Rev Your Workout. Drinking a cup of coffee fifteen to sixty minutes
pregym can make your workout feel easier, research has found. It can also
slightly increase performance.The goal shouldn’t be to avoid caffeine altogether (there’s nothing inherently
wrong with it, unless you are a person who experiences unwanted side effects—
which is my issue). But be strategic. Do you really need a cup first thing in the
morning, or do you make it because that’s your habit, just as my childhood
candy drawer was mine? Would it help you more at eleven in the morning, when
energy naturally begins to dip? It’s something to consider, so that you rely less
on caffeine as your be-all and end-all, but perhaps as more of a supplement or a
kick-starter when you need it.
I also think that if you eat the FIXES foods and drink water consistently
throughout the day, you’ll find that your energy levels will be higher and you’re
less likely to experience the highs and lows you might get relying on quick-fix
beverages.
Before You Sleep
More than half of the people polled in our magazine survey say they tend to eat
more when they’re low on energy and nearly 30 percent eat sweets when they hit
that slump. We’re pretty quick to self-medicate when it comes to fatigue; we
instinctually know that food can help us, even if we don’t always choose the best
thing. But the core of fixing fatigue is fixing your sleep, and it turns out that the
right food can help you here, too.
Lack of sleep may well be one of the most far-reaching problems we have, as
it’s linked to heart problems, obesity, depression, memory issues, and more. The
time of day when you sleep seems to play a role as well. That is, all hours are not
created equal. Some data is showing that the hours you sleep before midnight are
more important than those that you sleep after. Practically, sleeping from ten P.M.
to six A.M. is better for your body than sleeping from midnight to eight A.M.
Needless to say, there are many reasons why we don’t always hit the hay before
midnight (work schedules, getting caught up on your favourite celeb’s Instagram
posts, etc.), but once there, you want to nod off fast and stay conked.