Where Are You Stuck?

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There’s a particular kind of frustration that comes with doing “all the right things”… and still feeling the same. You’ve tried the supplements. You’ve cleaned up your food. You’ve done the tests. You’ve read the books. You’ve even had moments where you felt better — and then somehow you’re back in the loop again. Same symptoms. Same emotional cycle. Same stuckness.

In Episode 166, Chris from Chris and Filly Functional Medicine shares a powerful internal framework from the Ending Body Burnout Method called “Where Are You Stuck?” It’s designed to help you get honest about where you are right now, what’s keeping you looping, and what needs to shift so you can actually move forward in your healing, your energy, and your life.

Because here’s the truth: what you don’t know, you can’t change. And if you’ve been stuck in your WellnessJourney — stuck in patterns, symptoms, behaviours, or emotional spirals — clarity is often the missing piece.

Why “Getting Unstuck” Isn’t About Trying Harder

Most people assume being stuck means they’re lazy, unmotivated, or not disciplined enough. But in burnout functional medicine (and in real life), stuckness is usually a sign of something else: your system is protecting you.

Sometimes it’s protecting you from disappointment. Sometimes it’s protecting you from change. Sometimes it’s protecting you from feeling feelings you’ve been avoiding. And sometimes it’s simply protecting you because your nervous system is overwhelmed and resourced too low to take on one more thing.

That’s why this episode is such a loving call-out. Chris basically says: stop being an ostrich with your head in the sand. If you’ve been avoiding the thing you know is keeping you stuck… it’s time to look up and get honest.

Not in a harsh way. In a freeing way.

Because in holistic health, avoidance doesn’t make the issue disappear. It just makes it louder over time — in your body, your mood, your sleep, your gut, your hormones, your relationships, and your capacity.

The “Present State” Question: The Fastest Way to Stop Spinning

One of the biggest ideas Chris teaches is the importance of getting clear on your Present State.

In root cause medicine, we’re always looking at what’s true now — not what you wish was true, and not what you think should be true. Present State is the honest snapshot of your current reality.

That might include:

• what symptoms are happening (energy, mood, gut, sleep, hormones)
• what your days actually look like (stress load, pace, recovery time)
• what you’re eating and how consistent it is
• what support you do or don’t have
• what you’re avoiding
• what you’re telling yourself about why you “can’t” heal

This is where integrative medicine and mind body medicine overlap beautifully. Because your Present State isn’t just physical. It’s emotional. It’s relational. It’s identity-level. It’s nervous system.

And once you can name it, you can change it.

Moving Away From vs Moving Towards: Why Direction Matters

Chris also guides you to get clear on:

1. What you want to move away from
2. What you want to move forward to

It sounds simple, but it’s surprisingly powerful.

A lot of people can describe what they don’t want: fatigue, anxiety, bloating, pain, brain fog, feeling flat, feeling reactive, feeling like they’re “not themselves”. That’s valid. That’s often what brings people to alternative medicine, naturopathic medicine, and functional nutrition approaches in the first place.

But fewer people can clearly articulate what they do want — in a way their brain and body can actually aim for.

Not just “I want to be healthy.”
More like: “I want to wake up with steady energy.”
“I want to eat without fear.”
“I want to feel calm in my body.”
“I want to exercise because it feels good, not because I’m punishing myself.”
“I want to trust my body again.”

That “moving towards” vision becomes a compass. It helps your nervous system understand the direction you’re going — which is a huge part of healing from within.

The Question Most People Avoid: What Stops You From Having What You Want?

This is the real work. Chris calls it out clearly: the question most people avoid is:

What stops you from having what you want?

Because the answer is rarely “I don’t know what supplements to take.”

More often, it’s things like:

• fear of slowing down
• fear of disappointing people
• perfectionism and unrealistic expectations
• trying to do it all alone
• a distracted mind and scattered focus
• an unresourceful state (emotionally, physically, practically)
• overwhelm that makes everything feel too hard
• a belief that healing has to be complicated to be real

This is why the Ending Body Burnout Method isn’t just a protocol. It’s a whole-body approach that includes root cause medicine, functional nutrition, mind body medicine, and the identity-level patterns that keep symptoms switched on.

Why This Work Can Feel “Risky” (and Why That’s Often the Doorway)

Chris talks about how this kind of honesty can feel risky — and why that risk is often the exact doorway to transformation.

Risk might look like:

• finally admitting you’re exhausted
• saying no to something you’ve always said yes to
• asking for help (even if you’re “the capable one”)
• letting go of the idea that you can heal while living the same pace
• facing the emotional pattern underneath the symptom
• choosing a new identity that isn’t built on overgiving and overachieving

In holistic wellness, growth often comes with discomfort. Not because you’re doing it wrong — but because your nervous system is learning a new way to be safe.

And when safety increases, healing naturally becomes more possible.

Overwhelm: The Sneaky Reason You Stay Stuck

Another key theme in this episode is overwhelm — and how trying to fix everything at once usually backfires.

Overwhelm is not a character flaw. It’s a nervous system state. When you’re overwhelmed, your brain struggles to prioritise. Your body struggles to regulate. You default to survival strategies: procrastination, avoidance, scrolling, numbing, perfectionism, or doing “busy work” that feels productive but doesn’t actually move you forward.

From a preventative health and health optimisation perspective, the goal isn’t to do more. It’s to do what matters — in the right order — with the right support.

That’s why the “Where Are You Stuck?” framework is so useful. It helps you stop throwing spaghetti at the wall and start making targeted shifts that actually create momentum.

The Most Common Reasons You’re Stuck (and What They Really Mean)

Chris names several common reasons people get stuck. Let’s translate them into real-world language, using a whole body health lens.

1) The challenges are too high

Sometimes the plan is too big for your current capacity. You’re trying to do a “Level 10” healing routine with a “Level 2” nervous system. That mismatch creates failure, shame, and more stuckness.

2) Unrealistic expectations

If you expect yourself to heal perfectly, quickly, and without setbacks, you’ll feel like you’re failing the moment you have a hard day. Healing isn’t linear — especially when stress and burnout have been present for years.

3) Distracted

Healing requires focus. If you’re constantly jumping between protocols, practitioners, diets, and opinions, your body never gets a consistent message. Consistency is calming. Scattered effort is stressful.

4) Unresourceful state

If you’re depleted, underslept, underfed, and emotionally stretched, you’re not in a state where big change is easy. This is where functional nutrition, nervous system regulation, and practical support matter.

5) No help / no support

Trying to heal alone is one of the fastest ways to stay stuck. Support isn’t weakness — it’s strategy. It’s also biology. Co-regulation is real.

If You’re Ready to Get Unstuck, Here’s Your Next Step

If your heart is resonating with Chris and Filly’s style of holistic ROOT-root-cause healing — and you’re done with band-aid approaches and “managing” symptoms — doors open again in June 2026 for the Ending Body Burnout Method. You can join the waitlist here: Ending Body Burnout Method Waitlist.

And if you’d like to learn more about the method in a free, practical way, you can also join the waitlist for the FREE Rewire Your Brain To Heal Your Body Burnout coaching week here: Rewire Your Brain Waitlist.

Chris Bellette  is Co-Founder of multi award-winning health practice Chris & Filly Functional Medicine. He is a Burnout Recovery Coach, Certified NLP Master Practitioner & Mind Coach.

Together with his wife Filipa Bellette, Chris has worked with over 3,000+ burned-out clients in the past combined 30+ years. Their practice is best known for ending body burnout (for good!) in “busy” people with energy, mood & gut issues. They were recently awarded as the Tasmanian State Winner & National Finalist for the Telstra Best of Business Awards, as well as Winner for the Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards. Their work is regularly featured in the media, such as nine.com.au, Forbes and Body+Soul.

Chris’s own passion for helping “busy” people have more energy, calm and connection, came from his own personal experience of body burnout, after juggling the demands of business, family & elite athleticism.

Chris is a Burnout Recovery Coach & an accredited Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) Master Practitioner, with a Bachelor of Human Movement Science. He has existed in high-performance realms of the sporting (think national athlete) & business industries and knows what it takes to get out of hustle-and-grind culture to thriving.