Made a decision...

This is a first!   I'm about to go all in OMG!  But hey!  Whatever!  This post will be confusing to me if when I go back to re-read it.  This is the 3rd time attempting to finish this post initially started on 11/12/16.  I couldn't bear deleting my previous thoughts...;-0  

Anyhow, I was moved to post this video tonight while I was watching the documentary Be Here Now.  The main actor was shooting a lot of this type of recordings-->which I have many of.  I made a decision to go on  a 90 day Juice Cleanse starting tomorrow.  I will plan to document my progress daily, either by video or by text entry.  

Wish me luck!

Ok, I'll leave the Post title: Day 3 No Coffee & New Sobriety date!  I'm so funny!  I can't count how many "new Sobriety Dates" I've had since I went out in 2010?  I honestly have forgotten how long it's been.  All I know is I had 4 solid years, then slipped on some knee pain with Vicodin.  It's kind of a long winded story that I will attempt to document, but for some other time.  I just got off of work and and wanted to post something before I get too tired.  I haven't had anything to eat since I got off of work.  Maybe I won't!

For the record my new (and last) Sobriety Date is 12/11/16.  I'm coming up on 90 days clean from weed and alcohol.  I did step 3 today with my sponsor and I'm feeling really good!  Today I decide to turn my will and my life over to my higher power as I understand him!  That means I will pray everyday, more than once I'm sure, to ask my higher power to help direct me to better do His will, NOT MINE!  Food has been my biggest struggle for over 10 years now!  I'm so tired of obsessing and thinking about eating!  Especially junk food and Gluten!  So going forward, no more gluten and dairy.  These 2 items will be my no go...getting tired.

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I'm so excited to have started over again.  I guess that's the great thing about a new day is the chance to start over again.  Anyhow...I'm definitely over staring over again!  I say that with a wink and a smile.

My new Sobriety date is, Saturday, 11/12/16.  I chose that day because that was the day I made a firm commitment to myself at the Tony Robbins--Unleash The Power Within seminar!  So Amazing.  I had 4 areas that were limiting beliefs and Alcohol, food, and caffeine were one of the areas that I was carrying around this self fulfilling prophesy that I wasn't worthy and definitely not worthy enough to get sober from these addictive substances.  Anyhow...I feel liberated and stoked to be on my way to a different future than I was headed towards.

So far so good.  Day 3 has been pretty good thus far.  I will add a voice memo to this post from my drive home earlier this evening.  Yesterday I felt hung over still from the weekend.  What a weekend that was!  So intense!  Such an amazing and incredible experience that words can barely describe!!  Absolutely filled with gratitude for the gift of TR!

I'm BAAAACK!!

Yes indeed!  I'm back!  This time I feel like it's for good!  OMG!  I'm such a loser, fat, fucking fuck-up!  JK..LOL...Not really!   This is how I sometimes think of myself, but I truly do love myself and want the best for me and my family!  I have a fucking dis-order.  I actually have several fucking disorders that I'm unable to control with pure will power.  I've tried.  GOD seriously knows that I've tried so many different techniques and nothing has really worked for me!  I take that back.  The one tried and true, for me, are the 12 steps of AA, NA, OA and MA!  I'm a fucking addict to so many things, I've been working on trying to figure out just what it is that I'm trying to cover up or numb out to.  I haven't smoked any weed this year.  Although, I've come close to entertaining the idea, I just haven't made the time to partake in that adventure.  I know how the tape plays out.  I've just been dabbling in a little alcohol and lots of food!  Food that I know is bad for me.  It really pisses me off that I have all this knowledge about health and nutrition that I still abuse the junk food processed really bad stuff!  Anyhow...I'm over that.   I've been gluten free for 3 full days now.  I've been sober from alcohol since September 20, 2014.  I'm done!  I'm so done!  I'm 47 years old and I've hated the trajectory I've been on the last several years.  It's time for me to make a change to get me back on the path to a happy and joyous life.  I miss writing.  My goal is to start writing again to document my life in a not so public forum, such as Facebook.  I will try and write about my diet, sobriety, spirituality, aches and pains.  I was recently diagnosed as pre-diabetic, which really pisses me off!  Err...motivates me to get that under control.  Anyhow...enough out of me for now.

I did get to Bikram Yoga today.

I have an auto-immune flare up on my right side of my foot.  On a scale of 1-10, it's a  6-7 to touch.  It's been bothering me for 3 days now.  I just took 4 advil to hopefully reduce the pain so I can get out of bed in the morning and go to bootcamp!

Namaste

Juice Fast: Day 17

Finally!  I made the time to sit down and write!  OMG!  I like it!  I just read my post from May 25th!  Awww!!  It made me sad and happy!  I'm happy that I wrote that day and am now re-reading it!  The content was kind of sad!  Anyhow....a lot has happened since that entry!  A LOT!  I truly am an addict and Alcoholic!  I hate that word:  alcoholic!  I think it's the label that erks me!  Anyhow, it's true that I'm powerless over alcohol and my life is unmanageable!  I absolutely admit that!  I'm sure it was too long after that post on May 25th that I re-lapsed from alcohol after almost 6 months of abstinence!  I've been overworking!  90 hour work weeks a and working almost 7 days a week for months now!  Business is good.  Too good!  And I took a drink to "take the edge off"!  I miss drinking red wine in the evening!  It helps me sleep and unwind!  A couple of beers!  What the hell!  Take it easy!  Take a load off!  Sierra Nevada...my favorite beer!  But alas....the craving tie one on was awoken and immanent!  That fact makes me uneasy!  I was fearful that I would do something under the influence that I could not undo!  Not to mention that drinking makes me lazy and I have way too much going on right now to not have all the energy I can muster!  Drinking is a distraction!  Anyhow...it wasn't my intention to write about drinking, but more on that topic on a later post!  New sobriety date is September 30, 2013!  I really want to keep this date!  I now have a great story that involves my children that I don't want to let go of!

Feeling very good today!  It's day 17 of my juice fast and I really feel like I will make the full 92 day goal!  OMG!  I've had this goal for years now!  I want it to be about more than just not eating, detoxing, and losing weight!  My intention to start this fast was to reset ME!

I'm already tired of writing.  I'm going to sign off for now, but I will give another update tomorrow!

Peace

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...

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!