Scrutinise my day and help me become more energised!

[MrsMurphyIWish]

46, on HRT, low BMI, good diet.

Typical day:

Alarm: 4.30 for hour of exercise
6: breakfast and get kids up
7.15 leave house to drop DS at breakfast club and off to work
5: pick up DS from club, go home and eat dinner
6-7: marking whilst cooking dinner for next day
7-8: bed time for DS (autistic so needs a structured bedtime)

DH does breakfast club/after school on his day off (other days he leaves and gets back too late and takes DD to her extra curricular).

Saturdays is housework, marking and making sure kids do homework. Also fixtures for DD.

Sunday is crying in a dark room 😂

I’m pretty sure it’s menopause related but have been on HRT for over a year.

Any advice or is this a life of a menopausal woman with a pre- teen and teen?

I will come back to thread but have parent evening later so hopefully can check some responses beforehand!

You’re only getting 7 hours sleep a night. You’re pronanly tired because your no sleeping enough.

It doesn’t sound like you’re eating enough, or the right things. Cereal and salad isn’t enough to fuel a whole day, including an hour of exercise. I would add in a more substantial breakfast with plenty of protein and fat - scrambled eggs on seeded toast with avocado, protein yoghurt etc. You’re currently trying to fuel your morning on a couple of hundred calories, and almost all carbohydrates.

Ha! I hope my post doesn’t sound like a “woe is me”. This has been my life for a decade now but I think old age is kicking in.

I was 0’8 last academic year but then we had a dept member leave and was pressured into going back fulltime this academic year. I will request again for next academic year. I didn’t find 4 days different to full time tbh, apart from less money!

I do need to “exercise” each day. It’s probably not exercise as what most people picture - its more to help with pain relief.

Yea sorry it seems pretty obvious to me why you are tired….! I would say you really do need to prioritise sleep over exercise at 4.30am. Could you do half hour in the evening instead. Then bed at 9 and up at 6.

Also agree with PP, you’re not really eating the right foods to fuel your body. Higher fuller fat option and protein and less refined carbs. Eggs, full fat yoghurt, meat etc would help I think.

Isn’t it obvious OP? You get up at 4.30am to exercise for an hour.

I think that's a lot of exercise. There's a great podcast with Stacey Sims being interviewed by Hubermann. She talks about how women in 40/50 need to change their exercise substantially.
I have gone from 4 or 5 runs per week to 1 heavy lifting, 2 x pilates yoga type, 3 runs. It's taken a while to get used to this but finally I feel a lot better. The other game changer is that I have a small protein smoothie before exercise. This apparently is needed due to cortisol production in women and again women 40/50 need to massively up protein.

One other thought - what do you do on your commute? It would be an opportunity for an audiobook/podcast. I’d try and use that time for you.

You say you're on HRT, does this include testosterone?
That was the missing piece of the puzzle for me - after 3 months on testosterone I had SO much more energy.

Ah ok. So the exercise is a bit of a red herring.

You dodged the food question I noticed...

Quite! I didn't need to read past your first line.

@MrsMurphyIWish my routine has always been similar to yours but more like 6.30am to 10.20/11pm.

I think you are at peak responsibility years with a pain related disability thrown in. It does get better as the dc get more independent. FWIW I'm 64 now and still working full-time.

If you are near SW London I can recommend a superb endocrinologist who specialises is helping fatigue and getting everything optimally balanced. It will probably cost you about a grand though.

Just having looked at your diet, it looks a tiny bit light to me. Are you getting enough iron and protein? You could and probably should carry an additional 7lb-10lb and be mindful at this stage of osteoporosis.

More detail on your HRT? Has it resolved other symtoms? I've been "on HRT" for 3 years but staircasing up; and it's only recently that the dose has been enough to help!

Split the exercise between morning and evening.

Alternate 25 minutes weight bearing (e.g. Caroline Girvan) and HIIT /cardio (e.g Growingannanas) in the morning, plus 20 minutes with something like Yoga with Kassandra in the evening.

Schedule one nice/rewarding activity for Sunday.

Get a cleaner.

Edited to add:

Reduce coffee. Drink some water and herbal tea 8nstead.

Ensure you get enough protein

Too many carbs and starting the day with cereal will cause glucose spikes and affect energy levels. There's a tv series on at the moment by the Glucose Goddess that has lots of tips to help. Try a protein/fat based breakfast (scrambled eggs with butter on toast) and see if you notice a difference.

Is your pain inflammation based?

Iron/B12/Vit D levels all worth checking.

Your circadian rhythm is off. Getting up at 4.30am isn't normal for humans except perhaps in the height of summer - we're meant to be awake when the sun is up.

Obviously with fire/electric light we can stretch that, but go too far away from your natural wake times and you'll suffer. That's why you feel you need to go to bed at 8pm.

Also is there any protein in your salad sandwich? If not you're not actually getting much nutrition except at dinner, which won't help.

This is your problem.

That and waking up at 4:30 😴😴😴😴😴😴

Honestly your day would wipe me out completely...

This is the second thread I've read today about someone getting up in the middle of the night and wondering why they're tired.

I appreciate you need to exercise/do your physio but going totally against your circadian rhythm and waking up while it's pitch black outside isn't good for you on a long-term basis. Get up later and do you exercises before bed instead.

I feel so sorry for you reading this. I can't believe you've sustained it for years. It sounds totally exhausting.

You need to get up later for starters. That sounds hideous. Get up at 5:30 (still incredibly early) and do 20 mins physio exercise. Get your morning routine done, go to work etc, when you get home do 20 mins physio exercise before making dinner. Have dinner, sort out kids, give yourself half an hour to mark and keep to it. If you really need another 20 mins exercise do it then but hopefully the previous two batches enough? Then downtime (bath, short outside walk, read etc) for half an hour and in bed for half 9?

Any issues with brain fog, pins and needles, waking up and your body still feeling weary? (Compared to 'just' feeling more tired as the day progresses). As it could be b12 related if so- even if you have had it checked, NHS acceptable levels are lower than other recommendations.
Supplements help me when I get exhausted. I dont know which are for what, but I take a liquid ferrous sulphate, b vitamins, vitamin d, magnesium, zinc, vitamin c and a multivitamin. I also have b12 injections every 8 weeks.

A lot of us in menopause are awake at that time anyway, or doing the nine to five sleep schedule to cope with disturbed sleep.

Getting up at 4.30 every day is literally punishing yourself

Getting up at 4.30am and going to bed at 8pm as a fully grown adult, as opposed to a 4 month old, would crush my soul to the depths of despair and exhaustion. That is very dull, what do you do on the weekend? You're losing potentially 14 hours a week of good quality adult time to be in bed at a child's bedtime, you could have hobbies, interests, do you have a partner to spend time with?

That's my critique anyway.

It's winter, we don't get enough vitamin D or fresh air, life has become excessively complex - lots of us are knackered even without your routine and responsibilities op... There is a lot of pseudo health nonsense on this thread, be careful.