It Is Finished...

In the words of one of the greatest prophets of all time, "It is finished!" Although I think my "long-suffering" during DOWNSIZE ME should probably not be compared to a crucifixion...I suppose that's a bit sacrilege.

But it IS finished! I have made it through 28 days without caffeine (except for that one bite of chocolate cake)!!! I thought today might never come...LOL

It has NOT been easy...mostly because old habits are very hard to break. And that's really what caffeine AKA Mountain Dew has been for me...a bad habit. Guzzling the wonderful elixir became a "habit" more than a need...my graphed statistics prove that. Not only did my fatigue level DECREASE significantly, I also began to sleep a few more hours a night. I can't say there was much change in my weight (although I'll take the 3.5 pound weight loss over nothing!) and my blood pressure certainly does not seem to have been effected much at all.

The initial reason I began DOWNSIZE ME was because of recent "migraine" headaches (remember? I barely did!), which I had never experienced before in my life. My neurologist DID start me on prophylactic "migraine" medicine (Verapamil), which I've already stopped taking a full dose of anyway (because I can't be expected to remember to take pills twice a day...short term memory loss!), but I'm not sure that has had anything to do with my absence of "migraines". I STILL think I may have had some kind of weird virus (I think I wrote about my coworker's brother and mother suddenly having migraines as well? They haven't had any more either and THEY didn't even give up caffeine!)...interestingly enough, my 14 year old niece has been having a "migraine" all week as well (in Missouri) and doctors can't figure out why SHE is suddenly having a headache either.

So what does this tell me? Not a whole damn lot really. Except that my belief I NEEDED caffeine to ward off fatigue and "pep" me up on a daily basis seems to be false...I've really done better without it.

Does this mean I'm going to continue to deprive myself of ALL caffeine? Probably a big "nada" on that one, too...LOL. I imagine I'll start taking in caffeine again on a moderate basis or at least stop being soooo hyper vigilant about the issue anyway. And I'll probably start this weekend by TREATING MYSELF TO THAT CHOCOLATE MALT I'VE BEEN THREATENING TO MAKE!!!!

I appreciate "all y'all's" support and down right "hi-larry-us" comments about this issue...let's face it...if it hadn't been for the risk of PUBLIC HUMILIATION, I doubt I could have made it through this without you!

So...since this stretch of day shift (yuck) hours are kicking my butt right now, I think I'll go retire to my couch and watch a bit of bad TV with my under privileged cat...she seems to be suffering from a different kind of "attention deficit" disorder than I am used to seeing in clients!

I'll keep you posted about that malt...LOL...