Post Viral Podcast

In this episode, we assess what many doctors, psychologists and authors have found - that particular personality traits can lead to chronic illnesses.

Alex Howard, Gabor Mate, Dr Sarno and others suggest that people pleasers, those who suppress their emotions and individuals with harsh inner critics,  may come to suffer chronic  ailments. While you may not see yourself in all these characteristics (as we don’t!) and the degree to which these factors have affected our health is debatable, we do believe there is healing power in better understanding ourselves. Embarking from this place of self-awareness, our next three episodes give strategies for ways to feel, think and act in a more authentic, expressive and healing way.

As always, these views are just our own and should not be construed as medical advice. We reference a lot of resources such as:

Thanks so much for your continued support! If you have any questions or thoughts on this topic we’d love to hear them via our instagram or postviralpodcast@gmailcom

Love! Stu and Lindsay x 

If you've been in the fatigue community a while, you'll have noticed there’s a lot of opinions when it comes to diet and nutrition.

Low FODMAPs, Histamine-free, GAPs protocol, Paleo-Keto... there's no end to the protocols you can try. But when food is one of the last great comforts in life, it can be pretty gruelling and intimidating to give these up. 

In this episode, we speak through our experiences with nutrition fuelling our health, our four key learnings when it comes to nutrition and ten top tips you can incorporate into your day to day with relative ease. As always, we are not medical experts or qualified nutritionists but we do mention a ton of resources which may be helpful: 

-  Diets mentioned: Wahl's Protocol, Paleo-Keto Diet, Candida Diet, SIBO Diet, Low FODMAPs, Elimination Diet

-  Dr Rangan Chatterjee '4 Pillar Plan’ 

-  Dr Ruscio probiotics 

-  Make your own Kefir, Kombucha, Kimchi recipes 

-  HealthylivingwithJames Instagram

-  Terry Wahl’s ted talk 

-  Bristol Stool Chart 

-  GP tests you can ask for annually: 

Thanks so much for listening, we really appreciate it! If you have any feedback or questions hit us up on our Instagram or at [email protected]

Lindsay and Stu x

When you have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, New Year's Resolutions can feel overwhelming and intimidating. But having a vision and goals for your life, no matter how small, can be incredibly valuable in:

1) Adding a sense of purpose,

2) Helping you measure progress, and

3) Building trust with yourself

In this episode, we introduce a framework that may help you approach your life's vision and goals, built around your daily routine, based upon James Clear's Atomic Habits, Gemma Hanley's framework for achieving your goals and the trusty beaver. Also shout out to CFS Health and Yoga with Adriene! As always, these are just our opinions and should not be taken as medical advice. 

We also hear from one of our listeners, speaking about the reality of jealousy and trying to build self-worth with this illness. If you have a question, we love to hear from you via our instagram @postviralpodcast and email [email protected].

Lots of love from sunny Mexico,

Lindsay and Stu x 

As we head towards the end of the year, we discuss another fundamental part of recovery from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - learning how to pace yourself. 

When your health is so up and down, it can be easy to push hard on the days you're feeling a little better; to crack through your to-do list, catch up with as many friends as possible, and push yourself just that little bit harder. Especially at this festive time of year. We've been there! Believe us... Unfortunately though, overdoing it and moving into a push-crash energy cycle (your body pays for it later after doing more) is not conducive to good health or recovery.   

In this episode we talk about how to find your energy baseline, the physical, mental and emotional challenges of pacing and what practical steps we've implemented as we've learnt to pace. Pacing is boring and frustrating, and no one gets it right all the time. Ultimately though, it's about honouring where your body is at, and knowing it's not forever.  

As always, these are our own thoughts rather than personalised, medical support. If you enjoyed listening and want to learn more, here are a few resources that have helped us understand pacing:  

CFS Health Baseline Video  

Miguel Batista Pendulum Baseline Video   

Active Health Clinic Traffic Light System  

Please like and subscribe, and do let us know what you think via instagram or [email protected]. We love hearing any thoughts or questions! 

Lots of love, Lindsay and Stu @postviralpodcast

"Sleep is so essential but often so elusive..." 

In Episode 3, we continue the conversation on the importance of rest in our recovery journeys from chronic fatigue syndrome, focussing on how to achieve good, restorative sleep. We delve into the science behind that 'wired and tired' feeling that often accompanies chronic fatigue (..or at least as we understand it), our top tips for good sleep, and the sleep hacks we've tried in a game of 'thumbs up, thumbs down'. 

Can you beat Stu's score in Lindsay's animal pop quiz? All opinions are just from our own experience and is not medical advice, but hopefully there's something that might help - here are the resources we mentioned: 

Calm Sleep Stories

Electric Heated Blanket

Eye masks and Ear Plugs

Mouth Taping

Essential Oils 

Magnesium bisglycinate 

GABA, Melatonin, Valerian Root 

Dr Gorminak's Sleep programme

We love hearing from you, so please like, subscribe and get in touch via instagram or our shiny new email address: [email protected]

Lots of love, 

Lindsay and Stu @postviralpodcast x

We know what you're thinking: you’ve mentioned to someone that you have Chronic Fatigue and they say...”just rest!”. If only it were that simple... 

In our second episode, we begin the conversation on rest and sleep; how our relationship with rest has changed over the course of our illnesses, why real rest is so crucial at all stages of recovery, and how we deal with the inevitable boredom that comes from spending so much time lying down! All with a little help from our hairy bear-y friends, and poet Martha Postlewaite... 

As always, these are just our musings and nothing we say is medical advice or personalised! Hope you enjoy listening, and here's some of the resources we mention:  

Spoon Theory 

Eckhart Tolle's book 'The Power of Now' 

James Clear's book 'Atomic Habits'  

The wonderful Gemma Hanley's Instagram 

Plum Village app 

Jenn Piercy Insight Timer meditations

Balance app

Breathe with James 

Hugh Byrne on Insight Timer 

Dorothy Hunt's poem 'Peace is this moment' 

Martha Postlewaite 'The Clearing' 

We love hearing from you, so please like, subscribe and get in touch via instagram or our shiny new email address: [email protected] 

Lots of love! Lindsay and Stu @postviralpodcast

Living with a chronic illness is hard, which is why in our first topic, we discuss the 5 stages of Acceptance, and why they are important for healing. It’s a bit heavy on the theory side (sorry!), as we explore the sum of what we’ve learnt about acceptance over the combined 8 years we've struggled with this illness. It will all get broken down in future episodes! Look no further for the first instalment of Lindsay’s top tips from the animal world and Stu’s own poem ’The Unlearning’. Just a reminder, this is not medical advice, we are all unique, so take what we say with a pinch of salt and listen to your body. We’d always suggest you work with a trusted, qualified practitioner.  Some of the resources we mention:   

Tara Brach: Radical Acceptance and Podcast    

Gabor Mate: When the Body Says No   

DARE by Barry McDonaugh   

Gemma Hanley Coaching Instagram   

Holistic Psychologist Instagram   

Alex Howard Instagram    

Yung Pueblo Instagram   

Lots of love!    

Lindsay and Stu @postviralpodcast 

Welcome to Post Viral. We're Lindsay Vine and Stuart Bryan and in this episode, we share our journeys recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (so far!).  Wherever you are on your healing journey, our hope is that this podcast helps you feel less alone, inspired, and ready to take control of your health. We know how cruel and confusing this illness can be, with endless sources of advice and health hacks demanding your energy, time and money, so while this podcast is not medical advice, we'll be sharing what's helped us and others on their recovery journeys. We’d always suggest you work with a trusted, qualified practitioner for individualised support, but hopefully this can add a little extra help along the way.  

In the episode, we mention some Recovery Channels and interviews that have helped us:

Heal With Liz interviewing our friend Lauren 

Raelan Agle interviewing Miguel Bautista 

CFS Health interviewing our friend Egil 

CFS Warrior YouTube Channel 

Dan Neuffer CFS Unravelled YouTube Channel 

We also discussed Gabor Mate's brilliant book When the Body Says No.  

Lots of love! 

Lindsay and Stu @postviralpodcast