Fatigue Management

Today is the first day of my practitioner project!  Here are the details:

Are you tired, run down, and listless? Do you poop out at parties? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you should participate in my FATIGUE MANAGEMENT project! The goal of this project is to see what happens to the energy levels of participants who follow certain patterns of healthy living for a two-week period. The project runs from March 17th through March 30th. Please readthe following guidelines and comment if you are ready to kick your fatigue in the tushie!

Please remember that I AM NOT A DOCTOR! These rules for fatigue management are just the result of my research. Listen to your body and research things for yourself as well. The rules of fatigue management:

1. Exercise for AT LEAST 20 minutes AT LEAST 3 times per week

2. The hardest part: Get 8 hours of sleep per night. Less can obviously sap energy away, but so can more than 9 hours of sleep for a developed adult.

3. Drink 9-13 glasses of water per day

4. Eat a nutritious breakfast EVERY DAY

5. Eat 5-6 small nutritious meals per day instead of a few large ones

6. In the late afternoon or when you know your energy usually dips, make one of your small meals a protein/carbohydrate combo. Some suggestions:
http://www.wkyc.com/news/health/cuttingedge/article/205925/407/Fighting-Fat-The-power-of-the-protein-carb-combo
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/snacks/low-calorie/after-workout-snacks/
http://www.bodyresults.com/e2supersnacks.asp

7. Make sure you are eating iron-rich food daily and/or take iron supplements. Some sources of iron can be found here:
http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/food-sources-of-iron.php
http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/top-iron-sources-44111008#slide-1

8. Make sure you are eating ENOUGH calories
Free calorie calculator:
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

9. No caffeinated beverages

10. On a daily basis, rate your energy level on a scale of 1 to 10, describe your feeling and observations- share with me so that I can complete my project!

Those are the hard and fast rules. You can decide for yourself if you want to add or eliminate additional things.  An additional rule that I will be applying is no sweets or desserts- simply because I have never been able to be "moderate" with those, and sugar causes your energy to spike and crash.  Just keep in mind that the healthier you are, the more energy you are likely to have, and everything that you put into your body should be for the purpose of fueling it. Let me know if you have any questions!
Remember- failure to prepare is preparing to fail! I would highly recommend that before March 17th, you sit down and plan out your exercise and meals, and go shopping for what you need.

I will be sharing ideas and posting updates on this blog about my implementation of this plan, and I will also be rating my average energy of the day from a scale of 1 to 10.  In order to give a more complete view of the day, I will most likely be posting retroactively.

A few of my friends have been so kind as to consent to jump on the band wagon with me (hurrah!) and to share their findings and results as well, so that we will get a good idea if the suggestions for managing fatigue that I came across in my research are actually effective.