Eat for Energy
Imagine the scene- you wake up after a wonderful night’s sleep feeling refreshed and full of energy. You feel calm and focused with a sense of clarity as you go about your day. There’s no 3 o’clock slump for you! Instead your energy levels keep you going until bedtime when you slip into another luxurious sleep. Does this sound like you? No? How about if we told you that what you eat plays a major part in making this scenario a reality…?
With so many different theories, diets, statistics and cookbooks galore, knowing what to eat has become a minefield. However when we see food as fuel for our body, albeit enjoyable fuel, we start to appreciate the benefits of eating with good nutrition in mind rather than following the latest gimmick or fad.
Many ‘diets’ seem to focus on eliminating whole food groups. We started with fat as the enemy (You’ll know from our previous blog article that this is not the case), then it’s carbs or maybe specific foods such as eggs. The truth is that we need all the food groups in our diet. Each has an important role to play. Of course there are good fats and bad fats just as there are good carbs and bad, so today we’d like to demystify some of the blurb out there – specifically in relation to carbohydrates – and highlight some of the factors that lead to energy, vitality and general oomph.
First of all, please do not have anything to do with the many fads out there. Put simply, they don’t work and in some cases can be very unhealthy. Instead, take a look at your relationship with food. Is food something that makes you feel ashamed or anxious about what it will do to your waistline? Or is it something to be enjoyed with ‘treats’ in moderation and which you associate with energy and health? We encourage the latter, and chances are that if you are eating this way with a focus on nutrition your waistline is likely to shrink anyway. A win-win!
Carbohydrates are our main source of energy and have a direct impact on blood sugar levels within the body. Once eaten, carbohydrates are converted into glucose in the body, which in turn provides energy to all of our cells and bodily functions. A balanced blood sugar is associated with good energy levels, focus and motivation. If our blood sugar becomes too high (because we have eaten too much or the ‘wrong’ kind of carbohydrate) our body is unable to use all of the glucose meaning the excess is stored as fat. This ‘high’ is quickly followed by the slump (think the 3 o’clock dip). If our blood sugar is too low we lack energy and focus, feel lethargic and are more likely to reach for the high sugar quick fixes. So begins this vicious cycle of highs, fat storing and dips, with the end result leaving us feel far from our best.
So, what are these ‘good’ carbs?
You may have heard about the GI (Glycaemic Index). This is basically a way of measuring how fast the carbohydrates in a food raise your blood sugar compared with pure glucose; in other words the quality of carbohydrate in food. The perhaps lesser known GL (Glycaemic Load) of a food offers a much more accurate way to record the impact of certain foods on blood sugar by factoring in both the quantity of carbs in food and its quality. So gaining an understanding of which foods are low GL and which are high will serve you well.
As a gift to you, we’ve created a free meal guide containing ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. To grab your copy, click here.
Combining carbohydrates with protein will further help to slow down the release of sugar from carbohydrates with minimal effect on blood sugar. For example, if you have an apple (carbohydrate) as a snack then have a handful of almonds with it. As well as being a good source of protein, almonds will also give you a good dose of fibre and healthy fats.
Eat breakfast! Break- fast is just that…it’s breaking the fast that has occurred overnight as you sleep. When you wake, your blood sugar is likely to be lower as you haven’t eaten for a while so a healthy, low GL breakfast is essential to get blood sugar levels balanced and to get you full of energy and focus to deal with the day ahead of you. So many folk will say ‘it’s too early to eat’ or ‘I don’t have time to eat in the morning’. Well we have that covered! Breakfast doesn’t have to be a great gourmet delight sit-down affair. It can be as easy as whizzing up a smoothie in a matter of seconds: healthy fats in the form of avocado, low GL carbohydrates in the form of berries and a handful of porridge oats and some protein in the form of Greek yoghurt. Et voila, breakfast!
Eat small and often as this will prevent blood sugar dips. However, do experiment with this. It may be that you don’t feel hungry between meals and your blood sugar remains balanced until its time for the next meal. So in true Wellbeing4Life mode- EXPERIMENT!
(Here’s that link again, if you’d like to grab your free meal guide!)