Ch-ch-ch-chia

I tried Chia seeds for the first time. Added them to my green tea. They have no taste that I can discern (although we'll see what I say the next time my super nose hits) but they gel into goopy clumps. Definitely a slime texture and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Allegedly Chia seeds were the emergency rations for Aztec warriors. Huh.

They are also supposed to be super nutritious, but I read the label and eh...not impressed.

I think Chia seeds fall into the category of 'First World nutrition options.' Because only people with money would take a food from a nation that no longer exists and turn it into a superfood fad.

As for the green tea, I'm kicking my Coke Zero habit. Again. For, like, the umpteenth time.

At one point, hubby told me to not worry about it, given everything else. He thought it was too much. I considered his opinion and ended up agreeing with him. However, now it's time to be done with it. For good.

I think I'm doing okay today. Still low appetite though--wasn't hungry enough to remember lunch. Didn't even feed the toddler, but that's more because her buddy came over and she didn't care about food. I kept giving them snacks to kind of try to wedge a lunch between finger painting, stickers, playdoh and escalating conflicts due to the fact four-year-olds are selfish little pirates.

Caffeine Update

A couple months ago I posted how I kicked my Coke Zero habit and yesterday I got a comment asking if I was still caffeine free. Good question and something I've been meaning to bring up. So here's the answer...

Well, no, not really.

I did revert back to Coke Zero after several months of successful abstinence. It started with what seems to be another episode of adrenal laziness that hit me in August. All of a sudden, I could not live without my Coke Zero.

Again.

Sigh.

Now, my beef isn't really with caffeine. I am not opposed to caffeine, just when it comes in a can and is filled with other unknown chemicals. Particularly if those chemicals are byproducts of cocaine, which is what Coke uses; coca leaves imported from Peru. Supposedly there's not cocaine in Coke anymore, but I bet the effluvia of processing cocaine into prescription narcotics (which is what is used now) is not entirely benign either.

I have been successful at limiting the Coke Zero to one a day this time around (vs. the 3 a day habit I was developing before).

Currently, since the weather has cooled, I'm trying to channel my caffeine cravings into green and black tea which have so many health benefits.

But it's a struggle. There's just something about the chemical composition of Coke Zero that my body really likes.

How I Kicked My Coke Zero Habit and Went Caffeine Free

One of my nit picks with medicine is there's a ton of 'advice' but not a lot of strategy for implementing it.

For example, my doctor told me to 'cut back on caffeine' but then offered no information on how to go about it. Doctors need to follow the parenting advice I hear a lot which is, 'tell kids what to do, not what they shouldn't do.'

For myself, I am a huge fan of displacing bad habits with good ones. I find it to be a very effective technique to bring about change.

So when my blood pressure prompted me to start cutting back on caffeine, this is what I did to swap out a bad habit for a good one. It was actually pretty painless and a strategy that I think others might find helpful.

There are 3 steps...

1.Take an Excedrin in place of the Coke Zero for the first 3 to 5 days to manage withdrawal symptoms. Excedrin contains caffeine and painkillers which makes the withdrawal painless. I was inching up to a 3 can a day habit so 1 Excedrin was still a big drop in caffeine intake for me.

2.Transition to caffeine mints (brand name Jolt). 5 mints = one cup of coffee per the manufacturer. I would have 3 mints in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Some days I had more. I didn't sweat it. The goal was progress not perfection.

3.Make allowances. I allowed myself caffeine free diet root beer if I was really desperate for a fix. Or sugar free popsicles. The idea wasn't to torture myself, it was to change, so if I needed to lean on a crutch to make it palatable, I did so.

Within 3 weeks, I didn't need the caffeine mints anymore. I do keep some on hand for those times I need a pick-me-up after a sleepless night caring for the toddler or tossing and turning while my brain races under the influence of prednisone. I'll also drink caffeinated tea sometimes.

I'm not completely anti-caffeine, I just don't want to be slave to another bad habit or blood pressure problems. I also don't want to pass this habit on to my daughter. Pop is not okay and I don't want to act like it is.

6 weeks later, I finally drank the last can of Coke Zero in the fridge. It didn't taste good at all. I would say that marks this as a mission accomplished.

Although it really didn't do anything for my BP, so in that respect, the whole exercise was a dismal failure.