An Aha moment...

My legs feel like they look like they HURT. Ouch.

I lasted approximately seven minutes with my husband this morning on our first try of the Insanity workout. By seven minutes in I wondered if this is what smoke inhalation feels like. My chest was burning and I felt faint. I hadn’t even worked up a real sweat.

I joined back in for about two minutes of mild insanity and then I decided to make my 90% decaf cup of coffee and put the dishes away. 

I’ve been weaning myself off of coffee for quite a while. I just can’t do it cold turkey. I was so sick one time that I could not ingest any coffee; I thought I was going to die. Not really, but kinda. The withdrawal headache is no joke. You might wonder how much caffeine I have in a day? Just one or two cups. That’s it. A morning pick me up and and afternoon pick me up. And an occasional evening shot.

I’ve been off of M&Ms even longer than “quite a while”. I went cold turkey. I don’t remember when “I quit” but I remember the day I fell off the wagon. It was June 23rd. I was all by myself. It was raining, I was watching a movie, I popped some popcorn and I heard them calling my name from the freezer. What? So, I was still holding on to some M&Ms for security. But that time I ate two ounces (a shot) and then I threw the rest away. Now that’s going cold turkey. 

So for a few weeks, I really haven’t been myself. I can’t concentrate. I’m not sleeping that great. I don’t have any energy and I am within my ten good days. I survived a whole cycle without M&Ms. I’ve made it through several weeks on half decaf but I feel sad. I miss my M&Ms, and I miss having a full cup of caffeine. I miss CAFFEINE. 

The last time I weaned myself off of caffeine, I had a reason to quit. I was trying to get pregnant. I didn’t drink anything with caffeine for five years. Christopher was an infant and I had gone back to work when I gave into a cup of happy coffee. I don’t have a reason to give it up now other than it's too hot to drink coffee. It would be nice to be able to skip a day without repercussions. 

Based on how I was feeling this evening I decided to Google, symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. You wouldn’t believe what I found! So this article says,  

Muscle Pain/Stiffness- If you normally have some caffeine prior to exercise then during caffeine withdrawal you could feel as though your muscles have weights strapped to them.

AHA!

Here’s the thing... for health reasons, I'm going to start taking my vitamins again (M&Ms) and I’m starting tomorrow off with a real cup of coffee. I'll be able to face Insanity, and hopefully make it to ten minutes. I feel better already!