Eat These 3 Breakfast Foods to Improve Your Focus
What to eat for breakfast to increase the production of neurotransmitters (chemicals produced in the brain) essential forĀ focus.
Originally published on Entrepreneur.com
Being able to deliver our best work exactly when we need itāāāto deliver that talk, presentation, elevator pitch, to make that sale, persuade potential investors and customers, powerfully influence our audience every dayāāāis a crucial skill, one that can lead to long-term success at work and inĀ life.
Itās definitely been a key factor in the many daily wins in my lifeĀ lately.
In the past four months Iāve put much more focus on the consistent practice of what Iāve learned over the years of my coaching careerāāāneuroscience-based nutrition and lifestyle habitsāāāto make myself wake up every day feeling my absoluteĀ best.
Four months ago, I moved from London to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, where I designed my meal plan, sleep routine, light routine, work bouts, breaks, exercise, social life and studying to deliver my best work every day. And to be honest, Iāve been blown away by how well it allĀ worked.
I canāt remember a single morning waking up not feeling motivated, not driven to get after it, brain fogged or unfocused with overwhelming anxietiesāāāit all has completely disappeared from myĀ life.
I canāt remember a single morning waking up not feeling motivated, not driven to get after it, brain fogged or unfocused with overwhelming anxietiesāāāit all has completely disappeared from my life. My new default best-me state led me to have enough courage to finally put an end to my 15-year weight loss coaching career to transition to neuroscience-based coaching for entrepreneurs and professional athletes. I started speaking at online and in-person events almost every week. Coming from someone who thought she had a fear of public speaking and was barely able to put together a couple of sentences on stage, that was huge for me. Iāll be one of the main speakers at an upcoming local event for digital nomads. I successfully applied to speak at a local TEDxāāāwhat aĀ change!
You can find my brainy routines with all the foundational neuroscience-backed routines for a productive, happy brain in my āCancel Brain Fogā course. (New and now free onĀ Udemy)
I share this with you to demonstrate how fast and profound the change can be in your life. I feel like Iām a completely different person, the one that Iāve always imagined myself being, living that best life we all talk aboutĀ often.
When people hear the name of one of my new programs, Focused Brain Nutrition and Lifestyle, they often ask, can I really eat for focus? Is it some sort of a supplement regime? Smart drugs, microdosing?
It has to do with chemicals indeed, just not the ones in drugs and supplements.
The connection between brain states andĀ food
Any brain or mental stateāāāfeelings like focus, drive, motivation, anxiety, brain fog, feeling sad, kind or gratefulāāāare all chemical states in our brain. Food, too, consists of pounds of chemicals that we eat every day. Food changes our brain chemistry at everyĀ meal.
Can we eat for more focus? The answer is a definite yes. Focus is a cocktail of very specific neuro-chemicals, and it has aĀ recipe.
Hereās my favorite breakfast to help your brain make more focus neuro-chemicals.
Breakfast for brain chemicals ofĀ focus
Dopamine, norepinephrine, acetylcholine.
Our brain produces these three chemicals every time we are in deep focus, working on an important task or learning. Letās cook to help our brain make more ofĀ them.
Focused salmon scramble with a shot ofĀ espresso
Youāll need three eggs, three to four ounces of salmon and some coffee. Why are eggs so awesome for focus states? Youāll hit two neuro-chemical targets with oneĀ food.
Acetylcholine
Egg yolks are one of the richest sources of choline, which turns into the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain (a neurotransmitter is something that helps neurons to communicate between each other). Itās a neurotransmitter of attention, alertness and the mental flexibility thatās required to learn, form memories and deliver outstanding work.
If you have troubles remembering the details of your latest project or a client case, or you lose your train of thought often, eggs are your essential superfood.
The amount of choline in three eggs covers almost 100% of your daily requirement. Not into eggs? If youāre in the mood for 150 grams of liver, six cups of tofu, nine potatoes, 7.5 cups of broccoli or 18 cups of rice, go forĀ it.
Eggs also deliver a punch of vitamin B5 that we need to convert choline in eggs into the one we can use in our braināāāa double egg win for focused attention, memory and alertness.
But wait: Thatās notĀ all.
Dopamine
Eggs happen to have l-tyrosine too. This is a building block of dopamine, another neuro-chemical of focus, motivation, drive and purposeful pursuit of our goals, especially challenging ones. Without dopamine mice starve to death because they feel so unmotivatedāāāeven when food is readily available.
Three eggs deliver 75% of your recommended daily dopamine amount. So if eggs do so much, why do we need salmon as well? To convert l-tyrosine into dopamine, we need a good amount of vitamin B6, which will āswimā into our mouth with three to four ounces of salmon (or chickenĀ breast).
Slice the salmon thinly, and itāll cook as fast as eggs. I always choose salmon over chicken breast because it also has Omega-3 fats that are essential for the healthy, high-performing brain.
We got our drive and motivation. We got our attention focused. What are we stillĀ missing?
Norepinephrine
Weāre missing norepinephrine, coffee and a jolt of stress to keep us getting after a challenging task at hand until completing it in a speedy and efficient manner.
Norepinephrine (adrenaline in the brain) is a neurotransmitter that makes us feel alert, awake and focused. It helps our brain to mobilize resources for fast thinking and fast action. Itās the good stress we need, a neuro-chemical kick in the butt that gets us started and keeps us going. In the right amounts, itās a powerful focus booster. Too little, and we might get sleepy; too much, and we might trip ourselves over the edge of sharp focus into self-diminishing anxiety.
A shot of espresso is a perfect solution: Itāll boost your norepinephrine along with dopamine and acetylcholine with its 50ā80 mg caffeine, keeping Starbucks venti anxiety at a distance. (A Starbucks venti drink contains up to 470 mg of caffeine, and consuming more than 400 mg of caffeine per day has been associated with increased anxietyĀ levels.)
Donāt have an espresso machine? Home-brewed coffee works too, delivering 70ā140 mg of caffeine perĀ cup.
While youāre sipping on your espresso, keep a glass of water with some lemon juice next to it. We use vitamin C to convert more of that dopamine we made with eggs and salmon into norepinephrine to sharpen the edge of focus a tiny bitĀ more.
Now that I got your focus sharpened, letās get to work and get things done. Nutrition is a powerful tool to change not just our health and fitness but our mental state, brain performance and personal productivity as well. The fields of nutritional psychiatry and brain nutrition for high performance are starting to emerge, but thereās no reason you canāt start using it now to get ahead in life and business. The science of optimal brain performance is out thereāāājust not evenly distributedāāāand itās my mission to make it available to a wider audienceĀ today.
šTHANK YOU FORĀ READING!
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You can find my brainy routines with all the foundational neuroscience-backed routines for a š§ productive, happy brain in my āCancel Brain Fogā course. (New and now free onĀ Udemy)