EAT SMALLER TO LIVE LARGER
One of the reasons you might be tired: Your meals are too big. When you
eat a lot, quite a bit of blood has to rush to your digestive system to get
those gastric processes going. The result? There’s less blood flow to the
rest of your body, which makes you feel more sluggish than a day-on-the-
couch football fan. Try cutting portions back to where you’re satisfied, not
stuffed.Because we couldn’t leave the ICU, we were required to eat whatever we
brought with us from home or whatever the hospital served to patients. Most
residents didn’t pack their meals, so they were subjected to meals such as a
tasteless slab of meat loaf, thrice-boiled green beans, and whatever sort of potato
concoction came alongside in those days.
When I started working there, I felt like a bug on the bottom of a shoe.
Flattened. I had zero oomph.
Soon after, Lisa started packing my lunch. It often consisted of leftovers from
a healthy dinner we’d had the night before, or she made me her tuna salad—tuna
with garlic, celery, shallots, parsley, and other secret ingredients. Of course, I
enjoyed it because it had more flavour than the factory food that came through
the unit. More important, I noticed that my energy levels soared. I worked the
same number of hours, but I felt great, I never got sick (despite working so close
to sick people), and I chugged along throughout the day. (My high-octane MO
became a bit notorious. In a New York Times story about me some time later, the
author said that energy levels should be measured in a “full Mehmet unit.”)
I take pride in my ability to seize as much of the day as I can, but it has
nothing to do with some special genetic makeup and everything to do with the
fuel I use. My FIXES foods, in the right proportions of carbs, protein, and fats,
provide a steady drip of nourishment that keeps your energy account in perfect
balance.
What does the FIXES approach avoid? This classic vicious cycle: You’re
tired, sluggish, need a jolt. When you hit that slump—through the coaxing of
convincing gremlins disguised as brain hormones—you reach for the one thing
that can make you feel better instantly: quick-acting carbohydrates that will
FedEx sugar to your brain and other organs for immediate energy. The only