High Performance, Chronic Stress, and Feeling Disconnected — Even When You’re “Doing Everything Right”
Reflections from a Former Finance & Crypto Executive Turned Health Coach
I recently worked with Tyr Throne to address a long-standing right knee issue through fascial work. I had already been consistent with corrective training to strengthen my glutes and stabilize the joint, yet my patella still wasn’t tracking properly.
After one session, I walked out realizing I could finally trust my right knee again—for the first time in years. It felt like more than a physical fix. I felt more confident and lighter! It was another sign that I’m slowly reconnecting with my body.
Life Inside High Performance Mode
For years, I lived in a constant state of high stress as a TradFi, then crypto executive. Back-to-back meetings. Frequent travel. Always on my phone, across multiple time zones. Never fully switching off.
On the surface, I looked “healthy”:
Personal training at Equinox 3x per week
Clean eating
No alcohol
No sugar
But beneath that polished exterior, my body was struggling.
I had a viral infection severe enough to require three rounds of antibiotics
My weight dropped to 100 lbs—and kept falling
I woke up at 2 a.m., then again at 3 a.m., every night
Fatigue doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt
Yet because I looked fit and functional, none of this raised alarm bells. I was beyond disconnected from my body, with a chronically overloaded nervous system—something I now recognize as incredibly common among high-performing executives, especially women.
You don’t feel right. But you’re still producing, delivering, achieving. So you brush it off.
Or worse, you hear: “What are you going to do—quit and become a health coach?” Ouch.
How Chronic Stress Shows Up in the Body (Whether You Acknowledge It or Not)
Stress is still a taboo topic in high-performance environments. It’s often framed as a personal failure: poor delegation, lack of resilience, not being “tough enough.” That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about objective physiological changes—no judgment attached.
Chronic stress disrupts:
Nervous system regulation
Hormonal balance
Digestion and blood sugar stability
Posture, breathing, and movement patterns
Sleep quality and recovery
When stress hormones remain elevated, the body prioritizes survival. Systems like digestion, immunity, and repair take a back seat.
Food isn’t broken down efficiently.
Nutrients aren’t converted into usable energy.
Breathing becomes shallow, resulting neck and shoulder tension become chronic—often unnoticed.
At my lowest weight (around 100 lbs), my HbA1c—a clinical marker for blood sugar regulation—rose above the normal threshold. The cause? Adrenal overload progressing into adrenal fatigue, despite appearing “healthy” by conventional standards.
The Wellness Trap: When “Doing More” Becomes Another Stressor
Like most people who want to feel better, I did what many of us do: I added more. More workouts. More supplements. More wellness advice.
Instagram told me:
Eat low carb — no, eat more carbs
Lift heavy — no, rest more
Creatine, magnesium, glutathione
Cold plunges — no, regulate your nervous system first
Each tip might be valid in isolation. But together? It became overwhelming. Trying to “optimize” my health started to feel like another full-time job.
For already-stretched professionals, this fragmented, often conflicting information creates:
Decision fatigue
Self-doubt
Disconnection from internal cues
And most importantly—it often fails to address what actually matters. I eventually realized three things:
What if you need less, not more?
Stress management isn’t always about adding—it’s often about subtraction.Change requires consistency.
One cold plunge or one Pilates class won’t override years of nervous system overload.Bio-individuality matters.
Every body has different foundational needs. Understanding your physiology comes first.
What Actually Changed My Relationship with Stress
The real shift happened when I stopped treating health as a collection of hacks and started understanding the body as a connected system.
I began studying how:
Stress influences posture, movement mechanics, and fascia
Nutrition either supports or drains nervous system resilience
Digestion, sleep, hormones, and recovery are deeply intertwined
You can only experiment with a few changes at a time
Body awareness is far more powerful than most people realize
What I discovered was simple—but profound:
My body wasn’t failing. It was adapting. It was conserving energy in response to perceived, ongoing “danger.” Not briefly—but chronically.
Rebuilding my mind-body awareness and restoring foundational function ultimately led me to step away from crypto and into health coaching, personal training, and nutritional therapy.
A More Sustainable Way Forward: Foundation First with Movement and Nutritional
I don’t believe in one magic solution—whether that’s a medication, injection, supplement, or trendy workout. As a health coach, I focus first on how your body is functioning and how connected you are to it.
That’s why my work integrates:
Holistic personal training (postural assessments, strength, breathwork, myofascial stretching, ELDOA)
Nutritional therapy focused on restoring function and balance
Health coaching grounded in nervous system regulation
Our bodies don’t operate in silos—so our wellness routines shouldn’t either. When we numb ourselves just to get through the day, we shut off our internal feedback system. True healing starts by calming fight-or-flight, not by piling on another unattainable goal. As the nervous, digestive, immune, and endocrine systems begin working together again, life simply requires less effort.
If you’re exhausted despite “doing everything right,” you’re not broken. And if you’re unsure where to start—that’s normal. Let’s chat about a more sustainable way to crack on your health journey, because I’ve been there~
