Maximize Your Daily Energy & Vitality
Boost Energy: Move More Throughout Your Day
While exercise undoubtedly helps improve energy levels, its impact is limited. Even if you exercise daily, you are likely sitting throughout most of your day. In fact, recent research has shown that spending long periods of time sitting is as bad for our health as smoking and can have devastating effects on your energy levels. Fundamentally, the human body was built to move at regular intervals throughout the day. Movement improves the ability of your cells to produce energy from your food, which fuels every bodily function. It also triggers the release of hormones and brain chemicals that make you feel awake and energized.
Daily Sunlight Exposure for Vitality
If you are like most people, you spend nearly your whole day indoors and rarely get outside in natural sunlight. This is important as it affects thousands of enzyme pathways, hormones, and genes that can all have a powerful effect on your energy levels. Like daily movement, sunlight stimulates energy production within the cell, specifically within the mitochondria, and stimulates the production of orexin and serotonin that make you feel awake, alert, and energized.
Minimize Blue Light Exposure at Night
Blue light is an element of the light spectrum that triggers responses within the body conducive to being in a state of wakefulness and alertness. Unfortunately, in our modern lives, there are many sources of blue light, meaning we are exposed to it at night when our body is meant to be shutting down. Most of it comes from the screens of mobile devices, TVs, computers, and most artificial light sources. Many of these emit high levels of blue light, equivalent to that emitted by afternoon sun on a summer’s day. This causes a great deal of damage to the rhythms and cycles associated with our sleep and waking state and has devastating consequences for our energy. Consider getting a pair of blue light blocking glasses to wear at night to minimize the harmful effects of blue light on your energy.
Stay Hydrated: Drink Water Regularly
Perhaps one of the more obvious action steps, yet a critical one nonetheless. Dehydration compromises the health and function of pretty much every cell and system of the body, all of which can impact your energy in different ways. Maintaining adequate hydration status is therefore extremely important for sustaining your energy. While various guidelines exist, and given the numerous factors that influence how much you need to drink, the best advice is to ensure your urine is a slightly pale yellow. A dark color indicates dehydration, while clear urine means you are over-hydrated, which is also not ideal.
Regulate Energy: Eat Every 3-4 Hours
For many people, not eating regularly throughout the day can place a great deal of extra stress (as if you don’t have enough already) on the body. Stress and energy are at opposite ends of the spectrum; the more you lower levels of chronic stress, the more energy you will experience. Eating regularly also helps to regulate your blood sugar levels, which is crucial for experiencing sustained levels of energy.
Unlock More Health & Energy Tips
Want more personalized advice on improving your health and energy? Connect with me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/matt.a.farr. You can also sign up for my short report: “How To Double Your Energy & Burn Unwanted Fat Without Having To Starve Yourself Or Join A Gym.”