These Ten Powerful Habits Energize Me.
There is no secret to energy. It is all common sense revolving around good habits.
There is no secret to energy.
Do you want to start your day with a surge of energy every morning?
I know the obvious answer is yes to this question. But many of us suffer from fatigue and hardly have any energy to start the day. Waking up with fatigue is not fun. Starting the day full of energy can bring joy and happiness. With a joyful day, we can overcome challenges better and produce more.
There is no secret to energy. It is all common sense revolving around good habits.
Even though energy looks like a single entity, many factors can affect our energy. In this post, I focus on broad topics covering several actions. Making these actions a habit can help us sustain our energy throughout the day.
Energy is created in our cells via tiny organelles called mitochondria. These habits that I point out can maintain our mitochondrial health. Mitochondria are known as the energy sources of our cells. The denser and healthier our mitochondria, the more sustained energy we have and the happier we feel.
Even though I read a lot about these habits in the literature and learned from successful people, I reflect upon my experience in this post.
When I turned these actions into habits, my fatigue disappeared gradually, and I never ran out of energy.
1 — Restorative Sleep
Sleeps tops the list for me. Probably you’ve heard this many times. I emphasize it as I underestimated the importance of sleep on energy production and suffered a lot.
Sleep quality is an excellent contributor to feeling healthier and more energetic. The amount of sleep may vary from person to person.
For me, at least an eight-hour sleep is essential for feeling rested. If I sleep under this amount, my fatigue returns, and even caffeine does not help me stay alert and lively.
Developing sleep hygiene is essential. I shared my experience of developing sleep hygiene in multiple articles.
Here is a book chapter from my collection.
2 —Beating Chronic Stress
Related to sleep, the next critical item is stress. We cannot live without stress, but excessive stress can harm our lives. It can cause burnout and fatigue.
Sleep and stress go hand in hand. The higher the quality of sleep, the better we manage stress.
Rather than stress itself, our response to stress matters. Awareness of stress-creating situations and eliminating them from our life add vitality and serenity.
Our mitochondrial health is impacted by stress. Thus, a practical stress management approach is critical to increasing and maintaining our energy levels.
I’ve used many techniques to manage my stress, but the most useful ones were staying mindful during the day, a 20-minute meditation, and having a short break at work every hour.
3 — Controlling Blood Sugar
After many years of experimentation, I noticed that fluctuating blood glucose created an alarming situation for my body. These excessive alarms increased my stress and made me feel hungry. Food cravings forced me to eat junk food.
My blood glucose increased fast when I ate sugary foods, and excessive insulin came to the rescue. When insulin removed the toxic sugar from the body, another hunger period started, and I felt lethargic. It was like a vicious cycle.
Having stable blood glucose and optimal insulin levels can contribute to our mitochondria’s health, thus to our energy levels.
The following articles explain the importance of blood sugar control for insulin sensitivity.
4 — Using Body Fat for Energy
Body fat as an energy source has been sustainable for me.
Relying on sugar fluctuated my mood, caused cravings, and induced fatigue.
Once I became fat-adapted, all these symptoms disappeared. I shared my experience with fat-adaption in several articles.
Burning body fat as energy also helped me stay motivated for exercise.
5 — Personalized Exercise
Workouts produce energy-boosting hormones like adrenalin, cortisol, and dopamine. These hormones keep us awake and motivated.
Excessive cardio can drain our energy. Short, high-intensity training or resistance training also produces growth hormones.
The best approach is to personalize our workouts based on our age, body type, needs, and goals.
For example, I love calisthenics, trampoline, and planks that work well for my body type.
6 — Hormonal Balance
Hormones are complex and play a critical role in energy metabolism.
Thus, awareness of a few hormones can help maintain our energy levels. I mentioned energy-boosting hormones within the exercise context. I also touched on insulin on the blood glucose topic. Even though we wake up with cortisol’s help in the morning, excessive cortisol can harm the body.
MY ENERGY LEVELS WERE REDUCED when I had elevated cortisol levels and started feeling fatigued. One of the reasons was excessive cortisol adversely affected my sleep quality.
Hormonal balance requires quality sleep, moderate exercise, manageable stress, a balanced diet, and fun.
7 — Quality Nutrition
We are all unique. Our genetic makeup determines our nutritional sources. After adjusting my diet and aligning it with my body type, I experienced a substantial energy boost. Related to nutrition, having adequate amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes in the body can make a difference in energy levels.
A simple and overlooked problem, dehydration can cause fatigue and energy deficiency. Water with electrolytes in these times can replenish the body, producing more energy.
Rather than junk foods, consuming nutrient-dense foods can help boost our energy levels.
The critical point is a personalized diet, as I explained in the attached article.
I also shared my eating regimen and observations with others in the following articles.
Skipping breakfast was the best choice for me.
A few supplements helped me boost my energy. The most important one was magnesium. Magnesium is critical for hundreds of metabolic activities in our body. Supplementing the dermal form of magnesium was one of the contributing factors to increasing my energy levels.
Here are some supplements I reviewed and tried:
Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and other nutrients that might help to improve metabolism and mental health.
8 — Refraining from Toxins
Toxins affect our mitochondrial health. They harm these organelles and cells. Removing toxins from our food supplies, water, and air contributes to our energy levels. To remove toxins from my body, I used activated charcoal. I shared my experience with charcoal in the following article.
Environmental toxins are harmful. Air and water pollution are known toxins. Our lives depend on air and water. The quality of air and water matters.
With this awareness, I invested in air cleaners and water purifiers. Having an air cleaner in my bedroom and study room helped me eliminate lethargy and increase my energy levels.
The best way to remove toxins from my body was by using a dry sauna. I use the dry sauna to increase heat response by perspiration. Perspiration helped me remove toxins from my body. Exposing the body can also activate the SIRT2 genes, known as longevity genes.
9 — Getting Adequate Sunlight
Sunlight has a significant impact on our mood. It is related to hormones. When we are exposed to sunlight, melatonin decreases. This hormone helps us sleep. Sunlight increases other energy-producing hormones.
We feel lethargic on dark and cloudy days. To overcome the sunlight challenge in winter, I used sun lamps, aka SAD lamps. Lack of sunlight is associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder; therefore, they are also called SAD lamps.
These lights send sunrise signals to the retina in our eyes aligned with the time of day. SAD lights were an excellent investment for feeling energetic during the winter days.
And the most crucial benefit of sunlight was Vitamin D. When I optimized my Vitamin D levels, I experienced a substantial energy boost.
Last but not least is cold and heat exposure.
10- Cold Showers and Saunas
I replaced my coffee with cold showers in the morning. They energized me as much as caffeine. Coffee used to upset my stomach and made me feel jittery.
But cold showers sustained my energy. It lowered my heart rate and helped me feel serene after the shower.
I shared my experience with cold showers in the attached article.
I also gained many benefits from heat exposure through the dry sauna.
I documented the benefits of thermogenesis in an article.
Final Words
Each item is critical. However, the combination of these ten items made an excellent compound effect for boosting my energy.
Introducing these ten factors to my lifestyle and making them habits boosted my energy levels.
These ten items improved my mitochondrial health and helped me eliminate my chronic fatigue and enjoy a healthy and energetic life.
In addition, quitting smoking helped me and millions of people to gain more energy.
Starting the day with a surge of energy added extra meaning to my life.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
Reference: Simple & Powerful Life-Transforming Bio-Hacks.
I write multiple stories about physical health and well-being, reflecting on my reviews, observations, and decades of sensible experiments. I link some of them to give a quick taste to my new readers on Medium.
Why 442 Million People Live Diabetic and What We Can Do About it
What Can We Do About NCDs Killing 41 Million People Yearly?.
Defeat Metabolic Syndrome and Slim Down Waistline with Three Tips
Reduce the Risks of Neonatal Disorders to Prevent Infant Mortality.
Reduce the Risks of Major Diseases with Healthy Lifestyle Habits
I also write about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and other nutrients that might help to improve metabolism and mental health.
Disclaimer: Please note that this post does not include health or professional advice. I shared my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only for information. If you have disease symptoms, please consult your healthcare professionals. Health is the responsibility of individuals.
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I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis. I share important life lessons from people in my professional and social circles compiled in the attached collection.
Here are Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories: A summary of valuable perspectives gained from people whose paths crossed with mine via serendipitous encounters.
