Whether there is any truth or not to the current drama that 5 Hour Energy is linked to over a dozen deaths, in the end, the whole concept of taking a product like this is, as least for me, a waste of time and money.
I kinda have this “seething” issue with, when something affects part of our our lives, i.e. lack of sleep, bad skin, sexual dysfunction, or whatever, some TV commercial pops up, shows you the solution, you pay them, pop the pill, and life is all good again. Bada Boom, Bada Bing, Pay me and I'll set you free……sigh.
….okay let me move on. I have to work so hard not spending all my time “Raging against the Machine”. It takes me out of my “Zen”. Bottom line, when I was having my what I call, “Two O’clock Blues”, my afternoon drowsiness at work many years back, I learned some simple eating habit changes, observation, and tweaking, totally and completely nixed that issue.
The problem with products like 5 Hour Energy, is they never address the real symptoms and causes, and as those guys relax on their mega yachts in the South of France after making millions and billions, I think they think it is more profitable if the real symptoms are never addressed. That allows the problem to continue….and them to continue to make money. Not hating on the mega yacht, I want one, just hating on the mindset.
The quick version of what I learned for myself, as least from the way I used to eat, like when I used to eat stuff like McDonalds Egg McMuffins for breakfast and Wendy’s Burgers and fries for lunch, my body had to expend much energy, and work extremely hard to process that low quality food. It seemed to deplete my energy stores at least temporarily, hitting me about 2pm, the “Two O’clock Blues” as I called it. Staying awake in those afternoon meetings was like wrestling an alligator.
That’s where these “people” like the 5 Hour Energy folks come in, create a product that gives you a jolt, like in the trauma center at the hospital, when they put the those “things” on your chest that look like cold irons, yell “CLEAR”, and jolt you back to life. I suppose you could do anything to jolt me back to life, like put a thumbtack in the seat of my office chair at 2:00pm when I'm not looking, but that doesn't really resolve the issue…………….now does it?
I found that when I switched to smoothies in the morning (I still eat a regular breakfast about 3 hours after my morning smoothies on weekends), the ingredients are all organic and natural, the body doesn’t have to do as much “Work” and expend as much energy to process my food, plus the smoothie ingredients actually give me energy, and thus my energy stores are not depleted because of my meals.
Same goes for my lunch meals at work, although they be more “normal” solid food, like organic salad topped with pasture raised chicken or scrambled eggs, often sandwiches on quality bread, but fresh ingredients actually give me energy as opposed to draining energy from me in the afternoon.
I can still get a little “woozy” from eating occasionally, mainly because my food is so delicious, I can easily over eat or eat too fast. Shame on me I know, still working on it. The amazing thing I observed is when I feel tired because of eating too fast or whatever, I feel woozy for two hours, and after that I’m all fresh and energetic again. Seems like the body takes 2 hours expending energy to process the food, then after that the energy from the food is now available. What has amazing to me is the timing is like clockwork!!! So, no need for stuff like 5 Hour Energy, just wait it out and I’ll be fine………
I also learned simple tricks like eating half the “healthy but huge” sandwich at noon, waiting to eat the other half at 2:30pm, so the body doesn’t have to expend so much energy to process the whole sandwich at once, energy which it will “borrow” from that “energy bank” that I need to keep me alert and awake at the job.
I still have bad day here and there, and I will still have an occasional coffee with quality sweeteners, or my maca coffee-style blend, if I need to stay awake, but that's pretty rare.
As I really paid attention to my body while at work, I easily mastered the whole “drowsy during the day” thing. All in all, just a little logical thinking, experimentation, and dietary adjustments was all that was necessary for me to avoid these potentially dangerous products that have nothing to do with underlying symptoms, symptoms which often aren’t serious mysterious medical or physiological issues, just the body's reactions to bad eating habits.
~stay healthy~
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posted to Monday mania 12/10, fat tuesdays 12/11, real food Wednesdays_12/12, Freaky Friday_12/6 , Fight Back Fridays_12/7
4 Responses
Well said. We made a committment to leaving fast food out of our diets a few years back and the change has been remarkable. I have also noticed that my tolerance for "bad" food has dropped. A few weeks ago my husband suggested that we get a take-out pizza, just for fun. I reluctantly agreed, and my body paid the price. It was tasty, sort of, but I felt horrible – sluggish, bloated, just plain gross for the entire next day. No thank you – I'm not doing that again.
I like your idea of splitting lunch into two. I may start doing that.
I’ve gone through that pizza “trauma” as well. The only pizza I can eat now is Whole Foods Pizza, and I only need 1 slice. My body is not a big fan of cheap food, and he will let me know he is not happy with it. One of the main points of my blog is that is you eat right, the whole need for great tasting food that we enjoy will be well satisfied.
Great post! I HATE those 5 Hour Energy commericals. Especially at the end when everyone says that they use it EVERY DAY! Being tired every day is a sure sign that something's wrong—we absoutely should not just try to cover it up all the time!
Thanks for the comment Meghan. I’m not a big fan of putting stuff in my body that is linked to deaths. It’s pretty amazing because even when I may eat a little too fast and that “wooziness” sets in, I can time it within 5 minutes, so far as when it goes away. It’s like your body is using energy to process, then the second it’s over, you’re back to normal. It can actually me mis-interpeted as you’re not getting enough sleep or whatever. As many things in life, it comes back how and what you are eating. It seems like things with a high natural sugar content, like raw honey, ripe banana, raisins, and so forth have that effect on me more than anything, so it’s pretty simple to just take it easy on how much honey I put in my tea or how many raisins or dried apricots I “wolf down”, or just eat my banana a little more slowly.