At It Again

As many of you know, 2 years ago I gave up sweetness for Lent.  I learned a lot from that process. 

Then 2012 happened.  We had some HARD and unpleasant life circumstances.  I spent the majority of the year in adrenaline/survival mode or steeped in depression. I swiftly forgot about avoiding sweetness and got back into the habit of eatin' me some shug-uh. 

By Fall, things had settled down and we were in a much better place. However, in December I noticed I was having minor panic attacks nearly every day.  Since our life was far less stressful, I was confused.  True to myself, I Googled "panic attacks with no reason" and found some interesting information. 

Did you know that anxiety can be caused or exacerbated by DIET?  Yeah, neither did I!  I kept finding page after page of reliable information saying that people who have depression and anxiety should avoid caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and processed flour.  They apparently trick your blood into thinking it's under stress and so it kicks into adrenal mode and just throws everything out of whack.

I eventually found a book call "The Mood Cure" that not only told what to avoid, it gave recommendations for what to replace those things with and some simple supplements that can restore natural brain chemistry. 

The first thing I did was to wean myself off of caffeine.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE coffee with my heart.  I love everything about it from fragrance to flavor to that little shot of energy.  Instead of cutting it out, I replaced it with a good quality (read organic Swiss water) decaf.  Praise God, Costco carries it so it's not hard to get or expensive! Because I weaned myself off of it throughout the month, I didn't have much difficulty. 

After Christmas I began to take my little cocktail of vitamins and amino acids.  Then after New Year I committed to begin to wean myself off of sugar and white flour.  I decided (today) to chronicle this journey to good mental health on this blog.  Join me as I am gut wrenchingly honest about how it feels to cut out sugar and flour from an American diet.