This Is What Your Body Is Trying To Tell You If You're Always Tired After Lunch

It's a little past noon. You're back at your desk after scarfing down a turkey sandwich, and you suddenly feel your eyelids getting heavy.

You keep turning up the brightness on your computer to help you stay alert, but staring at that screen does nothing for your inner desire to snooze. If only you could be this tired when it's actually time to go to bed.

Alas, this is a thing, and it's the absolute worst. But don't lose hope just yet.

Depending on what you're eating for lunch, you may be triggering specific neurotransmitters that push your snooze button into full gear.

It has to do with what you eat.

The fattier, greasier, and carb-ier the food, the greater the snooze.

After eating a sugar-heavy meal, the body produces insulin. Excessive secretion of insulin leads to increased production of serotonin and melatonin, both of which can make you feel calm and sleepy -- a pleasant combination, but admittedly terrible for a productive afternoon at work.

According to The Huffington Post Australia, sleep-inducing foods include simple carbs (such as bread, rice, pasta), sweets (candy in all its many delicious forms) and even protein-rich foods (think turkey and cheese).

Keep in mind, no matter what you end up eating, your body will always use a certain amount of energy to digest it.

Having said that, it's also about how much you eat. 

The bigger the meal, the more sluggish you will feel, according to Livestrong.com.

As delicious as it is to munch on two servings of fries, I think we can all agree it doesn't feel nearly as good once you get up from the table when that stuffed, heavy feeling begins to wash over you.

No one wants to work when they feel that crappy, so it's best to keep your lunch light and your serving sizes in check.

Here's how you can be more mindful of serving sizes.

First of all, try to bring your lunch to work.

And when you're packing your meal the night before, measure your food. It may sound tedious, but once you get into the rhythm of it, it takes nothing to whip out a measuring cup to properly measure that quinoa.

If you don't have time to pack your lunch and you'd simply prefer to buy it, just be sure to pay close attention to how much food you're being served.

Restaurants have a tendency of serving more than a single serving, so before you know it, you're eating enough for two people. Challenge yourself to make your store-bought lunch last for both lunch and dinner.

You'd be surprised to discover just how much you're probably overeating once you start paying attention to actual serving sizes.

When you pair meal measurement with a quality, light meal (one that includes dark greens and good protein, like beans or chicken), not only will you thank me, but your newfound afternoon productivity will thank me, too.