Food for Thoughts: Calming the Edge

Does the mental chatter in your head start to escalate before a big meeting or a public talk? Do you feel your heart begin to race, the tension build in your body, or get butterflies in your stomach? Perhaps your hands and feet get cold for no reason or you feel agitated.

People have different labels for these physical episodes. Some people call them "anxiety," others "irritability," and still others “being on edge.” The fight-or-flight part of your brain, the amygdala, is now managing your body, thoughts and emotions. Further, the clear-thinking part of your brain, the pre-frontal cortex, has been sent to the back of the room.

But there are solutions. Managing the physical components of stress will give you more mental bandwidth to succeed at your big presentation. As the stress builds, ask yourself these three questions:

1. 1. Have I eaten within the last three hours?
2. If so, did I eat primarily carbohydrates (sweets, pasta, white rice, bread, soda)?
3. Has it been more than three hours since I had protein (nuts, seeds, beans, meat, cottage cheese, non-sweetened yogurt)?

If it has been more than three hours since you last ate, or more specifically since you ate protein, or if within the last two hours you ate a lot of carbohydrates, part of what you are experiencing is your body trying to control your blood glucose level by releasing adrenaline. This event is referred to as hypoglycemia, which causes feelings of anxiety and irritability as well as decreasing energy and mental clarity.

Try an experiment: Thirty minutes before your next important meeting, try having no more than two to four ounces of juice with a handful of nuts or a spoonful of cottage cheese. The fruit juice will quickly get glucose to your brain to decrease the release of adrenaline. (Don't drink too much juice or you'll just experience the same symptoms within three hours.)

The protein that you eat (the nuts or cottage cheese) will provide a slow burning fuel so that you can make it to the next meal without your brain getting nervous about a decreasing fuel supply. I know: often, we don’t want to eat when we are keyed-up, nervous or irritated, but this is because our brain has already decided that there is something exciting about to happen. If a bear is in the room we don’t naturally think “Let’s eat. “ But try eating a little bit of carbohydrate and some protein anyway and see if you feel better.

Taking care of your body is as important as deciding on the clothes you are going to wear or the format your presentation is going to take. With a little nutritional pre-planning you will have more energy and mental clarity, and avoid the pitfalls of hypoglycemia.