Saturday 26 April 2014

Headache part 2

I've been reflecting on the headache, and like every good student, went back to the book for a bit of reassurance.

Chapter 7 is about lapses, and how to cope with them. Now, my lapse was not unconscious - I did know what I was doing - but somehow was also unconscious, in so much as I didn't suffer cravings or  fail as such. Basically I had a horrible sore throat and needed some cough mixture.

I felt ok last night. Yes it was sweet, but not torturously so, and although I didn't sleep very well, that could be attributed to a variety of other things, namely Mother Nature, snoring husband, and very heavy rain. And the sore throat, of course.

But today, oh my word, the headache! Like a hangover, but not quite so all-over body, just head.

It has also made me take stock of how I feel in general, and identify a few cons as well as pros. To be honest, for the last couple of weeks I have felt exhausted. It has been Easter holidays though, and it's back to school on Monday, so my two weeks of revivers is almost up. We have also had quite a lot of social stuff, including a wedding and quite a few nights out, so there has been a good slug of booze drunk. And I'm obviously sickening for something, so maybe that's why I'm shattered.

Still, it interested me that when I felt sugar-hanging today, Sarah's book yet again offered a weirdly psychically on point response.

Today I woke up all about eggs, but no spinach scrambled beauty on granary was going to cut it. No, no, I needed a fried egg bap. Oh yes.

Then a bit of running around, fuelled by an oatmeal and sunflower cookie, them home for a couple of large cherry and cinnamon herbal teas, then a lunch of sardines, salad, and buttered granary toast, followed by a lovely chai and a piece of my slant on raspberry ripple, seed laden and dotted with red rasps.

So, what does the guru say? Contemplate, hydrate, and eat right - protein, minimal carbs and no caffeine. Which is odd, because this is what I had done without instruction. Good, eh?

The exhaustion interests me, the more I read about it. Figures for how long it takes to come off sugar seem to range from 2 weeks to 4 months. I genuinely felt I'd kicked it in the first couple of weeks, and craving wise, I have, but perhaps the cellular clear out takes longer. Maybe I'm still detoxing.

It surprised me, although perhaps it shouldn't have, that so often my experiences married so closely with the book. I have followed it to the letter, which I realise in reading other people 's blogs, not everyone else does, e.g. Sugar free recipes that include honey, or sugar free sodas laced with chemical sweeteners. It is comforting to realise that the slumps and struggles I have incurred are normal and to be expected. It does raise a few questions though :

- really, how long will it take to really get off sugar? I mean, no tiredness or anything. It's been 8 weeks and I thought I was out of the woods, but perhaps I'm not quite there yet. Craving wise, yes, but physical "comedown" still in progress.

- what about times where sugar just cannot be avoided, like the cough mixture? Do I just have to make the choice to deal with the hangover? Or is there another option?

- am I eating the right balance of fats, proteins and carbs to eventually (however slowly) lose weigh and stay at the natural weight for me. The book is very "go for good fats" but I worry that this may not have the desired effect.

Another piece of advice from the book was not to get complacent. I realise I haven't read the book for a couple of weeks.

So challenge for this week is to read the book more closely, and use it as the manual it is intended to be, keep an eye on the tiredness, and what I've eaten to help explain it, and keep reading up on the balance.






No comments:

Post a Comment