No more Ambien

It's been a week and I think this stuff is finally out of my body. I've actually had more and better sleep since I've been off it than I remember having in years. It's a spooky drug--probably fine for short-term use, not so much for long-term. It's been a hairy week, though; I basically lost the last several days to extended insomnia followed by many hours of crashing sleep. I had about a three-day, five-alarm migraine up until last night.

The good news is--now that I rode this withdrawal out--I feel more human and ultimately, more productive. I have a couple of jobs I'm going to go turn in paperwork for tomorrow, I scheduled a mammogram (I'm 40 now, have to do it, going to start bugging all my female friends who just turned 40 to do it too), and I'm trying to settle in for the six months of documenting what I eat. It's only been a couple of weeks. Sigh.

I am really trying to change my habits prior to the procedure, and I think even that is a big step in the right direction. I have to find more sweet things that don't have actual sugar in them, and I have to give up soft bread, which is really, really hard for me. I looooove fresh bread.

I'm thinking about this stuff all the time--how many calories is in this or that, how many calories have I had today, the smaller bites, etc. The sweets thing is what I'm the most worried about. For years I've said (only half-jokingly) I would go to rehab for my sugar addiction if I could. If the only way to satisfy the cravings were to shoot it into my veins, I am 99.9% sure I would do it--and I hate needles. I'm going to see if I can find some information on sugar addiction and read up on it a bit. Hopefully there's a good book available with some tips for how to shed this particular monkey from my back. It's not going to be easy.