If caffeine isn't working, the answer is more caffeine.

Go outside the office and wander around for 5 minutes too. Getting away from the screen, overhead lights, and recycled air for a bit like that helps me too.

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 

You could try skipping lunch and intermittent fasting.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
Big4please:
Start slapping yourself in the face and screaming at the top of your lungs in your cubicle. That will get the blood flowing.

Yeah.

In terms of physical exertion, it will always wake you up. So you could always get some forearm exercises going or you can simply raise your legs off the ground in your chair and see how long you can hold them. I'm not talking about extending your legs, just raise your feet off the ground a few inches and hold. It will wake you up.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
Rich5erval:
How much is too much? I ate 80% of a 6 inch sub today, was still drowsy af. For reference, I am 5'9, about 145 lbs.

maybe try to avoid bread as well

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Well, I'd look at what you are eating for starters. Are you eating foods with a very high glycemic load? Are you eating lots of processed sugars or high fat foods? What about the kind of protein you are eating? Is it lean or not? Those are arguably the biggest culprits for creating an insulin spike after lunch.

After that, I would look at how much you are eating. Eating smaller portions more frequently, as someone suggested already, can definitely help keep things balanced. This works because your body doesn't experience significant shocks in its insulin level by waiting hours on end to keep things going.

If that doesn't work, about 15 minutes after you eat, go and have a glass of water and follow it with a 15-20 minute walk to counteract the lethargy you are feeling. It should help a bit.

 

No Breakfast, 11am- fruit, 12:30- salad (plenty of olive oil), followed by plenty of hot liquid (even hot water) to help digestion. Then fruit until dinner. A very large dinner (plenty of carbs) 2 hrs before bed - followed by almond butter.

 

Eat fewer processed foods and don't follow the American rule that says you're only supposed to eat three times a day. Eat every 2-3 hours instead. If you're eating every six hours (as most people are socially trained to do) you're likely to gorge and will naturally end up feeling shitty due to the associated blood glucose fluctuations.

 

The comment about glycemic foods was spot on. However it's important to discern good carbs from bad. As long as you stay away from sugar or wheat you should be okay, but complete carb meals like oatmeal (while still healthy), might make you crash. Fruit should be fine since I have some biotech friends who monitored their blood sugar levels after eating like 5 bananas and it was steady.

Try to get exercise in the morning if possible.

 

This may sound weird, but try green juice - for instance, I my usual combination is spinach, green apple, and lemon juice. You can add some ginger in their too, very refreshing. This gives me so much instant energy it's crazy! The energy boost last for a few hours, around 4 Or 5 I'd say. If you don't have a juice shop near you, you can make your own at home and store it in the fridge for up to 24 hours. I bought a cheap juicer on ebay, I think it was less than $30 bucks and it works fine. Tbh, I can't tell you exactly why or how the juice works other than the concetration of nutrients gets to your blood faster since the fiber has been extracted... I just know it does work and I've noticed thhis benefit, even though energy isn't why I started juicing. Green smoothies can be good too (the ones that are made fresh with no sugar added, of course) but all of the fiber prolongs the energy benefits somewhat. Also make sure you eat some lean protein 20-30 minutes after you wake up in the morning. Hope this helps!

 

FWIW I went through a similar thing but IDK how much help I can offer. I tried a lot of the things that have already been mentioned (salads, walks, splitting lunch into 2 smaller meals, etc.). Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. At some point a few years ago, it just stopped becoming an issue but I wasn't really doing anything different.

You might also want to get your sleep cycle tested for sleep apnea or something.

 

Try standing. If it works, try to get a standing desk. If that's not a possibility, do things like schedule teleconferences in the afternoon and stand while taking them. I've found standing is almost a guaranteed way not to get the drowsy and sleepy.

It's also important to be pre-emptive, Don't wait until you start feeling the crash to do something about it; do something before it happens (e.g. start standing early on when you've still got high energy).

 

Stop eating grains and processed food. Stop fueling your car (body) like its 95 VW and start putting premium race fuel (food) in that demon.

“The only thing I know is that I know nothing, and i am no quite sure that i know that.” Socrates
 
StoicHoosier:
High fat, low carb diet, thought it was crazy until I tried it out, now I have energy for dayz

Yeah, my life has totally changed too! Since I started eating blubber.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
StaphyBone:
Eat steak and avocado

I have a steak and avocado shake every morning. You do too?

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Make an intentional mistake directly in-front of your MD/supervisor, then just stand there while they scream at you. I'm usually good to go after that.

Life is my favorite drinking game - gselevator
 

Cup of hot water 10 - 20 minutes before lunch, no joke. Has tons of medicinal components and works like a charm for me. The trick is not to be a human garbage disposal otherwise this will choke all the benefits.

Personally, I bring in lunch myself just because I hate leaving the desk and want to control what I eat. I do the water thing alongside organic salad and a handful of almonds, sometimes chicken salad and a cup of blueberries or snow peas. But then again, I'm a woman. 5'9, 125 lbs. If we're doing late night take-outs, again, as many vegetables as you can. The lifestyle is unhealthy enough as it is.

 

Tommy Wiseau did the water thing when he was filming The Room, and I'm not sure he's the icon for success, but then again looks interesting.

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 

I find that when I'm really busy, I don't have time to be tired

get a meaner/more demanding boss and trade in your fatigue for soul-crushing stress. works like a charm.

 

My solution is an alternative to eating solid food. Working those mad long hours I faced this issue all the freaking time. I started drinking Soylent (or coffeeist if you prefer) for lunch. Less of my energy is spent digesting while still getting the nutrients I needed. So I felt this has been a great alternative. I've been drinking it for half a year already, I seem to still be alive and healthy.

 
Uruz:
My solution is an alternative to eating solid food. Working those mad long hours I faced this issue all the freaking time. I started drinking Soylent (or coffeeist if you prefer) for lunch. Less of my energy is spent digesting while still getting the nutrients I needed. So I felt this has been a great alternative. I've been drinking it for half a year already, I seem to still be alive and healthy.

hmmm don't know much about Soylent, but would recommend Vega for this plan

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Vega-Vega-One-All-In-One-Plant-Based-Protein…

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
Isaiah_53_5:
Uruz:
My solution is an alternative to eating solid food. Working those mad long hours I faced this issue all the freaking time. I started drinking Soylent (or coffeeist if you prefer) for lunch. Less of my energy is spent digesting while still getting the nutrients I needed. So I felt this has been a great alternative. I've been drinking it for half a year already, I seem to still be alive and healthy.
hmmm don't know much about Soylent, but would recommend Vega for this plan

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Vega-Vega-One-All-In-On...

Soylent is marketed as a meal replacement as opposed to a dietary supplement. So each bottle for example is 400 calories giving you 20% of your daily nutritional value across the board. Meaning, on a 2,000 calorie diet, a full day's meals would be 5 bottles; theoretically you should be able to live off it.

 

How much alcohol are you drinking? Try laying off if you’re a moderate to heavy drinker. Helps me when I start feeling fatigued. Also like others have said, try different foods and see how your energy levels react. I stick to lean meats and light carbs.

 
invested_c.1993:
How much alcohol are you drinking? Try laying off if you're a moderate to heavy drinker. Helps me when I start feeling fatigued. Also like others have said, try different foods and see how your energy levels react. I stick to lean meats and light carbs.

Good point. Keeping it to 10 drinks or less for lunch helps a great bit as well.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I only get drowsy after lunch if I go full on "Mad Men" and i don't do that very often. Kudos to you if you can pull that off everyday! Go for a walk around the block. That'll get the blood flowing and help keep you awake. If that doesn't do it, find the nearest patrol car and slam your junk right on their window. If the ensuing chase and ultimate taser to the balls doesn't get your blood pumping, I don't know what will.

"I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing. " -GG
 

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Libero cupiditate molestiae a non minus. Eos dolor ex eum. Magnam pariatur occaecati praesentium consectetur maiores. Expedita iste nisi ea.

Amet quas quasi deserunt esse esse repellat. Est nam hic sed rerum.

 

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Quod et doloribus occaecati iste. Recusandae accusantium quisquam molestias. Rem recusandae repellendus aut omnis unde tempore. Eos explicabo inventore impedit perferendis et non laboriosam. Earum iusto mollitia doloremque nihil est labore. Dolor doloribus voluptas accusantium amet. Vel autem commodi aut provident.

 

Atque nisi et voluptatem rerum laborum sunt. Deleniti consequatur libero nostrum nemo reiciendis. Soluta quod nesciunt quia enim nam quidem voluptas.

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“Bestow pardon for many things; seek pardon for none.”

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