Are you in the red on your energy credit card?
Energy is generated in every cell of our body. It helps us to get up and get going and enables every organ in our body to function optimally. The amount of energy our body is able to produce can affect how well we deal with everyday stressors and even affects our mood.
Albert Einstein said: “Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transferred from one thing to another”.
Think of it this way. (Que the circle of life music) Plants get their energy from the sun. We then eat the plants or, eat animals that have eaten plants, which contains stored energy called potential energy. Potential energy is stored in the form of chemical bonds which can be broken down and converted into usable energy known as ATP. We then use ATP to move our bodies and help our organs function, this is called kinetic energy. There is a continuous chemistry of breaking down and reforming of bonds to transfer energy from what we eat into what we use.
The keynote here is: we CAN NOT MAKE energy. We can only TRANSFER it.
Imagine for a moment that all the energy you have and need for the day is put onto a credit card. The currency is ATP. There are some things that use up some of this currency each day in order to survive such as: movement of skeletal muscles, contraction of digestive tract muscles, production of enzymes and hormones, and carrying molecules across cell membranes.
Say this energy expenditure uses around half of your daily currency. The rest is spent on purposeful movement such as exercise and getting through the physical and emotional stressors of the day. You can top up your credit card by eating nutrient dense whole foods (to transfer more energy and use nutrients for chemical processes) and resting the body.
Say you start your day with a full credit card. Your body spends half of your allowance on staying alive and functioning throughout the day. You spend a little bit on your way to work while you were thinking about all of the things you have to do that day. A bit more is spent on completing your work and the stress that caused. A little more is spent on the 30 mins of exercise you managed to get in that afternoon. You top up your credit card here and there with meals and snacks, but you are still spending. By late afternoon you can feel that you have almost spent your energy balance for the day, but your day isn’t finished yet. You still have to get home through the traffic, grab the kids, walk the dog, make dinner and clean the dishes. By the time you have done all of this you’re in the red on your energy credit card. You can’t move another muscle! So, you plonk yourself on the couch and soak in all the glory that is trashy tv until late in the evening. Although you have slowed down you are still spending that energy currency. Survival and function energy currency is spent just to keep you awake. Not to mention the brain wave activity that goes on behind the scenes from the blue light of your devise well into the wee hours of the morning. You finally drag yourself to bed only to close your eyes for what feels like a second before hearing the dreaded sound of the alarm clock. And so, it begins again. Although, today your energy credit card is only three quarters full because you didn’t top it up properly the night before. The day cycles through similar to yesterday, and again you haven’t been able to top up your energy credit card so much and so, the next day you have even less to spend.
Can you relate to this story of going and going and feeling your always in energy debt? I have been there! In fact, I have a feeling I could be there again very soon if I’m not careful, now that covid restrictions have lifted and life starts to get busier. And I don’t want to be that guy, but Christmas is only around the corner and we all know how energy expensive that time of the year can be!
So how do we get in control of our energy finances? Here are some ideas that might help you spend and restore your energy currency so you’re not reaching for those expensive loans that we know as coffee, energy drinks or sugar to get you through.
1) Budget your energy: Think about where you are spending your energy. Could you be delegating jobs or even reducing the things you are doing so you are not needlessly spending energy? If you know you have lots to do for the day how can you prepare for it? Could you go to bed an hour earlier, or have short breaks throughout the day where you are just being, not doing?
2) Find the hidden fee’s that might be leaking your energy currency. From time to time it is important to look at our bills and billers to see if they are still right for us or could we be getting a better deal? The same goes for our energy. If watching tv at night is your way of winding down could you get a better deal? Could you put your device on night mode or wear amber glasses so you don’t have the hidden fee of brain wave activity throughout the night preventing you from getting that deep, restorative sleep. Are you trying to multitask and spread yourself thin? Would it be more efficient to focus on one job, get it done, then move to the next?
3) What is your side hustle? A side hustle is something you can do other than your main paying job that brings in money with little effort. Things like meditation, time in nature, or actually stopping and having a break could give you a top up through the day without having to spend too much.
4) Are you doing your main paying job efficiently? In terms of energy currency, we get most of ours from the food we eat. When you eat processed foods or limit the variety of whole foods you consume you are using the same amount of energy without the reward of a good pay week. Aim to eat a rainbow of whole foods (basically as little processes and packaging as possible with as many colours as possible). You still spend energy digesting and metabolising; However, the varied vitamins and minerals helps produce bigger amounts of energy, which means a bigger payout.
5) Is your environment draining your energy? If you work, live or play in a toxic environment you spend extra energy. Toxic people cause stress, these are the people who unnecessarily push you to your limits emotionally and physically. The added stress causes extra need for hormones, neurotransmitters and inflammation to get you through and leaves your body with the job of rebalancing and mopping up, this uses energy. If you are around smoggy and polluted environments your body has to work hard to clean that out of you to minimise damage.
Sometimes just changing a few small things in your day can lead to more relaxation and less energy expenditure.
How much do you owe on your energy credit card?