Just in case anyone ever thought that I had ‘it’ all together this is one of those posts that you’ll want to read.
I fail. Consistently. I throw myself into a new project… and then drop it after awhile.
Confession One
I stopped juicing.
Confession Two
I stopped making green smoothies.
Another confession
I’ve stopped exercising.
Expense. Time. Mess.
All these things combine together and gradually I just stopped making these healthy drinks. Instead I reached for a cup of tea or a coffee. Problem is, those aren’t just quick fixes – they get soaked up by my caffeine addicted body and slowly tear it apart.
I’ve been feeling so lousy that I was forced to do a stocktake of my body and its health. Sadly, I am consuming anywhere from 8 through to 12 cups of black tea per day. On top of that, I have two milk coffee‘s per day but have been noticing that some days I have had FOUR! And it’s not even winter yet.
I’m scared. I know what I’m like in the colder months. I sit in front of the heater and drink caffeine, in its different forms. And way too much milk.
Oh! On top of the daily caffeine intake is the social caffeine drinking- a latte or cappuccino with friends or family.
I can’t even imagine what my insides must look like! But I’ve been feeling tired, not just tired but very fatigued. I’ve been quite light headed, which I mistake for hunger so have a milk coffee. (Yeah I do know how stupid that is) And I feel bloated. So bloated.
Energy Friends has told me that it will only take 543.99 cups of Instant Tea to kill me. Shocking! Maybe not true… but this site has some good info on caffeine in foods and drinks.
Jo (Princess Warrior) has, like me, had health issues for years. She is kicking the caffeine habit. I am inspired by her posts. I’ve been concerned about my caffeine habit for awhile and thinking I need to do something about it… and Jo has been posting on her blog and on Facebook which has motivated me to go beyond the thinking stage.
John would love me to get back into juicing and smoothies… my own health needs me to… so it’s about time I got off my butt and did something about it. Next week, I know I will be a cranky mumma for a few days while I deal with this addiction, but I have to do it. Goodness, I’ve done it before I can do it again – before winter.
Exercise? Gosh, one thing at a time, eh?
Any tips? Ideas? Thoughts? Have you ‘been there, done that’ and have anything to offer me?
I am so proud of you! Go for it.
My sister gave me the best advice 3 years ago in reagards to changing habits. She told me “replace one bad eating habit at a time with something else.If you try to make too many changes too soon, you’ll quit.” I have taken this advice and have done just that. Baby steps. You’re more likely to stick to something if you master one new habit at a time. When you have successfully created a new habit, only then do you work on changing and crating another habit.
Forget the juicing and green smoothies for now and concentrate on one thing – quitting coffee. You’ll have to find a replacement (for me this was http://www.teecino.com inititally which I am now replacing wth tea)as you’ll still want that warm mik sensation.
Don’t worry about exercise either for now. When you have successsfully quit the java, you will have more energy and will actaually feel like exercising! I know I do. But I’m going to wait another week before toatlly shocking my body.
You can do it! xo
Good luck Susan. It’s tough to do, but you know you’ll thank yourself for it. 🙂 As for me – well, I am not game enough try smoothies yet (partly to do with the fact that I have no kitchen, and no where to juice – although we have managed to find a space for our coffee machine!?!), but for now I am happy with water and up to 2 cups of tea/coffee each day.
xo
Just came over for a visit after visiting Jo’s, GO FOR IT Susan! You can do it!
Go for it Susan.
I get that fatigued feeling if I have too much coffee in a day. It makes one very sluggish. I have never cut it out all together but usually have two a day, very little milk and a cup of tea at night. I feel okay on that.
Very ‘funny’ I wrote pretty much the same thing as my last comment in my weekly wrap up. More green smoothies and juice for me! Some of your thought process – stopped juicing, smoothies, exercise – same here! So not sure that I have any tips for you Susan other than to say – I’m with you on this one. Though I don’t drink the amount of coffee you are talking about (that is scary!) my health is demanding attention too. I like what Jo said – one habit at a time though for me it will be two – green smoothie or juice around morning tea time, and exercise before breakfast.
Ahhhh.
No pretty way to deal with it, is there. :/
May I share what I’ve been thinking lately? (I’m going to assume that you know I won’t be able to help sharing whether you nod or not 😉 )
I have gone back to weights recently. I avoided them for a long time after baby #4, because I couldn’t cope with feeling the pain all the time – you know, just the “I’ve been at the gym” kind of pain – nothing debilitating. But after a half hour run and a session in the weights section, all I wanted to do for the rest of the day was go to bed!! (Ya, to sleep!)
But I’ve realised that as we age, there WILL be pain of one sort or another. So… I figured that if I get back to the weights, keep dragging myself out of bed to walk/run, then at least I can manage the amount of pain, (who says the weights have to get heavier and heavier?) and it will be more of my choosing. I know that if I don’t exercise my body will fall to bits. If I don’t eat right, my body will fall to bits. But if I do the right things I will be mildly uncomfortable.
This probably sounds ridiculous, but it was a huge mental shift for me to come to a place of accepting that something has to be at the very least, uncomfortable, and to a degree I have a choice in the cause. So I choose to be uncomfortable about the exercise, rather than the .. diabetes, or .. whatever other things come from neglect. (I hope that made some sense… I’m a bit brain blurry today!)
At any rate – my point was that if you think of it as consciously choosing for your good, rather than as depriving yourself, (for me, at least), it helps with the emotional aspect of with holding things you take comfort from.
Be good! xx
this is true! I was speaking to an older lady yesterday and her and her husband make it a priority to exercise regularly – they like to swim and walk laps. She was saying it was simply a fact that their bodies worked better when they did this. It was a matter of accepting their age and doing what they could to keep things working – so they could do the things that God had put in their heart. To me this is a big motivation – at the moment I am limited because my body doesn’t work well. Though I know there will always be some physical limitations (injuries and age) there is still a lot of room for improvement – if only I had the self control to do what I know is good for my body!