, never a hundred percent fit. At some point you start thinking, this must just be normal, right? Until I started digging a bit deeper into my diet — what was I eating, how often, and at what times?
This guy looks Tired!! Meet Sander, one of the founders
The oatmilk elitarian
For me it started with coffee, for example. Oh so tasty, yes, a nice cappuccino with oat milk, hashtag the oat milk elite, funny little book by the way! What's actually in that stuff — often three percent oats and the rest is water and a LOT of additives, E-numbers galore! And the coffee, well, the coffee stays delicious of course, but for some people it's really a bomb on the stomach. And apart from that, of course, the buildup of our caffeine tolerance. More and more, until you turn out to be chronically tired.
I like trying things out, I experiment and see what it does to me or to my environment. I decided to quit coffee — not easy when you live in a busy city with a barista spot on pretty much every corner. Failed a few times, of course...
Switched to decaf for a bit, oh yeah, that's nice. Decaf every now and then. Still just as bad for your teeth, but hey, YOLO. Now, about three months in I think, and yes, you guessed it, a little less trouble with that fatigue. And bonus point, my teeth are getting whiter again, score!
The first step had been taken — nutrition — time to put it under the magnifying glass a bit more.
Oatmilk is Lifeee, or water?
Mike, one of the founders- Young and hungry !
Intermittent Living, hell yeah!
I got hooked on a book about intermittent living, lots of concepts described in it that I already knew from way back, back in the days in the military haha. Except now it has a cool name of course, hashtag labelingislife. Still pretty cool to read more about it. And of course to try it out.
Yes, definitely, the fatigue is really a lot less. I started experimenting with fasting, a kind of reset for your stomach and intestines, or so it seemed to me. But also for your immune system?? New info for me, despite four years of college and two years of university ,or maybe I just wasn't always paying attention :). But every time you eat, and so take in food, your immune system kicks into gear — makes sense, right, because they're bacteria that aren't from your own body and you're basically welcoming them into your own harem. Meanwhile I keep exploring more and more, first did a 16:8, then a 17:6 or even 18, but I don't work well with extremes, or I often do, but that's not good for me. So now I'm trying to become more aware of my body, of the hunger signal, and then ignoring it for a bit.
Now I'm on a daily 16:8 and this works great. No more trouble with constipation, no fatigue or much less anyway, and above all, my hunger is back!
Because that's something I had been missing for a long time, that gnawing feeling of being hungry, I seemed to have lost it completely. Looking back, I actually find that pretty logical, I ate so often and so frequently, often small portions, but my body, and therefore my immune system, never really got any rest!
To fast for you!
Keep it moving!
Besides nutrition, exercise! Yes, by exercising more often I felt less tired. Still need to keep listening to your body of course, sounds cliché and people say it a lot. But I didn't know how to do that, I never learned it, I had only ever learned not to listen to my body and just keep going, push through basically. But well, I'm not in the military anymore, and listening to your body can actually do you some good.
Alongside this, and a bit in contrast with the previous paragraph, your body also sometimes needs a little stress trigger, a bit of a push, exploring those limits every now and then. Like Sander, co-founder of our organization. Prepared for a very long time to do his first Ironman this week in Italy. Impressive, impressive.