Wednesday, September 9, 2015

My Love Affair With Joe

Here I sit, the victim of yet another involuntary 7:30 a.m. wake-up call. Which in and of itself wouldn't be so awful if I had actually gone to sleep at midnight when I got in bed, not screwed around on social media until I wasn't-so-sleepy at one-thirty in the morning. Regardless, that was my choice then, and this is my reality now, so what on earth do I do with my racing brain that simply won't turn off once it gets flipped on? Since all this funny business started, my flares are getting worse and ability to cope is degrading...

I absolutely suck at meditating. Although I know full well the mind is a muscle and exercising it into relaxation is both important and takes practice, I haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet. What I am doing, however, is looking at my coffee consumption. My relationship with coffee is a dependent and joyful attachment, but we have a bit of a history. I had to give up coffee entirely when I was first sick with CFS/ME. Since the caffeine's stimulation of my adrenal gland destroyed my fragile grasps of energy, it had to go. Once I got my virus managed and went back to work, coffee became a necessary way to get through the day again. We quickly fell back in love and have remained so ever since.

When I got on my clean eating kick what I put in my coffee changed, but I alternative-health researched until I felt confident the benefits of consuming the controversial brew outweighed the risk. Phew! I woulda probably stayed on this train forever if a lady I work with hadn't told me about Dr. Perricone and his belief that the oils in coffee store caffeine in the cells which when built up over a lifetime, contribute significantly to middle-aged insomnia. Of course I ignored her, until this latest round of unexplainable sleeplessness reared its ugly head. I researched her claim, but Google couldn't find anything about it using the search terms I entered. It was just more stuff about inflammation and cortisol, which I am already well versed in.

But I am far more willing to turn to my lifestyle when problems with my health arise than rely on the limited ignorance of conventional medicine (i.e. the drug trail to side-effect city), so I decided to give this green tea thing a whirl. Yesterday was my first day. I brewed one tiny little leveled-off spoonful of coffee beans (as opposed to two heaping) with a bag of coconut chai green tea in my French press. I still added my stevia, teaspoon of raw sugar, coconut oil and dash of half and half, and it was delicious. Around mid-afternoon I may have encountered a bit of the "afternoon slump," but it was nothing to stop me in my tracks. I'll have to wait and see if this makes a difference before deciding to do away with the small amount of coffee I still add, but figured this is a good place to start. Baby steps got me here, and baby steps will keep me going until I find a way to live successfully with this illness.

Thanks for joining,
Leah

#sleep #insomnia #coffee #chronicillness #fibromyalgia      

5 comments:

  1. http://callahanwriter.com/2015/09/10/5-ways-how-the-bible-helps-us-cope-with-chronic-pain-and-fibromyalgia/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sending you extra spoons and a gentle hug.

    Be good to yourself today.

    Claire
    x

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  3. It's been my experience in working with many people with Fibro that insomnia is part is the package. It has to do with the adrenal cascade and after a time - the body stops making the same amount of serotonin. It is true that I cannot have caffeine of any kind after 5 pm so I don't doubt that it is part of the equation. However being that I work with Fibro insomniacs who do not drink coffee, I have not yet been convinced to break up with Joe :) A very yummy alternative that I tried is Teeccino - mocha flavor. Decaf tea that tastes just like coffee.

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  4. My morning heavenly coffee can sometimes pull me out of sleep. Once I do get to sleep I want to hang on to that dulled pain state not wake up to deal with it. Won't go to sleep, won't wake up. I am practicing an imaginary relationship with my body which is stupid but it helps me.
    Gillian

    So sorry. I forgot that my blog doesn't leave a name. I am going to play the fibro-fog card.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My morning heavenly coffee can sometimes pull me out of sleep. Once I do get to sleep I want to hang on to that dulled pain state not wake up to deal with it. Won't go to sleep, won't wake up. I am practicing an imaginary relationship with my body which is stupid but it helps me.
    Gillian

    So sorry. I forgot that my blog doesn't leave a name. I am going to play the fibro-fog card.

    ReplyDelete