Busy execs continuously omit the hyperlink between meals, hydration and mind serve as, says Dubai-based health and diet trainer. Right here’s repair it.
Dubai: Have you ever ever sat in a gathering and attempted to mention a definite phrase – simply to attract a clean? Or felt irritable and short-tempered along with your colleagues with out actually realizing why? The rationale in the back of it’s going to marvel you.
Consistent with Hannah Lucy Murphy, founding father of Hannah Lucy Health and Vitamin in Dubai, such efficiency problems have the whole thing to do with right kind diet and hydration.
The British nutritionist and frame composition trainer stated: “What people [don’t] understand is the version of you who walks into a 9am meeting having already moved your body and eaten something real is operating on a completely different level than the version who rolled out of bed and went straight from car to desk to coffee. One of you is thinking quicker, reading the room better, making sharper calls and ultimately getting the outcomes they want. The other is running on fumes, struggling to think, and behind the game.”
Murphy has noticed this over and over again. She has some extent in sports activities research, Stage 4 {qualifications} in diet and private coaching – the gold same old in health and nutritional programming, consistent with UK-based Royal Society for Public Well being (RSPH) – and has received 5 titles in bodybuilding, together with the Professional Eu Championship in 2022 and Professional Universe Championship in 2023.
Murphy says the largest false impression she sees with high-achieving execs is that diet is filed underneath ‘health goals’ reasonably than ‘performance tools’. Image credit score: Equipped
Most significantly, Murphy is aware of the fight to stick are compatible whilst you’re juggling being a mum of 2, and dealing in a high-stakes company surroundings. She labored for 16 years as the manager running officer of an organization, and controlled a group of 75. She stated: “I understand my clients as I worked it myself!”
Murphy has since turn into an entrepreneur, designing diet and health programmes for girls execs over 35, who need power, self assurance, and a way of life alternate. Each Murphy and her industry are new to town; she moved right here from the Isle of Guy, and completes three hundred and sixty five days in Dubai in September, this yr.
She stated: “I set up [my business] in September [2025], as soon as I arrived. I love Dubai. I love how encouraging everyone is, connecting you and wanting you to succeed.”
The science in the back of diet and mind serve as
These days, Murphy offers with very busy purchasers – from busy CEOs to industry homeowners and company leaders. She stated the largest false impression she sees with high-achieving execs, women and men alike, is that diet is filed underneath ‘health goals’ reasonably than ‘performance tools’.
That is ironic, as a result of meals and water “are the literal inputs your brain runs on. Glucose is your brain’s primary fuel source, water makes up roughly 75% of brain tissue, and focus, mood, and decision-making all come down to neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers (dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, among others) that carry signals between brain cells. Every one of them is built from nutrients you ate that day. So, when someone tells me they want to fall asleep in a 2pm meeting, or were short-tempered with their team, I’m not looking at their calendar first. I’m looking at what they ate (or didn’t at all), and whether they’re dehydrated.”
With Murphy’s lend a hand, Emirates 24/7 broke down precisely how your enter (meals, water) affects your output (efficiency), and the way to succeed in a stability that allows you to ship optimally, each unmarried time.
1. Drink sufficient water
Consistent with a March 2025 learn about printed within the international magazine Global Magazine of Instructional Medication and Pharmacy, even gentle dehydration – one to 2 % lack of frame weight because of fluid deficit – has been proven to have an effect on cognitive efficiency, temper law, and response time.
One explanation why you could be dehydrated is since you’re most probably running in an air-conditioned surroundings for 8 to 10 hours an afternoon. Murphy stated: “It’s underestimated. Air conditioning takes moisture from the air, increasing what’s called insensible water loss – fluid lost through breathing and skin without ever feeling thirsty for it. Living in [a desert climate], you go from dehydrating heat the second you step outside, to a cold, dry office for nine hours. Thirst is also a notoriously late signal. By the time you feel it, you’re already behind.”
So, how do you catch up? You don’t. Murphy advises staying forward, as a substitute.
She defined: “The best thing to do is front-load hydration rather than chasing it later in the day: a large glass of water with electrolytes to start the day. I find buying a reusable bottle to drink through the day rather than trying to have a glass of water here and there [works best]. My goal is to drink two to three litres per day.”
The usual 8 glasses of water an afternoon rule you will have heard, equates to about two litres. A January 2026 file by means of the US-based Mayo Medical institution, then again, says that’s basic recommendation, and no longer an actual rule. The quantity of water an individual’s frame wishes adjustments, relying to your well being, age, how energetic you’re, the place you are living, and the elements.
Consistent with the Mayo Medical institution file, some research recommend that the typical wholesome grownup gets sufficient water in the event that they absorb about 11.5 cups (2.7 litres) to fifteen.5 cups (3.7 litres) of general fluid in an afternoon.
2. Don’t mistake thirst for starvation
There will have been occasions prior to now, whilst you’ve declared you’re feeling ‘hangry’ – a mixture of hungry and indignant. In such moments, it’s most probably you’re simply thirsty, as a substitute.
Murphy defined: “The part of the brain that controls thirst and the part that controls hunger sit right next to each other and use overlapping signals, which means dehydration very often presents as hunger. That 4pm urge to raid the snack drawer is, more often than people realise, a glass of water in disguise. Drink first, wait ten minutes, and the ‘hunger’ frequently disappears on its own.”
On occasion, you might misinterpret dehydration as pressure, as smartly. Murphy stated: “Headaches, irritability, that mid-afternoon wall, difficulty concentrating, all classic dehydration symptoms are routinely misread as burnout.”
3. That candy yearning you’re having is your frame wanting power
Blood sugar steadiness additionally performs a “huge” position in place of work efficiency, consistent with Murphy. She stated: “Blood sugar swings directly affect cognitive function and impulse control. When glucose spikes and crashes, so does your ability to think clearly and resist the path of least resistance. It helps to understand why sugar cravings feel so strong: your brain needs energy constantly, and sugar is simply the fastest route to get it.”
At that second, your mind isn’t weighing long-term penalties – it simply is aware of your frame wishes gasoline. At this time.
Murphy defined: “It’s not malicious, it’s just not built to think ahead. Immediate need overrides any sense of future consequence. That’s exactly why the 11am sugar dip leads to a rushed decision, and why a carb-heavy, protein-light lunch makes a 3pm strategy call feel impossible. To keep blood sugars stable, think protein, fibre, and healthy fats at each meal alongside your carbohydrates.”
There’s a social layer to the consumption of high-carb merchandise within the place of work that Murphy highlights: “If someone brings fruit into the office, nobody bats an eye when a colleague says “No thanks”. But when somebody brings in a cake or a field of pastries, all at once declining calls for a proof.”
The dynamic will get extra consequential the extra senior the individual bringing the meals is. That’s why, if you happen to’re a supervisor or group chief, realizing how blood sugar swings can have an effect on your team of workers is necessary.
Murphy stated: “A manager who runs a weekly high-fat breakfast for the team thinks they’re doing something generous and the gesture is genuinely well-intentioned. But the effect is a few minutes of taste, followed by the entire team running sluggish for the rest of the day. If you’re in a leadership position and you actually want to look after your team, the more useful question is: what would genuinely support their output and reduce sick days, not just feel like a nice moment on a Monday? Wellness initiatives that protect energy and focus return far more to the business than a pastry box ever will.”
4. By no means skip protein
So, what will have to you be consuming at breakfast, as a substitute of that croissant your colleague introduced in? Consistent with Murphy, no matter you select to devour, make sure that it has sufficient protein.
Consistent with a June 2023 file printed in US-based Harvard Clinical Faculty’s well being newsletter, the advisable nutritional allowance (RDA) – the quantity of a nutrient you want to satisfy your elementary dietary necessities – for protein is 0.8 grams of protein consistent with kilogramme of frame weight.
Murphy stated: “Protein at every meal is non-negotiable, it stabilises blood sugar and supplies the amino acids your brain uses to build those same focus-related neurotransmitters. Omega-3s from fatty fish, walnuts, and flaxseed support cognitive function. Complex carbohydrates, oats, quinoa, and sweet potato give a slower, steadier glucose release than refined carbs. And hydration with electrolytes, especially in this climate, counts as a nutrient in its own right.”
5. Don’t skip breakfast, and not substitute it with espresso
A June 2020 learn about printed within the British Magazine of Vitamin discovered that consuming black espresso sooner than breakfast may have a adverse impact on blood glucose keep watch over – it will increase its ranges by means of round 50%.
It’s why Murphy strongly advises averting depending on caffeine as a meal substitute. She stated: “Drink a large glass of water with a pinch of salt or an electrolyte sachet before your first coffee of the day. It interrupts the single most common pattern I see: going straight to caffeine on a dehydrated, depleted system. Given the climate here, it does more for sustained energy than almost anything else I could recommend.”
Different issues she would steer clear of come with “regularly eating sugary pastries that spike and crash you within the hour, and skipping meals entirely under the illusion that it’s more efficient. It isn’t. Research has found that those who skip breakfast are far more likely to eat an extra 400 calories per day, compared to those who eat a protein-rich breakfast.”
6. Have a plan in your foods
If you wish to be a excessive achiever, who’s all the time running at top efficiency, you must deal with diet in a different way.
Murphy defined: “The ones who do it well remove decisions entirely. They don’t decide what to eat each day, they’ve built a structure that decides for them. Protein-forward breakfasts, batch-prepped lunches, water as a default rather than an afterthought. They treat nutrition the same way they treat their calendar: planned in advance, not improvised under pressure.”
Lots of her purchasers have ‘anchor meals’ – constant, dependable and high-protein foods. Murphy defined: “These are their go-to meals that they don’t need to think about, and have at hand to grab at any time, knowing the meal will fuel their day and support their fitness and nutrition goals.”
Anchor foods centre round a competent protein supply, like eggs, Greek yoghurt, rooster, or tofu, that will provide you with more or less round 25 to 40g of protein consistent with meal. The carbohydrates and fat that pass in conjunction with it are adjustable. As an example, you’ll change rice for candy potatoes, or avocado for olive oil.
7. Vitamin isn’t an afterthought, it’s the root
The following time you’re feeling torpid, wired or irritable, imagine what you ate and drank that day. It affects you greater than you assume.
Consistent with Murphy, maximum execs forget diet as a result of “it’s not measured the way everything else in their life is. High achievers optimise what shows up on a dashboard – revenue, deadlines, key performance indicators (KPIs). Nutrition has no dashboard… so it gets deprioritised daily until the cumulative cost shows up as burnout or a performance plateau nobody can explain.”
Murphy wired that diet is the root that the whole thing else is constructed on: “Identity and performance aren’t only built in the boardroom. They’re built three times a day, every time you choose what goes on your plate or whether you pick up that glass of water.”
