Monday's Health Tip: Nutrition Essentials to Feeling Your Best

It always seems like no matter how much sleep I get the night before, I'm always...ALWAYS...in desperate need of a nap come mid-afternoon. Does that ever happen to you? I suppose it's a combination of several things-- I usually workout during my lunch break and while exercise has an awakening effect for most people, it has always had a tendency to make me sleepy. Top it off with the fact that I usually eat lunch after I get back from the gym, and I've got the prime ingredients for a mid-afternoon slump-fest. So I guess I should start taking my own advice when I tell you, a lot of how you feel come mid-afternoon is due to what and when you are eating. I've gotten in the bad habit of going to the gym on an empty stomach. Therefore when it comes time to finally eat, I'm so ravenous that I don't really care what I put in my mouth. (Full disclosure-- I once polished off an entire bag of York Peppermint Patties in one afternoon. Not good. Not good at all.) What usually ends up happening to me is I'll eat a lot in a short amount of time, and once it settles, I'm so full and sluggish that all I really want to do is lie down and take a nice little cat nap. Good nutrition is the key to staying awake and alert during the day. And while I tend to abide by this, say, 80% of the time (the day I ate the bag of peppermint patties not withstanding), 20% of the time I fall into the "I don't care what I eat, as long as I eat something, ANYTHING, right now" category. So, my Monday's health tip is-- check out this article. It breaks down the nutrition essentials you need to feel good during the day. If you have a few minutes to plan every day, you can avoid that awful mid-afternoon drowsiness. How do you stay awake and alert during the day? Do you find yourself yearning for a nap once 2 or 3pm rolls around? Please tell me I'm not the only one!
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