Top Ten Ways To Get More Energy
Fatigue is one of the most common complaints heard by doctors, but even for healthy people, the one thing everyone seems to want and need more of is energy.
Sure, you can pop a pill or use an energy drink, but that’s a short term solution at best. How can you create a more energized metabolism and increase your sense of energy? Welcome to today’s Top Ten List.
Top Ten Ways To Get More Energy
1. Improve your sleeping habits. Look at the quantity, quality and consistency of your sleeping habits. Although everyone is a little different, chances are you do need the proverbial 8 hours of sleep per night. While many people can get by on less, if you’re trying to increase energy during the day, you really have no choice but to respect your body’s requirement for sleep and strive to meet that every night. The quality of sleep is important, too. Create as cool, quiet and dark an environment as you can to encourage easy entry into deep sleep and minimize the chance of being awakened. Finally, as has long been established, consistency is very important with respect to sleep. Strive to go to bed and awaken at the same time each day. This helps to establish your circadian rhythm which coordinates physical and neurological functions in your body to optimize it for sleeping.
2. Change the way you use caffeine and other stimulants, if you do use them. Notice we didn’t say you have to eliminate caffeine; you don’t. But you certainly do not want to overuse it, use large amounts all at once, or use it within 6-8 hours of bedtime. The best way to use caffeine to support energy is in small divided doses spread out over several hours, rather than large quantities of energy drinks or coffee consumed quickly or all at once. Caffeine has a long half-life in the body, and can disrupt the restorative quality of sleep by interfering with the normal progression of brain wave states.
3. Get enough exercise on a regular basis. Exercise is not a lifestyle choice; it’s an essential and indispensable requirement for health. Exercise is one of few ways and best ways to discharge nervous energy and stress in a healthy way.
4. Change your (work, home, recreational) environment. Nothing saps mental energy like tedium and monotony. If possible, change the location, change the layout, or change tasks to keep your mind occupied and stimulated.
5. Resolve emotional and interpersonal conflicts. Air out your frustrations, anger or whatever is troubling you. Nothing deters sleep more then pent-up emotions and unresolved personal issues. Talking it out helps as does writing down your thoughts and feelings.
6. Take a good multivitamin, and take it every day. There is an inescapable relationship between our nutritional status and our energy levels. No diet can provide all the nutrients you need in optimal amounts, but a good multi will close the gap between what you need and what your diet provides. Always take you multi with solid food.
7. Avoid sugar like the plague it is. Few things undermine physical and mental energy like sugary drinks, foods and snacks.
8. Improve your diet. People who eat lots of fruits and vegetables tend to have higher and more consistent energy levels than those who don’t. That’s not surprising, but not exactly obvious either. Add more fruits and vegetables to your diet; fresh, frozen or canned (just skip any product with added sugar).
9. Limit alchohol, stop smoking or using recreational drugs, all of which undermine energy levels in the long run.
10. Talk to you doctor. Yes, last but not least, there are plenty of medical problems, both mild and serious, for which fatigue is a symptom, sometimes a very important symptom. If you experience fatigue, especially profound or debilitating fatigue that doesn’t respond to your attempts to remedy it, you may have a medical condition that requires treatment.
