Feeling sluggish and fatigued? Have a hard time focusing on the tasks at hand? Depending on the cause, there are ways to boost your energy naturally and feel like yourself again.
Daily stress, sleep deprivation, bad eating, and other lifestyle factors can affect mental and physical well-being. Sometimes, tiredness and fatigue can be due to more serious issues, like anemia or depression. Vitamin deficiencies may play a role too.
If you’re wondering how to improve energy levels, it’s important to first determine the cause of your problem.
For example, a diet rich in fish, whole, and seafood may increase energy and stamina in those with vitamin B deficiency. Regular exercise can help ward off depression, a common cause of tiredness and fatigue.
If your symptoms persist, consider having some blood tests to figure out their root cause.
In the meantime, check out these tips for improving energy levels and feeling better overall. Let’s get into it!
Limit Unnecessary Stress
More than half of adults are stressed about their health or family responsibilities. An equal number of Americans say that money is a major source of stress.
Unfortunately, stress is a part of life in today’s fast-paced world. If left unaddressed, it can take a toll on your health, leading to inflammation, impaired immune function, mental disorders, and heart disease.
Stress affects every system in your body, including your heart, liver, and digestive function.
Over time, it can wear you down emotionally and trigger or worsen depression and anxiety. As you might have guessed, it also diminishes your energy and mental focus.
Although it’s impossible to avoid stress, you can keep under control through yoga, meditation, deep breathing, and exercise.
Yoga, for example, is a simple way to improve energy naturally and fight stress.
This mind-body practice helps your body relax, decreases anxiety, and supports overall health. It may also help you get a better night’s sleep so you can wake up feeling energized and ready for the day ahead.
How to Improve Energy Levels with Exercise
As mentioned earlier, regular exercise is one of the best ways to restore your energy naturally and beat stress.
This doesn’t mean you need a gym membership, though. Walking, swimming, jogging, and other activities all count as exercise.
Physical activity boosts oxygen and blood flow to the brain and muscles, leading to greater energy.
In a small study, fatigued subjects who worked out three times a week reported increased energy and reduced fatigue. Low-intensity exercise was more effective than moderate-intensity training.
The key is to find an activity you enjoy so that you can stick to it.
Consider going for a walk every day after work. Or take your bike to the store and back instead of jumping in the car. Start the day with 15-20 minutes of stretching, Pilates, or bodyweight exercises like push-ups and squats.
Remember that little exercise is better than none.
Even if you’re short on time, you can still squeeze a quick workout into your routine. Split your workout into mini-sessions to make it more manageable.
Get Rid of Household Chemicals
You’ve probably heard that household cleaning supplies are extremely toxic and may affect your health.
These products contain ammonia and other harsh chemicals that can make their way into your body, causing headaches and allergic reactions. The use of household chemicals may also result in chronic respiratory problems, warns the American Lung Association.
But that’s not all.
Once inside your body, these toxins can affect brain health and endocrine function, leading to fatigue and other unexplained symptoms. Therefore, it makes sense to switch to organic products.
Look for cleaning supplies made with essential oils, plant extracts, vinegar, and other natural ingredients.
For example, the Thieves cleaner uses clove bud oil, lemon peel oil, and other plant-derived compounds to disinfect all types of surfaces. It contains none of the toxic chemicals found in traditional cleaning products.
Laundry detergents, bleach, oven cleaners, and other similar products all carry serious health risks.
Glass cleaners, for instance, are made with isopropanol and ammonia. Both chemicals can irritate your skin, eyes, throat, and lungs.
Clean Up Your Diet
Processed foods not only add inches to your waistline but also deprive your body of vital nutrients.
These products have little or no nutritional value and may lead to vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Plus, they’re loaded with simple sugars, trans fats, and harmful chemicals.
Sugary foods and beverages, for example, cause blood glucose spikes followed by crashes. Think about how you feel after eating cookies. Your energy levels go up for one hour or so, dropping suddenly afterward.
If, say, you typically eat bagels in the morning, your energy levels will probably drop before lunch
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