This post is part of Tech Cocktail’s “Healthy Entrepreneur” series, bringing you insights on food, exercise, and sleep throughout May. The series is presented by Coromega (more info and a giveaway below).
Do you ever find you are absolutely exhausted or simply struggling to find energy throughout the day, especially in the afternoon? You are not alone. The “Standard American Diet” provides something you can always count on, which is inconsistent energy and lots of empty calories. If you want to live a healthy and long life, you need to fuel your body with real and nourishing food free from dangerous chemicals and toxins that keep your body from working the way it’s supposed to.
The good news is there are simple steps you can take to maximize your energy, giving you what you need to keep your body and mind vibrant to fuel your business. The following are my top five ways to eat/consume for maximum energy.
1. Reduce or eliminate caffeine
The ups and downs of caffeine include dehydration and blood sugar ups and downs, making mood swings more frequent and afternoon energy crashing more likely.
2. Drink water
Most Americans are chronically dehydrated. Before you go for sugar or caffeine, have a glass of water and wait a few minutes to see what happens. Sip water throughout the day. The more hydrated you are, the better your body and mind will function. Reach for a glass of water before anything else and ditch the soft drinks. Soft drinks are one of America’s top sources of added sugar.
3. Eat a balanced diet
Consume a balance of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, and lots of living food. Eating too much or too little protein can impact energy. Eat clean animal protein; buy animal protein that has been treated well: pasture-fed chicken and beef, and wild-caught fish. Essentially, consume animal protein that does not have any added chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, toxins, etc.
Remember, you are whatever you ate, ate.
Complex carbs, like quinoa, whole grain bread, and brown rice, help fuel the body. Enjoy healthy fats such as avocados, almonds, walnuts, seeds, and olive oil and, and eat lots of brightly colored organic fruit and vegetables free of chemicals to maximize nutritional value.
4. Eat dark leafy green vegetables
Greens are full of vitamins and nutrients and great for improving circulation, lifting the spirit, purifying the blood, and strengthening the immune system. Broccoli, collards, bok choy, kale, mustard greens, broccoli rabe, arugula, and dandelion greens are some of the many to choose from. You can enjoy them raw in salads, blended in smoothies, sautéd, steamed, or flash boiled.
5. Use gentle sweets
One of the fastest ways to deplete your energy is to jack up on sugar only to experience the inevitable blood-sugar crash just a little while later. Avoid added sugar and chemicalized artificial sweeteners. Instead, enjoy sweet vegetables such as yams, carrots, and beets, or use gentle sweeteners like fruit, a bit of honey, maple syrup, and stevia.
If you are a chocolate lover, enjoy raw unsweetened cacao (chocolate) by itself, in smoothies or other dishes. Your body and mind will love the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, creating that oh-so-good boost of dopamine and antioxidant benefits.
Basically, you just want to eat and drink cleanly and balanced. Consume real foods in their natural state, free from chemicals, preservatives, pesticides, added sugars, hydrogenated fats, trans-fats, and anything that didn’t naturally occur in the food.
Garbage in – garbage out.
Clean and balanced in – energized, vital body and mind out.
Guest author Amy Arnold is President & Founder of VitalSelf, a boutique health and wellness company with offices in Arlington and Alexandria. Amy is a board certified Holistic Health Coach, Health Educator, Energy Practitioner, and Yoga Instructor. Leveraging her 16 years of corporate executive experience at AOL, she specializes in working with busy professionals and empowering them with tools to increase their energy, decrease stress, eat healthier, lose weight naturally, and increase overall vitality! Get a free copy of Amy’s Green Smoothie e-book from her website http://www.vitalself.
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