9 WAYS TO GET YOUR BODY
ENERGIZED
Energize Your Workouts
How to get
your body motivated--and moving
By Liz Applegate , Liz Appletgate,
Ph.D., a Runner's World magazine columnist and author, is on the
Nutrition Department faculty at the
A number of factors can conspire to make you find an
excuse to not exercise. Physical hunger is the most common culprit, which is
why I suggest to fitness enthusiasts that they
snack on mini meals every few hours rather than eat two or three large meals a
day. Other factors that mainly affect your brain's energy can cause a
dip in motivation as well.
Here are some food tips and strategies to keep your
energy up and your motivation in motion.
Make breakfast happen. Skipping breakfast, the
most important meal of the day, can leave you feeling muddleheaded both at work
and during your workout. Many studies on children have shown that when they
miss breakfast, they falter in reading, memory, and other cognitive skills. It
appears that the brain is sensitive to short-term deficits in fuel and nutrient
supply.
Going all night without food and then skipping
breakfast may cause your blood sugar levels to dip, which can bring on
light-headedness. And since sugar in the form of glucose is your brain's
primary fuel source, it's no wonder that your memory and other thinking powers
go downhill when you're running on empty.
Ready-to-eat breakfast cereal, fruit,
and milk make for a great start. Or try unconventional breakfast items such as leftover pizza or a
casserole. If you're in a hurry, take along a container of yogurt, a piece of
fruit, and a whole grain roll, or try a ready-made pita wrap (available in your
supermarket's deli section). Or throw fresh berries, low-fat ice cream, and
milk in a blender, then grab a cup of this super fruit smoothie in one hand,
your briefcase in the other, and go.
Wake up with water. A
cold splash of water in the face has always been a reliable wake-up call, but
drinking water can energize and refresh you even more. Between 55 and 60
percent of your body is composed of water, most of it residing in your cells,
where it allows for essential chemical reactions like the breakdown of
carbohydrates for brain fuel. In fact, your brain is more than 70 percent water
by weight, and if this percentage dips below a critical level, you'll feel
listless, dull, and headachy.
Brain dehydration can easily happen even without the
added stress of exercise. Dry indoor air causes fluid loss that you may not be
aware of; combined with too little water intake and too many caffeinated
beverages, this gradual dehydration can leave you with a brain-drain headache
by late afternoon.
Keep yourself energized by starting off your morning
with an 8-ounce glass of plain water before your morning coffee. Keep a bottle
of water handy, drinking 1 to 2 quarts throughout the day. According to the
USDA, most people in the
Snack on raisins. Raisins (along
with apples, nuts, and parsley) are a great source of the mineral boron, which
plays a role in brain function, perhaps combating drowsiness. In a
series of studies performed by the USDA, healthy men and women ate diets low in
boron for several weeks. Another group ate the same foods but took a boron
supplement. Both groups took a battery of tests that assessed brain functions
such as brain wave activity and cognitive skills, including memory, attention,
and manual dexterity.
Compared with those in the supplement group, the
subjects on the boron-deficient diet showed slowed brain activity, indicating
drowsiness. Researchers also noted deterioration in cognitive skills among the
low-boron group. The USDA researchers gave the study subjects 3 to 4 milligrams
of boron, a dosage equivalent to that found in about 3 ounces of raisins and 1
ounce of almonds.
Toss a few raisins and nuts into your cereal and
salads and keep some snack-size boxes or packets in your desk for afternoon
grazing.
Munch on Brazil nuts and tuna. Brazil
nuts and tuna are two of the best food sources of selenium, a mineral that not
only serves as an antioxidant but also may boost mood, lift spirits, and
contribute to feelings of clear-headedness.
USDA researchers tracked the effects of varying
selenium intakes on men's mood profiles for 15 weeks. Half of the men in the
study consumed 40 percent of the recommended daily selenium requirement, while
the other half took in about 350 percent.
When researchers tested the
moods of groups, the high-selenium group felt more elated than depressed, more
energetic than tired, more clearheaded than confused, and more confident than
unsure.
But before you rush out and buy a selenium
supplement, be aware that this mineral is highly toxic in large doses. Stick to
no more than 400 micrograms, or five to seven times the daily requirement
(which is 55 micrograms), and talk to your doctor before supplementing with
that amount. Better yet, concentrate on getting selenium in your diet. In
addition to tuna and nuts, other good food sources include chicken, turkey,
lean beef, and whole grain bread and cereals.
Lighten up at lunch. You probably know from
experience that loading up at lunch can leave you
feeling sleepy in the afternoon. That's because food in your digestive
tract diverts blood away from other parts of your body, leaving you with that
sluggish feeling. Studies show that big meals (1,000 calories or more) at
midday cause more drowsiness than lunches half that size. If you feel sleepy
following even a light lunch, try adding some protein the next day.
Fill up on fiber. If you feel
de-energized and hungry when your meal wears off, try adding some fiber to your
fare. Pectin, a type of water-soluble fiber found in fruits such as apples and
oranges, has been shown to help people feel full longer by delaying emptying of
the stomach. When people swallowed a 5-gram dose of pectin (extracted
from apples) with their meal, they felt full for up to 4 hours. An added
benefit is that pectin also helps lower blood cholesterol levels.
Snack intelligently. If
you're just plain tired, eating a small snack can perk you up. Keep
these snacks high in nutrient-packed, carbohydrate-rich foods and light on
calories (stay under 200). If the snack is crunchy, really hot, or really cold,
it will help wake up your senses. Here are some healthful examples:
One frozen fruit
bar
8 ounces of drinkable fruit-flavored yogurt
mixed with 4 ounces of club soda
One ready-to-eat
cereal bar like Nutri-Grain tossed in the microwave
for less than a minute and then spread with 1 tablespoon fat-free cream cheese
One sorbet
"sandwich" (3 tablespoons strawberry sorbet wedged between two
caramel corn rice cakes)
One small package
of precut veggies with reduced-fat dip
Avoid a java jag. Drinking a cup
or two of coffee improves feelings of alertness and clear-headedness and may
even bolster your performance on monotonous tasks such as typing or filing.
But moderate use of this pick-me-up can easily brew into a caffeine habit that
may actually zap your energy and cause fatigue. People who perpetually have a
cup of coffee, tea, or cola in their hands have developed a dependency. Without
a steady allotment of the stimulant throughout the day, they feel tired,
irritable, and even headachy (a symptom of withdrawal). In short, they're
caffeine junkies.
If you view coffee or other caffeinated beverages as
a life source without which you can't function, try phasing caffeine out a
little at a time to regain your own natural energy. Start your "detox" by cutting one-fifth of your typical daily
caffeine intake for a few weeks. You may experience fatigue or headaches for a
day or two as your body goes through withdrawal. When you've adjusted to this
amount, continue gradually cutting back. Once you're down to
a cup or two in the morning, you can decide whether you want to eliminate
caffeine altogether.
Ditch the diet. According to research, people who cut
calories to slim down perform poorly on tests of memory and mental processing.
One study compared the mental performances of people on weight-reducing diets
to the performances of those who weren't dieting. The researchers likened the
slowed mental performance seen in dieters to being intoxicated by alcohol.
While some researchers argue that poor mental
performance stems from an inadequate flow of energy to the brain, the
researchers who did the study theorize that the results of the study reflect
dieters' feelings of anxiety. When dieting, most people start obsessing over
the foods that they are trying not to eat as well as worrying about the success
of their dieting efforts. This type of distraction affects mental processing
capacity. The effects were more serious in dieters who weren't losing weight
than in those who were, supporting the theory that anxiety may play a role in
undermining mental performance.
If you're limiting your calories to lose weight,
avoid radical dieting, which is sure to leave you feeling drained. The best route to weight loss is to boost your activity
level to burn more calories while simultaneously making small adjustments to
your eating habits. You have better things to do than worry about your next
meal.
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