Dry: Day 3...

So far, the only noticeable side-effect of laying off the booze, is that for the last couple of days I've been insatiably hungry.  I can't seem to eat enough.  Even when I'm so full I can't eat anymore, I'm still hungry.  It's fairly annoying, to say the least.

I'm dealing with it, first and foremost, by trying to simply accept it and not let it get to me.  And when I do eat, I'm eating healthy and lo-cal, lo-carb, lo-fat, etc.; all the good lo-'s.  And that's really not that difficult, because those are actually the foods that I've been craving lately.  I'm eating salads and yogurt and fruit smoothies the way I used to eat barbeque and burgers and fries.  And I've noticed that I've suddenly become really grossed out by a lot of the food I used to crave.  Fried foods, especially, have been turning my stomach lately, when recently they were a staple of my diet.  The last few times I ate anything fried, I felt horribly sick for the next several hours.  I was trying to figure out why, and it occurred to me that the drugs and alcohol were actually what made it possible for me to enjoy fried foods.  They made the food taste better than it normally would, and they masked the feelings of nausea that would come after.  Quite an unexpected benefit that I am taking full advantage of now.

It also helps that I started working out again the very day before this condition began.  (In fact, it just occurs to me now that the increased expenditure of energy and subsequent increase in metabolic rate might have just as much to do with my new ravenous appetite as does the sudden lack of ethanol's carbohydrates and sugars.)  So, I might be eating a bit more, but I'm actually slowly, but surely, losing weight.  And the workouts are going well.  Other than that first day, I've had no scary sensations in my chest or anywhere else, and the last two days I've actually been able to do a full half-hour on the elliptical.  As always, it feels really, really good to be back.  My whole day always feels better when I start with a workout in the morning.  There's really nothing else like it.

It's almost like getting high.

Except, you know, it makes me stronger instead of weaker.  And I actually manage to get some shit done with my day.  But, yeah, other than that, it's almost like getting high.  Sort of.