How to Support Energy, Focus, and Strength Naturally
Written by Kathleen Nialla.
When it comes to feeling stronger, having more focus, and being filled with energy, many people aren’t too sure where to start. Here are a few natural steps you can take to start every day feeling better than you did the day before.
Healthy Diet
One of the first steps you need to take is to analyze your diet and see where you can make improvements. Your diet can affect your mood, focus, sleep, energy levels, and even stress. Because of this, having a healthy and balanced diet is a must.
The easiest changes to make are to cut out excessive junk food and sugar, and pack your meals with foods that are high in magnesium, iron, fish oil, and vitamin C.
Supplement What You’re Missing
One issue you may face is that you may not like or want to eat all the foods that have the vitamins and minerals you need. Because of this, you may want to look at health supplements from Metagenics.
Supplementing is one of the easiest ways to get all the vitamins and minerals you need, no matter your diet, dietary restrictions, or any existing health issues you may have.
Weight Loss
One of the more obvious changes you can make is to lose weight. Carrying more weight uses more energy, and also puts more strain on your heart and lungs, which causes you to become tired quickly, even when doing fairly light physical activity.
Snacks
One area that could be the cause of your feeling tired and unfocused is being hungry. Even if you are eating a healthy diet and cutting out junk food, if you aren’t eating regularly, your body won’t have the fuel it needs.
Because of this, you should start packing healthy snacks for work, when you are driving, etc. This means you will always have a little pick-me-up on hand, and something to snack on if you don’t have the time for breakfast or lunch.
Exercise
While it may sound counterintuitive, many studies have shown that regular exercise can improve your overall and long-term energy levels. Whether it is an hour or two in the gym five times a week, or a brisk 20-minute walk daily, moving more will give you more energy.
You also don’t need to do regular exercise, any form of physical activity can work as long as you do it for an extended period and you do it regularly.
Improve Your Sleep
Sleep is vital for everything from your muscle health to your brain health, and therefore, it comes as no surprise that sleep will improve your focus, energy, and strength. Many of us don’t get the best sleep we can, and this is due to many reasons.
Making the effort to fix your sleep hygiene and schedule will make an instant and long-lasting difference, and one that will drastically improve far more areas of your life than you may think.
Deal With Stress
When it comes to focus, nothing will kill it faster than stress. On top of that, stress can affect your sleep, diet, mental health, and mood. Because of this, whether you deal with a lot of stress or not, being able to handle it quickly and efficiently is a must.
There is no right or wrong way to deal with stress, and as long as you aren’t hurting yourself or others, then whichever method works for you is the one you should stick with.
Reduce Caffeine
Many people don’t realize what caffeine can do for their focus and sleep. Studies have proven that caffeine can stay in your system for up to seven hours, meaning that if you are aiming to go to bed at 10 pm and have a coffee after work at 5 pm, that coffee can affect your sleep and even stop you from falling asleep.
This doesn’t mean you should cut caffeine out completely, but you should focus on timing. A simple rule to follow is switching to decaf when lunch comes around. This small change will make an instant difference to your sleep, and also prevent the inevitable crash you feel, which can ruin your focus and productivity.
Reduce Smoking & Alcohol
Another thing that smokers may not know is that nicotine is a stimulant. Similar to caffeine, nicotine can stay in your system for hours, and affect your sleep, which will subsequently affect your energy levels and focus.
Regarding alcohol, while a glass or two of beer or wine often makes you fall asleep quickly, you get worse quality sleep overall. Therefore, if you are really struggling with keeping focus due to poor sleep, cut alcohol out completely until your sleep schedule is fixed and effective.
Power Naps
Finally, if you are lacking energy and focus, there is a chance you are just tired. There doesn’t have to be a deep reason for this, and you may have just been uncomfortable, too hot, or too cold when you were in bed, and you didn’t sleep well.
Therefore, a power nap can be exactly what you need to refill your energy stores. However, try not to nap too late in the day as this can affect your regular sleep, and when it comes to time, aim for an hour, as less than that may not make much of a difference, and longer than that can make you feel more tired than you did before the nap.
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