Dr. Shmuel Shields - Guard Your Health Series (Part 1) - Live Well: Tips for More Energy

okay we're going to get started topic today live well learn well tips for more energy my name is dr shmuel shields and i am here today to on behalf of kazakh to talk about ways that we can have more energy to be able to serve hashem we know in safety we have a pasta that says ceviche hashem the negdytamid that we should always set hashem before us constantly in everything that we do and we know before we fall asleep at night we have it to feel it called homaphil so when we're weary and faint we're about to fall asleep we say homaphil and it's really a gift of sleep according to the world of prayer that we're able to fall asleep and we're able to renew our energy for the next day and the kids says when we get up the next morning we say mode ani it's upon awakening while we're still in bed that we should recall the kindness that hashem has done for us by restoring our neshama when shemo was returned to us for what purpose for the purpose of doing the evodis hashem with all of our abilities to serve him the entire day as it says in sephira koheles this is our entire purpose of existence and we should really pause and express our hakarusa tov to hashem for giving us another day another opportunity to serve him um in pirkei avos we see there's a a mishna that says the gebor kahari that we should be as strong as a lion in hashem's service and to carry out the will of our father in heaven so what i want to do today is i want to talk a little bit about uh some very practical tips that we could put in place so we'll have more energy to serve serve the ribuna shalom i happen to be the author of a safer called uh wachayam 18 chapters to live by and some of my talk today comes from this safer and we're going to be doing a series called guard your health series um and this is really the first of the god your health series so i want to talk about things we can do and one of the things we can do to have more energy during the day is when we take breaks if you're learning in yeshiva or you're working or you feel like you you're tired during the day the best thing to do is to take a break outside and to re-energize even though we might argue the air outside is polluted the air inside is polluted the truth of the matter is air pollution inside is four to five times greater than it is outside so we all know when we leave a building that we're all closed in and the windows are closed and we have either heating or air conditioning getting fresh air is a great way to to re-energize so i suggest that when you take breaks if you can get out of the building you're in and get some air the next thing i want to mention is your water intake staying hydrated many people are tired because they're dehydrated water plays a very critical role in our energy level it also prevents drowsiness confusion irritability and sometimes even headaches it's usually suggested that a person has one cup of water one eight ounce cup of water for every 20 pounds of body weight so throughout the day we should try to drink more to help us with our energy level when it comes to food i could tell you many years ago i did a talk for toru misora and i had the stress of meeting rav shmuel kaminetsky kharov shmuel kavanesky and he said to me the boys today in yeshiva are not learning well because they're not eating well and he said i can quote him on this and that's what i'm doing right now so just a couple of suggestions on food basically our goal here is to eat for health and energy one of the things we may try to do is to eat less many people feel my energy level is low i'm tired so they need a lot of food what happens is you eat too much the blood rushes to the stomach all the organs of digestion are overworking now and you get very tired usually fall asleep after a big meal so eating lightly is going to probably be better for our energy than stuffing ourselves using more whole foods unprocessed foods more fruits and vegetables cutting down on sugar and white flour avoiding artificial sweeteners hydrogenated fats trying to keep a more natural healthy diet made up of the right kind of meals and snacks and also not going more than a number of hours without maybe a snack because as our blood sugar drops it's going to affect our energy level our mood and so on so all of these tips i'm suggesting today are ways to boost energy to boost our mood and to help us focus and to be able to concentrate more and we know when it comes to doing mitzvahs without the physical energy we really can't do the mitzvahs lit the way they should be done because doing the mitzvahs in the best possible way means we need to do them basimka with ahava with yera with the proper kavanas and that requires a certain amount of focus a certain amount of physical energy to be able to do that and if you think about it we really have a tremendous achrais to do the mitzvahs in the best possible way thanking hashem for restoring our neshama and using that neshama while it's in the guff to do the evodis hashem in the best possible way okay so getting back to so we spoke a little about the food component there's a lot more to say about that but getting the right snacks in at the right time to keep our blood sugar stable and to try to avoid snacks and foods that are going to destabilize our blood sugar so if we feel a little low in our energy level and we go for a candy bar or cookies or cake or pastries we're going to get a surge in blood sugar which might give us an immediate jolt of energy but then we're going to crash as the blood sugar comes down very low it's not going to work but if we ate an apple we would get more of a steady surge of energy because the blood sugar is not dramatically high it's released from the apple as it's being digested very slowly so it gives us a longer burn so to speak we have more energy with the right kind of foods and snacks okay another tip i'd like to give you is sunshine we just had a couple of days of rain it brings down your mood it's a little depressing when you're stuck indoors it's cloudy it's raining day after day and all of a sudden you see the first rays of sun that come through and it's a mood elevator so my suggestion here is to get a little bit of sun every day when you take your breaks outside you're getting air and hopefully if the sun is out you're getting a little sunshine that helps to rejuvenate us it helps to lift our mood and it is an energizer okay here comes a big one sleep i would say many of my patients that i see in my practice as a nutritionist tell me they're tired they're fatigued they don't have any energy and i often ask them how much sleep did i get a night and many of my patients do have what i would call a sleep deficit we need about six to eight hours a night somewhere in that range once we start falling below six on a regular basis it's going to affect our energy level so when hashem restores i want to share in the morning and we're supposed to go out and do the avodah's hashem if we only got two or three hours of sleep that night what kind of a voter are we going to have how are we going to serve the rebel islam in the best possible way so we really have an acharyas to take the necessary steps to and and to do the proper histodylist to pro to make sure that we replenish our energy so we could serve hashem properly throughout the day and sleep is one of the best ways to do it because when you get the right amount of sleep your memory works better your concentration is better your mood is better and even your immune system is functioning uh better so it's really a win-win exercise we know the surgeon general recommends 30 minutes of physical activity a day most days of the week and exercise is very important for our energy level we also want to avoid prolonged sitting because even if you go out for that half hour walk a day but you spend the rest of the day mostly sitting it's going to sap your energy it's going to cut off your circulation so i usually recommend getting up every half hour for a few minutes and just walk a little bit stretch a little bit and then sit down so try to get into the habit of twice an hour getting up and moving and stretching and i think you'll find at the end of the day you feel more energetic throughout the day as well next tip i'd like to give you is ergonomics many times people are slouching uh they're not sitting with the proper posture and that can be very taxing also so we should um be more relaxed sit properly good posture lower back properly supported against the chair head up feet flat on the floor avoid slouching maybe use the stender on the desk on the table so some of these things should help as well another very important area which is a big big energy sapper is stress we all have stress so just some suggestions there would be to deal with unresolved conflict when we have unresolved conflict and we're constantly addressing that unresolved conflict in our minds it it really takes away a lot of energy so anything we can do to resolve conflicts that we have very important uh talk out our concerns sometimes you have a trusted person who may not even be able to help you with a problem but just by talking it out it's a big release and it and it and it helps there's also a very nice safer that's been around for a long long time called gateway to happiness which gives a lot of torah-based the cognitive approaches to dealing with stress and anxiety and issues and problems and challenges that people have so i would suggest learning gateway to happiness by rabbi pliskin try taking a walk without your phone and of course reach out for professional help if there is a problem you have or something that you can't really resolve uh on your own okay another interesting area to help boost energy level is something called aromatherapy we know sometimes on yom kippur we smell the spice box to get a little more energy and to make some extra brothers during the day and so on but sense natural sense do certain ones do give us a boost of energy these are available i think they sell them as essential oils and they can be used to inhale some of the ones that tend to boost energy include peppermint lemon sweet orange and something called eucalyptus many of us have cut open a lemon or have smelled peppermint before and when you breathe in those scents even by just cutting open a fresh lemon you feel sort of invigorated you feel like a little bit of a burst of energy so this is what they mean by aromatherapy and then we have some other natural energizers there are many many natural ways to energize ourselves green tea panics ginseng tea is another tea that helps to energize that hot red pepper capsicum is a is a hot herb that people use for seasoning their foods and sometimes that gives you a little burst of energy as well sometimes just taking a hot bath with a cup of epsom salt or sea salt put it in the bathtub is a great way to to re-energize to relax the muscles and so on therapeutic massage acupuncture these are all means that uh natural means to try to revitalize ourselves and to energize ourselves and again we have to keep in mind that the reason we're doing these things all of these things is really an effort on our part to be better able to serve hashem and to have the right energy level to be able to serve hashem uh i want to just conclude with something called checkups checkups means get your routine physical exam your blood work and so on oftentimes there can be an underlying disease or medical issue for a low energy level so if you experience fatigue that's not normal for you if it's fatigue that doesn't seem to go away despite eating well and exercising and sleeping well and all of these things you really should have it checked out by a competent health care professional you want to rule out things like anemia you want to rule out things like hypothyroid low thyroid function you want to rule out things like folate b12 deficiencies vitamin d deficiency you also want to rule out infection virus viruses depression and other underlying disease fibromyalgia epstein-barr virus there are many many medical and health issues that can really compromise a person's well-being and a person's energy level so i urge you to not try to doctor yourself but to get a professional uh opinion on uh on a symptom that you might have or something that might be interfering with your your energy level okay i want to um thank you for taking the time to listen to this presentation each week we will be doing other ones in the um in this series of garage health um my book is available through me um 18 chapters to him 18 chapters to live by i am a nutritionist in queens in private practice have any uh questions or comments or want to reach me for any reason i'm at 718-544-4036 again that's 718-544-4036 my email address is r m shields s-h-i-e-l-d-s 6-2 gmail.com r m shields 62 gmail.com thank you very much have an energetic day stay tuned the next week thank you you