Do you try everything you can to get out of having lunch meetings? It’s almost like every restaurant in town has a brain fog inducing, energy-crash promoting, gut destroying menu. Burgers, fries, and ribs are commonly ordered items by your colleagues. Don’t even get you started on the bread basket as an appetizer. All very tempting options, but you know that giving into temptation will leave you feeling tired and foggy, with all hope of productivity going out of the window when you return to the office.
It feels impossible to get anything done when you’ve got anywhere between 2-3 lunch meetings per week! On days where you know you’ll be out to lunch, you schedule all productive tasks to be done before 12pm. After lunch, you might as well go home and take a nap. Because that’s basically what you’re doing on your desk at the moment. This is a common concern that I see with many of the clients who enter my MINDPEAK program. As busy professionals, lunch meetings are unavoidable. But, the subsequent energy crash and loss of productivity don’t have to be! Here are a few of the tips I use with my clients to help them make better lunch choices when out to eat so they can feel good, and still “get stuff done” beyond 2pm!
- Sequence Your Meal: eating your foods in the right order will help you to avoid the post-meal energy crash. Unfortunately, typical restaurants don’t follow the “correct” sequence. When you eat higher glycemic carbohydrates first (like those found in the bread or chip basket..), your blood glucose and insulin levels will spike which will inevitably cause that dreaded crash shortly thereafter. This will have you headed back to the office with your eyelids already half closed. However, eating fiber first will coat the small intestine, and if eaten along with a protein source will slow the gastric emptying and help lessen the “spike” from the carbohydrates in your meal, making the crash much less severe (Soeters, 2020). So, this doesn’t mean you have to skip the bread basket all together, just make sure you eat your salad appetizer and protein main course before enjoying the buttery rolls or chips and dip.
- Start off Strong: one way to ensure that you’re sequencing your meal correctly to manage your glucose levels is with a strong appetizer. This means bypassing the onion rings, chicken wings, mozzarella and bread sticks that are commonly shared among your colleagues, and instead aiming for something that’s higher in fiber and protein whenever possible. This can look like a house salad, shrimp cocktail, ahi tuna, lettuce wraps, or even hummus and veggies!
- Balance is Key: another way to ensure that you don’t experience extreme glucose spikes and crashes is by balancing out your meals. Eating higher glycemic carbohydrates by themselves will put you on the blood sugar rollercoaster. However, if you are eating a meal that is balanced with carbohydrate, protein, fiber, and fat sources together, it will result in a smaller “spike” and much less of a “crash” as soon as you sit back down at your desk (Nesti, Mengozzi, & Trico, 2019). So, don’t just go for the pasta dish, the naked flatbread, baked potato, and corn. Instead, add in a protein source, and a veggie side (yes, this is me telling you to skip the fries…you’ll thank me later).
- Go for Grilled: It’s no doubt the most popular items on many menus are those that are fried. Although many customers’ go-to, fried options can fry your health and performance. Fried foods can cause inflammation in the body and brain, which can result in brain fog, an inability to concentrate, and can even impact your learning and memory (Edwards et al., 2011, Attuquayefio et al., 2017). If you’re looking to perform optimally both in your lunch meeting, and upon return, these are definitely processes you want to have working in your favor. Look for grilled protein options on the menu instead of fried. Most restaurants will have a “lighter fare” menu with grilled options, or offer grilled proteins as topping options for salads. If not, always ask. The chef will, in many instances, be able to grill up your special request.
- Don’t Discount the Doggie Bag: We all know what it feels like to try and work on an overly full stomach..impossible! One of the skills I help all of the clients in my MINDPEAK program to do is to understand their hunger and fullness cues, and stop eating when they feel satisfied. They are able to eat until they feel good, and not a spoonful beyond. They leave their meetings feeling full, focused, and energized, not bloated and on their way to a food coma for the rest of the afternoon. When you recognize that you’ve probably had just enough of your meal, put your silverware down and ask for a to-go box. Not only will this give you dinner for the evening (or lunch the next day), but you’ll feel better overall and still be able to cross off a few more to-dos once you’re back in the office. A win-win if you ask me.
Contrary to popular belief, lunch meetings don’t have to signal the end of your work day. The clients in my MINDPEAK program implement these tips, among many others, so they can stay energized, focused, clear headed, and productive throughout their entire day. Next time a client or a colleague wants to meet for lunch, try these out and let me know which ones work best for you!
If you find that your focus, thinking, memory, and overall productivity may not be as sharp as you would like them to be, and you’re thinking your diet may be a factor contributing to this, you might be interested in my MINDPEAK program. To see if you would be a good fit, sign up for a FREE 30 minute coaching session here.
References:
Attuquayefio T, Stevenson RJ, Oaten MJ, Francis HM (2017) A four-day Western-style dietary intervention causes reductions in hippocampal-dependent learning and memory and interoceptive sensitivity. PLoS ONE 12(2): e0172645. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172645
Edwards, L. M., Murray, A. J., Holloway, C. J., Carter, E. E., Kemp, G. J., Codreanu, I., Brooker, H., Tyler, D. J., Robbins, P. A., & Clarke, K. (2011). Short-term consumption of a high-fat diet impairs whole-body efficiency and cognitive function in sedentary men. FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 25(3), 1088–1096. https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.10-171983
Nesti, L., Mengozzi, A., & Tricò, D. (2019). Impact of Nutrient Type and Sequence on Glucose Tolerance: Physiological Insights and Therapeutic Implications. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2019.00144
Soeters, M. R. (2020). Food intake sequence modulates postprandial glycemia. Clinical Nutrition, 39(8), 2335–2336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2020.06.009