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How to Get More Energy
31 Plays5 months ago
Everyone struggles with lapses in energy from time to time, but if you feel overall like you ~should~ have more energy than you do on a daily basis, you probably could be doing some things to improve those energy levels! In today's installment of Art of Intention we share the common and not-so-common things that may be holding you back from having your maximum energy levels, and what you can do about it!
Hang tight through this one, we know it's a bit longer but we really wanted to be thorough, and we know from personal experience that the tips we share WILL make a major difference in your energy levels!
Sincerely,
Your hosts: Beth and Ayla
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Transcript
Introduction to Energy Boosting
00:00:00
Speaker
We are excited to talk today about something that really does apply to everyone. Get this, it's how to get more energy throughout your day. I'm sure almost everyone out there has tried multiple things when it comes to wishing for more energy throughout the day. Caffeine, supplements, adjusting sleep cycle, et cetera. So we wanted to share some of our secrets about that. If you feel your energy levels are lower than they should be and you want to know if there's something you can do to improve your energy, we have got good news for you.
00:00:28
Speaker
Welcome to the Art of Intention podcast with Beth and Ayla. Two best friends turn creative entrepreneurs. This is a place for us to discuss everything business friendships and faith and occasionally more. We're so excited for today's episode. We think you're going to love it. Stay tuned.
Identifying Low Energy Signs
00:00:48
Speaker
Okay, so maybe it's obvious that you need to get more energy. That's probably why you chose to listen to this episode. But just in case you're not sure if this episode would apply to you, here are some of the things to look for in your life that we think will tell you if something could be improved in that area.
00:01:04
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. If you feel like any of these things that I'm about to list apply to you, then you could probably have more energy in your day and really benefit from it. You just have to know how to get to it. So number one is, and this was me for a very long time, if you rely on coffee to have the ability to do anything in the morning, not saying you can't have this, and I'll expand on this in a minute, but if you wake up and just like,
00:01:28
Speaker
need that. And like, for lack of a better word, the joke of like, don't talk to me, I've had my coffee. We can all laugh. But if that's serious, it is a sign that your body's lacking a natural energy and wake up cycle that it should have. This could translate into relying on caffeine right when you wake up and then throughout your day as well, which is a scary place to be actually when you think about it. If you take a long time to wake up or super groggy in the mornings,
00:01:55
Speaker
attacked kind of by this one. But we will again explain how to make this better.
Effects of Low Energy on Life
00:02:00
Speaker
But yeah, if you take a long time to wake up, this next one is obvious. But if you're just straight tired a lot, or if your energy is fully drained by maybe the afternoon instead of the evening, another one but feeling lethargic kind of more specifically than just tired throughout the day, but like lethargic. I mean tasks like going and getting a glass of water feel draining to you like you get up and you cannot wait to get back to your couch and like sink back into it.
00:02:24
Speaker
If you have a regular sleep patterns, so maybe you only sleep a few hours at night, sleep different hours.
00:02:31
Speaker
every night, have trouble falling asleep, or if you wake up sporadically, anything like that, just irregular sleep patterns. Believe it or not, that's just because you're not having proper energy throughout the day. If you rely on things like melatonin to sleep, but then you have a hard time waking up in the mornings, I was caught in a cycle for a long time, you need it to sleep, but then you just can't get out of bed in the mornings. It's the worst feeling. It's the worst feeling like you've woken up with not enough sleep, even though you took something to help you.
00:02:59
Speaker
Um, if you feel like you're not as productive as you could be, or this is a big one, have been in the past. If you just, you set out to do so much in the day and you just fight and fight and it's not getting done. You maybe got two items done on your list. It's not a dig on you and your motivation. It could be your energy
Natural Energy Solutions
00:03:17
Speaker
throughout the day.
00:03:17
Speaker
My last couple, you may experience brain fog throughout the day or generally feel overwhelmed a lot easier or have a lower social battery than normal, getting snippier with people or having trouble making decisions. If someone's like, Oh, do you want, you know, this is the first example that came to my mind, but like, Oh, do you want a burger or chicken sandwich for lunch? And you're like, um,
00:03:40
Speaker
uh you know things like that like it should be a quick pick but you're like and you make take a deep breath and you're just like i don't like uh you know like making the decision is overwhelming it's like the classic paper plastic and you can't decide at the grocery store you know yeah yes that's i must be hungry because that's a more normal example that was good it was a good one but yeah right and then like i said lower social battery you know
00:04:04
Speaker
the first person who says hi you in the morning and you're just like, shut up. None of that's good, believe it or not. You might just think you're having a rough day, but if that's happening over and over, you definitely have something going on with your energy sleep cycle. Then my last one is this. You might not be able to find consistency. You might be up an alert one day and then beyond drained and struggling the next.
00:04:25
Speaker
I'm not going to lie, this is something I can relate to a ton. We actually talked about this a couple of episodes ago for our personality tests, but I'm a big bursts of energy person. Sometimes I wake up and I'm like, here we go. The next day I'm excited for that again and it doesn't come.
Importance of Sleep for Energy
00:04:40
Speaker
I totally get that. Me too. I know that was a long list. I'm sure some of you related to at least one and if you related to more, definitely
00:04:48
Speaker
This is for you. Yeah, I love that summary, actually. That is so great, Ayla. I know that I definitely relate to multiple of those just at different times in my life, if not all of them at different times. So barring the possibility that you might actually have like a health condition, if you're experiencing these symptoms, like Ayla said, it means you're lacking energy in some way that you shouldn't be or that you don't have to be, and you can probably pinpoint the problem and get some of that energy back naturally.
00:05:16
Speaker
So hopefully the things we share today can help you like they've helped us. Yeah. And I do just want to say, like Beth said, barring some kind of medical condition, I do want to say if any of these are bothering you severely, you know, there are the natural fixes you can try. But I'm just saying like, if it's to an extreme amount, like you're having trouble with work in school, like making it there, it might be time to like,
00:05:36
Speaker
go get that talked to. Because I have people in my life who have conditions and it's separate from this. So I do just want to say you might be struggling. Talk to a doctor. You know your body. Talk to a doctor if you're having extra trouble. But I'm saying the general human condition is probably suffering from these. There's a girl I know who literally, she has some fatigue syndrome where she literally will fall asleep while driving just randomly. If it feels like I listen to severe level. Okay.
00:06:03
Speaker
So in a minute we're basically just gonna like rapid-fire different ways you can improve your energy but we want to spend just a quick minute focusing on sleep because Honestly, that is likely the biggest culprit if you're lacking energy Not just that you didn't get enough of it because maybe you're like, but Beth I got like nine hours last night I'm still tired like we had it get it and we're gonna share why that can be the case and what you need to do to have a sleep cycle that will enable you to wake up refreshed and the most beneficial to you and
00:06:32
Speaker
Yeah, sleep is kind of a really huge part of this episode we're going to be talking about. There's all kinds of stuff in your daily life, but man, sleep is just so important.
Mental Health and Sleep
00:06:42
Speaker
And I've spent a lot of years like struggling with my sleep and still
00:06:45
Speaker
work on it all the time and gosh, it can affect you in so many ways. So to give you a little motivation, a little kick in the pants, we are gonna share why exactly sleep is so important to energy and the pros of getting a good sleep cycle and the consequences of not having one beyond just what we listed already. So studies have shown for years that these are the main benefits from getting a consistent sleep schedule, one that gives you enough sleep per night
00:07:13
Speaker
which is going to be between seven to 10 hours a night. And you know, truthfully, the more, the better. So if you've got good sleep and a solid sleep cycle, you're going to have a better mood overall, better patients, better moon, things like that. Pretty much the opposite of what we just listed above, reduced stress, which is so insane. Stress affects so much of our life. If there's any way you can reduce your stress, definitely do it. And it does come down to sleep.
00:07:41
Speaker
And the next one is improved emotional regulation and mental health. And just to get on a soapbox about this one a bit, I took psychology for a couple of years. That was one of my majors. And we talked about sleep a ton. And it gets really serious really quickly.
00:07:59
Speaker
The two giant, the two like biggest culprits to deteriorating mental health, and I'm talking like severe mental health conditions, anything abnormal from anxiety and depression to full on schizophrenia can be affected by improper sleep and improper food.
00:08:16
Speaker
No way. That's crazy. There's obviously more in the case of like, you know, schizophrenia and stuff, it gets a little worse, but what a huge amount of the population is dealing with today, depression and anxiety can very well come down to your sleep and to your food. Now, there are the people out there that once you fix your sleep and food, they are going to still have problems and other care will have to be taken, but better sleep and better food is not going to make your condition worse. Ever, ever, ever. There's nothing out there.
00:08:43
Speaker
That's like going to be worse if you're sleep in food or improved. Um, so those are two huge compute, um, contributors and not enough sleep puts you more at risk for mental disorders. If you already have a predisposition to something like borderline personality disorder.
00:09:00
Speaker
or severe depression, even like schizophrenia, not enough sleep immediately puts you in a bracket to be more at risk to experience those.
Health Benefits of Good Sleep
00:09:11
Speaker
This is like a whole thing, but like there's no mental condition that exists with only one cause. So like a poor childhood or your brain chemistry, it always has to have more than one cause and something like not enough sleep can be that second cause. And again, not to like freak people out. If you have poor sleep, sometimes it's not that I'm saying like staying up
00:09:29
Speaker
for days and days, something like hospital workers or military or something are put way more at risk for developing mental health problems according to your sleep. And the average person isn't going to come across this. This is just to say your sleep is so important. And I know it can be fun to stay up all night sometimes. And as a kid, definitely, you know, you have fun like that. It's going to be okay now and again, but it's just really important. The more sleep you get, the less likely you are to experience severe mental health problems or even ones that you would never
00:09:58
Speaker
experience like just general mood like I was saying earlier like you might be completely fine and then find yourself at the back end of weeks of improper like severely improper sleep and you're a whole different person like right it's so so important so anyway I just wanted to talk about that
00:10:14
Speaker
No, I love that. That's so good. I actually didn't know that. And I think that's important to show. Obviously, that's the severe end, like you were saying. But if it can do that, you think about what smaller doses or a just really inconsistent sleep schedule, like we're saying can do to you. So love that thing. Or like how much better life can be.
00:10:32
Speaker
with better sleep. Like you don't have to think of it as like, Oh, I'm going to be, you know, things are going to be terrible if I don't give enough sleep, but it's just like, Oh, how much better can things be? Like I'm already doing fine on my weird sleep schedule, but like, what if it's better? What if you have more? Yeah. What if you have more to unlock in your brain and in your body?
00:10:49
Speaker
Okay, so keeping going with the benefits from getting a consistent sleep schedule and cycle. I think we're at number four right now, so that would be boosting your immune system, so you're less likely to get sick if you have a really good consistent sleep schedule and you're getting enough hours of sleep. It lowers your risk for disease, so that it boosts your immune system for short term, like just getting colds and flus, but it also boosts your long-term immune system and your immunity towards
00:11:15
Speaker
Chronic diseases like heart disease diabetes and even cancer fun fact about cancer so melatonin actually the ones we Naturally produce so our bodies melatonin actually targets the mitochondria of cancer cells and shifts their metabolic state So when you say that sleep actually fights cancer it literally directly does it's not indirect like a lot of things indirectly help you fight disease like melatonin literally kills cancer cells and
00:11:41
Speaker
So it makes them more susceptible to treatments and it's actually a tumor suppressor. It will literally like help you fight cancer. Oh my gosh. That's crazy. Yeah. Anyways, really fun. Fun little fact there. So again, sleep makes so, it just makes such a big difference. All right. And then number six, improved cognitive function. So your brain is literally just going to work better when you are not sleep deprived. And again, you don't even have to be severely sleep deprived. Like Ayla said, your brain won't work as well as it could if you were on the best sleep schedule possible.
00:12:12
Speaker
Yes, yes, 100%. The last couple to rapid fire off here, it speeds up muscle repair and recovery. If you're active and if you're not, like if you're starting to get into fitness and stuff, sleep is so important to that. It literally, you need it to repair your muscles and recover.
Consequences of Sleep Deprivation
00:12:30
Speaker
And even if you're not in the gym or a big hiker or anything, if you work any job,
00:12:34
Speaker
at all or you're taking your trash out or you're running these errands or you're doing anything, your body still needs to recover from all of that and it cannot do it properly without sleep. Your body does so much while you're sleeping. So yeah, speeds up muscle repair and recovery. If you are an active person, hiking gym definitely have a good sleep schedule or you could hurt yourself quite literally, you know, if you're pushing yourself through exhaustion. And of course,
00:13:01
Speaker
Like the title of this episode, it gives you more energy. Awesome. Love it. Okay. So that was our summary of the benefits. Let's real quick go into the consequences. As far as consequences go, you could just assume the opposite of everything that we just said.
00:13:16
Speaker
But to summarize, you'll be less focused, energetic, sharp-minded, and healthy than you could be. And if you fail to have a good sleep schedule for most of your life, you're really pushing your odds of getting heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and any other disease that you may be genetically predisposed to because you aren't letting your body use one of the biggest tools it has to fight disease. So you age a physically
00:13:39
Speaker
faster when you get less sleep. Partially, that's because sleep reduces stress, like you said, Ayla, and stress increases aging in the body in every way, both physically and internally in your organs. The point is it's all connected to sleep, and you may not notice it. Again, you don't have to be staying up five nights in a row or only get two hours of sleep every night, but if your sleep schedule is not ideal, and we'll go over that in a minute,
00:14:05
Speaker
there are so many things it's going to be affecting and long-term even will affect your risk of disease. That's so crazy. Like the physical aging too, like there's a reason it's called beauty sleep. And something else to point this out, like just another bit of why it's important. And like, I didn't mean to get so intense about this, but I guess I'm like passionate about it. This point does get a little crazy, but sleep is so important to us that the human body, it can't survive.
00:14:32
Speaker
without proper sleep. And again, talking extreme measures, it can cause death like it can. Again, you stand up for fun, you know, playing video games a couple nights in a row, not going to kill you. But here's what I mean by this. The human body cannot survive without sleep. So get this after one day of no sleep, so you pull an all nighter, we've all done it for some reason or another. After one day of no sleep, your symptoms are similar to intoxication.
00:15:00
Speaker
reflecting what would be a BAC, blood alcohol content, of 0.1. Not 0.01. 0.1. 0.08 is once you can be arrested for drunk driving. You're feeling it by 0.8. I barely know if I've ever been a 0.1. Probably, sometimes, but you're done by then. You're stumbling into bed. And I've definitely felt this as far as sleep deprivation goes. I have gone a night.
00:15:30
Speaker
without sleep, whether it be travel or on purpose or whatever. And by that morning, you're not feeling the same. Like there's no way I could go to work or anything like that. So that's after one day, probably something a lot of people have experienced. It's similar to a 0.1 BAC, which is just crazy to me. Um, by three days, which I don't care what your job is, please don't go through three days without sleep. Um,
00:15:55
Speaker
Yeah. Oh my gosh. I hope no one in the military or firefighters listens to this because they're going to be like, you make this every day. Thank you to everyone who's doing that. Thank you, our firefighters, our military, for somehow doing this. Doing things that we can't do. Yeah, for sure.
00:16:17
Speaker
So anyway, by three days, you may begin to hallucinate, have trouble holding conversations, higher heart rate. Actually, your heart's working overtime to keep your tired body moving and paranoia. And I'm not even kidding, after four plus days of no sleeping, you are at risk for some serious permanent mental health issues.
00:16:38
Speaker
and even death at that point after four days. That's crazy. And that's why you know in cases like firefighting they do have sporadic like sleep when you can is kind of one of the rules and that's that's why I wish I had a proper like source to cite this but I did see a video online uh it was on TikTok but it was like of a study this guy who did like a sleep study and he stayed up like um
00:17:05
Speaker
They used supplements, they used like some chemicals, some hormones, whatever, and kept him up. I think he made it six days and he changed. He suffered a severe psychotic break and he was never the same again. Like he had a wife and family and stuff and he like, he was never quite the same after that. And again, this isn't to scare people. I'm just saying like, it doesn't take very long. That's like no sleeping. Like you're just staying up. I think the longest I've ever been up straight was maybe like 32 hours.
00:17:33
Speaker
or something like that like through flying and maybe some some short naps in there like on an airplane and let me tell you you're not the same person and like just keeping track of things so just wanted to throw that phenomenal story in there like it's so important that our body just physically needs it no matter how much you might think it doesn't it really does yeah that's so true and like Ayla said not to scare you beyond a reasonable level i think you definitely should
00:17:58
Speaker
Have a weight the weight of the knowledge of how important sleep is on you So if it makes you a little bit like scared just in the sense of this
Beth's Sleep Deprivation Experience
00:18:05
Speaker
is important. Yeah, but don't worry You're fine if you're doing reasonable things Yeah, um, but uh, also what you said ala about like from travel before keeping up I think that's the longest i've ever stayed up. It was through travel as well And I this was actually back from my trip in ireland. I don't think i've shared this yet on the podcast I was up for a ridiculous amount of of days
00:18:28
Speaker
And with no sleep in between that was also the nature of how that job just ended but also just from travel as well So on my second flight back home to Hawaii from there I think I went from Ireland to Germany and the Germany back to here on that second flight I had just eaten everything was going so well like and I was tired But I was like, you know, it wasn't a big deal I just eaten so I was like gonna watch a movie like not a big deal and
00:18:53
Speaker
And I was feeling surprisingly good. I'll just say that. All of a sudden, I get this feeling like I'm going to pass out. And I've passed out before in my life a few times. I know it very well. I know the feeling. I can just tell when it's coming. Some people apparently don't always sense it coming. I can tell it coming very easily because I don't know. I just can't. And so I was like, oh, no. Am I about to pass out? And I go to press the button to call the flight attendant over. And as I'm doing that, I fully pass out. And I have no idea how long I was out or whatever.
00:19:23
Speaker
But I, so I wake up and I thought I was like leaning on the person next to me shoulder. So I'm like, Oh, I'm so sorry. If I was leaning on you, I just pass out for a second. And I think he thought I meant sleep because he's like, it's fine. Me too. And I was like, you're like, okay, whatever. But I literally, my first thought when I woke up was like, I felt so good. Sorry. I'll try to make this quick, but totally random. I forgot about this. Yeah. So I felt so, so good when I woke up.
00:19:48
Speaker
Like every time I passed out in the past, I have woken up feeling super nauseous and a little out of it. So I was surprised that I woke up feeling so good. Like I literally felt like I had just like a new world. It was like, I know exactly. Yes. So anyways, but here's the kicker. So I'm thinking like, I'm doing fine. I'm like, thank you God. I'm alive. Like literally just sitting there like, okay, I'm okay. Wasn't really sure what it was that caused that. Cause at this point my brain was not thinking you've been awake for literally like 50 hours. Maybe that's why.
00:20:16
Speaker
But, so the flight attendant comes by with the drinks and she's asking me what we want and I know you're supposed to have like, you know, like juice or apple sauce or something after you wake up. So I'm like, what kind of juice do you have? And she, and I, it's funny, when I asked that, I could tell, oh, my words are coming out a little bit slow. I must be really like tired. Like my words were like slurring a little bit, but I was like, what juice do you have? And she was like, you know, apple orange, whatever. And so she asked for like apple juice and she looks at me and she's like, are you okay? And I was like, I'm, yeah, I'm totally good.
00:20:43
Speaker
I'm good, I'm fine. And she like asked me like three times if I was okay. And then I was just like, I really, I'm honestly totally okay. And then she left. So about two minutes later, a second flight attendant comes by and she was like, hey, my friend is just really worried about you. I just want to check on you. Are you okay? And I was literally so confused at this point. I'm like, what do I look like death? Like what is wrong with me? And I was like, no, I'm really okay. I just, I passed out for a second, but I'm totally fine now.
00:21:12
Speaker
That sounds like a good thing to say. She's like, oh, that's not good. And then I was like, no, no, but I'm fine. And so she leaves. And then about again, like five minutes later, oh, and the person next to me after she leaves is kind of funny. He looks me mortified looking. He's like, I'm so sorry. I thought you meant you slept. I thought you were asleep. He's like, are you okay? I'm like, no, I'm totally fine.
00:21:35
Speaker
I said I'm fine priced so many times. Yeah. Yeah. I get that. You're just like, I swear it's okay. Yes, exactly. And the funny thing too was right. So that was one guy on the left of me. I was in the middle seat and the guy on the right side of me, fun fact, he and his wife, so like there was an aisle separating him and his wife, he was sitting next to me and his wife was right next to him on the other side of the aisle. They were flying from Germany to Honolulu as well. And it's fun. They were actually from, or no.
00:21:58
Speaker
They were flying, so sorry, it was Ireland to Germany to California, then to Hawaii. And they were actually from Hawaii too. So we were gonna go all like the next two flights together, which I didn't know at the time. So this was quite an embarrassing fun, but embarrassing stuff. They have to do this next to people. Yes, I'm like, oh no, I saw them literally in the airport. And I was like, oh, hi auntie, hi uncle. Like they were literally in the same line for me to go to the next plane. And I was like, oh my gosh, she was so much of this life. I was like, that's so sweet. You were like, it was super.
00:22:27
Speaker
It's so embarrassing. The one lady was so nice. His wife was so nice. She was like, are you okay? You let us know if you need anything. And I was just like, okay. I was like, I need you to forget what happened. So anyways, that's so funny. It was so funny. So basically five minutes later, someone else came by a third person. They had like a bag. I don't know if they were like a, like if it was like a doctor bag or whatever.
00:22:49
Speaker
but they're like hey we're gonna have you we're gonna have you come with me and i was like you must have looked like bad dude i must look like i was on death's doorstep being sucked in because i don't know what the heck happened so i'm like oh i really i'm okay okay get up
00:23:04
Speaker
So like, as we stand up, the story isn't funny. It's not funny. No, it is all funny now. It is, it's okay. At first, I was concerned. But anyways, so they have me like walk. Oh, oh, another thing. This is my first time being on a plane. There are so many things that could have been so exciting and did not pan out. This is my first time being on a plane. It was like a triple decker where you literally have like a stairway that goes up to what I'm only imagining is like some luxurious place.
00:23:32
Speaker
So not gonna lie, when she first had me stand up, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna get to go upstairs. I don't know why it was in my head. I was like- I've never even been on one of those. I think like, yeah, wow. That is cool. Yeah, I don't know. There was like stairs to go upstairs and stairs to go downstairs. I saw neither of them. But she has me, she walks me down. I know, so boring.
00:23:49
Speaker
she walks me like down the aisle and like across and over to where like the other flight attendants were and they just had me sit in the back and like they asked me a bunch of questions and they tested me for stuff I don't really know what and had me eat and I was so sick of eating because everyone was trying to get me to eat so like I took their like and they gave me tea or something I don't know
00:24:05
Speaker
And after a little while, I actually started feeling a little worse. And then I was just like, but I'm feeling good. And so I asked to go back to my seat and I went back and it was fine. But that being said, it was crazy that like that was only, you know, so many hours of not sleeping. And I even felt like I was fine up until the moment when my body was like, no, we're shutting down now. No, quite literally. It's like stop. Yeah, that's insane. Exactly.
00:24:31
Speaker
So that's the that is just a little example of like how it can look at times. You don't always feel super lethargic even up to like a dangerous point, but you have to know how it's affecting your body.
00:24:42
Speaker
And that's so crazy, your body will kick in and protect you. Like that, you know? Like, oh my gosh, that's so crazy. Imagine if I was driving when that happened. Yeah, right. And that's why when you start to nod off driving, when your eyes start to flutter, they're like, don't be a hero and try to keep driving. Just pull over. Even if you're like, oh, I'm only half an hour away from home, you need to just pull over right then. If your eyes start to lose control, like, yeah, no, that's so crazy.
00:25:10
Speaker
But that's exactly what I was gonna say Beth you made a good point of like you might not always feel that tired Especially if you're traveling like you have the high of travel or maybe Adrenaline for some other reason like you might feel fine, but you can't hide that from your body. Yeah, your body knows what it's going through It's kind of like so true say say Alcohol didn't make you feel drunk and you could just drink it drink and drink it You don't feel the alcohol in your blood But your body sure does and I'll get sick of you doing that too and stop you from doing that
00:25:39
Speaker
That's insane. And like, oh, that's what I was going to say too, is you were feeling fine. But obviously people saw you and were like, are you okay? And it's not to comment on you or how you look. They were like, that's beyond just a tired traveler for that many people to be concerned. And like I've been on the other side of driving before.
00:25:58
Speaker
When I was in Australia, I drove like 10 hours one day in like the outback like completely flat nothing to look at and you can get like driving hypnotization especially when it's flat so they tell you to like constantly be scanning the horizon and scanning around you I didn't like we stopped within that 10 hours. It wasn't you know, just completely but like the overall day was like 10 hours and
00:26:21
Speaker
And everyone fell asleep in my car at one point, which was fine. But then my eyes started to flutter close and my head started to do the drop thing. And I just hit the girl sitting in the passenger seat. And I was like, you need to talk to me. You need to do something right now because this isn't good. And even just someone talking woke me back up. But it's really scary how your body takes over. You think you're so in control. So true.
00:26:44
Speaker
That's wild. That's so crazy. Yeah. Well, we were not planning on sharing those stories, but we wanted to give examples, I guess, as it came up, you know, just cause I'm sure a lot of people can relate and just kind of letting you know, like that's sleep deprivation. It's important to pay attention to those signs.
Optimal Sleep Schedules
00:26:59
Speaker
So yeah, crazy. Yeah. Okay. But all this talk about sleep schedule, what is a good sleep schedule? We keep talking about that. So let's do it.
00:27:06
Speaker
It's not just eight to ten hours. It's not just going to bed at the same time every night. It's also making sure you sleep between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. The exact hours may vary, but that is the time frame we should be sleeping in. You can research it a little more if you want on your own, but from what I've heard, it's because this allows us to get the full REM cycle during that time frame, actually, which is so weird. Like, that's actually the hours of the night that our body is able to get a full REM cycle.
00:27:34
Speaker
and all the benefits it needs from sleep. So you have to go to bed. Like the ideal sleep schedule is going to bed at the same time every night, waking up at the same time every morning, getting about eight to 10 hours of sleep, depending on who you are. Women need more sleep than men. And then between the hours of 10 PM and 7 AM.
00:27:50
Speaker
your body will also get deeper sleep if you're going to bed at the same time every night and your body will wake up more quickly if you're waking up at the same time every morning. So again, like we said earlier, if you're having trouble waking up in the mornings, if it's taking you a long time, this is something small that will actually make a big difference. So if you want to get off caffeine or maybe reduce it a little bit, one of the best ways to help your body do that is to get on a really good sleep schedule and wake up at the same time every morning. So there's, they're all connected and that's just kind of a little, that's what we're saying when we say good sleep schedule and good sleep cycle.
00:28:20
Speaker
all of that yeah yeah and we do want to say like we do know some people work weird times and you might have to be up super early for your job um the point still stands about getting the same amount and like as well as in your power like we know life happens things change but like if you if you have that choice or you can make decisions to give you that choice of at least like going to bed at the same time and waking up
00:28:44
Speaker
the same time beyond just your Monday to Friday. I know that control is hard, but I think especially if you're somebody who wakes up, if you're like a baker or anything like that, and you're waking up at 4 a.m., training yourself to sleep earlier is super important, but those hours of 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., I can imagine work really well for office or work from home, because I'm super guilty on the days I work from home. If I want to start work by 9, I'm waking up at 8.45, it is, and I know that's so tempting, but just think about,
00:29:13
Speaker
the way you can get your day started waking up at 7 a.m and like some other things we're going to talk about later getting a good breakfast you know having some time to not decompress because you've just been sleeping but like wake up not feel compressed it's not like wake up and I gotta get to work right away you know wake up actually experience in the morning all that so those hours could work really well they might not be perfect for you but what we're saying about what Beth's saying about the science behind that too of a full REM cycle
Energy Enhancement Strategies
00:29:38
Speaker
and your cycles of deep sleep as well
00:29:41
Speaker
So long as those are happening, those are super, super important. So just wanted to throw that in there too. Exactly. Okay. Now we're going to share the true heart of this episode. I feel like that happens so much. We give some fire and then we're like, all right, now to the heart.
00:29:57
Speaker
The true heart of this episode is some proven tips for improving your energy. These are daily habits and routines that will improve your energy levels over time. It does usually take a few days or even a few weeks for your body to adjust to new routines before you start feeling the benefits. Definitely just persevere, keep trying. You're not going to experience this all in one night of good sleep. You definitely have to keep working at it.
00:30:20
Speaker
It's important to try natural ways of improving your energy levels for your health's sake, and you'd be surprised how much the natural things can change before turning to any extra help.
00:30:34
Speaker
First up on the list, like we said already, but it's just a reminder, go to bed every night at the same time between 9.30 and 11 p.m. and wake up every morning at the same time. And yes, this hurts me too, but even weekends. Like we said, maybe for some people this isn't realistic, but your body doesn't really know the difference between Friday morning and Saturday morning. Your body's not gonna be like, no, it's...
00:30:57
Speaker
It's Saturday and I'll do fine with a different sleep schedule. Um, so if you are sleeping in on weekends, you're setting your body clock off come Monday. I could definitely adopt more of this because I find it is really hard to maintain the same sleep schedule between weekdays and weekends. I'm a Friday night queen. Um, but when I do keep it consistent, I do always know a difference. So what I'm saying is like, I don't always follow the schedule, but when I do, I do notice a difference.
00:31:21
Speaker
100%. There are tons of studies out there that can explain even better than us about why specifically having consistent sleep is so important. So definitely like keep doing your own research on this. But yeah, yeah, that's number one. Love it. Okay, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna take one for the team and share one that will probably get me some hate from some of you. But those of you who know me won't be surprised. It's about coffee. So take it away.
00:31:49
Speaker
A couple of things, they say drinking coffee from a young age leads to worse sleep patterns and increased chance for insomnia for various reasons as you get older and it's almost guaranteed to lead to lower quality of sleep. Obviously, you shouldn't drink caffeine any time near when we want to sleep because it could throw off our sleep pattern like we know that. But regardless of sleep, even drinking it in the day leads to energy highs and lows.
00:32:14
Speaker
So rather than your body having a consistent energy level all day, you know, so I won't go super deep into it because it's probably better for people just to do their own research about coffee. It's so controversial if you try to say like not drink coffee, I get that. But also creating a dependency on caffeine for energy. It's robbing your body from its natural ability to create energy.
00:32:35
Speaker
And you aren't getting energy from other sources that would actually give you additional benefits. And that's something I think people don't think about a lot. It's like if there's another way to get that energy and it would just give you energy, but you have other health benefits too. So anyways, and you're also more likely to become resistant to it over time, leading to needing more and more of it. That's how people get...
00:32:54
Speaker
addicted to caffeine or need like five cups a day or really strong cups. And let's be real, honestly, caffeine addictions, they're super common. I think people say it's like the most common drug addiction, quote unquote. And it's really painful to break. I know a couple people in my life very close to me that have had to break severe caffeine addictions. It was kind of crazy to see that and it just kind of wakes up to like, okay, there's a reasonable level we should be trying to stick to if we're going to have coffee.
00:33:18
Speaker
So, when
Caffeine and Energy Balance
00:33:20
Speaker
I said you're robbing your body of some additional benefits you could have from other sources of energy, I mean, if you drink coffee in the morning, instead of like a smoothie or a good breakfast, like you might be robbing yourself of those nutrients. Like something as simple as that. Instead, you know, some of those nutrients and a longer lasting form of energy because we know that caffeine wears off and then you kind of crash a little bit from that. So, if you get a really good night's sleep from a consistent sleep schedule,
00:33:46
Speaker
and eat something that your body needs in the morning, you can avoid a caffeine energy crash midday, and you'll be reaping all those health benefits from a great sleep and healthy food too. Now, obviously, Ayla, I'm sure you have stuff to add to this. I will give a disclaimer. I don't drink coffee. I haven't ever, I mean, I've had coffee before, but I haven't had to rely on it.
00:34:07
Speaker
And so I'm very lucky, but I have, you know, tried to find ways to give myself energy in the morning too. So no hate to people who do drink it. I think it used to be a lot more like if you drink coffee, you're hurting yourself and not trying to be like that. Um, everyone has it. I think most people have it, but I've also met a lot more people than I ever thought I would who don't have caffeine and they've like made it a rule for themselves. They don't ever drink it. So I'm very inspired by those people. And I love getting to hear their advice about, Oh, if you used to drink coffee, how do you deal with it now? Um, or if you don't, why?
00:34:37
Speaker
and all that kind of stuff. So just sharing a little bit of information. Don't hate me and Ayla feel free to step in.
00:34:43
Speaker
No, I will chime in here. This has been one of Beth and I's long differences that has just, it's been an agree to disagree for so long. But it's totally okay. Like I actually work with quite a few people at my coffee shop job who are not coffee drinkers. They might be energy drink drinkers, so that's different. But some of them aren't, like I have worked with many people over the years who are like not caffeine.
00:35:09
Speaker
intakeers, coffee drinkers, whatever. Like they stay away from caffeine, have never really touched it. So definitely if that's you, if you're like Beth, don't feel alone. Like I think a lot of people are kind of like chilling out from that. Um, I do want to add though, as a happy coffee consumer, I've been a coffee drinker for a very long time, but I've seen every side of it. And like, I don't want to say any of this, this advice, like this has been me for years. Um, cause kind of in the last year,
00:35:39
Speaker
I've gotten into a way more healthy relationship with coffee, but I'm so guilty of being like all of the memes that are like, iced coffee, no breakfast. Like, you know, I think I would just wake up and like coffee was my breakfast for so long. And we actually talked about it a couple of weeks ago on like our productivity tips and how Beth and I are at the big breakfast eaters, but that's different than replacing it with coffee and especially like a sugary coffee with syrup and milk and stuff.
00:36:05
Speaker
Um, there's a difference between a black cup of coffee in the morning and a milkshake with some coffee in it, you know? Um, but anyway, like I've been the one who wakes up and has to make a pot right away and like ease cranky.
00:36:20
Speaker
I'm still a proud, cranky person in the morning, but you know, I just don't know if that's going to get better. But it used to be way worse. Like when I was in high school or like when I was living with my parents for the first year I was in college, you know, the first thing I would do, I'd wake up, walk downstairs and make the morning pot of coffee. And my dear sweet mother who I love so much would come down and be like, hi, good morning. And I'd be like, like, you know, pouring the cup or whatever. And then I'd have, you know, a couple of sips
00:36:45
Speaker
and be like, okay, hi, mom. Like it was insane. And I've been, I was that way for the longest time past college. Like I just had to have it around me and I have dealt with caffeine addiction on and off in the last couple of years, like even still within this last year. And the way I know that I need to deal with it is if I do go a significant amount in the morning, like a few hours into the morning, if I haven't had coffee, I get like a piercing splitting headache.
00:37:11
Speaker
And I think that's the number one thing people see. Not now, like I'm doing pretty all right right now, but like my last busy season actually. So this is some recent like realness, but maybe I didn't get to my morning coffee because I was doing stuff and then my head would just hurt. And that's how I knew I was like, it's time to like do a little detox. It's time to like step away. And unfortunately this can look like I would wait as long as I could to have coffee. And then I'd pour like a half a cup just to keep the headache at bay.
00:37:40
Speaker
Yeah. And then that was all I could have in the day. And I do that for a little while. I try to go a couple of days without any, and then I know I'm kind of like a reset and I can go back to like enjoying it in a healthy way. So I just want to say like, I am a coffee drinker. I have been to that side of it. I don't love being there. So here's kind of what I do now in my daily life, what I've been implementing in the last year.
00:38:00
Speaker
that allows me to keep coffee something i do love in my life but it doesn't run my life love it and i confidently say i've been keeping this up like basically since last fall on and off in the last year but awesome number one thing coffee is not the first thing i put into my body in the morning not at all
00:38:18
Speaker
And not even the second, I have to start the day off with water. At least one big glass if I can manage it. I have like a Yeti mug that's like 24 ounces, I think, and I get at least one of those down in the morning. Sometimes I actually forget to have my coffee now these days and I get through quite a bit of water before then, which is great. And a solid food before I have caffeine. So water and a solid food. Even if it's something small, oatmeal, a granola bar,
00:38:45
Speaker
smoothie or my full breakfast but like I eat before having coffee now and that's just kind of it really broke that cycle of waking up and needing coffee because think about it you drink some water you make your breakfast you've been up for a while so it teaches my body no I don't need this crack right when I wake up I can wake up and do a couple other things awesome
00:39:05
Speaker
This goes hand in hand with the first one, but studies show that letting your body go through its natural waking up period for a minimum of one hour is more likely to give you that natural energy throughout the day that Beth was just talking about. So an hour is minimum, longer if you can do it, but
00:39:21
Speaker
sari say to wake up and number one thing is get into some light natural light is best but indoor light is okay uh chris told me this um a couple months ago maybe and i've been trying it out i also wake up very early for work and it helps a lot it helps so much with that because i used to think wake up early for work
00:39:42
Speaker
get coffee or an energy drink, but actually this has helped so much more than what I'm saying right now. So wake up and get into some light. Like I said, natural light is ideal. There's a reason people fling open curtains in the movies and stuff. You're all mine. I love it.
00:39:57
Speaker
The first thing I do in the morning when I just want to do anything but be waking up at five in the morning is I go into my bathroom and I just freaking turn the bathroom light on. It's the worst part of my day for sure, but like I turn the bathroom light on and I brush my teeth. By the time I'm done brushing my teeth, I'm kind of over that bad feeling and I feel fine. So it's just what, two minutes that I'm like not having it and then I'm fine. That's awesome.
00:40:22
Speaker
And then have a routine that helps wake you up, read, get dressed for the day, whatever. Give yourself at least one hour before your morning coffee. I started implementing this, like I said, a couple months ago and it's crazy. Sometimes I forget about my morning coffee and I haven't felt a caffeine headache in months because of it or caffeine addiction, especially on days I actually go to my coffee shop job.
00:40:43
Speaker
because I wake up, I get ready, I drive half an hour there, I open up, I start the day, sometimes it's three to four hours before I have coffee in the morning. Like college me would not have been able to do that. So there is a way to enjoy it, but like you control it. It doesn't control you just like anything else in life. So sorry, that was kind of a long point, but I love that. That was my coffee soapbox. So that is amazing. I love that. That's so good. I think that is really important to share how you cycled yourself into a new routine.
00:41:12
Speaker
that you can fully enjoy and you feel is benefiting you rather than hurting you. That's pretty good.
00:41:17
Speaker
I'll add one more thing. I do take pre-workout to go to the gym, which people who know what it is know what it is. Very high caffeine drink to get you into the gym. It's, again, controversial. I don't think everybody has to take it. I just really like the performance it gives me in the gym, but I definitely cut down on my coffee throughout the day the minute I made this decision. So it's not like I have three to four coffees a day and then drink pre-workout and go to the gym.
00:41:42
Speaker
If I know I'm going to be having pre-workout later, I do not get the same amount of coffee in the day. It's hard. Again, I'm not saying I perfectly follow this every day, but your body is only supposed to have so much in the day, so that's just something else I do. If you're somebody similar who also takes that, again, it doesn't mean you have to say bye to coffee, but I definitely cut it way down if I know I'm going to be having this high caffeine later.
Sleep Aids and Alternatives
00:42:08
Speaker
Again, you don't need to take any of those things, but if you do, that's what I do.
00:42:12
Speaker
Yeah, those are the way we make smart choices, thinking about stuff like that, weighing the pros and cons and being calculated about when we introduce new things into our routines. That's super smart. Okay, let's see. So speaking of sleep again here real fast, here's a quick little one. Well, not quick, but here's one. So if you can avoid taking melatonin supplements, something that I didn't know until high school that someone told me and I was very glad they explained to me,
00:42:40
Speaker
So a lot of people don't know this, but when you take a melatonin supplement, it actually stops your body from producing melatonin naturally because it tells your body, Oh, I've already got it. So it doesn't produce it anymore. Um, obviously it gets more severe over time, but you know, anyways, so the longer you take it, your body eventually would not be able to produce that sleep hormone on its own. Um, and you will not be able to fall asleep naturally.
00:43:02
Speaker
So if you're having trouble sleeping or going to bed at night, explore other avenues for getting tired. So some really easy things you could do are doing a workout. It doesn't do anything intense, but it could just be like literally doing a little workout by your bed at night, right before you sleep, drinking like a warm herbal tea, one that's known to actually like kind of relax your muscles and calm you down.
00:43:24
Speaker
reading a book because that's so boring. Obviously, who wouldn't fall asleep? So yeah, don't shoot yourself in the foot by getting dependent on something that's actually going to deprive your body from naturally creating a hormone that helps you sleep. So that's just yeah, and Ayla if you want to have some things to say about that too.
00:43:41
Speaker
Yeah, well, I fully agree. And I think that's a really amazing point that melatonin, if you take it as a supplement will over time replace the melatonin your body naturally produces. I think that's its biggest downside, because I have used utilize melatonin in the case of extreme insomnia, I struggle with insomnia pretty often.
00:43:59
Speaker
It's gotten better over the years. Sometimes it's just so rough for a month or two out of the year, but it used to be worse. Sometimes it's better. I don't know. Anyway, I do struggle with it. It was an emergency supplement for me. I have heard of other people utilizing it in the case of switching to night shift or jet lag.
00:44:16
Speaker
Um, that's its main intended purpose actually. And I say this in the sense of like, if you're, you know, to help fight jet lag and to help switch to night shift, but it was never meant to be taken every night, even when you're doing that. So say you switched to night shift, it's supposed to help your body naturally because we do have natural melatonin in our bodies make that shift, but it was not meant to be like a permanent solution. So that's what I want to drive this home with is it is a, it can be a tool, but I fully agree that like, um, and I,
00:44:47
Speaker
Okay, I'll get into it with my next point, but I've never loved the sleep I get for melatonin. I already have whack dreams just normally without any supplements, and melatonin doesn't help that for me. I don't ever feel like I'm waking up well. Interesting. I think the idea with melatonin is to help you get more out of your sleep, help you fall asleep.
00:45:10
Speaker
I always wake up groggy. I never really got that natural waking up feeling from it. Some people might have a different experience, but that's always what I noticed with it. I, yeah, no, I actually have talked to a couple of people who have similar. I've talked to a couple of people who have similar experiences with like, they feel like their quality of sleep business could cause they wake up groggy. And from what I've read with research, there is the theory that, um, because it's not the melatonin that your body naturally produces. And it's also not even the same amount.
00:45:38
Speaker
Because think about your body knows the right amount to produce. So something artificially. It's not only changing the fact that it's not naturally producing, but it's also changing the amount that your body chooses to naturally produce when it's at its peak.
00:45:52
Speaker
sleep cycle. So that could be the reason why. And again, why you want to be careful about messing up that natural amount, even by taking it a few times. Obviously, like you said, great to take for like, if you're adjusting to a new work schedule, but as quickly as you can shift away from that and find other ways naturally to help you all sleep and just force yourself to sleep. My mom used to tell me when I couldn't sleep, you have to literally lay there and just, even if you're laying completely still, eyes closed, you're getting 80% of the rest that your body needs.
00:46:20
Speaker
That's what I tell myself on the nights I can't sleep. I'm like, I'm resting. But if you can find another way to get off as soon as possible because your body needs to make quite a few adjustments actually to get back on to its natural melatonin schedule, not only with producing it again, but knowing how much to produce too.
00:46:36
Speaker
Oh, that's an amazing point. And one more thing I'll say with it, I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but Chris and I both have and Beth, I don't know if yours is the same, but I found melatonin was super nitpicky on when I took it versus when I actually tried to go to bed. Um, no, like sometimes I would take it and then maybe
00:46:53
Speaker
Like I couldn't just take it and then go to sleep right away. Like it would take a minute to kind of kick in. So I'd take it, maybe do some part of my bed routine, but maybe if I took it and Chris and I were watching a show and I felt the first wave of like groggy in his head, but if I didn't go to bed right away, I was screwed for sleep. Like I am saying if I missed that window where it kicked in, I was so screwed. I would have the worst insomnia. I'd be up all night, like all night.
00:47:20
Speaker
and be like I'd lay in bed and my mind would just be so awake and Chris and I were like you know if that happened to both of us we'd be like this isn't doing anything um and it's because we miss that window so then we'd have to take it and start our relaxing cycle and just stay relaxed because if we miss that window I it hurt like that's why I like stay away from it I don't know if anyone else has gone through that if you have you're not alone but I was just like super finicky on the window that I took it in and if I missed it it was like I'd rather just not take it at all you know so yeah
00:47:49
Speaker
Those are our melatonin thoughts and I do want to add something that I will Still to this day in modern times take in place of melatonin, which is CBD. I take it like CBD gummies I know not this is like I don't know how controversial CBD is anymore, but I know not everyone don't know it I think that it needs to be explained. I think we'll think that it'll be I think clarify what we're talking about. Yeah
00:48:14
Speaker
Yeah. So I know not everyone may be down or have access to it, um, depending on your state and their rules. I think every state can have CBD now, but, um, yeah. Really? Oh, CBD. I, I really, it's helped me a lot. Like.
00:48:34
Speaker
I find a lot of benefits with it. Of course, some side effects, which we'll go into in a minute. But CBD is the single thing, in my opinion, helps my sleep a ton. And I'll say virtually no side effects, because that's kind of what the internet will tell you, too. Again, we'll go into them. But when I say no side effects, I mean in the sense that CBD is not addictive. It does not replace any vital hormones. It's not a hormone that you're taking, like melatonin is.
00:49:02
Speaker
In fact, there's a deep dive I could go into separately talking about CBD and hormone leveling. But perhaps for another day, again, anything that's messing with your hormones, you should do your independent research on that. It does not make you high. That's THC. And it's essentially a muscle relaxant. So you could see
00:49:24
Speaker
So you could theoretically take CBD in the middle of the day and continue to exist normally. I've taken it for like period and headache pains before, and it's also one of the most effective painkillers I've ever taken before. So you can theoretically take it in the middle of the day and continue to exist normally, but it sort of works with your body in the way you want to relax. So it's opposite of what I was just saying about melatonin, how there's a definite window. I just find if I take CBD and then relax,
00:49:50
Speaker
body understands how much it's relaxing and now like the CBD just kind of helps that relaxing process that I've started. It doesn't make me drowsy if that makes sense. I've utilized it many a time during times of insomnia and I find pretty much nine times out of ten that not only do I sleep but I sleep well and I don't wake up in the middle of the night and I wake like I wake up well in the morning. It doesn't leave me groggy in the morning. If anyone's had a different experience I definitely want to hear about it just to like
00:50:16
Speaker
have kind of more evidence to back that up. But as for me, I wake up well, uh, sort of reboots my system and teaches my body how to relax again. Like sometimes you're just at the end of three nights of awful insomnia and you're like, I will do anything to sleep. And in that case, like it's helped me.
00:50:34
Speaker
I feel pretty comfortable recommending it. But again, I want to make it clear CBD is still an emergency supplement for me. I don't take it every night, nor do I encourage taking it every night. I still hugely vouch for the other methods Beth and I are talking about here to improve your sleep cycle naturally. And like I said, basically it's just like
00:50:54
Speaker
If I can have one good night, that kind of resets my cycle the next day for sleep. And then I try again without any supplements, see how my body's doing. Usually it kind of fixes itself. And that's just my own kind of insomnia with it. Uh, the potential short-term side effects, uh, to talk about with CBD, just so that we can get those out there. Um, in the moment you might experience a little bit of dry mouth or a cotton mouth.
00:51:16
Speaker
That happens mostly with THC, but it can happen with CBD. So if your mouth gets dry, don't freak out like it's normal diarrhea. If you take a lot, and we're saying this, that's just if you take a ton, it's like vitamins. If you take a ton, that might happen too. The big one is it can interact with other medications. So for the love of everything holy, if you're on any medications, do your own research before taking CBD because that's its only thing is it can interact with other.
00:51:43
Speaker
medications. So you definitely want to know or ask your doctor about that before trying it. And then Beth, you know a little bit more about the possible long term effects. So I don't know if you want to share those real quick. Um, yeah, just basically, like Ayla said, it is luckily one of those things that has a low amount of side effects. Long term, they're still doing a lot of research because of its popularity in
00:52:05
Speaker
the lat in more recent decades. So they're kind of just now being able to start studying and seeing what like the potential long term side effects could be, obviously be worse for if you take it a ton. But just overall, they said that there seems to potentially be some liver, blood liver toxicity levels potentially. That's very rare and again, not guaranteed and more with long term. But one of the I would say just the biggest side effects, something to be aware of,
00:52:32
Speaker
It seems that research has shown that it actually does affect male reproductivity. So it reduces sperm count, it reduces fertilization rates. It affects the concentrations of hypothalamic, pituitary, and other hormones in men. So it seems, interestingly enough, that it's actually more risky for men to take than women. But that's just, again, we just want to be open that anything you take that affects your hormones in your body, even if it's naturally derived,
00:52:56
Speaker
usually you have to be caring about the amounts and how often you take it. I'll be honest, I personally have never taken CBD. I've researched it a lot just because it's gotten so popular with people and people I know take it. So just to be aware and be able to have conversations with people, I don't need it. So I'm very grateful. I don't need to even consider taking it.
00:53:14
Speaker
And I tend to lean towards, if you guys can't tell already, I very, very much try to avoid things that would affect my hormones, even if they're naturally derived. I just try to find ways for my body to figure it out on its own. But there we go. That's all the risks that they know for now. I don't think there's a big likelihood of there being any other side effects that would arise. So it seems like it is, like Ayla said, a very low risk thing with high rewards because it's very gentle on your system and a way that works with your body's natural
00:53:43
Speaker
um systems and processes as well perfect no that's a perfect way to explain it and again like you know beth and i have both been on the other side of three days no sleep like we just said and you know even if you take a sleeping pill to knock that out no shame to you because we would rather you get the sleep you need
00:54:01
Speaker
to be able to start these things, to be able to start these naturally occurring sleep cycle things. So definitely like we understand what it's like to be there, do what you got to do in an emergency case. But anyway, we'll keep going with our actual tips. Like we said, everything in moderation, that's how it is. We're just going to give you the information and be aware everything in moderation and everything works different with different people. Okay.
00:54:21
Speaker
I guess moving on to the next one, so real quick, I know this is actually gonna go against a tip that we'll say later in one way, but here's a random thing that has helped me actually fall asleep when I've dealt with a little bit of insomnia when I was like six. So watching relaxing videos, I don't know if anyone has heard of ASMR whisper videos, so this is it. It's so funny. So I think in my opinion, this is a better option than taking like melatonin gummies.
Stress and Sleep Quality
00:54:49
Speaker
because it doesn't affect your hormones, it's just relaxing. But do your research first because it's not for everybody. So I personally, when I was dealing with my treatments and couldn't sleep and I was very sick,
00:55:01
Speaker
I couldn't take certain supplements to sleep because it would literally interact with my medicines. And there was not a lot I could do. I was also too tired and exhausted from being sick to be able to exercise at night. So I was really at my wits end. Like there was not a lot that I could do to be able to fall, to make myself naturally fall asleep. And I just randomly stumbled across this. There's only one lady I have ever watched. She is the sweetest person ever. She's like a lady from Russia and she just literally will do household, she'll fold laundry. She'll like cook.
00:55:30
Speaker
She will just talk about her life. She'll do her makeup and talk and she has talks in like a soft-spoken tone and Anyway, so for me, I'll just be honest. I love it. I think there's a lot of like with anything There's a lot of weird things out there in that community, but there's also very pure helpful side to it
00:55:47
Speaker
So something like that. And I'll explain a little later what the potential downsides would be. Obviously, it's going to be about blue light and you're looking at your screen. But yeah, so just for relaxation, that's something that works well for me that is fully natural, aside from the blue light being in your face. But another tip is to reduce stress. So stress leads to worse sleep. It can also lead to nightmares. And it uses up a ton of energy even while you're sleeping. So think of it like having a bunch of things plugged into one like power source.
00:56:16
Speaker
they're all gonna drain. If you have stress in the back of your mind, it's gonna drain your energy, even if you're just going throughout your day. So yeah. Yeah, and stress reduction, it's like, it's so hard. I feel like we have, I feel like we've done something about like stress and cortisol. Maybe one of our busy season episodes, we can talk a little bit more about that. But yeah, no, when Beth initially talked to me about ASMR, I was like, Beth, tell me you don't watch people eat. Like, please tell me. And we were like, no, like hard no on those. Like, yeah, we know,
00:56:45
Speaker
We know what ASMR is, like as far as like the videos that maybe not everybody likes, but I like what you noted, like she's just doing normal things. She's very calming, like a calming.
00:56:54
Speaker
presence. I have a few channels as well that like if I find the person has a soothing voice, even if they're just vlogging or whatever, something like that, low stimulating, like not a ton of like stuff going on. For most for like, I don't know if this is good or not. But like, yeah, for four years straight while I was going to school and stuff, I watched YouTube every single night. And that's see, the thing about that is, I think there's such a beauty in realizing that
00:57:19
Speaker
Something different works for everyone. There's the people who whisper and there's people who like me, if someone whispers in my ear, I literally get like a chill down my stomach. I hate it. I can't stand that. It gives me a shiver. Someone just speaking softly, so relaxing. I think the first time I actually stumbled on one of the videos, it was someone making jewelry and she was just like,
00:57:40
Speaker
talking like softly and I was like oh my gosh that video put me to sleep in like the middle of the day and so I actually went back trying to find that exact video and that's how I found stumbled upon like the ASMR community and that back then it was actually just a whisper community because this was a lot of years ago they didn't know what ASMR was so anyways there's so many things people like sound sometimes instead of people speaking like there's so many things to it my point though is just that like finding a
00:58:03
Speaker
away, you know, sometimes things relax people, whether it's music, some people listen to music, you know, whatever. Okay, moving on. Right. I'll let you go on. Right. But yeah, so yeah, like you said, the videos that are calming and that kind of goes along with but also stress reduction. So then I'll actually talk about screens one more time since you just mentioned it. It is recommended that we avoid screens past 11pm.
00:58:24
Speaker
or for an hour before you go to sleep. And this is because of blue light. Blue light keeps you awake a lot longer by suppressing melatonin levels. This is not to be confused with inhibiting the production of melatonin. It just kind of keeps the levels lower while the blue light is shining in your face and yeah, for like an hour afterwards. And the blue light is said to disrupt your circadian rhythm by making your body feel as though it's not really that late
00:58:49
Speaker
at night, literally like what the sun does for us basically. That's why our body responds to the sun so much. Essentially, blue light just makes your body think it's not yet time to sleep. A lot of people's phones, hopefully now these days, have a setting where you can switch your phone to yellow light at a certain time. Mine's on that.
00:59:07
Speaker
You still have a screen, and we do want to say it is still that, but I could not live without that yellow function on my phone now. If I turn my phone on and the blue light's still on, I'm like, ah, get out of here.
00:59:21
Speaker
But yeah, the reason I'm not going to say like, Oh, just turn on your yellow light and it's fine is because like, let's be real. It's just pretty easy to get caught up in scrolling on socials and just staying up later than you should. So you're likely to disrupt your sleep anyway, that way, and therefore not have as much energy, everything we're talking about. I'll be honest, Chris and I love our scrolling times before bed.
00:59:42
Speaker
We sit there and we scroll reels for, I'm not even going to say how long before bed, most nights. But we've each started reading before bed this year. I have to talk to you about this more, but I've been reading a lot more this year. And before bed's a great time because yeah, it does make you more tired than the absolute crack that's in our phone now these days is just scrolling video after video, reading kind of slows all that down.
Improving Wake-up and Sleep Environment
01:00:08
Speaker
We both get tired faster and it's literally refreshing on my eyes to not be looking at a screen. Like when you think about it, I work all day on a screen. Then like we watch a little bit of TV and then we go into bed and pretty much watch more TV. Like what is that? So your eyes need a break from it at some point. And sometimes I read and I'm like, Oh, thank goodness. And it's so good for your brain too. So that's what we're saying. All these other natural ways of falling asleep and helping you rest. There's going to be additional benefits versus just popping something.
01:00:37
Speaker
like, you know, a sleeping pill or something. So love that. Your brain is going to thank you for that. So good for you. I need to do that more. Okay. This one is also sleep related actually, since you're talking about sleep too. But don't snooze when you wake up in the mornings, if you can avoid it. I know it's so hard, such a hard habit to break. We love snoozing here.
01:00:56
Speaker
But if you have an alarm, don't hit snooze. It actually teaches your body to wake up more slowly and be more groggy. First of all, if you need a snooze, folks, it probably means you didn't go to bed at a good time and you don't have a consistent enough sleep schedule. So you aren't actually getting any restful
01:01:12
Speaker
Rest during your snooze by the way, right? Um, you're not fully going back to sleep And if you are you're actually just like jolting your body awake so many times you're actually gonna create more stress in your body So you're waking up stressed and it's actually gonna kind of trigger I've heard I don't know if this is true But I've heard it actually can slightly trigger your body's fight or flight system by being jolted awake so many times after trying to say
01:01:32
Speaker
Isn't that insane? Shut up. Anyways, so you'd be better off this enemy. Isn't this crazy? You would literally- No, that was a revelation. I know. Keep going. I'm sorry. So basically you'd be better off setting your alarm for a later time.
01:01:44
Speaker
and let your body stay fully asleep and just waking up once with the alarm. But like we said, I know this is so hard for people sometimes, you will wake up quicker, easier, more naturally without needing to snooze if you're having a consistent sleep schedule. So if you really struggle with this, work backwards, start with when you're going to bed and you know what time and do it every night and wake up at the same time every morning if you can. Like Ayla said before, even on weekends, if you can. Oh my gosh.
01:02:11
Speaker
But yeah, sorry about that. I don't know. I don't even want to talk about the amount of alarms I set in the morning. We're just going to move on to the next tip. Okay. What you said about it triggering like a fight or flight and waking up stressed. I just, I need to process that one for a couple days because I, I'm so sorry.
01:02:32
Speaker
There's been times I've set like nine alarms in the morning for like five. I'm not that bad, but I'm just saying I'm not even going to disclose the amount, but I definitely have more than one. I've hit snooze so many times too before and I will say Chad is a big snoozer, kills me because I usually, I'm a light sleeper. So on times I've been really exhausted. I've hit snooze a couple of times, but in general, I'm
01:02:52
Speaker
unlucky or lucky, I don't know which one, where when an alarm goes off, I'm awake for the day. So Chad, sometimes had his alarm go off at like five in the morning. And I've been like, I might die, because I'm gonna wake up for the rest of the day, or he'll fall asleep, right, he'll go off again. And I'm like, I'm done. I'm awake for the day. So right, because you've trained yourself to wake up only one time, whereas like, Chris and I are both kind of, he's better than me, but we'll both kind of be snoozers. So like, we don't really care about each other's alarms. But wow, that's impressive.
01:03:19
Speaker
Like we do, I mean, I definitely said more than he does, and I'm sure he cares some mornings. And then he's got one that terrified me the other day. He's got like, man, I'll have to ask him which like game it's from. I think it's like battle music from Halo or whatever that goes off. And it's like, and he'll have it at full volume. I don't usually hear it because I wake up earlier than him to go to my work. But on the days I don't have to be there.
01:03:42
Speaker
Oh, it gave me a heart attack like three days ago because it goes like. And he doesn't wake up right away. And then he was snoozing it so many times that eventually I got up.
01:03:56
Speaker
Well, I didn't mean to, but I physically got up and I was like, and I just like threw the blanket and like stormed out. Woke up stressed. Woke up a little stressed. It sounds like he's trying to prepare himself for war. He's going to wake up ready to fight. That sounds about right. But anyway, that's hilarious. I'll have to deal with that one. Okay.
01:04:16
Speaker
I'm going to go on to the next tip because I don't even have advice for the last one. I just have to learn. Anyway, okay. I do love this next one though. So important. I've said it on the podcast so, so, so many times, but spend time outside. We already know it gives us benefits in
01:04:32
Speaker
infinite other ways, especially like specifically in the sunshine. But I bet you didn't know that being outdoors gives you more energy. Crazy. Who would have thung? If you are someone who works at home or like an office job, I will say other studies show just about getting fresh air into your household. I understand there's seasons, like I live in a cold place, this isn't always possible. But every
01:04:59
Speaker
hour I think it is you should be opening your windows ideally maybe you have a fan and cycling fresh air through your house especially if you live in a smaller apartment or something you have no idea how much of your own air you start breathing after a while um so this goes in with spending time outside but you know if you can't like get outside a ton get fresh air going through your house like I have my own office now in our apartment
01:05:22
Speaker
Well, it's been actually just a couple of days ago, I was pulling a long editing day. And then I just started to feel gross and stuffy and like lightheaded. Oh, wow. And I went and I opened my window and immediately felt better. Oh my gosh. And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm running out of oxygen. That's crazy. So spend time outside, get fresh air into your home. That's such a good one. And one that's underrated. People here have a lot of benefits for going outside, like health benefits and mood benefits, but it also affects your energy. So, okay.
01:05:50
Speaker
If you need to nap, keep it around 15 to 20 minutes for the best energy afterwards. Naps longer than 20 minutes can cause sleep inertia, which is what's going to cause grogginess and disorientation. So not ideal for energy levels, that's for sure. That's just a little random tip. I know it's hard to do because if you're napping, you're usually exhausted. But if you can just force yourself to just do 15, 20 minutes and then make yourself get up.
01:06:12
Speaker
you for the rest of the day will be better off i will say in my own personal life i feel really tired after just a 15 or 20 minute nap but then for the rest of the day i notice i'm more alert than when i take like an hour nap yeah well i think i've heard kind of what you said about causing sleep inertia but you know your sleep cycle can start again and then if you wake up in the middle of that
01:06:30
Speaker
That's why you might wake up from a nap feeling hot, feeling thirsty and feeling like what plan am I on? It's because you were in the middle of maybe REM sleep or deep sleep or something like that and you shouldn't have woken up when you did. I'm guilty for man, the long naps, but I've actually started to get better at the 15 to 20 because I think I'm realizing I don't need to enter deep sleep every time I nap. But like you said, just laying down and like closing my eyes for a second. I've gotten better at those and it is super helpful.
01:06:56
Speaker
Everything in me wants to take the longest nap possible, but you're right. Like once I'm back awake, I'm like, okay, moving on. Exactly.
01:07:05
Speaker
Next, I love this one. This is a great one. Sleep in a cool, dark room. Research shows that sleeping actually in a cave-like environment, dark, cool, and quiet, leads to the deepest sleep, and I live by this. A little bit of white noise helps me, too. Not everyone might be a white noise person, but Chris and I lights off. We do a fan, which also helps keep the room cool. If I can have a window open, I'll do that.
01:07:32
Speaker
Yeah, quite or like with a little bit of white noise and white noise has to be consistent. So you might say like, Oh yeah, my fridge kicks on and that helps which can but it that could be a sudden sound I'm thinking like long consistent rain sounds anything like that but honestly truly like a fan is kind of the most perfect one to me. Same. I actually totally forgot about that. That is a good one. Thanks for bringing that up. I have slept with a fan for white noise specifically
01:07:57
Speaker
Since college and it is the biggest difference, especially because i'm a very light so for my light sleepers out there tip for you with this is very important because of little noises wake you up in the middle of the night, a lot white noise will actually.
01:08:10
Speaker
Drown that out, even if it's not super loud, apparently how white noise works is it gives your brain something to latch onto for the night. So that's why Ayla said it has to be consistent because if anything changes, even with that white noise, your body's going to notice it and it'll, it'll disrupt your sleep a little bit. So I love that as a light sleeper fans all the way. Oh man. If I ever visit home and like sleep in my old room, you know, we live in like a foresty mountain town and it's so quiet. I didn't notice a thing as a kid growing up there. But when I go back, if I don't have a fan, I'm like, well,
01:08:39
Speaker
I think that actually I can still sleep okay in silence, but I definitely notice it. I'm like, whoa, this is so just being out of the city too. I'm like, man, it's so quiet here. But yeah, I struggle with that too. And I'm kind of in the recent years I've started to think I should probably figure out a way to maybe help myself with that because I actually have brought fans with me while traveling because I have that hard of a time. I have that hard of a time with sleeping. So if it's really quiet one time, this is actually something that was so sweet.
01:09:09
Speaker
Shout out to my mother-in-law. One time she came to join me for a wedding. I was traveling in California to a beach for a wedding and it was actually my birthday weekend and she came and joined me to just stay with me during that time and to have fun together. We had a little fun time. She unpacks her suitcase in the hotel room and brings out a fan.
01:09:30
Speaker
that she brought for me to sleep. She knew caring things. I've like, I was shocked too. I didn't ask her to do that. I don't even think I really mentioned that often that I need a fantasy. But I know I have before, but I just thought it was so sweet. So that was a fun little little. Yeah, the first time we visited Chris's parents after they they moved away. You know, we went stayed a weekend with them.
01:09:53
Speaker
And we realized like the room and they're out in the country kind of now or like in a smaller town. And we were like, Oh my gosh, this room is so quiet. So then the next time we came, we brought our own fan. And for a while there, we were so extra. And then, but then they bought the same fan. So now we've got a fan over there. That's so sweet. I love that. I love that.
01:10:12
Speaker
Okay, next one. Moving on. Number 10 or something like
Lifestyle Changes for Better Energy
01:10:15
Speaker
that. Drink less alcohol. So especially in college, this was something that I know a lot of my friends figured out. So studies show that more studies show that the more alcohol you consume, the less energy you have both short term and long term. It increases epinephrine in the body, which is a stress hormone, a stress hormone, which we know causes lower quality of sleep and decreases energy.
01:10:39
Speaker
Yeah. Like I totally get this. Like Chris and I have a few drinks occasionally and I'm a beer girl, you know, and, uh, we've actually changed those habits a lot over the years for so many reasons. Money actually is like a big one, but I will say I've noticed the difference between like, you know, every day coming home and even just having one or two versus saving it either there for the weekend or sometimes we just forget for a few weekends in a row because we really don't drink as much as we used to. And it changes sleep so much. And again, changes how you wake up.
01:11:10
Speaker
Um, waking up groggy. And I'm not even saying like getting hammered. I'm saying like a few changes you're going to bed and waking up. That's good to know. Yeah. It's important to, yeah. Yeah. Again, similar to coffee. We're not saying, you know, we're not commenting on.
01:11:25
Speaker
What you can have throughout the day was just understanding the effects of it so that you can make those choices for yourself. But yeah, probably my next favorite tip. I saw so much improvement in my sleep and my energy throughout the entire day with this one. Those who know me probably know what I'm going to say, but it's getting exercise for real.
01:11:44
Speaker
This one, I will safely say almost instant change. Wow. Sleep and energy with this one. Yeah. I'll kind of, that might be a hot take, but I'll, I'll put it out there. Exercise, expend, because you're expending the energy that your body might be holding all day. Um, especially if you work a pretty stationary job. Oh my gosh. If you work in an office or work at home, you just like exercise, like do it like there's no negotiation. If you're sitting all day, something, something, even if it's a walk around your neighborhood or
01:12:13
Speaker
Um, a hike or if you go to the gym, like I don't actually care what it is, but get moving, especially if you work an office job and then whatever your other job is too. Um, it can help prepare your body for the rest it needs. And, um, like I said, expend any leftover energy that your body may be holding.
01:12:32
Speaker
throughout the day, the gym massively improved my sleep, which therefore improved my energy. And it actually improves your energy even on its own, not even talking about sleep by like, you have to get yourself up and going and you get yourself moving. And there's so many hormones and good things that are released in your muscles. When you do exercise, we've talked about this before, the whole molecules, things that go to your brain and improve your mood and everything like that, like,
01:12:59
Speaker
We've already, we've already talked about this before on the show a lot, how important exercise is to you. Like getting your body moving like that regulates your energy so much through the day. And then I noticed when I started going to the gym, like I'd go until, you know, I felt tired leaving. And then suddenly I wasn't tossing and turning staring at the ceiling, going to bed. My body was like, we've done what we need to do today. Like it's time.
01:13:22
Speaker
to go to sleep. And I finally just noticed like, I was falling asleep so much more naturally because your body's tired in a good way, you know, in the way that our bodies probably used to be used back in the day. When we use them a lot more, you worked hard all day and then you fell asleep and then your body recovered. And I think it's just so, so critical to how our bodies are meant to work. They're meant to carry us. They're meant to endure hard things, whether that's walking or lifting weights or things like that. And then they will repair themselves when they sleep. Like it just works along with how our body is supposed to work.
01:13:50
Speaker
But yeah, the simple version is I expended more energy throughout the day, so therefore I was ready to sleep more in the day. And you may think, oh, I'm too tired to go to the gym, but actually just might be those energy levels that we're talking about. It may sound contradictory to go to the gym if you're tired. If you're exhausted, don't go. Again, if you haven't slept for three days, please don't go to the gym. But generally, if you get started, even if you feel exhausted throughout the day, even if you feel these low energy impacts, like we talked about in the beginning of the episode,
01:14:19
Speaker
starting some kind of exercise pattern again I'll kickstart that cycle well now I'm tired now I can sleep oh tomorrow I have a little bit more energy to do it again you know well exactly and even exercising so I know you guys exercise in the evenings but um so my mom grew up she exercised in the mornings and I actually totally like exercising in the mornings too not that I do it regularly but um
01:14:43
Speaker
Exercising also gives you energy directly because it moves oxygen and nutrients to your muscles and to your tissues. And so you that gives you energy kind of. Yes. Thank you. Sorry. I was trying to. Yeah. Yeah. No, I was trying to word that earlier, but I couldn't find it. So that's perfect. Yes.
01:14:59
Speaker
Something that goes hand in hand with exercise is potentially the use of creatine. Creatine's kind of been hitting the fitness world a lot more in the last couple years. More and more people are probably becoming aware of it. Chris and I take creatine pretty much every day. Creatine is not a steroid. Nobody worried when Chris first told me about taking creatine. I was like, no, I'm not taking steroids. It's not that. It has a name that sounds like a steroid, but it is not.
01:15:24
Speaker
it's a compound that comes from from three amino acids creatine is naturally occurring in your body it's found in your body's muscles as well as the brain and you can get creatine through seafood and red meat so and then as a supplement form it's a powder mostly it's like a tasteless powder that you scoop just like any other supplement into
01:15:45
Speaker
water or shake, whatever you want to put it in. And like I said, usually you can find it tasteless, which is what I like to do. The benefits of creatine, the reason I find it, it's kind of another one of those things that's pretty high reward, pretty low risk.
01:16:04
Speaker
really not a lot of bad things about it. It does a lot of really good things for you. A lot of people who go to the gym take it for muscle growth. It will help your muscle growth. It does a lot of natural toning and growth in your muscles. That's again, not a hormone. It's just, it's the hormone that's found in your muscles. So therefore helps your muscle growth and performance. But so many other things that are great about creatine is the second thing it actually helps with the most is your brain fog and your mental clarity. And again, I noticed a huge different
01:16:32
Speaker
a huge difference with taking creatine versus not oh wow um yeah i know i really do like processing and thinking and just sharpness focus um not only in the gym when i'm there but focus throughout the rest of my day and um you're naturally occurring energy it helps a lot more like a lot of people report that um a lot more energy comes with taking creatine i will say you have to drink enough water
01:16:56
Speaker
when you're taking creatine. That's like the biggest potential side effect is kidney problems due to not drinking enough water. So I don't have the exact numbers here for you. You're going to have to do your own research on that. I'm comfortable with the water amount I take in because a lot of people take creatine side
01:17:12
Speaker
like hand in hand with the gym and generally if you're going to the gym, you're exercising, you're drinking water, you're drinking water after, like you just have to be drinking enough water when you're taking creatine. You can't take it in one cup of water and that's all you have during the day or where it will cause problems. But yeah, that's basically
01:17:31
Speaker
one of the only downsides of it I can think of. Do your own research on creatine. It's not for everyone. Like Beth, you mentioned it wouldn't work really well like with what you eat and like your body's health and stuff. Sorry, I didn't mean to out you like that. We don't have to say that. No, it's okay. Sorry. Sorry. Can you repeat that real quick?
01:17:49
Speaker
Oh, I just said, um, I was like, Beth, I know that you choose not to take creatine for just like other things about your health. Yeah, that's fine. No, you're not outing me or anything. That's so funny. Okay. Yeah, I know you talked about it. I literally, as you were saying that, I looked down cause I got a text from the, from the loan agent. That's the only reason I zoned out for a second. I'm so sorry. Keep going though. That's okay. I wanted to make sure that was okay to say, but yeah, not outing me totally fine. Thank you.
01:18:10
Speaker
Yeah. So depending on your medications, anything like that, you will have to, again, check if creatine's right for you, but I just felt it was worth mentioning because it has helped my energy levels naturally. And like I said, it is found in seafood and red meat. So if you're nervous about taking a new supplement, seafood and red meat, we're really big on the benefits of those anyway in life.
01:18:31
Speaker
Yeah. So that might be another good option to try to. And then kind of with this too, it's just general eating less sugar.
Diet and Energy Sustenance
01:18:39
Speaker
Sugar causes spikes in blood sugar and energy and subsequent crashes in said energy. Sugar crashes are real. And I've noticed, I'm eating super, super healthy and being consistent in the gym. Say I'm just eating my fruits, my veggies, my protein.
01:18:54
Speaker
I'll have like, you know, cheat meals at times. And I love like some good salty foods. So like burgers, chips, whatever, like that's my cheat meals. And I've actually the first few times I ever like super consistent with clean eating and then had cheat meals. I thought that like burgers and fries and maybe like a beer was just going to kill me, but actually because my metabolism was working so well, my body just kind of processed that. But if I had like a bunch of cake or treats,
01:19:22
Speaker
I think my body didn't like those nearly as much and it was tiredness. It was definitely tiredness like I'd have this and like I found like I was way more sensitive like sugar buzzes like sugar rushes and then crashes like kind of the way it might affect little kids so take that with what you will that was just in real life like I don't have science behind that I'm just saying like
01:19:41
Speaker
my body processed the salty foods and stuff way better than sugar. What sugar does to your body is crazy. We love our little treats over here, not saying you can't have those, but just saying we consume a lot more sugar than we think we do in a day. So if you're having trouble with your sleep and energy, take a look at your sugar intake.
01:19:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good point. It's something that makes a big difference. Okay, another tip for having more energy, eat slow release foods, healthy foods for a more sustained energy. So slow release foods are found in grains like rice and starchy vegetables.
01:20:14
Speaker
These will give you energy throughout a longer period of time. So something that worked for me, and it might not work for everyone, but I noticed a huge difference personally. This was probably back, especially in high school and college, I would do this a lot. Protein and vegetable smoothies. So I would do, specifically my favorite one, oddly enough, was banana, all frozen. So like frozen banana and pineapples. And then I would add almond butter, kale, carrots, and ginger. Maybe that sounds so gross too, but I'm telling you it was actually one of the best things we've ever had.
01:20:42
Speaker
Anyways, that would give me the most energy I noticed throughout my day. For some reason, that combination just worked for me out of any kind of breakfast. For some people though, and Ayla, if you want to share what you normally like and how you would eat breakfast and what works best for you, but I know some people like a really protein filled breakfast and that works for them. I don't eat breakfast a lot, but when I do, that specifically had the best outcome for me.
01:21:05
Speaker
people know this about me. I'm a carnivore at heart and I do believe in the power of a good protein filled breakfast whenever you eat it. Like again, we're not saying we do this at like 7am, just like your first meal in the day, breaking your fast. I love a good protein smoothie. My recipe is a little chaotic. I don't know if you want to know, but it doesn't always have fruit. Sometimes it does. But so like, I'll, I'll describe if I do like a fruit one. So I just have like frozen mixed
01:21:31
Speaker
fruits, berries, bananas, like just a general frozen mix. Greek yogurt, good old spoonful of Greek yogurt because that has great protein. I'll add protein powder. I will add some kind of milk, so almond milk, regular milk, whatever, and then a raw egg.
01:21:49
Speaker
Cause cause I love my protein. I'll just crack an egg into there. Yeah. And you can't taste it. So I just do that. So that's my, like, uh, that's a great one if I'm staying home, but also keeping it simple. Eggs, bacon, spinach, and some oatmeal. If you want a carb, I'm really big on like slow release natural carbs. So like potato oats, um, even rice over like toast, if that makes sense, um, might sustain you a little bit more. And, uh,
01:22:18
Speaker
And then protein is also just one of those really great slow release foods. It'll just fill you up and keep you full longer than a cereal will. So yeah, things like that. All right, everyone, we made
Recap and Final Thoughts
01:22:30
Speaker
it. Thank you so much for sticking with us. We really just hope you guys got something out of this. We hope you're really excited to try some of these. Again, just like a recap.
01:22:41
Speaker
Energy, we all want more of it throughout the day. The biggest thief of your natural energy throughout the day is your sleep. So definitely we recommend implementing some of the sleep tips that we gave and we hope you understand why it's so important. And then after that, we talked about sleep a lot, but at the end of the day, these are all things that we highly believe naturally give you just some more energy throughout the day.
01:23:03
Speaker
We hope they really help some of you out there. We'd love to hear if they work for you. And definitely if you think of any tips we forgot to mention, 1000% shoot them our way. I might make like an Instagram poll or something about it or just message us personally. Definitely let us know if we missed anything and we'd love to just keep everyone in the loop and continue the conversation about that.
01:23:24
Speaker
Absolutely. And as always, you can follow us on Instagram at Art of Intention podcast, and you can listen to all the episodes on Apple podcast, Spotify, and Zencaster. If you enjoy the show, please take a second to subscribe and even leave us a five star rating. We will see you again next week. Bye.