New Hair Product Alert!

Greetings faithful and loyal readers,

I have started using a new shampoo and conditioner at the suggestion of my hair stylist (Anny VanDriel--she's BOMB! check her out). I've been using their product, Milk for over a year and love it. But now they have a shampoo and conditioner. It's called NUDE and I absolutely love it. I've bene using it a week and my hair feels amazing. So I was curious if they were gluten free and turns out THEY ARE! They have a pretty incredible story: http://www.gmreverie.com/about/


Here are the products I use:

Milk, NUDE: Shampoo and Conditioner: http://www.gmreverie.com/shop/

They are pricey but they are worth it for the amazing outcome and quality ingredients in the product :)

Check it out :)

Tea for everyone

So I'm almost a month into this 'no coffee' thing and as I've said before, it's been rough. Some days are easier than others but today a little package came in the mail from my cousin. She works at TeaPigs, selling tea and I got a nice little box of tea to try out.

This afternoon I'm sipping on 'melt away' a chocolate flake tea. It's really good and does taste like chocolate! When taking the sip, it smells like a chocolate shop. It's smooth in flavor and has no after-taste, which I love.

The box came with a wide variety of teas and I'm going to be sipping my way through and making note of which ones I like.

Stay tuned!

Updated 4/28:
I should note: look at ingredients of tea. I usually don't and am sorry I didn't. Some of the TeaPigs tea contains soy lectin or other things that I shouldn't be consuming. So some are not whole 30 and if you are allergic to soy like me, you stay away from those but I'll be testing the others I can try :)

Are you a coffee drinker?

Someone asked me today "are you a coffee drink?" and I literally paused and said "no, tea." This girl has been coffee free for 18 days! But what does that REALLY mean? I do drink caffeine in the form of mate and Rebbl (see previous post!) and herbal teas containing caffeine. I am so happy to be coffee free. Though it's weird, I think it makes a huge difference, like I've said in previous posts.

Another huge difference is the way I workout. So as some people may know, I stopped working out almost altogether in February. Some would say it was my funk but I think I was at a moment where I needed more. And for the past week, I've been doing more. I've done a lot of what I learned in Barre, at home and combined some heavy weight lifting and A LOT of walking. I'm easing myself back into my fitness as to not hurt my back and to just do what I can/when I can.

I'm feeling pretty great about my choices lately and not beating myself up for anything that isn't deserving of my time. I'm not stressing about my body looking different because my mind is feeling great. I'll get to where ever I want to be and there is no need to rush or stress.

Taking one day at a time and really trying to break some of the addictions to food/drinks I have :)

Take a deep breath and exhale the peace of knowing you are just where you are suppose to be.

Week two of the diaries

Two full weeks of no espresso, no coffee with almond milk, no cold brew, no lattes...WOW. I'm amazing myself with my lack of coffee intake. I've cut my caffeine intake by at least 500mg and I'm feeling great.

I'm noticing differences in my moods and my ability to handle stress. It's so odd that coffee/caffeine would affect my ability to handle stress but I have two distinct instances of not freaking out. I'm generally pretty prone to freaking out but I handled stress this week in a way new for me. I took in the information, the stressor, didn't freak out and made a plan to fix it. That's a new skill. I did some googling this morning and found it does have quite the affect on stress levels. Below is an article.

http://corporate.dukemedicine.org/news_and_publications/news_office/news/5687


Needless to say this cutting coffee out thing has been beneficial but I did wake up today really wanting a Mike's Special from our local coffee place. I didn't cave, instead made tea and will most likely go to Sprouts and get my new favorite Tonic and some La Croix water for the weekend. Check out Rebbl:  http://rebbl.co/ . It's so good. I really enjoy it and it gives me some natural energy like coffee but not at the same level.

Overall, things are looking up since giving up coffee and heading back to therapy. Now for some life decisions and PhD homework :)

Happy Saturday!

Officially 10 days without coffee

Here we are, 10 days later and I still haven't had coffee. It's been quite the experience. The addiction isn't broken yet but I know that I'm better off without it because I do feel (and see) a difference. These last few months I really let it go and started putting almond milk AND sugar in my coffee and I saw a difference in my body. I haven't done any formal exercise in quite a while but I'm seeing some bloat in my stomach go down. My clothes are fitting better around my tummy which is good. I'm sleeping better which is also nice. I think the best feeling since giving it up is not feeling (so) anxious.

This morning I woke up and despite a terrible night sleep (thanks, Ernie for waking me up every few hours) I did some push-ups, planks, and an ab series in my living room. I'm amazed at myself for actually being able to not drink coffee for 10 days. Surely, I thought I would've slipped by now! But I haven't, despite REALLY REALLY wanting coffee. Despite this urge, I keep telling myself it's better that I don't drink it. Maybe in a month, I'll see how it goes if I have some...

That's all I got. 10 days without and I'm proof it can be done!

another day in the breaking the addiction diaries

dear diary,

It's day five of no coffee. I have consumed more tea than I would like to admit and treated myself to a nice cold yerba mate! I immediately felt the difference after consuming it. I was slightly jittery but not like I would be if I downed a coffee. It's funny because I really should've given up caffeine all together but thank god my therapist realizes I need SOME.

I'm not anxious. I'm oddly calm and don't have spikes in blood sugar or mental cloudiness. It might be lack of coffee and as a result of omitting coffee, I'm omitting a lot of sugar and almond milk. Believe me, I love a cup of coffee. I think about it every day. I miss it; it might be more the act of it but I still miss it. It's going to take time to break the mental dependency too. It's hard because it's integrated into my routine. Maybe someday I can enjoy a cup but for now, it's tea and yerba mate!

Tomorrow is another day and I keep asking myself WHY did I give up coffee now?! I'm in a PhD program, my parents are visiting and I'm not drinking coffee?! What is wrong with me!? But I'm pressing on and counting myself lucky for not feeling super anxious all the time.

Thanks for reading another entry of my diary ;)

Day three of the breaking the addiction diaries

Today was day three of no coffee. It was harder than the weekend. I'm significantly more aware of my headache and an overall sense of tiredness. I'm feeling more irritable which I'm linking to the lack of coffee. That said, I did drink 4-5 cups of tea today. Nowhere near as much caffeine as before but generally felt like I was constantly drinking.

It's going to take awhile to break this addiction but I do feel the difference. My blood sugar isn't spiked and I'm really not anxious, just irritable :D I'm sure that will go away. There is a good chance I'm going to bed early tonight because I'm feeling that tired.

Outside of coffee detox, I hit my goal for steps three days in a row and am feeling generally pretty good about my eating. Now to integrate stretching and more strength training! My legs, hips, and back are bothering me so I will be seeing the chiropractor this week as well as making a massage appointment. It's really important to listen to your body and do what you can. I know I haven't been doing much of anything for two months but slow I will get back to my typical movements. Just need to listen to my body for now during this detox.

I think tonight I'm going to reward myself with a nice bath with some essential oils my close friend sent me. I think I deserve it :)

Night!

Day two of zero coffee

I've gone two days! 36 hours give or take with no coffee! I even went out to breakfast to a place that has the BEST almond milk lattes and I resisted! That said, I think it was decided I can have coffee every so often once I'm completely weened off of it. Here I am the evening of day two and I have a slight headache. Yesterday I didn't have any terrible headaches or anything but I did sleep until 11am this morning. I'm not sure if that's the amount of walking (in the sun) we did yesterday or if that was a result of the coffee withdrawal. I'm feeling pretty good right now.

It's amazing how coffee affects me. I get really shakey and my blood sugar spikes and I'm feeling semi alright. Next step: give up sugar. I think once I kick coffee, the whole 30 or 21 day sugar detox might be easier.

Stay tuned! Here's to day 3!

Day one of breaking the addicition

This morning I wanted to wake up and make a delicious cup of coffee. I was really looking forward to it, then I remembered, nope, no more coffee. So instead, I used my coffee pot to make the water for the tea. I'm on my second cup of green tea peppermint from Traditional Medicinals (a brand that I know for a fact is organic, without pesticides and gluten free). So far, so good. I'm excited to see how this change changes my body. 

Apparently there are reported benefits of drinking tea. I wouldn't drink just any tea though. There are teas with a lot of crap in them so choose wisely but here are the benefits:

Taken from : http://www.today.com/series/one-small-thing/top-10-health-benefits-drinking-tea-t81111

• Tea contains antioxidants.
• Tea has less caffeine than coffee.
• Tea may reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke.
• Tea may help with weight loss.
• Tea may help protect your bones.
• Tea may keep your smile bright.
• Tea may boost the immune system.
• Tea may help battle cancer.

Here's to day one! I'll be reporting back :)

Saying goodbye to coffee

Today I went to a new therapist. It was decided that she is going to make changes in my diet and she will start with my coffee intake. She decided this pretty damn fast. So I'm saying goodbye to coffee. I have been drinking coffee for over 10 years and this will be sad but she's convinced my anxiety will immediately decrease so here's go nothing. Goodbye, coffee. We've had a great relationship. I will start documenting this because this detox may be tough!

Starting tomorrow I will be drinking tea and only tea. Upon the end of my session, I went to the store to get caffeinated teas. If anyone out there has a favorite, please let me know because I found a few I'm going to try.

I'm hoping my anxiety will level out and I'll start to feel better generally. In addition to starting a new regimen in terms of my mornings, I'm going to start doing yoga and some other exercise routines outside of barre to start centering myself more.

It's the beginning of a new month so it's fitting I went to see my new therapist today so I can start the month out strong. Here's to the road back to health!