Dealing With Caffiene Withdrawal

Going without that cup of coffee is really rough on people the first few days. So is going without cola, dark chocolate and energy drinks. Caffeine is in all of these things.
Hang in there! There is life after caffeine!
When we stop drinking coffee or other caffeinated we get the typical symptoms of withdrawal which include irritability, drowsiness, fatigue, headache, and anxiety.
The side effects of withdrawal are short-lived, and don’t happen at all for many. Some people do not experience them at all.
Nonetheless, caffeine withdrawal is considered serious enough that caffeine addiction was proposed as a substance-abuse problem to the American Psychiatric Association. The duration of withdrawal is estimated to be two to nine days for most people.
Why do we need to quit caffeine? It is hard to believe but it is just no good for you.
Caffeine further exhausts the body by stimulating our adrenal glands to produce adrenaline. Adrenaline is part of the “fight-or-flight response which is a biological reaction to stress. During this response, your body also produces higher levels of the hormone Cortisol—the “stress hormone.”
Cortisol is considered a stress hormone not because it is inherently bad for you; in fact, at normal levels it helps with glucose metabolism, regulating blood pressure, lowering inflammation, and raising immunity.
Cortisol is not all bad. It also has some short-term benefits when it enters the bloodstream in higher amounts: it creates better memory function, enables a quick burst of energy, and lowers our sensitivity to pain.
Substances like caffeine, can all too easily keep our Cortisol levels artificially high. That in turn can cause problem like lowered thyroid function, cognitive problems, decreased bone density and muscle tissue, higher blood pressure, lowered immunity, and an overall inflammatory reaction in the body.
Also if you have a belly roll around your middle you can probably blame that on cortisol overload as well.
To completely avoid caffeine, you will also want to avoid foods that are coffee flavored, such as ice cream and yogurt.
As far as chocolate goes, dark chocolate has the most caffeine. Even a small serving of dark chocolate can have up to30 milligrams of caffeine in it, nearly the same amount as a can of cola (as compared with 90-150 milligrams in a cup of coffee and 30-70 milligrams in a cup of caffeinated tea).
These foods are verboten during the cleanse anyway, but now you have even more reason to steer clear of them.
If you really can't stand the withdrawal you can yourself off coffee. Begin by cutting your regular coffee with decaffeinated coffee. You can create a mix of two-thirds coffee to one-third decaf for the first week. For week two, drop your coffee down to one-third real coffee to two-thirds decaf.

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Mind and Body Wholeness For Moms

It is hard for most moms to gain control of their lives what with juggling jobs, housework and a handful of kids. Who has time to take care of herself?
'How are you feeling?' can be a loaded question, especially if you are sick.
Emotions like laughter and joy can be uplifting and healing, while emotions like fear or bitterness can be toxic and destructive. When you get angry or depressed it affects the nervous system and weakens the immune system.
Ancient healing practices suggest that there are certain emotions that make their home in certain organs in the body. This is an integral part of Chinese medicine.
The theory is that energy travels through specific pathways beneath the skin surface called meridians. When negative emotions are experienced, there is either an overabundance of energy, a depletion of energy, or it gets blocked altogether. This causes illness.
Here is breakdown of the equivalences emotions and organs from ancient Chinese practices:
Emotion Organ
Worry Lung, stomach
Fear Kidneys, bladder
Anger Gall bladder, liver
Grief Heart, lungs
Lack of acceptance Pancreas, spleen, colon lungs
Sadness Heart, small intestine
Guilt Stomach, heart
Financial burden Upper back lungs
Lack of support Lower back

Problems usually manifest emotionally before they do physically and once physical problems appear it is an indication that we are in real trouble.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, all health issues are due to an energy imbalance. Chronic problems come from decades of repression and irregular energy control.
Symptoms that our lives and particularly stress might be getting too much for us include fatigue, weakness, headaches and constipation. These tell us that the flow of energy is being blocked in our body.
It is also really true that sorrow can cause a broken heart! Strong emotions such as grief and heartbreak can actually cause death. You can die from unrequited love.
Deep feelings such as sorrow, pain and loss can actually put a physical strain on the heart. They can also cause stress and weaken the immune system. The heart functions abnormally and creates the physical sensation of pain in the chest. Too much of this continued stress can prompt a heart attack.
It also helps to realize that we might manifest everything that we think. In the film –The Secret –one of the guest speakers in the film, Mike Dooley, says it best, “thoughts become things.”
How we spend our time thinking about life is how we are going to feel about life from moment to moment. This in turn has an immediate effect on the inner functions of the body like the nervous system, respiratory system, chemistry and energy.

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