Cuttin' back, day 3
Feb. 19th, 2009 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnridleyI decided a few days ago that I could probably do with less soda. I've been drinking 2x 16oz bottles of Mt Dew, minimum, per day for years. So I just didn't open #2 on Tuesday.
There was a blood drive on Wednesday morning at work, and I held off on the sugar+caffeine mix until after that. My BP has been typically about 135/78 when I donate, but on Wednesday it was 112/64, which I think is about where it was in the days when I wasn't slurping caffeine all day.
My pulse was still up close to 100 but it had been less than an hour since I got to work, and my pulse does take quite a while to recover. If I've been just sitting around for a couple of hours, it settles to between 60 and 70. I think it takes so long to recover because when I'm exercising, my "comfortable" range where I feel like I'm actually exerting myself puts my pulse around 180 which is a bit above the "predicted max" for my age, and well above the target zone. I've never paid much attention to numbers, I just ramp it up until I feel like I'm actually working.
I'm going to do 1 bottle a day for 3 or 4 weeks, then see if I can taper back from that. I've tried going faster than that in the past, and though I can get past the withdrawal OK, even if I stick with zero for a month or more, I still don't feel right. It may take me several months to go off it totally.
Don't bother suggesting diet soda. A) I really can't stand the taste, I have tried switching to it for a week or so and it just tastes like crap to me. B) it's the sugar as much as the caffeine that is hard for me to get off of, and when I've tried diet, I've wound up TOTALLY messed up, crazy tired but totally unable to sleep, messed up digestion, etc. C) I feel like if I decide something is bad for me, I should have the willpower to just stop consuming it rather than substituting something else.
There was a blood drive on Wednesday morning at work, and I held off on the sugar+caffeine mix until after that. My BP has been typically about 135/78 when I donate, but on Wednesday it was 112/64, which I think is about where it was in the days when I wasn't slurping caffeine all day.
My pulse was still up close to 100 but it had been less than an hour since I got to work, and my pulse does take quite a while to recover. If I've been just sitting around for a couple of hours, it settles to between 60 and 70. I think it takes so long to recover because when I'm exercising, my "comfortable" range where I feel like I'm actually exerting myself puts my pulse around 180 which is a bit above the "predicted max" for my age, and well above the target zone. I've never paid much attention to numbers, I just ramp it up until I feel like I'm actually working.
I'm going to do 1 bottle a day for 3 or 4 weeks, then see if I can taper back from that. I've tried going faster than that in the past, and though I can get past the withdrawal OK, even if I stick with zero for a month or more, I still don't feel right. It may take me several months to go off it totally.
Don't bother suggesting diet soda. A) I really can't stand the taste, I have tried switching to it for a week or so and it just tastes like crap to me. B) it's the sugar as much as the caffeine that is hard for me to get off of, and when I've tried diet, I've wound up TOTALLY messed up, crazy tired but totally unable to sleep, messed up digestion, etc. C) I feel like if I decide something is bad for me, I should have the willpower to just stop consuming it rather than substituting something else.
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 03:23 am (UTC)I'm doing fine with water and fruit juice.
My pulse is NORMALLY around 65 or 70, resting. I've tried keeping my pulse down to the "recommended" 145 or so when I've been on treadmills and such at work, and it doesn't feel like I'm even accomplishing anything.
If I just get it up to where I like it, and it feels like I'm really working, and I can keep it there for an hour or more, it turns out that it's about 180. Even then it feels fine, it doesn't feel like I'm about to keel over or anything, I can still carry on a conversation, whatever.
It drops to 120 really fast when I stop, but then it takes about 20 minutes to drop to 100, then another hour to slowly creep down to 70. I think it's trying to flush fatigue poisons for a long time or something. It doesn't get down to 70 until I can't feel the fatigue in my legs anymore.
80/50 isn't crazy, I know several women who run that BP regularly.