Why are so many women struggling with energy? I think it’s because so many women are addicted to stress and I don’t think it’s their fault. We live in a fast-paced, instant-reward society that expects a lot of us. Plus, women are amazing in what they are able to accomplish. After becoming a mom I feel even more strongly about that statement. Most of the women I know have to actively slow down and do less because they are passionate, motivated, and always want to be better.
Unfortunately, this can come at the expense of our health. Stress drives mineral loss and minerals are the spark plugs that help support a healthy metabolism and hormones. The first mineral used up during stress is magnesium. We will then also use up sodium and potassium. When we are dealing with chronic stress, we can eventually deplete magnesium, which then leads to the body using up more zinc. This is why magnesium and zinc deficiencies are a common side effect of chronic stress. The process continues and eventually our minerals get depleted. This will tank our energy and make it hard to respond to stress appropriately. We then feel like we can’t handle stress as well and this is a big contributor to fatigue.
The goal is not to get rid of all stress but to support our minerals on a daily basis to help make our bodies more resilient to stress. This is when it is important to assess what is draining your minerals and filling up your stress bucket in the first place. Here are some common contributors that we typically have control over:
What are some simple steps we can take to help empty out our stress bucket, reduce how many minerals we are depleting, and start improving our energy? Let’s dig into three of them!
Prioritizing a protein-rich breakfast within an hour of waking is a great way to support healthy blood sugar and cortisol (stress hormone) levels throughout the day. This will help avoid too big of a cortisol spike in the morning, which can lead to depletion and more imbalances later in the day. Want to avoid an afternoon energy dip? Eat breakfast! Eating within an hour of waking is also helpful for telling our bodies it’s daytime. Need more breakfast ideas? Download my nourishing meal guide.
This is what tells our bodies what time it is. Getting that natural light in your eyes first thing or soon after waking signals to our brain that it’s time to stop making melatonin and start making cortisol. This also kicks off hormone production as far as sex, stress, and thyroid hormones go. All of which are essential for good energy. Learn more about the benefits of light here.
Hydrating intentionally can go a long way for energy. Many of us are dehydrated on a cellular level meaning we don’t have adequate minerals like sodium and potassium. Getting more sodium and potassium in via adrenal cocktails or just increasing sodium and potassium rich foods can be incredibly helpful for supporting these levels. I did a post with tips for optimizing adrenal cocktails here. Drinking water with a pinch of sea salt a couple times throughout the day can be helpful too. You just need to go VERY slowly with sodium and make sure you’re eating potassium rich foods (beef, salmon, dairy, potatoes, fruit, squash, beans are some common ones) in order to avoid fluid retention.
I hope this blog post was helpful for you and gives you some ideas to start boosting your energy!
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