help with being a morning person

[peachinprocess]

i've been struggling with this new early schedule.

i am finding i can get up at 7am and get moving but once i eat lunch around noonish i bonk.

it's barely 3o'clock and i am ready to curl up in a ball and call it a day.

any suggestions?

Comments

[tensegritydan]

I used to have the same problem (I think it was especially bad when I was around your age) but something changed with my body or my habits and it seems not to be a problem any more (knock on wood), so maybe some of these things might help you:

I now eat breakfast every morning (Joe's Os!) as well as taking my vitaMANs (vitamins for MANS!) in the morning instead of evening. I am also more strategic about my coffee intake--at work I only drink it black and have just 1 cup sometime between 9 to noon.

Other things that have worked for me from time to time. Move around during or after lunch. Take a walk outside if you start getting sleepy. Move around your office. Get a big whiteboard--it forces you to get out of your chair to think. Schedule meetings after lunch with either fun people or people you hate. Stretchbreak software! Have lots of toys in your office.

I am still not good about getting to bed at a decent time but maybe that will help you.

Wake up and get to work!

[topteddy]

I have really found that having a light breakfast, a snack at 10, lunch and a 3pm snack, like an apple and two string cheese (cheese 50-100 cal each) helps me with the afternoon slump.

I look for snacks that are a high in protein, and low in carbs. The apple is a good mix of fiber as well.

Also making sure that I get to bed by 10pm.

someone mentioned trying a small amount of 5htp in the afternoon, that it might help.
I agree with tensegritydan about getting up and moving around, get some fresh air, stretch.

[wendelina2]

I know snacking seems "bad," but (according to my trainer at least), part of the reason (a big part) of that afternoon naptime feeling is because your insulin levels are high (from burning off the sugars in lunch), and your blood sugar is low (it's all been burnt off).

Eating something just before that happens (for me, it's about 2h after I eat lunch), as topteddy suggests, can help avoid that crashy feeling from happening, and give you some pep to make it through the last few hours of the day.