3 Natural & Non-Diet Ways to Increase Energy

Oh, the 3pm slump...

Maybe you’ve been dealing with this for a long time, maybe it’s something new to you, or perhaps you've never experienced it (yay you!).

The thing is, the majority of women will at some point experience a significant feeling of fatigue in the afternoons.

As usual when I cover these kinds of topics, I need to preface by saying there could be many reasons why this happens and there are also SO many things we can do about it.

My sense is, though, if you’ve been struggling with afternoon fatigue, you’ve done your fair share of googling on the topic, so I’m going to go ahead and focus on a few key things we can do to increase afternoon energy, and which you may not have heard of (and yes, these are assuming you've raised this with your doctor and had your ferritin, B12, thyroid panel, glucose and HbA1C levels checked as these are the most common blood-work markers related to fatigue).

But I do need to make this clear before I begin: a certain level of afternoon tiredness is absolutely normal and I do want to make that clear because the internet is really good at making us feel like broken people if we don’t function like high-performance machines all of the time.

The truth is, we all have an internal clock (called the circadian rhythm) which signals the need of a slow down or “break” in the afternoon hours so that really needs to be accounted for.

Still, that afternoon fatigue can be inconvenient and even discouraging so as much as I am for respecting our bodily systems and trying to let them be and not mess too much with them, I do have 3 pieces of advice that can help curb the severity of that afternoon slump because reality is, most of us have demands that don’t always allow for the 2 hr afternoon break we may want to take. 

Here they are:

Advice # 1: have a walk around the block after your lunch.

In addition to being helpful for digestion, a walk around the block will help both stabilize the blood sugar increase from the meal you just had, as well as giving you a dose of natural light, which will help your brain slow down release of melatonin (the hormone responsible for making you fall asleep). 

It really is a simple way to counteract the potentially sleep-inducing effects of food + afternoon. I encourage you to try it! 

Advice # 2 – if you really need to (and can), take a 20-30 minute break/nap. An afternoon break can be truly energizing – that is if you keep it within a limited window of time and trust me is not because I don’t want you to take your rest. However, research on sleep consistently proves that longer afternoon naps can disrupt your sleep cycle, which in turn will make afternoon tiredness worse. 

If an afternoon break or nap is really not possible, see if you can schedule less demanding tasks during this time so that instead of pushing yourself, you can "ride that wave". I find some form of slowing down is truly beneficial and eventually the tiredness lessens.

Advice # 3 – adjust your meal times. For sake of consistency, I’m focusing on when and not what I typically recommend in terms of food intake (for more, have a look at my blog or Instagram – I share TONS of ideas on how to build balanced meals). I recently discover how making small adjustment to my breakfast and lunch times is making a massive difference in my afternoon energy levels. 

I realized if I make a point to eat my breakfast no more than 2 hrs after waking up and following with my lunch no more than 3.5 to 4hrs after breakfast, I seem to avoid the afternoon crash.

I often have meetings over lunch, so those days I’m adding a small mid-morning snack and it’s really making a difference. You may have to try a few different times and meal options until finding what works but looking into how long or short are your eating windows and whether you need to adjust your eating schedule is worth it. 

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Pamela