Three frappucinos and a 2 o’clock sugar binge may taste wildly de-licious, but they’re energy phonies – lying their way through your bod with illusions of bliss and vitality, only to vanish a few hours later when you’re nodding off into a can of diet soda.  So ask yourself, do I want a lifelong love affair with explosive energy or a dishonest one-night stand?

The former, please.

The daily activities we engage in, can electrify or sap our spark, so if you’re suffering from poor energy try these tips and set fire to your system.  The more you drag the less you glow!

• Go Green. Make kale, spinach and all other dark leafy greens your very best friends.  We’re talkin’ soul sister close.  They help purify the blood, promote healthy gut flora and strengthen your immune system.  Darker greens have soaked up more energy from the sun, which gets passed straight to you; filling you to the brim with nutrients.   Basically, team collard and arugula would kick iceberg lettuce’s ass in a street fight.  And while it’s optimal to eat these superfoods raw, lightly steam your greens to aid in their digestion.

• Sleep. Every body is different, so there’s no magic number of revitalizing sleep hours, but vacillating between 2 and a hungover 12 isn’t the answer, so experiment until you feel re-energized.    Sleep isn’t the novel idea of loafs and dreamers, but your body’s internal repair system.  Restful sleep makes time for existence essentials like memory consolidation, hormone regulation and tissue growth and repair.

• Hydrate.  Your body loves water — not just because it’s so darn refreshing, but because it IS water — 75% of it!  You can’t swim in a half-drained pool, therefore, it needs to be continually replenished.  Every cell, tissue and organ in your body needs water to function correctly, so grab your water bottle and fill it up, then fill it up again.

• Ditch fake foods. So what exactly is fake food?  It’s the highly processed stuff your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food – lunch meat, crustless white bread or hot pink yogurt in a squeeze tube.  While we can’t make you give it up for good, we’ll still ask, politely of course — pretty please, give that crap up?  These foods wreak havoc on your digestive system and the little nutrient value they do possess isn’t easily absorbed or understood by your body, thus depriving it of energy.
  

• Eat with Mother Nature.  She’s a smart woman and if you eat on her schedule, you’ll maximize your energy intake. Summer blackberries through crisp fall apples; she produces the most nourishing foods at the right time of year.

What’s the first zesty suggestion you’ll try?  A deep snooze?  Spinach salad?  Both?  Let’s us know what lights your fuse.

Peace and oomph,
Alexandra LeFevere on behalf of the KLUTCH team