How often do you wake up tired?

You just slept all night, yet you are waking up tired and no energy. You're exhausted all day long, and you're stressed out beyond belief. It feels like you're like sliding backward. You're trying to climb up a hill and it's covered with loose dirt and rocks. Every step just slides back down. You're making plans, you're making lists, and they're just piling up. It's exhausting, it feels unwinnable. You've decided you've had enough; you've decided you're over it.

Where do you start to fix it?

Thinking about how to de-stress and reduce anxiety can be almost as overwhelming as it can be to just deal with it. That’s why we get stuck.

If you're waking up exhausted, your body's trying to tell you something. Your body needs attention. If you don't listen, your body's cries will get louder and more urgent. They'll start in the form of a headache or a little fatigue. Then soon you feel rundown, and you’ll get some kind of minor bug or cold.

If you still don't listen, it gets worse, your body will continue to send you signals that get louder and louder. It is screaming at you for attention. It is screaming at you for care. Eventually, if you continue to ignore it, your body is going to force you to pay attention. Whether it's a form of a serious illness or an injury, your body eventually it will break down on you.

Your body simply can't continue to run the way you're running it.

All your discomfort is an indication of something bigger.

We’re not meant to feel pain frequently. If you feel like you're constantly battling one sickness after the next, or injury after injury, your body is sending signals that you need to do something different. Whether it's your nutrition, your training, or you just take a break, something is missing.

Listen to your body. Take a minute to figure out what's going on. Ask yourself,

“Why do I feel this way? Why do I keep getting hurt or sick?”

I'm not a doctor but I feel confident in saying you probably don't need many meds. You probably don't need anxiety meds, stress meds, or depression meds. What you need is to move your body in a healthful, thought out way. You need to give your body nutrients, water, vitamins, good healthy fats, and good healthy proteins. You need to move in a way that allows you to generate some positive endorphins and hormones to support you, to help you feel better.

Your body is a machine!

Our bodies have these amazing systems designed to regulate everything from our mood to body temperature to the way our food is digested. However, this system was designed for a lifestyle that is different than the one we live now. Our bodies were not designed to sit at a desk for eight hours a day. Our bodies were not designed to go from a car to a desk to a car to a couch. They were designed to move. They were designed to carry heavy things, hike long miles, and do all the things that primitive people did to survive.

Now that food is easily accessible. It's as simple as driving around a building and grabbing it out the window.

I know from experience that when I plan, and I take care of myself and my body, I don't have to buy fast food. I see how my kids act when they eat it. I see how their bodies respond and believe me the mom guilt is strong when they do.

Even machines break down.

When we continue grinding day in and day out and we don't take a few minutes to take care of ourselves, we just run out of steam. We bonk.

I know you're a fighter. I know you're driven. I know that you can muscle your way through, grind your way through, tough your way through because that's who you are. That's who I am too.

But you don't have to.

You don't have to suck it up every day.

You get to feel good.

You don't have to feel like crap.

When you are not fueling yourself properly, not moving your body properly, not giving yourself the rest and the downtime that you need, your brain doesn't work. You can't think, you get foggy, you get forgetful, and you get sick.

You need to take time to take care of yourself every single day.

I'm not saying that you need three hours every day to pamper yourself. I'm saying take five minutes and take a breath. Take 20 minutes and plan something healthful for yourself and your family to eat.

• If your mindset and your energy get focused in the right direction, your goals and your body fall into line with one another.
• If you're moving effectively, you're going to be able to do all the things you want to do, and still have extra energy.
• If you're eating the right things, you're going to be able to do all the things you want to do and have extra energy.

If you take the time to take a deep breath, give yourself permission to be quiet, you will feel mentally sharper, your stress levels are going to be minimal. The stressors that you do encounter, will be much easier to handle.

So, my challenge for you today is to set aside five minutes to sit, breathe, and think. No phone, no music, no nothing. I want you to take five minutes and I want you to just check in with your body. Listen to it. What is it saying to you?

Is it whispering in the form of a headache? Is it raising its voice in the form of a sprain or an injury that won't go away? What is your body's saying to you? Take a minute tune in, take a breath. I promise you; you're going to feel so much better if you start to do it on an everyday basis.

Let me know how it goes. Share it with me send me a message on any social media platform or snap a picture tag me. You deserve to feel great! @hdtransformtions #selfcarewithoutsacrifice