Natural Ways to Keep Your Energy Up
Feeling sluggish and need a boost? SuperFoods can definitely help! Here are a 5 simple, natural ways to keep your energy up and steady throughout the day.
1. Avoid Refined Carbohydrates
White flour foods as well as many processed gluten-free alternatives make your blood sugar spike, and then you crash. Anyone out there suffering from post-lunch comas? This is likely one of the culprits.
2. Keep Blood Sugar Steady
This will help you avoid the crash detailed above, and instead keep a steady supply of good sugars fueling your brain. (Hint: Our brains ONLY use sugar for fuel, not fat and not protein.) Incorporate beans, lentils, whole grain oats, barley, and cinnamon into your meals.
3. Raise Your Magnesium
This mineral helps our bodies break down food efficiently into the glucose (sugar) that keeps us going strong. Foods rich in magnesium include swiss chard, purslane, spinach, beet greens, black tea, dark chocolate, arugula, okra, chives, thyme, zucchini, white beans, and parsley.
4. Eat the Right Kinds of Protein
Beans, lentils, tofu, tempeh, nuts , seeds, and the occasional serving of fish will keep you satisfied longer—allowing you to do what you do best—whether it’s running a marathon, teaching a room full of five year olds, or executing tasks from the C-suite.
5. Get Up Every 40 Minutes — At Least
Prolonged sitting wreaks havoc on nearly every organ system of the body. We weren’t made to sit for extended periods of time. Getting up for at least 5 minutes every hour will return blood flow to good working order, especially to your brain and muscles.
Give these a try and see how much more energized you feel. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to have at least 70-100 ounces of water daily.
Sources: Oregon State University, National Institutes of Health, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
