Super excited; last night I slept ALL THE WAY to 5:50.  That’s almost 3 hours past 3am.  A nice change.

I think it is possible that energy drinks have been infiltrating my sleep…and my mood…..

I am still trying to figure out my stomach issues so I have been told that coffee is the worst for anyone with stomach issues.  For a long time, I thought, “Well then cut off my arm.” Because I don’t just drink coffee to wake up…..I actually like it.  It’s my morning therapy!

But as I was dragging myself to my sister in laws day spa, in pain; she had a heart to heart with me about the foods we eat.

She eats and lives by Raw food alone.  Every time I go see her, it must be her shopping day, because she shows me her bag of fresh (organic) greens and her raw nuts that she lives on.  She swears she eats all day and probably takes in 3000 calories; but as it’s all raw and easily absorbed into her body, she is a complete twig.

A few days after I left, I followed Raw as much as possible.  I felt really good.  Unfortunately, old lifestyles creep in and shopping for Raw/Organic isn’t a daily part of my life.

It’s amazing how we fall into old patterns.  And it’s AMAZING how we know what we SHOULD do to be healthy – and then rationalize it away!

My goal of late is to do as much as is within my control to be healthy.  I have been eating plenty of salads and fruit, but exercise still eludes me.

Last night, however, because of the energy drink ‘surge’, I decided to go for a quick run to get rid of the adrenaline pumping through my veins.  Yesterday was NOT a proud day for me; my girlfriend even noticed I wasn’t my happy self.  It took some thinking to figure out what was going on, but when I chewed out my mother in law; I realized something was definitely up!

The only thing that had changed was these Starbucks Refreshers.  I’m not saying they are bad; in my mind, I thought they were better than Monster drinks which REALLY upset my stomach.  These didn’t upset my stomach at all and gave me a boost in the morning, which was nice.  But what I noticed was I was starting to feel like a chihuahua ready for a fight.  And over the course of the last week, I realized I didn’t need any extra help in the aggression department, because I have plenty of anxiety to keep me busy.

So last night when I took the dogs for a run, I decided to push myself to the limit to purge my body of the extra “oomph” I was feeling.

When I came home I felt really good and I realized; if I ever do a 5k again, I’ll know how to ‘gear up’ for it!

I felt a more relaxing feeling coming over me and I decided that I will ditch the Refreshers for now and look for something a bit ‘softer’, like Zipp Fizz.  (am I starting to sound like a commercial yet?)

Refreshers are good and probably don’t affect half the people like they do me.  I’m not telling you not to buy them.  But for ME….they aren’t a good choice.  I will know over the next couple of days if they chihuahua leaves my body.

I do know a few things though; eating well makes you feel well.  Coffee is super bad for your stomach (especially when you have GERD like I do) and changing you habits honestly takes a lifetime of repeating the good stuff day in  and day out to make it part of your life.

Cutting out coffee was quite the feat.  And though I’m not 100% coffee free; my coffee pot hasn’t been used recently and may find its way to a shelf in the garage.

My health is the most important thing.  Being aware of good choices won’t make a bit of difference.  MAKING good choices…now that’s accomplishment.

Happy Tuesday