Do you remember the last time that you spent the entire day feeling sharp and energized?
There’s a Starbucks on nearly every major city street for a reason…
Maybe you live “off the grid” where there’s no Starbucks in sight, but you’re sure to find a convenience store that’s packed with fridges loaded with rows upon rows of “energy” drinks.
We’re a nation of sugar addicts, caffeine addicts, and, realize it or not, most of us are addicted to stress as well. The stress-carbs-caffeine-crash-repeat cycle is an ugly lifestyle beast that sucks the energy out of you. This repetitive cycle kills your performance, makes you gain unhealthy weight, and it disrupts your mood mental focus as well.
And it doesn’t get better on it’s own.
Modern-day living can be so toxic that even if you eat reasonably healthy, excessive stress keeps piling on, adding to our toxic load and leading to the feeling of lethargy and a foggy brain, which inevitably leads to an insatiable craving for “energy”.
Unfortunately, when our chronically stressed system feels the need for a boost, we’ve been programmed to look externally for an energy source, usually something in the shape of a coffee or croissant, or a red bull or cola…
In a world where coffee is the 2nd highest consumed beverage on the planet, it’s time to explore alternate energy sources and make a change in your lifestyle, because just like Wall Street, there’s a crash coming – only when your health crashes you don’t always recover.
Consider this for a moment; what if you didn’t have to TAKE energy, what if you could MAKE energy?
Believe it or not, this is what you were designed to do.
Sadly, modern day life has taken a toll on our natural ability to manufacture our own energy, but it’s not too late to take your power back.
Here are 3 steps to optimizing your health and upgrading your performance by turning your system into an energy making machine.
1: Move it or lose it
However we think of this concept, the end result is the same: the less we move around, the less energy we make, and the more restricted our flexibility becomes, leading to tight muscles, sore joints, and a general feeling of tension and bodily pain- which is exhausting.
To avoid all of these issues, small, incremental changes to your daily movement can go a long way toward positively affecting your energy levels. You don’t need to become an endurance athlete or marathon runner. It could be as simple as starting your day with 20 push ups. A 10 minute morning routine that includes bodyweight exercises can be a game-changer in your health and productivity.
Office challenge: When you’re at work, get up and move your body every few hours. Set a timer if you have to. Take a walk at lunch, or do a few lunges or squats throughout the day. You might get strange looks at first, but once everyone notices the new pep in your step, you’ll probably start to see a lunging craze in your office…
It doesn’t really matter what you’re doing, as long as you’re moving! Take any of these tips and start integrating them into your lifestyle, and get creative by coming up with your own ways to incorporate more movement into your daily life. Your body and mind will thank you…now and many years in the future.
2: Adapt
Unless you’re living in a meditation temple with Tibetan monks in the Himalayas, during the day you’re going to be faced with stress. Sometimes lots of it. You need to be able to adapt to this stress and have an outlet for it, or it begins to compound and triggers a “Fight or Flight” response in both your mind and your body. When this reaction occurs, you chemically alter the way your brain processes thoughts, your memory and focus become impaired, and you reduce your metabolic functions.
The fight or flight response is a primal defence mechanism designed to allow you to escape a dangerous situation. It’s brilliant in design, but while our lifestyle has evolved to be safer than ever (i.e, you’re no longer at risk of being eaten by a sabre-toothed tiger) our neurological system still can’t decipher between a fast-approaching tiger, and, say, a fast-approaching deadline. To your body, stress is stress. It doesn’t discriminate.
Working in a high-pressure environment leads to our system being chronically tricked into operating as if it were in danger, and without the appropriate system to alleviate this stress, our mind and our body, and ultimately our work performance takes a serious beating.
You can adapt and optimize your system to become stronger than stress, but you need the right tools. When it comes to an efficient stress outlet, nothing is more effective than the aptly named superfood plant known as Adaptogens.
Adaptogens are a unique type of healing plant that help to protect the body from a variety of physical and emotional stresses. Simply put, adaptogenic plants are “intelligent” natural remedies, as they communicate with your body, working in harmony to create an optimal balance by adapting to your system’s unique needs. For people who suffer from chronic stress, mood or memory issues, or low energy, Adaptogens can be the missing link to achieving life-changing health and performance benefits. While there are over a dozen known adaptogens that have been used for thousands of years, when it comes to stress reduction and promoting energy and focus, there is one adaptogen that offers the most profound benefits… think of it as your “Limitless” pill.
It’s called Rhodiola Rosea.
Rhodiola is an ancient remedy for improving physical performance and increasing mental focus – even the Vikings used it to help them endure the harsh, stressful winters. Fast-forward several centuries and today many professional athletes and even top-level executives are taking Rhodiola daily to give their system a boost and help them perform optimally under high-pressure conditions.
Not only is it stress-protective, Rhodiola also improves cognitive function (literally making you smarter) and has an incredible fat-burning effect as well.
A recent medical study conducted on 130 overweight patients at Georgian State Hospital showed that taking Rhodiola extract daily led to an average weight loss of 19 pounds (11% reduction in body fat), compared to only 8 pounds of fat loss by the placebo group eating the exact same low calorie diet.
11% body fat reduction in only 8 weeks!!
Simply by taking this incredible adaptogen daily you can turn back the clock and become more energized, more sharp and clear-thinking, and burn stubborn body fat, quickly and efficiently.
3: Drink more water
As simple as this sounds, drinking enough water is something that most people neglect to do, and the ramifications can be exhausting.
Drinking water is so much more than just hydration. In our modern lifestyle, we’re constantly exposed to pollution, chemicals in our food, and with chronic stress our cells become a sponge for unbeneficial bacteria and toxins, creating a ticking time bomb inside of us. An elevated toxic load leads to a strain on our organs, which negatively impacts our hormones and diminishes our metabolic functions.
One of the most profound yet simple daily detox tricks is to drink more water. Again, set a timer if you have to. Just get that H20 in to help get the toxins OUT, and day after day your body will become cleaner and less bogged down by sluggish organs and toxins, putting you in a much stronger position to efficiently manufacture energy.
Water Hack: While it’s not a cutting edge new development, you can take water’s natural cleansing potential to the next level by squeezing in fresh lemon. It’s simple, it’s satisfying, and it’s loaded with energizing benefits. Lemons are packed with immune-boosting vitamins and enzymes, helping your organs to flush out toxins even more effectively, leading to a faster metabolism, which means more energy.
By adding any one of these 3 health hacks to your day, you put yourself in a strong position to make a quantum leap in your health and business performance. Add all 3, and your potential is limitless….
Don’t wait any longer, start now!
Originally published at www.businessbellies.com
Sources:
1. Lishmanov IuB, Trifonova ZhV, Tsibin AN, Maslova LV, Dement’eva LA. Plasma beta-endorphin and stress hormones in stress and adaptation. Biull Eksp Biol Med. 1987 Apr;103(4):422-4.
2. Zakir Ramazanov, Z. et al. (1999) “New secrets of effective natural stress and weight management, using Rhodiola rosea and Rhodendron caucasicum” ATN/Safe Goods Publishing, CT.