Do you ever experience fatigue & mood swings throughout your day?
Do you have short periods of energy followed by energy slumps causing sluggishness and lack of focus?
Have you ever thought about what you do throughout the day might contribute to how you feel?
It may have to do with your sugar levels.
I'm not referring to those who are diabetic, but they understand this principal better than the general population.
The factors are still the same and if you don't get control of your sugar levels now, you may end up having to become an expert in them when you are diagnosed with diabetes later.
Let's look at a typical person's sugar levels throughout the day.
If we were to do a glucose test on you from the time you woke up, throughout the day until you went to bed, it might look something like this picture below:
Looks kind of like a heartbeat, doesn't it?
Up, down. Up, down.
Does it make sense now why you may be experiencing times when you have a bit of energy, but then they are followed by times of extreme fatigue, sluggishness and brain fog?
When we wake up our sugar levels are typically low. We need to replenish our energy stores to get our bodies operating efficiently.
So we eat to get fuel to get moving.
Think about what you eat for breakfast, assuming you even do eat anything.
Do you eat a sugary cereal or one with a lot of starches combined with high amounts of caffeine?
Up goes your sugar - way up.
Then comes mid morning and down it goes.
So you eat a little snack.
Maybe a granola bar or a doughnut at the morning meeting. Maybe two doughnuts? Don't forget the extra shots of caffeine.
Back up your sugar goes, but it doesn't last long. You make it till lunch, then eat a burger with some fries and more caffeine and up goes your sugar again.
You may be productive for awhile riding that sugar high, but come around 2:00 down the slide it goes and boy does it crash hard!
So out comes the leftover doughnuts from this morning, or a candy bar from the vending machine and of course more caffeine.
This gets you through until you can eat dinner.
You may try and include some veggies, thinking you are doing your body good, but chances are you are also having a heavy meat like beef and heavy starches like potatoes.
And guess what you're craving soon after doing the dishes?
Sugar.
Out comes the ice cream.
This may then cause you to have a bit of energy to finish some chores or more typically it causes you to be sluggish, sitting on the couch where you're just trying to get up enough energy to go to bed.
Now, look at this picture below of a person who decides to take a different route to their day.
Their energy levels climb, but not too rapidly and they stay pretty even throughout the day. This means they have more sustained energy and feel better overall.
Would you like to learn more about having a more even sugar climb and find a way to keep it on a gentle curve without wild swings in levels, thereby having more even energy?
It's not too hard, it just takes a bit of planning.
Think of it kind of like a road map. If we were trying to get someplace in an efficient manner, you would want to take the most direct route. You wouldn't want to go way out of your way by 200 miles every few hours.
North 200 miles, South 200 miles. Up, down. Up, down. Get it?
You would want to go more of an even route across, right?
Think of sugar levels the same way. The best way to help them climb efficiently and stay up without huge swings is by eating certain types of food throughout the day.
Don't freak out and think you can never eat a meeting doughnut again, just keep in mind what is going to happen and learn the ways to help offset the damage to help you get back on course.
Take breakfast - the most important meal of the day.
Our bodies are dehydrated from our overnight fast. Drink a full glass of water upon waking.
You can add a tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar or a squeeze of lemon for a great detoxifyer.
Consider getting a good water filter.
Then eat a breakfast high in protein, but low in fat. This excludes bacon, sausage, etc. Doughnuts? Um yeah, no.
Try a good vegetable soy protein or whey. Smoothies are great for the mornings. They're fast, easy and can be good for you. Just make sure they are the right kind. This is the one we use in our home - Protein Shakes
You can add fruits and even some veggies like raw spinach which has no taste when added to a smoothie.
Watch fruit juices, which can be really high in sugar.
For mid morning snack, try fruit, whole grains and even raw veggies.
For lunch you can do another protein smoothie or a salad with lean protein like chicken. Watch the dressings and toppings, though. Go easy on those bacon bits and try and keep add ons like that down to special days.
For afternoon snack, try and do something similar to your morning snack. Avoid starch laden foods like chips and crackers.
With dinner, add in more veggies and lean protein, but go easy on the starches. It's OK to have some, but just know that starchy foods can raise your sugar levels even higher than sugary foods.
I think it's OK to have a light snack after dinner, but watch the calories and sugar levels. And try and not to eat right before bed, which can cause acid reflux and heartburn.
Now caffeine. While it's perfectly fine to have some coffee and tea throughout your day, if you learn better ways to eat, you won't need as much caffeine to help you get through your day.
So slowly back off the caffeine until you are consuming lesser amounts.
Caffeine is a short term stimulant and while it does have it's benefits, it can quickly become a problem if you consume too much.
So if you cave and eat three doughnuts during the meeting so you won't tell the boss what you're really thinking of his plan, there is some damage control you can do.
Fiber can become your best friend. Have some fiber tabs handy to help offset the sugar. It helps keep sugar levels more even.
Another set of vitamins that really help with this are the
B vitamins. They help to pull the energy from the food we eat and help control mood swings. B vitamins are the happy vitamins.
Water. Drink lots of water with no flavor additives.
Go walk. Walk to that coworker instead of calling or emailing. Go for a walk at lunch - whatever you can do to get your muscles moving to help use up those extra stores of sugar and calories.
So you can still enjoy that piece of cake at your coworker's retirement party because you know of ways to help offset the sugar swings that come with it.
There is another way to help keep your sugar levels throughout the day under control - Exercise.
Yep, I just went there.
You thought it was just going to be about food didn't you?
Do I really need to go into a long conversation about that?
Face it, you KNOW you need to exercise regularly.
So get out there - walk, ride a bike, go to the gym, follow an exercise tape - just do something and get moving!
There you go.
I'm willing to bet that if you try and follow a different road throughout your day your destination will be a healthier, fitter, more pleasant and energized you!
Because we want You To Be Healthy!
Be well my friends.
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