3 Simple Ways to Boost Your Energy Naturally – No Caffeine Required!

Practicing What We Preach

Last year, I did 3 full iron mans within one calendar year, 365 days. All my training took place on the side of working overtime running two 7-figure businesses—and yes, I have a social life too.

How do I have the energy to do all of this? In this blog post, I’m telling you my secrets. But they aren’t really secrets. They’re super simple things that you can start doing too, literally today, as soon as you’re done reading this.

Below, I’ll share my favorite ways to feel more energized, beyond just avoiding the classic 2pm slump. I’ll skip the fluff and tell you exactly what to do to have the best energy you’ve had since your college days—and maybe even better.

This isn’t just personal advice based on my own experience. If you know me, you know that I like to understand the ins and outs of everything health related, especially when it comes to diabetes and nutrition. All of what I’m about to tell you is evidence-based and has been proven true in the lives of hundreds of people who have gone through the Mastering Diabetes Coaching Program.

One of my favorite success stories is Tami. When Tami first came to us, she had type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, and an A1c of 7.1%, but her biggest complaint was that she was tired all the time. So she sought guidance from us at Mastering Diabetes, and I taught her exactly what I’m going to teach you here today. After putting it all into practice, she now has a non-diabetic A1c of 5.3%, she reversed her fatty liver, lost weight, and most importantly, she has tons of energy. In her own words, she said “I feel like I gained my life back—my life as a 20 year old!”

Carbohydrates Are The Body’s Best Source of Energy

So the first door to the time machine that Tami got to ride is a low-fat, plant-based, whole food diet. If you love carbs but have been trying to limit them, this might be the best day of your life (or tied with the birth of your first child) …

Because with this approach to food, you can eat as much carbs as you want. I ate 700 grams myself just yesterday!

Here’s the simple breakdown of what we recommend:

Other than that, there are no limits. This means things like fruit, potatoes, rice and beans, or whole grain pasta can all be eaten in abundance. Have as much as you want!

There are a few reasons why this works. The body’s preferred source of energy is glucose. Glucose comes from carbohydrate. If you are limiting carbohydrate, then your body has to work harder to get the energy it needs. When you have an abundance of carbohydrate, you have usable energy available at the ready.

Additionally, low-fat plant-based whole foods are anti-inflammatory and easy to digest. This matters because lower inflammation means the body uses less energy to repair itself and therefore has more energy for daily activities. Similarly, the body spends a LOT less energy digesting plant foods than animal foods -- especially raw plant foods like fruits that are high in enzymes, fiber, and are naturally hydrating – and again, the less energy you spend digesting food, the more energy you have for other things (like doing an ironman!).

Multiple studies and countless case studies have documented these effects. For example, a 2016 randomized controlled trial showed that low-fat plant-based diet significantly reduced fatigue in MS patients.1 And in a 2023 randomized controlled trial studying the effects of a plant-based diet in breast cancer patients, fatigue decreased from 57% to 28% in the intervention group and increased from 65% to 78% in the control group.2

Low-fat, plant-based, whole-foods also help to reverse insulin resistance and provide a more stable blood glucose throughout the day,3 helping you to avoid the drain of going through highs and lows. If you are living with diabetes like me, then you know just how much this affects you. When you avoid hyper- or hypo-glycemia, you have more steady energy throughout the day.

Cut the Caffeine

I started this article with talking about food because that’s my tried-and-true top source of energy; the thing I focus on over everything else because it’s just so powerful and effective. That being said, there are definitely lots of other factors that affect how energized you feel, so let’s dive into a few more.

I’m sure you’ve heard that caffeine gives you energy. But what is often failed to mention is that it also takes away your energy…

So the second tip is to remove caffeine.

Here’s why. Caffeine is a stimulant drug. Just like other stimulants, if you drink caffeine, you might feel awesome while the drug is in action, but then you often experience a major crash on the other side. So while that cup of coffee works in the short term, it actually makes you feel more tired in the end.

Unfortunately, the situation gets worse. The more caffeine you consume, the more your body builds up a tolerance to it—meaning that you need increasingly higher levels of caffeine to get the same effects. This is usually coupled with ending up in a cycle of dependency, in which you don’t feel energized unless have a dose.4,5

Outside of all of that, having caffeine negatively affects your sleep, which of course leads you to have less energy throughout the day. A 2017 meta-analysis of caffeine and sleep found that people who consumed caffeine typically took a longer time to fall asleep, had reduced sleep time and sleep efficiency, and woke up feeling more tired the next day.6 Caffeine reduced slow wave sleep and led to increased arousal and wakefulness throughout the night6 – meaning they had lower sleep scores, and they could tell.

So people think caffeine gives you energy, but it actually reduces your energy. And I have another surprise for you.

Exercise Doesn’t Deplete Your Energy, It Enhances It

People think that exercise makes you fatigued, but the truth is that it actually gives you MORE energy! A 2006 meta-analysis that included 70 studies of 6,807 participants found that people who exercise regularly report greater feelings of energy and less feelings of fatigue in comparison to those who don’t exercise regularly.7

Why? There are actually a lot of reasons for this, but I’ll just cover a few key ones today. First of all, exercise increases the flow of oxygen in the body and strengthens the heart8 which allows more oxygen and nutrients to get to your body’s cells and enables your body to produce and use energy more efficiently.

And if you’ve seen our video on zone 2 exercise, then you’ll know that exercise increases both the number and efficiency of mitochondria,9,10 which if you remember from middle school are the ‘powerhouse of the cell,’ meaning that they are responsible for creating the energy your body can use. The more mitochondria you have and the more efficiently they work, the better your body can produce energy and the more energized you will feel. And, if you are living with diabetes like me, a 2010 study showed that increased mitochondria was paired with an increase in insulin sensitivity—which is unsurprising but is still great news.10

Finally, studies have shown that exercise increases levels of endorphins and serotonin, and induces anti-depressant effects,11-13 all of which boost energy. The mind and body are inextricably tied, so happiness is healthy for you!! Which is also unsurprising, but also great news.

How to Boost Your Energy, Starting Today

I like being happy, I like being healthy, and I like having lots of energy. I don’t think I’m alone in any of that, and that’s why I wrote this article for you.

So if you want to join, me, Tami, and tons of other people who have gone through our Mastering Diabetes program in having the best energy you’ve had in decades, these are your first 3 steps:

If you do these 3 things for at least one full month (and you’ll likely feel the difference much sooner than that), your body will adjust to the new energy-boosting lifestyle and feel ready to take on life with a whole new zest.

Note: As I said before, changing the way you eat is my #1 tip and my recommended first step. But I totally understand that can also be the most difficult step. The good news is, you’re not alone. My team and I at Mastering Diabetes created a free, foolproof guide for how to eat a low-fat, plant-based, whole food diet. It has 16 pages of expert advice, scientific research, and easy recipes to make food feel simple and straightforward. If you want a copy, you can get it here.