Health Supplement Update

Eleven days ago I began a regimen of health supplements in an effort to get control over my body and hopefully FEEL BETTER. I also cut out all diet soft drinks after nearly 30 years of consuming them.

The decision to nix diet sodas caused a bit of a setback. Although I never felt that I was over-consuming, drinking about 1-2 cans a day, it was slowly dawning on me that maybe this stuff was causing some of my problems. The more I read about saccharin and other artificial sweeteners, the more concerned I became about their effects.

Let me tell you that these evil, manufactured sugars did not want to go quietly into the night. Last week I experienced migraines so fierce, I thought I would need hospitalization. Accompanying those debilitating headaches was nausea. I kept telling myself: "You're stronger than these chemicals! Don't let them beat you!"

It was full-on war.

So I persevered, continuing to take my Valvoline...er...flax oil, vitamins, herbal teas, and eat sensibly. Guess what? I've noticed the last few days I haven't been as hungry. I can actually be satisfied with less food. Before embarking on this journey, I thought I might really have a tapeworm because I was hungry and craving foods all the frickin' frackin' time. I would eat and eat and never be satisfied.

Not only is my appetite under control, my memory has improved. The cobwebs in my brain have been brushed away, leaving me with clearer thinking. Speaking of brushing, my hair has never looked better. My acid reflux has calmed down. My energy hasn't been at this level since...well, I don't really remember when I felt this energized. Seriously. I am BLOWN AWAY by these results.

I know the supplements are helping me too, so I don't want to take away their role in this, but I think the biggest culprit was the diet soft drinks! I found this article today on mudphudder's blog and it was quite an eye opener. All this time I thought I was saving myself precious calories when all I was doing was confusing my body into thinking it was getting something sweet when it wasn't. Apparently, the body will rebel when constantly getting mixed signals. Excerpt:

When people eat sweet foods, the sweet taste signals an impending high-calorie bolus to the body, which registers caloric fulfillment of energy needs and also induces metabolic changes for use of the incoming energy. With use of these low-calorie sweeteners, these natural responses are disrupted because the body can no longer trust a sweet taste to indicate a high-calorie intake. After a while, the body can no longer accurately gauge daily caloric intake, causing a rise in appetite while burning fewer calories.

My poor body must've stopped trusting me! I hope after 30 years of this abuse that it can find a way to forgive me. And heal.