How to have energy and focus?

[Boss]

Hey I am Tired all the time and probably deficient in something but I live in a poor area and cant afford doctors to check my blood. I need to try to get income that will allow me to move and check with a doctor. Right now I have the energy to work for 1-2 hour a day and I am slowly building my monthly income. I am just wondering what did you guys do to have the energy/focus to work all day? I know caffeine is one way and I will try to get it via green tea as when I tried coffee I hated it. Also please let me know how efficient you are with coffee vs without so I can get a idea.

Thanks

[Dhana Choko]

What kind of diet and exercise regime do you have?

[Ayla]

The most efficient way to get energy, no matter your physical condition, is through nutrition, not pills or pick-me-ups. 

Juicing vegetables have proved the winner for me. 

Green Tea is a good alternative to coffee but it has to be drank with the same moderation, as it affects your Iron levels which leads to anemia.

Meditation also helps as it makes you aware of the amount of energy to spend on "ruminating" negative thoughts.

[Boss]

38 minutes ago, Ayla said:

The most efficient way to get energy, no matter your physical condition, is through nutrition, not pills or pick-me-ups. 

Juicing vegetables have proved the winner for me. 

Green Tea is a good alternative to coffee but it has to be drank with the same moderation, as it affects your Iron levels which leads to anemia.

Meditation also helps as it makes you aware of the amount of energy to spend on "ruminating" negative thoughts.

well my diet is terrible being poor and all. Rice, sometimes $1 burgers and I mainly drink water. As far as exercise I try to do 2 hour a week of running/walking. Thanks for the heads up with anemia defiantly dont want that but I may already have it lol anyway to check without a doctor? I tried meditation but didnt have much luck. I am trying to be more positive for sure. Thanks

[Ayla]

For now, start focusing on what you CAN do - improving your diet, instead of what you CANNOT - seeing a doctor. 

Whether you have anemia or not, is not relevant. What is relevant for now is your low level of energy. Concentrate on that. First, do what you can. If results don't come, go to the doctor. 

Do not see this as dieting, but as a life course that will bring you what you want. I highly recommend Leo's video about how he lost weight.

 

[Boss]

Yea cant afford healthy food atm just rice, potatoes and sometimes $1 burgers and I only drink water just cause thats what I can afford. 

[Ayla]

Well, 

I strongly advise you to cut out on $1 burgers and buy ONE veggie instead. 

Also, go to this part of our forum and write down your history. You might find people to support you with advice for your own area. 

 

 

[Boss]

okay thanks I rarely buy the $1 burgers only when im out and want to eat out which is rare. 

[Leo Gura]

Diet is the most important factor.

If you can't afford a healthy diet, that means you gotta put all your energy into raising your income until you can. Only then will you really be able to address the energy issue. Until then, you'll have to tough it out and do some crunching while you focus on improving your career.

If you have abnormally low energy, get blood tests to check your thyroid hormones. That is one of the #1 causes of chronic low energy.

Also cut out all wheat and dairy products. Rice and potatoes are not really as bad as wheat and dairy. Buddhist monks live just fine on small portions of rice so it's doable. Wouldn't recommend it for too long though.

[Dhana Choko]

Yes, you have to address your diet habits. If you cannot eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, you can definitely do well with just potatoes, rice and beans. I definitely recommend watching a documentary Forks and Knives that addresses many food intake related issues but also the idea that fast food is cheaper than whole foods, when actually it isn't. It is a marketing tactic. Eating a burger or fried food with a lot of animal fats is far worse than living off potatoes and fast food is actually more expensive.

Your situation needs a lot of action and willingness to change from your part but if you commit to it, you can generate massive changes in your life. Just by changing your diet and exercise routine, you will be amazed where you can go just within 6 months to a year.

There are many tools that can help you. This forum gives you some ideas and completely for free. Improving your life does not need to be costly money-wise, but it does trying a lot of new things, which is not always easy - but change never is.

[Boss]

Yea my diet is pretty much just rice and potatoes or beans(dont enjoy) and maybe once a month I get a $1 burger and I honestly get it even tho it maybe more expensive because I feel like I have more energy eating that burger than the veggies/rice. I do go bow hunting to try to get more meat but havent caught a boar in months so I stopped as I felt like I was wasting my time even tho it seems meat does increase my energy. 

Anyways thanks for the advice guys. Leo is right I need to put all my energy into raising my income as I cant be living like this any longer! 

Will look into the thyroid hormones blood test and check the price. I am sure its as expensive as the comprehensive test I wanted but fingers cross its cheaper  

[Analyst]

If you're only eating rice, beans and potatoes then of course you're going to be deficient in other vitamins and minerals. These contribute towards cognitive function and other aspects of health. 

Eggs are a good source of choline and contain every component of the B Vitamins. Also you can get eggs in bulk for a relatively cheap price. Pick up some cheap dried fruits or nuts. Frozen vegetables are cheap from what I See, I recommend adding them into your diet.

Olive oil will be expensive at first, but should last you a while if you buy a big bottle. 

[Walter B]

2 hours ago, Boss said:

okay thanks I rarely buy the $1 burgers only when im out and want to eat out which is rare. 

Tuna fish in a can and saltines make a great economic snack!  I like sardines in Louisiana hot sauce also, good oil content and also very economic.  Frozen green giant steam in bag veggies are great and can be found 10/$10 sometimes!

Your energy will go up with regular food intake and these are good foods!  You may opt for the albacore tuna instead of the cheapest.  Add some sweet relish and mayo stir it up and you have a couple days of tuna salad sandwiches!

The coffee in moderation will definitely give you an energy boost!  Milk and sugar make even the lowest grade coffee palatable for me.

And oatmeal makes a great health food.  Add some brown sugar and some dried fruit like grapes or cranberries to it and you've got a great meal.  Even shredded wheat cereal is a great snack to keep your belly full on the budget!

The oatmeal will keep your cholesterol in check and the protein, bread, fiber, and veggies will do the rest together with the exercise and water and your spiritual-ity work.

Edited February 7, 2016 by Elemental
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[Walter B]

1 hour ago, Boss said:

Yea my diet is pretty much just rice and potatoes or beans(dont enjoy) and maybe once a month I get a $1 burger and I honestly get it even tho it maybe more expensive because I feel like I have more energy eating that burger than the veggies/rice. I do go bow hunting to try to get more meat but havent caught a boar in months so I stopped as I felt like I was wasting my time even tho it seems meat does increase my energy. 

Anyways thanks for the advice guys. Leo is right I need to put all my energy into raising my income as I cant be living like this any longer! 

Will look into the thyroid hormones blood test and check the price. I am sure its as expensive as the comprehensive test I wanted but fingers cross its cheaper  

There are private companies that will do a blood panel for you for a reasonable price without a doctor.  It will tell you what you need to know.  It's the same test the doctor orders!  The interpretation can be a little tricky if you are unfamiliar, but surely you know someone who'd help with that and not "play doctor".  Or you could look up the interpretation on line.

[InternetPoints]

People always talk about food and exercise and serious health conditions as relations to energy, but almost never the mind. Being tired can just be the freeze mode in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response (people pleasing).

I long discovered I could think myself into being tired and sleepy, or if I was being emotionally triggered in a really bad way. What got me out of being tried all the time was a combination of removing myself out of the situations that I wan't handling well, learning to stop myself from overthinking certain things, carefully paying attention to what kind of situations were making me tired, so I could learn how to do something better about them, and PTSD and other emotional style treatments so I could handle things better.

I was tired and in bed a lot for a long period of time and it was really hard to unravel at first because when you are tired always you can't pick up what triggers you to become tired very easily and you mistake it for a state of being instead of realizing there is some control over it. A good start is just to pay attention to what is going around you and your mental states when you shift into being tired, or the tiredness increasing.

 

[Walter B]

It used to be that simple.  I kind of miss it.  Sometimes life deals us blows that prevent us from these ways for it's own reasons.  But the mental is so important.  Especially for the PTSD portion.  People pleasing is just a habit one has to break.  Albeit hard to break because everyone wants to be pleased, but it's still just a habit.  It's the by-product of lots of things such as efforts that imbalanced or caused misplacement and misunderstanding of masculinity and femininity in society.  It's like the term "server" moved from the home to the restaurant business.  Maybe the restaurant trainers and workplace managers should be giving marital advise as well.  Then maybe we wouldn't have 70-80% divorce rates! 

Got off topic here, but mind over matter used to be a motto for me until it didn't work anymore.

[Leo Gura]

2 hours ago, Elemental said:

Then maybe we wouldn't have 70-80% divorce rates! 

Divorce rates are actually like 40% to 45%.

[Boss]

On 2/7/2016 at 8:46 AM, InternetPoints said:

People always talk about food and exercise and serious health conditions as relations to energy, but almost never the mind. Being tired can just be the freeze mode in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response (people pleasing).

I long discovered I could think myself into being tired and sleepy, or if I was being emotionally triggered in a really bad way. What got me out of being tried all the time was a combination of removing myself out of the situations that I wan't handling well, learning to stop myself from overthinking certain things, carefully paying attention to what kind of situations were making me tired, so I could learn how to do something better about them, and PTSD and other emotional style treatments so I could handle things better.

I was tired and in bed a lot for a long period of time and it was really hard to unravel at first because when you are tired always you can't pick up what triggers you to become tired very easily and you mistake it for a state of being instead of realizing there is some control over it. A good start is just to pay attention to what is going around you and your mental states when you shift into being tired, or the tiredness increasing.

 

Great advice as this really relates to me. Right now my position is not having energy and my mind is thinking its because im just physically not able too. When I look at it through a mental perspective I am stuck, sick and need a expensive blood test that will cost me 5 months of work to afford to see if I really am sick. What if the blood test says im physically fine? I would have just wasted my money/time I could have used on something else. This may be whats making me tired because subconsciously I really dont want to work because of that possible scenario of me working for nothing. My mind might be getting tired on purpose to prevent wasted energy. Sigh I am getting tired just thinking of this.  

[NariusV]

One thing you can do to boost energy that can also help with some blood issues is breathing deeply.  Deep abdominal breathing. If you're healthy you can try some yoga breaths like the 'skull shining breath' that can boost your energy very quickly. I have experimented with these for a while, including using breathwork to help stay aware and awake for several days a time when I was younger. These can give you a way to push through slumps of energy that you could not otherwise do, inducing clarity of mind, or physical strength, even during periods of extreme fatigue.

Something to be aware of is that using these breathing exercises can trigger headaches or sweating, etc. due to direclty changing your own bodies functioning. This can be used to your advantage, but can take some period of adjustment. Be careful and good luck  

[InternetPoints]

1 hour ago, Boss said:

Great advice as this really relates to me. Right now my position is not having energy and my mind is thinking its because im just physically not able too. When I look at it through a mental perspective I am stuck, sick and need a expensive blood test that will cost me 5 months of work to afford to see if I really am sick. What if the blood test says im physically fine? I would have just wasted my money/time I could have used on something else. This may be whats making me tired because subconsciously I really dont want to work because of that possible scenario of me working for nothing. My mind might be getting tired on purpose to prevent wasted energy. Sigh I am getting tired just thinking of this.  

This kind of spiral of negative thoughts and being in a shitty scenario and trying too hard to resolve it with thinking is exactly what I mean this can make me tired still today, it just takes more of this kind of thinking then before and I am able to notice and stop myself more often. If you engage in this kind of thinking only a few minutes a day once in a while you will probably be fine, but if you do it for very long and often then it could very well make you tried all the time.