How’s your energy as of late?
How many alarms do you set?
Fatigue, grogginess, brain fog, lethargy…
"low energy" is known by many names yet most people suffer from the same culprits, and one of the greatest ones responsible for our low energy is our digestion.
When our
digestion is off, slowed, or inadequate, we struggle to breakdown our food small enough to absorb properly, or we absorb too large of particles (leading to
autoimmunity).
This can lead to malnutrition (which one might think is highly uncommon here in America) or, the most popular manifestation due to poor nutrition,
inflammation.
Whether you suffer from
nagging pain, poor digestion, or low energy, the following hacks and suggestions can relieve many of these symptoms fairly quickly.
In this article, you will learn 5 ways of ensuring that you keep those energy vampires away for good.
1) Drink 8-12 oz of Clean Water Every Hour
Staying hydrated is great, but staying super hydrated will take you to an entirely new level! We are told we need to eat for energy…but actually food is mainly for recovery…consistent hydration and electrolytes will give you the incredible energy the you seek.
How To Do It
Be sure to use clean filtered water. I recommend a reverse osmosis or strong carbon filter. You can also add back trace minerals and anti-oxidants with a pinch of Himalayan Salt and a fresh squeezed lemon or lime.
You should be looking to take in at least half of your body weight (lbs) in oz of water per day.
For example, if you weight 120 lbs, you should seek to drink at least 60 oz of water per day.
Do’s and Do Not’s
Do drink water away from meals, but don’t drink much water within 30 minutes of a meal or 30 mins to an hour after a meal so that you don’t interfere or dilute with the stomach acid and digestive enzyme production. I aim to drink most of my water first thing in the morning, mid-morning and again mid-afternoon. That way I maximize my digestion for my biggest meals.
2) Drink a Green-Based Smoothie Everyday
Smoothies are one of the best ways to get nutrients into your body. This is because they are already broken down, which takes stress off of your digestive tract as compared to consuming solid foods. Because the food is essential pre-digested, you are able to absorb more nutrition from the smoothies than you would from a solid-food meal.
Plus, you can make them in much less time than a fully cooked meal.
How To Do It
Start with a good base such as organic coconut milk, almond milk, hemp milk or grass-fed goat or cow’s milk. Adding healthy fats such as an avocado or 1-2 tbsps of almond butter. Then add in ¼- ½ cup of organic berries (fresh or frozen) and 1-2 scoops of a healthy protein powder.
Do’s and Do Not’s
If you have lots of fat to lose or suffer from inflammation DO NOT use cow's milk or lots of other dairy products.
Be sure not to put too much fruit into your smoothie or you will cause a blood sugar imbalance be tired and hungry a few hours later. I recommend keeping your fruit content to no more than ½ a cup per smoothie. Ideally, use organic berries as they are the most nutrient rich fruit and in general have less of an effect in regard to throwing off your blood sugar levels.
3) Eat more fermented foods
Fermented foods provide natural probiotics for our gut health and often contain properties that can help heal leaky gut.
How To Do It
Start incorporating healthier, organic forms of fermented foods into your diet. Apple cider vinegar (2 tbsp) added to a glass of water each morning is a great way to wake up the digestive tract for the day.
Kimchi and Sauerkraut make great additions to salads, while Kefir makes a great addition to smoothies. Kombucha is also a great drink to mix things up from the blandness of plain water throughout the day.
Do’s and Do Not’s
Simply pounding kombucha all day is a great way to mess with your blood sugar or drastically bloat your intestines. You can also go overboard with consuming products simply labeled "probiotics" but come with loads of additional sugar. Stay away from those.
4) Utilizing Bitters or Digestive Enzymes Before Meals
Sometimes our stomach and pancreas could use a bit of assistance with the size and density of our meals. Aside from adding in Apple Cider Vinegar before meals, there are several other ways to help improve belching, heartburn, or gas and bloating following some of our favorite meals.
How To Do It
Try utilizing some of the better brands of digestive enzymes out there such as Digest Gold or Biogest. One or two taken right before a meal can provide drastic improvement in your digestion and thus your energy for the remainder of the day.
Do’s and Do Not’s
Trying to take lots of HCL before a meal or continuing to eat crappy foods but adding in the enzymes in hopes of countering the meals will not work. There are no pills to help with that. Be sure to continue eating whole foods but pay attention to the meals that you may need a little extra digestive aid with before starting to incorporate these supplements.
5) Capitalize On Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent Fasting can be performed several ways but essentially it is the strategic approach to refraining from eating calories for a specific window of time. This not only can help breakthrough fat loss plateaus, but it can also boost your energy due to your digestive tract not recruiting all of the energy reserves to help with digesting your meals.
The most popular form of intermittent fasting is simply skipping breakfast and simply drinking water and black coffee or tea until lunch time then starting your eating for the day at lunch.
What you don't want to do is skip breakfast (and/or lunch) then wait until dinner to gorge on anything and everything that you can get your hands on.
That is a sure fire way to live with digestive woes and stomach aches for life.