Everyone knows what the mid morning crash is. Right between breakfast and lunch, you start to get a little hazy. Your eyelids start to close and your feet get heavy. Not only can it impact the way you feel, but it could have be a serious concern when it comes to your work performance. Unfortunately, many people deal with this problem in the wrong way. Once you learn why you are lacking energy, you will be able to give your day a boost by including those foods that give you energy throughout the day.
Eating the Wrong Foods
Many people may experience a lack of energy because the foods they eat are of poor quality. That doesn’t always mean that you’re eating foods with too little energy. Instead, it can mean you’re eating foods with far too much energy and it is causing you to crash because the energy is not sustainable. The quality of your food has a tremendous impact on how you feel throughout the day.
The wrong food is pretty obvious. Anything containing loads of sugar is going to cause you problems. While it may act to solve your immediate energy crisis, you will suffer in the long run. Not only will you have even less energy than before, you may get fatigue, dizziness and headaches from combating low energy with sugar. Many people break out the deceptively–named energy drink. Rather than energy, you’re simply getting a blast of caffeine and sugar. That is not the right way to keep yourself going strong throughout the day.
By eating a breakfast with plenty of protein, you are gearing your body up for the long haul. Protein is a slow burning fuel that will keep you going until lunch. Having a sugary cereal or candy bar for breakfast is just asking to fall asleep at your desk. A hearty breakfast with plenty of protein is a great example of the type of foods that give you energy for a sustained period of time.
Eating Too Little
And on the notion of a hearty breakfast comes the next problem: eating too little. In today’s society, we often feel rushed at breakfast. This can lead to eating nothing more than a breakfast bar or even skipping breakfast all together. If there is one meal you don’t want to miss, it is breakfast.
Consider your breakfast the fuel for the rest of your day. You wouldn’t leave on a road trip with an empty tank of gas, so why would you head off to start your day with nothing in your stomach? Not only do you need a healthy breakfast, you need plenty of it. In fact, your breakfast should be far bigger than your dinner, something many Americans have completely backwards. It is no wonder we turn to energy drinks or shots of chemical concoctions to give us our boost.
What Not to Do
And those sugary drinks and lab–created shots of who–knows–what are about the last thing your body needs. Not only are you completely denying your body’s request for nutrition, but you are filling yourself with chemicals that only give you the perception of energy.
Many of these so–called energy drinks contain niacin. This vitamin causes your capillaries to expand and allows blood to rush through you. It can lead to an invigorated sensation in many cases, but it can also lead to niacin flush. Niacin flush causes your skin to become red and it may itch or tingle. While it is not particularly unhealthy, it can certainly be unpleasant and deceptive.
The real energy that you need comes from food. Your breakfast sets the pace for the rest of your day. And if you make a habit of skipping it and taking energy supplements instead, you are just fortifying your unhealthy eating habits. You may gain weight or experience other unpleasant reactions from a poor diet. The bottom line is that you need to get your energy from a healthy and hearty breakfast, not from a bottle. If you have a proper diet that includes foods that give you energy, you will have more than enough “fuel” to get you through your day.
Breakfast Foods That Give You Energy
Whole grain cereals
Low–fat dairy products (skim milk, lowfat yogurt)
Eggs (if you eat more than one, limit yourself to one yolk and the rest should be egg whites)
Oatmeal
Bananas
Oranges
Protein powder (mix with skim milk and you have a powerful energy booster)
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