Debbie Potts: Healing From Burnout And Adopting A Whole-istic Approach To Health And Endurance Performance

I welcome my frequent podcast guest from the Primal Endurance show, Debbie Potts of Bellevue, WA. Debbie is a coach, podcast host, and personal trainer who operates an evolved personal training facility in her town. She is a former elite level amateur ironman triathlete who destroyed her health from an overly ambitious approach to extreme endurance training. Since abruptly leaving the race course back in 2013, Debbie has been on a passionate quest to regain her health, lead a healthy and balanced lifestyle, and share her carefully considered approach with others. She is a devoted student of evolved athletic training methods, advanced recovery techniques, and the worlds of functional nutrition and holistic healing. Debbie delivers an extremely important message, having been there and done that with burning the candle at both ends in life. The WHOLEistic method helps you expand your horizons from the ill-fated Type AAA approach to life to increase attention to sleep, rest, recovery, downtime, stress management, healthy eating, and a sensible approach to exercise.  

In this fast-moving show, we give you a general exposure to some of the particulars in the WHOLEistic method, setting Debbie up for future appearances to help you go deeper into potentially life-changing practices and habit modifications. You’ll learn about the healthy balance between the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system function. Today we are extremely out of balance with sympathetic stimulation such that we are either wired on adrenaline (racing through a hectic day running on fumes and not sleeping well) or experiencing a burnout situation where you are exhausted, craving sugar, storing fat, and experiencing poor immune function.  

In this show, we focus on three elements of the WHOLEistic method:  

Sleep: power down your cell phone, disable those dings and alerts and get some sleep! Napping and restorative activities activate the parasympathetic system. Important to switch on and off during hectic days! 

Focus: Avoid multitasking, as this increases stress and reduces productivity. Correct your tendencies to respond constantly to emails, navigate between a zillion windows on your screen, or even talk on the phone while making a recipe or rushing out of the house for a busy day. 

Eat: We talk plenty about which foods and healthy and which aren’t, but creating a calm, relaxing, low-stress mealtime is critical as well. It’s critical to be in a relaxed, parasympathetic state to allow your stomach acids to work efficiently. If you get gas, bloating, cramping or other issues during meals, make a better effort to enjoy relaxing and leisurely meals.  

TIMESTAMPS:
Debbie has a history that includes Ironman competition and then having to learn a hard lesson about not paying attention to the stress on her body. [03:33]

Everyone in the society is dealing similar problems of trying to improve performance and risking burnout. [11:05]

The world of functional nutrition presents some differences from some information that is out there. [13:45]

From champion world athlete, Debbie crashed!! What happened? [17:27]

There are a lot of times thinking the athletic experience is a stress relief from the other forms of stress in life. [20:25]

It's tough to embrace the idea that doing less work can and will make you faster.
[23:11]

Can you still be in the Ironman community if you are not racing yourself? [25:18]

It is truly the most dangerous state to be in because we don't have any awareness that we're burning the candle at both ends until the flame burns out. [28:38]

How do we reset and reboot? [30:17]

What are the symptoms you might see with clients who are stressed? [32:43]

If you are engaging deep diaphragmatic breath, it is physically impossible for you to be stressed. [35:30]

It’s important to learn to manage your competitive personality. [38:54]

Today we have constant distractions, multitasking and addiction to buisiness that we have lost the ability to slow down, be present, focus and enjoy the moment. [42:09]

Sleep is so important. You must limit your computer and phone use. [44:27]

The use of phones can make or break your life balance. [48:02]

Are you relaxed so you can support your digestion system? [52:57]

If your HRV score is high, it is not necessarily an indication of health. [01:01:03]

Multitasking causes stress. Better make to do list and put things out of sight.
[1:04:13]

Rather than take medication, look for the root cause of your health problem.
[1:11;05]