How to Stop the 3pm Slump

So How Do We Prevent It?

What Comes Up Must Come Down

A high protein and moderate to high fat lunch = stronger afternoon energy levels and less chance of the 3pm slump.

Food Combining

• 2 chicken thighs
• 1 cup of cooked black beans
• 1 cup of veggies: broccoli and red cabbage cooked together in the pan with the chicken and beans with a few herbs thrown in for flavour
• 1 carrot, raw
• 3 small pieces of celery

Now, this is not a small amount of food and if most people were to eat this all at once they would most likely feel a little bloated.

But, right now I feel damn good and I'm powering through this blog post. A blog post which I started shortly after... 3pm.

Why Did I Choose the Above Foods and in What Order Did I Eat Them?

Firstly I chose the above meal because it is:

• High in protein: chicken, black beans
• Moderate to high in fat: I chose chicken thigh instead of breast
• Moderate in carbohydrate content but they are slow burning, high fibre carbs: black beans

I ate this all at once, but only after I had eaten the carrot and celery sticks first and waited around 15 minutes.

Why the Random Raw Carrot and Celery Sticks?

Apart from being delicious, crunchy snacks, I have included these as my entree to help stimulate digestion and help me to process my main meal better.

Raw veggies contain enzymes which help improve the digestive process, carrots being an excellent example of this. Low temperature cooking started to trend a while back because it potentially stops the complete destruction of the enzymes naturally present in foods. Granted we have other reasons for cooking food like hygiene and palatability. 

And both of these veggies, celery in particular, contain a type of fibre which is loved by the good bacteria that live in your digestive system so not only am I improving my digestion today but I'm also helping to strengthen it for tomorrow and beyond.

The whole waiting 15 minutes thing is because I want to give the enzymes a chance to get in there and do their thing before I eat the rest of my food.

Now, I could go on forever about the methods behind my madness but instead I would like to give you a fun exercise to try yourself:

Next time you're feeling hungry, go and eat a carrot and wait just a little longer before eating your main meal and see what happens.

Let me know how you go in the comments section below.

Tips to Avoid the Afternoon Slump

Ok, so to sum all of this up: to prevent the 3pm slump, your choice of foods matter and the order of consumption matters.

To give yourself the best chance of avoiding the 3pm slump, do the following:

• Have a high protein, moderate fat lunch with some veggies (not too many veggies or you may become bloated and slow your digestion process which again can lead to a slump). Don't be shy about cooking with grass fed ghee or drowning your salad in olive oil.
  
  
• If you want to eat carbs: choose slow burning carbs such as beans and lentils.
  
  
• If you have a sweet craving and want to have a piece of fruit with your lunch, eat it before your lunch and not afterwards as most of the digestion of fruits happens in the intestines and not in the stomach.
  
  
• If you feel like coffee after lunch, drink espresso only: no sugar, no milk, minimal liquid = less chance of bloating and espresso can actually improve your digestion rather than hinder it. Make sure this is your last coffee of the day so you're not jacked up on caffeine come bed time.

And that's it.

If you're struggling with the 3pm slump, please give the above strategies a try and see how you feel.

Until next time
Live with energy
Christian Baker