Okay, one health problem is difficult enough. But when you have sleep issues AND digestive issues AND mood disorders AND joint pain, it becomes overwhelming. Suddenly you have a bathroom medicine cabinet full of supplements and a list of things to do each day and to be honest, no idea where to start.
All health suggestions stem from the importance of focusing on one thing at a time. Take this for your joints. Do this for sleep. Try out this diet for your gut. But life doesn’t work that way. Your body is one system. When your systems fail for multiple reasons, they’re likely connected in ways that only complicate the issue even more.
Where Most People Go Wrong Immediately
The first way to go wrong is trying to conquer all. You pick a Monday and say, “Enough!” I’m changing everything! New diet, new supplements, new movement routine, new sleep routine, plus meditation, the works. By Wednesday, you’re depleted and none of it is sustainable.
But part of the issue is overlapping with other issues. Your sleep is poor because your joints are hurting which means you’re in a bad mood which keeps you on the couch but you’re feeling frustrated because everything requires movement, but your gut is upset so you don’t feel energized to get up and move anyway. So, it’s not about solving it all at once—it’s about figuring out what domino to tip first.
Starting With What’s Disrupting Your Life The Most
So, for now, approach what’s making your life most problematic instead of what health articles suggest you should start with. Is it frustrating you beyond belief that you’re so tired you can’t keep your eyes open during the day? Is it difficult that you’re in so much pain that you can’t do anything? And is it that you’re snapping at your children or boss every other day due to your inability to stabilize your mood?
Focus on one thing! Not because you’re neglecting the others, but because once one area improves, typically others find indirect compassion through improvements as well. Better sleep equals improved mood equals greater energy equals better focus. Less inflammation leads to joint stability and gut relief and clear mindedness. You get the idea.
But this is where it gets tricky – sometimes the “biggest” problem isn’t the root cause. If hormonal imbalances are driving multiple symptoms, addressing that underlying issue makes more sense than treating each symptom separately. Women dealing with perimenopause symptoms often find that supporting hormonal balance with something like Wild Yam Cream helps with sleep, mood, and other issues that seemed unrelated. Men going through their own hormonal shifts see similar patterns.
The Bare Minimum That Actually Works
When you feel overwhelmed, bare minimum doesn’t mean throw in the towel. It means embrace the bare minimum with success! What small change can be made that will yield the most impact? Not the smallest endeavor you can create with minimal impact for your own validation—what’s reasonable! What could potentially be maintained despite the myriad of symptoms people are balancing at once?
Is it going to bed 10 minutes earlier? Is it taking one supplement consistently opposed to 4 sporadically? Is it making sure you get outside for at least five minutes instead of reigniting your entire cardio routine that you gave up on (because everything else fell apart) ages ago? Consistency trumps perfection because a person able to work a perfect plan sporadically won’t help them to regain their health goals.
Honestly, it proves a point! If something helps when so many other things are wrong, chances are you’re on the right track! If after two weeks nothing helps and you didn’t exert too much effort or initial cash equity, then you’d know you can move on without wasting loads of personal resources.
When Everything Seems Related (Because It Probably Is)
Your body doesn’t compartmentalize like doctors do. Hormones impact sleep. Sleep impacts inflammation. Inflammation impacts mood stability. Mood stability impacts stress levels. Stress levels impact hormones. It goes in circles!
This is good news—mostly! It’s good news for those who don’t want multiple things to be treated with extra effort in addition to everything else going on. Anti-inflammatory changes help joints and digestion and brain fog clarity. Neurological sympathetic advancements help sleep and anxiety and pain sensitivity. You aren’t actually combating five different issues at once but instead one issue with multiple potentials.
However, where it’s problematic is figuring out which system needs adjustment first. Blood work helps sometimes but many people get negative or “normal” results while feeling anything but great. Then it becomes trial-and-error based on symptoms and bumping along until things start to move faster in a desired direction.
Creating New Habits Instead of New Tasks
The whole morning routine/evening routine thing sounds exciting until you realize it’s an extra part-time job where you have 47 other things to do before breakfast. No thanks!
Instead, attach new habits to things you already do! Take a supplement with each meal you’re already eating anyway. Stretch while your coffee brews instead of adding another time stamp to your day. Go to bed when you’ve finished whatever show you watch every night anyway. The less you have to remember and enact based on accountability, the more it’ll happen.
And batch wherever possible. If you need two different vitamins throughout the day (unless timing really matters for absorption) take them at once instead of separating them throughout the day. If you’re making dietary changes, make once instead of looking each time through at each potential meal! Reduce the decision-action-making matrix.
If Nothing Works . . .
Sometimes you have to try everything and still feel like garbage. Welcome to the club! It’s unfortunate but reality. But logically it means one of a few options: it’s not your problem, either the root cause; you’ve failed to give it enough time; your environment has changed/really complicated separate efforts; or a doctor’s visit is necessary for more aggressive resolutions.
Your body doesn’t change overnight. It takes three weeks for hormones to readjust again sometimes, three weeks of inflammation before you see any signs of reductions and three weeks of sleep training before any “new you” emerges that would actually help. Most improvements require 6-8 weeks of consistent effort before you’re justified in determining implementation has failed or surpassed expectations (good or bad!).
But if you’ve genuinely given something enough time and nothing transitions, don’t keep doing what isn’t working and expect a new result. Either try something new or get serious about figuring out what the problems are for more resolute success.
The Reality Check Nobody Wants to Hear
Certain areas require medical supervision. Natural remedies work great, but they don’t always work for everything. If you’ve got giant problems/rapid developments or something’s keeping you from living your functional life, see a doctor immediately. The goal of creating health routines isn’t preventative measures but instead something that supports better health with or without medical interjections.
And regardless, acknowledge it’s exhausting and expensive to manage multiple problems. Supplements cost money; great food costs money; sometimes what’s working from all other angles costs money—and there’s no way around this horrible reality. But using money as equity for every solution hoping something works out costs more than being methodical in your efforts first.
Making It Sustainable Long-Term
The routine that’s best for health is one that can be maintained over days/weeks/months—not just days. Therefore, it must fit into YOUR life—your day, schedule, budget, energy levels—whatever. A perfect plan no one can execute costs everyone more than an adequate plan someone can maintain does every single time.
Plus—it must be able to be adjusted as life changes. What works in 90 degrees may not work in 30; what works during busy stressful times may not work when life levels out; what works now with these symptoms may not work when they resolve. Life changes; your body changes; adapt as needed.
Managing multiple problems is no fun but it’s about building a consistently successful health approach that makes you feel better over time even if progress isn’t as speedy as you’d like. Small victories compounded are better than big wins that can’t be sustained.
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