Boost Your Energy Level: 7 Tips to Productivity
Today’s post is by Linda Prout, author of Live in The Balance, the Ground-Breaking East-West Nutrition Program. Linda creates personalized nutrition and lifestyle programs for clients worldwide. She recently returned from seven years living in the Mediterranean region, including Turkey, where she studied local food remedies.
Fatigue drives 10 million people to doctor visits each year. Chronic tiredness blocks our productivity and disrupts our lives. It’s one of the most common health complaints I hear in my nutritional counseling practice. I was once plagued by chronic fatigue severe enough to keep me from reaching for my goals and even from going out with friends. Since no one wants to go to a tired nutritionist, I had to figure out why I was so tired, and how to turn it around.
Fatigue can result from thyroid or adrenal imbalance, a virus, autoimmune disorders, arthritis, the winter season (SAD), too little sleep, sleeping in (no kidding), sleep apnea, most pharmaceuticals and/or poor diet. A good health practitioner can help you determine the cause of fatigue.
The following strategies have helped me, as well as my clients, access high levels of energy regardless of the cause:
1. Drink up, water that is, and make sure its not cold. Dehydration is a big cause of fatigue and thirst is not always a reliable indicator of need. Avoid sweet drinks, even artificially sweetened, and anything cold.
2. Back off the Sugar and White Flour. Nothing zaps your energy like a steady diet of muffins, cookies, bread and pasta. Simple carbohydrates wreak havoc on blood sugar, which leads to low energy.
3. Eat Your Greens. Cooked leafy greens, including spinach and broccoli are a powerhouse of energy-boosting chlorophyll as well as magnesium and B vitamins, nutrients needed to make serotonin and thus to keep us happy, focused and productive. According to Chinese medicine, greens stimulate life energy, or Qi.
4. Exercise and Breathe. Studies show aerobic exercise improves mental performance and physical well-being. A vigorous daily walk, swim or bike ride will keep you physically energized and mentally alert. Be careful to avoid overexertion as this depletes blood sugar and thus energy.
5. Get in Yang* Foods at Breakfast and Lunch. All things, including food and human qualities, can be described as relatively yin or yang. You can click here to read my PDF article on Yin and Yang Balance and Food Choices and to learn how yin or yang food impacts specific human characteristics. According to Chinese medicine, meat, eggs, poultry, fish, and other yang foods provide that get-up-and-go energy needed to get things done. Be sure to choose grass-fed, humane-raised meats verses toxic feedlot choices.
6. Get some sunlight. Fear of sunlight and daily sunscreen use can lead to fatigue, depression, muscle weakness, cancer (including skin cancer), osteoporosis and other diseases from lack of vitamin D, a nutrient commonly deficient among Americans. Your skin makes this vitalizing vitamin only when exposed to sunlight. You can learn more about vitamin D in this article.
7. Plan Something Exciting. There’s nothing like an upcoming get-away or starting a new project to renew your energy.
This post is summary of a longer article by Linda. Linda also has a shopping guide that will help you shop for flavorful, ethical and healthy food and a blog where you can read and comment on articles about diet and nutrition.
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Sun is the best way of refreshing yourself. When I am at college and too tired to do any work, I sit in the open lawns with my notebook and draft my posts.
A very nice article. Thanks for the great tips!
Comment by Abhinav Sood — March 8, 2008 @ 9:29 am
Excellent advice, I used to do a lot of the above points when I was younger, can’t seem to find the time now that I’m older and need to do them.
Comment by Bob — March 9, 2008 @ 6:22 am
All her points make sense. You have to look after yourself to feel better. Regular exercise will also help.
Comment by Technology Slice — March 12, 2008 @ 5:25 pm
Excellent list.
I would like to add: keep your teeth clean. As strange as it might seem, infection in the mouth is a big energy drainer.
Olivier.
Comment by Olivier - 7 laws of attraction — May 2, 2008 @ 12:39 pm
Yes, great tips! Thank you. I’d also like to add that sometimes, our bodies just need a little help to get back on track. In today’s society, we often don’t realize exactly how “off balance” our energetic systems are and how that really affects our energy levels, digestive systems, sleeping habits, and how we handle stress.
Acupuncture is an amazing medicine that can re-balance our energetic systems, so that the causes of fatigue (and anything else) are taken care of long-term. And then adding all the things listed above and in the comments can truly get the whole body working in harmony again! Chinese herbs, when used appropriately and when customized for the individual, can also help to rebuild and re-harmonize someone.
Acupunctures last blog post..Acupuncture Highlands Ranch, Colorado
Comment by Acupuncture — June 21, 2008 @ 5:27 pm
I was so amazed by your tips and i will definitely go out each morning from now and see the sunlight. It will definitely increase my physical stamina. This is a great post. Keep it up.
Thank
Charles
Money Making and Blogging Tips Manager
http://www.resourcesandmoney.blogspot.com
Comment by charles — July 24, 2008 @ 5:58 am
I’m a big fan of acupuncture. It does seem to get energy moving through the body. Another less expensive strategy for moving energy using the acupuncture points is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). I have been using this more and more for helping my clients with pain, boosting energy, in dealing with depression, breaking food addictions, sugar cravings…
It’s an amazing tool. If I feel a little draggy when I head out to exercise, I do a couple rounds of EFT on fatigue or dragging energy and feel instantly revived. The exercise does the rest.
The EFT web site offers a free download showing how to do it. It’s helpful to have someone walk you through it your first time, but the download makes it possible to learn this energy medicine technique for free. No waiting for appointments with this; it’s instant.
Check it out.
EFT site: http://www.emofree.com/
Comment by Linda Prout — July 25, 2008 @ 7:31 am
I agree with Linda – EFT is a terrific tool that I often encourage my patients to use along with their acupuncture treatments. Acupuncture addresses one’s core constitution by bringing one’s systems back to balance physiologically – the tonification or sedation of the systems with the acupuncture points will cause appropriate shifts in the nervous, endocrine, circulatory, etc systems. On the other hand, EFT deals with thought patterns and cannot affect one’s physiology in the same way. Thus, I personally believe that it’s not an either or presentation of acupuncture or EFT, but a synergistic relationship of affecting the physical systems and one’s mind’s thought patterns.
I believe the emofree.com site has changed a bit and you need to submit your email address for the manual, but a patient told me that it isn’t an immediate download like it used to be. I’ve found a great site that provides a synopsis of the technique that I’d like to share: http://www.yangtown.com/inner-game/how-to-overcome-any-fear-in-minutes-using-eft/
Again, great tips in this post and there are many ways to safely and naturally boost one’s energy!
Acupunctures last blog post..Acupuncture Centennial, Colorado
Comment by Acupuncture — July 27, 2008 @ 6:32 pm
Thanks for the killer Tips! I’m sure I can learn a thing or two from this. It is amazing how easily we can overlook simple things until someone points ‘em out… Cheers! Nadeesha.
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Comment by ROCKFUSE - Make Money Blogging — August 18, 2008 @ 5:07 am
I’d like to throw in having an apple as a way to boost energy. It works for me at least. If I’m feeling tired in the afternoon, I just go get an apple, and I’m good to go for the rests of the day.
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Comment by Gary Ruplinger — October 9, 2008 @ 8:46 am