Last November, a client sat across from me and said, “I just need to get to Christmas.” She said it like it was a plan. It’s not. It’s a countdown to running out of energy and reserves.
I hear this every year, yet this year the conversation has already started in September. So I want to ask you properly, not the way people usually ask. Not “how are you,” where you say “fine, just busy” and we both move on.
How is your body actually coping with everything you’re carrying right now?
Are you waking up rested, or tired before the day’s even started? Is your energy steady, or are you running on coffee and something sweet to get through the afternoon slump?
How’s your gut? Are you picking up every infection that goes around, or taking longer than you used to shake them off? Can you still think clearly, or is your brain foggier than it used to be by 3pm?
And at the end of the day, when everyone else has had their share of you — is there anything left over for you?
I’m asking because I know how this year goes for a lot of you, because I’ve watched it happen for years now.
You push through October and November
You don’t really have a choice — the year doesn’t ask permission, it just arrives with everyone needing something from you at the exact moment you’ve got the least left to give. So you keep going, on adrenaline and sheer stubbornness, because that’s what’s always worked before. And then December comes, and so do you. The cold that’s been circling for weeks finally lands. Or the infection that just won’t clear. Or the exhaustion that’s finally got nowhere left to hide. You spend the holidays recovering instead of enjoying them, while everyone around you gets to switch off.
Then January arrives, and instead of feeling fresh, you’re starting behind the eight ball — still trying to recover from the year before while a new one’s already asking things of you.
This isn’t bad timing. And it’s not that you’re not coping. It’s the day-to-day demands on your body catching up with you — and it’s avoidable.
When your nervous system stays in “just get through it” mode for months, immune function is one of the first things that quietly steps back. Your body isn’t unlucky with germs — it’s been told, over and over, that getting through the next thing matters more than fighting off the next bug, so it deprioritises. That’s the infection that keeps coming back. That’s not you being run down by chance. That’s a body doing exactly what you’ve been asking of it.
So here’s what I’d love for you this year, and it’s different to every other year.
I don’t want you waiting until you’re depleted before you ask for help. I’d rather see you now, while you’ve still got something to work with, than in December when we’re both just trying to keep you upright.
Because right now, you’ve still got time. In six to eight weeks, this season is going to ask things of you that you won’t have the reserve to give. That window won’t stay open — not because I’m trying to rush you into anything, but because your body genuinely needs lead time to rebuild resilience. It can’t do that overnight, and it definitely can’t do it in the middle of the chaos.
Here are two things you can start doing now, before we even sit down together.
First, put protein into your morning instead of just coffee
A stable breakfast steadies your blood sugar through the whole day, which takes pressure off your nervous system — it’s no longer spending its reserve chasing energy spikes and crashes, so there’s more left for everything else.
Second, protect your waking time, not your bedtime
One late night won’t undo you, but a waking time that shifts around by hours does. Your cortisol rhythm — the same system driving both your energy and your immune resilience — takes its cue from when you get up, not when you go to sleep.
Small as they sound, both of these are about protecting reserve rather than chasing energy once it’s gone. That’s the whole difference between September and December.
In nearly thirty years of clinical practice, as one of the only practitioners in Australia university-trained in both naturopathy and biochemistry, I’ve watched this exact pattern play out more times than I can count — and I’ve watched it be completely avoidable when we start early enough.
So before the season really takes hold, I want you to sit with this for a second.
What would December actually feel like, if you went into it well — instead of already running on empty?
If reading this felt a bit too familiar, come and see me. Let’s sit down, look at where you’re really at, what’s changed since I last saw you, and what your body needs to get you through the rest of this year feeling clearer and stronger — not just surviving it, and not paying for it again in January.
The best time to do this is before you need it. And right now, there’s still enough runway to make a real difference.
Teressa,
Naturopath | Clinical Nutritionist | Biochemist
Gold Coast Naturopath, Gold Coast Health, Naturopath Australia, Gold Coast Wellness, Holistic Health, Health Anxiety, Symptom Searching, AI and Health, Google Symptoms, Naturopathic Medicine, Functional Health, Root Cause, Personalised Healthcare
