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If you have problems getting up in the morning but you’re fine the rest of the day, you probably have what’s called a reverse cortisol curve. Your body produces the hormone cortisol at the wrong time, which means that you’re negatively adapting to stress and stressing your adrenal glands.
To test for that, you can take an adrenal hormone test, which involves producing saliva specimens at four specific times during the day and sending them to a lab for analysis of the adrenal hormones. The lab will rank you on a scale of 1 to 7; stage 1 indicates early signs of stress, and stage 7 is a condition of extreme adrenal fatigue that manifests itself in low morning energy and low sex drive.
One of the first steps in increasing energy is to eat energy-building foods at the right time. For breakfast I would start with what’s often called the meat-and-nut breakfast. For example, you might combine one or two buffalo meat patties and a handful of macadamia nuts, or a turkey burger with a handful of almonds. That type of breakfast will positively influence two important neurotransmitters that control your energy, increasing it in the morning. In contrast, if you have a swig of orange juice, it’s going to make you feel good for a while, but due to its effect on blood sugar and various other factors, it will quickly affect your mood—and by the time you get to the gym, you won’t be motivated to train.
Charles Poliquin
To test for that, you can take an adrenal hormone test, which involves producing saliva specimens at four specific times during the day and sending them to a lab for analysis of the adrenal hormones. The lab will rank you on a scale of 1 to 7; stage 1 indicates early signs of stress, and stage 7 is a condition of extreme adrenal fatigue that manifests itself in low morning energy and low sex drive.
One of the first steps in increasing energy is to eat energy-building foods at the right time. For breakfast I would start with what’s often called the meat-and-nut breakfast. For example, you might combine one or two buffalo meat patties and a handful of macadamia nuts, or a turkey burger with a handful of almonds. That type of breakfast will positively influence two important neurotransmitters that control your energy, increasing it in the morning. In contrast, if you have a swig of orange juice, it’s going to make you feel good for a while, but due to its effect on blood sugar and various other factors, it will quickly affect your mood—and by the time you get to the gym, you won’t be motivated to train.
Charles Poliquin