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6 Ways to Have More Energy Everyday

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6 ways to have more energy

What is energy? Energy is defined as the capacity for vigorous activity. The foods we eat can either increase our energy or decrease it. Many of the foods that decrease our energy are foods that you probably associate with the opposite effect. Caffeine, coffee, soft drinks, and sugar are some of the things you might turn to for a boost. These foods, as well as a few others, actually deplete the body and drain you of energy. Instead we should turn to food choices that create sustainable energy for our bodies.

One of the first things you might look to for energy is caffeine – usually in the form of coffee or soft drinks. In actuality, this is not a good choice. Caffeinated beverages cause dehydration which can make you feel more tired. It also causes blood sugar levels to go up and down rapidly which makes your body work harder and depletes energy. You might feel an initial boost but it is quickly followed by downward crash, which just causes you to grab another caffeinated beverage for another quick rush. Another common food choice is sugar – usually refined sugar found in candy, cookies, processed chemicalized foods and snacks. Like caffeine, you might feel a short term lift which will eventually leave you worse off then before. Sugars are found in natural foods such as grains, beans, vegetables and fruit. In their natural state, they are linked together with vitamins, minerals, enzymes and proteins and add to a balanced diet. The sugar in candy, cookies, processed chemicalized foods and snacks is refined and usually extracted from sugar cane or beets. Refined sugar requires extra effort to digest because it lacks vitamins, minerals and fiber. The refining processing strips necessary nutrients from the sugar, so our body depletes its own store of minerals and enzymes to absorb it properly. Emptying the stored minerals in your body drains you of energy and very often causes you to crave more sugar. Similar to caffeine, refined sugar also causes your blood sugar level to increase dramatically and then fall quickly. This up and down reaction makes your body work harder and exerts more energy.

Eating foods that will help to increase and sustain your energy level is not very difficult.

Drink Water

The first thing to do is drink more water. Most Americans are chronically dehydrated. Before you go to sugar or caffeine, have a glass of water and wait a few minutes to see what happens. The formula for the amount of water you should drink in a day is simple; take your body weight, divide that by two, and the answer is the number of ounces of water you should drink in a day. Also, make sure the water your drink is clean and free of pathogens, read more about water in this post – What's Wrong with Tap Water?

Eat Greens

Start to incorporate dark leafy greens like broccoli, collard greens, bok choy, or kale into your diet. Greens are full of vitamins and nutrients and great for improving circulation, lifting the spirit, purifying the blood and strengthening the immune system.

Eat Whole Grains

Eat whole grains like steel cut oats, quinoa, brown rice, or kasha. Whole grains digest slowly keeping blood sugars level and create long lasting energy. Be wary of products that say “made with whole grains,” like some cereals. In reality, most of these are not whole grain because the grains have been processed and refined to make a packaged product. Read more about why cereals is not a healthy food here – 3 Perceived as “Healthy” Foods You Shouldn't be Eating

Natural Sweeteners

Choose gentle sweeteners like maple syrup, brown rice syrup, honey, xylitol, and stevia. These options won’t deplete your body like refined sugar and also won’t cause dramatic spikes in blood sugar levels.

Consider Animal Proteins

Something else to consider is evaluating the amount of meat and dairy products you consume. Eating too much meat, dairy, chicken and eggs can lead to low energy. So can eating too little. Take some time to experiment with either eating less or more of these foods to respect your body’s individuality. The majority of Americans eat too much meat, dairy, chicken, and eggs so keep this in mind during your experimentation.

Evaluate Lifestyle

The foods we eat are only one way that we nourish our bodies. Take your lifestyle into consideration as well. Think about taking some time for yourself. Find activities that restore your energy, such as a walk, a spa treatment, a museum, or whatever you enjoy, and schedule a weekly date with yourself to do these things. Take notice of the times you feel most tired. People can drain you of your energy; It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are unimportant, but it is useful to notice who drains you and why. See if you can transform those relationships by communicating and setting boundaries, or if necessary end the relationship.

Maintaining steady energy levels requires a balanced diet and lifestyle. Using caffeine or sugar to remedy the problem will cause an even bigger problem. It’s important to take small steps to change – cutting out sugar and caffeine all at once will probably lead to withdrawal symptoms and eventually to failure. Try to eat less of these foods, or to eat more healthy alternatives. Ultimately you will be able to eliminate them altogether. Slowly incorporate more greens in your daily diet and experiment with natural sweeteners and different types and amounts of proteins. Each one of us requires a different recipe for sustainable energy. Take some of these tips to make gradual changes which will lead you to feel healthy and energized everyday.

What do you do to help keep energy levels up? Please share in the comment section below!

How to Make Elderberry Syrup

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how to make elderberry syrup

We got very lucky this year and didn't really get sick until last week! We all came down with congestion and cough. I guess the conventional protocol would be to give my daughter a decongestant and Tylenol but I would never use any of that stuff. Running the humidifier and diffusing some essential oils really helped all of us but the thing that really helped us get over it fast was elderberry syrup. You can buy it in the store but its much cheaper and healthier to make it yourself. The recipe makes a lot and costs much less then the tiny bottles you can buy pre-made. Also, making it yourself you can make it with raw honey which has added health benefits. The store bought bottle is made with cane sugar which isn't beneficial at all.

How to make Elderberry Syrup:

1 cup dried elderberries
4 cups filtered water
1 cup raw honey
A 1-qt. mason jar with lid

Put the elderberries and water in a pot and heat until boiling. Once it boils let it cook for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it steep for 15 minutes in the pot. To make this easy, I created a Elderberry Syrup Kit, that contains all the herbs you'll need to make this.

Strain the liquid and pour into the mason jar. Let the liquid sit until completely cooled and then stir in the raw honey. To make it a thicker syrup, use equal parts honey to elderberry juice. Store in the refrigerator.

It's a pretty easy recipe and saves a lot of money! Usually an 8 oz bottle at a health food store is around $18-$20 and it's make with cane syrup, not healthy local honey.

Get my Elderberry Syrup Kit here.

Eating Real Healthy Food…On a Budget

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The current state of our economy hasn’t made things easy for anyone. A lot of us are trying to be smart with our money and make the most of every dollar. To make matters even worse the rise in gas prices has increased the cost of everything, especially groceries. These factors are leading to unhealthy eating habits for many people. Eating well is so important for your health and there are things you can do to make it more affordable.

Organic vs. Conventional Fruits & Vegetables. Organic fruits and vegetables are unquestionably better for your health. They are free from pesticides, irradiation and are never genetically modified. The downside is that they are more expensive then conventional produce. Research done by the Environmental Working Group shows that consumers can lower their pesticide exposure by almost 90% by avoiding the 12 most contaminated conventional fruits and vegetables and eating the 12 least contaminated instead. This means that we can pick and choose the vegetables we buy from the organic section to help reduce our grocery bills. There are 12 fruits and vegetables that you can get away with buying non-organic –

  • onions,
  • avocado
  • frozen sweet corn
  • pineapples
  • mango
  • frozen sweet peas
  • asparagus
  • kiwi
  • banana
  • cabbage
  • broccoli
  • eggplant

All other vegetables we should buy organic as often as possible to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals. Pesticides have been shown to cause cancer, liver, kidney, and blood diseases and cause extra work for the immune system to do its job well. This is an essential part of a healthy diet.

Bulk foods. Most grocery stores have a bulk food section where you can buy a lot of the staples for a healthy diet at much lower prices. If you’ve never explored this section of the store it is well worth it, they have huge bins filled with rice, beans, nuts, grains, even some healthy snack foods. You can buy as much or as little as you like so it’s also a great way to try new things. It is inexpensive and environmentally friendly because there is little to no packaging involved since you scoop out what you want into a small plastic bag. For example, a pre-packaged 1 lb bag of organic brown rice costs anywhere from $3.50 – 4.50 in most grocery stores, in the bulk food section its usually $1.99 per lb. That is a huge savings!

Smart home cooking. Preparing meals at home cuts costs significantly and increases the nutritional value of the food.  The key to making it work is leftovers; cook once, eat three or four times. Cook a meal you love and make enough for three or four portions so you don’t have to spend a lot of time cooking. Bring your home cooked meals for lunch at work as well. This method will also reduce your electric bill since you are only doing it once. A trick that I use often is to put on a pot of brown rice or beans to cook while I’m doing other things like laundry or paying bills. Just make sure to set a timer so it doesn’t burn! This way you have things ready in the fridge to throw together a burrito or a quick stir fry when you get home from work. A pot of brown rice can go a long way – a stir fry for dinner, rice porridge for breakfast the next day, wrap it in a burrito for lunch, and then healthy “un-fried” rice for the next dinner. A few other things you can make at home to save money include salad dressings, muffins, fruit salads, and smoothies. Buying any of these items pre-made is very expensive.

These three ideas will significantly cut the amount of money you spend on food. It is common for our diets to suffer when money is tight but we cannot let this happen. Eating poorly will lead to long term problems and huge medical expenses. A healthy diet prevents many chronic and life threatening illnesses that occur as a result of poor food choices. Start exploring your grocery store and put a little more thought into each meal and you will be able to afford a very delicious and healthy diet.


The Government says “Eat Less.” Really?

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Nutrition advice issued on Monday by Federal Regulators actually said, “Eat Less.” This is pretty amazing news being that the government is part of the reason why Americans eat too much. I am shocked to hear this from our government because its finally a step in the right direction.

For years and years the government continues to subsudize corn which is a huge reason why we have so many processed and refined “foods” available to us. The vast majority of them are made from corn becuase that is the only commodity that farmers can grow and still make a living due to the corn subsidy.

The government is suggesting that Americans drink less soda and more water and eat less pizza and desserts. I hope that this message will finally be recognized by Americans and that people will FINALLY make a change in their diet. This is a good first step – less soda, pizza, and dessert. For those of us who are holistic minded and already eat quinoa and kale, this may seem a bit obvious but for the general public this is a huge change.

Hopefully this will also trickle down to the food companies and force them to make changes on portion sizes and food quality. In the past a slice of tomato or even french fries and ketchup counted as a serving of vegtables but now it seems that they are pushing more fruits and veggies on the plate. I couldn't agree more with that statement – more fruits and veggies!

For more information see this article in the NY Times.