Showing posts with label healthy snacks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthy snacks. Show all posts

Wednesday, 30 March 2016

Protein, Fibre, Apple Cider Vinegar: weight loss hacks to help you lose kilos faster

Diet tricks to help you lose weight faster this year

Protein, Fibre, Apple Cider Vinegar: 10 weight loss hacks to help you lose kilos faster
Whether you're looking to trim down fast or just tired or trying fads and trends that just don't work, then these might be your answer. Losing weight doesn't need to be hard. By making simple swaps and adding a few extras to your diet you can see great results in no time.


1. Eat More Plant Based Foods

Plant based foods are loaded with vital nutrients and phytochemicals our bodies need to for good health and for healthy weight management. They are high in dietary fibre to promote better digestion and bowel regularity, and are generally low in saturated fats and calories.


2. Don't Skip Breakfast

You’ve heard it many times before, that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but still over 50 per cent of Australians choose to skip eating in the morning. Having a nutritious breakfast will set you up for a day of healthy eating and is beneficial for healthy weight management. It helps you maintain stable blood sugar levels and prevents you from overeating high calorie and sugary foods mid-morning.
Breakfast provides a good dose of our daily nutrient intake too, including fibre, protein and important nutrients like calcium and B vitamins we need for energy production, bone health, and growth and repair of the body.


3. Include Good Quality Proteins With Meals

Protein sources such as raw nuts and seeds (including chia and quinoa), tempeh, legumes, oily fish, dairy (yoghurt, kefir, cheese), eggs, chicken, and red meat, are digested slower so they keep you fuller for longer and will prevent post-meal spikes in blood sugar levels and insulin. Grains like teff and lupin (a legume) contain good levels of protein too, so they make a nice alternative to regular flour when cooking.


4. Eat More Fibre

Foods containing fibre are filling, so they wont leave you feeling hungry and wanting seconds. Some of the best fibre-rich foods are fruits and vegetables, legumes, wholegrains (whole oats, brown rice, grainy breads, buckwheat, teff), nuts, and seeds.


5. Make Healthy Drink Swaps to Cut Calories

Instead of fruit juice, which is high in fructose, have veggie juice or a piece of fruit instead. Give soft drink the flick, it’s loaded with chemicals, and either high levels or sugar or artificial sweeteners and void of any goodness. Go for sparkling mineral water, you can add a little of your favourite unsweetened juice or fresh lemon. Herbal teas can be enjoyed hot or cold with some fresh fruit and mint.
Don’t forget to drink around 2 Litres of water daily for good health. Drinking water in between meals can be beneficial for reducing overeating and unwanted snacking too. If you are a coffee drinker cutting out sugar or syrups will greatly reduce your daily calorie intake. Chai lovers need to be careful not to buy sugary powdered chai that’s full of sugar, always go for real leaf chai.


6. Watch Portion Sizes

Overdoing any food can lead to weight gain. If you are ingesting more calories than you are burning, then you will naturally put on weight. Enjoy a variety of foods from different food groups in moderation. 
Your protein portions eg. fish, chicken, red meat, tofu, should be roughly the size and thickness of your palm, then fill the rest of your plate with vegetables or salad. This doesn’t mean a huge serving of mashed potato though, include plenty of green leafies, some brassicas and variety of different coloured veggies.


7. Have Healthy Snacks On-Hand

Always have some nutritious snacks on hand to beat afternoon sugar cravings and unhealthy snacking. Keep healthy snacks ready-to-go in your fridge, bag or work desk draw. Some ideal snacks are trail mixes, fresh fruit, small tubs of sugar-free yoghurt, homemade protein balls, apple wedges with almond butter, hummus or guacamole with veggie sticks or flax crackers, green smoothies and veggie juices.
Natural protein powders like whey, pea or brown rice, are also handy to keep on hand, especially at work, to add to smoothies or as a quick pick me up with some chilled water or milk of choice. Great to add to protein balls too.


8. Go Alcohol Free For a Few Months

Give your liver a break in the new year and loose weight in the process by going alcohol free for a couple of months. Alcohol is very high in calories and will contribute to unwanted weight gain if you drink regularly. The average full strength middy of beer and glass of wine contains around 105 calories, which takes around 25 minutes to burn off walking briskly.



9. Drink Apple Cider Vinegar Before Meals

Taking apple cider vinegar (ACV) before main meals is an excellent way to give your digestion and metabolism a boost. ACV is a thermogenic food, so it's helpful for enhancing fat burning and assisting with weight loss. It will also help improve digestive issues such as reflux and indigestion, and prevent bloated distended stomachs. Try 1tsp-1tbsp of ACV diluted in a little water around 15 minutes before eating. ACV can also be used in salad dressing.



Source

Friday, 27 November 2015

What is the Glycemic Index and Why Should You Care?

You may have heard a lot about GI or glycemic index recently.  Many well known food products use ‘low GI’ as a marketing message, promising ‘long lasting energy’.   Other products simply boast the small GI symbol on their packaging.  There is a GI diet, and many recipe books and magazines feature recipes that are low GI.  But what exactly is GI and is a diet based on low GI foods beneficial for our health?


What is GI?

GI or glycemic index is a rating system from 0 to 100, based on the effect that a food has on blood sugar levels when it is eaten. Only foods containing carbohydrates can have a GI rating, as carbohydrates are broken during digestion to their simplest form, sugars.   High GI foods with ratings of 70 or more are those which are digested and absorbed quickly, causing a rapid increase in blood sugar, usually followed by a substantial drop in levels.  Low GI foods, with a rating less than 55 on the other hand, are absorbed and digested more slowly and therefore cause a more gradual rise in blood sugar levels that is maintained over a longer time frame.

Why is GI important?

The GI of the food you eat is important for everyone.  Quick rises in blood glucose levels, such as those produced by high GI foods, can cause us to feel hungry again soon after eating.  This is due to the rapid drop of the blood sugar after the initial peak.  Low GI foods however, can keep you full for longer, as your blood sugar is maintained at a constant level over an extended period of time.
Maintaining blood sugar levels at a constant level is particularly important for people with Diabetes.  Type 2 Diabetics do not respond to insulin, a hormone in the body that regulates blood sugar levels by allowing the uptake of sugar into the cells for energy.  If people with diabetes experience large increases in blood sugar levels, over time, this can do extensive damage to the body.
GI is also important when doing sport.  Athletes need to eat the correct foods for training and competing to ensure their blood sugar levels stay constant.  Exercise increases insulin production, so if a person does a lot of exercise their blood sugar levels can drop very low.  An athlete may need to eat high GI foods before competing or during a race to boost depleted levels of blood sugar quickly.

What are the benefits of a low GI diet?

A low GI diet has proven benefits for health. A diet based on low GI foods can be beneficial for weight control, due to delayed hunger and appetite control produced by stabilized blood sugar levels.  This means that you eat less overall, contributing to weight loss or control, and are less likely to crave high sugar and calorie foods.
Insulin resistance is also reduced with a low GI diet.  When the body is constantly producing insulin to facilitate the uptake of glucose into the cells of the body and reduce the blood glucose levels, eventually the body can become resistant to this insulin.  This means that blood sugar levels stay high, which can do damage to blood vessels and organs in the body.  This is how type 2 Diabetes usually develops.
The Harvard School of Public Health has performed studies that suggest that the risk of lifestyle diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease are related to the overall GI of a person’s diet, and that a lower GI diet reduces risk of these conditions.  The World Health Organisation (WHO), recommends that people living in industrialised countries should follow a low GI diet to reduce risk of these common diseases.

What are some low GI food options?

So we know a low GI diet can have health benefits, but what foods should we actually be eating?  Choosing healthy low GI options can be more difficult that it seems.  Whilst fresh foods are easy to identify as low or high GI, composite foods made up of multiple ingredients can be more difficult.  Unfortunately, foods with a high fat content usually have a low GI.  This is because fat slows gastric emptying and therefore increases digestion time.  Ice cream and chocolate are both relatively low GI foods, but are obviously not healthy choices and are likely to contribute to weight gain. See also how to read a nutrition label 
Combinations of foods in a meal can also affect blood sugar levels.  If a high GI and low GI food are eaten together for example, the effect will be a moderate rise in blood sugar levels.  An example of this is eating a potato with baked beans, the potato is high GI, but the beans are low, so the effect on blood sugars is moderated.
For optimum results it is best to eat low GI foods the majority of the time, however, if the occasion arises where this is not possible, try to at least combine high GI choices with lower GI options to reduce the effect on your blood sugars. See also: What are the healthiest foods to lose weight

Easy low GI food swaps

Cereals

Swap puffed rice cereals (GI 82), cornflakes  (GI 80)and puffed wheat  (GI 80) for porridge (GI 58), natural muesli  (GI 40) or All-Bran (GI 50)

Bread

Swap white bread (GI 71), baguettes (GI 98) and bagels (GI 72) for wholewheat(GI 49), soya and linseed  (GI 36)or sourdough (GI 54).
Swap taco shells (GI 68) for wheat tortilla (GI 30)

Fruit

Swap dates (GI 103) for prunes (GI 30)
Swap watermelon (GI 80) for apples (GI 34)

Vegetables

Swap potatoes (GI 60) for sweet potatoes (GI 48)
Swap pumpkin (GI 75) for carrots (GI 41)
Most vegetables are quite low in carbohydrates and have a low GI

Snack foods

Swap pretzels (GI 83) for nuts (GI 13-25)
Swap water crackers (GI 78) and rice cakes  (GI 87)for oatmeal crackers (GI 55)
Swap maple flavoured syrup (GI 68) for  jam (GI 51) or Nutella (GI 33)
Swap scones (GI 92) and donuts  (GI 76) for a nut and seed muesli bar (GI 49).

Pasta and rice

Swap short grain rice (GI 83) for long grain (GI 50) or brown rice (GI 50)
Swap rice noodles for wheat pasta (GI 54) or instant noodles (GI 47)

Dairy

All dairy products are low GI with the exception of ice cream which is classified as medium (GI 62)

Legumes

All legumes are low GI.




Source

Saturday, 10 October 2015

24 Ways to Lose Weight Without Dieting

Time Your Meals

Set a timer for 20 minutes and reinvent yourself as a slow eater. This is one of the top habits for slimming down without a complicated diet plan. Savor each bite and make them last until the bell chimes. Paced meals offer great pleasure from smaller portions and trigger the body's fullness hormones. When you wolf your food down in a hurry, your stomach doesn't have time to tell your brain it's full. That leads to overeating.

Sleep More, Weigh Less

Sleeping an extra hour a night could help a person drop 14 pounds in a year, according to a University of Michigan researcher who ran the numbers for a 2,500 calorie per day intake. His scenario shows that when sleep replaces idle activities -- and the usual mindless snacking -- you can effortlessly cut calories by 6%. Results would vary for each person, but sleep may help in another way, too. There's evidence that getting less than 7 hours of sleep revs up your appetite, making you uncommonly hungry.

Serve More, Eat More Veggies

Serve three vegetables with dinner tonight, instead of just one, and you'll eat more without really trying. Greater variety tricks people into eating more food -- and eating more fruits and vegetables is a great way to lose weight. The high fiber and water content fills you up with fewer calories. Cook them without added fat. And season with lemon juice and herbs rather than drowning their goodness in high-fat sauces or dressings.


When Soup's On, Weight Comes Off

Add a broth-based soup to your day and you'll fill up on fewer calories. Think minestrone, tortilla soup, or Chinese won-ton. Soup's especially handy at the beginning of a meal because it slows your eating and curbs your appetite. Start with a low-sodium broth or canned soup, add fresh or frozen vegetables and simmer. Beware of creamy soups, which can be high in fat and calories.

Go for Whole Grains

Whole grains such as brown rice, barley, oats, buckwheat, and whole wheat also belong in your stealthy weight loss strategy. They help fill you up with fewer calories and may improve your cholesterol, too. Whole grains are now in many products including waffles, pizza crust, English muffins, pasta, and soft "white" whole-wheat bread.


Eyeball Your Skinny Clothes

Hang an old favorite dress, skirt, or a smokin' pair of jeans where you'll see them every day. This keeps your eyes on the prize. Choose an item that's just a little too snug, so you reach this reward in a relatively short time. Then pull out last year's cocktail dress for your next small, attainable goal.


Skip the Bacon

Pass on those two strips of bacon at breakfast or in your sandwich at lunch time. This simple move saves about 100 calories, which can add up to a 10 pound weight loss over a year. Other sandwich fixings can replace the flavor with fewer calories. Think about tomato slices, banana peppers, roasted red bell peppers, grainy mustard, or a light spread of herbed goat cheese.


Build a Better Slice of Pizza

Choose vegetable toppings for pizza instead of meat and you may be able to shave 100 calories from your meal. Other skinny pizza tricks: Go light on the cheese or use reduced-fat cheese and choose a thin, bread-like crust made with just a touch of olive oil.


Sip Smart: Cut Back on Sugar

Replace one sugary drink like regular soda with water or a zero-calorie seltzer and you'll avoid about 10 teaspoons of sugar. Add lemon, mint or frozen strawberries for flavor and fun.
The liquid sugar in soda appears to bypass the body's normal fullness cues. One study compared an extra 450 calories per day from jelly beans vs. soda. The candy eaters unconsciously ate fewer calories overall, but not so for the soda drinkers. They gained 2.5 pounds in four weeks.


Sip Smart: Use a Tall, Thin Glass

Use a tall, skinny glass instead of a short, wide tumbler to cut liquid calories -- and your weight -- without dieting. You'll drink 25%-30% less juice, soda, wine, or any other beverage.
How can this work? Brian Wansink, PhD, says visual cues can trick us into consuming more or less. His tests at Cornell University found all kinds of people poured more into a short, wide glass -- even experienced bartenders.


Sip Smart: Limit Alcohol

When an occasion includes alcohol, follow the first drink with a nonalcoholic, low-calorie beverage like sparkling water instead of moving directly to another cocktail, beer, or glass of wine. Alcohol has more calories per gram (7) than carbohydrates (4) or protein (4). It can also loosen your resolve, leading you to mindlessly inhale chips, nuts, and other foods you'd normally limit.


Sip Smart: Go for Green Tea

Drinking green tea may also be a good weight loss strategy. Some studies suggest that it can rev up the body's calorie-burning engine temporarily, possibly through the action of phytochemicals called catechins. At the very least, you'll get a refreshing drink without tons of calories.


Slip Into a Yoga State of Mind

Women who do yoga tend to weigh less than others, according to a study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. What's the connection? The yoga regulars reported a more "mindful" approach to eating. For example, they tend to notice the large portions in restaurants but eat only enough to feel full. Researchers think the calm self-awareness developed through yoga may help people resist overeating.


Eat at Home

Eat home-cooked meals at least five days a week. A Consumer Reports survey found this was a top habit of "successful losers." Sound daunting? Cooking may be easier than you think. Shortcut foods can make for quick meals, such as pre-chopped lean beef for fajitas, washed lettuce, pre-cut veggies, canned beans, cooked chicken strips, or grilled deli salmon.


Catch the 'Eating Pause'

Most people have a natural "eating pause," when they drop the fork for a couple of minutes. Watch for this moment and don't take another bite. Clear your plate and enjoy the conversation. This is the quiet signal that you're full, but not stuffed. Most people miss it.


Chew Strong Mint Gum

Chew sugarless gum with a strong flavor when you're at risk for a snack attack. Making dinner after work, socializing at a party, watching TV, or surfing the Internet are a few dangerous scenarios for mindless snacking. Gum with a big flavor punch overpowers other foods so they don't taste good.


Shrink Your Dishes

Choose a 10-inch lunch plate instead of a 12-inch dinner plate to automatically eat less. Cornell's Brian Wansink, PhD, found in test after test that people serve more and eat more food with larger dishes. Shrink your plate or bowl to cut out 100-200 calories a day -- and 10-20 pounds in a year. In Wansink's tests, no one felt hungry or even noticed when tricks of the eye shaved 200 calories off their daily intake.


Get Food Portions Right

The top habit of slim people is to stick with modest food portions at every meal, five days a week or more. "Always slim" people do it and successful losers do it, too, according to a Consumer Reports survey. After measuring portions a few times, it can become automatic. Make it easier with small "snack" packs and by keeping serving dishes off the table at meal time.


Try the 80-20 Rule

Americans are conditioned to keep eating until they're stuffed, but residents of Okinawa eat until they're 80% full. They even have a name for this naturally slimming habit: hara hachi bu. We can adopt this healthy habit by dishing out 20% less food, according to researcher Brian Wansink, PhD. His studies show most people don't miss it.


Eat Out Your Way

Restaurant meals are notoriously fattening, so consider these special orders that keep portions under control:
  • Split an entrée with a friend.
  • Order an appetizer as a meal.
  • Choose the child's plate.
  • Get half the meal in a doggie bag before it's brought to the table.
Complement a smaller entrée with extra salad for the right balance: half the plate filled with veggies.


Reach for the Red Sauce

Choose marinara sauce for pasta instead of Alfredo sauce. The tomato-based sauces tend to have fewer calories and much less fat than cream-based sauces. But remember, portion size still counts. A serving of pasta is one cup or roughly the size of a tennis ball.


Go Meatless More Often

Eating vegetarian meals more often is a slimming habit. Vegetarians tend to weigh less than meat eaters. While there are several reasons for this, legumes may play an important role. Bean burgers, lentil soup, and other tasty legume-based foods are simply packed with fiber. Most Americans get only half of this important nutrient, which fills you up with fewer calories.



Burn 100 Calories More

Lose 10 pounds in a year without dieting by burning an extra 100 calories every day. Try one of these activities:
  • Walk 1 mile, about 20 minutes.
  • Pull weeds or plant flowers for 20 minutes.
  • Mow the lawn for 20 minutes.
  • Clean house for 30 minutes.
  • Jog for 10 minutes.


Celebrate

When you've kicked the soda habit or simply made it through the day without overeating, pat yourself on the back. You've moved closer to a slimming lifestyle that helps people lose weight without crazy or complicated diet plans. Phone a friend, get a pedicure, buy new clothes -- or on occasion, indulge in a small slice of cheesecake.


Comment below what some tips and tricks you've found helpful to lose weight without resorting to dieting :)


Source
http://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-no-diet-weight-loss
Reviewed by Michael W. Smith, MD on 2/, 014

Friday, 9 October 2015

3 Simple Ways to Build Consistency

You don’t have to be an expert to figure out that consistency is pretty essential to successfully change your life, your health, and your weight. But it’s also pretty clear that building a consistent routine of regular exercise and healthy eating is not an easy thing to do.



You start off the day with the best intentions—to exercise, track all your food, and make healthy choices. But then life happens. One of the kids is sick, the babysitter is late, the snowplow blocked your driveway, the boss asks you to work overtime, or any one of a hundred other surprises that can really wreck your day. Before you know it, your plan is in trouble and your prospects for "sticking to it" aren’t looking very good. In fact, things are probably going to get worse as the day goes on. By the end of the day, you have no energy left for exercise, and the task of preparing a healthy meal feels like a big burden when what you really want is a break. Something has to give.

More often than not, "what gives" is your plan to exercise and eat right. When it’s hard to do everything, the things most likely to go undone are those that don’t affect or involve anyone but you—especially if those things aren’t exactly your favorite things to do anyway.

So how do you change this pattern? With the three rules for building consistency.

These three simple rules, when followed faithfully, will make it easier for you to be consistent with your healthy lifestyle habits—even on the toughest days.


Rule #1: Never tell yourself “I’m not motivated.” 
That’s not the real problem, unless you really don’t want to lose weight or live a healthy lifestyle. As long as you do want these things, you have all the motivation you need.

It may be true that sometimes you don’t want to exercise, or that you really want to stop and get fast food rather than cooking dinner. That’s understandable, but it doesn’t mean you’re not motivated. It just means that you want two different and opposing things, and you have to make a decision. Telling yourself that you lack motivation is just a way of denying that you really do have a choice. It makes the problem seem mysterious and out of your control, and it makes you feel less powerful than you really are, because you lack something (the motivation) you need. Not true!


In the long run you’ll do better if you acknowledge that the choice is yours to make. You can choose either option, without making excuses or inventing a theory like “lack of motivation” to justify it. Then, pay attention to how you feel about the choice you made, and decide whether that is how you want to feel most of the time.

Being consistent does not mean being perfect. (There are going to be days when you decide to do something other than stick to your exercise and diet routine, and that’s fine.) But becoming consistent does mean giving yourself the power to choose. 


Rule #2: Build momentum one step at a time. It’s never easy to change old habits or start new routines. Studies show that it takes anywhere from 21 to 40 days to really turn a new behavior into a persistent habit. And during that time, you’re going to have to work at it pretty diligently—even when you don’t feel like it.



The key to long term consistency is building momentum. The hardest part is always getting things started. But once you’re moving, staying in motion and picking up speed becomes a lot easier. There are a lot of ways you can gradually build momentum during those first few weeks. Here are some examples:
  • Start with something that’s pretty easy to manage and build up from there. Set a goal of one 10-minute exercise session per week. Then increase it to two 10-minute sessions. Gradually add minutes to each workout (and eventually add one or more additional workouts to your week), until you're exercising as long and as frequently as you should in order to reach your goals. The simple act of setting aside some time for exercise every day, no matter how little, and sticking to it is enough to start building the habit.
  • Find an accountability buddy—someone who knows about your plan and is willing to give you a push when you feel like slacking off.
  • Join a Team or Challenge here at SparkPeople. It’s always harder to let someone else down than it is to let yourself off the hook.
  • Employ an excuse buster. Find a friend, family member, or SparkPeople member whose judgment and opinion you respect. Each time you find yourself thinking about skipping an exercise session or blowing your meal plan, write down the reason for your choice. Share this reason with your excuse buster and get her honest opinion about whether the reason for your choice is reasonable or just an excuse. You’ll probably find that this makes it a lot harder for you to believe your own rationalizations.

Rule #3: Always have a plan B. 
Because life is unpredictable and complicated, you need to have plan B ready—even before you actually need it. Plan B is an alternative way to stay consistent with your goals when your regular routine (or something else) doesn’t work out as planned. Obviously, you can’t foresee every single problem that might come up. But most of the time, the things that get in your way are things that happen fairly often—like kids getting sick, extra hours at work, or days when you just don’t feel very energetic. Those surprises won't throw you off track if you plan ahead. For example, have a friend or family member lined up to stay with your kids so you can make it to the gym; stock your freezer with some healthy meals when you're short on time; stash your exercise clothes at the office for a quick workout when you can't get away.



Put a little time into identifying the most common problems that disrupt your healthy routine, and plan (in advance) what you can do to handle these problems without sacrificing your diet and exercise routine. Then all you’ll have to do is put your plan B into action.


Following these three simple rules will help you overcome some common obstacles while building the momentum you need to stay consistent. At the very least, you’ll be able to take all those lemons that life hands you, and make some good (and diet-friendly) lemonade out of them.


Source
http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/motivation_articles.asp?id=759

Saturday, 3 October 2015

Self-help tips to fight fatigue

Many cases of unexplained tiredness are due to stress, not enough sleep, poor diet and other lifestyle factors. Use these self-help tips to restore your energy levels.

Eat often to beat tiredness

A good way to keep up your energy through the day is to eat regular meals and healthy snacks every three to four hours, rather than a large meal less often.
Read more about healthy eating.

Perk up with exercise

You might feel too tired to exercise, but regular exercise will make you feel less tired in the long run, and you’ll have more energy. Even a single 15-minute walk can give you an energy boost, and the benefits increase with more frequent physical activity.
Start with a small amount of exercise. Build up your physical activity gradually over weeks and months until you reach the recommended goal of two-and-a-half hours of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, such as cycling or fast walking, every week.
Read more about exercise.

Lose weight to gain energy 

If your body is carrying excess weight, it can be exhausting. It also puts extra strain on your heart, which can make you tired. Lose weight and you’ll feel much more energetic. Apart from eating healthily, the best way to lose weight is to be more active and do more exercise.


Sleep well

It sounds obvious, but two-thirds of us suffer from sleep problems, and many people don’t get the sleep they need to stay alert through the day. The Royal College of Psychiatrists advises going to bed and getting up in the morning at the same time every day; avoid naps through the day, and have a hot bath before bed (as hot as you can bear without scalding you) for at least 20 minutes.
Read more about Sleep More, Weigh Less
 .

Reduce stress to boost energy 

Stress uses up a lot of energy. Try to introduce relaxing activities into your day. This could be working out at the gym, or a gentler option, such as listening to music, reading or spending time with friends. Whatever relaxes you will improve your energy.
Read more about how to stress and weight gain.

Talking therapy beats fatigue 

There’s some evidence that talking therapies such as counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) might help to fight fatigue. See your GP for a referral for talking treatment on the NHS or for advice on seeing a private therapist.

Cut out caffeine

The Royal College of Psychiatrists recommends that anyone feeling tired should cut out caffeine. It says the best way to do this is to gradually stop having all caffeine drinks (this includes coffee, tea and cola drinks) over a three-week period. Try to stay off caffeine completely for a month to see if you feel less tired without it.
You may find that not consuming caffeine gives you headaches. If this happens, cut down more slowly on the amount of caffeine that you drink.

Drink less alcohol

Although a few glasses of wine in the evening helps you fall asleep, you sleep less deeply after drinking alcohol. The next day you’ll be tired, even if you sleep a full eight hours.
Cut down on alcohol before bedtime. You’ll get a better night’s rest and have more energy. The NHS recommends that men should not regularly drink more than three to four units a day. Women should not regularly drink more than two to three units a day. "Regularly" means drinking every day or most days of the week.

Drink more water for better energy 

Sometimes you feel tired simply because you’re mildly dehydrated. A glass of water will do the trick, especially after exercise.
Read more How Drinking More Water Can Help You Lose Weight


Source
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/tiredness-and-fatigue/Pages/self-help-energy-tips.aspx