Sunshine Blogger Nomination!
I was very humbled to be nominated for the Sunshine Blogger award – a community driven positivity aware through the blog community. Find out more here!
Blog Name Challenge: Get To Know The Blogger
Have you heard of the Blog Name Challenge? This different direction of a get to know you post is great for engagement with your followers!
Dear me; it’s okay to be overwhelmed
I’m trying to remind myself that it’s okay to be overwhelmed. Sometimes, life isn’t super great. An open letter to myself, and everyone who’s struggling
12 Months and Look Where I Am
It's been 12 months on from my last post. I honestly thought that I'd be one of those success stories you read about. The "Oh my goodness, she's lost 40kg in one year! Let's celebrate!" type of girl. Alas, that wasn't the case. I got complacent and lazy. I took on injuries, life changes, life halts, life in general. I'm actually refusing to step on the scales at the moment because I know I'm not going to like what I see.
I just took seven (Yep, SEVEN) boxes of clothes from nearly 12 months ago into storage today. Truth be told, I don't fit into them anymore. That's such a massive blow after having so much drive 12 months ago. I guess that's the thing though, and what I preached so much before - you gotta keep trying. It's not an overnight thing, apparently, it's not even a year-long thing - it's a lifetime thing. Maybe that's something I just need to keep reminding myself over and over. The way that I am now didn't happen with one meal or one decision. It was multiple. And to put myself in a positive mindset going forward, it will be the same thing.
So I jumped back in four days ago. I again haven't jumped on the scales. I, however, did buy a new swimsuit and took before photos. I'm taking shakes (which, omg, again goes against everything I've ever said) BUT I'm keeping in a deficit so I'll take that.
I'm also (impatiently) waiting for my gym to open its doors at the end of the month so I can get back into the swing of things. However, with an ongoing elbow (of all things) injury, it's going to be a tough road.
Thank you for tuning back in, I hope you're doing well and can't wait for you to follow this next chapter.
Staying motivated when you’re sick
How many of you have struggled in trying to stay motivated when you’re sick? Because I have a hilarious story – I…
What happened when I tried to beat coffee addiction
There isn't much of a debate that I'm obsessed with coffee. It's a tag on all my social channels, and I'm consistently in photos with a McDonald's take away cup in my hand. So imagine when I had this crazy idea one day that maybe, coffee wasn't doing me the best it could be. Maybe I should try to give it up. It was peaking me into high anxiety - and from a fitness point of view, it probably wasn't helping the calorie count. Somewhere in my head - I went, "Y'know, for science - let's see what happens if I treat to beat my coffee addiction."
Now, I promise you that if ask anyone that knows me, they will tell you I'm actually properly addicted to coffee. And to be perfectly honest - I think a lot of the world is. Whether that be your local Starbucks or the niche little coffee place on the corner of the street, we've all got our own favourite places and spaces, blends and spends of every dollar that we put into it. I told my usual barista one morning of my plan to try to give up coffee. He was horrified, and just looked at me for a moment, before responding with "But why would you?"
It was a fair call really.
However, for the sake of the experiment and my own curiosity - I started on my detox journey.
LIFE-HACK:
I should probably give you the heads up at this point to strongly suggest if you're going to detox - start on a day, or preferably DAYS when you don't have anything particular on because this will kick you around.
I should probably give you the heads up at this point to strongly suggest if you're going to detox - start on a day, or preferably DAYS when you don't have anything particular on because this will kick you around.
Trying to Beat Coffee Addiction - Day One
Day one was fine until 2PM.
Oh man.
I'm not going to sugar coat that the headaches weren't pretty brutal on day one, because they absolutely were.
The thing that most people forget that coffee is an actual addiction.
If you stop - you do get withdrawals.
So at 2 PM - the headaches kicked in.
And so whilst sitting at work, dealing with customers with not so pleasant issues - the absolute killer mood swings kicked in full force. I was not someone you wanted to be friends with, and anyone who has done this detox process before would be able to agree 100% with me.
I ended up having to leave work early because I was that snippy, and physically could not shake the headaches.
Trying to Beat Coffee Addiction - Day Two
It didn't get any easier.
Introducing the cold sweats, more repeat headaches. I had to cancel a few of my fitness activities and meetups I had that afternoon as it was too unbearable to cope with. I was so tired and lethargic, my head was this foggy cloud of horribleness and I couldn't bare to stand upright. It got that bad that I had to get my housemate to come get me after work as I knew I couldn't drive. I'm actually surprised I even made it through the day consider the day I had yesterday.
Asprin and water was my best friend throughout the whole process, and took a little bit of the edge off, thankfully.
Also, sleep. Remember the life hack from above? Starting this on a Friday and going through onto the Sunday is an honest lifesaver.
Another suggestion I heard on the grapevine was taking magnesium tablets, as this helps with muscle relaxants (and as I was seizing like anything). So if you've got some handy - absolutely take some if you can.
Day three-four-five:
It started getting easier.
I can't say it was an easy process. I was fortunate enough that the bulk of the withdrawals hit over the weekend and although I was a grumpy thing for the few days, by the time Monday came around again - I felt a lot more energized. My cold shakes had stopped around day three, and the fog that had entered into my head suddenly felt a lot lighter. (Believe me, that was an amazing feeling.)
I can 100% say that after a week of not having coffee, I was feeling pretty good. I swapped back onto green tea (The T2 blends are amazing.) - so that I still had some buzz, and felt a bit better for it. My anxiety did also settle down a little as well, so in my experience, coffee was certainly not making friends with my brain.
.... I'd love to end this post and say that I'm 100 days sober from coffee.
Unfortunately, three weeks later and I ended up on a week of early starts at work and the coffee started again and I'm back to where I started.
Maybe I should do another post with an hourly update?
Have you tried detoxing before?
What was your experience? What were your best suggestions for getting past the withdrawals?
Let me know in the comments!
