Lack of energy

Mrs Garth Brooks

Are there any good multi vitamins available in chemists. I have been feeling tired lately, even after 8 or 9 hours of sleep. Some days i cant even concentrate, i just want to sleep.
My diet is pretty crap, well i dont eat enough fruit and vegetables, which is what the experts say is best. I might pick up some fruit and/or vegetables once a week when i do a shop but i use it up pretty quickly, so not enough to last. And no time to be shopping every day.
Im a student too so im on a budget so cant afford expensive fruit and vegetables, or to be buying them every day.

So anything good out there that will give me some kind of an energy boost?

Canard

You could try Berocca tablets, they dissolve in water and are pretty good I dont think they're too expensive either.

niallu

Ginseng is pretty good.

You can find it in Pharmaton multi vits or as a stand alone supplement

Will I Amnt

You're probably best off visiting your gp to rule out anything else other than simple tiredness.
You really shouldn't be tired after 8 or 9 hours good sleep.

Well ideally you should see a doctor, but if you can't afford vegetables I doubt you're in a position to have a consultation and then possibly pay for medication.

It's pretty likely to be your diet, but you can change things without having to buy vegetables (although you can buy 2kg of carrots or a cabbage in Tesco for 99c). Cut down on sugar and complex carbohydrates, these will give you a sugar boost which will be undoubtedly followed by a slump. You should look for carbohydrates labelled "Low GI". These will give you a sustained supply of energy over a long period of time. Meat is important too, especially if you're not getting any green veg, as it has the protein and iron that you need (and I'm sure if you've ever been a bit anaemic you'll know how tired it can make you, and how it can affect your concentration).

I'd like to give a huge +1 to the previously mentioned Pharmaton. It's a supplement so you can get it without prescription, but I think it's extremely effective.

If all else fails - drink coffee.

A0

HardLuckWoman wrote: »

Are there any good multi vitamins available in chemists. I have been feeling tired lately, even after 8 or 9 hours of sleep. Some days i cant even concentrate, i just want to sleep.
My diet is pretty crap, well i dont eat enough fruit and vegetables, which is what the experts say is best. I might pick up some fruit and/or vegetables once a week when i do a shop but i use it up pretty quickly, so not enough to last. And no time to be shopping every day.
Im a student too so im on a budget so cant afford expensive fruit and vegetables, or to be buying them every day.

So anything good out there that will give me some kind of an energy boost?

Good diet + exercise, nothing else!

Will I Amnt

true-or-false wrote: »

Well ideally you should see a doctor, but if you can't afford vegetables I doubt you're in a position to have a consultation and then possibly pay for medication.

Full time students under 25 are entitled to a medical card which entitles you to free gp visits.

sam34

fruit and veg are very cheap in places like lidl and aldi.

echosound

sam34 wrote: »

fruit and veg are very cheap in places like lidl and aldi.

Yep, 39 cent for a head of cabbage/bag of parsnips/bag of onions/punnet of kiwis/bag of salad potatoes etc this week in Aldi.
Always have cheap fruit too regardless of the special offers - tray of 6 apples or a net of oranges for well under 2 euro. You'd only need to go there once a week, spend around 3-4 euro and you'd have a rake of veg and fruit. Keep them in the salad box in the fridge and they'll easily last the week and won't go off. Buy a bag of flahavan's porridge oats and you'll have a healthy breakfast for a few weeks for about 2 euro (I'm not loaded myself hence I always have to keep an eye on the budget). If you don't have an aldi/lidl near to you, superquinn always have a good offering with their "essentials" range - bag of carrots for a euro, etc.


Changing up your diet if you know yourself it's "crap" could help a lot with the tiredness. If you're only eating sugary stodgy carbs you'll have lots of slumps during the day.
I don't know if you're a meat-eater or not, but it's important to get protein into you too. For e.g., keep an eye out for whole chickens on special offer (I always seem to pick up a decent size Irish chicken for around 3 euro) and if you're only feeding yourself, that'd definitely be 3 dinners's worth of good protein for you (roast the whole thing, then you have 2 breasts, 2 legs, and a chicken curry/stir-fry/salad with leftovers).

Try to get some fresh air during the day/evening, even a bit of a walk would help with energy levels.

I'd also suggest going to your doctor for a checkup if you are still tired after 9 hours sleep. You surely should have a medical card so it'd be free to visit the GP. Might need to run up some bloodwork to make sure there's no underlying medical reason you are so tired.

Supplements you could consider taking - as a female I personally found picking up (again on the cheap from tesco) B vitamin complex, omega 3 fish oil capsules, and, if you suffer from PMT at all, some evening primrose oil and magnesium, helps a lot with mood and energy levels.

Corruptedmorals

Worth a good bloodtest first, could be just iron or vitamin b12- very common deficiencies. Few other things could be causing fatigue too- just get a full blood test. Much cheaper than buying a load of vitamins straight off the bat with no clue what you should be aiming for.

Roisy7

Also, Tesco do very cheap delivery service which saves a hell of a lot of time, I know the feeling, very broke student with no time to be doing food shops! You could see if a housemate wanted to split shopping/cooking with you, another way to save and maybe eat more healthily?

flahavaj

Patchy~ wrote: »

You could try Berocca tablets, they dissolve in water and are pretty good I dont think they're too expensive either.

Boots do multi vitamins that have exactly the same vitamin content, for much cheapoer. you can always get them on 3 for 2. I started taking one a day two years ago and the difference they make is quite significant. Definite energy boost in the morning.

Firetrap

Yeah, not being smart here OP but I'm struggling to understand how you can't afford fruit and vegetables Lidl and Aldi do pretty good fruit & veg cheaply. So too do some fruit & veg shops. Do you ever make up pots of stew, for example? Get yourself some meat, throw in a load of veg, some seasoning and you've got yourself cheap nutritious meals for a few days.

If you have been eating badly and eating all sorts of sugary, processed crap, you might be run down. There certainly wouldn't be any harm in going to your GP to have it checked out. Nobody should ever feel that consistently exhausted.

Bottle_of_Smoke

A multivitamin will not compensate for vegetable intake. They do things other than providing vitamins. Our digestive system evolved around their availability. They alkalise the system for example

Broccoli with butter or olive oil is pretty tasty to start off with.

I've heard of a concentrate of vegetables a lot of fitness people take. Though google not returning much. I think it would contain the whole vegetable rather than the vitamins.

not as good as just eating vegetables but convenient and likely far better than no veg at all.

LegacyUser

I think a concious effort to change your diet will reap huge rewards. I have had a terrible diet for many years and was always run down and lethargic. I finally took the plunge and made a HUGE effort to change my diet and to do more exercise. I can honestly say that it has changed my life! I finally have energy! I still get my 8 hours of sleep, but when I wake up, I feel refreshed and ready for the day. It's amazing!

I was also worried about the expense, but I found that if I plan my shopping list properly, I can eat very well for LESS money than I used to spend.

Some ideas:
Breakfast - porridge with a pinch of cinammon and a generous handful of raisins (delicious and really sets you up for the day)
Snacks - raw carrots with humous / handful of dried apricots or sunflower seeds
Soup - Carrot and coriander: an onion, a few carrots, a low-salt stock cube, some boiling water. Leave to simmer gently until the carrots have softened. Blend with hand blender and voila!
Dinner - Casserole made of chopped up chicken fillets, tin or two of chopped tomatoes, onion, carrots, any veg you like, sprinkle of herbs (basil, parsley etc). Pop in the oven for an hour or so. Easy, cheap and yummy!

The key for me is planning. If the healthy food is there, I eat it. If not, I end up bingeing on junk food from the local shop (unhealthy and more expensive). I buy staples in bulk about once a month (pasta, rice, porridge oats, dried fruit and nuts, tins of tomatoes etc) and once a week I go to the butchers for a 10e meat deal (3 chicken fillets, 3 peppered steaks, 3 pork chops and a kilo of mince) and to the fruit and veg stalls on Moore Street (10 apples for 2e, strawberries 1e, pomegranates 8 for 2e, bananas 12 for 2e etc). Any day I find myself passing Aldi or Lidl, I pop in and pick up a few bits too.

The other things that are important are exercise and getting outside into the daylight. Hope this is helpful.

Neyite

Op, it is kinda pointless if you have a terrible diet to waste money on expensive vitamins. Certainly a trip to a doctor can rule out anything.

The very first thing is water - if you dont already drink enough, gradually up your intake daily. Tap water in most areas is fine. I know water engineers that drink it over bottled or filtered water and I figure that if they have seen water treatment plants and still drink it, it must be grand.

Porrige is a brilliant filler - if you eat a big enough bowl in the morning, it really will set you up for the day. You can add different things on a daily basis to vary the taste for yourself. It is stupidly cheap, so you will save a good bit on cereals and other breakfast foods that can work out quite expensive.

I understand that being in a flatshare it can be hard to get fridge/freezer space and its also hard to cook for one. But, if you are short on space, its worth investing in another small freezer/fridge (even a second hand one) because all the money you spend on good food is useless if it goes off too quickly.

I started off by making sure I had a proper home cooked dinner. I found it just as easy to cook in bulk so made a big pot of one or two meals a month and - making big pots of bolenese sauce, stews, soups, tagines, casseroles, lasange, pizzas, curries, and freezing extra portions for the days when I was too tired to cook in the evenings. Then, once or twice a week I make a meat-and 2 veg dinner.

Initially when you start cooking, you will have to get all the herbs, and cupboard basics, but for herbs, go to health food shops or aisan markets - far far cheaper than supermarket ones. For cupboard basics, like rice and pasta, Lidl or Aldi are great. I use the plastic cartons you get from the chinese takeaway - perfect portion size and not nearly as expensive as tupperware. Try to add plenty of veg into your sauces to increase your nutrition.


After a few months, you will have a stock of varied frozen meals as a back up, as it spreads the expensive cost of meats over several paychecks.

Then, I started having a salad and sometimes a smoothie for lunch, making the salad the night before while you are making dinner. Bring salad dressing separately - I use the sharwoods jars for this with a twist of clingfilm over the lid. I used to buy smoothies but I saved the bottles and now make my own , or buy the cheaper cartons and decant it in to the smaller bottles to bring it in with me.

Then when I got pregnant, I knew I was pretty good on my veggies but needed more fruit, so I cut out the kit-kat for tea breaks and brought fresh fruit to work instead. Since I eat pretty good during the week, I can let myself slob out at the weekend if I like, and eat a bit of junk like chocolate and crisps.

The cooking club thread in the Cooking and Recepies forum is a great start - and you would get great tips on cooking there. Lots of lovely yummy recepies there.

There is a great multi vitamin called Source of Life in a bottle from good health food shops. Its green gunk you drink, but it is good. It is also quite dear though and no subsitute for a proper diet.