How to Beat Tiredness

One of my most important health goals at the moment is to beat tiredness. I will start this task by identifying energy robbers and, next, plan steps for how to enhance my day-to-day energy. The long-term goal of this is to sleep less each night while still having more energy during the day.

One of the main, common causes of tiredness is: underactive thyroid. Low blood sugar and food allergies should be addressed as well. Check for these with the help of holistic doctors as well as naturopathic holistic practitioners.

I have identified tiredness as the second most important health challenge to tackle right now, because when I am tired I end up feeling like I need heavy foods and stimulants, my motivation to be healthy reduces, I don't feel as happy, I find it more difficult to focus at work, and my confidence and intelligence suffer as well. If I can beat tiredness by means of health I will not only find it easier to eat healthily but the time I spend being awake will be more enjoyable and inspiring, I will feel better and more happy, and I will be able to have more free time outside of work.

Thank you modernlifeblogs.com for the image.

To have more energy it is very important to identify and eliminate energy robbers. These are people and situations that you don't enjoy and which literally rob you out of energy. For example, I feel that in my office job I am not learning enough new things, I am not sufficiently challenged, there are no clear rewards to look forward to in the future, and I am 'selling my soul' on a daily basis designing and helping to build houses for the rich and not helping people who need it. This website is a bit of a lifeline in that sense, as I feel that I can perhaps make a small difference in the world disseminating information and empowering people - and I am hoping that if I achieve higher energy levels and beat tiredness I will have more time to dedicate both to this website and to my own personal health.

So I would say that the number one energy robber at the moment would be my job. I am working on ways in the long term to start my own business or to reduce work days but at the moment I am still making high student loan payments every month and can't afford to leave my job, even temporarily.

What I can do, however, is to try to inspire myself every day to make work days more interesting. Try to ensure that I learn something new. I can try to put a little bit of extra effort into each task to make it more challenging and fun. This should reduce boredom and help make days a little less tiring.

On the other hand, I can use daily affirmations and subliminal messages to refocus my mind each morning and night. It is not any different from the kind of mind-programming advertisers use by repeating the same adverts over and over again. And last time I had a regular habit of listening to my own recorded affirmations daily and also listening to subliminals at work, I can say that it worked on many levels. More opportunities showed up (or perhaps I noticed them more) and I felt more motivated and inspired every day. As a result I felt much more happy and enjoyed my days more. I will write a separate article on how to do this but meanwhile you can look into the 'law of attraction' and 'self-hypnosis'.

When starting a new, high-energy life you might have to initially sleep a bit more, to catch up with any sleep deprivation and to let your body adjust to the new situation.

The main energy robbers in my life right now are:

1. Being stuck in a rut at work.
2. Not being able to follow my heart's true calling in my daily work.
3. Trying to please other people too much and not being honest.
4. Bad eating habits.
5. Often not being able to sleep well due to high blood sugar (feeling panicky).
6. Not going to bed early enough on many nights.
7. Alcohol.
8. Later noticed: Magnesium deficiency.

Perhaps one of the main things giving you energy on a daily basis is keeping your mind stimulated. Remember that the mind has a very strong effect on the body. I will have to work on trying to enjoy each moment of each day more, by keeping a check on my body's and mind's feelings.

In addition, what will help is using David Allen's 'Getting Things Done' method. I prefer to call it 'clear your mind' method. He has a method which he explains on YouTube and in his book which allows you to clear your head of nagging thoughts and things that weigh on your mind. I have started this process and am quite excited about going through the steps to finish it. Not having a clear plan for the future and having too many things on your 'to do' -list long term and short term can be very tiring and depressing. I highly recommend learning this method and will write a report on it once I have gone through the full process myself.

Pay attention to the moment, try to make each moment happier. Write down what you can do to enjoy everyday things more: set up your home environment to support this new lifestyle. Find a way to enjoy journeys to work. Enjoy your meals, etc. Seizing the moment can be as simple as that. Follow your bliss to get more energy through happiness.

(Note that it is important to find simple things that make you happy - things that can be realized everyday. Your happiness should not be dependent on big holidays, parties or things that cost a lot of money - these are additional bonuses when you have them but happiness should be achievable every day.)

High Energy Lifestyle

Yesterday I wrote about balancing blood sugar, which is my number one health goal at the moment. My second health goal is to beat tiredness because that will have a huge effect on how well I eat, exercise, how happy I am, and how many exciting things I can do during my free time.

For the first week, I will try to be in bed by 10pm and take valerian herbal pills to make me sleep if I am not feeling sleepy (which is often the case). I will change my diet to a high-energy one and hope that I can start needing less sleep quite quickly. I will commit to sleeping eight hours a night for the first week, and even more if I feel like I need to. I will try to listen to my body.

I find that it is hard to concentrate at work without stimulants, i.e. caffeine, sugar, carbohydrates. But I have also noticed that if I have a huge green juice without any sugar in it (kale, spinach, lime, celery, cucumber) it makes it easier to concentrate and I don't feel the need for stimulants. I will thus try to make a green juice for myself each morning, although the problem is that it can take a lot of time on the slow juicer. I can buy one from a juice bar on my way to work, however, and if I skip the green juice in the morning I will make one after coming home at night.

What if I still feel tired at work and feel like I need some kind of stimulant to be able to focus? This has been one of my main challenges in recent times. I think in that case I will either need to squeeze a full lemon in a glass of water and drink it - the alkaline effect of the lemon on the body will wake you up efficiently, though it's still not as strong as coffee - or drink strong ginger tea (Dalgety's) or perhaps chaga mushroom tea as its high antioxidant content might help. Just drinking plenty of water can be helpful too. But the key is to try and not let myself get tired in the first place, and focusing then should be easier. Overcoming stimulants (sugar, caffeine, alcohol, processed carbohydrates) does involve some degree of discomfort because it might take a few days before I get used to this lifestyle. I will start this week and return to report on how it went.

My full high-energy lifestyle plan:

1. Sleep early, take valerian (herbal) capsules if not sleepy.
2. Make sure the sleep environment is cool enough and you don't get woken up, sleep with an eye mask and ear plugs if necessary.
3. Eliminate sugar and processed carbohydrates completely. Only eat sugar in wholefood natural form, e.g. fruit, and even then stick to more sour varieties, at least in the beginning.
4. Eliminate dairy as it clogs me up.
5. Eat a high-raw food diet with no processed foods.
6. Eat a high micronutrient diet.
7. Daily green juice because the alkalinity and the chlorophyll content will give energy.
8. Limit heavy foods, such as nuts, but ensure enough raw fat sources, including cacao butter and coconut oil for saturated fats (important for the brain).
9. Keep body in movement, because stagnation causes fatigue. Take a longer route to work and walk 40 minutes each day that I am not exercising.
10. Seize the moment, make each moment a happy one as much as possible (might need more energy to start this in the first place).
11. Eliminate stimulants and alcohol.
12. Eat protein on almost every meal and fibre on every meal.
13. Progress the 'clear your mind' -method.
14. Stay hydrated, drink plenty of water. Replace every other tea drank at work with a pint of water.
15. Balance blood sugar (see link above).
16. Eat plenty of antioxidants: e.g. brussels sprouts, chaga mushroom tea, colourful berries and vegetables, chlorophyll-rich foods, turmeric, etc. These support the liver and all the organs in the body. A few times when I drank a lot of strong chaga mushroom tea (maybe one or two litres) I got a nice, tingling feeling in my body - a fresh feeling. I believe it is only synthetic non-wholefood sources of antioxidants that we can't take too many of whereas natural ones can be taken in large quantities but am not sure so you might want to research this first before trying.

This is my full plan on how to beat tiredness but I do believe that just quitting sugar and carbs on their own could provide a huge increase in energy. Quitting stimulants such as caffeine can be a little tricky because once you quit them, the true tiredness level of your body will be revealed. Underlying issues such as adrenal fatigue or addictions might have to be addressed in such cases and unfortunately it has been said that a majority of people in industrialized countries suffer from such problems. If you are not ready to go to the very root of the tiredness problem just yet, realize as many of the above points as you can while still keeping your morning cup of coffee. I highly recommend slowly phasing out all stimulants over time however, and getting your adrenal glands strengthened and properly running. I will write more on this in a separate article.

In conclusion, beating tiredness could be quite simple and easy. I have good reason to believe that the above roadmap is the way to go as I have experimented with many of these things already individually. I am excited to start this more complete version of high-energy lifestyle straight away, though, and will let you know how it went! I expect to feel high energy by next weekend.

Update: Vitamin B12

I have now noticed that a specific kind of vitamin B12 supplement helps increase my energy levels quite efficiently: B12 Energy Vitamin.

Update: Magnesium

Magnesium can be a very important mineral to ensure that cells get enough energy. Read more here: Magnesium Benefits.

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