Pouring yourself a cup of coffee mid-afternoon? Dragging around all day, feeling like you didn’t get any sleep the night before? Getting tired halfway through your workouts? If this is you, don’t worry, you're not alone.
According to the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, nearly 40% of working American’s experience fatigue. Other studies also have found that nearly 50% of American adults complain about feeling tired all the time at a medical visit. While it is important to rule out any serious medical conditions, there are simple steps we can take to feel more energy and it comes from our eating habits and lifestyle.
Find balance: There are four building blocks of nutrition that our bodies need daily: protein, carbohydrates, fat, and water. Our goal with clients is to always stabilize their blood sugar. When your blood sugar is stable and you are eating the correct balance and including all four building blocks, your energy levels will sky rocket.
Eat regularly: We should be fueling ourselves all day long. We recommend that our clients eat at least 4 meals a day. If you think about it, the food we eat turns into energy, and the right combination of foods affect our blood sugar… so the equation is simple. Eat right + Eat often= Energy!
Hydrate: A good experiment to do when you feel tired mid afternoon is drink a big glass of water and see how you feel 15 minutes later. Your afternoon crash is most likely your body telling you it needs more hydration, so try and reach for a water first before picking up that coffee.
Eat your fruit: For all our active clients at EZIA, eating fruit is a great natural energy boost. Two favorites are apricots and bananas as they are high in potassium, which helps maintain normal nerve and muscle function.
Eat more seeds: A few favorite seeds are chia, flax, and hemp seeds. These seeds all have an extremely high amount of soluble fiber that keeps us full and satisfied, giving us a longer period of energy.
Get to know your B’s: B complex vitamins are often linked to peak mental and physical performance. Foods that are high in B vitamins include: meats, legumes, eggs, grains, and nuts.
