Beat back exhaustion
Eat often, work out early and watch your booze intake
Holly Phillips, a New York internist and frequent talk-show guest, begins her new book with the premise that almost all women are exhausted pretty much all the time.
Motherhood is tiring, work is draining, having it all is uber-exhausting.
“We’re so accustomed to this shared weariness that we dismiss it like a run-of-the-mill windy day,” she writes in The Exhaustion Breakthrough.
“I’m intimately familiar with this phenomenon, not just as a physician, but because I was tired for 20 years straight. … I’d have about 2 1/2 hours of good energy first thing in the morning, then it would wane for the rest of the day, and it had nothing to do with how long I had slept the night before.”
Been there? In the new book, Phillips writes about why women are so fatigued and what they can do about it.
Some bits of advice on how to stay energized:
Eat every three to five hours. “Whether you opt for three square meals and two small snacks or five mini-meals … is up to you. Either pattern will help keep your blood sugar steady and your energy level on a more even keel.”
• Exercise in the morning. As opposed to those who hit the gym after work, studies show that people who exercise in the morning “have the best sleep patterns ... including better quality sleep and a lower likelihood of awakening feeling unrefreshed.”
• They are also “considerably less likely to cancel than those who save their routine for later in the day.”
• Try natural sleep aids. “I frequently use a product called Natural Calm, which contains calcium and magnesium in powder form. ... These minerals ease stress in the body and promote the release of calming neurotransmitters in the brain, a combination that sets the stage for better sleep.”
• Cut or at least manage your alcohol consumption.
One of her patients is a 28-year-old fashion executive who leads what she calls a Sex and the City life, and she wasn’t sleeping well.
As the doctor tells her, alcohol acts as a stimulant a few hours after you stop drinking, so it wakes you up at night.
Ideally, the young woman should limit herself to one Cosmopolitan per evening.
But “because she didn’t want to give up her lifestyle, she decided to cut back on the frequency, rather than the quantity, of her drinking so she could have several nights of ‘good sleep’ per week — a change that improved her energy level overall.” • Breathe smart. How you breathe affects your energy level, Phillips says. During yoga or mild exercise, breathe steadily, in through the nose and out through the mouth.
When running, breathe deeply (use your diaphragm) through the mouth. When weightlifting, take a few deep breaths to start, then exhale through your mouth as you lift and inhale through the nose as you lower. • Be aware that some medications — antibiotics, antihistamines, blood- pressure or cholesterol medications, proton-pump inhibitors and others — can contribute to fatigue and lethargy.
If you need these drugs, don’t stop taking them, but talk to your doctor about how to counteract their tiring effects.