When it comes to getting more energy, our society is always looking for a quick fix.
I still remember the day I got hooked on coffee.
I was 19 years old and it was the first day at work at my new corporate job. They handed me a gigantic pile of work, and I thought to myself “I’ve heard coffee can help with this”.
A few months later and I was completely addicted. Having up to 5 or 6 coffees every day just to make it through each day.
I was constantly getting sick and my body was breaking down. Even though I thought I was being healthy and was playing at a high level of basketball.
I had no idea that I literally knew nothing about how to fuel my body properly. I’d just been doing what I’d learned in my environment from my family, friends, and school.
This is what really started my deeper research and study into nutrition. How to get the most out of the human body, without the need for stimulants.
(and I’m not saying coffee is a bad thing. I still have it now, but you never want to abuse or become reliant on any substance).
My research lead me down many roads. I tried just about every new diet, habit or supplement I could find to try and maximize my body’s potential.
Consistency is King When it Comes to Getting More Energy
After a few years of trial and error, the same patterns kept coming up.
When it comes to health, the fastest way to getting the most energy and maximizing your body’s potential is by focusing on the fundamentals – consistently, day in, day out.
They build up a compound effect and work together synergistically to have your body running at its peak like never before.
You simply need to provide your body with the conditions it naturally needs to thrive.
I could literally write an entire book on all the different little health hacks that can help. But here are some of the biggest fundamentals you’ve got to have covered before you start to venture off into the fine-tuning.
1. Get Alkaline
The biggest game-changing habit for me when I began this journey was focusing on getting enough alkaline nutrients (antioxidants) into my body.
Our bodies require alkaline nutrients like magnesium, potassium and calcium to thrive.
However, the modern western diet is overrun with overly acidic unnatural foods our body wasn’t designed for (processed food, processed sugar, poor quality hormone-filled meat and dairy etc.).
Just like the body temperature, our bodies will do ANYTHING it takes to maintain the correct acid/alkaline balance to survive.
When we’re eating a diet that’s overly acidic, this creates an enormous toll on our energy levels and bodily systems to maintain this balance.
We do require acidic foods as well but we need to make sure we get enough alkaline foods to balance them out.
Our bodies are naturally very resilient and have alkaline nutrients stores to deal with acidic influences in our environment.
However, after years and years of eating a low-quality, overly acidic diet and having less than optimal habits, it can really build up and cause a myriad of health issues from fatigue and headaches to more serious life-threatening chronic diseases if left unchecked.
The solution is very simple though.
Simply make sure you have a raw salad with plenty of greens every day, plenty of vegetables with your dinner and drink high-quality alkaline filtered water (I recommend getting a Gentoo Water Jug).
If you’re like me and you also like to have a life, eat out and enjoy yourself once in a while (rather than being perfect 100% of the time), then it’s a great idea to add in an alkaline green drink into your morning routine too.
Just one scoop gives you a huge shot of alkaline nutrients which gives your body an added boost to deal with anything less than optimal in your daily life.
It will provide your body what it needs to thrive, giving you more energy and making you feel amazing.
2. Optimize Your Digestion
One of the biggest tolls on your body’s energy levels is digestion.
Have you ever had a food coma after a big meal? That’s your body working hard to break down heavy, hard to digest foods.
To maximize your energy levels, it’s best to have easily digested foods during the day. Foods like fruits, nuts, and raw vegetables.
Then save the heavier foods like grains and meat for later when you don’t need the energy.
What I personally do is called intermittent fasting.
I usually skip breakfast, just having water and low/no-calorie beverages until around 12pm-4pm when my body gets hungry (it varies day to day, and if I’m truly hungry earlier I’ll listen to my body above all else).
In general (obviously each day is different), I’ll start off with some fruit, have a salad, some nuts and maybe some yogurt during the day (spaced out, not all at once).
Then for dinner, I’ll have a larger more calorie-dense meal. I’ll usually cook up a big stir fry or curry, or head out for dinner. I’ll have meat at dinner 2-4 times per week as that’s the amount that currently works best for my body.
I also try to not eat later than 8pm to make sure my bodies not digesting overnight. This is when it should be focusing on recovery and healing (though this doesn’t always happen – life haha).
The main thing is that you listen to your body and how it responds to different foods.
Everyone is unique, so just check in to see how your energy levels are after eating and adjust your routine to suits your needs and goals.
3. Stay Hydrated
I know this is so obvious and basic but it’s so important.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s doing the fundamentals consistently that will get you the quickest and most powerful long-term results.
Being dehydrated can be one of the biggest causes of fatigue.
Our bodies are made up of mostly water, this is why it’s extremely important to keep ourselves hydrated.
Especially if we have any less than optimal habits in our lives as it can be a great equalizer.
Make sure you listen to your body and drink whenever you’re thirsty.
A good indicator that you’re drinking enough water is to drink enough to make sure your pee is clear. Don’t go crazy though – it’s all about balance.
Each day when I wake up I have about 1 liter of water which makes sure I’m on top of things.
I then just sip on water throughout the day and generally try to finish drinking around 6pm. This helps make sure I’m not waking up to go to the bathroom all through the night (so annoying!).
4. Restore Your Battery
An easy way to understand how our body’s energy levels work is to relate it to the battery in your phone.
The battery can only be charged when it’s plugged into the power source.
It doesn’t get charged by being used or by increasing its performance.
Our bodies are similar in that they only get charged from proper rest – sleep and meditation.
They don’t get recharged by using a stimulant like coffee to increase its performance. That just increases the output of energy for a short amount of time, using up energy more quickly.
This is why stimulants can be a good tool to use if they work well with your body. But you never want to be reliant on them to function.
So make sure that you create a regular sleeping pattern, going to bed and waking up at the same time each day, and work in alignment with nature’s natural laws.
I personally function best when I get to sleep before 10pm and wake up around 6am, giving me at least 8 hours of sleep.
But listen to your body above all else. Some people are night owls and work best by sleeping in and staying up late, or function better on less sleep.
Again, just do what’s right for you, your body, your goals, and lifestyle. The most important thing is consistency.
5. Move Your Body
Our bodies were designed to move.
A fit body is a highly functioning body. All of our bodily systems perform at their peak when we’re getting enough exercise.
You don’t need to be exercising 2 hours a day 6 days a week though.
As little as 30 minutes 3-4 days per week is all you need to really have a huge impact on your health and energy levels.
Simply choose an exercise you enjoy doing. The main thing is to get a sweat up, get the blood pumping and endorphins flowing.
I personally love to do yoga, play basketball, bike ride and do calisthenics.
I did put this later in this list though, as it’s much easier to get yourself to exercise when you’re doing all of the above (which are much easier to do initially) as your motivation and energy levels will already be massively increased.
An added benefit with exercise is that it will naturally cause you to begin breathing deeper and get more oxygen into your body which will massively increase your energy on its own.
Shallow breathing due to the amount of stress in modern-day life can be a huge factor in lowering your energy levels.
It’s also best if you’re able to do your exercise outside in fresh air, sunshine, and barefoot so that you can connect your feet to the ground.
6. Calm Your Mind to Boost Your Energy
As mentioned above, stress plays a massive role in reducing our body’s energy levels.
Having out bodies constantly in fight or flight mode causes blood to be moved away from our organs and hormones to be released in unnatural doses.
This is why it’s so important to quiet and calm the mind.
Taking even as little as 10-20 minutes per day to put on a guided meditation can really do wonders for your health and energy levels.
It’s really a process of negating the negative effects our modern-day society has on our minds and bodies.
Living in Alignment with Nature’s Laws to Get More Energy
At the end of the day, having more energy all comes back to living in alignment with nature’s laws.
We come from and are a part of nature. We have evolved within it for millions of years and have a synergistic relationship with it.
Our modern society has largely moved us further and further away from where we come from and the natural conditions we require are to thrive.
We don’t move our bodies like we would have living in the wild. Most of us don’t eat only natural foods from nature. We also spend so much of our time glued to screens rather than connecting with the people around us.
All of these changes take a huge toll on our energy levels each day as our minds and bodies try to keep bringing us back to a healthy state where we belong.
By applying the above principles, you can make sure you’ve got the fundamentals covered towards getting back into alignment so that you can maximize your energy levels and get the most out of your body so that you can enjoy life to the fullest!
Did you find this information helpful? Have you tried any of these tips yourself? What have you found works best for you in your daily routine? Let me know in the comments below.
