Exhausted after eating

I have this problem too. Often when I eat lunch at work I can barely function afterwards cause I'm so tired.

Try eating very small amounts but more often. Eat easily digested but high energy foods, mostly white foods. Anything high in protein, fat or fiber you should be particularly careful about because they take more energy to digest.

Oats are a great source of healthy energy, you can add some dried fruit for sugar and fiber. I like to use instant oats and add a little bit of hot water to turn it into a porridge.

Banana is also good, but only eat like half a banana at a time as they're quite rich!

Potatoes are excellent, but as with everything only eat a small amount at a time.

You might find that some more processed foods are easier to digest than things like fresh vegetables and unprocessed meat, which your body needs to break down more. I wouldn't normally suggest that eating processed foods is a good idea, as they can contain all kinds of harmful additives - but as an example, I can eat falafels (very nutritious, no nasties) when I can't eat chickpeas on their own (the main ingredient) and I can eat raw fruit & nuts bars that have the ingredients mashed into basically paste but I can't eat nuts on their own. Healthy processed foods where ingredients have sort of been "pre-digested" (sorry for the gross mental image!) are helpful.

Dry biscuits and crackers without any cheese or butter work well for me as a snack. Just make sure you drink a lot.

I find soups and smoothies are easy to eat and digest. You could try porridge for breakfast and add some berries, dried fruit or nuts for an extra energy boost. If you don't like eating whole nuts you can buy milled ones which you just sprinkle on. Linwoods do a flaxseed, nut and co-enzyme blend which I feel has helped my energy levels. I also find sweet potatoes give me energy. Greek yoghurt is a good easy to digest source of protein which you need to keep your energy levels for longer - you could have this with some fruit. Bananas and oatcakes are good snacks. Try eating little and often to keep your energy levels stable.

?I hope things go well with your specialist. 

Buy a pulse oximeter ($12 on ebay)   Check your pulse and oxygen before eating and after.

Pulse should go up like 15-30 BPM after eating. this is because it takes energy to digest food, and a faster pulse to push the nutrients into every cell in your body. 

Oxygen should be 95-99, below 90 is weak.

If your pulse is low you may need to take thyroid meds. Have your blood analyzed and make sure it is not in the low end of the normal range for free T3 and T4.

Keep us posted!