Do you wake up every morning wishing you could stay in bed for a few more hours? Does 10 O’clock find you feeling like you’ve been awake for two days in a row? Does taking care of simple tasks in the morning leave you feeling exhausted? Do not worry, this happens to many people. However, if you want to know how to wake up with more energy, here is how to do it.
Create a Consistent Sleep and Wake up Routine
Your body gets used to a routine when you go to bed and wake up at a set time. When its time to go to bed, your body will send you signals to do so. This will allow you to have sufficient sleep and when you wake up in the morning, you will have more energy. Sleep and wake up at the same time even on holidays and weekends for better results. It’s also important to know how many hours of sleep your body requires for it to function efficiently. This varies but normally, adults require between 6 to 8 hours of sleep every day.
Watch What and When You Eat
It is recommended that you should eat your last meal 2 to 3 hours before bedtime. This allows your body to digest the food while you are still awake. If you eat then go to bed immediately, your body will still be working even when you are asleep. It will not have enough time to rest meaning that you will have less energy when you wake up. Note that caffeinated drinks also cause sleep deprivation. The tossing and turning at night will leave you with less energy in the morning. It also helps to limit your foods at dinner to those that do not take long to digest.
Drinking water throughout the day will ensure that you stay hydrated. When dehydrated, your blood thickens forcing the heart to pump it harder to the rest of the body even when you are asleep. This uses up a lot of your energy making you feel tired in the morning.
Exercise Regularly
The more you exercise, the higher your energy levels rise. This means that every time you wake up in the morning, you will feel less tired. An exercise routine can be something you love doing whether it is walking, jogging or swimming as long as it is done consistently. Working out at least 30 minutes everyday will boost your energy levels.
These are some of the things you can do to ensure that you spring out of bed every time your alarm goes off in the morning with enough energy to carry you through until bedtime.
Get That Important Vitamin C
Drinking fresh orange or grapefruit juice first thing in the morning is a huge energy pick up. If you don’t have fresh vitamin C, you can buy vitamin C tablets to take every morning.
The correlation between fatigue and citrus acid deficiency, has been documented in study after study.
Vitamin C also helps you to absorb your breakfast nutrients better. In addition to eating or drinking citrus fruits, smelling them can also stimulate alertness. So grab some lemon, orange or lime fragrant lotion or essential oil, and put it somewhere you will smell it often.
Have a Healthy Protein Rich Breakfast
Eating a proper breakfast has been preached in every health magazine and blog world wide. This is because food gives our body and mind energy. “A protein-packed a.m. meal helps your brain cells function properly”, says Joy Bauer R.D., author of The Joy Fit Club.
Consuming around 30g of protein in the morning will give you energy until the afternoon, and curb your appetite, so you don’t binge eat sugar ladden, energy crushing foods.
Foods like omelets, eggs, salmon, meats, yogurt, cheese, nuts, and seeds all contain lots of protein.
Positive thoughts in the morning also go a long way to bring up our own energy!
Reduce stress
Stress is an enemy to anyone’s energy levels. So, avoid it as possible. It is widely known that prolonged stress can lead to health problems, but they can also be a major zapper of energy.
So take control of stress early on. Focus on problems as they come up, and solve them quickly.
Combat anxiety and stress with relaxing pastimes for example listening to music, reading, and yoga and feel your energy levels benefit.
Spend some time in the sun or bright light
Spending fifteen minutes in the sun can do you a lot in dealing with your fatigue. The sun is an excellent source of the vitamin D, that is known to act with vitamin B in fighting fatigue.
Further studies have shown that spending time in bright light will help lessen fatigue while at the same time improving sleep.
Top 10 Foods That Increase Your Energy Levels
The best way to boost your energy levels is through diet. Including certain foods in your diet can help boost and increase your energy levels. Here are 10 foods that increase your energy levels.
1. Nuts
Nuts are rich in magnesium, which helps convert sugar into energy. They are also full of healthy fiber and fats that will keep you full for longer. A handful or nuts, including almonds, cashews and hazelnuts, a day will provide you with benefits.
2. Coconut oil
This oil is a great energy booster thanks to its unique fatty acid composition, which includes medium-chain fatty acids. These types of fatty acids are easily converted into energy and less likely to get stored as fat. You can mix or blend the coconut oil into your tea or smoothie for maximum benefits.
3. Salmon
This is one of the best foods that increase energy levels. Salmon is rich in healthy fats, Vitamins, proteins and omega-3 fatty acids. It supports brain health and improves your mood.
4. Eggs
Eggs contain energy-enhancing minerals such as phosphorous, zinc and chromium. The high protein content contributes to fullness. Eat one or two eggs for breakfast to get rid of the mid-morning hunger pangs.
5. Citrus fruits
Fruits such as grapefruits, oranges and tangerines are rich in vitamin C. This vitamin acts as an immune system enhancer, an antioxidant, and helps in the absorption of iron. Consuming citrus fruits regularly provides you with enough Vitamin C, which keeps your energy levels in check.
6. Chia seeds
These seeds are rich in protein, omega-3 fatty acids and nutrients that increase energy. Chia fiber is uniquely hydrophilic, meaning they soak up a lot of water and form a gel. This gel helps keep you hydrated and provides long lasting energy. The seeds are also high in essential minerals like calcium. Just add a teaspoon of chia to your oatmeal or smoothie to reap all the energy boosting benefits.
7. Sunflower and pumpkin seeds
Sunflower seed and pumpkin seeds are loaded with protein, Vitamin B, omega-3 fatty acids, iron and magnesium. All this helps fight fatigue and boosts your energy. Apart from this, seeds help fight hunger, keeping you satisfied for longer.
8. Yogurt
Yogurt is full or Vitamin B, proteins and other nutrients. This makes it a great energy booster, especially when you need to jump start your morning. It provides your body with energy in a healthy way.
9. Beans
Beans are an excellent example of high energy foods. They are rich in protein that is responsible for giving you energy, and fiber that lowers your cholesterol levels.
10.Green leafy vegetables
Vegetables like spinach, kale, tomatoes and broccoli are packed with Vitamins, Minerals, folic acids, carotenoids and other nutrients. All these contribute to higher energy levels.
How to Give Your Brain More Energy
Our entire body runs on energy, just like any of the many electrical appliances that we rely on on a daily basis. Nowhere is this truer than in the brain where our cells fire millions of tiny electrical impulses every second to help us experience the world around us, think about what we’re doing and even daydream.
And if you could find a way to give your brain more energy, you would find you were smarter, more disciplined and more motivated.
So how precisely do you do this? Read on and we’ll look at how you can upgrade your brain’s energy levels…
Introducing Cognitive Metabolic Enhancers
This objective falls under the heading of nootropics and biohacking. Biohackers are constantly trying to upgrade their performance by understanding the systems that keep their body running and nootropics are one of the crucial tools in this regard – these are supplements designed to help us become smarter, more focused and more disciplined.
Unfortunately, most of them don’t have much benefit. But one area that is quite successful is the use of ‘cognitive metabolic enhancers’. Cognitive metabolic enhancers are nootropics that work by focusing not on neurotransmitters (as many nootropics do) but instead on pure energy.
Here are some of the best and most effective…
Garlic Extract
Garlic extract gives the brain more energy because it is a vasodilator. This means that it widens the blood vessels, thereby allowing more blood and oxygen to find its way around the body – and crucially to the brain.
MCT Oil
MCT Oil is ‘medium chain triglyceride’ oil. This is the type of oil found in coconuts and has the ability of hitting the blood stream very rapidly rather than being slowly released. This results in a sudden surge of energy and in the release of ketones – a type of energy source that works differently to glucose and is particularly useful for specific functions within the brain.
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 is crucial for energy and especially within the brain. Vitamin B6 helps us to get energy from the carbohydrates we eat. It is also used in the creation of numerous key neurotransmitters (acetylcholine, dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine and melatonin) and has been linked to brain plasticity (learning).
CoEnzyme Q10, PQQ, L-Carnitine
All of these substances, many of which can be found in red meat, are able to increase the function of the mitochondria. This in turn leads to more efficient cells, including more efficient brain cells.
How Vitamins Give You Energy
Vitamins supply us with energy in all kinds of ways and also help us to combat some of the most damaging things that can otherwise rob us of energy.
Simply having a smoothie at the start of your day is a great way to find the missing pieces of your energy puzzle then and to plug the gaps in your diet and routine.
Specifically, let’s take a look at some of the things that vitamins can do for your energy levels and how they can impact your general health.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is one of the most powerful and common antioxidants and is highly effective at boosting the immune system. If you’ve ever been fighting a cold, then you’ll know what an effect a low-level infection can have on your energy levels and so by reinforcing your immune system you can win back a lot of energy.
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 is one of the single most important nutrients for energy and health. Among many other things, it aids the mitochondria (the energy factories of the cells) in getting energy from our food. What’s more, it also boosts brain performance by helping us synthesize neurotransmitters.
Vitamin B12
Along with iron, vitamin B12 is needed to help us create the red blood cells that carry oxygen around the body. Seeing as oxygen is so vital for performing all manner of tasks, this is closely related to our energy levels.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is mostly produced in the body in response to direct sunlight. However, it can also be obtained through diet if we eat foods fortified with it.
Vitamin D is one of the reasons that we feel so much more alert and awake when it’s sunny and can help us to regulate our internal body clock and avoid symptoms of seasonal affective disorder.