More energy

More energy with a few relatively simple adjustments? It’s possible!

Do you know that feeling of being tired even before your day has started? Or experiencing a massive after-dinner dip after every meal, leaving you dragging yourself through the rest of the day? That can be a thing of the past! In this article, I will provide you with two powerful ways to help you become an energy powerhouse.

The Impact of Nutrition

You might be surprised by how many people struggle with energy-related issues. There are, of course, numerous factors at play, but the most significant factor is nutrition. This is quite logical when you think about it because nutrition is the supplier of your energy. Therefore, the quality of that fuel undoubtedly affects the amount of energy you experience. The cleaner the fuel, the more energy you get.
Let’s compare it to a car and gasoline. What do you think is better for a car and allows it to travel more miles: clean, pure gasoline or contaminated gasoline with substances that are not suitable for a car? Exactly… That’s how it works in your body too!

Adjusting Your Lifestyle

There are countless reasons to consider adjusting your lifestyle. Many people do it to lose weight, reduce symptoms of illnesses like diabetes, or for the reason we will discuss in this article: to gain more energy.

Now, it might sound like a major endeavor to change your lifestyle, but it’s not as daunting as it may seem. You can make adjustments as big or as small as you like. Just think about the significant impact it can have, not only on your quality of life but also on the joy and satisfaction you can derive from it. That should make it more than worthwhile!

Why Change Your Lifestyle Instead of Dieting?

The reason I mention adjusting your lifestyle rather than going on a diet is because you (I assume) want to do this for the rest of your life, right? After all, you want to grow old healthy and full of energy. It may seem similar, and they are often confused, but there is a real difference between a lifestyle and a diet.

What a Diet Often Involves:

• Being very strict about what you eat/don’t eat
• Feeling like you have to deny yourself many things
• Keeping track of everything you eat and drink
• No indulging in sweets, etc.
• Saying no to things people offer you without being able to take a good alternative at that moment
• Not dining out
• Being constantly focused on food and exercise

The Biggest Disadvantage of a Diet
As you can see, a diet can be quite challenging. There are many things you restrict yourself from, making it often very difficult to sustain for an extended period. But there’s another very important aspect.

Since a diet is often temporary, you will most likely return to the lifestyle you had before once you achieve the desired result. As a result, you undo all the positive aspects of the diet… After all, there was a reason you started dieting. That was because there was something wrong with your former diet (lifestyle), which led you to start dieting.

What a Lifestyle Involves:

This is a way of life, meaning the foundation of how you standardly structure your (in this case) dietary habits. Of course, you can deviate from it occasionally, but the majority of your pattern consists of similar choices.

The Benefit of a Lifestyle Change
When you choose to turn a new dietary pattern into a lifestyle, there are many advantages. The biggest advantage of adjusting your lifestyle is that it’s much easier to sustain without feeling like you’re depriving yourself.

The trick here is to discover delicious, alternative products/dishes that you enjoy just as much, or even more, than the unhealthy things that have become “normal” for you. With all the many possibilities in a keto lifestyle, this is definitely not a punishment.

Deviate from Your Lifestyle
Of course, you can choose to deviate from your lifestyle occasionally, indulging in unhealthy things. But this is not something you do regularly, and afterwards, you quickly return to your new lifestyle.

Compare it to Vacation vs. Daily Life
Think of it like going on vacation, something you do once a year (or maybe more often). During that vacation, your rhythm and activity are completely different from your working periods. For example, you might go to bed later and sleep in longer, eat out more often, move less or even more (hiking excursions, etc.). But after that vacation, you still go back to your working life and to the rhythm that goes with it.

The Conclusion:

As you can see, adjusting your lifestyle does not mean you’re on a diet all the time. It means that for the majority of your life, you eat healthy and deliciously (and even enjoy healthy treats). To get an idea of what I mean by healthy (ketogenic) snacking, take a look at the contents of this book and see that it’s truly a treat and indulgence 😉

My Experience:

I genuinely enjoy everything that a ketogenic lifestyle has to offer. I feel much better both physically and mentally, my weight is under control (at my target weight), and I eat truly delicious foods!
Sometimes, I consciously choose to deviate from my keto lifestyle for a day, but I often regret it afterward. Often, when I consume things (or drinks) that I don’t normally have (think fries, chips, ice cream, soda, etc.), I literally and figuratively feel worse. My stomach feels bloated, I have less energy (extremely lethargic), and I often keep snacking (unsatisfied). I enjoy it in the moment, but almost immediately after, I think, “Was it really that tasty? Did I enjoy it more than all the other delicious, healthy (or keto) treats out there?”

The answer to the above questions is almost always no… It wasn’t as good as I expected, I don’t feel better, it doesn’t make me happy, and I enjoy the actual consumption of those products less. So, going back to healthy eating doesn’t feel like a punishment at all.

The Two Ways

At the beginning of this article, I mentioned that there are two highly effective ways to gain more energy: ketogenic eating and intermittent fasting (IF).
Both methods can be applied separately and can make a significant difference on their own! However, you can also combine the two methods. Just imagine what would happen then? Even more energy and feeling even better! These two methods are often combined because it’s truly addictive to feel this good.

Ketogenic Eating

When you eat ketogenic, the main goal is to be in a state of ketosis. This means that your body switches to using fat as fuel instead of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are converted into sugars in your body, making sugar the primary fuel for most people.

Fat is a much cleaner fuel source (think back to the car and gasoline analogy at the beginning of this article). This results in more available energy and allows the available energy to be used much more efficiently. You can read more about the implementation of a ketogenic dietary pattern in this article.

IF (Intermittent Fasting)

Intermittent fasting (also known as IF) means fasting periodically. This entails abstaining from eating and drinking for a certain number of hours, which can prevent disruptions in your blood sugar levels.

Periodic fasting is incredibly beneficial for your body! There are numerous health advantages to IF, so there are many good reasons to start with it. One of the first measurable differences that IF can bring about is having much more energy. You can read all about IF here.

Are you convinced yet?

Would you like to transition to a ketogenic lifestyle but could use some help? Then quickly sign up for the mailbox surprise! With this, you’ll receive a five-day keto mini-course, teaching you everything you really want to know! But there’s more—upon signing up, you’ll also receive a mini e-book with 10 delicious ketogenic recipes, and for an entire year, you’ll get a new “recipe of the week” in your mailbox every week.