Boost your energy in less than 5 minutes

Easy ways to boost your energy in less than 5 minutes!

Some strategies only take 30 seconds of tuning in.

Are you one of those people who go non-stop? Or maybe feel rushed? Try some (or all) of these strategies and see how you get a boost of energy!

* Stop rushing and Tune in: Take breaks from the computer screen or whatever you're focused on. Close your eyes, sit tall and calm, and breath deep belly breaths for 30 seconds. You can do this on your bathroom break--sitting break, or while you're washing your hands.
* If you have a place to lie down quietly in a comfortable place, we call this "active rest," it might even be better than a nap. Our spine is working hard to be in vertical so it is such a relief to allow your spine to rest horizontal! Keep your knees bent to give your low back some support. Breathe deep belly breaths and let your back relax/melt into the mat or floor.
* Sometimes it's just that your body needs more support all around. Did you get enough healthy energizing food or snacks throughout the day? Take these Activated B vitamins that have super absorption (feel the boost within 5 minutes!). Time it either in the morning or in the afternoon to avoid the post-lunch lull. B-vitamins helps support your nervous system as you deal with daily stressors and it's good for your heart! And it's great to take it before a workout. Some athletes have reported that the lift stronger weights or have other performance boosts with this vitamin B. And it's safe! Most of us are low on B-vitamins and because it's water soluble, it's safe to take several caps a day bc any extra will simply be disposed of in your urine.
* If you've had long-term stress, whether from a family/life incident or chronic long work hours, you might need some support to bring down your cortisol levels (a stress hormone) and support your adrenals. This supplement helps you improve your health of your stress hormones to a better balance-- why it's called ACTS (adrenals, cortisol, thyroid, and stress).
* Depending on your mood, listen to some happy or relaxing music on your way out of the office to your exercise class or home workout so you have the energy! My favorite diva power songs come from Pink or old school Gloria Gaynor. What are your favorite power songs?

* Have fresh plants at your desk or home. Nature helps change the energy in the area and might even make you smile! I bought these potted tulips before the flowers were in bloom, and apparently they were bursting with so much energy that each stem produced twin flowers! Now, that's extra energy from the flowers for you!

Healthy Snack Options

For busy people, we sometimes need to take a quick snack to eat in the car or on-the-go so that we don't get hit with that energy drop when our blood sugar drops. Eating every 3-4 hrs with a blend of protein+carbs is a way to maintain a healthy weight and your better mood. Please say "no" to eating fruit leather by itself--too much sugar by itself (ok in combo with other foods) and not good for managing a low-glycemic nutrition!

As much as I like to snack on trail mix, it's a little messy when I'm eating on the go and I don't have a place to wash my hands. Bars are my go-to because they fit neatly in their wrappers or jars or bags and can sit in my car's cup holder.

Many "health food snacks" are full of ingredients you can't pronounce. I prefer that my snacks are created from 5-6 food ingredients without the "soy protein isolate" or that too-sweet flavor of too much brown rice syrup or other added sugars. And I would rather they taste yummy instead of cardboard sustenance. When I need more protein, I can always resort to almonds or a low-sugar wild salmon jerky.

What are your favorite snacks? Share your ideas with us so we can share build up our resource list here. These are my current favorites:

PUREnola - local and hand-made in LA, they are all so tasty, and my favorite flavors are Coconut and Rosemary Spice. Thanks to my friend Michelle for introducing me to these tasty treats!
LaraBars  - my favorite flavors are the Apple Pie and Cashew Cookie
Kit's Organic Fruit+Nut Bars - my favorite is the Berry and Nut
GoRaw bars and cookies - I like the Lemon Super Cookies
Jocalat bars - For when you're craving some chocolate or a brownie, this is the healthier version
Pea Crisps - Trader Joe's "Inner Peas" - Veggie crunch option with lots of protein and no MSG. I grew up on the the Asian snack version of Pea Crisps but they have MSG and other chemicals. This new improved version is clear and full of vitamins! However, you do need a handi-wipe to get the crumbs off your hands.

BONUS TIP: For those of you having trouble finding a way to eat a healthy breakfast, a quick on-the-go option is 2 boiled eggs (free-range omega 3 preferred) and a snack bar from above.

Antioxidants and injuries

When I hurt my ankle (really badly--the swelling was unbelievable), I had excellent attention from the physical therapists I work with. Beyond their treatments and icing, I knew I needed a strong anti-inflammatory program to calm down the inflammation surrounding the injury and my body's higher level of stress. My body needed more fuel and ingredients for the healing process. I didn't want to take any drugs that may have side effects, so I went the natural route of antioxidants and diligently took a therapeutic program of: OPC, Vitamin C, CoQ10, Omega-3, and Quercetin.

As you might know, the vitamin levels recommended as the RDA are not necessarily sufficient for optimal health. Rather, those levels are to set at rates to keep you from getting diseases like scurvy. Different wellness doctors recommend levels of vitamin C that would be tough to include in your food diet. Optimal health levels can be found in nutrition books like The Real Vitamin & Mineral Book (a lit review by well-respected nutrition and health writers Shari Lieberman, PhD & Nancy Bruning, MPH). I really like this book because it does a thorough literature review, so you're not getting one isolated study that happened to hit the news. I could eat a lot of my favorite fruits high in vitamin C, like kiwis and strawberries, but when dealing with an injury, I wouldn't be able to eat enough fruit to get the therapeutic dosages I was looking for.

For your body to use vitamins well there are 3 factors:
1) Input -- Does the food or supplement have the vitamins and levels you want?
2) Digestion/Absorption -- Does your stomach/gut break down the pills, vitamins or food well?
3) Usability -- Is the vitamin in a form that your body can use it well? Do you have a genetic pre-disposition that doesn't use the vitamin well? If so, do you need more or a different form of that vitamin or mineral?

I personally don't like taking pills (nor does my stomach because there are some fillers and binders in pills that need breaking down), so whenever I can get a more absorbable liquid formulation, it means my body is absorbing and using more (factors 2 and 3). And when it is isotonic-capable, I'm absorbing up to 94% of what the label says, instead of the up to 40% in pill form. A leading wellness doctor used to give her patients IV vitamin therapy, and now she rarely uses the IV when there is the less expensive and very powerful option of a patient taking her vitamins daily--vitamins that are absorbed at the highest capacity.

* OPC=oligomeric proanthocyanidins which is the family of antioxidants including resveratrol (red wine extract), bilberry extract (cousin of blueberry), pine bark extract, and grapeseed extract