Could This Food Be Stopping You From Having Energy and Focus?

You know how you rarely ever have the energy and focus required to get your writing done? Sure, you try your best. You wake up in the morning telling yourself that today, when you get home from work, you’re gonna squeeze in some writing time.

All day long you think about this plan, going over and over it in your mind. You’re feeling good—today is definitely a day for getting some writing done.

But then later in the day you arrive home from work, exhausted, and still needing to take care of things around the house (after all, dinner won’t magically show up on the table without you). You figure maybe you’re just hungry and once you eat you’ll feel more inclined to do some writing.

Of course after dinner, you have an energy crash and realize that you just can’t muster the focus you need to write. So you skip your session. Again.

Sound familiar?

Day after day writers attempt to get writing done, but it doesn’t always happen. Why?

Well, I suppose you could blame it on having a busy life and “not enough time,” but I think that’s a bunch of hooey.

What’s holding you back from writing isn’t some outside factor, it’s an inside one.

Food Changes Everything

You’ve probably heard the saying, “You are what you eat.” And although we wish that statement isn’t true, sadly, it is.

What you eat becomes you. Your food is what creates your skin cells, your organs, your hair, your brain.

So if you’re constantly eating the stuff that blocks your creativity—aka: junk food—then it’s no wonder why you can’t ever get any writing done.

There’s one ingredient that more than any other (except maybe sugar) that inhibits the energy and focus you need to write. That ingredient is gluten.

Gluten is the protein in wheat, and these days it’s in EVERYTHING! Cakes, candies, cookies, breads, pizzas, even sauces and condiments. It’s damn-near impossible to find something that doesn’t have gluten (wheat) in it.

The problem is, the overuse of gluten in our food system has caused ridiculous amounts of problems for people—everything from Celiac Disease to gluten sensitivities to heartburn, anxiety, acid reflux and even more severe health problems, like joint pain, arthritis and cancer.

And even if you’re not allergic to gluten (although 60-70% of people have un-diagnosed gluten allergies), it can still be wreaking havoc on your life and your creativity.

One of the main things that gluten does to the body is it elevates your blood sugar levels, and then—BAM!—it smacks you down, causing an energy crash that’s pretty similar to sugar.

That’s not all. Gluten also causes mind fog and a lack of focus.

And you thought procrastination was your biggest problem.

Solving The Energy and Focus Crisis

Without energy and focus, you’ll be hard-pressed to ever become the writer you envision yourself being. You might be doing everything else right, but if you have too much gluten in your diet, you could essentially be shooting yourself in the foot.

So how can you solve this energy and focus problem that you’ve been having?

Simple.

Remove the gluten from your diet. Or, at the very least, remove it on the days you plan on doing some writing.

Here are some ways to do that:

• Swap Greens for Bread—instead of grabbing that wrap sandwich for lunch, which will for sure cause an energy crash by 3 p.m., use collard green leaves as a wrap for your sandwich. Not only will the greens boost your energy levels, but eating a wrap sans gluten will keep you from crashing too.
• Grab A Smoothie—rather than having a heavy meal that will weight you down and make you feel tired, try drinking a smoothie instead. The fiber will keep you full and energized, while the lack of gluten will ensure you’re able to focus when you’re ready to write.
• Eat Salad—salad doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, it can be a fun way to energize your body while adding in all the flavors you love. Try starting with a base of your favorite greens (kale, spinach, green leaf lettuce, romaine, whatever you like), then topping it with an array of ingredients, from sliced veggies to slivered almonds to dried fruit. My current favorite salad is baby spinach with toasted pecans, goat cheese and some olive oil and raspberry balsamic vinegar. Yum!

Going completely 100% gluten-free will do wonders for your energy, your focus and your health. But even if you’re not ready to take the full-on plunge into living gluten-free, you can still avoid gluten when you know you want to write. That way you’re ensuring you’ll have the energy and focus you need for a productive writing session.

I’ve been gluten-free (and dairy-free) for going on three years now and I’ve never felt better or had more energy and focus in my writing career than I do right now.

Share With Us

Have you ever experimented with removing gluten from your diet? What were your results?

Image courtesy of Mike Poresky