Santa Cruz Volleyball Forum

It’s 3:00 pm! Do you know where your energy is?

We all know the feeling of sitting in an afternoon meeting or at our desks and feeling a heavy weight of fatigue wash over us. This is the perfect time for a nap, but unless you have a bed under your desk, that isn’t going to happen. So, what is the next best option? You need to try eating or drinking something that will give you sustained energy. Also, if you are heading down to the beach after work to play, you want to be sure you have the energy to play until the sun sets!

Try these 5 dietary strategies to increase your energy mid-afternoon:

1. Look Backwards to Lunch: If you are consistently tired in the afternoon, it could be that your lunch just doesn’t cut it. Food is supposed to give you energy, so if you are sleepy or tired after eating, you might not be eating foods that are energy producing for you. Instead of staying with the status quo, begin trying different types of foods and different quantities of food. EveryBODY is different, and ultimately it will be up to you to determine the food that makes you feel vibrant and energized.

Your Increased Energy Plan: Start experimenting with different things for lunch with the goal to determine the foods that give you energy vs. make you feel sluggish.

2. Put more Raw, Living foods in your lunch and throughout your day: Again, we eat for energy and to feel more aLIVE, so it should make total sense that this will be easier achieved with live foods, like raw fruits and vegetables. Do you know why produce spoils so quickly? It is full of enzymes that will start to actually work to break it down. Imagine, when you eat produce you get all of those enzymes to work to break down that food for you, giving you more energy to “play with” if you will! You don’t have to become a raw foodist to experience the benefits of live foods—start by gradually increasing the amount of raw foods you are eating at each meal. Recently, a client of mine was feeling tired in the afternoons after his lunch of leftovers from dinner and a side salad. I recommended he try simply shifting how much he was eating of each food. Now, he eats a smaller portion of the cooked food and he eats a larger salad, and this small change has made a big difference in his energy level.

Your Increased Energy Plan: Increase the amount of live foods at your lunch and throughout the day. Notice how this makes you feel.

3. Go Green! Green leafy vegetables, like kale, collard greens, spinach and the like are filled with a substance called chlorophyll which is literally the blood of the plant. This is how the plant stays well nourished and vital. And the good news is that it is available to you! Do you know anyone addicted to wheatgrass shots? I do! There is a good reason: This stuff makes you feel GOOD! And energized! All greens are great, and if they are raw all the better, but cooked greens are great too.

Your Increased Energy Plan: Add more leafy greens to your diet, cooked or raw. You can also drink green drinks, like wheatgrass or other green powders.

4. Get Hydrated! Yes, I know you have heard this 1,000 times, but we don’t always do the things that we hear are good for us, right? So, count this as the 1,001 time you are getting the ‘Water is necessary for good health speech’. Our bodies are 60 % water, but did you know that our blood is over 85% water? Our blood (just like chlorophyll in plants) is what ensures we are properly nourished and well oxygenated. Dehydration can reduce blood volume and diminish blood flow to the organs, slowing down your brain, leaving you fuzzy and sluggish.

Your Increased Energy Plan: Drink 8 10-oz glasses per day or half of your body weight (pounds) in ounces – e.g. If you weigh 150 pounds, you should drink 75 ounces of water each day (roughly 7-1/2 full glasses). Don't love water? Try squeezing some fruit into it for flavor: Lemon is a great fruit for your liver, so try drinking lemon water throughout the day. Herbal tea (hot or cold) counts, too! But, sorry, caffeine and/or energy drinks do not! In fact, these dehydrate you even more…which leads me to strategy number 5….

5. As much as possible, resist the quick fix. Sugar and caffeine…yes, the duo of quick “energy” production! You know the drill, you feel great after one of those energy drinks loaded with caffeine and sugar, but after an hour or so you crash. Once and a while these might be okay for you, but overuse of any of these pick me ups results in overworking your adrenal glands, which will leave you more fatigued in the long run. You become dependent on these substances to artificially raise your energy and it gets more and more difficult for your body to do it on its own.

Your Increased Energy Plan: Be sure to have healthy food with you at all times so you can choose a healthy snack over a sugary one. And replace your afternoon cup of coffee with a green drink!

So, to sum it up, if you would like to have more energy throughout the day, begin by experimenting with different foods to see how they affect your energy. Also, be sure you are well-hydrated and try increasing the amount of green, live foods you are eating. This recipe should help to make it easier:

Raw Kale and Tahini Salad
Here is one of my favorite salads—it is green, raw and delicious! Try this for an afternoon snack and notice the difference in your energy.
1 head lacinato or dinosaur kale, thinly sliced
sea salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup tahini (sesame seed paste sold near the peanut butters)
1/4 cup water
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 plum tomatoes, diced
1 carrot, grated
3 scallions, sliced

Place sliced kale in a bowl, sprinkle with sea salt and “massage” for 3 minutes until kale starts to break down. In a bowl with a whisk or food processor, mix together garlic, tahini, water and lemon juice. Stir tahini sauce into kale and add tomato, carrots, and scallions. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

On my weekly meal plan, there are LOTS of recipes for leafy greens and a recipe for a weekly refrigerator staple so you always have healthy food to eat that will make you feel great! You can try the meal plan free for a month by going to www.nourishingnutrition.com.

Until next time, Eat Well, Be Well and LOVE Every Bite! ~Jennifer

Jennifer Brewer, MS, CNS is a Nutritionist and Natural Foods Chef in Santa Cruz, California. She teaches a variety of healthy cooking classes, including an 8-week Natural Chef Training. For more information be sure to check out her website at www.nourishingnutrition.com.

Hi jennifer,

Since I also train for triathlons (3 per year), I have become a lot more focused on healthy nutrition as I get older. The key word is "healthy". Your articles have been excellent and have helped a lot.

Thanks again,

Cynthia

Incidentally, Jennifer, do you recommend any specific foods for recovery after very strenuous and sustained workouts?

Thanks, Cynithia

Hi Cynthia!

Thank you for your feedback--I am glad you are enjoying the articles! As for food for recovery, the first place to start is time. Your muscles are most receptive to food energy for 30-45 mins after a hard workout so eating in that window is crucial. That said, the ideal ratio of carbs:protein is 4:1, so 4 times as much healthy carb as protein. This could be cinnamon toast with almond butter, 2 pieces of fruit and a handful of nuts, or whole grain crackers with a high protein spread. I really like smoothies as post-recovery snacks...they are easy to make (provided you are at home) and you can vary the amount of protein/carbs. Again, since the most important consideration is when you eat your snack, if you aren't going to be able to make it home in time, be sure to bring this healthy snack along with you. I created the following energy bar recipe and a client of mine who is a cyclist brings them along for after her rides. Enjoy!

Energy Bars or Balls
Recipe makes about 10 bars

These bars are loaded with nutrition. Oatmeal is a healthy complex carbohydrate that can help with memory. Also, walnuts and flaxseed provide healthy essential fats and figs are a good source of calcium and iron. You can freeze these bars in waxed paper baggies to grab and go!

An added bonus: I calculated these bars cost about .50 per bar to make. Compare that to most packaged energy bars and we are talking a major savings!

1 cup oats, toasted
1 cup walnuts
2 Tablespoons flax seeds, ground in coffee grinder
1/2 cup raisins
4 dried figs, stemmed and chopped
1/4 cup dried cranberries
3 Tablespoons cashew or almond butter
pinch of salt

Toast oats in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes or until they smell nutty. Chop walnuts together with toasted oats until well ground. Add flaxseeds, raisins, figs and cranberries and mix until mixture is well-blended. Add cashew or almond butter with a pinch of salt and pulse until well combined and mixture is holding together. Press mixture into an 8 x 11 cake pan, refrigerate 30 minutes and cut into 3-inch bars. Freeze in waxed paper bags. You can also roll this mixture into bite sized balls or nuggets.

Be sure to check out my website at www.nourishingnutrition.com and follow me on facebook for great healthy recipes and meal plans! ~Jennifer

Overall I felt this was a very good post, I disagree with point # 4, drinking 8 to 10 of glasses of water a day and the authors continual use of salt in her recipes.
If you are eating a plant based diet, with no added salt, your daily need for water goes down considerably, 2 to 3 glasses of water may be fine,
Here is what a Dr Joel Fuhrman, who eats and recommends a a plant base diet to his patients says about drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water a day

"The question is what is a reasonable amount of water and what is eating properly? Recommending a fixed amount like 2 or 3 liters day is unreasonable (can be excessive)and doesnot take individual needs into account.

When you eat a very low salt, high water content diet, and you are peeing like an elephant all day, you do not need to drink much additional water.

I think that the advice to drink all that water is important if you eat a high salt, low water content standard American diet.

If you drink too much water, you wash away minerals and other electrolytes with all the excessive urination and it is not healthful.

Most people who follow my recommended diet-style and do regular exercise, drink 2 - 3 glases of water a day in the winter (less than one liter). More of course in the hotter times of the year, depending on thetime of year, time spent outdoors in the heat and the amount of exercise. So I might drink significantlymore if working and playing in a warmer climate (two liters) or even more. But even with those times, I often find myself eating more watermelon, other melons, oranges,tomatoes, red peppersand other high water content fruits and vegetables and not drinking that much water."

Adding salt to your diet is very unhealthy and causes lots of health problems, that would include all salts-- sea salt, or any other fancy exotic brand of raw salt.
Here is what Dr Fuhrman says about salt.
"Any excess salt added to food, outside of what is contained in natural foods, is likely to increase your risk of developing disease. Salt consumption is linked to both stomach cancer and hypertension.1 For optimal health, I recommend that no salt at all be added to any food. The famous DASH study clearly indicates that Americans consume five to ten times as much as they need and that high sodium levels over the years has a predictable effect on raising blood pressure.2 Just because you don’t have high blood pressure now doesn’t mean that you won’t. In fact, your probably will have high blood pressure if you keep eating lots of salt over the years."