Many years ago, during my first couple years in college, I started having some stomach troubles. No matter what I ate (and you could imagine how healthy I was eating as a college student living on my own) my stomach did not feel well afterwards. Finally I had to go see someone to help figure out what the issue was. It ended up being that I was lactose intolerant, but that was discovered after many, many tests and tracking my diet (after all of the tests). The news wasn't exactly shocking because there are plenty of people who cannot properly digest cow's milk. However, it did impact my eating habits quite a bit at the time.
During the process of elimination my doctor asked a number of questions about daily intake of certain foods or beverages. He was a little surprised that I really didn't drink pop - and still don't very often. He was extremely shocked at how many ounces of coffee I was drinking in a day. He was determined that the cause of all of my issues was the amount of caffeine I consumed daily. So, through a long and awful withdrawal process, I cut out the coffee. All of it. Since then I rarely drink the stuff because of the effects it now has on me. (Of course, after I found out that wasn't the issue I was pretty bummed, but decided to not start up again since I was feeling better.)
Well, due to all of this moving business and having to be top notch taking care of the babe I had a hankering and caved when we got to Panera for breakfast. I ordered the smallest cup I could get. Drank about 1/4 of the cup. Then operated in hyper-drive the rest of the day and well in to the evening!
Now you could say that it's great to know coffee will boost me like that so on days that I'm really dragging I can take a few swigs and feel wide awake for hours on end. Or you could wonder, like I do, about the effect of drinking so much that it really doesn't keep you awake anymore.
I learned through a very wise woman (whom I'll rave about in future posts) that an apple has more good for you boosters in it than any other food or drink you could consume. I experimented with this for a couple months before I gave in to agreement. That saying "An Apple a day keeps the doctor away" had to come from somewhere! There is also something to be said for the power of mint. Try rubbing some mint on your palms and taking a whiff of them when you feel drowsy. Does it perk you up? I know it works for me! (Mint also has many, many other great benefits. Look for them in upcoming posts!)
What do you do to energize or stay awake on days that you are tired? Is caffeine a regular part of your day? Have you tried other sources to help you energize? If so, will you share them please?
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