Finding natural ways to get energy can be tedious, especially when you could just rely on caffeine in your coffee or tea. Although the UK is listed as the 45th country on the Telegraph’s Biggest Coffee Drinkers list, there are still too many of us that rely heavily on that first cup of coffee in the morning to get us through the day. Instead of relying on drinking too much coffee, there are a lot of natural alternatives you can do to get more energy and feel more awake and motivated for your day ahead. Here is a list of 10 alternative and natural ways to get energy instead of reaching for the coffee every morning:
It may seem like the most obvious thing, but getting more sleep is essential to naturally boosting your energy levels and feeling better during the day. We should be aiming for at least 6 hours of quality sleep per night, which can be difficult to achieve if you stay up late and have early starts. If you are sleeping for 6 hours and still feeling low-energy, consider using a device to track your sleep such as the Fitbit, which will display the time spent in each sleep stage, and will also enable you to set sleep targets, such as a sleep time and a wakeup time.
Most of us are guilty of staying up late at night on our phones or laptops, watching something on Netflix or scrolling through Facebook and Instragram until we fall asleep. But this could actually be doing damage to the quality of our sleep, due to the blue light emitted from our screens. Try to put your phone or laptop away an hour before bedtime, or if you really can’t or need to work late, consider using a blue light filter. Lots of phones now have this feature built-in, but there are also a lot of apps that will be able to filter the blue light from your phone. If you have trouble waking up in the morning from feeling low-energy, using a sunrise simulator alarm clock such as this one by Philips can help you feel like you are waking up with natural light, which will make you feel more energised, and is perfect if you have black-out blinds where the sunlight can’t get into your room naturally.
Not all carbs are created equal! Complex carbohydrates, such as oats, wholegrain bread, starchy vegetables and beans, are broken down in the body more slowly than simple carbs, such as white bread/pasta and fruit juice. This means that complex carbs are the correct choice to maintain better energy levels and avoid the energy “crash” associated with a blood sugar spike from eating simple carbs. This is a must-know if you are looking for natural ways to get energy- and keep it throughout the day!
One of the main causes of fatigue is actually dehydration, meaning that not drinking enough water can make you feel more tired and low-energy. Making sure you drink enough water across the day will ensure that you get a natural energy boost without having to drink coffee!
It seems very counter-productive, but putting on your trainers and working out can actually give you a totally natural energy boost and leave you feeling energised and motivated. This is because exercising releases endorphins in the body, which are hormones associated with pleasure and pain relief. Regular exercise can also help with your quality of sleep, meaning that you naturally have more energy, as well as helping to manage stress. No matter if you’re going for a run, cycle, lifting weights in the gym or practising yoga, all exercise is good exercise and will help you to get energy naturally.
You may be surprised to know that Green Tea also contains caffeine, but is much better for you than coffee or tea. Green tea can give you a delicate caffeine boost, with about 25 to 50 milligrams of caffeine per cup, whereas coffee is usually between 95 and 200 milligrams a cup. So if you are looking to wean yourself off coffee, green tea is a good drink to switch to, especially when looking for natural ways to get energy.
Feeling tired or fatigued can often be associated with a vitamin deficiency in your diet. Considering taking vitamin supplements can be a healthy way to boost your vitamin intake, as long as they are taken alongside a healthy diet. Vitamin B12 is vital for a range of functions in your body, including your metabolism and immune system, but is also essential for the reduction of tiredness and fatigue. Another solution for natural ways to get energy!
When you have a tight schedule in the morning, it can be tempting to skip breakfast altogether. There is a reason that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’ – it’s true! There have been a lot of scientific studies on the impact of skipping breakfast on our health, and the results of these appears to suggest that that skipping breakfast makes people feel less energetic and so impacts their physical activity for the rest of the day. However, it is important that you eat a healthy breakfast, and opt for wholegrain cereals or oats, eggs, yogurt or fresh fruit rather than sugary cereals.
Perhaps one of the best natural ways to get energy. When you feel tired and sluggish, perhaps the last thing on your mind is going to stretch your legs. However, a short walk before work in the morning or on your lunch break can help you to feel fresher and more energised. A quick walk of as little as 10 minutes can help you to feel more positive and have more energy to take on the rest of your day. This is particularly beneficial in the summer months, when you can pick up some extra vitamin D from the sunlight.
The prospect of having a cold shower in the morning may not be a particularly desirable one, but there is actually a wide range of health benefits associated having a dip under cold water. That intake of breath when the shock of cold water hits your skin is stimulating deep breathing which increases your oxygen levels and jump-starts circulation – both of which will help you to feel more awake and energised. If you can’t bring yourself to jump straight into a cold shower, have a hot shower first and slowly reduce the temperature for as long as you can handle it, with the aim of increasing the time spent under cold water every day.
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