As we venture into the holiday season, we will be faced with an abundance of food and drink during family celebrations. Once this period is over, many people will suddenly feel guilt, anxiety and moodiness over their weight gain and perhaps their inevitable New Year's resolutions.
If you have listed "lose weight", "eat healthier", or "exercise more" on your resolutions, your best bet for 2015 is to visit a holistic nutritionist. He/She will help you achieve your goals from the inside out, working extensively on supporting those body systems that need a little TLC to promote that weight loss, or adopt a new, healthy behavior. When your body is optimized internally, your health will shine and you won't need to make such resolutions again!
"Aim for health, and true beauty and weight control will eventually follow." (Eating Alive: Prevention Thru Good Digestion, Dr. John Matsen, N.D., 2013)
Monday, December 22, 2014
Monday, December 15, 2014
Breaking Up With Caffeine
The further into this holistic nutrition course I become, the more I question my daily cup of coffee. Between the course's strong stance that coffee is simply horrific for you and all the other wellness blogs I read stating a little bit won't kill you, I'm really uncertain if caffeine is actually problematic.
Coffee beans grown in sub-par conditions may likely be infested with moulds, bacterias and pesticides, and the processing activities it undergoes to become that beverage we enjoy so much will remove vital nutrients while adding more bad stuff. Coffee grown organically and that which costs more to purchase (due to improved processing techniques) is supposedly better for you (yay, good news as Kickinghorse Coffee is the BEST!).
I've been struggling with sleep issues for months and my inability to stay asleep and acquire at least 7 hours each night has gotten to the point where I am anxious before bed and seriously frustrated with myself most days and nights. I feel like I can barely function most days, my attention span is about 2 minutes for any given task, and my mind is almost constantly in a translucent fog. This is not good for work, let alone my studies on top of that! My ND says my adrenals are stressed, and when they are stressed, sleep is tough to come by. So many factors can cause stress but the one that keeps showing its face in all my research is, you guessed it, caffeine!
So, simply for trial purposes, I have decided to give up caffeine for at least one week to see if I notice any differences in my concentration, my ability to think and my sleep quality. I'm not one of those people who are so attached to coffee that I simply couldn't live without it; however, I do crave it most days, especially at work. Coffee, specifically Starbucks' coffee, has become like a warm blanket for me each morning - it warms me up after breakfast, reducing the discomfort of the office freeze that most women experience each day; it gets me off my butt for a quick 10 minute walk during a day when I don't really have many reasons to leave my seat; and the aroma and taste have become a comfort when I am just looking for some quiet time to relax or read. (This is why I can't imagine I'll give up coffee forever after this week is over but if my sleep is drastically changed, I will consider reducing how often I drink the yummy, yummy stuff!)
My typical coffee is 12 ounces before 10:00 AM so theoretically this should not affect my sleep. Coffee is supposed to have a half life of 7 hours, which means half of its content can stay in your body up to 7 hours after consumption. This would mean I should be free of my relatively small cup by 5:00 PM. However, I wonder if my adrenals are simply overstimulated enough by my stress that they can't handle the caffeine.
On to my experiment and my experiences!
Day 1: I went to bed in decent time Sunday night, technically a day without caffeine, but couldn't fall asleep despite feeling sleepy. I had bought a slice of pie after my dance class and ate that around 1:30 PM. By 2:30 I could not keep my eyes open and at 3:00 I lay down on the couch to read, waking up from a deep sleep by my ringing phone at 5:30. So, perhaps this nap had some affect on bedtime. (And apparently sugar really does make me crash now!)
I felt alright Monday morning when I woke up. I was awake and ready for the gym, and I managed to run almost as long as I'd hoped. My first few hours at work were typically but around 10:00, when my body is used to that caffeine, I suddenly got this awful pounding headache and become quite restless. As the day dragged on, the head-bobbing started and I literally struggled to keep my eyes open from about noon until 4. The bus ride home was much of the same.
When I arrived home, all I could think about was sleeping. Bryan kept asking me questions about dinner and I got frustrated and told him I couldn't think about making food at the moment. I needed to get away and try to calm down. After I drank my Greens+, I felt a slight surge of energy and seemed to wake up a bit. I managed to make and eat dinner, clean up the kitchen, wrap a few presents, and do some studying. By 7:30, though, the head-bobbing had begun. So I went to bed, and read until about 8:30.
Day 2: Wow, I had one of the best sleeps in my life last night! I woke up to go to the bathroom 3 times, which is too bad, but I was in such a deep sleep for most of the night that I woke up feeling awesome this morning. The gym was good, my workout was great, and I felt so much better when I came to work. Again, around 10, I got a slightly less severe pounding headache in the same areas and I started to become a little tired, my eyes drooping on me. The remainder of the day was a slight struggle to stay awake and concentrate on my work. By the time I arrived home, I was feeling quite sleepy. However, I did have a bit more energy than the previous evening and was able to complete a few necessary household tasks. Bedtime came quick again, though, and I seemed to fall asleep quite fast.
Day 3: I felt my sleep quality was quite good except that I woke up at 3:30 AM again! This is one of my problems, one that has bothered me for the past couple of months. When I know my alarm will go off at 5, I tend to be unable to fall back to sleep. If I know I still don't need to get up for a few hours, I can sleep again for a few more hours. Today I had a pretty good run but early morning I began to feel very sleepy again. My eyes just wanted to close! I think that simply sitting at a desk and staring at a screen all day doesn't help, though - I know I feel a lot more alert and happier when I'm moving around. I notice, however, that I feel much less dehydrated this week. Caffeine is a diuretic, and I always wondered if my daily cup was removing too much water from my body.
Day 4: I had another pretty great sleep and woke up feeling quite refreshed. I only had a very minor headache begin around 10 AM, but it lasts merely minutes. I felt fairly energetic until mid-afternoon, but, again, I think this is typical now with an office job. Sitting all day is not only exhausting, it makes me bored and antsy and frustrated! I had to meet Bryan for dinner and decided to walk to Inglewood, which was great once I got going. I seemed perky all evening until our normal bedtime, and enjoyed a rather normal day.
Day 5: Sleep was great! I woke up ready to tackle an Insanity workout. This was my Friday off from work, so I generally have way more energy on these days to begin with. I awoke on schedule, worked out, ran errands, and was able to come home and study for a couple of hours. I attended a fitness course for four hours that evening - by 8 I was really tired, but that does coincide with our normal bedtime. Overall, I felt great and didn't feel like I needed coffee at all.
Day 6 & 7: When I decided to stop caffeine cold-turkey last Monday, I wasn't really thinking about how busy the weekend was going to be. In addition to the 4-hour fitness course Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday were 8-hour courses with the majority of the time spent being active. Saturday I did really well - I was full of energy, I didn't have any crashes during the afternoon, and I even had enough stamina left over to attend Bryan's family Christmas dinner as well as hang out with him and his brother until almost 1 am! Now, this wasn't a great idea because of the course Sunday. Sunday, though, I still did not touch caffeine and managed to make it through the day on 5 hours of sleep. I was absolutely exhausted Sunday evening - physically and mentally - so I anticipated a great slumber. I fell asleep by 8 but awoke at 1:30 for no reason, staying awake to read for an hour.
Needless to say, on day 8, I feel pretty tired, but I know I am coming off a hard weekend and little sleep to make up for it. But, overall, I feel perfectly fine - no more headaches, I'm less thirsty and dehydrated during the days, and I even wake up less parched than normal. I want to refrain from any caffeine until Christmas to see how that length of time makes me feel. Obviously, my sleep patterns are still in need of repair, but I know with any nutritional fix, it takes time, sometimes up to 8 weeks, to see any improvement.
Coffee beans grown in sub-par conditions may likely be infested with moulds, bacterias and pesticides, and the processing activities it undergoes to become that beverage we enjoy so much will remove vital nutrients while adding more bad stuff. Coffee grown organically and that which costs more to purchase (due to improved processing techniques) is supposedly better for you (yay, good news as Kickinghorse Coffee is the BEST!).
I've been struggling with sleep issues for months and my inability to stay asleep and acquire at least 7 hours each night has gotten to the point where I am anxious before bed and seriously frustrated with myself most days and nights. I feel like I can barely function most days, my attention span is about 2 minutes for any given task, and my mind is almost constantly in a translucent fog. This is not good for work, let alone my studies on top of that! My ND says my adrenals are stressed, and when they are stressed, sleep is tough to come by. So many factors can cause stress but the one that keeps showing its face in all my research is, you guessed it, caffeine!
So, simply for trial purposes, I have decided to give up caffeine for at least one week to see if I notice any differences in my concentration, my ability to think and my sleep quality. I'm not one of those people who are so attached to coffee that I simply couldn't live without it; however, I do crave it most days, especially at work. Coffee, specifically Starbucks' coffee, has become like a warm blanket for me each morning - it warms me up after breakfast, reducing the discomfort of the office freeze that most women experience each day; it gets me off my butt for a quick 10 minute walk during a day when I don't really have many reasons to leave my seat; and the aroma and taste have become a comfort when I am just looking for some quiet time to relax or read. (This is why I can't imagine I'll give up coffee forever after this week is over but if my sleep is drastically changed, I will consider reducing how often I drink the yummy, yummy stuff!)
My typical coffee is 12 ounces before 10:00 AM so theoretically this should not affect my sleep. Coffee is supposed to have a half life of 7 hours, which means half of its content can stay in your body up to 7 hours after consumption. This would mean I should be free of my relatively small cup by 5:00 PM. However, I wonder if my adrenals are simply overstimulated enough by my stress that they can't handle the caffeine.
On to my experiment and my experiences!
Day 1: I went to bed in decent time Sunday night, technically a day without caffeine, but couldn't fall asleep despite feeling sleepy. I had bought a slice of pie after my dance class and ate that around 1:30 PM. By 2:30 I could not keep my eyes open and at 3:00 I lay down on the couch to read, waking up from a deep sleep by my ringing phone at 5:30. So, perhaps this nap had some affect on bedtime. (And apparently sugar really does make me crash now!)
I felt alright Monday morning when I woke up. I was awake and ready for the gym, and I managed to run almost as long as I'd hoped. My first few hours at work were typically but around 10:00, when my body is used to that caffeine, I suddenly got this awful pounding headache and become quite restless. As the day dragged on, the head-bobbing started and I literally struggled to keep my eyes open from about noon until 4. The bus ride home was much of the same.
When I arrived home, all I could think about was sleeping. Bryan kept asking me questions about dinner and I got frustrated and told him I couldn't think about making food at the moment. I needed to get away and try to calm down. After I drank my Greens+, I felt a slight surge of energy and seemed to wake up a bit. I managed to make and eat dinner, clean up the kitchen, wrap a few presents, and do some studying. By 7:30, though, the head-bobbing had begun. So I went to bed, and read until about 8:30.
Day 2: Wow, I had one of the best sleeps in my life last night! I woke up to go to the bathroom 3 times, which is too bad, but I was in such a deep sleep for most of the night that I woke up feeling awesome this morning. The gym was good, my workout was great, and I felt so much better when I came to work. Again, around 10, I got a slightly less severe pounding headache in the same areas and I started to become a little tired, my eyes drooping on me. The remainder of the day was a slight struggle to stay awake and concentrate on my work. By the time I arrived home, I was feeling quite sleepy. However, I did have a bit more energy than the previous evening and was able to complete a few necessary household tasks. Bedtime came quick again, though, and I seemed to fall asleep quite fast.
Day 3: I felt my sleep quality was quite good except that I woke up at 3:30 AM again! This is one of my problems, one that has bothered me for the past couple of months. When I know my alarm will go off at 5, I tend to be unable to fall back to sleep. If I know I still don't need to get up for a few hours, I can sleep again for a few more hours. Today I had a pretty good run but early morning I began to feel very sleepy again. My eyes just wanted to close! I think that simply sitting at a desk and staring at a screen all day doesn't help, though - I know I feel a lot more alert and happier when I'm moving around. I notice, however, that I feel much less dehydrated this week. Caffeine is a diuretic, and I always wondered if my daily cup was removing too much water from my body.
Day 4: I had another pretty great sleep and woke up feeling quite refreshed. I only had a very minor headache begin around 10 AM, but it lasts merely minutes. I felt fairly energetic until mid-afternoon, but, again, I think this is typical now with an office job. Sitting all day is not only exhausting, it makes me bored and antsy and frustrated! I had to meet Bryan for dinner and decided to walk to Inglewood, which was great once I got going. I seemed perky all evening until our normal bedtime, and enjoyed a rather normal day.
Day 5: Sleep was great! I woke up ready to tackle an Insanity workout. This was my Friday off from work, so I generally have way more energy on these days to begin with. I awoke on schedule, worked out, ran errands, and was able to come home and study for a couple of hours. I attended a fitness course for four hours that evening - by 8 I was really tired, but that does coincide with our normal bedtime. Overall, I felt great and didn't feel like I needed coffee at all.
Day 6 & 7: When I decided to stop caffeine cold-turkey last Monday, I wasn't really thinking about how busy the weekend was going to be. In addition to the 4-hour fitness course Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday were 8-hour courses with the majority of the time spent being active. Saturday I did really well - I was full of energy, I didn't have any crashes during the afternoon, and I even had enough stamina left over to attend Bryan's family Christmas dinner as well as hang out with him and his brother until almost 1 am! Now, this wasn't a great idea because of the course Sunday. Sunday, though, I still did not touch caffeine and managed to make it through the day on 5 hours of sleep. I was absolutely exhausted Sunday evening - physically and mentally - so I anticipated a great slumber. I fell asleep by 8 but awoke at 1:30 for no reason, staying awake to read for an hour.
Needless to say, on day 8, I feel pretty tired, but I know I am coming off a hard weekend and little sleep to make up for it. But, overall, I feel perfectly fine - no more headaches, I'm less thirsty and dehydrated during the days, and I even wake up less parched than normal. I want to refrain from any caffeine until Christmas to see how that length of time makes me feel. Obviously, my sleep patterns are still in need of repair, but I know with any nutritional fix, it takes time, sometimes up to 8 weeks, to see any improvement.
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