BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Home Cooking What's your Typical Daily Menu?

Nancy -

I get sent a lot of "healthy eating" books as part of running this site, and it seems every one of the last ten books I've read have spoken out about how harmful caffeine and sugar are to a body. They cause a wealth of inflammation reactions as well as hormonal imbalances and mood swings. So each book talked about how critical it was to reduce those in a diet.

I had dinner last night with my friend Nancy and we were talking about caffeine. She was told by her doctor in no uncertain terms to cut caffeine from her diet, a few years ago.

I went through that process myself about ten years ago. It was very rough, but I felt SO much better afterward. No more energy swings. I always had energy. I slept much better.

Yes absolutely it's hard to do! The body gets addicted to caffeine just like it gets addicted to cigarettes and alcohol. It has very real withdrawal symptoms.

Tea can be drunk cool - many people drink cool iced tea for example. It's fine not to drink milk - many adults are lactose intolerant anyway.

I realize change is always hard. Still, give thought to the idea that many of the stress issues might be caused by that sugar and caffeine, and that by cutting them out that health could be far improved. I know many of my visitors have found that to be the case. The human body just isn't meant for ingesting large amounts of sugar. It's only fairly recently in history that people ingested the volumes of sugar we do in a modern diet.

Think of it this way - if you were a heavy smoker, and you temporarily became a "monster" while trying to quit, would people really beg you to start smoking again just because your withdrawal period was rough?

One of the things I am planning to do soon is live an healthier life and that will include cutting down on my Pepsi intake. I will soon finish to write down all my ideas and after that I want to give my brain a break, I want to relax again and be able to focus. I am so tired of always thinking and worrying. So the days I won't have anything special like an appointment or an Hockey game I will spend it outside. I will walk and bike plus I will eat and drink healthier. I'm also going to give myself a break from vitamins and calciums since I will eat and drink healthy during that time. I of course won't completely cut off Pepsi, I will just drink some after supper like I used to do. I'm also planning on putting sunscreen on even during Winters, having small walks once in a while is okay not putting any on while spending hours outside without any is not very good (one of my aunt have a face completely ruined by the sun). I actually put a date on this, the day the schedule of the new season of the Dallas Stars is out of if they announce Jamie Benn (my favorite) as the captain before it will be that day (they do have a big announcement on june 4) I will change my email address and begin the next day my big changes for my mental health (which of course would help my physical health), I will do that until their season is over then I will be able to finally make a big decision about my future (school...move out....), I have not been able to make that decision and I know it is because my brain is overloaded and stressed to the maximum.

Nancy, your goals are so good. I can tell you have put a lot of thought into it. Good luck.

Hi Terri! The problem with me is that I always had goals but I either abandon them or gave them up or they don't work out, hopefully neither of that will happen. How is your shoulder?

Shoulder is slowly healing. Thanks for asking.

Nancy -

That is a great plan, to take things one step at a time. Definitely worry is damaging to your health, it releases stress hormones which cause all sorts of damage to your body. So the more you can relax, and release that stress, the healthier your body will be.

I would still take vitamins - it is nearly impossible to get all the vitamins you need from food even if you ate exactly perfect food. There simply isn't a combination of food you could eat and get 100% of all the vitamins. So I'd keep the vitamins in your daily schedule.

While you're doing all this writing, this is the *perfect* time to write down your priorities and goals. Writing them down has a huge positive impact on reaching them.

Try starting here, with our thread on priorities. You can read what many of us have set as our priorities. Then you can think about your own! That gives you that "foundation" on which you build everything else.

Write Down your Priorities

Writing them down helps give them "permanence" in your brain.

Thank you Lisa for that link! I probably will post there one day.

Last night I drank Pepsi and ate rice (Uncle Ben cheese and brocoli..the 1 in the pouch not the box), white bread with golden corn syrup, sunflower seeds (salted in shells), bacon hickory potatosticks and some orange small Mr Freeze. For breakfast I had two toasts with golden corn syrup and grape juice. Earlier I had smashed carots and potatoes with chicken roasted in the oven.

And of course Pepsi with my earlier meal :-D haha. I will be able to cut down on it like I used to but I don't see myself stopping drinking it completely, moderation is the best thing and right now I am not using that common sense.

Last night I drank Pepsi and ate spaghetti with butter, white uncooked potatoes fried in butter and many small orange Mr Freeze. This morning I had four toasts with grape juice. I had a few small blue raspberry Mr Freeze as a snack. Earlier I had dill pickles and ground beef with ketchup with Pepsi then some small blue raspberry Mr Freeze.

I have kicked caffeine several times only to go back. I don't like caffeine but my hubby really encourages me to ride that snake because he is addicted and he thinks caffeine is good for your mind to keep you sharp.

I am concerned about my brain!

I do enjoy a good cup of tea or coffee though but not for the caffeine.