Lower carbohydrates can mean higher productivity

This article is about a self-experienced low carbohydrate business success. Lowered carbohydrates in the evenings impacted positively on personal and business life and affirmed the correlation between a healthy diet, sound sleeping habits, weight management and a clear mind.

I have always had enormous difficulty sleeping and know many others in the business world who also struggle to disengage gears and switch off at night. In fact, you are truly blessed if you have the ability to sleep well at night. Although I say “ability” as if the whole issue is one purely of genes and you either “have it or you don’t”, it is often a matter of teaching yourself better sleep habits. Many of these habits involve becoming aware of your lifestyle and they will not guarantee sound sleep in and of themselves; but at the very least, you can give yourself a good shot at it. Here, I’ll discuss just one, small, but critical adjustment you can make to your lifestyle which I hope makes a huge difference.

Please note that I am not selling you anything and your choice to follow my advice is all that will be required to make a difference in your life… no fancy diet or get-rich-quick scheme. There are no sneaky links hauling you off to lifestyle gurus, fitness fanatics, impossibly flat-stomached beauties – and no guarantees. I do not profess to be a dietician or a lifestyle coach, but I do have ears, I do use them to listen, I do encourage new ideas being shared and I do adopt things that make sense to me! So read on and do what you feel is right for you.

Good sleep is a good start

Your body is an incredibly resilient, and yet most sensitive, machine. The most complex and beautiful machine known to human-kind. And yet ultimately, there are times when you do need to think of its functioning purely in terms of a machine and consider that aspect of your existence independently of any spirituality/consciousness you choose to embrace. Your machine needs to be looked after and properly maintained or it will break down. Part of this maintenance involves eating properly and another part involves sleeping properly. These two things might not seem related, but they are inherently linked.

When your body needs to shut down and rest at night, help it to do so. This includes all the obvious things like not drinking a dozen energy drinks at bedtime, but what I would like you to consider, is limiting the amount of carbohydrates you take in. My understanding is that carbohydrates are one of the body’s most powerful fuels and therefore require intensive processing by your machine. When your digestive system is full of carbohydrates, it works furiously to try and process them. So at night, instead of resting, your body is working very hard to process those carbohydrates. It would be pretty unfair to expect your body to rest gently during sleep and at the same time munch its way through all that fuel.

Ta-Daaa! In your mind, hear a glorious cymbal crash or the sound of one penny dropping – whichever you prefer. And so, my suggestion to you is simply to limit the amount of carbohydrates you eat at night or, if you must have carbs every so often (I personally cannot say no to a great pasta every now and then), try and eat a bit earlier in the evening. Give your system a chance to process all the fuel you have filled it up with before expecting it to shut down for rest.

And coming up now, an even bigger Ta-Daaa!  The sound of many cymbals crashing and a whole handful of pennies dropping, if you will. Most people’s bodies are not really able to rest soundly AND process a huge pile of carbs at the same time. This means that your body is bound to do one of these two jobs poorly, or possibly have a half-hearted crack at doing both and end up doing both badly. This means your body will:

-make the decision to crazily process carbs and forego proper sleep; or

-sleep soundly and not properly process the carbs.

The long and short of this tale of woe is that you could tend to being a bit tired or a bit overweight. Possibly both.

My take on this all: Limit your carbs at night and you will probably sleep better AND give your body the chance to process your evening meal. Process that evening meal, and your body will have fewer unnecessary spongy kilograms on it.

The chances are, you might have the fantastic bonus of losing a few kilos to go along with your improved sleep. No harm in trying…

If you need to, research carbs, but as a general indication they include things like rice, maize meal, potatoes, bread and pasta.