It happens every day (or at least it seems like it does): One minute you're a productive machine, flying through your to-do list with ease. Then suddenly, as if someone flipped a switch, your eyelids start to sag and you begin to feel impossibly tired.
You've probably wondered why this mid-afternoon slump happens (especially on the days when you had a great night of sleep, plus a cup of coffee in the morning), and if there is a way to prevent—or at least curb—it.
Experiencing a dip in energy in the afternoons is often correlated to a blood sugar spike and subsequent crash that can happen within a few hours of finishing your lunch, says registered dietitian Megan Landrum, RD, director of healthcare revenue at Pendulum. “Many diet and lifestyle choices can lead to this blood sugar roller coaster, meaning lots of people feel fatigued in the afternoon," she says.
For people who want to fight off their seemingly inevitable afternoon slumps (without reaching for a second cup of coffee), Landrum recommends examining three things: meals, movement, and Metabolic Daily.
To fight off the seemingly inevitable afternoon slumps, Landrum recommends examining three things: meals, movement, and Metabolic Daily.
First up: Meals. Since that sluggish feeling is often tied to a blood sugar spike then crash, it can be exacerbated by eating high glycemic foods (i.e. starchy and/or sugary foods) at lunch. To avoid the crash, try making sure your meals are balanced with foods containing carbohydrates, fats, and protein. Think: A grain bowl with chicken and hummus, or the viral Tunacado sandwich.
Next on Landrum’s list of tips is movement. The more you sit, the more sluggish you'll feel, so she encourages everyone with a desk job to try to move around throughout the day—but especially after meals—to get your blood pumping, which will help give you an energy boost. (To all the WFH peeps, a quick post-lunch walk can work wonders!)
Finally, Landrum recommends another way to help keep your blood sugar balanced: Pendulum Metabolic Daily, which is a probiotic formulated to help optimize how your body metabolizes sugar and carbs.
If you automatically associate probiotics with gut health, you might be wondering how probiotics can help reduce energy slumps. It all comes down to what's going on in your gut as the food you eat is traveling through your digestive system.
Yes, Metabolic Daily does help to support gut health in its own right—but its blend of five live probiotic strains also helps optimize your metabolism, the process of turning food into energy to fuel your body. “The proprietary strains in Metabolic Daily break down sugar and carbohydrates into postbiotics, like butyrate, to help your body do more with the food you eat,” Landrum says.
Butyrate (a short-chain fatty acid produced when bacteria in the gut break down dietary fiber) and GLP-1 (a hormone produced in the gut) are both associated with helping to regulate blood sugar levels, and like Landrum says, “Stable blood sugar correlates to stable energy throughout the day.”
So, by taking one capsule of Metabolic Daily every day, you can give your body some extra support in keeping your blood sugar levels steady—rather than sending them on that spike-then-crash roller coaster—and you may be able to avoid that I-need-a-nap-ASAP feeling in the back half of your workday, no coffee required.
Want to try Metabolic Daily for yourself? Use code WG15 at pendulumlife.com for 15 percent off your first month of Metabolic Daily or another Pendulum membership. You can also find Metabolic Daily and other Pendulum products on Amazon.
