Sugar Detox Symptoms: Nutrition & Vitamins | eHow.com

Sugar Detox Symptoms: Nutrition & Vitamins | eHow.com

For what I am about to do, please forgive me!

Here I go!! Time to really take on the biggest challenge of my life and give it my best shot. I am nervous. I am concerned. And I need to apologize to everyone who comes in contact with me over the next month for the bitchiness, the depression, the lethargy, the meanness that may come out of me. I am going to do my best to control it all with yoga, meditation, and other self care, but I may have a few slips of the tongue, rolling of the eyes, slamming of doors, and maybe even a middle finger lifted while driving.

Yes, I am going off sugar. In fact, I am also going off of white flour, too. No more refined carbohydrates. And I decided to go all the way and take out caffeine and dairy products while I am at it. The caffeine and dairy is an experiment. If I feel really good after going off all of it, I will maintain that plan. The sugar and other refined carbs are not negotiable, however.

I watched a video today on the possible side effects of this endeavor and I almost waivered in my resolve. I had to remind myself that this is not a New Year resolution. This is about my health. The doctor gave me a good talkin’ to last month and we agreed that trying to stop sugar during the holidays would be futile. We agreed that stop date would be January 1^st. Now that the New Year is upon us, Sunday is my start day. I am delaying it by one day due to spending tomorrow with the grandchildren. It would not be fair to them to have to experience what I may be like.

In preparation for this, I have loaded up. I have eaten every sweet I love in the past month at least two or three times. I ate my last box of Orton Bros. Maple Cookie Buttons four days ago, my last bit of pumpkin pie today, and tomorrow I will polish off the bagels. I ate my office mate’s White Christmas like popcorn and had a short dalliance with a tin box of cookies in the kitchen at work. It is all coming to an end.

I have precedence for doing well. Maybe. I got drunk for the last time twelve years ago today and last year at this time I stopped eating meat. Some of you may think that giving up alcohol was a big deal, but since I just replaced it with sugar, my body hasn’t really detoxed. Sugar and refined carbs metabolize in the system similar to alcohol so my body hasn’t really had to go through a complete detox.

Again, I apologize. I don’t know what I will be like, but I do have self care skills and by writing this down for all the world to see I am hoping to have support. I wouldn’t be able to do this alone.

For more info - see previous blog post with video about sugar detox.

A Luddite's Angst Over Her GPS

My fight against technology has been long one. I don’t know why I resist to these things but I do. I remember being adamant about never having a microwave oven because I was certain that people would forget or never learn how to cook. I never wanted to give up the joy of putting a meal together using stove top and oven. Then the world took off without me and started to make all these pre-packaged meals that confirmed my original prediction. I still resisted for quite a while but then realized that waiting an hour for something to heat in the oven was taking too much time out of my busy life and I caved. I felt ashamed. I felt as if I had bought into some futuristic cult that was going to take over my mind. But here I sit, drinking tea made with water heated in the microwave feeling a little shame.

I have only had cable television for two years in my adult life. One year while living in Norfolk and another year when a housemate had it. Now that was a brain drainer! I hated it when I would find myself flicking through endless channels like a zombie. I have to say that I do miss having access to the MSNBC pundits (I love Keith Olbermann’s purple tie and Rachel Maddow is the smartest women in the world!) and Boston Red Sox and UCONN basketball (thank you, Kat, for that!). This was one area where technology moved a lot faster than I did so I decided to jump on the next bandwagon and just watch most of my television when I wanted on the computer. Downloading television shows and movies when I want eliminates the channel surfing that made me feel like a slave to the television.

At this point, I should also admit that I had a black and white television into the early nineties. Like I said, I don’t give up easily.

I remember that I dug in my heels and refused to buy a car with electric windows. I think I had it in my head that it meant more that could go wrong and I would have none of that. I am over that now.

In the early 80s, I was sitting at my desk at Stihl, Inc. in Virginia Beach happily typing away at my IBM Selectric when someone put an IBM computer on my desk. Not only was I told I needed to use it, but I was to teach myself and then teach others. Our IT department was still into printing out green sheets and personal computing was outside of their domain. I was not happy but by 1989 I was sitting in an office with three different computers: the PC, a clunky AS400, and another computer that was linked in to all the machines that produced the components of the company’s chain saws. I think all of those electromagnet emissions may have contributed to my alcoholism and penchant for men with tool boxes and big trucks. But I digress.

I didn’t get my own personal computer until 1994 when I started grad school, but it took me a little longer to get on the web. At that time there was really very little of value on the internet, but now I don’t think I would enjoy life as much without it. For someone who is basically an introvert, the internet keeps me in touch with the world without having to actually touch it. I can then save my energy for those times when I have to be “on”. (I will write another post soon on how I manage being an introvert in a world that requires me to be an extrovert a good part of the time.)

Some technology keeps me at bay by its price. I would love a hybrid car but that is out of my price range right now. However, I don’t understand the concept of multi CD changers (why can’t you just get up and change it). If I had cable and a television I would probably love TiVo, but I think there is something that has made TiVo obsolete. I am so out of it all that I don’t even know.

I am still on the fence about e-readers. I know that when I saw my first Kindle I got all excited and started pricing them. That slowed me down. Now that they are less expensive I am still holding back. I love the feel of a book in my hands, but I realize that book cases are taking up more square footage in my apartment than any other furniture.

I have never had my own cell phone. My cell phone is required for my job and I use it sparingly. I don’t know how to “text” and I will keep it that way, thank you. I don’t have a lot of apps on my phone and if a picture gets taken by it, it is usually by accident. My granddaughter showed me how to access my Facebook account and I often play solitaire while sitting in waiting rooms. I know people who have their whole lives on their cell phones. I can access my work email and that is just about it.

My latest surrender to technology has been to buy a GPS. I have made all sorts of noise about loving to get lost (which I do) and that GPS systems are for people without a sense of direction (I have great sense of direction). Then I got lost in Boston three times last year and realized that having printed instructions from MapQuest was not quite doing it and Bostonians get a little cranky when you stop and ask someone for directions at an intersection. I think they see the New Hampshire license plates and think I am some libertarian freak with a gun in trunk of my Toyota. Well, I figured that enough of them had tried to run me off the road that the least they could do is give me a quick direction and without using their middle finger! I digress. So, I now have a GPS sitting next to me on my desk waiting for me to take it out and let it know it is no longer in Illinois. Right now it thinks it is in Chicago.

I was finally convinced to get it when I realized it would be handy when I go to Montreal for a conference in May. I also want to get to know Boston better. People say it is a great city and I would like to find out more about it. I have surrendered to the GPS, but only for city driving. I really like getting lost on country lanes. That is how I find yarn shops, alpaca farms, food stands, and blueberry farms. Getting lost is really about finding new places. That has always been a metaphor for my life and I don’t want to give it up.

I am so slow at accepting technology that I didn’t find out until recently that there is a word to describe me: “luddite,” someone who thinks things were fine “back in the day.” Well, I do have some things I am grateful for. I am a great proponent of indoor plumbing. I stayed with country relatives as a small child and know what it is like to use a ceramic pot in the middle of winter or make a mad dash to the outhouse. When I need to use outdoor facilities now, I don’t complain because I know it is only temporary. I also like washers and dryers. I wouldn’t complain, though, if my apartment complex had a place for me to hang out my laundry. I also have a dishwasher but find a sink full of sudsy water and dirty dishes to be a Zen like experience that I don’t like to pass up. I like washing dishes, particularly if there is a window above the sink that looks out on trees and birds.

There are some things from my childhood that I wish my grandkids could experience - the coolers where you slid the ice cold Orange Crush soda along the rails until it was released by a nickel; the ka-chink of an old fashioned cash register; and being able to walk to the corner store for bread and milk without worrying about being molested.

I guess I am always a few steps behind when it comes to modern technology but I really think that it has moved so fast over the past 50 years that there was no way for someone like me to keep up. I am fine with that. I don’t need to move that fast. I am just fine with my knitting needles and a blanket over my knees while I watch the sunset over the mountains.

Mindfulness and Pain

I have to share a discovery I made in meditation last night. I don’t think I discovered anything new. I am pretty sure I had read about this somewhere and took the opportunity to try it out. Anyway, it doesn’t matter where it came from, it worked!!

Yesterday I spent three hours driving in the wind and the rain. The last hour and a half was in the dark. It was the first time I hoped I did not see a moose on the highway. By the time I sat down to meditate last night I was in a lot of pain. I have arthritis in my spine and my shoulders and neck take a lot of abuse from knitting, sitting at the computer, driving, and cello practice. After holding a lot of tension in my shoulders during the drive, I felt like there were daggers in both shoulders, the middle of my back and into my neck. Hot, burning daggers thrust in down to the hilt and then twisted.

The pain became worse as I was sitting still and was starting to affect my ability to relax. Then I thought –where in my body do I not feel pain? My right foot. I started to focus on how relaxed my foot felt and, as soon as my attention left the pain in my shoulders, the pain eased. For the next twenty-five minutes, whenever the pain in my neck and shoulders started to take over, I would redirect my attention to a part of my body that was not in pain and the pain would disappear.

During other meditations, I have tried breathing into the pain and that helps some, but re-directing the pain worked better.

In Buddhism, we are taught that it is our resistance to the pain and suffering in our lives that causes the most turmoil. During meditation I did not resist the pain. I just moved my focus to an area where I was pain free. I wasn’t denying the pain, or trying to push it away. I just changed my focus. I later went back and massaged my shoulders with a good arnica/menthol ointment and took some Tylenol. I gave the pain the attention it needed when I was able to do so, but during meditation I was able to move my focus.

I can apply this to so many areas of my life. Nonresistance does not mean that I ignore the pain and suffering in my life. It means I don’t give it all of my attention and that I remember to focus on the good. I hope that by writing about this I am able to remember this and can help others as well.

Wellness Update - Getting Ready for Winter and the Holidays

I had a visit with Dr. Jane yesterday and still am amazed that she is able to take the time to sit and talk with her patients. She talked with me for almost an hour! I am so grateful to have found her.

I had been in to see her mid October and things weren’t going so well. I was already starting to feel the effects of the shorter days and was starting to have increased sugar and carbohydrate cravings. Along with the depression, the cravings were symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. This has been an issue for me in the past and I was hoping to be able to make it through the winter without visiting my dark places.

When I visited Dr. Jane yesterday I had followed most of her recommendations from October and already feeling a difference. I sit in front of a therapy light every morning for 30-45 minutes and I made a visit to the massage therapist she recommended ( I now have her in my budget for monthly visits). I had also made a little change on my supplements and Dr. Jane convinced me to go back to what I had been on originally. I feel hopeful that the SAD will be under control for this winter.

My focus for this visit was my immune system. I tend to get at least a touch of every little virus that is out there and, since I travel around the state a lot, I also pass it around. She recommended two things – meditating daily for 30 minutes and setting a stop date to end my sugar consumption. She said that research shows that sugar basically makes the body a petri dish for bacteria and viruses. I guess this explains why so many people get sick after the holidays. Dr. Jane also said that there is a lot of research that shows that meditating daily improves T-cell function better than any supplement available. She recommended taking something like EmergenC or Airborne when I feel something coming on but that the meditation should do the trick.

Since my sister has had so much success with cutting out sugar and Dr. Jane is recommending it, I have set a stop date of January 1 (also my one year anniversary of stopping meat consumption). Dr. Jane said that it wouldn’t be wise to even attempt this during December but I will try to be moderate in my holiday goodie eating. And now that I have committed myself to this on this blog, I have to do it.

The other big thing – I need to start walking on the apartment complex’s clubhouse treadmill on days when it is too dark and rainy to go outside. I plan to get a pair of snow sneakers from LLBean so I can walk outside as much as possible but there are just some days that are too nasty to go out. Does anyone have any good suggestions for music to make it more enjoyable!!?

Last, but not least, I worked out my budget for next year and I can afford to not only pay off some bills, but I can also take yoga teacher training. I am going to go for it. Ommmmmmmmm!!

Grateful for Letting Go

This week was definitely more about patience and acceptance than it was about gratitude. Gratitude ended up being a part of it but my week certainly started out differently. I had tried to blog about the wonderful things in my life but I was in a dark place. And I was wallowing it. I was not just down in the mud, I was rolling in it and spreading it around.

I was living in the past. I was acting as if my life was still what it was thirty years ago and I was having a hard time sleeping and I was spewing my upset to anyone who would listen. I was unpleasant and judgmental about my unpleasantness. If I tried to be grateful for anything I would be drawn back down into my misery like a crab being pulled back into the bucket by its companions. I was a mess.

I don’t know what happened. I know there were people praying for me and sending me love and light. I was so unspiritual that I was rejecting anything that was positive. However, early Wednesday afternoon the fog cleared and I started to have a sense of peace and well-being. The complaining, the crying, the ranting at the Universe just stopped. There was no big moment of insight, just a sense that I could come back to the present and live here.

Now I can list what I am grateful for – my family and friends, my home and my cat, Boo, a job that challenges me and lets me use my talents in a meaningful way, and the grace that comes that knowing that I can live in the present and let the past stay where it belongs.