In previous entries, I have lamented the addiction to flavor, I seemed to have. It seemed weak and infantile to constantly be putting tasty things in my piehole. Once upon a time, flavor was associated with food. It could serve as a tool to distinguish food from non-food and perhaps assist in the detection of poisons when ancient man was hungry enough to attempt to consume something he had never tried before. (tree bark, skunk cabbage, bugs, who knows?) The desire to be constantly amused by flavor struck me as an inane, thoughtless way to live and I quite agree with Thoreau about the value of an unexamined life.
With this in mind, I wondered whether I might enhance my appreciation of the pleasures provided by flavors if I could abstain from them for a week. While food has flavor, the constant bombardment of the buds was coming in the form of coffee and diet soda. For a week, I would drink water only.
Any tastes I might enjoy would come with nutrition attached: a flavor strike.
For anyone who might be thinking about their own relationship with their food (and in this specific case, their drink), I present to you, the week in review:
Day 1:
Reminding myself not to get a diet soda when I get home from work. Thoughts of beer enter my mind instead, but that's not allowed either. Gloomily, I pour another glass of the clear stuff. Can I do this?
Late next morning, headaches begin. Passed on coffee this morning and having had no diet colas, I'm getting a caffeine withdrawal headache. Took a naproxen sodium to take the edge off. I don't like to take medication because it masks symptoms that are messages from your body that you need to change what you are doing. In this case, my body is asking for a drug I'm addicted to. My answer, in little blue pill form, is "No."
Day 2
Headache is steady. It may also have to do with hayfever. (Unfortunate timing for this experiment.)
I'm drinking less than I suppose I should; a little worried about bladder stones later in the week.
Day 3
Headache on the periphery. Quite sufferable.
Am I eating more? I'm reaching in my snack drawer a lot and having to tear myself away. While flavor is now always accompanied by nutrition, it is also carrying calories with it. I wasn't doing this before when I drank my coffee. Appetite suppression of caffeine may be a good thing while the blood pressure raising adrenaline release is the counterweight. This kind of trade-off is rife in physiology.
Day 4
Annoyingly obsessed with eating. Serious munchies. The addiction to flavor doesn't go away with the liquids. I'm as mentally weak as I have ever been. I'm on a diet, and I'm as edgy and irked as those people who get on those fad diets where they deprive themselves of way too much.
Day 5
Headache gone. Still not sure if it was caffeine withdrawal or hayfever. Will never know because I have no plans of repeating this experiment. Blood pressure sank 6-8 systolic points. The caffeine may well be a good thing to target if blood pressure becomes worrisome. Not particularly annoyed by diet, knowing I'm done in two days.
Day 6
Looking forward to tomorrow. This was a dumb idea, but I'm a stubborn enough cuss to see it through.
Day 7
Confirmed blood pressure drop. Busted open a brewski to celebrate the end of the experiment. It wasn't as big a relief to get the flavored drinks back as I thought it might. Perhaps I was able to go through with it because it's not so much an addiction as a habit. A psychological need, rather than a physiological one.
Well, folks. I learned less from this week than I hoped, but the caffeine effect was pretty profound. The slaking of the flavor habit may have been real, but boy was I getting sick of water. It was bottled stuff too. (Provided by my employer.) It's not as though it wasn't good stuff, though some bottled water is reportedly municipal tap water from better regions of our nation. I'm told New York water is some of the best in the world. I'm a spoiled rotten little kid stuck in an old dying man's body. I have become no stronger this week, but perhaps a mote wiser?
* DM
Next: Roar.
Fitness Goals:
60 beats per minute resting pulse.
10 minutes hard cycling. (intensity 5 out of 10)
Weights: 3 days - 100 lbs. - 6 cycles of 5,5,5,10 repetitions (2 cycles/day)
Current Fitness Record: (since last entry)
3 x < 2 min cycling - average intensity 3.5 - 65 cycles (Pulse = 126 at last check 2-2008)
0 day - 65 lbs. - 0 cycles
Pulse: 68
Blood Pressure: 109/75 4/18/08
BMI 24
Workout Wingwoman Gingersoul's Goals & Progress: Unknown
RECENT SYMPTOMS : None.
ONGOING SYMPTOMS: Clicking knees, Pain in right knee when kneeling and shifting knee to the right. Hyperhidrosis.
DIAGNOSIS: Unknown injury to right knee, possible impact from small stumble (c. 2006) onto landing of concrete stairs. Injured knee joints from sprinting (c. 2007)
DRUG REGIMEN: Aspartame. (3 diet sodas daily) Caffeine (three cups of coffee daily. One cola.)ONGOING TREATMENT: Tri-Annual dental visits. Cycling / Spinning for strength training.
PROGNOSIS FOR FOLLOWING WEEK: Slow improvement of knees. Good health.
POTENTIAL TREATMENTS: Fish Oil supplements. Leafy greens. Axillary vacuum curettage.
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