Energy is the Way

Healthy Ways to Boost Your Energy

Getting an energy boost that can keep you going all day often means sacrificing good nutrition. Few foods give you the kick that a cup of coffee, a can of cola or a sugary candy bar can.

If you're watching your weight, the challenge is finding foods that can not only give you a boost, but are good for you as well.

The goal in planning your daily diet is to focus on meals that are low in fat, high in fibre, contain protein and have complex carbs. This ensures a slow breakdown of sugars and regular energy throughout the day.

Having a good breakfast is the first and most important step in building up your energy stores to get through a busy day. Even if you aren't particularly hungry, you should eat within four hours of waking.

What you eat for breakfast should account for about 25 percent of the day's calories, so go for low-fat, high-fibre cereal and mild or a complex carb such as a bagel with juice. Avoid foods with a high level of simple sugars; the sudden energy boost will be quickly cancelled out by a crash in energy later in the day.

Staying hydrated can also help. Drinking at least six glasses of water a day can keep you from feeling sluggish and tired.

In addition to water, another source of energy that's good for you is Hair of the Dog, which comes in carb-free and sugar-free versions. Hair of the Dog is an energy beverage that contains 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C, milk thistle extract and patented detoxifies, which protect the liver from the damage caused by toxins such as medications, pollutants and alcohol

Snacks can also provide the body with the energy it needs. Just be sure to choose wholesome snacks rather than those loaded with sugar or fat. Go for fruit, a few baby carrots, some cheese or a handful of nuts, a glass of milk, a few whole grain crackers or even a low-fat granola bar. Snacks that fit in your purse or can be stored in a desk drawer for easy access will ensure you get the quick boost you need when your energy starts to flag.

Four Steps To Tripling Your Energy

                                                       Video under Creative Commons Attribute Licence. Our Thanks To Manipal Hospitals

Tired? Tired of being tired? You aren’t alone. There are few human qualities more highly sought than energy. It determines our ability to enjoy life, to attract mates, to finish projects, to protect our families, to shape our bodies effectively, and so much more. 

While there are endless specific suggestions about herbs, exercises, meditations, supplements, rest patterns and so forth that I could mention, the most important and over-arching components are relatively simple, and available to anyone with the willingness to begin. 

Basically, your energy level will be controlled by three physical and one psychological factor. 

A) Fitness. There are a variety of different things that contribute to the quality called “fitness,” but a few of them are specific to energy level. 

1) Cardio-vascular fitness. A dead minimum of twenty minutes three times a week, just to stay in the game. If you want to create a swift, powerful change, try forty minutes four times a week. Walking is sufficiently intense, if you stay in the “aerobic zone” which can be described as a level of exertion where you can’t sing, but you can still talk! 

2) Body-mass index. Unneeded weight is like a sack of wet cement strapped to your back. It eats up energy like crazy. Regardless of what anyone says or implies, there is only one basic way to lose fat: to change the ratio of calories consumed to calories burned. In general, this requires discipline on BOTH ends. Fat loss is a two-headed snake. If you diet but don’t exercise, your metabolism can slow down to a crawl, denying you success. And if you exercise but don’t eat sensibly, well, a pound of fat has about 3500 calories. An hour of running only burns about 350 calories. Do the math. 

3) Flexibility. Often overlooked in the search for energy, flexibility is a measurement of tension in the body. A stiff body is like a car with its brakes on. Think how much gas your car would waste!! That gas is your energy, when you carry unnecessary tension. Most stretching activities are less a matter of “lengthening” muscles, tendons, or ligaments than learning how to communicate with your body, to learn how to breathe into tension. 

4) Strength. Contrary to popular belief, strength is more in the mind than the body. It is a matter of leverage, concentration, and controlled excitation even more than it is the “size” of the muscles involved. On a physiological level, it is a matter of the percentage of your muscle fibers you can recruit at a given moment. Weight training, or body-weight exercises like Hindu Pushups and Hindu Squats, are great ways to increase strength, which makes physical tasks much easier and less fatiguing. 

B ) Controlling food intake. A critical factor. Note that I didn’t say “diet.” At this point, we all pretty much understand that diets don’t work—that any eating plan intended to have long term benefits must represent a change in lifestyle. A few pointers:

1) 3:2:1 ratio of fresh fruits and vegetables to complex carbohydrates to lean proteins. Note that this ratio works for people who are ACTIVE—they need the carbs. If you are trying to lose fat, or are relatively inactive, try reversing the ratio of protein and carbs. 

2) Drink more water. The classic recommendation of eight glasses a day is debated, but the truth is that a lot of hunger and fatigue is actually dehydration in disguise. Note: this means water, not beer, soda, or even milk, all of which contain various nutrients or chemicals which actually require water to process through the body. In other words, they use up as much water as they give you. 

3) Eat six small meals a day. This helps keep your blood sugar levels even, which will keep your energy from crashing in the afternoon. 

4) Eat today for how you want to FEEL tomorrow. Not for emotional reasons, or just for taste. 

C) Rest. As a culture, we aren’t getting enough sleep. The human body seems to need 7-9 hours of sleep a night, and if you’re getting less or more than this, you may be having stress reactions, and compromising your health as a result. 

1)Find out what your ideal sleep pattern is, and stick to it. 

2)Try to get to sleep before midnight. Folk wisdom says that every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours after. 

3)Take naps during the day. A quick power nap for 10-20 minutes can renew your energy like magic. 

4)Make your bedroom a place of rest, healing and recreation. Keep your stress in another room of the house. Your sleeping place should be a womb of comfort and pleasure, specifically designed to lull you into the depths of dreamland. 

D) Focus. In some ways, the most important tool for increasing energy. You need to know EXACTLY what you will do with the energy when you have it. This means written goals, clearly delineated. It means being task-oriented, believing that if you can do A,B, and C, there will be pleasure and satisfaction on the other end. I know people who are AFRAID to have more energy, because they think their kids, mates, or boss will just exploit them further. You have to have PERMISSION to be energetic, alive, and sensually involved with life. 

But if you will give yourself this permission, if on a daily basis you will move your body, eat responsibly, rest intelligently and write out your goals and steps to achieving them, you will begin to take control of your body/mind’s energy-generation apparatus, and you’ll be shocked at the energy that will flood your life. It is your birthright. Own it!

Tired? Tired of being tired? You aren’t alone. There are few human qualities more highly sought than energy. It determines our ability to enjoy life, to attract mates, to finish projects, to protect our families, to shape our bodies effectively, and so much more. 

While there are endless specific suggestions about herbs, exercises, meditations, supplements, rest patterns and so forth that I could mention, the most important and over-arching components are relatively simple, and available to anyone with the willingness to begin. 

Basically, your energy level will be controlled by three physical and one psychological factor. 

A) Fitness. There are a variety of different things that contribute to the quality called “fitness,” but a few of them are specific to energy level. 

1) Cardio-vascular fitness. A dead minimum of twenty minutes three times a week, just to stay in the game. If you want to create a swift, powerful change, try forty minutes four times a week. Walking is sufficiently intense, if you stay in the “aerobic zone” which can be described as a level of exertion where you can’t sing, but you can still talk! 

2) Body-mass index. Unneeded weight is like a sack of wet cement strapped to your back. It eats up energy like crazy. Regardless of what anyone says or implies, there is only one basic way to lose fat: to change the ratio of calories consumed to calories burned. In general, this requires discipline on BOTH ends. Fat loss is a two-headed snake. If you diet but don’t exercise, your metabolism can slow down to a crawl, denying you success. And if you exercise but don’t eat sensibly, well, a pound of fat has about 3500 calories. An hour of running only burns about 350 calories. Do the maths. 

3) Flexibility. Often overlooked in the search for energy, flexibility is a measurement of tension in the body. A stiff body is like a car with its brakes on. Think how much gas your car would waste!! That gas is your energy, when you carry unnecessary tension. Most stretching activities are less a matter of “lengthening” muscles, tendons, or ligaments than learning how to communicate with your body, to learn how to breathe into tension. 

4) Strength. Contrary to popular belief, strength is more in the mind than the body. It is a matter of leverage, concentration, and controlled excitation even more than it is the “size” of the muscles involved. On a physiological level, it is a matter of the percentage of your muscle fibres you can recruit at a given moment. Weight training, or body-weight exercises like Hindu Push-ups and Hindu Squats, are great ways to increase strength, which makes physical tasks much easier and less fatiguing. 

B ) Controlling food intake. A critical factor. Note that I didn’t say “diet.” At this point, we all pretty much understand that diets don’t work—that any eating plan intended to have long term benefits must represent a change in lifestyle. A few pointers: 

1) 3:2:1 ratio of fresh fruits and vegetables to complex carbohydrates to lean proteins. Note that this ratio works for people who are ACTIVE—they need the carbs. If you are trying to lose fat, or are relatively inactive, try reversing the ratio of protein and carbs. 

2) Drink more water. The classic recommendation of eight glasses a day is debated, but the truth is that a lot of hunger and fatigue is actually dehydration in disguise. Note: this means water, not beer, soda, or even milk, all of which contain various nutrients or chemicals which actually require water to process through the body. In other words, they use up as much water as they give you. 

3) Eat six small meals a day. This helps keep your blood sugar levels even, which will keep your energy from crashing in the afternoon. 

4) Eat today for how you want to FEEL tomorrow. Not for emotional reasons, or just for taste. 

C) Rest. As a culture, we aren’t getting enough sleep. The human body seems to need 7-9 hours of sleep a night, and if you’re getting less or more than this, you may be having stress reactions, and compromising your health as a result. 

1)Find out what your ideal sleep pattern is, and stick to it. 

2)Try to get to sleep before midnight. Folk wisdom says that every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours after. 

3)Take naps during the day. A quick power nap for 10-20 minutes can renew your energy like magic. 

4)Make your bedroom a place of rest, healing and recreation. Keep your stress in another room of the house. Your sleeping place should be a womb of comfort and pleasure, specifically designed to lull you into the depths of dreamland. 

D) Focus. In some ways, the most important tool for increasing energy. You need to know EXACTLY what you will do with the energy when you have it. This means written goals, clearly delineated. It means being task-oriented, believing that if you can do A,B, and C, there will be pleasure and satisfaction on the other end. I know people who are AFRAID to have more energy, because they think their kids, mates, or boss will just exploit them further. You have to have PERMISSION to be energetic, alive, and sensually involved with life. 

But if you will give yourself this permission, if on a daily basis you will move your body, eat responsibly, rest intelligently and write out your goals and steps to achieving them, you will begin to take control of your body/mind’s energy-generation apparatus, and you’ll be shocked at the energy that will flood your life. It is your birthright. Own it!

Boost Energy & Control Hunger

Protein is found in all of your body's cells. It is the essential nutrient that is responsible for the maintenance and repair of all of your organs, tissues, muscles, brain and bones. This individual built in repair kit occurs at the cellular level in our bodies. Protein regulates everything - our blood circulation, our metabolism and our immune system. Individuals who lack sufficient protein in their bodies have weaker immune systems than people who consume adequate protein in their diets. Also, people who are constantly on yo-yo diets where they lose and gain weight back frequently usually become protein deficient and have weaker immune systems. This fact has been proven by researchers who have found that these yo-yo dieters have about a third lower the number of killer cell activity than normal individuals. The so-called killer blood cells are essential for the immune system to function properly.

All foods are sources of energy; however, protein provides a greater boost in energy levels since it is absorbed slowly and thus produces a constant source of energy. Protein has real energy-staying power for your active, healthy, lifestyle. Fats and carbohydrates produce quick bursts of energy but cannot be relied upon to provide the body with a continuous source of energy, since they are digested and metabolised more quickly than protein. Fats and carbohydrates also tend to be stored as fat the body for later use. The Protein that we're discussing is lean protein (lean meats, skinless poultry, seafood, egg whites, low-fat dairy products, legumes and beans, soy and tofu foods, skim and low- fat cheeses, and good-fat nuts). Lean proteins are also excellent sources of selenium, which. Is a mineral that protects the body against dangerous tree radicals that can destroy normal cells in the body. These free radicals can damage many different types of cells including connective tissue, which causes joint and muscle inflammation.

High-saturated fat protein products like fatty meats, hard cheeses, whole fat milk dairy products, whole eggs, mayonnaise, luncheon and smoked meats including bacon, sausage, and hot dogs are definitely not good sources of energy production. The reason for this is, that even though these products have some protein content, its value is offset by the saturated fat content of these foods. The saturated fat content of these foods do more harm to the body (heart disease, strokes, hypertension, high cholesterol and some forms of cancer) than the protein portion of the food can repair. These are called harmful proteins and are not recommended for any healthful weight-loss program.

For appetite control, lean protein tops the charts for staying power. By adding a small portion of lean protein to your meal, you'll control hunger pangs for hours. Lean protein also has the advantage of being lower in calories than many foods, particularly saturated fat protein product refined carbohydrates and saturated fat foods. Once you substitute saturated-fat protein products, you defeat the appetite-controlling factor of the protein. The fat content of saturated- fat protein foods prevents the brain's appetite-control centre from shutting down. In other words, you'll get hungry soon after your meal of a saturated protein food.

Your body needs between 15-30 of your total daily calories, however, can be dangerous, because it strains the kidneys. This is one of the reasons among many why low-carbohydrate, high saturated fat protein diets are dangerous to your health.

Drink More Water For More Energy

What makes up 70-80% of our planet? Water. What makes up 70-80% of our body? That's right, water.

Water is the single most important nutrient you will give your body apart from oxygen. Water rejuvenates us and carries vital nutrients all round the body where it's needed. Water picks up all the leftovers, wastes and debris that the cells throw off into the lymph system and transport them out of the body via the channels of elimination.

So when you drink more water it has the double combination of feeding your body and clearing you of all the waste products that were built up in your system.

Your brain needs water, and plenty of it. Without water, your brain will operate worn out, tired and sluggish. Water is the ultimate gift to give yourself to think with clarity. In addition, water acts as a kind of healthy lubricant moistening tissues and joints.

When you drink, you want to avoid tap water. Tap water is more like a dazzling mix of chemicals. It contains fluoride, chlorine, and many others. The amount of chemicals in water will fill up books - it's more like a chemical soup. The evidence that fluoride is poisonous is so overwhelming that it's being pushed to be banned in many countries by action groups.

                        

                                                                         Video under creative commons licence our thanks to Health Benefits    

The thirst mechanism when having been turned off for a prolonged period is often mistaken for hunger. As you drink more water your thirst mechanism will return to its natural state. Not only will you begin to feel thirsty when you need water again, but your appetite will decrease.

This brings us to the next big thing you need to understand about water. If I asked you the difference between inorganic and organic minerals, chances are you couldn't tell me, right? Well let’s briefly explain the difference. It's a simple difference. Organic minerals come from plants; inorganic minerals come from rocks and volcanic sources. Organic minerals can be broken down by the body. Inorganic minerals are not used by the body and are stored until suitable water can come and carry them out. Organic minerals can be broken down by the body, while inorganic cannot. One is derived from natural plant life; one is derived from rocks,filings and small pieces of grit. Which one makes more sense to use?

It’s better to get your plant minerals through the food you eat rather than the inorganic form in water. Bottled water is often taken, tested and found to have bacteria and very often isn't rated much better than tap water.

Do you know the best water to use? The best water to use is the same water you use in your iron. The purest water in the world is distilled water. It's as pure as rainwater should be if our atmosphere wasn’t polluted.

If you haven't yet heard that 70% of the world's population is dehydrated - you will soon, as the UN push to get proper water supply to people in the third world.

The second best method of filtering is a type of filtering called "reverse osmosis". Unfortunately the standard bench top filter isn’t enough.

Most of the nasty contaminants in our water simply don't have a taste. Some people feel it's a case of out of sight out of mind. This may work for things people think, yet when it comes to your body, the life of your children, the health of those you care about and the line between getting cancer and surviving it's far short of acceptable.

The opportunity for energy, for vitality, for a quality of life is only known to a select few who choose to raise their standards and take action to apply what they know. New discoveries are being made all the time as new research comes out of the United States, out of Germany, and out of Australia and other countries. How does this apply to me you may ask? Well, these contaminants can kill you. Is this a reason to get upset? No, it’s simply an action signal to act smarter.

The best bit is when you’re drinking absolutely pure distilled water it is so much easier to drink. It's so easy to refreshingly flood your body with purity that will flush out chemicals, clear out the lymph system and contribute to expelling excess weight in the body. Distilled water is so easy to drink and be absorbed by your body without having to flush out the other nasties first that many people report who were struggling to drink half a litre of water a day, are now drinking 4 litres a day and up, with ease! If you can’t get distilled water, reverse osmosis filtered or table water is the next best option.

Many people in third world countries don't have access to a clean water supply. We in developed countries have currently almost unlimited access to clean water. My suggestion to you is to use it!