Do you struggle to maintain consistent focus and alertness throughout the morning?
Do you feel like you can’t power through without a regular intake of caffeine or carbs?
It’s likely you’re not eating enough protein and antioxidants for breakfast.
Manipulate mental performance with timed feeding
Mental performance is directly related to the foods you eat. More specifically, the foods you choose to eat for breakfast will directly impact the quality of work you will be doing over the following four hours.
Either skipping or carb-based breakfasts are a disaster for boosting morning productivity, leading to:
– 20-40% reduction in concentration, memory, and alertness
– Mood fluctuations such as anger, frustration and irritability
– Increased body mass (that’s right – skipping breakfast makes you fat!)
A recent survey by Roy Morgan Research found that up to a quarter of Australians rarely have time for breakfast and those who do, eat mainly cereal or bread.
Increase your dopamine levels with protein
Dopamine is one of the neurotransmitters involved in regulating attention, learning, mood and motivation.
Your dopamine bucket bottoms out by 10am if you don’t eat a high protein breakfast (25-35g protein).
Having your DNA profiled can help you understand if you’re naturally a low dopamine person and give you a blueprint for intervention.
Individuals with a genetic variant called MTHFR C677T and wildtype COMT V158 may have naturally lower levels of dopamine, especially as they age. This will come across as an increased awareness of loss of mojo, drive and mental endurance.
Signs of dopamine deficiency
– Procrastination
– Decreased focus and attention/ wandering mind
– Lack of motivation / feeling flat / can’t be bothered attitude
More significant deficiency will manifest as depression, difficulty finding joy in everyday things, lack of sex drive, lack of dreaming.
#Go Hack Yourself
High protein breakfasts have been shown to increase dopamine up to 4 hours post-meal. Aim for 30g of protein in your breakfast.
ULTIMATE PERFORMANCE SMOOTHIE:
~ Whey concentrate protein powder (if dairy is your friend) or pea protein powder
~ Water or milk replacement
~ 1/2-1 cup of berries
~ Frozen acai (from supermarket)
~ 2 tbsp natural yoghurt
~ 2 tbsp ground flaxseeds
~ 1 tbsp raw cacao or cacao nibs
~ Prebiotics and probiotics on rotation (I like green banana starch/FOS/GOS/Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG probiotic strain/dehydrated grape skins).