9 habit & lifestyle changes for more energy
Mom, do you have no energy anymore?
Do you struggle to get up in the morning, and always feel like you got hit by a truck - no matter how much sleep you get
Are your days are up and down, and your energy is unreliable - you don't know whether you'll be fine, or couch-bound ASAP
Do you have this full-body exhaustion, like your body is buzzing with fatigue
Do you feel like you’re walking around carrying extra weight, and just feel heavy
Do you feel like you’ve lost your spark, or you’re becoming a shell of the person you were
... and all of this is kinda hard to explain to others, because it’s not a condition or symptom that you could visually see and prove. so you worry if people are perceiving you as just lazy.
Can you relate? I know I can, because this was all EXACTLY how I felt for years.
I know it seems standard that all Moms are TIRED. Like, it’s just a part of the motherhood journey to be tired all of the time. To rely on multiple cups of coffee to get through our days.
But what if you didn’t HAVE to feel this way?
What if you actually had energy, and you felt great more often than not, and you moved through your days - your responsibilities, your work, your parenting - with so much more ease? Think about it Mom... if you had all of this energy, what would you be able to do? Who would you be? What would you be like?
This is actually possible, Mom!
And I want to talk about your options here, because you do have options, and things you can start exploring TODAY that can make a big difference.
So in this post I’m going to share 9 things you can do from a habit and lifestyle perspective to start improving your energy.
Tiredness, fatigue and lack of energy has been brought up in most conversations I have with moms regarding their health. And here’s how our lack of energy is impacting our lives:
We’re struggling to physically keep up: With our kids - feeding, bathing, dressing, playing, extracurricular activities and homework help. With our household responsibilities - cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping. With our own careers, work, deadlines, commuting. With our partners, our family, our friends. I mean, it’s exhausting just thinking about all of this let alone trying to accomplish it all with little energy!
We’re not as present and engaged as we’d like to be with our kids. We feel like we’re not living in the moment enough
We experience more mood swings, we’re irritable, we’re impatient, and we’re more reactive.
We further neglect our own self-care: We have to prioritize whatever energy we have towards the things that “need” to get done. We put off our own health & habits, which makes our energy, fatigue, and burnout even worse.
Our mental health worsens: the fact that we can’t keep up, the fact that we’re not as present, the fact that we’re irritable and impatient and snap at everyone, the fact that we’re neglecting ourselves - all of this is creating even more overwhelm, more stress, more guilt, more disappointment in ourselves.
Can you feel any of this happening in your own life?
Again - you DO have options, and things you can start exploring today, that can make a big difference over time.
But before we get to that, the very first thing I’d encourage you to do (if you haven’t already):
begin by simply growing your awareness about what’s going on.
Lack of energy, fatigue, sluggishness - these are signs that something is off in the body, and we want to pick up any clues as to what our best course of action may be to resolve what’s going wrong. You can start by asking yourself the following questions:
When did my lack of energy or fatigue start?
When do I last remember feeling well?
Is it something that comes and goes depending on the day or the time of day?
Is it a consistent feeling that I have from the time you wake up to the time I go to bed?
Have I noticed when it feels worse? (does it last all morning, or in the hours after I ate a certain meal, is it a mid-day slump that I can’t recover from, after I exercise, etc)
No one is perfect. But, consistent stress or consistently making less-than-ideal lifestyle choices do add up and have an affect on your body, and can lead to this chronic fatigue or unreliable energy.
So let’s talk about 9 things you can do from a habit and lifestyle perspective to increase your energy. As you listen to these, think about which ones you’d like to start with.
1) SUPPORT
Alisa Vitti says in her book, The Woman Code: “If you’re like most women living in the twenty-first century… you’re probably under a barrage of stress from a slew of different sources. But your adrenals were designed to endure the occasional stressful outrun-a-tiger-sprint - not the marathon of chronic stress most of us are running. Unfortunately spending months, years, and decades living this… it’s become such an everyday experience - the ‘new normal’ - that they don’t even realize they could correct this and feel better.”
If you want to have more energy, we likely need to start increasing our support wherever possible. That constant, chronic, low-grade anxiety and stress is not good for your body and making things worse! If possible, try to increase your support system as you work to heal and feel better.
2) BLOOD SUGAR
Managing your blood sugar! What do I mean by this? Well, each time you eat something sugary, highly processed, or very carby meals - like a big plate of pasta - this is making your blood sugar spike and crash. If we’re eating these things all day, our blood sugar is going up and down and up and down. This is putting stress on our bodies and can lead to fatigue and energy problems.
Take a look at what you’re eating all day - do you start your morning off with cereal, a bagel, oatmeal, pancakes, and then have a sandwich for lunch, granola bars or pretzels or chips for snacks, and then pasta for dinner? I mean I get it - this was my lineup too! But by prioritizing protein - eggs, greek yogurt, meat, chicken, fish - as well as more veggies and fruit, healthy fats like avocado, this will calm all the spikes, stabilize your blood sugar, and stabilize your energy throughout the day.
3) PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
We all know exercise is important… but when you’re a busy and tired mom battling all sorts of fatigue and symptoms and overwhelm, dragging your butt to the gym can feel impossible, right? And intense workouts can feel hard for your body to keep up with. If you’re someone who’s struggling with energy, and you’re not getting any physical activity, any movement throughout the day - even just starting with developing a daily walking routine is a great way to get your body that daily movement it does need to start feeling better and functioning properly. And it’ll help give your mood a little boost too!
As you get used to more regular movement in your life, as you’ve built this habit into your routine, you can then slowly add in one day, two days, of strength training (something I do right in my own family room with some weights and a resistant band) Strength training is important for building your muscle, fixing your metabolism, and improving your energy.
4) NUTRIENT-DENSE FOOD
Focus your meals and your snacks on whole, nutrient-dense foods, while reducing the processed/packaged foods. Those real foods - all those foods in the outer perimeter of the grocery store - are full of nutrients that our bodies need to produce energy. The stuff in those middle aisles are not only lacking in these nutrients, but they have all these extra science-experiment sounding ingredients that hurt our bodies, throw off our hormones, cause those blood sugar spikes we talked about, and zap our energy.
5) EATING TO FUEL
I know we all grew up learning to eat less and exercise more. So in this effort to lose weight, a lot of us are simply cutting calories without realizing that our bodies don’t actually have enough FUEL. When our bodies are starving for fuel, not only will we feel kinda hungry all of the time, but we will feel tired!
So go ahead and reduce those calories from sugar and processed foods… BUT make sure you are eating plenty of protein, as well as fruits and veggies, and healthy fats too - especially getting in that protein at breakfast! Your body needs protein to have enough energy to go about your day.
6) TIMING
Paying attention to when you’re eating. Are you someone who looks for those late-night snacks or treats? After an exhausting day, you curl up on the couch, turn on Netflix, with your glass of wine, indulge in a sweet dessert or some chips. This is going to cause those blood sugar spikes all through the night, which may literally wake up… or at the very least, you just won’t be getting that deep restorative sleep, which will make you feel more tired the next day.
7) ALCOHOL
Reducing your alcohol intake, especially right before bed! Just like all of those sugary foods, alcohol is known to affect sleep too - so even if that glass of wine helps you fall asleep, it’s likely waking you up in the night and preventing you from getting that deep, restorative sleep you need.
8) HYDRATION
Dehydration can contribute to fatigue and making it worse, so make sure to keep up with your water intake.
9) OF COURSE, SLEEP
Aim for at least 7-8 hours of quality sleep. The amount differs per person and you know your body best. I’m someone who actually feels my best at 9 hours - I don’t always get this every night but I do shoot for it, because I know how much better I’ll feel the next day so this is one of those habits that is like a non-negotiable for me.
And now, I want to throw in a bonus point (well, multiple points!) For those like me who enjoy going a little bit deeper, I want to recommend a few areas you could explore - either on your own with research, a good health book, or with your primary care doctor:
10) CONTINUED LEARNING
Blood sugar management: We talked about this before, but I’m recommending it because if you don’t know a lot about it, there can be a bit of a learning curve. It’s difficult to just balance our blood sugar by accident. It takes some baseline knowledge about what it is and why it matters, and some intention behind what you’re choosing to eat, how you’re putting together a given meal, when you eat, etc. I definitely recommend learning more about how to balance your blood sugar as it’s SO important for energy and women’s hormonal health, especially as we get older and head into mid-life.
Thyroid health: Your thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland at the base of your neck, and is responsible for a lot of critical functions in your body - your metabolism, heart rate, blood pressure, your menstrual cycle, and more. Hypothyroidism, when the thyroid isn’t producing enough of the thyroid hormone, is known to create a sluggish metabolism and things like fatigue, depression and weight gain. It’s important to know the basics of thyroid health because women are 5-8x more likely to develop thyroid issues than men, AND MOST people who suffer from thyroid conditions are unaware they have them. So I’d definitely recommend looking into it, knowing the markers of good thyroid health, and getting your thyroid tested to see where you’re at.
Nutrient deficiencies: the nutrients in food are telling your body what to do and how to function. Not getting enough B vitamins, Magnesium, Iron, CoQ10, Vitamin D - these are some examples of micronutrients that are associated with energy production, and if you’re deficient, it may be the reason you’re struggling. You could request some basic blood testing from your primary care doctor to check and see where you’re at, and as we talked about before, make sure your diet is full of healthy, nutrient-dense foods.
Poor gut health: Many doctors view your gut as *ground zero* for your health (Even Hippocrates said over 2,000 years ago, “All disease begins in the gut”). Your gut is the primary contact with your external environment. It’s the gatekeeper - it’s supposed to take in the good (like nutrients from your food), and keep out the bad (like toxins, bacteria, and harmful substances). When the gut wall breaks down, partially digested food particles and toxins break through - our immune system goes haywire, inflammation spreads, and we can feel so many symptoms including fatigue. Things like poor diet, frequent antibiotics, alcohol, or unknown food sensitivities can all mess up your gut health.
Autoimmunity: Feeling tired and achy may be a result of an undiagnosed autoimmune condition - which happens when the body’s immune system basically starts attacking itself. Women are disproportionately affected by autoimmune diseases as compared to men (up to 80% of people with autoimmune diseases are women!)After years of struggle, I was finally diagnosed with Celiac Disease, which means my immune system was attacking my own intestines every time I ate a bite of gluten. Hashimoto’s is when the immune system attacks the thyroid, rheumatoid arthritis attacks the joints, Psoriasis the skin, and there’s many more.
Here for you, Mom.
If you’re in a place where you could really use more personalized support, I encourage you to check out my Healthy Mom Kickstarter 3-month coaching program. I offer free consultation calls to see if it’s the right fit!
