Symptoms Are Information: Do a Body Audit
Trail Notes | Hormones & Female Physiology
Symptoms Are
information, not noise.
Your body is not working against you. It is communicating with you. The more honestly you listen, the more powerfully you can support your training, hormones and recovery.
The trouble is, most of us think we know what we are doing day to day. Real data often tells a clearer story.
Try a body audit
For the next four to eight weeks, track the basics without judgement. This is not about perfection or obsession. It is about seeing what is actually happening.
A useful audit includes
- Food, and when you eat it
- Hydration
- Sleep
- Training sessions, and how they felt
- Cycle phase
- Energy and mood
- Recovery, soreness and niggles
- Gut symptoms and temperature changes
- Cravings, stress, caffeine and alcohol
- Any supplements
Match inputs to outputs
At the end of each week, ask: what patterns am I noticing, what symptoms repeat, what improves my energy and what drains me, what changes around my cycle, and where might I be under-fuelling?
You may discover your symptoms follow your cycle. That fatigue tracks with under-fuelling. That poor sleep follows certain stress patterns.
That gut symptoms appear after specific foods or training loads. Patterns only become visible once you write them down.
From guessing to clarity
This is how you stop guessing. A body audit gives you context for what you are feeling and a clear starting point for change, and it makes any conversation with a coach, dietitian or doctor far more useful.
Symptoms are not something to simply push through. They are the information that points the way.
listen closely, train wisely
Written by the Her Trails coaching team
Trail Notes are evidence-informed coaching journals written for women who train, race and run on trails. Made to be absorbed in ten minutes and remembered for a season.
Go deeper inside Her Trails
Our session with Dr Kirstey Holland in Base Camp walks through this in depth, alongside Know Your Macros.
General education only, not medical advice.
