Dopamine Tricks
I’m always on the lookout for more information and new ways of supporting my workouts and helping my clients. When hearing about a trainer responsible for “high profile” clients who was rumored to give one client a “super-energy” drink before performing, I had to listen up. What was this potent mixture? Sounds like something we’d all like, doesn’t it? The bad news overshadowed anything good…the client is restless and can’t sleep at night, in spite of extensive exercise, an exhausting performance schedule and a level of fitness even I lust after.
Curious?
Try on 4 shots of espresso and a melted chocolate bar. You’ll buzz right through your training and your boss will wonder how you worked all night. It’s a simple recipe that gets results up front and a jittery crash on the back end.
Even my friends who are big Italian espresso fans wouldn’t down all this at once.
Sugar and caffeine, yum.
My most memorable sugar-crash (sounds like a break-up song, doesn’t it?) was a few years back in San Francisco. I was in the middle of designing an issue of Sierra Club’s Magazine and had that mid-afternoon, middle of winter slump. So I dropped into the deli downstairs and grabbed a double espresso and an “It’s It” ice cream bar, which is similar to Carvel’s “Flying Saucer” on the east coast. A half hour later I was working double speed. My ever critical editor, who had been married to the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning writer Saul Bellow and was always trying to be better than he was, came into my crowded corner office and gave me one of her rare smiles of approval. Nice. I was thinking that I’d have this Coffee-Ice Cream combo every day. Then it hit, just like having your in-laws visit unexpectedly. Zapped energy, hello headache, nausea and finally – complete exhaustion. I was done for, and that smile left my editors face.
I’ve had a few similar learning experiences since then, but I think I’ve finally made some peace with the sugar demons. It always helps to understand how our body works, so let’s take a look at our chemistry…
All Doped Up
In response to various substances, our brains produce a chemical called dopamine. It could be called our pleasure trigger. Men (and women) developed this chemical response to foods, particularly mother’s milk, as a survival mechanism. So of course, if we eat and nourish our bodies, then we survive.
Our brains function as a super-smart computer and run a tracking device to remember the “triggers” that allow it to release dopamine. From personal experience, the more sugar, refined carbohydrates and comfort foods I eat, the more I crave them. Now I know why, my body just wants to be “doped” up again and again.
Chocolate, sugar, cocaine, cheese, alcohol and nicotine all trigger our “pleasure center”. Yeah, we can reach heights of ecstasy while eating cruciferous vegetables and we can actually learn to crave these foods. But it’s tough given our culture and its social eating habits.
Gandhi was wrong
The trick is in re-programming our brains to feel pleasure from whole, healthy foods and less pleasure from empty calorie foods. It takes time. Gandhi always advised us to take three months to solidify changes we want to make with our habits and bodies. Personally, I think it takes longer than that when it comes to this topic.
So, back to the supposed “super-energy” drink. It creates an instant pleasure rush, a blood sugar rush and follow-up crash, an energy (nervous) rush and a lingering un-calmness when it has finally been processed by the digestive system. It edges our body into dangerous acidic PH levels. Acidic PH levels in our bodies attract and host viruses, yeasts, cancers and parasites.
If you desire more energy or ripped abs (and you can have them at any age) — start by controlling what turns on your inner "dope." Just so you don't feel like everything is against you, remember, — exercise and sex burn calories, they also stimulate dopamine release and the expenditure of energy kicks up the creation of more energy.
(A note on the espresso-chocolate bar trainer… finally fired by the client.)
10 Lifestyle Tips for Energy
1. Eat well the day before.
2. Always eat breakfast.
3. Eat 5 or 6 small meals each day (3 hours apart, if you’re training).
4. Go ahead and have some coffee before your workout — one shot not four…
5. Better than coffee, have green or white tea.
6. Stay off the sugar rollercoaster, you don’t need this amusement park ride.
7. Find a vitamin drink or mix that has an abundance of B vitamins. A niacin rush is a whole lot different than a sugar rush.
8. Get enough sleep. It’s the magic anti-fat weapon.
9. Move everyday. If you’re not, get your tail off the couch and exercise. If you’re not doing anything, just 20 minutes will make a big shift in how you feel.
10. Make sure your trainer knows what they’re talking about.
Train Your Body. Train your Mind. Tame your tongue.
