It is not exactly secret that nutrition and exercise plays a large role in whether or not you can maintain excellent energy levels. However, there are quite a few misconceptions people have regarding the best way to eat right and exercise to increase stamina. Some assume you have to eat a Spartan diet and constantly take part in rigorous exercise sessions.
There is no reason to do this because you can enjoy a great diet filled with diverse food choices. You also can get a lot out of low impact exercises. Once you experience the benefits of these exercises, the most valuable thing in your life – your health — will improve. As Ghandi was fond of saying, “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”
To help you on your goals, here are some better tips for eating right and working out if extra energy and greater stamina are your goals.
Basic Diet and Exercise Tips for Improving Energy and Stamina
- Say no to refined and processed sugars. As a source of high, empty calories nothing is worse than refined sugars. Sugar can provide a short term energy boost but the effects do wear off leaving you even more tired than when you started. When you do opt for food choices with sugar, stick with products with organic, natural sugar.
- Keep saturated animal fat to a minimum. Saturated fat is very high in calories and it not only contributes to obesity, it contributes to all being slow and sluggish. Your body has to work real hard to break down all that saturated fat and you end up really worn out as a result Red meat, low quality pork, and lamb are known for their high saturated fat content. Stick with lean poultry and fish instead. You have a wide selection of poultry and fish available to you so you won’t ever be bored with your choices.
- No matter what you eat, try to walk around for ten minutes after each major meal. This can at least give your metabolism a minor boost which, in turn, helps you feel quite a bit more energetic. For those with access to treadmills, you can perform your walking (or jogging and running) sessions any time of the day or evening.
- Interval training is not easy but it will improve your stamina and your energy levels immensely. The proper mix of low, medium, and high intensity paces in the same treadmill session could lead to your “wind” becoming much stronger thanks to the incredible impact this approach has on cardio conditioning.
- Avoid skipping meals. Nothing will drain your energy more than just not having enough calories to get through the day. Even when you wish to lose weight, you still need to have enough calories in your system to maintain your energy levels. Just be sure to draw those calories from lean proteins, fruits, and vegetables to ensure the calories you ingest can fuel the body in the healthiest manner.
- Put in a solid strength training program during the week. Keep in mind the words of Deborah Bull: “It’s not about weight, it’s about fitness, and one component of being fit is to have relatively low body fat, because fat is not very efficient, whereas muscle is.” That added muscle will assuredly make you more energetic.
Put Your Plan into Action
As you have probably surmised, none of these steps are all that difficult to put into action. Following these very simple diet and exercise tips opens the door to significantly improving your stamina and energy levels. Best of all, this is achieved without having to shock your body with any over the top lifestyle changes. There is lots of great tips and advice at www.treadmilltalk.com. That alone enhances the potential for success. So get to it!
Anthony Munroe is in his late 30’s and he is a huge proponent of working out on a treadmill to gain increases in energy and living a healthier lifestyle. As a full-time freelance writer and martial arts instructor/competitor, he reads treadmill ratings and reviews in order to stay on top of which models are the best to exercise on.