What do I eat daily that “Fatigues” me? We all know where this is going! But, the fact is that if you put “garbage” into your mouth thinking that that “garbage” will calm you down, make the headache stop or nourish you, you would be mistaken.
Fast, and Quick do not necessarily mean nutritious or good for you. I am just as guilty as anyone reading this post. I do this all the time and them when I am finished I feel horrible about what I just did.
We started off talking about “Adrenal Fatigue” five posts ago and this component is very important to that discussion. What do you get when you remove all of the water from a human? Well you get a small pile of chemicals. When you add water back to the mix you get chemical reaction. I know that is too simplistic, but stay with me here for a moment.
When we put things into our mouths, we immediately start a chemical reaction in our mouth between the saliva and the food and your chewing it. This chemical reaction begins immediately. This great chemistry experiment continues right on down through your body and along the way, lots of very interesting things occur.
Your body is very smart! It has proven processes that have evolved over thousands of years and more recently has had to begin to cope with the additional burden of the processed foods, additives, and chemicals that are prevalent in everything we eat. When these foreign things get inside of us and they become part of the who mix and they are introduced into the chemistry experiment, watch out!
If it is not natural and your body is not capable of digesting it through your own natural chemistry breakdown process, what is your body suppose to do with it. Your body reacts as it has for thousands of years, it calls out the army and puts out the alarm that it has been invaded by a foreign thing and needs to get rid of it.
I am being very simplest here and a little tongue in cheek, but basically that’s what happens. When we stress our glands, hormones, and organs with these things which are not good for us they become “FATIGUED”. They have been called up into the front ranks for action literally every time you put something in your mouth and they are just laying down too tired to put up a fight anymore.
OK….so what can I do to regain my natural balance?
1. When you get up in the morning, your body has been fasting for some 6 to 12 hours and it needs high quality energy in order to begin its own work internally for you everyday, so eat before 10 am. When you wait or sleep in your body is playing catch up all day long.
2. Eat lunch earlier rather than later. Meaning 11 – 11:30 am.
3. Eat a nutritious snack between 2 and 3 pm. After 3 pm your cortisol levels drop and if you have a nutritious snack you are able to coast through those nagging, gnawing feelings so many of us have in the afternoon.
4. Eat dinner on the earlier side. I know that there are all kinds of things that get in the way of this and there are cultural norms and dining out, however, it is about how your body processes the food you give it and what it does with that food that benefits you and your well being that we are talking about. After dinner is when most of us with Adrenal Fatigue feel our best!
5. Before bed a high quality bite or two of food will keep you from waking during the night and not awaken ravenous.
If you are a person who is feeling shaky and very hungry, then the high sugar content of what you have eaten is the culprit. If your blood sugar rises too fast, you have a problem. If your blood sugar is too low for long periods of time you have a problem.
Everything is a balancing act. Fatigue is no different. Consume 30-40% Vegetables and 50% of those should be raw (it takes your body longer to digest them and so you feel full longer), 5 – 10% Fruits, 10 -20% Protein, 10- 15% Beans, Seeds and Nuts, and 30-40% Whole Grains. You can regain the energy you have lost and rebuild the “engine” that powers Y-O-U.