How to find the energy to exercise when you’re exhausted

For many of us, our only hope of getting some time to ourselves to exercise is in the evenings when the bedtime battle has been won.

By this time of day though, you’ve probably already put in a 12 hour day (or 14 hours if you live with the 5am wake up demons).

You might have gone through the entire day with the steel determination that you’ll work out after bedtime. Then it arrives and just the thought of getting a sweat on makes you feel sick.

If this is you Mama, read on.

There are ways you can manipulate your energy levels throughout the day so that come 7pm you’ll feel up for a bit of fitness.

You’ve probably heard this a billion times before and are sick to death of being beaten over the head with it, but the answer is pretty simple.

You need to do two things.

You need to drink 8-10 glasses of water during the day so you’re properly hydrated.

And you need to eat little and often so you keep your energy levels constant all day long.

I always find that keeping small bottles of water in the fridge makes it easier to drink what my body needs, so you might find this works for you.

Snacking on easy-to-grab, high quality energy foods every couple of hours will prevent that energy slump from creeping up on you, especially if you’re sleep deprived.

Here are a few ideas that will take less than two minutes to throw together:

• Banana with peanut butter
• Apples
• Nuts – almonds, brazil nuts and walnuts in particular
• Lean meat like turkey or chicken on a cracker or rye bread
• Oatcakes (sweet with dried fruit or savoury with peanut butter or houmous)
• Yoghurt with cereal and fruit
• Vegetables and houmous (Carrots, cucumber, red pepper, cauliflower)
• Popcorn

Try drinking more and eating more frequently over the next few days, and see if it makes a difference to how you feel by the early evening.

I’m not saying you won’t be affected by sleep deprivation and the general demands of your days.

But if you eat the right kinds of foods more often as the day goes on and keep your body satisfied, you should have it in you to smash out 20-30 minutes of fitness when you’ve got the time to do it.

If you try this, let us know how you get on!