Going Through Withdrawal

Hey Readers,

Going forward these will be small notes but I'm packing in 5 days into one post so please forgive the length.

I thought I was starting Paleo but it turns out the biggest change so far has been the increase in a mild headache, face-ache and weird body pains. You might think that's enough to argue it's a bad thing, this Paleo, but I also feel better. Huh. How do I feel better if I have a headache every day? I don't know really, I feel more clear headed and awake. It's quite hard to quantify, actually so I'll just go day by day:

JAN 1 (Day 1)

My birthday was December 19th and for my gift, Bryan agreed to enthusiastically do Paleo with me. Yay! It's so much easier knowing that he won't make something I can't have, that he thinks I can, and ask if I want it. That leads to me feeling torn between eating the way I need to and rejecting his offer. But better than that, I get to go on this journey with my favorite person.

Day 1 surprised me because I was HUNGRY all day. We ate eggs, bacon, pork, zucchini, cauliflower with a few other flavorings like garlic, tomato, spices. I ate probably every 2 hours and that was me resisting. Historically this type of eating keeps me sated so I sort of panicked silently.

In terms of giving up things, the hardest part was drinking water instead of Crystal light or coffee. mmmm coffee. Some of you might be wondering why I won't drink Crystal Light or even black coffee. I'll summarize what I am and not doing at the end and why.

JAN 2

I woke up with a headache assuming it was due to the heat automatically turning on while I was still sleeping. I decided to see if it'd go away on its own. Because the day before I was unusually hungry I did a little reading and found it could be that I wasn't eating enough fat and protein, in that order so I added turkey ham to the eggs, had the rest of the pork dish and cooked 12 breakfast sausages for snacking that night. Plus we added some almonds and cashews.

My headache didn't go away so I took excedrin (which has caffeine) in the afternoon and by evening it was gone. Hmmm.

JAN 3

The headache was there again this morning and that's when I realized I must be going through caffeine withdrawal. Truth be told I got kind of excited! If I'm going through withdrawal it means caffeine was noticeably affecting my body (good or bad). You see, I sleep like sh*t and I never believed it was caffeine related because when I have coffee, I don't seem to "feel" anything. I don't drink it to wake up, I drink it as a part of my routine and it's an emotional thing. This headache gave me hope that the whole idea of being as strict as I can might have benefits I don't even know I need. Yay!

More good news: I am not feeling as hungry.

JAN 4

This was a good day. Yeah, I woke up with my face aching, and took more excedrin, but today I felt really full after eating breakfast and lunch. For dinner I had a bunch of almonds because I wasn't hungry enough to cook anything. I did notice, however, that I didn't feel as good after eating them so I think a) I over did it and b) I'll stop eating nuts for the remainder of the days just in case. I can always have more in month two to see if I noticed any sensitivity.

When going to sleep I did notice some weird body aches in my legs and hips. I'll keep an eye on that.

JAN 5

Woke up with a headache and took ibuprofen instead of excedrin. Why? Because I want to eliminate caffeine. I'm happy to report that it worked and I'm headache free. Normally ibuprofen doesn't touch my normal headaches so this is interesting.

Summary of pros:

1. Feel more clear headed and awake during awake hours
2. Sated by meals and hunger signals are for true hunger, not cravings.
3. Only had one craving for coffee and it's gone away.
4. I prefer water now and drink it readily.
5. I think I'm sleeping better but it's unclear since I still get woken up by kitties. Too soon to tell.
6. I've lost 1.5lbs according to the scale, but I think that will be better tracked over a longer period of time. That could easily be normal fluctuation.
7. Oh yeah, and I haven't had any heart palpitations. Yup, I was having some weird fluttering in spurts. Too soon to tell, but so far none.

Summary of cons;

1. Headache every day due to caffeine withdrawal.
2. A little constipated but strangely less so than normal. 

What I'm doing;

• Eating meats: Beef, pork, chicken, fish. Although grass fed meat would be ideal it's not very practical or budget friendly. Plus it overwhelms me and makes me want to stop until it's perfect. So in the meantime I'm doing some research so when it becomes more important for me to try I know where to go. 
• Meat that's not grass fed or organic is not the best is because they aren't usually free to roam naturally (read: caged or confined), there are hormones, steroids, preservatives in the food, pesticides that are used to grow the food and some of the foods are GMOs (haven't done enough research on this one to have a strong opinion). These all accumulate in the fat of the meat.
• NOT eating or drinking dairy, not even cheddar cheese!
• It turns out any dairy messes with your digestion and cause inflammation. It's possible that the effects are so minor that I may not notice what they are until I go without for this trial of 31 days. I'm willing to do that. 
• NOT eating any grains
• I happen to know they cause problems for me despite the two extensive allergy tests coming up with zero allergies. I stumbled across this realization when I first went on Atkins 15 years ago and FINALLY stopped getting daily hives on my FACE! Ugh. So this is proof that doctors don't know everything. 
• NOT eating legumes (including peanuts)
• This was news to me but apparently they can cause digestive problems and they can prevent nutrition absorption. This is a case where I'm willing to see what happens so I'm giving them up. 
• NOT drinking coffee or anything with artificial sweetener.
• There's a chance coffee is not helping me in the sleep or weight loss department so I'm kicking it to see what happens. 
• Drinking seltzer water with lemon or lime juice as a treat.
• I shouldn't be doing this because lime juice has preservatives - I found this out after I'd consumed 3 or 4 delightful glasses. Then I panicked. Then I relaxed. I'm going to limit it to only when I crave it so it doesn't become a habit. 
• Taking probiotics - healthy bacteria that aids in digestion and can help counter constipation. I'm also planning to get some prebiotics which are food for probiotics. They seem harder to find.
• Taking Magnesium which should help with sleeping and constipation. 

Exercise is important but I'm focusing on this so I don't end up either overwhelming myself or failing to meet my standards and giving up altogether. 

I weigh myself once a morning with clothes on, before eating, after tinkling (as my mom would say). I want to lose 25lbs so I write down how much more I have to lose each day. This is not me obsessing about weight, rather it's one of the only easily attained metrics. I could have gone to my doctor and gotten all sorts of blood work done, but I would never have started. And plus, I'm a lucky person because I almost never have anything out of whack from those tests. I'm virtually indestructible. 

;-)