If there’s one aspect of our lifestyles that impacts us all, it is our energy levels. The world is obsessed with improving its energy levels. Go to your local store and you will see a number of supplements that are being promoted as energy boosting, with many added to foods and soft drinks, but there’s very little scientific evidence that a lot of them work. When it comes to energy levels, we’ve got to take a more holistic approach to boosting it. What are the keys?
Be Aware of Certain Supplements
Supplementation exists to supplement an already healthy diet and lifestyle. There’s plenty of research being conducted on drugs like tesofensine and have found that it can boost energy levels by increasing neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine, but we should not put all our eggs in one basket with regards to supplementing our energy levels. A very good example is caffeine. Caffeine is often touted as the ideal solution to a slump in energy. But we have to be cautious in how we use it. There are people who can consume coffee after coffee without it affecting them, but others can experience the famous jitters.
Coffee is not something that increases your energy levels but rather inhibits something known as adenosine, which is a hormone in your body that increases throughout the day and causes a feeling of tiredness, which is why adenosine peaks at the point just before you go to sleep. There are benefits to having caffeine supplements, but you’ve got to be judicious in your use. There are caffeine supplements that can give you that energy hit without the jitters, but you’ve got to be very cautious, especially if you come to rely on it as a way to boost your energy because your lifestyle causes you energy slumps, which brings us nicely to the next point.
Look at How Much You Overwork
We all feel a sense of fatigue on occasion, and lots of people feel it all of the time. In the modern world, we’ve all got to keep pushing because we are experiencing financial difficulties, home stress, or any other aspect of our lifestyle that is contributing to that feeling of being overwhelmed. Fatigue is not just about your energy levels but it’s about the obligations in your life that can prove to be too much. If you feel like there’s things that are non-negotiables in your life and this list doesn’t deplete over the course of a week, you have to set your priorities.
A good example to implement balance in your life is to use the 80/20 rule. Often referred to as the Pareto principle, the idea that 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort will help you reevaluate the parts of your life that are unnecessary or could be scaled back. We are living in a world where the phenomenon of hyper fatigue is commonplace, and this describes a state of exhaustion that can span our mental, emotional, and physical well-being. There can be a number of contributing factors, not just social media or news, but the world in general. It can be too bright in your street or too loud, and when you feel that you also need to work out, work, work on yourself, or any other form of work, this means that you are adding to an already heavy load.
Part of the great resignation that occurred during and just after the pandemic partly came from people feeling dissatisfied with their lives due to being overworked. Many people look for something that gives them a great sense of purpose, but if you are feeling like you are constantly on the hunt for an existence that requires you to overhaul your life, you might want to start breaking this down into a number of distinct components and work on building up a five-year plan gradually. Because remember, change is exhausting as well, and if you are constantly changing your approach in your head, it’s hardly a surprise that you are feeling tired and overworked.
Look at Those Stress Levels
Stress might be commonplace in the modern world, but if you are constantly feeling strung out, whether it’s as a parent or in your work environment, you’ve got to remember that stress will consume a lot of your energy. If we are constantly feeling exhausted and we then go back into an environment that is sapping our energy levels, we’ve got to do something about it. Tackling your stress levels covers so many different approaches, and it’s about finding the right one that works for you.
It could be about leaving your job, but it could also be about looking at the ways in which you handle stress. When it comes to stress management, there is a lot to be said for inoculating ourselves to stress one bit at a time as well as using real-time tools to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. For example, you can slow your heart rate down by exhaling for longer or more vigorously than you inhale. Additionally, look at stress in terms of short-term, medium-term, and long-term. Managing medium-term stress is about deliberately exposing yourself to something stressful and making your mind more comfortable with the response, for example by practicing a cold shower so you can relax the mind over time. In terms of long-term stress, one of the best solutions is very simple: social connection, because on a scientific level, this will stimulate serotonin which will increase our level of joy and minimize tachykinin, which is a neuropeptide found in the body, and if we have higher levels of this we can feel more fearful, irritable, and even lonely.
It’s also worth looking at certain supplements to manage stress, for example, l-theanine and ashwagandha. A lot of people feel stressed, and this has a direct effect on their energy levels, and this makes it far more important and essential to our overall sense of self, which will have a positive effect on our energy levels.
Consuming the Right Foods for Energy
Lots of people look at getting a quick energy fix when they’re feeling tired. In terms of stimulating our energy levels, we’ve got to look at not just the immediate effects but also the long-term impacts of consuming the right things. Carbohydrates are known as a solution to stimulate energy, but the biggest problem that most of us have is we consume carbohydrates that instantly turn into glucose in the body, which means that we end up burning it off quickly resulting in that energy crash. The key is about consuming foods with a low GI (glycemic index), and these include the things we all know:
- Foods with whole grains.
- Foods high in fiber.
- Healthy oils like olive oil, nuts, and seeds.
Additionally, fat and protein have low glycemic indexes, and if you are looking for ways to increase your energy levels without relying on carbohydrates, it’s important to be careful here. Lots of people speak about the benefits of a ketogenic diet which is high in fats and very low in carbs as well as a medium dose of protein, but it’s critical to remember here that if you’re already consuming a high amount of carbohydrates you won’t feel the benefits.
Additionally, you might be someone that needs more carbohydrates, especially if you’re feeling stressed a lot which depletes your energy. It’s about experimenting with what works right for you. Many people feel better when they don’t consume as many carbohydrates, but it’s all purely down to the individual. If you have a very stressful life you need to eat for energy, and you must prioritize consuming the right foods.
Hydrate
If you feel fatigued and you consume a lot of caffeine or you think nothing of having alcohol after a long stressful day at work, you could very well be dehydrated. Hydration is critical because it becomes easier to carry nutrients around the body, but it also has a positive effect on our energy levels. A simple glass of water could make a massive difference to how you feel if you are short on fluids.
Our body is mainly water, which can be up to 70% of our body weight, and while we don’t need to consume liters after liters, it’s about making sure that you are hydrating properly. One of the most useful equations is the Galpin equation, which is your body weight in pounds divided by 30, giving you the number of ounces of water you should be consuming every 15 minutes of extreme exertion. It’s also important to remember that you can hydrate yourself through food and vegetables.
Energy levels appear to be depleting all across the world, and we should all see you later best, but we seldom do. The topic of improving your energy levels is complex, and there are so many variables. The keys to increasing our energy levels are diverse because we are all unique. But these are some of the best places to begin, not just to make sure that you are optimizing your energy levels, but optimizing your health in the process as well.