Have you ever wanted to lose weight but felt so tired and sluggish that you couldn’t even consider adding exercise to your daily routine? It may sound strange, but exercise actually gives you more energy. In this post, we discuss how to exercise to boost energy levels and lose weight!
The difficult part is getting yourself up and moving. Aside from helping you lose weight through the calorie and fat burning process that exercise provides, it also provides your body with a surge of endorphins, revving up your energy levels for the day ahead.
Try not to exercise at the end of the day when your mind and body are exhausted. Instead, add exercise to your schedule in the early morning or late afternoon.
Begin slowly, adding a few extra steps at a time. Instead of taking the elevator or escalator, take the stairs. When you go shopping, park a little further away from the entrance. Alternatively, spend a few extra minutes at home on your treadmill.
Start with 5 minutes per day and gradually increase it weekly until you reach the recommended minimum of 20 minutes. Then, if possible, work your way up to an hour. This could imply developing better time management skills for the rest of your life.
When you establish a regular sleep schedule in which you go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning after a full night’s rest, you’ll find that you have enough energy to fit in a workout.
Make an effort to engage in enjoyable exercise. If you force yourself to attend a punishing bootcamp, for example, you may find it difficult to motivate yourself to attend on a regular basis.
However, if you have plans to go rollerblading or cycling somewhere (perhaps with a friend), you will look forward to it more and will find it easier to stick to your workout routine.
The best thing you can do to boost your energy levels is to eat foods that help (rather than foods that make you crash half an hour after eating them), and pair your nutrition with movement that gets your heart rate moving and your blood pumping.
For at least thirty days, give it a shot. See how different it is at the end of that time span when your only source of energy was a sugar and caffeine-packed energy drink or five cups of coffee.