Low Energy Levels On A Vegan Diet? Here’s 5 Things To Do!
In this article I’m going to share with you 5 quite unconventional tips and tricks to boost your vegan energy. I’m going to share everything I’ve learned from being vegan more than 6 years and working for that same amount of time in the health & fitness industry.
So if you just give me a couple of minutes of your time, you can say bye bye to your chronic fatigue, have energy from the morning you wake up to the evening you fall asleep and get twice as much done. It’s finally time to stop being tired all the time. So let’s jump right into it:
1. Have a consistent sleep schedule
Want to have better energy? Are you currently feeling weak and tired? Improve your sleep quality.
What is the best way to increase your sleep quality? Having a consistent sleep schedule.
Meaning: Go to bed at the same consistent time. Wake up at the same consistent time. Even on the weekends.
If this is too hard to stick to, start with waking up at the same time every single day. Even if you feel tired in the morning and got tired eyes. You can still take a nap afterwards. But if energy is our main focus, we should aim to routinize our sleep.
Doing this will make you fall into deep sleep faster and therefore will make your sleep that much more restorative.
2. Drink enough water
Not drinking enough water can make or break your productivity and your energy levels during the day. This is especially true in warmer climates and on days we exercise.
Slight dehydration can lead to massive performance decreases – BEFORE giving you indications of thirst. So the belief that you can solely rely on your thirst for guiding your water intake, is simply not true.
So, make it a habit to drink enough water during the day on autopilot. Aim to drink 3-4liters of water daily.
3. Eat enough carbs
Our brain needs carbs to function properly.
Yes, we might survive on ketones only, but there’s a reason almost 0% of athletes follow a low carb diet long-term..
Nuff said. Low carb is suboptimal for performance.
Your nutrition should be based around healthy carbohdyrates (at least 60% of your total calories).
4. Eat more fiber
Ever felt groggy after a big meal? That’s your digestion at work.
The biggest drain on our energy level is our digestion. To optimize our energy therefore we have to make sure that our digestion is function properly.
How do we do that? We eat enough fiber during the day.
The minimum amount of fiber we should be aiming for is 30 grams. Ideally we should be aiming for 50 grams and more a day.
A rather weird study on paleo poop found out that our ancestors ate up to 100g of fiber a day..
5. Do exercise (specifically cardio)
Our perceived energy levels are related to our cerebral blood flow.
How do we increase our blood flow to our brain? Is there something we can do?
Yes we can. We can do cardio.
Cardio not only improves our blood circulation in general, it also has been shown to increase our blood flow to our brain.
An easy way to incorporate cardio in your routine is to hold ‘walking meetings’. Steve Jobs was a big believer in that.
Instead of sitting down for a meeting, Steve usually went for a walk with the person that he discussed business with. A habit worth considering..