How to Have More Energy

We all want it and we definitely all need it especially during the busiest times of our lives – more energy! There are countless books devoted to the topic because it has become such a large epidemic that plagues so much of the working class.

Learn how to reclaim your energy back and not get stuck in the rut of just making it one more day. Although you may not be able to apply everything discussed, implementing just one or two of these tips will make a considerable amount of difference to your daily energy levels and consequently your weight loss and training will benefit immensely from it.

I’m going to make it even easier for you and give it to you in a top 10 list, here we go…..

Top 10 Tips on How to Have More Energy

Eating more frequently. The number one tip hands down, if you don’t do anything else do this one. The reason this one is so important is because it is a signal your body is giving you that it is time to refuel. Anytime you notice your energy level dipping either have a small meal or healthy snack.

Eat clean natural foods as much as possible. Of course it’s not just what you eat but what you eat! This should be a no-brainer and you can’t be lazy with it otherwise you will continue to suffer from low energy levels so pick fresh fruits, veggies and more natural foods which are not processed with tons of chemicals.

With natural foods your body will receive greater amounts of essential nutrients which will feed your muscles and even your brain to give you stronger will-power and go harder in the gym.

The right amount of carbohydrates. Taking it one level deeper with nutrition, we’ve all become so accustomed to try and focus on eating lesser amounts of carbohydrates and although the concept is good many of us take it too far. One good rule of thumb you may want to follow is to try and keep your carb intake to between 30 and 40 grams in one sitting.
If you’re a carb fiend you may want to try switching to two slices of rye bread instead of whole wheat as the carbohydrate levels are quite a bit lower with rye bread. Also watch the amount of sugar in sodas, juice drinks, cereal and ice cream to name a few. All it takes is one quick glance at the nutrition label (if you need help with this remember to check out my article – Nutrition Facts Label: How to Read.

The right vitamins/minerals/omegas. If you take advice number #2 above then eating clean natural foods should allow you to fulfill your daily vitamins/minerals but unfortunately environmental pollutants not only interfere with the nutritional quality of our foods (yes even organic foods!) but also interfere with our hormones and how we process foods. That is why it’s a good idea to include a daily multi-vitamin like Optimum Super-Multi Pak and a high quality Omega-3 like AllMax Nutrition Omega 3 or Health Wellness Fish Oil to make sure you have supplied your body with the essentials. This means more daily energy and better metabolism of your foods and of course more lean muscle in return.

Pre-workout Energy Matrix. Having enough energy before a workout can be especially hard if you’ve had a long work day, and trust me on this one as I’m right there with you. Try this pre-workout energy matrix, it always works for me!

An hour before your workout have a protein shake (my favorite is the chocolate milk flavour of Gaspari Nutrition Myofusion which I sometimes do with hot water to make it like a hot chocolate).

30 minutes before your workout have half a banana and a energy mix like USPLabs Jack3d or Gaspari Nutrition SuperPump MAX. Together this energy complex will give you that extra push you need to really take it to the next level with your workouts and only by doing this will you gain lean muscle and burn fat easily.

Hydration. Every biological function of our body is dependent on water for transportation, and yes this includes muscles using energy to burn the sugars and fats in our bodies. So the better hydrated you are the easier for these functions to occur, and if you are exercising that means that your requirements for water intake is even higher. We’re talking about 8 cups in a day, plus 1-2 cups for every 20 minutes of exercise depending on how much you sweat.

Watching your caffeine intake. Caffeine creates a vicious cycle and can really impact your energy levels. You feel tired so you have a coffee but a few hours later you crash and have to have another cup. My rule is that I save the caffeine for pre-workout if I really need a jolt, but also have to be conscious of making sure this doesn’t affect my sleep. If you are having more than 3 cups a day you are addicted and need to cut back!

Quality sleep. Everyone has different requirements on the amount of sleep, there definitely is just the right amount and for me I’ve discovered it’s 7.5 to 8 hours. More or less and my energy levels are impacted throughout the day. I’ve found that the supplement Shut-Eye has just the right ingredients to help with improving quality sleep along with a natural zinc-magnesium complex like Optimum Nutrition ZMA.

Exercising in the morning. I know it can be really hard to wake up even earlier than you have to, but even as little as 15 minutes of exercise in the morning can be a powerful technique in helping you increase you energy levels throughout the day. It works so do it especially if you find nothing else is working for you.

Not over-training. It’s easy to get caught up in training too much and not having enough recovery time especially if you are exercising intensely. The best general rule of thumb I’ve found is intense exercise 2 days in a row followed by one day of less intense or light cardio activity.

This keeps you from feeling lazy on your off-days and allows your musculo-skeletal system to recover and regain the energy stores required to exercise intensely.