For those times when you just cant seem to kick it into gear, these smart strategies will rev even the crankiest engine fast. By Mindy Berry Walker Your Energy Makeover Begins Now Id just finished shaking the last drops of coffee from an upside-down mug into my mouth when I felt an overwhelming urge to cry. It was 7 a.m. on a busy Tuesday, and Id already blown through my entire energy strategy for the day. How was I going to survive the next 15 hours of deadlines, meetings, and three go-go-go kids? Turns out Im not the only woman who feels exhausted before her day starts. Jennifer Boisture, MD, a psychiatrist at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, has built a private practice catering to highly successful women, who, like most of us, are trying to juggle it all. The primary complaint I hear is that theyre tired all the time, Boisture says. Theyre fit, health-conscious women, but they still need more energy. What theyre doing isnt working. Part of the problem, experts say, is that we have set the energy bar so high. We have an increasing expectation that we can keep squeezing more and more out of our lives if we can just find the right formula, says Mark Liponis, MD, medical director of Canyon Ranch Health Resorts. That kind of pressure is unrealistic and overwhelming and can actually have the reverse effect, of draining your energy. Another zapper: technology. According to a study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology that compared single- and multitaskers, focusing on one chore at a time is more energy efficient. So reading your iPad on the treadmill or sending texts on your cell while banging out work e-mails on your laptop will drain your brain faster than doing each task by itself. And yet...you have an 8 a.m. meeting and a 7 p.m. dinner reservation, and you have to pick your daughter up at soccer practice at five -- which leaves 6 a.m. as the hour to squeeze in a sweat session. So whats an energy-starved gal to do? Whether youre training for a marathon or your day simply feels like one, these totally fresh lifestyle tweaks will do more for your mojo than a 7 a.m. cup of joe ever could. Boost Your Brain -- Turn Off the Tube If your typical fix for end-of-day exhaustion is to plop down on the couch for a dose of Seinfeld reruns, youre not alone. Most people think that watching TV is a restful activity, but it may not be, says Marc Berman, PhD, a neuroscientist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In fact, television itself can be tiring, and the older you get, the fewer and fewer stress-reducing benefits you get from a session with the boob tube, a University of California, San Diego study says. Instead of numbing your mind as a way to rejuvenate, stimulate it. Take a walk along a scenic trail; spending time in nature helps restore peoples energy and focus, a 2008 study in Psychological Science found. What to skip when youre low on energy? The mall. Youll get more mental stimulation than you bargained for, which will leave you exhausted. Avoid the Quick Fix Its no surprise that the food on your plate can be the deciding factor between a sluggish and a supercharged day. But more often than not, you dont need a total diet overhaul; small adjustments can go a long way toward optimizing your energy intake, says Ashley Koff, RD, a nutritionist in Los Angeles and FITNESS advisory board member. For starters, dont ditch caffeine. A small cappuccino, tea with honey, and dark chocolate, all of which contain caffeine and sugar, are perfectly legitimate energy Band-Aids when you need a lift in a hurry, Koff says. The trouble comes when people rely on them daily. Spiking and plunging blood-glucose levels create an unhealthy cycle of energy highs and lows. Whats more, the fluctuating glucose leads to murky decision making, according to a recent study from the University of South Dakota: When participants were asked whether theyd rather receive a small amount of money immediately or get a much larger amount later, those with lower glucose levels were more likely to seize the smaller sum. Clear thinking, scientists conclude, is helped by a constant glucose supply. Another mistake: too much of a good thing. Women think theyre making a smart choice by having a healthy turkey, lettuce, and tomato on whole wheat sandwich and a piece of fruit for lunch, Koff says. But three hours later theyre at their desks in an energy slump, and they cant figure out why. You have to spread the health wealth, Koff says, because your body can use only so many nutrients for energy at one time, meaning a portion of that healthy lunch was used to fuel your body; the rest of the protein and carbs went to energy wasteland. Instead, have your fruit with some nuts midmorning, then eat half your sandwich at noon and the other half at 3 p.m., when you start to feel sluggish. Youll keep a steady stream of nutrients flowing into your blood, holding the snack attack at bay. And finally, when it comes to boosting energy, a carb is not a carb is not a carb. When people with type 2 diabetes ate white bread for breakfast in a University of Toronto study, they fared worse on verbal-memory and other cognitive tests than those who consumed low-glycemic foods, like pasta. To give your morning a lift, try toasting a whole-grain muffin and spreading a tablespoon of filling peanut butter on it or eat it with a scrambled egg. Stick to Your Workout Routine Get this: Expending energy on exercise actually creates more for you to use. Research shows that physically active people feel more energetic overall than sedentary people, says Patrick OConnor, PhD, director of the University of Georgia exercise psychology laboratory in Athens. In one Australian study of 40,000 women, the more weekly physical activity they did, the more they reported feeling revved up. Its likely that exercise stimulates neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, and this creates feelings of greater energy, OConnor says. Aim for 20 to 40 minutes of cardio four or five times a week. On the other hand, not all workouts need to be heavy-breathing sessions: Yoga is also restorative. A University of New Mexico study found that people who followed an eight-week yoga and meditation program had a significant increase in daily energy. And women who regularly practiced Hatha yoga had 41 percent less cytokine interleukin-6, a compound related to stress, in their blood than those who did not, researchers at Ohio State University found. Because of the type of deep breathing thats incorporated into yoga, when you do even a single pose you bring freshly oxygenated blood to your organs, says Mary-Ann Mastreani, a yoga instructor in Irvington, New York. For an instant pick-me-up, try performing this Easy Energy Twist at the office or in your living room: Sit on the edge of a chair, back straight, feet flat on the ground. Inhale as you raise your arms over your head (a); exhale and bring your left hand to your right knee and your right hand slightly behind you on the chair (b). Twist to the right. Sitting tall, inhale and exhale while gently increasing the twist. Relax; switch sides. Twisting increases blood flow and stimulates digestion, temporarily speeding up your metabolism and increasing energy, Mastreani says. Listen Up Music makes you feel good mentally and physically, says celebrity trainer Jim Karas, author of The 7 Day Energy Surge. Research shows it can reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure, and decrease stress hormones, and that it may increase feel-good hormones and improve your fitness performance. College students zipped through a series of cognitive tasks when listening to upbeat music in a recent study from the University of Dayton. And after people worked out to music, their mental performance improved, compared with exercising song-less, researchers at Ohio State University found. Music gives you that extra motivation, Karas says. If its dark outside when I have to get out of bed, I crank up the music to make myself more alert. In the morning, choose something peppy -- think Beyonce or the Black Eyed Peas -- because your mind needs a positive nudge, not an angry blast of heavy metal. In the evening, give Mozart a try. People with sleep problems who listened to classical music for 45 minutes before bed snoozed more soundly than those who didnt, according to researchers in Budapest. Whats sleep got to do with energy? Plenty. Scientists at the University of California, San Diego discovered that skipping a night of sleep significantly impaired cognitive abilities in people in their 20s and 30s. When clients tell me they need only six hours, I tell them that theyve trained themselves to live on that, Karas says. But if they got more, theyd see a huge improvement in their energy. Quit Freaking Out Its ironic that one of the biggest energy consumers of our day has nothing to do with packed schedules or sweaty workouts. Little everyday stressors, like sitting in traffic, can cause a total energy meltdown. Not at first, explains Kimberly Kingsley, author of The Energy Cure, because your initial reaction to stress is that your body starts pumping the hormone cortisol into your bloodstream, giving you an adrenaline rush. Your heart rate rises, your muscles tense, and your mind goes on high alert. But the rush is unsustainable, and before long your energy starts to crash, leaving you feeling foggy and unfocused. In fact, 76 percent of people in the United States feel the physical symptoms of stress, including fatigue, according to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association. The minute anxiety causes your heart to start racing and your breathing to become shallow, begin taking deep, deliberate inhales and exhales, Kingsley says. Focus on breathing in and out until your heart rate goes back to normal.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 01:50:00 +0000
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