Alarm clock rings, you hit the off button and drag your sleepy butt off the bed. You barely 'awake' and feel sleepy and tired. This has been going on for months, maybe years now. Is it becoming a trend? Is it normal to feel tired and sleepy when awake in morning? The first few mornings of exhaustion and feeling 'unrefreshed' might seem unsatisfying and abnormal. Then few months goes by, and couple of years passed, poor quality nights now seemed 'NORMAL' and your dependency on caffeine and sugars seem to prolong and becoming addictive, for you to stay awake and get that energy levels on par to cope with your mornings and afternoon tasks at work.
I call it the 'vicious cycle'. Chronic stress from poor lifestyle and diet, late night or interrupted sleep cycles which cause endocrine disorders or hormonal imbalance. Most people in 21st century who have to survive a stressful job, week in week out, accompanied by eating 'garbage', primarily man-made foods instead of god-made foods. Sedentary lifestyle, constant secretion of cortisol stress hormone all day long by stressful office tasks and eating high carbs/sugar meals, is worsen by past midnight regular bedtime. A cycle which most people find it hard to break, and it has becoming bad to worst.
In this post, I will discuss about what is happening to most of us during day time, especially after lunch. For some of you, it may sound very familiar. For those who have breads or cereals for breakfast, you might benefit from reading this post. I know, most of us still think that having cereals or commercial milk for breakfast is healthy and easy for meal preparation. Well, for starter, look at your belly size, it will often reflect a similar story. Cereals, breads or any foods which consists of wheat and grains, these foods are the worst breakfast meal one can ingest. People asked me, 'how about coffee?" "How about milk?". The thing is, if you consume nothing but just coffee, your cortisol and blood sugar will crank up, but your cells are not getting the nutrients needed during that 'adrenaline-induced' period. That is why some people feels hungry after just one or two hours of coffee, and they crave for sugars and refined carbs once the cells are screaming for nutrients or glucose. Bad move!
How about just a glass of commercial milk in the morning? We have been told drinking milk high in calcium is good for bone health right? Well, that is far from the truth. In fact, that is a sleazy scam from the milk industry claiming that milk will strengthen and increase bone density and prevent osteoporosis. Apart from being a contributor of food sensitivity and causing the body inability to digest lactose (due to pasteurization and homogenization), it is also loaded with toxins such as pesticides, herbicides, synthetic hormones and antibiotics. Fedlot cows fed on grains, soy and corn, the milk derived from these sick poor animals, could just be another nail in the coffin for most of us.
Now, the whole idea of avoiding you from 'crashing' during day time especially after lunch from between 2-4pm, is all about making sure your brain is functioning as it should, and blood sugar levels are as normal as long as possible throughout the day. In a nutshell, your brain is working properly, cravings is suppressed, no blood sugar roller coaster and para-sympathetic nervous system is not stimulated too much during day time.
Bear in mind, the word 'crash' usually refers to hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) state. Most of the time, stimulation of para-sympathetic nervous triggered by large meal during lunch or even breakfast could make you sluggish and sleepy. Lost of focus, brain goes to 'idle' mode, low blood sugar and low energy levels.
Apart from smokers, these folks primarily depend on nicotine as a stimulant to keep them going throughout the day. As for majority of smokers, they also crave for sugars, gluten and caffeine. Very seldom nicotine addicts don't rely on sugars, gluten or caffeine, but perhaps, there are minority of these folks who are only dependant on nicotine as stimulant to keep their energy level up during day time.
Imagine, you grab your usual bread, muffin or cereals and that low fat milk. Loaded with sugars, this high glycemic breakfast meal will spike your blood sugar off the roof, causing a brief energy burst, but making you sluggish and crash one hour or longer after that. Then probably before 1pm lunch, your brain is telling you to hit the vending machine for some quick refined carbs @ junk food. As a result of high and low of blood glucose from the breakfast meal you eaten earlier, insulin screams for sugars, and there you go again, more round of sugar/carbs reload. Less then 2 hours, your blood sugars hit another high secretion of cortisol and insulin. Come lunch, what happen next? Most of us (in Asia), consume rice based foods, and western dieters go on that typical gluten and carbs loaded meal. From sandwich to pasta, you name it. Most people not only crash once throughout the day, it happened more frequent and some of us suffer from brain fog and cognitive performance. Large meal accompanied by high carbohydrate during lunch, that is a perfect recipe to spike your blood sugar level and stimulate the para-sympathetic nervous system, thus, causing us to be sluggish and 'crash' during the day.
Foods to avoid for breakfast :
- Grains, cereals and breads (especially wheat based foods)
- Rice
- Commercial milk products (grass fed raw milk is exception)
- High glycemic foods
- Processed foods, fast foods and 'fruit juices'
- Foods made of refined flour
- Commercial coffee (without any other foods eaten as a meal)
Foods to consider for breakfast :
- Avocado
- Organic free range eggs (if you do not develop food sensitivity to eggs)
- High fat coffee (in my previous post)
- Coconut oil
- Organic grass fed butter
Avoid 'crashing' during day time - Here's how to do it
- Consume a small meal during breakfast, avoid large carbs loaded meal. Ensure it has healthy fats, perhaps some clean protein and low glycemic carbs to supply a longer glucose to the brain.
- Ensure your lunch meal is small or medium in portion. You do not want to stimulate your digestion too much to avoid going into 'relax and sleepy' mode. Ensure no high glycemic foods such as rice and gluten/grains based foods.
- Try coconut oil during breakfast. MCT converted ketones will provide an awesome fuel for the brain. The brain works well, the body works optimally too.
- Avoid drinking just coffee by its own without other foods in the morning.
- Replace sugars with stevia, if you seriously need to add sweetness into your meal or beverage in the morning.
- Drink water adequately before and after breakfast. Ensure you drink enough water to regulate your appetite.
- Go for a 5 mins walk around your building you if start to feel sleepy or sluggish. Ideally, get some fresh air and sun, do simple stretching and move around to ensure blood flow.
- Avoid sugary drinks throughout the morning and lunch time. It will spike your blood sugar even worst. No exception for fruit juices and energy drinks.
- Have some (but don't go nuts or overdose) raw macadamia, walnuts or almonds if you feel a little hungry at around 3-4pm. It will ensure your blood sugar level does not shoot up sky high and make you hypoglycemia after that.
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