Feeling energised and having enough strength and stamina to climb out of bed each morning to face the day ahead can often seem impossible. Sore heads, aching muscles, bad diets and a poor night’s sleep can mean your energy levels start to plummet and hit an all time low, and when you throw in the general exhaustion of travelling you may eventually lose passion in your adventure and doubt your choices entirely. However, there are so many simple changes that you can make in order to wake up every day with the get up and go you need to truly enjoy your travels to their full potential.
Stay Hydrated
Especially important if your need for adventure takes you to a place with a hotter or more exotic climate, staying hydrated will have a massive effect on your energy levels. Water should be your main choice, as the body requires at least 2 litres each day in average. The more you sweat during the day, the more you will need to drink to make up for what you have lost. Drinking enough water will ensure that you are able to carry out everyday tasks that require an exception of energy, and without it you feel fatigued and without any motivation. Water also helps to control your body temperature, and without it your heart has to work overtime to pump blood (and oxygen) around your body. It’s wise to carry a water bottle with you at all times so you can sip throughout the day. Waiting until you’re very thirsty to actually drink something is a bad idea, as you probably wouldn’t wait until your car was empty and stalling to head to the gas station to fill up, so why treat yourself that way?
Choose Your Food Wisely
The food you eat basically provides you with the energy you need to function and thrive. A healthy, balanced diet will help you sustain an active lifestyle, and this should consist of fruits, vegetables, brown carbs, and natural protein. All of these food groups should be available wherever you go, often at a fresh market and for a cheaper price than you average street food or restaurant meal that will do nothing for your nutrition. Include bananas, avocados, goji berries, sweet potatoes and lentils where available as these are packed full of energy boosting vitamins and minerals. Eggs, yoghurt and quinoa will give your insides a bit of love, and some much needed healthy protein to repair your muscles after a long day. Green tea is now widely recognised for its many benefits, including its positive effect on energy. Rather than reaching for a mug of coffee, opt for the green stuff instead for a slow release of natural energy and alertness. Do you need a hint? Natural energy drinks with natural caffeine might be good replacements. Click here for more information.
Squeeze In A Work Out (Or 3)
When your energy levels are feeling low, exercising is probably the last thing on your mind. However, doing a quick workout can leave you with more vigour and positivity than when you began. Every time you do some kind of sport or activity, you will release endorphins that can increase feelings of happiness and vitality. The improvements in mood will help you to feel more motivated to continue working out and feel even better as time goes on. Regular exercise will also help to better your cardiovascular health, therefore boosting your blood flow and assisting your endurance and strength for any tasks you have to do for the rest of the day. You will also be enabling the opportunity to boost your metabolic rate, which will improve your efficiency of converting food sources into energy even when you aren’t actually working out. Even by squeezing in an hour of yoga every other morning, you can get a whole host of benefits without the use of fancy equipment or having to push yourself to sweat too vigorously. You don’t have to do any exercise you don’t enjoy – work it into your trip and book an extra hike, visit the ocean to swim or surf, find a court and play some basketball or just take a walk around your current location to explore it properly whilst still getting a little low intensity workout done.
Get A Good Night’s Sleep
Going to bed at a reasonable time and ensuring that the sleep you get is of a good quality a key part of feeling awake and raring to go when you get up the next morning. Every individual needs a different amount of shut eye each night, and there are many reasons why you should calculate your sleep cycles – one of which being the positive effects getting enough rest will have on your energy levels. If you don’t get enough sleep, you will start to feel drowsy and tired, and it’s more than likely that you will start to develop a kind of ‘brain fog’ that will decrease your attention span and memory potential. On the other hand, when you wake up from having at least 7 hours of rest you will feel invigorated, restored and replenished to face whatever the day ahead throws at you. To ensure the right conditions for a good quality slumber, avoid eating a large or spicy meal before bedtime, block out all light from entering the room, refrain from looking at screens on mobile devices and reduce your caffeine intake if you’re able. Although coffee may seem like a necessity when you’re feeling sleepy, it can stay in your system for 6-8 hours on average, and as it stimulates your nerves your body (and mind) will not be able to relax enough to drift off.
Avoid The Damaging Temptations
When you’re travelling, especially as a younger person, it’s easy to fall into the traps of nightlife and bad decisions. The effects that alcohol has on energy levels is shocking, and even though you might believe it helps you as you fall asleep much easier, the quality of your sleep will be poor. Alcohol is also said to raise the levels of stress hormones in your body during the night, which can increase your heart rate and make you wake up several times. If you choose to drink in the daytime, by evening you will feel exhausted and it will seem like nothing can pull you out of the heavy-eyed, yawning state you are in. Smoking cigarettes also has a negative effect on energy, as it reduces your circulation capacities and decreases the amount of oxygen in the blood. When you smoke, you have an impact on the strength of your immune system, so you may be more likely to catch an illness along your journey that might further sap the energy from your body. Avoiding both of these things might be hard when you’re trying to have fun with friends, but it’s important for your overall health and vitality that you reduce the amount. You will start to feel a difference almost immediately if you were dependent and choose to quit, as your energy levels are likely to go through the roof.
Try To Reduce Stress
The levels of stress you experience have a huge impact on how fatigued you feel. Stress has an impact both on the mind on the body, and when both become exhausted together you will have little vigour to enjoy your travels at all. Luckily, there are several ways that you can fight these negative feelings and situations in order to be in a much better mood with more motivation and energy to face the day. All of the different factors mentioned above will have an impact on the stress that you feel, as a healthy diet and a good night’s sleep lay the foundations for a positive day. However, this isn’t always enough and you may need to do something extra to destress and reach a high level of calm and tranquility, which is easier than you might’ve expected. Breathing exercises are a wonderfully effective technique that can be done anywhere at anytime, and can help you to feel more comfortable every single day when done more regularly. Just simply breathe in through your nose, and out through your mouth, as slowly as you can, The longer you do this for, the more restoring and balancing the process becomes, and the better chance you have of finding that inner peace you need to face your problems and worries head on. You will be able to sleep better, eat more, an just have a better overall joy and motivation for living that means your overall energy levels will be ever increasing.
Hopefully these tips can help you make the right changes in order to boost your energy levels, wherever in the world you may be!
