End of Day 19

It's just about the tail end of my shift.  I work from 3-11pm Mon-Fri and I'm pooped.  The good news is, the day is almost of over and I made it another day of fasting.  Horray!  Today was a good day.  I did have a cup of coffee, but didn't finish it.  I probably had maybe 8oz.  I think the coffee accelerates the weird tongue feeling.  Maybe I'll drop the coffee starting tomorrow.  I figure almost 3 weeks in, I'd have dropped by now.  I just love everything about coffee; especially the caffeine high!  I would really like to drop it for a year and just do it!  Maybe tomorrow will be the day.

Overall, I've had a great day!  Intake was about 4 quarts total.  Some brothy soup from the cafeteria.   This weekend I plan to make a pot of broth.  It's really nice around dinner time.  

I had kind of a small BM today, but I did have one.  

I slept like a rock.  I had to get up earlier than usual.  In bed close to 1am last night and I was up at 6 to use the bathroom.  I went back to bed and I finally got up just after 7am.  I had very good energy all day!  

I'm wondering if and when my tongue/mouth film will get calm down.  That's the only downside to this fast is dealing with my mouth and tongue!   I've been brushing at least 3 - 4 times per day.

That's about it for an update.

--Doug

Just for Today

Just for today, I will not drink coffee or any caffeinated beverages!  I need to take a break from this addictive substance!  My soul is screaming that she's ready to move past this addiction!  It is HUGE for me!

Just for today, I will not eat any gluten.  This is a food that I absolutely need to steer clear of!  This is another big.  I recently went off all gluten for almost 3 weeks!  It was awesome!  I shed some poundage!  I felt really really good!  It took almost 1.5 weeks before the cravings subsided!  I can't recall the exact food item that had gluten in it.....wait!  I do remember!  It was a fucking slice of pizza!  I actually regretted making that decision to eat that pizza!  I skipped my AA meeting to ingest gluten!  Kind of crazy!  It actually triggered the cravings again and I've been struggling to quit again ever since. It's been about 5-6 weeks now!  I've gained the weight back and I have reached the uncomfortable threshold that will hopefully give me the strength and courage to give this abstinent thing another try!

Gluten and coffee have to be my abstinent foods!

I want to start writing again!  Just for today I will blog about what's going on in my life!  I have lots to write about!  I was just thinking the other day about journaling and how it's kind of cool to document thoughts and ideas as well as what's happening today.  That I have had so many great ideas and experiences that I should have written down.  I rarely go back and re-read my posts.  I know I should....but when I do I always enjoy and appreciate the act of doing it!

I love my family!  I love my wife!  I love my daughters!  I want to write to them and also write about our lives...uhh....I'm not really sure what i mean!  I think I'll just write!  Maybe I'll get better at it and have more cohesive ideas that tell a good story!

Food intake today!  It was not good overall! I started the day with very good intentions!  I've woken up every morning for the last 1.5 weeks telling myself that I will not have that morning cup of joe!!  Every day, I've had at least 2-4 cups of very strong coffee!  It is the catalyst that allows me to eat foods that i absolutely do not want to eat!  It really is crazy thinking and behavior!  It's addictive!  I need OA or CA or some fucking 12 step program!  It really fucks with my head!!  Anyhow....tomorrow will be different!  I am sick and tired of eating shitty foods and drinking coffee!  I hate that I'm an addict and that I have little control over my will power to abstain!  I will choose to call on my GOD for strength in the morning!  I will also use the power of this blog to document my progress!  I do have some life goals that I would like to achieve and I know that coffee and food are a huge obstacle!

I am now getting tired and will stop writing!  I will be back tomorrow to write!

Just for today!  I'm done...

12/2/11

No caffeine today.  I ended up taking a nap before work @ 1:30 for 30min.  It appears to have done the trick.  Got lots of stuff done today in the office.  I was super productive. Feels really good to make progress there.  I'm such the procrastinator.  

Will hit Bikram Yoga tomorrow and should make the 10am OA meeting in Santa Clara.  I'm ready to find a sponsor and start working the steps there too.

12/3/11

Update: Next Day....ended up ordering pizza and bread sticks at work last night.  I think it pushed me over the edge.  I may have been feeling guilty or just fucking crazy and seriously was trying to think of a reason to use....get high and or drink a few beers.  I so wanted to just start over....in my mind I was going to make the deal that i will start fresh tomorrow and have the same sobriety date as my abstinent date...great idea!  Let's just fucking use tonight and start over, AGAIN, tomorrow...I was totally going to if my daughter would have only slept in my bed last night!  Sometimes she likes to sleep in our bed and I'll gladly take her bed, therefore, "getting away" with drinking or whatever!!!  But she didn't take the bait!  I obsessed on it for at least 4 hours while at work...any other night and I would have gone through with it even with a glass or two of vino to tuck me in...vino makes me sleepy...instead, I drove to the midnight AA meeting!  I started to make a recording on my iPhone to talk about my wanting to use and ended up screaming my lungs out and balling like a fucking baby!  Arghhhh!  I was so frustrated with being a fucking addict and not being fucking normal!!  Frustrated that I couldn't come up with a good enough reason to use and drink that night................OMG....it felt good to release that tension!  It was a very exhausting drive to the meeting, but I was so glad I went.  I heard a great message and was ready for bed when I got home!  Not before eating some more for good measure.

My new sobriety date just happens to be the date that my good fried passed away.  It wasn't my plan, but it's interesting because I've been trying to come up with a "cool date" since I relapsed.  My original date was April fools day 4/1/06.  I dunno, I thought it was a good date!  It was almost 4th of July of last year.  11/11/2011 would have been a good one!  Then Dan passed away and it just so happened that I intentionally planned to stop for good!  That's it!  No Joke!  One last time, again, to get high and drink some alcohol.  I even video taped the occasion.  I woke up feeling less than 100% but was 110% committed to be sober!  THIS TIME!  

Anyhow...I think I turned the corner in my sobriety!  I just need to get through the steps!...

Today was a completely different day than most other days!  I've pretty much fasted all day today on smoothies, green juice, oj/cran juice, and some coffee.....Yes, I did have some coffee.  I had quite the food fucking hangover this morning, I thought I'd have some coffee!  It was good and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  

I went to an OA meeting this morning and wash't feeling it!  I dunno!  Maybe I'll just my food issues and categorize them as a character defect, which they are, and ask god to remove them!  Progress not perfection.  Hmm.....this may work....

Tomorrow we go to the symphony!  Should be awesome!  More later!  

--Namaste

Tomorrow's a new day...

I proved it, yet again, that I'm unable to drink coffee and try and eat right or plan to fast.  I did that one other time, but that was a long time ago!  I had a coffee today after my job was complete around noon.  I know, I wasn't planning on having any coffee, EVER AGAIN, but I guess I wanted to try it again.  This may be the first time, that I've written about it post relapse.  Hey, at least it wasn't cannibis or alcohol.  My new sobriety date is growing on me.  Maybe tomorrow will be my new abstinence date!  We'll see!  I'm not planning on drinking coffee tomorrow.  Fuck that!  It was really good about 1 hour after drinking the coffee, but by the time I arrived back home, I already regretted drinking it.  I was still going to stick to my healthy eating plan, but by the time 5pm rolled around, I was already thinking about fried food and trying to suck up the caffeine with shitty foods!  Oh well, I did it again!  It really is like alcohol to me.  No matter how much health education I ingest into my mind.  No matter how much I really, really want and honestly desire to eat a certain, specific way; I'm having trouble trying to control my eating!  I really, really feel powerless over certain foods and it really makes my ego very very sad that I can't suck it up and stick to my program!  My sober brain looks at this as an opportunity for growth in the OA program.  My ego is so upset that I'm even thinking about needing help with my eating!  "What the fucks a matter with you that you fucking can't control your fucking eating!"   I was thinking about that today!  I guess I really am an addict to a lot of things!  I just don't want to continue to struggle with my weight!  Thank god I'm vane!  OMG!  Thank god I care about how I look!  I truly do!  I know I'm not alone here!  I sure hope I can help someone else with this terrible terrible fucking food issue!  OK....I'm done venting! More later!

--Namaste

Days 1 thru 3-->No caffeine...

10:11am

So Far so good!  Had a good nights rest last night.  Slept pretty solid.  No coffee this am, and I'm not planning on having any today.  Shouldn't be a big struggle.  Day 1's typically aren't too big of an issue.  It's day 5, 6, and 7 that normally starting shouting at me that I need to get some coffee in my system.  That too is when I start feeling good!  Good thing I'm off today from my regular job.  I'm going to Bikram Yoga at noon.  I have a couple of appointments this afternoon with my side business.  Then plan on going to the 7pm AA meeting tonight.  I'll try and post later.  

Today's intake:

1 cup of chai tea

32oz of water
32oz of green smoothy
1 orange
Thanksgiving left overs
desert

I feel really good about not having any coffee today!  Very ready for bed right now.  Just wanted to get some text to the blog.

Bikram Yoga
Tried a different yoga studio today!  I was very disappointed, but happy that I know about the setup and all that Jazz.  I swear, my yoga studio totally rocks!  Not that I've been to that many studios, but the ones that I have gone too, were not as satisfying.  Every one of them were not as hot as our studio.  Funny thing is, that was before they upgraded their heating system.  You know you're going to sweat good when you go to Bikram in Santa Clara, CA!!  I could also complain about a few of our teachers, but the one today, was so weak!  I mean, come on...I want to hear the dialog.  I want to feel the dialog being spoken with intensity!  All of our instructors are just super passionate and it comes across in the way they speak the dialog.  I did sweat.  I did get a fairly good work out considering, I didn't have a mirror to look into to check my posture.  I was in front of the glass door, and could see only a slight reflection of myself in the glass!  Whatever!!  The humidifier in the room sounded like a diesel engine!  It was so loud, you could barely hear the instructor.  I dunno!  There are other studios I want to check out in the bay area, but I kinda don't want to waste my 90 minutes.  I have so little free time as it is!!  It's all good.  I just wanted to vent!

Day 2   No caffeine

Thought I'd combine my posts since I didn't actually post last night.  I was too tired by the time I got around to it.

Sleep was good last night.  It was really heavy.  I didn't roll out of bed til 9amish.  Got to bed around 12am last night.  I had some trippy dreams, that I've already forgotten mostly.  I do remember that flickster was in it!  Pretty odd....

I tried to make Bikram today, but my appointment ran over.  Oh well....for sure tomorrow!  I did end up napping on my break this evening.  Hopefully tomorrow will be the last of my afternoon / evening naps.  This is what coming off caffeine means to my body.  I get really lethargic for at least 3-4 days....and i fucking hate it!  I hate having low energy!  The key will be not to indulge after days 5-7 when I really get off on the caffeine high.  I'm tired of the up and downs.  Eventually, the caffeine stops working as well as it did when I go off for several days then start again.  It's amazing what plays in my head after being off for a while.  I get these triggers and most of the time I act on them.  I will try to remember to meditate and take some deep breaths.  Maybe I'll take Bella on a rollerblade or bounce on my trampoline to get my lymph system circulating.

Day 3 No caffeine

I didn't publish this last night so I thought I'd just continue with status update.

Slept in again this morning.  Had a good restful sleep last night.  I remember my wife pushing me to roll over.  I was snoring/breathing loudly.  I'm wondering if I start eating more cleanly as well as not eating so late and losing weight will arrest my snoring!  I hate that she nudges me so often because of that issue.   I'm actually planning on fasting for a few days on green juice and smoothies.  I'd like to drop a few pounds before Mexico.  So far so good today.

Intake:

64oz of water
10oz chai tea
48oz of green smoothy


Bikram Yoga was awesome today.  Super hot!  Excellent instructor!  It was so challenging getting through the class, but I did!  Taking the day off tomorrow.  I have an customer to see in San Francisco and will most likely not have time.  Maybe I'll catch a noon meeting there or somewhere in between.  Plan on going to the midnight meeting tonight at SNL.  I'm glad I got an early night tonight.

I did end up having to take a nap tonight at break time.  Hopefully I won't have to tomorrow night.  I've had mostly good energy this evening.  I was a little tired just before noon yoga gave me some good energy.  Hope to have more tomorrow.

Feeling good today

Heeeey!  Thought I'd write a little before bed.  It's been an interesting last couple of weeks!  Everything is good and I'm grateful to be sober today!  Well, at least sober from alcohol and cannibis.  (side note: Funny that the word cannibis is indicated as being mis-spelled, but it safari doesn't' have an alternate word...not that i care)  My intention is to get myself to an OA meeting very soon!  I feel like I'm ready to take a step in the direction of food addiction recovery!  OMG, I appear to very powerless over some foods and caffeine!  Granted to today was our family's day to celebrate Thanksgiving with an excellent meal and shared with some good friends!  But, I've been feeling like this for some time.  I feel like recovery from alcohol and pot must also include some recovery from other addictive substances that consume my brain.  I so want to be free from my desire to use addictively and to really feel the natural energy that I have internally!  Lately, I've been spending $7 a day on starbucks coffee---> 1 venti coffee and 1 venti eggnog late...I'm starting to develop a tolerance for this amount and it's not having the desired effects that I get when, say, i've been off of caffeine for a few days then drink again!  It seems like i've been on this roller coaster ride for some time.  I've been trying to "control" my intake!  I've been trying to read healthy books, listen to healthy podcasts, purchase healthy foods and supplements only to fail miserably with my latest and greatest plan!  I'm getting tired and feeling sick and tired!  I feel like I'm ready let go and humbly ask for help!  My ego tells me i can do it myself, FUCK THAT!  YOU CAN DO IT!!  LoSER!! Fuck head!  Whatever!  I'm so over it!  I'm ready to stop driving the bus!

I've been regularly attending meetings in AA as 12am.  I get off at 11pm and it's a great way for me to get a meeting in before I end the day!  My days are packed!  I feel like if I ate better I'd get more done as well!  Why not ask for help!  All I'm going to do is work the 12 steps of OA with a someone that is doing the as well!  I think today was my 5 meeting in a row!  It's amazing how the 12 programs work!  I feel so much better!   OK...I'm tired...my plan tomorrow is not to have any coffee!  I will try and post more often!