Are stimulants affecting your energy & stress levels?
Does this sound familiar to you?
You reluctantly crawl out of bed and head for the kettle for a strong cup of tea or coffee, perhaps light up a cigarette or have some fast releasing sugar, such as jam on toast. Up go your blood sugar and adrenalin levels and you start to feel normal. Or, do you lie in bed thinking about all the things that have gone wrong, could go wrong or will go wrong? You start to worry about everything you've got to do, haven't done or should have done. About ten minutes of this gets enough adrenaline pumping through you to get you out of bed.
If either of these scenarios sound like you, you're caught in a vicious cycle of stress, sugar and stimulants, with all its negative effects on your mind, mood and energy. Stimulants promise instant energy, but just make the problem worse.
As you know by now, balancing your blood sugar is the key to sustained energy. Stimulants also promote the brain’s feel good chemicals. In times of stress, the adrenal glands release a combination of hormones, including cortisol and adrenalin, that break down stores of glucose and raise your blood sugar levels, tapping into your energy reserves to provide instant fuel to deal with the apparent danger (in case you need to run away from a sabre tooth tiger for example).
Of course, today’s emergencies take place mainly inside our heads (overdrafts, relationships, etc.), but we still produce adrenalin, and that still raises blood sugar levels. Stimulants have the same effect, stirring up adrenalin and dopamine seriously messing with your blood sugar and so encouraging your body to store fat.
Changing any habit can be stressful in itself, so it’s best not to quit everything in one go. A good strategy is to start with your diet and, as you feel better, you will feel more motivated to kick other bad habits along the way. Cut down on stimulants until you feel able to give some of them up for good. Work out how many you consume daily; you’ll probably find it is more than you think, so make a plan to reduce your intake. You’ll be surprised how much better you will feel simply by cutting back.
Here are a few handy tips for cutting down on stimulants.
A good strategy is to avoid something for a month and then see how you feel.
Pick one stimulant you use frequently. Could you realistically cut it out for a month? If not, what could you reduce your intake to?
Coffee drinkers don’t feel any better than people who never drink coffee. They just feel better than they did when they first woke up!
All coffee does is relieve the symptoms of coffee withdrawal.
To find out what effect it has on you, quit for just two weeks. You may get withdrawal symptoms for up to 3 days (e.g. headaches, irritability). These reflect how addicted you've become. After this, if you begin to feel perky and your health improves, that's a good indication you're better off without coffee.
Reduce cravings with an excellent low GL diet, a good breakfast, and avoid going hungry, to keep your blood sugar balanced.
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