In the past few weeks, I made an amazing discovery on how to give yourself more energy and hence be more productive (yes, I'm still learning about optimal productivity, and probably will until the day I die. ?).  

I thought, like most people, that, as long as you had a reasonably healthy diet, you were ok. Your energy pattern throughout the day is your energy pattern, and there's not much you can do to change it.  

I have weight to release, and I decided that now was the time. I had tried other diets in the past (only the reasonably healthy ones, no pineapple juice diet for me!), but they didn't work. The only one that had really worked for me was a diet based on body type that I had done in my early 20's, with great success, and that had allowed to keep me the weight off for over 6 years (then I got married and had a child? What can I say? I'm a stress eater). It was more of a way of eating for life than a diet, and I liked the premise.  

So I decided to get back on that diet, and see what would happen. Boy, was I in for a surprise! Not only did I start to lose weight, my primary goal, but my energy levels completely changed, in a way that had never happened in the other diets I tried, and within the first week. Before, I had pronounced peaks and valleys of energy throughout the day, with a dreaded 2-to-4 low during which I wasn't good at much. But suddenly I was in a state where my body had steady energy throughout the day, and the 2-to-4 low was barely noticeable!  

And my output every day has increased accordingly. I'm not exactly unproductive when I sit at my desk to work, but now I can sustain my pace for much longer periods of time.  

My lesson in all this?  

What we put in our mouths can make a drastic difference not only on our weight, but across the board, since it affects our physical energy throughout the day ? and the same food affects different people differently. For instance, if I eat bread or cereal for breakfast, I want to eat all day long, while a friend of mine finds it's the food that keeps her going all morning. My favorite breakfast of apple sauce and plain yogurt, which sustains me all morning, leaves her hungry after an hour. So if you want to increase your energy easily, start paying attention to the effect different foods have on you. After eating a certain food, do you start to crave sweets, either immediately or a couple of hours later? Does it make you feel heavy right after? Does it make you tired? Does it make you energetic? And if you don't want to do all this detective work, here is the system I use: Dr. Abravanel's Body Types  

Give it a try: watch what you eat, the effect of foods on your body, and you’ll see for yourself...