Lack of energy is one of the most common problems people have in their day-to-day life. Many people complain of just feeling drained. It’s because they are working too hard and aren’t sleeping enough. But in addition to that, it has to do with the way they are fueling their bodies.
Here we are going to describe seven simple shifts that can make a profound difference in the way that you feel, in your vitality and energy levels, so that you can meet the demands of your day and help you accomplish your goals.
Start your day with protein
Eat protein for breakfast. Definitely don’t skip breakfast, which is a common mistake that a lot of people make, and do not eat refined or processed foods. You don’t want to eat things like cereals, bagels or anything like that because those things are quickly digested, they spike and then they crash your energy levels.
Instead you want to look for ways to include protein in your diet and the most ideal way is to have some egg whites or egg omelet with some vegetables such as spinach or asparagus. In that way you are starting out with a really solid meal.
This type of breakfast is not going to give you energy right out of the gate, but you are going to get the type of energy that will last for hours. Whereas if you eat carbohydrate you are going to crash and burn within an hour or two.
Drink plenty of water
Dehydration can make you feel fatigued and lead to muscle exhaustion, and what unfortunately a lot of people do when they are tired, is that they drink more coffee or tea rather than water.
Every time you feel a little bit hungry or tired, get into the habit of pouring yourself a glass of water and having that first. In this way you can build in increasing amounts of water into your day and over the course of time you will find that it will absolutely help you feel better, have greater energy and it will oxygen your body in a more thorough way.
Do not skip meals
Skipping meals not only is bad for your energy level, but it’s also really bad for your cognition. Your body needs a certain amount of fuel in order to operate optimally and without eating, you are not giving it.
Coffee won’t make a difference, it won’t substitute for food and neither will candy bars or refined foods like cookies that people often eat when they are skipping meals. Plan ahead and make sure that you execute at least three meals a day.
Plan and execute a 4 o’clock snack
Many people have about a four hour gap between breakfast and lunch. But many more hours can pass between lunch and dinner. That’s an awfully long time for your brain and your body to go without any nourishment whatsoever.
What can be even as bad, is having something refined and sugary like cookies at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, which is also what people often do in order to get a quick fuel to help them “feeling better”. But in reality it’s not really helping them.
You want to plan beforehand for a 4 o’clock snack that’s balanced. Think of things like apples, bananas, carrots, nuts mix, etc.
Reduce the amount of sugar in your diet
This is a big mistake a lot people make. They forget to eat, they skip meal or they don’t have time to plan an appropriate balanced meal, so their substitutes consist of refined, processed and sugary food that will help them boost their energy in the short term, but it’s going to crash them down shortly thereafter.
It is not great for optimal energy levels and it will leave them feeling depleted. The first thing to do is to assess how much sugar is in your diet right now. And it’s not just the obvious sources like table sugar in your coffee, but it’s also candy, cookies and cakes.
Also juices contain a large amount of sugar. You might think that you are doing a good thing for yourself by making a fruit smoothie, but if that blended fruit smoothie doesn’t have protein powder of flaxseeds at all, it’s like drinking concentrated sugar.
Exercise
Exercise is a wonderful way to slowly and systematically build your energy reserves. It will also help you manage your anxiety and your stress level much better. And if you have a mood disorder, exercise has shown to be wonderful and even better than antidepressants to helping you manage your mood. It helps to oxygenate your blood and in that way you get more oxygen into your brain and every cell of your body.
Sleep
So simple, but so many people do not get adequate sleep. You must get somewhere between 6 to 8 hours of good sleep every night. Ideally you want to fall asleep before midnight, because that’s when you get the most quality sleep and you want to create an environment in your bedroom where you can get a sound night’s sleep.
If you are really exhausted and you’ve tried everything else and you are still feeling tired, the one mineral that is the quintessential nutrient to help you boost your energy levels in a very fundamental way is magnesium.
Magnesium can be found in fruits and vegetables, whole grains and nuts.
There you have it, a very easy way to make small shifts in your habits and in your lifestyle to help you achieve your health goals. Rather than first reaching for some sort of medication or some sort of artificial stimuli, you can make small changes in your diets that will help you boost your energy levels and contribute to your overall health and vitality.
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