1. Adopt a healthy diet
Eating a nutritious diet is essential for your well-being. While healthy eating is widely associated with losing and maintaining a healthy weight, the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans says that eating a well-balanced diet consisting of fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy, lean protein, and whole grains helps your body to achieve optimal energy.
It is important to diversify your diet by including foods from all food groups. This provides your body with a range of nutrients that provide you with energy throughout the day. Choose fresh/frozen fruits and vegetables, particularly dark nutrition-rich, leafy greens and broccoli, along with orange vegetables including carrots and sweet potatoes. For healthy proteins, there are many types of fish and legumes you can choose from. Target 3 ounces of whole-grain cereals, rice, bread, or pasta per day.
2. Get enough sleep every night
Making sleep a priority is one of the most impactful steps toward achieving a successful, energized day. Adults are recommended to get seven to eight hours of sleep per night. Not getting enough quality sleep can lead to a wide range of health conditions and also have a negative impact on your mood, energy and motivation levels. Poor quality sleep is a problem that affects a large section of the population. You need to take active steps to improve your quality of sleep.
If you constantly struggle with sleep, you can start by monitoring your sleep patterns. Take note of the things that help you sleep and those that negatively affect your sleep, the amount of sleep you get each night, how well-rested you feel each morning, and how energized you feel throughout the day. Next, implement strategies to help improve your quality of sleep including creating a restful environment, find out where to find a hybrid mattress. Consider setting up a bedtime routine, lowering your stress levels, and minimizing screentime before heading to bed.
Whatever sleep routine and sleep strategies you put in place, ensure to be consistent. This will help to keep your body’s internal clock on track and contribute to a better quality of sleep. Getting good quality sleep is associated with improved health, reduced risk of diseases, improved productivity, and improved emotional well-being.
3. Surround yourself with good people
Spending more time with people that you enjoy being with is very helpful for your mental and emotional well-being. Maintaining social connections with people who radiate positivity and with who you share similar interests can help improve your mood and energy levels.
Inversely, being around people you don’t relate to or who are always complaining, have a negative outlook, or make poor decisions will only drain your energy.
Ensure to put in place limits and boundaries to safeguard yourself and your energy account when around people who don’t help refill your energy reserves.
4. Avoid being overwhelmed by the news
Consuming news is an excellent way of keeping up with the happenings around the world. Sometimes, the news can be entertaining, informative, and even uplifting.
However, the news is often filled with negative, frightening, and saddening news. Such news can alter your worldview, causing you to focus on your worst fears and overlook the good things in your life.
While it is impossible to completely avoid these stories, you can minimize your exposure where possible, especially during difficult times.
5. Get regular exercise
If you constantly find yourself feeling lethargic during the day or getting winded by simple everyday tasks like grocery shopping and household chores, the Department of Health and Human Services advises that, as an adult, you engage in a minimum of two and a half hours of moderate-intensity physical activities per week to boost your energy levels.
Besides building your energy reserves, exercise helps to lower stress and tension, boost endurance, strengthen muscles, and helps your body to function more efficiently when performing other tasks.
