Boost Your Energy

16 Sep Boost Your Energy

If you’re feeling tired, lethargic, or just a little low on energy, what actionable advice can you take from a health and fitness professional to get you back to your vibrant self? Let’s put specific workouts and gourmet recipes to one side for a moment and look at some of the other key factors which play a role.

Light

Lack of natural daylight at a given time of year can make a massive difference to not only your mood but also your physical energy levels and mental well-being. Research confirming the links has been unequivocal for many years now. Seasonal affective disorder has had plenty of press over the last decade and it’s worth reviewing your daily routine to get outside for an increased amount of time. It doesn’t have to be blue sky and sunshine… the natural light through low cloud has very similar overall benefits.

Lamps to help replicate daylight are readily available. Whilst the evidence for the efficacy of these has been unclear thus far, positive anecdotal reviews are plentiful and they certainly ‘do no harm’. It’s worth having a look as some of the products on the market which are inexpensive and might make a difference for you.

Sleep

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of quality sleep to your overall sense of well-being. There is no shortage of quality information available out there (I particularly recommend Matthew Walker’s book ‘Why We Sleep’ and Jeff Iliff’s TED talk ‘One More Reason To Get A Good Night’s Sleep) but three of the simple things you can do today to make a real difference include;

• planning your bed-time in advance and having some form of routine you follow, no matter how short, before you actually get your head down. Literally anything can be in that routine and it can be from an hour to 15 minutes… you can read, listen to music have a bath, have a brain-dump, paint, do some origami… it doesn’t matter as long as it calms you down, works for you, and is repeatable.

• The optimum number of hours of sleep varies from person to person and isn’t necessarily eight. This was an average figure gleaned from research monitoring thousands of people; your optimum could be anything from 6 to 10, and you might be one of the few individuals who is an outlier, outside of that range. Whatever your individual needs, it’s important to note that most of our quality restorative sleep (the REM phase) happens in the latter part of our total hours. So even if your optimum is 6½ hours, a regular 5 – 5½ leaves you very short.

Movement…

…as opposed to dedicated exercise can make you feel a lot better. Moving for the sake of moving increases vitality, improves your mood and has positive emotional effects. When considering starting something new it’s natural to focus on set movement patterns like yoga, weight training or running, but the truth is sometimes a walk, some gardening or simply moving around your home more might give you all you need in terms of that energy boost.

Nutrient-rich food

All healthy eating plans which have long-term advantageous effects have one thing in common: they ALL promote and encourage the eating of nutrient-rich whole foods. That is, foods which are as close as possible to their natural state and are broadly unrefined. You don’t need to go on a diet or follow any strict plan to get the benefits of most of these systems. Make a conscious effort to swap refined carbohydrates for complex… add a fresh variety of colourful vegetables to your current repertoire. Choose unrefined versions of the food you currently and eat you will notice an immediate change for the better in your energy levels.

A little bit of what you fancy…

…does you good! Or so the song says, anyway. It’s certainly true that there’s nothing like a strict diet to make you feel deprived and like you’re missing out. I don’t advocate any form of strict dieting. Over the last 20 years of coaching I’ve found it far more effective to work within a framework which allows people to eat foods and drink drinks which they genuinely derive pleasure from. It’s working out how to do this alongside more of the foods which help them towards their goal which is where the magic happens. Any realistic plan  for increased health and vitality which hopes to succeed for the long-term should take this into account and not make you feel bad for enjoying foods that you love, in amounts that can remain healthy.

Positive focus

Remind yourself of what you were doing when you felt at your best. Think about some of the things you did the last time you felt good… how can you move closer to that place? It’s difficult if you’re feeling knackered to envisage those good times but try and recall what really worked for you then. Add some of that to the tips here and there’s a strong chance that you can make tomorrow 1% better than it was today. That’s all you need. A little better, every day, means you’re feeling a whole lot more energised by the end of the week.

If you have a question or would like help achieving your goal, contact me at: https://www.ayotrainingnutrition.com/contact/

Ayo Williams