Naturopathic school was a rigorous 4 year program. It was a super busy time, and I was chronically fatigued for the last half of it. I still made most of my meals the whole time. I would cook about 2-3 days worth of meals in 1.5 hours by cooking in bulk.

 

-2 pans of meat baked in oven (I barely pan fry anything anymore. That would require more attention and thus more time).

-2 to 3 pots of vegetables cooking all at once

-I made a lot of breakfast smoothies with veggies, fruits (I always paired fruits with veggies), and either protein powder and/or flax seeds or chia seeds.  Breakfast may have also instead been a healthier brand sausage with spinach, or a salad.  I had a food sensitivity to eggs so I did not eat them.

 

I would eat the same thing over a few days before I stopped.  Did I enjoy doing that?  It didn’t bother me until maybe the last day of me eating that way.  This part was less about what I wanted and instead what was workable and tolerable.  But another thing that I suppose made this easier was that my food was good! 🙂  It wasn’t like the involved meals I grew up with that took 45-60 minutes to make, because I didn’t feel like spending THAT much time, but it was still good.

 

Side note: I did not realize I had a knack for meal creation until I started working with my own clients.  My ability to ‘not burn water’ as my dad would say and put new things together in a combination that tasted good is something I have realized people struggle with sometimes.  So I often provide my clients with recipes and recipe websites.

 

In 3 days, I’d freeze whatever was not going to get eaten in that time, and I’d freeze it in portion sizes based on how I wanted to eat it in the future.  So yes, that means I froze already home-cooked meat too.  Whenever I have told people this, they seem to have never thought about doing this before and find it to be an interesting idea.

 

Some of this would carry over into next week, saving me money on groceries in the future.

 

Consuming fruit and preparing salad meals towards the end of the week is helpful if you run out of food and don’t want to ‘cook.’ Preparing salads was easier and quicker to me.

 

I also ate fruit, nutrition bars and trail mixes in between meals (i.e. more protein, fats, carbs, and vitamins), and those trail mixes were usually made with dried fruit that contained no added sugar.

 

Now to the low energy part:

I was taking supplements to keep some sort of reserve so that I could keep going – not just for during the day but also to help me sleep better at night because I started to experience trouble sleeping at this time.  Key point: These were supportive of my body, and not forcefully stimulating it like large amounts of daily coffee.  Most of the students were taking supplements or doing other natural therapies at home or around the city, based on how we got trained to take care of ourselves while in school.  Many drank coffee too, but the point is that coffee was not the only thing they were relying on.  Such a rigorous 4-year long period created health problems for some students, especially towards the later half.  But I would imagine that some of those problems subsided the more time went on after we graduated and/or weren’t as severe as they could have been.

 

The recovery after a long rigorous period is another thing people don’t always discuss.  It can take years.  Burnout cannot only affect you physically, but also mentally and emotionally.  Please remember this and try to have patience with yourself if you have recently come out of such a time.  Try to be around others who will understand and be supportive, and you may need to explain to them what you are going through first in order for them to have a chance to understand.

 

In addition to diet suggestions, the sleep and energy parts are key pieces that a Naturopathic doctor can help you with in order to get you through a rigorous period of your life in a healthier way.  Ask me about a special discount regarding this kind of support until September 1st, 2023.