Win Your Day Key #2: Power Fuel
KEY POINTS:
1. The next key to mastering your day is with Power Fuel.
2. Fuel your brain properly to make sure you are optimizing your life.
3. Look for foods that are high in healthy protein to improve your concentration and focus.
“The first wealth is health.”
During Power Work, you will need Power Fuel to sustain your energy and focus. Just as you started your day with a healthy meal to propel you in the right direction, you need healthy snacks and lunch options to keep you moving forward.
One of the easiest things people can do to perform better, be healthier, and improve their mental performance is to understand how the foods we eat change the way our brains work. The foods you eat during the day change the chemicals the brain uses to communicate and perform. Those chemicals, called neurotransmitters, are made from the foods we eat.
If we eat foods higher in protein than carbohydrates, we increase the number of neurotransmitters that help us concentrate and stay focused. If we eat foods higher in simple carbohydrates than protein, we increase the neurotransmitters that widen our focus and help us to relax.
Just think about how you feel an hour after having a kale salad with chicken versus an hour after having a plate of pasta. With the salad, you feel much more able to focus and concentrate and have good energy. If you have the pasta, you probably need a nap.
Key 2: Power Fuel
There is no doubt the most distracting foods are also the most prevalent, but if we think about the choices we make and do things differently, we can be healthier and dramatically improve our ability to concentrate and stay focused.
Here are some tips to help you choose foods that will help you achieve optimal brain function:
You need slow-digesting complex carbohydrates (e.g. brown rice, peas, or starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes) to provide a steady source of glucose, which is the fuel your brain uses for thinking, solving problems, being creative, and instilling memories.
You need high-quality fats (e.g. fish, nuts, or avocado), because fats are used to build the structures in your nerves like cell membranes and the myelin sheath that protects the nerve and speeds communication between neurons.
You need healthy proteins (e.g. fish, eggs, or boneless & skinless chicken breast) to provide the amino acids that are the precursors for the neurotransmitters used to communicate between nerve cells.
You need vitamins and minerals from fruits and vegetables for the intracellular processes that enable the nerves to function and even prolong the survival of individual nerve fibres.
Guess what you should be eating to fuel your thinking, creativity, problem solving and memory? That’s right – whole, fresh, unprocessed foods.
Nutrient-dense foods optimal for Power Fuel include:
organic grass-fed meats
cold-water fish
black beans
berries
avocado
raw nuts
seeds
eggs, particularly omelettes with greens
coconut
kale
ginger
carrots
A good example of how you can add Power Fuel into your day is to eat a little bit of dark chocolate in the afternoon. Chocolate with 70% or more cocoa can improve vascular reactivity, the ability of your blood vessels to change their diameter so more oxygen can reach the brain, thereby increasing mental performance and alertness. For a delicious and healthy treat, try a small piece of dark chocolate right after lunch and see how that helps you perform in the afternoon.
Caffeine can also help you focus in some cases, but its peak benefits occur thirty to sixty minutes after you ingest it. Its effect lasts for about three hours, but afterward, the withdrawal can have a negative impact on your performance. Because of this, it’s important to schedule your caffeine and think about how it will impact your Power Work. Check out our blog on this subject here!
The information and advice provided in this program is intended to assist you with improving your performance, as well as your general health. It is not intended and should not be used in place of advice from your own physician or for treatment or diagnosis of any specific health issue. By participating in this program you acknowledge that undertaking any new health, diet and/or exercise regime involves certain inherent risks, that you assume such risks, and that you release Wells Performance Inc. from any responsibility or claim relating to such participation.