Quit It Now - Cold Turkey

It's not neat. It's not pretty. But, oh so effective.

When choosing to change an addictive behavior, "cold turkey" is a most effective method to accomplish the STOP step of victory. That's where I am today. The MAINTAIN step in victory will be a later post.

Tuesday morning I woke up with "the stomach virus that's going around". Felt like death to me. Both ends exploded leaving me dehydrated and too weak to do anything but nap for two days straight. Five hours passed before a tiny ice chip no longer brought on nausea. My skin was flushed and hot, my pulse rate and blood pressure high. The headache, the gut pain, even my rib cage was too sore to touch. After twelve hours a cooling, lukewarm bath eased some of the discomfort. Never thought Gatorade would be my drink of choice. Did you know that if grape Gatorade, which is not purple but blue, is all that you are ingesting, your poop, what little there is, is bright green? Anyway, the point is the STOP step of victory over an addiction.

The addiction I am trying to quit on the Quit It Now Challenge (see picture link) is comfort eating in the evening. Well, what better way to lose the urge to comfort eat than a bout of vomiting with diarrhea? Takes that whole appetite thing right away. As an added plus to the situation I couldn't have my morning comfort of hot coffee either...the incredible headache with no pain meds in sight. Going cold turkey on two addictions at once, definitely not something I chose for myself. And yet, I did, after the fact.

That was Tuesday morning. It is now Saturday evening. The BRAT diet (bananas-rice-applesauce-toast) is over. The bod is back to normal. No, better than the old normal...no caffeine and no evening comfort eating. Thankfully The Creator's surgical tools are sharp and precise. The addictectomy was a brilliant success! Patient is feeling great, feeling free, feeling blessed and very grateful.

LESSON: When you pray, both the process and the answer may be different than you expect.