As day three draws to a close, I sip on my 200ml glass of milk. Today has been the toughest day of the challenge so far, but as as Ed Hillary said "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
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Firstly today's menu:
Breakfast - oh dear sweet breakfast, how I love thee. If there is one thing I will always cherish from the BTL Challenge is discovering porridge!
Lunch - I ate lunch in a seminar at work. Great seminar - 4 minutes snapshots of the research going on across the School - the variety is amazing. Shame the same couldnt be said about lunch. I made a decision as I forced down the sandwich - never ever again. Tomorrow will be fruit only and I'll find other uses for the bread and the damn luncheon meat. If there was one thing I wish I could have done differently when making my purchases - I'd have purchased 150g of shave ham instead of the 200g of luncheon meat. Lesson learnt!
Dinner! And its not pasta! I don't quite know what it is - but it was tasty. Rice, soy sauce, luncheon, silverbeet stalks fried off and served on top of the silverbeet leaves.
Saving the fruit for lunch for now on, I had a glass of milk to make up my allowance for the day. Another successful day eating. I honestly haven't struggled with feeling hungry at all during the three days so far. If only it was what I've found difficult...
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We all knew we'd get here eventually didn't we? Other than needing a constant supply of tissues, my cold/flu from the weekend has gone. But the leg pain I mentioned yesterday hasn't. I admit to myself now something I wasn't quite ready to admit to myself last night as I typed. The pain had only started late on Monday and continued to intensify on Tuesday. Today is has continued and although I currently have some respite I suspect it will return later.
The pain isn't a flu symptom but is a somewhat less well known side effect of caffeine withdrawal. Google it for yourself - story after story of sciatic pain suffered by those taking a break from caffeine. Having never experienced more than the occasional trapped nerve, I really wasn't ready for this. It's one of those pains that just is - it really doesnt matter what you do. Sitting. Standing. Lying. Foetusing. It just bloody hurts. And I a typical bloke - I don't like pain. Evidently it passes in a few day - every cloud I guess. I have also avoided the headaches - which is surprising as I prone to a good headache or five. But let me assure you that at 3am this morning as I was googling caffeine withdrawal symptoms I nearly said to hell with the BTL challenge. It was only because I had a sleeping Tuvok snoring on me as I failed to watch the cricket that I didn't.
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But I need to address the elephant a moment - what do I do on Saturday with my addiction? As a friend of mine told me yesterday:
Instant coffee is a basic human right for office workers.
Today was the first day that I have been able to distinguish symptoms and work without caffeine is an interesting experience. It's not just the leg pain (although that isnt endearing caffeine free life to me much) but my brain. I have lost the edge. I became the man who couldn't multitask. I felt out of control, and that is not a place I enjoy being.
One of the many pages I read in the night struck me and I cant help but reproduce a small section just because it struck a chord as I reread it this evening:
My days now go downhill. This is a strange new experience for me. My mornings start bright and clear and the weariness of my mind and body slowly builds until evening. On the one hand, I don’t crash multiple times throughout the day, but on the other hand, I’m completely worthless at night
Is this what normal people feel like?
I don’t know if I like it.
(http://blessedmadman.wordpress.com/)
That really does sum it up for me, I don't know if I like it.
So sorry, as much as I know people will be suggesting I dont, I will be having a large flat white on Saturday morning. Possibly four.
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