Really, REALLY tired..............

[lwien]

So for the past few months, I've been getting REALLY tired in the morning. At around 10:00am, I can't keep my eyes open and need to lay down for a nap. I mean, I could be sitting on the couch, and my head is bobbing. This was way beyond just being a bit tired. WTF? I eat healthy, I exercise like crazy (run 20 miles a week), so what the fuck is going on? I know I'm 70, but there's no way in hell that 70 should feel this way, all things considered.

BTW, by 12:00 noon, the tiredness is gone.

So I thought, maybe I'm not getting enough sleep. I normally get about 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night so I started to go to bed earlier, no later than 11:00pm, which resulted in about 7 hours of sleep. No change. Still tired as fuck in the morning.

So then I thought, maybe I need to take a T-Break. I know. I use so little that this shouldn't be a problem, but I went on a 3 week T-Break anyway. While it did lift a little of the fog that was about me all day long, it sure didn't help with the coma I was slipping into every morning.

So then I started to do some serious analyzing. This tiredness came on like clockwork and only occurred late mornings, at around 10 o'clock. Maybe it had to do with what I was eating for breakfast. I'm a real creature of habit, so every morning, I have a bowl of steel cut oatmeal made with half water and half soy milk, mixed in with a sliced up banana and either a quarter cup of blueberries, blackberries or raisins and for the past few months I've been doubling up on the serving just because it's so damn good, filling......and healthy.

After thinking about this a bit, I began to wonder if my coma-like tiredness was due to reactive hypoglycemia being that my breakfast was almost 100% carbohydrates with no fats and very little protein. But then I thought, hey, these are not simple carbohydrates, but rather complex carbohydrates so this shouldn't be causing this, but still........I wondered if this could be the cause.

So this morning, and for the past few days I had the same thing for breakfast, but cut down on the oatmeal portion from a double serving to a single serving.

Coma symptoms......................gone.

Just posting this up 'cause some may find this useful info. Too many carbs in the morning without any fats or protein is not a good thing, at least for me.

 

[syrupy]

Too much of a good thing, huh? Glad to hear you got that one solved. I remember in the office you could see who was having this problem by watching them in meetings around 2:30-3pm. Poor folks just struggling to stay conscious during drawn-out staff meetings.

 

[rayski]

Unbelievable! I eat almost the same thing for breakfast, except no soy milk, Greek yogurt instead, and the banana is the appetize on the side. There is one other thing I add that you might want to try, sliced almonds. I read they would lower the glycemic index of the meal. We're talking Trader Joe's too I bet.

 

[lwien]

Unbelievable! I eat almost the same thing for breakfast, except no soy milk, Greek yogurt instead, and the banana is the appetize on the side. There is one other thing I add that you might want to try, sliced almonds. I read they would lower the glycemic index of the meal. We're talking Trader Joe's too I bet.

LOVE Trader Joe's. And yeah, almonds would work as I think anything that had some fats and protein would work as well. I didn't add these things but rather just cut in half my portion size and it worked. I would imagine that if I kept the same portion size but added almonds or other fats and proteins, it would work out as well.

Yup............too much of a good thing can be bad. While it's usually simple carbohydrates that can cause this, to many complex carbs can cause it as well, especially in the absence of protein and fats.

 

[DOOM]

That's awesome you diagnosed and fixed it yourself rather having to go through a battery of test to check for anemia, lipids, etc...For some people it could take weeks to get any answers back from doctors.

 

[lwien]

That's awesome you diagnosed and fixed it yourself rather having to go through a battery of test to check for anemia, lipids, etc...For some people it could take weeks to get any answers back from doctors.

Google is a life saver.

While the symptoms I had "could" have been any of those things that you mentioned, I first wanted to try and eliminate those things that I had the power to do, but if those didn't work, a trip to the doc was next.

Same thing happened with something else that I experienced awhile ago. My feet and hands were going to sleep. Id' get that pins and needles feeling in them even when just sitting down. It would last for an hour or so pretty intensely and then go away and then come back again the next day. It really had me freaked out. Googled it and found out that these symptoms, peripheral neuropathy, are typically the first signs of diabetes. THAT freaked me out. I immediately called my doc and set up an appointment for the following week. I also found out that these symptoms were also associated with a vitamin B12 deficiency, so I thought, fuck it, I'll get some B12 and take some until I see the doc. Within 3 days of taking the B-12, the symptoms ceased. Kept the doctors appointment anyway and they did a full on glucose tolerance test as well as few others and it showed that I was not diabetic or even pre-diabetic in the least. When I told the doc about the vit B12, she nodded her head and said, good job.

About 3 months later I thought, was it really the B12. So to find out, I stopped taking it and within 4 days, the symptoms returned. Started taking it again and within 2 days, the symptoms disappeared.

So yeah, I've been really fortunate that both of these situations were easily self-corrected. Just had to do a bit of research, but I wouldn't hesitate in the least to seeing the Doc if they didn't alleviate what I was feeling.

 

[Ice]

Google is a life saver.

While the symptoms I had "could" have been any of those things that you mentioned, I first wanted to try and eliminate those things that I had the power to do, but if those didn't work, a trip to the doc was next.

Same thing happened with something else that I experienced awhile ago. My feet and hands were going to sleep. Id' get that pins and needles feeling in them even when just sitting down. It would last for an hour or so pretty intensely and then go away and then come back again the next day. It really had me freaked out. Googled it and found out that these symptoms, peripheral neuropathy, are typically the first signs of diabetes. THAT freaked me out. I immediately called my doc and set up an appointment for the following week. I also found out that these symptoms were also associated with a vitamin B12 deficiency, so I thought, fuck it, I'll get some B12 and take some until I see the doc. Within 3 days of taking the B-12, the symptoms ceased. Kept the doctors appointment anyway and they did a full on glucose tolerance test as well as few others and it showed that I was not diabetic or even pre-diabetic in the least. When I told the doc about the vit B12, she nodded her head and said, good job.

About 3 months later I thought, was it really the B12. So to find out, I stopped taking it and within 4 days, the symptoms returned. Started taking it again and within 2 days, the symptoms disappeared.

So yeah, I've been really fortunate that both of these situations were easily self-corrected. Just had to do a bit of research, but I wouldn't hesitate in the least to seeing the Doc if they didn't alleviate what I was feeling.

By any chance, are you a vegan or at least eat as a vegan?

Seems like you got the right idea about nutrition, even for a man of your age. As a 26 year old, telling my siblings, parents and grandparents about how I eat and why they should eat this way is quite the challenge.

My brother and sister are type 1 diabetic but eat mostly meat/dairy and processed food because they think it doesn't raise your blood sugar like say fruit for instance or high carb meals with plant based starches would (or so they think). On the contrary it is quite the opposite, meat and dairy is quite destructive on the body and excess fat combined with processed food carbs is what causes type 2 diabetes. Yet I digress, someone such as I searching for a decade as to what we are meant to eat for optimal health and I found definitively found it.

We also have a problem in this world where everyone thinks they are protein deficient/insufficient if we don't eat this meat or cheese. It is like a protein insecurity that the meat and dairy industry has created which is unfounded. As if they had any knowledge or right to tell the public what they need. They just want you to buy their disease and cancer causing garbage food.

Have you ever heard of someone die of a protein deficiency???

There isn't even a medical term for a protein deficiency...why? because it is virtually impossible to be. You would have to purposely try to achieve this result...or just starve...

Carbs are our main source of fuel, this is how our species thrives...on a high carb lifestyle.

sorry for the rant lol, spread the word!

The new age line "everything in moderation" was likely created by a moron who lacked self-control.

There is no money in promoting fruits and vegetables or even whole plant based foods, remember that folks.

 

[lwien]

By any chance, are you a vegan or at least eat as a vegan?

Nope, not a vegan nor do I eat like one.

The new age line "everything in moderation" was likely created by a moron who lacked self-control.

Damn. I'm not sure if I should feel offended by that remark or not because after living all these years bouncing from one extreme to the other, from Atkins to Vegetarian to Vegan and back again, I've come to the conclusion that "everything in moderation", at least of me, is the key to health and happiness while at the same time, going out to the edge every once in awhile just for kicks and to help keep things in perspective.

 

[EveryDayAmnesiac]

I'm afraid I don't really have anything important to add here (When do I ever?) but I will say that, on my good days where I'm not too depressed to eat breakfast...

I eat ONLY fruit. Nothing but fruit for breakfast.

Also, if you ever have a wicked hangover, what always works for me in the morning is to eat two or three apples and chug a Red Bull. The caffeine / pectin/ fiber not only gets my bowels moving, but also seems to get me "activated" for about 85 minutes. At that point, the hangover will come back if it's really bad, but if not too bad, you're good to go. Seems like the key is how fast your body can start utilizing the nutrients in fruit...

Anyway, on those days where it's a fruit-only breakfast, I feel terrific and have more energy than usual. I even don't hate myself as much nor feel the need to sleep the day away. Really, I'm zipping around all over the place. Maybe it's just the natural progression of my manic depression, but.... I don't believe so.

But... yeah. Just sayin'.

 

[Wizsteve]

when i had a morning routine i start with coffee, carrot juice and muffin or cookie and quart of choc milk daily
that was my breakfast lunch /dinner would be meat .and grapefruit juice with tablespoon of raw bee pollen now i pretty much one meal a day only dinner now ((hard times you know ))
(tonight was chicken curry ,rice and homemade 100% stone ground wheat bread ) buy yourself a bread maker and juicer tell you makes a huge difference