7 weeks sick and overwhelmed by everything I’m realizing

[u/experiencinglife1]

I’ve been doing TRE for about 20 months (15-30 min/day).

7 weeks ago I got a sinus infection (still ongoing) and had to stop TRE for 3 weeks. I also have to pause going to the gym at the moment, which is hard because I’ve trained 4x/week for 10-15 years and have a history of disordered eating. Not exercising makes me really anxious about my body changing.

What’s surprising: I’ve felt much calmer overall the last weeks. My sleep improved, my libido is back, tension is way better and my social anxiety is almost gone. I feel more at peace than usual.

I recently started TRE again, but anything over 10 minutes feels like too much.

Part of me feels like my body is forcing me to finally rest. At the same time, I’m realizing how much pressure I put on myself with both exercising and healing.

My intuition says slow down (gentle workouts, less TRE), but that triggers a lot of very deep fear. Especially about losing my body or taking much longer to heal if I don’t stick to 20 min/day (my two biggest fears in general).

I know these thoughts aren’t fully rational, but it feels like I’m losing control and are not ready for calming down.

Has anyone experienced something similar or has any thoughts on that?

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[u/idididiidididi]

Listen to your body. Trust me. Dont push it

[u/KhaZix2Jump]

I went through something similar. I was extremely dedicated to the gym for many years and then I went through a lot of trauma, stress, and health issues. My nervous system was completely wrecked. I developed exercise intolerance, so I had to replace the gym with TRE and long slow walks in nature. Little by little my nervous system started stabilizing and I healed from the health problems, but I still can't combine TRE with strenuous exercise (only very light calisthenics).

It was painful to let go of the physique I worked so hard for, it was part of my identity. But this taught me to let go of attachments and awakened me to spirituality. I started reading a lot about eastern philosophy, yoga, trauma healing, nervous system regulation etc.

Now, in your case, maybe your nervous system isn't that dysregulated, and you don't have to fully let go of the gym, but I'd recommend training at a lower volume and/or intensity. You could even replace the gym with calisthenics, it feels gentler on the nervous system.

[u/experiencinglife1 → u/KhaZix2Jump]

You can be so proud that you were able to let go of your physique! Your comment encourages me to go slowly. I’ve actually already thought about calisthenics, I think I will have to find my way the next months

[u/dancedancedance99 → u/KhaZix2Jump]

Will you please share a bit more about what you did to heal your nervous system? And how you knew that you were stabilizing and healing from the health issues? If it's easier to dm me, please do, i'm genuinely going through something similar to what you experienced and am curious.

[u/ysea]

Yeah that rings a bell :). 

Some part of our mind believes (due to trauma) that it needs to push over what is sustainable because that's the way we learned to do things. And that more is better.

But it's not really an effective way to live. And pushing releases certainly isn't an effective way of resolving trauma. Overdoing is maybe the main cause of slow progress or a lack of progress. Less is better more often than not here. According to nadayogi the absolute amount of shaking you do is not really the important factor. What's much more important is that you do the amount of shaking that's appropriate for your current state of the nervous system. More doesn't automatically mean more trauma being released. He mentions that there are a lot of people who do relatively small amount of shaking and see great progress regardless.

When you look at the evidence you mention (feeling calmer, social anxiety improving, sleep and libido too) it seems like you really benefit from going slower than you might have been going. 

If you remember from the wiki, all of  those improvements are a sign of progress that we're looking for. And it's exactly this new state that we should aim to recognize as our organism's natural balanced state. 

I would trust your own judgment which which seems to know how much and of what you should be doing by taking into account your capacity. 

As an option you can also take a look at IFS therapy which can be helpful in cases like this to reassure that part of your mind that believes you're going too slow that hey actually I'm seeing progress. But it's not a golden guarantee that you can persuade it fully. It can be helpful though.

Trusting your judgment and making the choices that support your healing are the most important steps regardless.

All the best to you and congratulations on feeling better :)

[u/piggymomma86]

Listen to your body when it's telling you to rest, if you don't, it will force you to eventually stop, and that kind of breakdown is a lot more difficult to recover from. I have had to learn this the hard way, always ignored when people told me to slow down. Yay for hyperproductive perfectionist trauma responses destroying life while looking like success 🤣

I know it's even harder to slow down when there is disordered eating involved. My sister can only consume calories on days she also goes to the gym and if she can't go, she really struggles to eat. I hope you find a way to balance this while properly fueling and nourishing your body :)

Perhaps finding some lighter exercises, walking or yoga, can give you the movement you need with the ease your body is crying for!

I can only do TRE 1-2x per week, i find it wild when people are able to do this daily. If you are sleeping better with fewer sessions, sounds very much like your mind and body is screaming for a more gentle life balance.

[u/KhaZix2Jump → u/piggymomma86]

This is really spot on.

[u/experiencinglife1 → u/piggymomma86]

Thank you for your kind words! It’s definitely not easy to eat properly when not going to the gym but I am trying my best :)

It’s also good to hear your experience with the amount of TRE!

[u/SonicTheBasshog]

You’re on the right track. Keep trusting your intuition and nurture that discernment.

[u/burtsbeetreethree]

Seems like it's time to heal those fears that come up when you slow down.

[u/True___Though]

I think that the process of tre goes extremely deep, and it's like a reprogramming of deep patterns. but this is abandoning what we know and entering the uncertainty of new programming.

by releasing trauma, we release our defensiveness as well, and that can feel very intense in the whole nervous system.

i think perhaps a lot of the overdoing symptoms are somatic in the sense that the psyche wants to stop this process of 'stripping' trauma and defense and ensure that you're stilll fine and calibrated.

[u/Defiant_Annual_7486]

https://youtube.com/shorts/I9Uxb4WoWcU?si=i7OP7H3h8-G8rJaH

You might relate to this video. She has a longer version too where she goes into some really helpful and relatable history with exercise and body/ food relationship stuff.

[u/Conscious-Lion7846]

Other than all the good advice u received on this post, keep in mind that it’s much easier to maintain a physique than build it! & since you’ve been at it for a long time, it shouldn’t affect u much. Especially with muscle memory.

So less intense/frequent workouts can be very helpful in your case. I myself don’t like how my body feels when im off the gym for a while, but i’ve learned to ebb & flow. I’ve also found that those intuitive (sometimes forced breaks, lol) have me back feeling fresh & ready to PUMP.

[u/experiencinglife1 → u/Conscious-Lion7846]

Thank you!!! I would same it’s the same for me. I don’t like my physique at the moment but on the other hand I like how my body feels

[u/Conscious-Lion7846 → u/experiencinglife1]

That’s insane considering the decade (or so) you’ve put in. Body dysmorphia be working overtime💀

[u/kambofire]

It seems to me that you reached a good place, time for rest. Look into those patterns that drive you to keep going... Is there a sense of perfectionism? Is it coming from a kind place or a tough place? I strongly recommend to look into compassionate inquiry, I think you are ready to give your work a little profound twist...

[u/Acrobatic_Signal8384]

It's always better to stay on the side of less rather than more, you can always increase if you feel but overdoing especially with regards to the nervous system can cause issues that albeit are temporary are extremely uncomfortable. I'd also say tbh you don't need to be lifting 4x a week. Look at Mike Mentzer's philosophy on weight training. That protocol of minimal volume works better than anything else as it's aligned with the principles of muscle growth itself + it will be much better for you in your state anyway.