Do you ever just feel exhausted and you don’t know why?
It happens to me a lot. I have a tendency to keep pushing on, and sometimes I forget to listen to my body.
Making sure you have enough mental and physical energy to keep up with your lifestyle can be a balancing act. It’s easy to suffer from FOMO and push ourselves from work to the gym, to a night out, without stopping to rest or eat properly. It might feel ok for a bit, but eventually, something has to give and you end up feeling wiped out.
This year I have been asked to be part of the Alive! Blog Squad, and I’ll be sharing some posts with tips to help you get the most out of your body. Today I’ll be talking about how to keep your energy levels up. I always like to think of relatively small, simple, changes that we can all make. It’s easy to say “Get lots of rest”, but how do you actually do that when there are all these demands on your time?
Today I have 5 easy, practical, tips to integrate into your life to maximise your energy levels and help you keep up when life gets hectic.
Drink Enough Water
I know, right. Groundbreaking stuff.
We all KNOW we should drink lots of water, but how many of us actually do? Even mild dehydration can make you feel tireder.
The easiest way to up your water intake it to make it part of your routine. Personally, I try and drink a pint of water in the morning, a pint with lunch and a pint in the evening. It works for me and I can top up with other fluids throughout the day depending on my activities.
Some people like to keep a 2-litre bottle on their desk and aim to finish it by the end of the day. Or you could invest in a bottle that reminds you to drink.
It doesn’t need to be plain water either. Add sugar-free squash if you prefer the taste or try these flavour drops from My Protein.
Take a Multi-Vitamin
It’s perfectly possible to get all your vitamins and minerals from your food, but the fact is that many of us don’t. Especially if we’re on the go a lot, or on a weight-loss diet, it can be hard to make sure we’re getting everything we need to keep our bodies in peak condition.
The Alive! Women’s Energy Soft Jells are perfect for this. They’re deliciously chewy, flavoured orange and berry with natural fruit flavours and are suitable for vegetarians. They contain the full B-Vitamin complex and vitamin C to support normal energy plus Vitamin D to support immunity and normal bones, and biotin to support normal hair and skin.
Alive Soft Jells cost Ā£14.99 (RRP) and are available from Boots and Holland & Barrett and are currently on offer direct from Natureās Way.
Of course, a multi-vitamin isn’t a replacement for a healthy diet, and if you still eat pizza and chips all day every day and never so much as glance at a vegetable, you’re still going to lack energy and feel tired, but they’re a great top up to support a busy lifestyle.
Learn to Control Stress
Stress is hugely draining, but impossible to completely avoid. Even positive things like moving home or a new job can put a level of emotional and physical stress on us that can reduce our energy.
The key to controlling this is to minimise unnecessary stress and learn to manage your stress response. Mindfulness meditation has been hugely beneficial for me. Fitting a short 10-minute yoga session into your day might work for you.
Learning to recognise when stress is part of your problem and manage it isn’t easy, but as this post is about practical, easy, tips, my first bit of advice would be to try an app like Mindfulness Daily. You can program it to remind you to take a few moments, just 20 seconds a time, to focus on your breath throughout the day.
Skip the Caffeine
So many of us turn to caffeine when we’re feeling tired, but over-relianceĀ on it not only means it has less effect when we actually need it, but can also reduce the quality of our sleep, meaning we’re even tireder.
Limit yourself to no more than 3 cups of tea or coffee a day, and stop drinking it by 3pm to give it a chance to get out of your system before you go to bed.
Boost Your Iron Levels
Many women are deficient in Iron and this can cause fatigue.
Iron can be found in fortified breakfast cereals, red meat, lentils and beans and green vegetables.
The simplest way to try and make sure you’re getting enough iron is to make sure you start your day with a breakfast that’s a rich source of iron. Add some spinach to your morning smoothie (I use frozen spinach for this), scrambled eggs and spinach is a good choice, or fortified breakfast cereals.Ā It is worth noting that both eggs and milk can inhibit the absorption of iron, so try not to have too much milk or yoghurt with your cereal and add a glass of orange juice to your breakfast as vitamin C can increase the uptake of iron by the body.
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Hopefully, there are some helpful tips here that will help you increase your energy and get a little more out of your life!
This post was produced in collaboration with Alive!,Ā all opinions are my own.
