I am strong
March 28, 2008 by Sarah
Amongst many other pleasurable things I’ve been advised to give up caffeine and sugar in an effort to stabilise my blood sugar which in turn should help somewhat with the severe PMS/PMDD I’ve developed. Giving up caffeine should also help with the spiraling anxiety I experience for several days a month - well I certainly hope so. I’m pleased to say I’ve managed these two - sugar has been easy to give up but is extremely hard to avoid - it’s in nearly everything that undergoes any kind of processing, so the knock on effect is that I’m eating even better than I did before. And as from Monday I’ve been caffeine free too. After an enforced withdrawal from coffee (I don’t drink tea) several years ago, and the subsequent excruciating headaches I weaned myself down from 4 mugs of freshly brewed black coffee a day to one small cup of instant - this helped considerably: the headache, which is on a par with a migraine, only lasted for 24 hours,( woo hoo!) and I did have a day of feeling like I was coming down with the flu, but now, five days in I’m feeling better with only a slight headache and a remarkably clear mind - for me, anyway! I’m not missing it too much, which is surprising, because I loved my coffee - but I haven’t been in a cafe yet and had that delicious coffee smell wafted directly under my nose. Of course, if it gets bad I can always drink decaff, but for now anyway, I’ve switched over to herbal teas only at home. Somehow, brewing up a pot of decaff just isn’t the same…
I have a number of emails waiting for responses - I’m sorry I haven’t got round to them yet - they are coming I promise - it’s just been a bit of a heavy week one way and another.
well done.. that is quite an achievement..
I just realized that I should cut down on caffeine and am going to give up diet coke first, since it is lousy for you anyway, and I just drank it as an afternoon pickup. A freshly brewed cup of coffee might be more difficult, but I’m going to try. Hopefully it will help my RLS which has really gotten bad.
Good luck to you!
Uh … what? No more coffee?
uh …
Poor coffee. What did it ever do to you? (OK, don’t answer that.)
Well … if it makes you feel better … I guess. Still, there seems to be some mad math equation about growing older and things I love.
No caffeine? The very idea makes my palms sweat. I gave up coffee once, but then I took up black teas. Tastes so much better than coffee. I know that I couldn’t give it up, even if my life depended on it.
Good for you. I admire your strength.
I feel the same with black tea and milk. I really do have the feeling that I need it. And when I stop drinking it (which isn´t too hard) I get a bad craving.
And sometimes I drink way too much coke. Usually I don´t mind not having it, but once I start drinking it, I want more.
Almost two weeks in I feel so much better - more relaxed, it’s helped the anxiety, and I’m just generally calmer and my concentration is actually better than when I was drinking coffee. I’m also happy to say that the thought of giving up caffeine is much worse than the reality!
Thanks for the support