How to Get a '7 Day Energy Surge'

April 28, 2009 — -- Sometimes you just have one of those days when you wake up refreshed, bound through the day and seem to have endless energy.

For most people, those days are few and far between, but there might be something you can do about it.

In his new book, "The 7 Day Energy Surge," author and fitness expert Jim Karas exposes the bad habits that sabotage energy shows you how to increase your energy with some simple strategies.

Read an excerpt of his book below, then head to the "GMA" Library for some more great reads.

Energy -- the capacity of a physical system to do work

Did you know that—
How much you weigh
What you eat and drink
Whether or not you exercise
How well you breathe
The quality and quantity of your sleep
The types of thoughts you entertain
How you deal with stress
The music you listen to
And whether you have had sex recently
—all affect your energy today?

Does this sound familiar?

You start your day in a groggy haze as you slap thesnooze button three or four times. Then, just getting out of bed (a painful thought) andready for the day is exhausting. By the time it's 10:00—a.m.—you are dying to take your first nap. You practically fall asleep at the wheel, experience brain fog most of the day, and find yourself dozing off during meetings or at your kid's soccer practice.Then, to make matters worse, you eat the wrong foods at the wrong time (donut anyone?), don't even consider exercise (sorry, yawning doesn't count), never drink a sip of water (unless you have a headache and pop a pill), get on the caffeine and sugar highway (I'll take a Coke, a latte, and a Red Bull), barely breathe, berate yourself (and possibly your mate) for the past (oh, if you only knew!), live in constant fear of a dreaded future (I'm doomed), and then wonder, "What's wrong with me? I feel horrible and wiped out all the time."

Or you may feel like you have a lot of energy when you're at work and responding torapid-fire requests from your manager, constant complaints from your customers, andother daily crises, but then you can barely summon the energy to pet the dog or say hello to your kids when you get home.

All you can think of is shoveling some food into yourmouth and getting to bed, but then once you do, your mind is racing with thoughts of allthe things you didn't get done today and won't get a chance to do tomorrow.

You feel that way as a result of BAD habits that annihilate the capacity of your physicalsystem to do work—also known as your ENERGY. You know instinctively that these habits are harmful, but hey, at this point, it's routine.

Over the next seven days, I am going to give you a very detailed plan to get you out ofyour current, downward energy death spiral and into a new, upward-surging "life spiral."It's never too late. If you follow these simple steps, you will instantly be on the path tolasting energy even beyond your wildest dreams—with no corresponding crash (hint—godrink a big glass of cold, sparkling water, then come back and keep reading).