The 3:00 Challenge: Afternoon fatigue, stress, and cravings

[Teri Rose, OblSB, Program Director]

Do you hit a wall around 3-4pm? It’s a sneaky time of day because it’s when a lot of external stress, bustle, and natural biological rhythms all collide leaving the unprepared tired, fighting cravings, and most likely a little (or a lot) irritable.

Our natural cortisol levels start to dip mid/late afternoon to prep us for relaxation at night (which starts the cascade that we need to sleep well). This makes sense, right?  But unlike the shortened days before electricity, we now push to stay productive for 12, 14, or 16 hours per day.

But we weren’t built to keep going for 12-14 hours, so what have we found works to keep us going?  Food, sweets, and chemicals (like caffeine). All substances that override these natural, relaxing, ‘bring-it-down-now’ signals that our bodies produce.

So what are we to do?  Let’s look together at what can be done to better prepare.

1. Turn Towards and Listen. Often, what we perceive as cravings later in the day are actually our body’s need to process stress, mentally rejuvenate from a long morning of decision making, or rest from the busy morning it just got us through.  Stop for just a minute before you reach for sweets and ask: “Am I really hungry?  Has it been over 4 hours since I’ve eaten?”  OR “Am I actually tired and emotionally need a break?  Has it been a tough morning and I just need something to feel pleasurable?” Then give your body what it really wants – sit somewhere quiet and just breathe for a minute, get outside and feeling the sun on your face (find excuses at work like you have to grab something out of your car and then walk really slow).
2.  Meal balance & timing.  Your very first food decision of the day will directly affect your afternoon energy levels.  Starting your day with eating too late, too little, too much, or not well balanced will significantly contribute to bad patterns later in the day.
3.  Get up and MOVE.  Activity is one of the best and fastest ways to bring cortisol levels down.  It also increases beta-endorphins and serotonin = our feel-good neurotransmitters.  And if you are stuck in meetings – still GET UP.  Stop sitting, start pacing around the room, fidget, just move.  Stretch your neck, relieve the tension.
4.  Prioritize sleep.  Without enough sleep, all other lifestyle choices you make are no more effective than using a tiny bucket to try and stop your boat – the one with a huge hole in it – from sinking. Pay attention to how you feel on those days you might not get as much ‘done’ but you got enough sleep- you prioritized that extra hour or two.  Maybe you feel more ‘creative’ instead of ‘busy’ or more ‘thorough’ instead of ‘rushed’?  Or how about feeling ‘fulfilled’ at the end of the day versus just ‘exhausted’? After all, isn’t quality of life and allowing life to ‘feel’ better what all this effort is for?

 

Cravings can go away.  If you are having them, tell me.  Let me help explore their source and what you can do.

[Anonymous]

Afternoons are miserable for me.  I want to eat all afternoon.  Usually it starts about 2 and lasts until 4-4:30.  Part of the reason (I think) is that I am less busy in the afternoons.  I have lunch around 11:30-12.

I have sugar cravings.  Lots of people are addicted to sugar and I am one of them.  After lunch is my most intense time of craving.  I characterize it as relentless.  I always end the day with one sweet item after dinner, as well.  I’ll have two cookies, a pudding cup or an ice cream bar, for example.  I am almost always in the 100-200 calorie range for my after dinner treat.  The cravings I get for something sugary has made me much more empathetic with other types of addicts.

[Teri Rose, OblSB, Program Director]

Sheryl- I’ll love to hear how this progressing in the program for you. Intense, relentless cravings are not comfortable. I’ll be interested to hear of your experiences with “turning towards” and playing with meal balance/timing and post-activity snacks.

Thank you for sharing that this is your experience. Many relate and you give strong words to a shared vulnerability. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

I love reading these forum threads!  They contain so much actionable information that I can’t help but “level up” after studying one.  Something that spoke to my present situation in a big way is what’s written under the “Prioritize Sleep” heading. I’m just starting to normalize from 9 years of working night shift and little by little things in every arena are starting to get easier and better.

Thanks again for the conversation, Mrs. Rose and Mrs. Gamble.

 

[Carol Prudencio]

Believe me Sheryl, you are not alone! Sugar is my greatest weakness. For years I would end the workday with a snack… that would turn into another snack… and another. None of it served me or my body the way I needed it to. Teri’s step #1 above is what I’m working on. Rather than being on autopilot and having some snack(s), I’ve been trying to sit in silence and listen to what my body, mind, and heart really need at that time. Sometimes it’s a 30-minute nap, or sometimes it’s looking out into my snowy backyard and just breathing.

It’s a work in progress. I keep reminding myself that it will take time to relearn a lifetime of poor coping skills.

[Anonymous]

Carol – I am also doing better with turning toward and listening to what my body really wants at the moment when I think I want something sweet.  I don’t always listen to what my body is saying at this point but there have been a number of times that I have listened and that is a marked improvement in itself.  I still want to eat something around 3-4 pm but I think it really just that I am in the habit and just want something to chew on.  Cucumbers work great for me as does raw broccoli.  I also told myself that if I was not hungry enough to eat an apple I wasn’t really hungry.

I have been eating a vegan diet for abut a month or a bit more and am surprised to find that my craving for sugar has lessened quite a bit.  The food plan I am eating has zero sugar or sweetener of any type in it which I think is helping.  I’ve actually been able to go a few days with no sweets at all and I survived!    LOL.  The meals are prepared and sent to me frozen so I don’t need to do anything except heat them up and eat them.  Once I am doing this myself, preparing my own meals again, I know it is going to be more of a challenge but I will figure it out.  I had a private session with Teri who provided me with very helpful information on what amounts of carbs/protein/fat are optimal for me as well as timing for the meals.  With the meals I am eating now it’s pretty easy to hit those targets.  I have been preparing my own breakfast, though, and have a couple of meals that I make for breakfast that hit pretty close to the target macros.  Anyway, I recommend a private consult with Teri if you are able do it.

I finished the caffeine/alcohol/sleep section a bit ago even though I didn’t want to read about caffeine because I love my morning cup of coffee soooo much.  But I read it and realized that I am drinking way more coffee than I thought I was.  My doctor told me one cup a day and I reached for the biggest mug in the cupboard.  Then I realized that coffee has actually snuck up on me.  I started having one cup at night after dinner.  Then two or three or four cups in the morning until I had the epiphany that I wasn’t even enjoying the coffee anymore.  I was on autopilot with consumption.  Awareness is everything.  So I have cut out the evening cup of coffee.  The caffeine has never kept me awake for some reason but I decided I don’t need it at night anyway.  Today is the first day I am down to two small cups of coffee this morning and aiming for the one cup my doc suggested within the next day or two. It tastes better, anyway, when I am not drinking such huge quantities.

[Anonymous]

Today I realized that I’ve been eating more sugar (& other foods I typically avoid) since my ADD Rx has been out of stock!

I think I may have unconsciously been using food to compensate for the support of my missing Rx.

Today I took a nap instead.

 

[Teri Rose, OblSB, Program Director]

Hi Teresa-

You speak to an important physiological reality: our body’s continual drive/need for regulation. Assisting with this essential regulation is the primary goal of many prescriptions. Whether it is assisting a heart pathway or a brain pathway- medications are so powerful and life-saving precisely because they so effectively help regulate and support these systems and organs.

So, when you remove this assistance… you’re body will seek it in other ways; as you experienced with sugar cravings. And this is cells’ life-saving job- to establish regulation! As misaligned as it feels some days, this is truly out of love for us.

Our opportunity, as you beautifully modeled, is finding nurturing and health-promoting ways to re-establish this balance, this regulation. In your case- choosing sleep over sugar.

And importantly, our opportunity is also to be grateful for the enormous assistance medications can also provide. Lifestyle choices shouldn’t feel like they need to “perfect” every day to keep from feeling like we are underwater. If being “perfect” only keeps our head above water vs out and walking on the sand (and hopefully dancing) then conversations with listening medical doctors can be tremendous gifts. I hope we all feel comfortable receiving these gifts when extended.

Thank you for your post, Teresa!

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