This post is part of an ongoing series of posts regarding my experiences working through the book Fully Fertile, by Tami Quinn, Beth Heller, and Jeanie Lee Bussell. For previous posts, click here.
So, the nutrition week. This is actually the first installment of my work through the nutrition week, because I fully intend to spend two weeks on it. And not just to avoid committing to extra sleep, which is the week that comes after it. Last week was the first, and it was the week I gave up pop. Specifically, I gave up my daily Diet Coke.
I thought this would be extremely hard. I thought I would lag mid-afternoon. I thought I would miss it. I actually really love the daily Diet Coke. But… I didn’t. I didn’t really mind at all.
At first, I switched it out for iced tea. I had this idea at a long, boring work lunch, where everyone at the table weirdly ordered iced tea. Seriously, there were seven men plus me, and they all one by one, ordered iced tea. What the hell, I thought, let’s make it eight. So I had this peach iced tea, with some genius iced-tea-cubes in it, so that it didn’t get watered down as it sat there melting on the first real spring day. Then, the next day at work, I filled a glass with ice, and another with hot water and made an extremely strong cup of tea, which I then dumped over the ice cubes once it had cooled a bit. And I really never looked back.
Because I’m a little behind on writing this, I am most of the way through the second nutrition week, so I will tell you that some days, the walk to the ice machine seemed too long, so I just drank plain old water. And that was actually fine too.
Coincidentally (or not, maybe), over the last two weeks I have also started getting up in the morning and getting more exercise. Here is the thing. Physically, I feel a lot better than I did three weeks ago. I have more energy, my mood is better, and I just feel vaguely better. I don’t know if it’s because I swapped out a drink composed almost exclusively of chemicals and artificial sweeteners for a drink composed of water and leaves (and no sugar, or equal, or sweet n low, or splenda, or any of that other fake-sugar crap — I drink my iced tea plain, like the Yankee that I am). Or maybe it’s the exercise. I don’t know. I just know that I feel better, and I’m sticking to it.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I will add that I have not, and do not intend to, give up my morning cup-and-a-half of coffee with milk. In Fully Fertile, it advises giving up the morning caffeine because it can mask the symptoms of sleep deprivation. Which is EXACTLY WHY I DRINK IT. I have three kids and a super-crazy job. I am kind of sleep deprived. And while I agree that actually getting sleep is probably a healthier way to make it easy to get up in the morning, I like to also use coffee for that purpose. Plus I love the stuff. I like the smell, I like the taste, and I like the act of drinking it. So, the coffee is here to stay. Baby steps.
GAYBY MAKES SIX 