What Would it Feel Like to Have Amazing Levels of Energy?

Too many of us it seems are constantly striving for better energy without even really remembering what great energy levels feel like.

Many of us for instance will have strong coffees in a bid to feel energetic. A strong coffee wakes us up in the morning, it gives us focus and it helps us to plough on with the day. Some people will even use stimulants and smart pills these days. Caffeine drinks for instance, or even substances like modafinil.

But that feeling is not energy. That feeling is simply an imbalance in your brain chemistry that forces you to feel awake and productive. This is being ‘wired’, not being energetic. And when you run on empty like this for long enough, eventually the debt must be paid.

What it Should Feel Like

So with that in mind, what would it take to genuinely feel energetic and to really be running on full instead of always running on empty?

Well really, the easiest way to understand what having lots of energy feels like, is to know what being really healthy. Feels like.

Having lots of energy doesn’t feel like there’s rocket fuel powering you to keep going – because it doesn’t need to. Instead, you will simply feel as you do on your best days. Fresh. Each breath will help to fill your lungs with more enthusiasm for the day, you’ll have no trace of headache or brain fog and you’ll be excited and enthusiastic for whatever you’re doing – energy brings that.

How Energy Improves Your Life

What’s more, feeling this way can help you to improve nearly every aspect of your life.

First of all, having this kind of boundless energy will make you feel happier and much more positive. You will enjoy life more simply by feeling less tired and having more to give.

What’s more, this will help you to perform better in your workplace, to be more engaged and charismatic with the people you talk to and to get more from your spare time. You’ll enhance your relationships and your way of life simply by having more resources to throw at them, while you’ll be able to get more benefit and productivity out of every spare moment. This is what will allow you to stick to an exercise regime, to take on a side project to earn more income… generally to take your life where you want it to be.

And to feel great doing it.

That is what it is like to have boundless energy.

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How to Get Into Running for More Energy

If you’re looking to lose weight, improve your fitness and enhance your energy, there are few better activities than running.

Running is fantastic because it forces your body to provide you with lots of energy for an extended period of time. For the entire time you are jogging, your heart will be working harder, you’ll be breathing more heavily and you’ll be burning more glucose for sugar.

As you train in this way, your body will then become more and more efficient at all these performances. After a while, you will then reach the point where doing simple things like walking or working are something of a breeze.

The only problem? For many people running is boring, slow going and possibly even painful. Here are some tips then that can help you to get more into running and to learn to really enjoy it.

The Right Shoes

One thing that can make a huge difference to your enjoyment of running is the right pair of shoes. What’s more, this can also enhance your performance and prevent injury. If you are currently running in cheap trainers, then you’ll find this makes a huge difference.

Getting the right running shoes isn’t so easy though. You need to ensure that you get the right type of shoes for your specific stride. The best way to do this is to go to a running store and to get them to measure your stride on a treadmill. They can then tell you if you need a structured shoe to correct a pronation or supination, they can tell you whether you’re a neutral runner or you strike with your heel and they can recommend a more or less minimal shoe. Take the extra time, spend the extra money and you’ll find that the difference is more than worth it.

Learn to Track Yourself

Running is arguably harder to get into compared with weight lifting because you don’t necessarily see your progression as clearly. With weight lifting, you’ll constantly push yourself to lift heavier and will see a clear improvement whereas with running, it’s much harder to tell your speed or the distance you have run without the necessary equipment.

Most smartphones nowadays contain a pedometer and there are plenty of apps available to download that can tell you how fast you have been running and the distance you have gone. Keeping track of these will clearly show you how much your fitness and energy levels have improved, giving you motivation to keep going ad to push yourself even harder. The hard work will pay off!

Simple Ways You Can Give Your Body an Energy Boost

Are you starting to feel sluggish? Perhaps it’s getting to 4pm and you’re starting to feel your body slow down. Or maybe you’ve just woken up and you’re struggling to overcome that sleep inertia?

What then can you do to wake yourself up and to feel much more invigorated… right now?

Here are a few tricks you can use to instantly give yourself more energy:

Splash Some Cold Water

Splashing some cold water on your face can instantly give you an energy boost for a number of reasons. One benefit of doing this is that it encourages blood flow to your face and thus your brain, giving you a little more fuel for thinking and staying awake.

Moreover, the body reacts to cold by producing more norepinephrine. This is a stimulating neurotransmitter which helps us become more focused and more awake!

Workout

A quick workout is fantastic for boosting energy. This doesn’t have to mean going to the gym and lifting weights either. Simply doing a few press-ups can help to get your blood flowing, to produce endorphins and to clear away brain fog.

In fact, if you can’t muster a few press ups, even just jumping up and down lightly on the spot is a great way to boost your energy levels.

Do Something You Love

Sometimes the worst thing you can do for your energy levels is to ‘power through’ when you’re feeling tired and lethargic. Instead, try doing something that you really enjoy for 10 minutes – whether that’s playing a computer game or reading a chapter of a great book. This will re-engage you and bring back some enthusiasm which is excellent for energy.

Another strategy? Remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. Is your objective money? Is it passion? Are you biding your time? Find that focus and it will help you power through with more enthusiasm.

Go and Feel the Sun

Go and stand outside for a moment and feel the sun on your face. This is highly invigorating and will help to remind your body clock that it’s still day time, while at the same time triggering the production of vitamin D and other important hormones.

Have Some MCT Oil

There are countless supplements and foods out there that can give you a boost in energy. MCT oil though (found in coconut milk and oil) is one of the best there is and will hit you with an instant supply of usable energy.

How to Improve Your Digestion for Better Energy

If you want to improve your energy levels, then fixing your diet is one of the very best things you can do. When you get the right nutrients in your diet and the right energy sources, you start feeling healthier and more energetic all around.

But fixing what goes into your diet is only one part of the challenge. Just as important and just as difficult is making sure that what you’re eating is actually able to make it through and into your system. In other words: are you actually digesting those nutrients and absorbing them in order to get their full benefit? And is your body able to digest your food quickly and without placing a major strain on your energy levels?

How Your Digestion Works

Digestion begins when you start chewing. In your mouth, your four types of teeth (incisors, canines, molars and premolars) break food down along with your saliva and the enzymes contained therein. The result is a ‘mush’ that’s known as ‘bolus’. When you swallow this, it moves into your stomach to get broken down by more enzymes and stomach acids. Muscles churn the mixture up further and the result is something known as ‘chyme’.

Chyme then passes through the small and large intestine and then finally out the other end. Here, yet more enzymes help to break it down further while villi and microvilli absorb the nutrients into the blood for your body to use.

How to Improve Your Digestive System

So what can you do to start digesting your food better?

One simply strategy is to chew for longer. This will allow the enzymes bromelain and amylase to do their job while the food is still in your mouth and will help break down the food into a more palatable material.

Another tip is to stay hydrated and to drink a lot while eating. Not only will this help to break down food even more and to lubricate your throat as the food passes through but it will also allow your body to produce more enzymes – as they are made at least partially from water.

You can also try getting additional enzymes with your food. These can be taken as supplements (simply called ‘digestive enzymes’) or they can come from our diet itself. Eating things like apples, oranges and pineapple for instance will all provide you with more natural enzymes to break down your food with.

Breaking Habits That Drain Energy

Want to improve your energy levels?

One of the easiest and most efficient ways to achieve that is to look at the things in your life that are draining your energy and remove them. Rather than being an additive way to improve your energy, this is a ‘subtractive’ method. In other words, you are improving your energy by doing less and not by doing more – which is considerably easier when your energy was low to begin with and taking on new challenges can be exhausting.

But which habits should you break if you want to get back your energy? Here are some of the top candidates.

Tea and Coffee

If you use caffeine to power you through the day, then this is something you should look at stopping right away. Caffeine can actually severely hamper your energy levels and may even be what’s making it so hard to get up in the morning.

When you drink caffeine, it emulates the molecule ‘adenosine’ in the brain. This is a molecule that builds up over the day and which eventually comes to make us feel tired and groggy. However, because caffeine emulates adenosine, it can ‘plug’ the adenosine receptors thereby rendering it inert. The result? An artificial feeling of energy and drive.

But this eventually leads to tolerance and dependence. The brain produces more adenosine receptors to counteract the perceived lack of adenosine and as such you need more caffeine to feel normal. This leads to withdrawal and that withdrawal is one of the things making you feel so groggy in the morning!

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Smoking

Nicotine is a stimulant and is even used as a nootropic. But when you smoke, you also inhale a huge amount of harmful gasses which can severely damage your lung capacity. Eventually, this can lead to a greatly impaired VO2 Max which makes it hard to simply move around without coughing and splurting. Try using vaporizers to break the habit.

Procrastinating

Procrastinating wastes your valuable time without giving you the ‘permission’ you need to properly rest. Worst of all is procrastinating late at night and watching YouTube for instance into the small hours because you can’t be bothered to get up and get ready for bed.

Try to take the attitude of either being ‘off’ or ‘on’. Walk or sit – don’t wobble. In other words, when you notice your productivity start to wane, embrace it and use it as a chance to properly recharge so you’ll have more energy to get up and go later.

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The Things That Happen to Your Body When You Give Up Dairy

I don’t know whether you are still sing dairy products, I personally stopped consuming any dairy related products several years ago and feel a lot better ever since.

I suggest you read the following story to get a good idea of the benefits of doing so:

7 Things That Happen to Your Body When You Give Up Dairy

File this under things you probably never thought you could do. Give up the tantalizing mouthfeel of smoked gouda melted over juicy summer tomatoes in a sandwich? Forgo fresh mozzarella cradled in the sensual embrace of balsamic and basil? Nix crispy nachos swimming in a whirlpool of cheddar, scallions and tomatoes?

As it turns out, slashing dairy from your diet has numerous health benefits, from improving digestion to lowering your risk of chronic disease. Not to mention dropping weight fast by eliminating the calories and bad fats that dairy can pack. Read on to find out what giving up dairy can do for you and your waistline.

Your digestion will improve

Scary stat alert: Between 60 to 90 percent of the population suffers from lactose intolerance, a gastrointestinal condition in which the body is unable to easily digest lactose, a type of naturally occurring sugar in dairy. Yet countless Americans endure the resulting discomfort anyway. “When you give up dairy, watch your digestion improve,” says Julieanna Hever, MS, RD, CPT, a plant-based dietitian, and author of The Vegiterranean Diet and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition. “It can reduce bloating, gas, constipation, and other digestive responses. Most people in different cultures stop producing lactase — the enzyme required to digest dairy — in adulthood.” We are, after all, the only species that drinks another species’ milk. So is it all that surprising that we have problems digesting dairy?

Your bowels will benefit

All ears if you have IBS. “Those suffering from IBS are often recommended to attempt a FODMAP (Fermentable Oligo- Di- Monosaccharide and Polyols) elimination diet,” explains Kayleen St. John, RD, a nutritionist at New York City’s Natural Gourmet Institute, a health supportive-culinary school. “This would include eliminating all fermentable carbohydrate sources for a period of time including lactose, which is a highly fermentable carbohydrate and considered a FODMAP.”..

Read more at this link

What Do I Eat Now? A Step-by-Step Guide to Eating Right with Type 2 Diabetes

Being diagnosed with diabetes can be a shock – especially if you weren’t expecting it. When you first learn the news, you’ll feel overwhelmed, uncertain and anxious. Some people even experience a period of depression as numerous questions plague them.

One of the most often asked questions among people with diabetes is what they can or can’t have to eat. It’s always best to have a guide that you can use while you learn how to manage your diabetes.

Knowing what to do can help you feel calmer and less worried about how you’re going to handle the diagnosis. In the book, What Do I Eat Now? A Step-by-Step Guide to Eating Right with Type 2 Diabetes, you’ll learn the basics of how nutrition impacts your diabetes.

You’ll also discover what carbohydrates do for your body and how they work in someone who has diabetes. The book also teaches how using portion sizes can help you be better able to manage your diabetes.

When you use the right portion sizes, not only does it help with blood glucose control, but it can stave off long term complications as well as help you lose excess weight. Portion control is one of the major steps in managing diabetes.

There’s also a chapter in the book on what to do at the grocery store. By shopping wisely and picking up foods that work with your diabetes rather than against it, you can have a healthier long term prognosis.

Also covered in the book is how to read food labels and understanding what the terms mean in relation to your diabetes. For a diabetic, eating out can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how it’s approached.

Eating out is something that some people with diabetes think will blow their healthy eating plan. But going out to restaurants, including fast food restaurants, doesn’t have to include meals that send your glucose levels skyrocketing.

In the chapter on eating out, you’ll learn how you can eat away from home, enjoy delicious food and still maintain good control over your diabetes. Another area that can cause problems for a diabetic is in the area of snacking – especially if you have certain food triggers or use food to feed emotions.

The book will teach you that it’s okay to snack, but it’s how you snack that matters. By choosing snacks that are good for you, it’s okay to have something to eat between meals or when you just want something to munch on.

This book contains a variety of meals that you can include as part of your daily and weekly eating plan. By understanding the breakdown of the nutrition provided for each meal, you can learn the foods to eat that will help you take care of your diabetes.

Diabetes For Dummies

There are a lot of books out there about dealing with diabetes. But some of them were written from a scientific point of view. When information isn’t given in easy to understand terms, it can seem like you’re reading Greek trying to figure out what the book is even talking about.

In the book Diabetes For Dummies, diabetes is broken down in an easy to understand manner that’s helpful for learning how to deal with the disease. Like all diseases, there are often new medications, helpful tools and improved care plans that evolve every year and by being on top of what’s new, you can better manage your condition.

Information on the latest ways to help you thrive while living with diabetes is found in this book. When you have a plan in place to deal with diabetes, not only is it easy to manage the day to day issues of the disease, but it’s also easier to avoid long term complications.

Plus, you’ll be able to use the book to know which diet and exercise plan is the right one for you. One of the things that this book does cover that a lot of the others don’t is dealing with the psychological impact of learning you have diabetes.

The psychological side – such as handling the anxiety, depression, numbness and denial, of diabetes – has to be treated in order for someone to be able to handle the physical side of the disease.

You’ll learn about the different and latest medication options for treating diabetes as well as the array of tools that you can use. The types of foods, meal planning and exercise plans to help you get rid of any excess weight that can impact how well you manage diabetes are included in the book.

This disease can affect different age groups – including children. Children are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at an alarming rate. You’ll discover how you can make sure that your child’s risk level is low as well as how to help your child manage the condition if he or she does have the disease.

The book talks about how you can recognize the often missed symptoms of diabetes and what causes both type 1 as well as type 2 to develop. You’ll learn about the hereditary as well as the lifestyle aspects that can raise risk levels.

The book covers the various parts of your body that diabetes can impact. You’ll learn how to successfully monitor your blood glucose and how to make sure the numbers stay in the healthy range.

Information not often found in other diabetes books is covered here such as the link between diabetes and erectile dysfunction and diabetes and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Learning all that you can about diabetes and what it does to your body is the first step toward being able to manage it and in some cases, even reverse it.

Click here to learn more about  a Real Solution To Reversing Diabetes

A Diet Plan for Prediabetes

Most people don’t pay attention to the risks involved with getting diabetes until it’s suddenly on their doorstep. When you’re diagnosed as having prediabetes, although it can be unsettling, it’s actually an opportunity to stop diabetes from happening to you.

If you take immediate action, you can get on track to making sure you don’t move from prediabetes to diabetes. You take action by following a plan like what’s outlined in The Prediabetes Diet Plan.

This book is a helpful guide that can teach you how reverse your diagnosis without using any fancy, weird or expensive items. It takes diet, exercise and the mindset that you’re going to make some changes in order to stay healthy.

A diagnosis of prediabetes warns you that your blood glucose is above normal levels. If you work to get these numbers back down and make changes, you’ll feel better physically and lower your risk factors.

The book can help you understand what prediabetes is and how it can affect your body. You’ll learn about insulin resistance and how this impacts your cells. The book also covers why what you eat and how you eat is so important to getting rid of prediabetes.

You’ll know what carbohydrates mean in relation to prediabetes and the importance of watching the carbs that you eat in your meals. The book can show you how to eat so that you get the nutrients that you need, but not the carb overload.

You’ll learn the types of foods for meals and even smaller on the go snacks to eat and how to count your carbs while still being able to eat normal foods. The book has a focus on losing weight through nutritional savvy eating and exercise.

Losing weight when you have prediabetes is one of the keys to reversing the diagnosis because being overweight and prediabetes go hand in hand. It’s one of the things that leads to insulin resistance.

The book touches on the physical risks of prediabetes such as developing heart problems and what can happen if you don’t stop diabetes from occurring. You’ll learn about supplements and how to shop for food – as well as the food choices to make while you’re eating at restaurants.

Taking care of your emotions is also talked about and this step is important as well. By taking care of your emotions, you can impact your physical health for the better – especially when you manage the stress in your life.

This book offers a comprehensive plan on the lifestyle changes that you can make to turn your life around and stop diabetes.

Is It Possible to Prevent Diabetes When Genetics Play a Role?

There are many different diseases that people get that because the genetic material for those diseases are passed down from generation to generation. Alzheimer’s is one such disease.

If you had a mother or father diagnosed with the disease, then your odds of getting it would be increased. However, some diseases will not automatically develop in the next family member – even if there is a history of the condition.

The reason for this is because at the root of some diseases is the ability to stop the condition from occurring. Diabetes is one of these conditions. It doesn’t matter if you had grandparents, parents or siblings diagnosed with diabetes.

You’re not doomed to get the condition if you’re proactive about it. That’s the key to preventing getting diabetes. Being proactive with your health. That means that you must take steps to do what you can so that the risk factors that go hand in hand with the disease don’t take control in your life.

The biggest risk factor for getting the disease is how much weight that you carry. For each pound that you are overweight, it impacts your risk level for developing diabetes. The reason that this happens is because of how the body’s cells are impacted by the fat.

People who are overweight struggle to be able to properly use the insulin their body produces. The cells become resistant toward insulin rather than having the sensitivity that you would normally have.

When your cells become insulin resistant, the glucose can build up in your bloodstream and lead to high sugar readings. This leads to organ damage, a higher risk of heart attacks, blindness, amputation and even premature death.

So if you are carrying extra weight and you have a family history of diabetes, lose weight so that you’re in the healthy zone for your height and frame. The second biggest risk to developing diabetes is the kind of foods that you eat.

If you eat a diet that’s high in calories and loaded with sugar, then your odds of getting the disease will increase. One thing about eating sugar is that it triggers a feel good hormone in the body, which can lead to craving even more sugar.

To keep diabetes at bay, it’s best to have a low carb, healthy meal plan. The third biggest risk to getting diabetes if you have a family history of the disease is being inactive.

If you spend more time sitting around watching television than you do being active, your chances of getting diabetes will increase. Exercise allows the body to be able to use the glucose properly and it keeps the cells from becoming insulin resistant. It also helps keep the extra weight off.