5 Things that Sabotage Your Energy

Do you constantly feel exhausted and drained? Do you find it a struggle to get through the day? To be emotionally and mentally charged, you need your energy to work for you rather than against you.

If you're feeling 'blah' throughout the day, then you need to read this.

YOU can Control Your Energy Levels Believe it or not, your energy levels are within your control. While you may think you're destined to live with fatigue forever and that it's just part of who you are - this is NOT the case.

There are likely some key ways that you're unknowingly sabotaging your energy. I saw this with myself and I see it with most of my clients. While in the short term it might be a bit of a bummer to learn, you're getting in your own way, in the long term, this is great news! It means your problems are fixable, and who doesn't want to hear that?

In today's post, I'm going to teach you how you may be unintentionally causing your low energy, and how to fit it!

Without further ado, here are five mistakes that are keeping you tired.

1 |  Using Caffeine as an Energy Boost   Now, I know most of you first need to have the jolt of java in the morning to get going right? I was there too! There's nothing wrong with coffee, but I think too much is a problem. Caffeine tells the body to release adrenalin and cortisol. These are stress hormones and what happens when we have stress hormones they are heightened in the body? Your body is going into fight or action mode. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long, so you get 'caffeine crash' and when that heightened feeling is gone your body is looking for the boost again.My advice to you is start weaning off coffee if you're having too much. I used to drink about two cups a day, which isn't much, but, I decided to wean off and I went to one cup of coffee a day and just recently I've gone down to one cup every two or three days. It takes effort and I know its not easy, but start somewhere.

2 |  Skipping Meals   As a speaker, when I talk to leaders in the HR field, in banking and finance, in the legal industry as well as in the health industry, or even working entrepreneurial women; we're always busy and the one thing I find common is the tendency to skip meals because "there's so much to do". I did the same thing and I learned the hard way! On December 25th, 2015, I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the washroom, and the next thing I knew my husband was waking me up as I found myself laying on the floor. l had lost consciousness and hit my head on the bathroom counter. It was after I went to the hospital that I found out my blood sugar was at 3. Normal blood sugar is usually between 4 and 7! As I reflected on why this may have occurred, I realized I was working 14-16 hours a day, and I'd have a snack for supper and go to bed. I consistently did that because by the end of the day I'd be too tired to eat, and my body was paying for it.

3 |  Failing to Eat Enough Protein   When I'm coaching people to eat healthy and be well, one of the things I find consistently is they don't eat enough protein. Protein is important because it breaks down slowly in your body and it gives that stable energy throughout the day. In fact, it also makes you feel full. All the clients that I work with have said that just introducing that one thing in their diet has helped immensely.

4 |  Failing to Eat Enough Fats   Now you and I know that when we go to the grocery store, a lot of the foods that you see have low fat or no fat in them. Unfortunately, that's how the diet industry has evolved. However, we're starting to learn that we need to introduce healthy fats because your body needs those healthy fats to make your hormones and for cell growth. What are healthy fats? Start incorporating nuts and seeds, avocados and healthy oils.

5 |  Lack of Sleep   Did you know that our sleep cycle runs at different times throughout the night? Research has shown that the best sleep cycle is usually between 9 and 11 p.m. Therefore, if you tend to go to bed at midnight, you're not getting the best sleep. Start going to bed a little earlier, and wake up a little earlier.

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