Feed Your Focus, Focus From Food

Posted on 02. Nov, 2010 by Guy in Health Psychology/Motivation, Nutrition & Lifestyle

The ability to focus at the precise time when you need to, is a priceless quality not just in business, but in any area of your life.

You surely will have encountered the countless ways of teaching people the physical and mental act of getting focused. Very seldom does anyone actually educate you about the huge connection between your nutrition and your ability to focus. It has the power to destroy any physical preparation that you may have done if you let it.

In fact, I’ve been involved in a few heated arguments where people actually dismiss the fact that nutrition can have any effect on your focus at all.

My two questions to those people has always been – “What is the number one food source for the brain?” Answer – Carbohydrate. “Why is it that we still tend to separate our bodies from our minds, when the two have clearly been created in the same package?”

The simple scientific truth is that everything that passes your lips has an effect on how you feel, what you think of, and how well you cope intellectually throughout the day. In fact the moment you truly realize the vastness of what I just said you will gain a unique and powerful perspective (and control if you choose to act) on your own mental states. And who knows – the end result may just be a much healthier you…it may be a wealthier you….or simply a more emotionally balanced you. The connection can be quite obvious, but in the same time it could be quite easy to forget or miss.

The bottom line is – if you want to make sure that you’re able to easily find your focus – you must make sure you give your mind the best of foundations.

Here are the main 5 nutritional factors to consider that have huge influence on your focus. Of course – those are not the only 5 in play, but they are the most important 5. Think of this checklist as your support system for maximizing focus through the foods you eat.

1. Adequate Water

Yes I know most health and diet advice starts at this one, that’s because it really is important to keep hydrated. Our bodies are made of large amount of water, and pretty much all our organs and the functions they perform depend on it being there. Every bio-chemical reaction involves water in some way. So it should not be surprising that lack of water can mean severe loss of focus and mental function.

Our brain cells rely on being able to send electric currents between each other in order to function. And whilst there are a few other conditions that have to be present for the connectivity to be at optimum, water is one of the most important and one you have control over.

Start by drinking 1.5 ltrs a day and adjust that depending on the activities of your day, the foods you eat and how much liquid and water dense food you eat during the day. A good measure to use for the ‘just right’ amount is to see that you a pale yellow back into the toilet bowl.

2. The Right Ratios of Protein Fat & Carbohydrate

It’s no secret to anyone that you need food in order to create the energy your body needs to do its job. Though, not many people know how much food is enough or indeed necessary for proper function of their body and their brain as an individual.

Many people over eat because they don’t eat enough protein and fat to support their individual metabolic requirements. Others eat too little because eating too many of the wrong macro-nutrients takes a lot of calories until you feel satisfied, and this guarantees that you will put on weight. Examples such as eating bowlfuls of cereal and not being satisfied or being hungry shortly afterwards, so you keep eating more, rice, pasta etc. If you eat till you feel full, you will put on weight. If you eat the right ratios to suit you, then you will remain at your ideal weight, because you will feel full much earlier.

As usually many people, due to incorrect macronutrient choices, will highly likely eat too little or too much at any or all of your daily meals.

Overdo it – and you end up bloated, sluggish, sleepy and with a foggy mind.

Under eat – and you end up hungry in nanoseconds with your brain struggling to stay in one spot – because frankly, it has more important things to take care of. Like panicking about where to scrap the extra energy from – the energy needed to breathe, blink, heat your body and so on…

The answer?

Eat the right amount of food for your metabolism, lifestyle age and sex.

Start Up Tip – Eat one fist size of protein, and a handful of vegetables split between over ground and underground varieties. A ‘handful’ would fit into both of your hands if they were cupped together to scoop water.

The question: So are you eating enough? Well, it takes a little bit of effort on your part, but the payoffs are totally worth it.

3. The Right Quality of Food is always important

Especially when food is concerned. One calorie is NOT equal to another!

The topic of what’s good and what’s bad for you is a bit too complex to dissect here, but if you stick to the basic rules you can’t go much wrong.

•Eat as many fresh foods as you can.

• Avoid pre-made, processed foods of pretty much any kind.

• Eat grassfed/freerange meats and fish that have been fed their natural diet.

• Fresh/local organic fruits and veg of any kind.

• Ease up on simple carbs and get a good set of supplements for support.

The bottom line here is that if you put low grade fuel in your ‘engine’ – just like your car – you’ll get jerky, unstable performance out of it. Take some time to learn the basics about good food, and then make an effort to feed your brain long lasting slow release energy. The result = great focus.

4. The Right Frequency

Now, a lot of the people I speak to about nutrition have a hard time believing they should aim to eat every 3 to 5 hours – or 4 to 5 times a day.

They usually fall into one of three camps:

The first is afraid they’ll get fat.

The second has the excuse that they can’t find the time.

The third claims to not be able to stomach that much food (they only eat once a day).

All these have some truth if you are eating without the preceding factors discussed above from 1-3.

But my answer to all three is the same: If you take time to calculate the ratios of food you need specifically for your body and lifestyle activity levels, and you meet that ratio into nearly every meal, such as 2-3 main meals and 1-2 small snacks – give it a week, and your body will start to ask for it’s fuel like a clockwork…

Make good nutrition (i.e. looking after your focusing machinery) a priority and all those objections will fall away – I guarantee you this. It’s not easy at fist as it requires conscious effort and some preparation.

But the payoff is:

• no bloating, and discomfort

• no gas (because there’s an adequate amount of food to digest – so your body can comfortably work through it, without some of it putrefying in your gut).

• sustained even energy levels throughout the day

• no foggy and sluggish mind

• no distracting hunger

• no scattered thoughts and restless mind

• crisp clear thought process

• and a lot more that I’ll let you discover on your own.

Eating smaller and more frequent meals will also reduce the physical size of your stomach. It will increase the efficiency with which your body digests food to make energy out of it. And, I know you might not be interested in this, but it will tighten all sorts of areas on your body ;o)

All of the above = greater ability to focus on demand, because you remove lower survival-level obstructions, leaving your mind to do its job.

5. The Right Environment

Finally, we get to the environment in which you eat. This is hugely important and very under-emphasised factor in establishing a healthy digestive system, and therefore healthy focus in your mind. What I mean by “the right environment” is a stress-free environment.

Stress, you may have heard, is one of the most pervasive enemies of the human species. It attacks body, mind and soul, and it takes no prisoners. Stress damages & kills in very sneaky ways.

One of it’s most common victims of stress is your gut. When your stress levels are high, your body diverts attention to other functions that it sees as more important. Like danger aversion, i.e saving you from that roaring tiger in the wilderness… So digestion is shut off to save energy for fighting or fleeing. Some of the resulting effects being reduction in absorption of nutrients, reduced food purification due to digestion delay.

Hormones release into bloodstream to deal with the ‘fight or flight’ demands imposed by the stress alert. This is another topic that would take some time to digest (pun intended). So let’s just say that stress reaches pretty much every molecule of your body, and then helps create all sorts of ailments from chronic headaches to scary, life threatening cancers, and heart conditions.

The answer?

• Make eating in peace a priority. Seriously – take control and guard that sacred time.

• Take the time to chew properly (25-35 chews should do it).

• Pay attention to your food – taste, texture, quantity, smell, colours.

• Enjoy what you eat – eat what you enjoy. All this helps you relax and focus on the task at hand – digestion. As a result you get much needed energy to your cells so that you can – function properly and focus on demand.

The Final Word I hope I managed to simplify one of the most important and complex processes we have in our bodies. I wanted to give you enough detail to help you understand it and take it more seriously – because it can change the way you work and focus in business. But I also wanted to keep it simple enough so as not to become a burden. The way you should think of it in one sentence:

Digestion must be important if it is the single most calorie-demanding process our body has, apart from thinking. So – go on – take your gut seriously and it will seriously improve your ability to do focused work.

Please add your questions or comments on the top right, thanks.

Tags: business, focus, food, water