Afternoon fatique

[jburth7]

One of the biggest reasons I did a whole30 and changed my eating habits was because of that afternoon slump.  I definitely used to be a "diet coke in the afternoon" kind of girl to get me through the later part of my workday.

 

Eating Whole30 does make my energey A LOT better in general.  I feel like I have pretty decent energy during the day, but for some reason there are still many afternoons when I'm tired and feel less than stellar from about 3:00 until dinnertime..

 

I'm trying to decide if this is diet related (have done two Whole30's, not currently doing one but generally eat Whole30 except for a misstep here and there) or if it's more related to the fact that I work full-time, currently have a 7 month old that I'm nursing and doesn't sleep through the night and I work out on my lunch hour.  So, I know I do a lot and maybe my body is just tired from keeping up a crazy pace?

 

Or is there some tweaking I can do from my diet?  I do include quite a few starchy carbs already because I'm nursing - generally at least 1-2 servings a day.

 

I also do a pre-WO snack (usually hard boiled egg) but not a post-WO because I eat lunch right after my workout.  I drink plenty of water and I believe my meals are large enough because I'm not hungry and I typically only 'snack' once a day or so because I feel like I need the extra calories since I'm nursing.... my snack could actually be considered my fourth template meal probably because I eat it mid-way through the morning while I'm pumping at work.

 

Any advice?

[ladyshanny]

Can you give us an idea of how your meals are composed? Quantities of food and fluids? What sort of exercise you are doing?

 

Depending on your intensity of exercise, you are depriving yourself of the extra meal a more intense workout earns so you might be in a deficit there.

[kirkor]

Sounds lifestyle-related not diet.

[jburth7]

Here's what I ate today:

Breakfast: 3 eggs cooked in coconut oil, handful of blueberries, skillet full of cruciferous crunch (from TJ's), 1/2 avocado

Pre-WO: hardboiled egg

Meal 2/snack: 1 large hamburger patty with some frank's hot sauce, handful of nuts

Lunch: Large salad with several different veggies, chicken thighs (3 of them), 1/2 avocado, olive oil dressing, 1 pear, 1/2-1 sweet potato

Dinner: Shrimp, sweet potato (about 1 whole one), brussel sprout coleslaw- ate at least 3 cups of this - dressing was whole30 - had mustard, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, garlic; also had a homemade 'ranch' dressing to dip the sweet potatoes in

 

My workout today was that I ran about 5 miles and I did a 12 minute HIIT workout.  Typically, I vary between running 4-5 miles or doing some form of interval training/tabata/HIIT

 

Water: I drink at least 4 liters of water a day and usually 1-2 LaCroix's as well if I get tired of 'regular' water.

[ShannonM816]

Your meals mostly look good. Some people report that having fruit with their M1 doesn't work well for them and they do better having it later in the day, so you might play with that some.

 

You have a pre-WO but no post-WO listed. My understanding is that of the two, the post-WO is more important for aiding recovery. You might try that, have some lean protein and optionally starchy vegetable within half an hour of the end of your workout.

 

I'm guessing that it's mostly related to the other stuff in your life right now, rather than your food. 

 

I know there are several articles on the Whole9 and Whole30 blogs about rest and recovery and dealing with stress, you might want to look for them and see if you can find any helpful information. Here's one on rest vs recovery, and here's a link to several articles about stress.