You might laugh at this but the easiest way by far for able bodied people to boost their energy levels is to move! That's it, just move! This might sound like a contradiction, but the more you do the more energy you will develop over time. I remember back when I was a couch potato and how I used to complain about being far too exhausted to get up and go some place and do something. More often than not, I made the decision to remain as I was. Idle!
Putting that into some kind of perspective, a typical day for me went as follows: First I would get out of the bed that I'd been lying on all night long. Once I prepared a spot of breakfast, I would sit down in front of the early morning TV news channel and eat my food. After a quick shower and shave, I'd get dressed for work and then head out to the car where I'd sit down and steer my way to the office.
Once at work I would sit in front of my PC all morning and do what was expected of me. At lunch time, me and a few work buddies would sit down and eat at the works canteen or the local pub. The afternoon was a repeat of the morning until it was time to clock off, where I would once again sit down in the car and steer my way home. Once at home I would eat dinner in front of the TV before falling asleep for an hour or two. Once I woke up I would take a shower, grab a snack, and hit the sack. At this point I was almost at full circle as I lay sleeping on the bed waiting for the morning to roll round before repeating the above. Blimey, take about Groundhog Day!
I tell you, all that laying and sitting around all the time got me so tired I couldn't have been more exhausted if I'd been digging a ditch all day long! But there came a point where I got sick and tired of being constantly dead beat, and so I eventually went to seek out some professional help. It wasn't until the fitness therapist got me to write down a typical day that the problem was easily identified. He explained that doing 'nothing' was making me so tired all the time.
Apparently, it's common knowledge in fitness circles that when you are not physically active, your body becomes lethargic and as a consequence of that, you feel like you want to sleep all the time. It was explained to me that being exhausted from exercise is not the same as being tired from inactivity. After a brisk walk or a session down at the gym, the fitter you are the shorter the tired spell is after the workout.
Without going into the science of it all, staying active will give you more energy and keep your energy levels higher throughout the day. As a direct consequence of having renewed my energy levels, I now find that I don?t want to sit around anymore and have gotten back into playing tennis again twice a week after work, plus I usually have a good swim with the kids on Sunday mornings too. I've even rostered myself into taking the dog for a walk of an evening, which was a job I was happy to let the brood do up until recently.
Getting active again is a win-win situation. You feel great, you look better, and you get more done. I had absolutely no idea that I was tired because I didn't move enough. I'm just so happy to have found a very simple solution to what was becoming a huge problem.
