You’re exhausted and jittery, but you have to keep going
There’s a big deadline coming at you – it might be a work presentation, last-minute adjustments to an upcoming exhibition of your work, or a looming submission deadline.
So you’re working mad hours, fuelled by chocolate and sugared coffee.
Or perhaps you can’t relax because although you’re exhausted after work, you’re on call. You could be phoned at any time, and you have to be ready, and sharp.
Wired, ready for action, you stay alert with Red Bull and Pizza.
I’ve had clients who are writers or artists who often experience the former, and doctors who are faced with the latter.
All of them used food to drive themselves through the exhaustion and keep going. Despite knowing that not only did it not solve the problem, sometimes eating actually made it worse.
What’s going on here?
At first glance, it makes sense. Food gives you energy. You’re in a massive energy slump. So if you eat, you’ll get a boost, right?
Wrong!
When you’re shattered, and you’re ALSO stressed, food is probably not the answer*.
Physically you’re running on empty, whilst mentally still striving to meet the deadline, or on constant alert ready for the next crisis.
You’re basically in fight-flight mode. Your Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) is fired up. Your brain registers there is a problem – no energy plus nervous agitation – and it focuses on your need to keep going. So it gets you reaching for fuel, often in its most available form – sugar.
You’re equating food with energy
There’s a definite logic to eating for energy.
What you’re hoping for is that the food will fuel you through the exhaustion, until you’re over the finish line.
What actually happens is a temporary energy spike (if any at all) which is rapidly followed by a crash. So, if you’re still relying on the logic of food=energy, you’ll simply reach for more.
Welcome to the slump-eat-repeat cycle that is the norm for people under pressure.
The psychology behind this
Why do you keep doing something that doesn’t work?
- You keep eating for energy, because it’s become a habit. The cue is feeling exhausted in the context of being unable to stop working
- It became a habit in the first place, because to begin with, it partly worked
- When something works, even partially, we keep doing it (this is operant learning – think rats in Skinner boxes)
Should you tackle the tiredness, or the wired-ness?
- Whilst you’re focusing on pumping up your tired-out system, you’re ignoring the wired half. You’re trying to regulate your nervous system using food
- This is where the PARTIAL success comes from. Indirectly, certain foods in certain quantities do have an effect on your nervous system activation. So eating does have an effect
- What you actually need when you’re tired and wired is ways of down-regulating your SNS arousal directly, without making yourself sleepy (because there is something you still have to get done)
What NOT to do if you often eat when you’re tired & wired
What you should absolutely NOT do if your eating is fuelled by this exhausted/jittery mix, is go on a diet. The diet will only add to pressure, and will take away your coping strategy of eating.
More pressure + less coping → more eating
You need something that will actually address the heightened SNS arousal.
There are many techniques for doing this. Here are two suggestions…
What to do instead of reaching for food
Remember that what you need to do is calm your SNS, not fuel your fatigue
- Go outside into the open air and take a few steady, deep breaths. Don’t be put off by the weather – breathe in whatever is out there. Rain, sun or wind. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, making the out-breath slightly longer than the in-breath. This will down-regulate your nervous system and serve you much better than grabbing that snack
- If you have no access to the outdoors, an alternative is to use Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR). This technique, also called yoga nidra, involves relaxing different parts of your body whilst you rotate your awareness. This keeps you alert and is highly effective at reducing SNS activation. Depending on the time you have, you can choose an NSDR track of anything from 5 minutes upwards. Put your headphones in and follow the instructions. A great source of NSDR exercises is Rosalie Yoga on youtube
Help is available
If you’re super-busy, and want to benefit from evidence-based weight loss techniques without having to research them from scratch, you can apply for a free Eating Pattern Analysis with me.
*If you are diabetic, you may need food in this situation – please ask your specialist diabetes nurse or other health professional for advice on how to manage this situation