Urgan Shows Up, Does the Thing

[ixaera]

11 minutes ago, Urgan said:

here they are, 1/3 cheese greater:

 

Is there anything more wonderful than cheese? Besides GAINZ?

[shaar]

On 1/4/2018 at 11:48 AM, Urgan said:

 

You too? It must be something in the management's water, but ours love to change horses midstream every year 'round about this time. And not make the new processes/procedures clear. Or alternatively tell no one anything you can take to the bank about what this new normal is gonna look like. You know, options.

 

 

Mother of kittens-

 

Welcome to EOY, where everything's made up and the rules don't matter!  Good luck have fun, indeed............

 

On 1/4/2018 at 1:33 PM, ixaera said:

 

Is there anything more wonderful than cheese? Besides GAINZ?

 

Cheese that leads to GAINZ?  BE STILL, MY BEATING HEART.

[Urgan]

27 minutes ago, shaar said:

Mother of kittens-

 

Welcome to EOY, where everything's made up and the rules don't matter!  Good luck have fun, indeed............

 

Yeah, and it's pretty much that way year 'round. Our processes and procedures are like Indian history prior to a certain date. It's word of mouth folk stories passed on from meetings to the peons. Some people get the memo, some don't. Oh well. 

 

29 minutes ago, shaar said:

Cheese that leads to GAINZ?  BE STILL, MY BEATING HEART.

 

It's all about getting that therapeutic dose.

[Urgan]

1/4/2018

I don't know but I been told

 

Food

Lunch-time: 2/18

Water: 2/18 - 2.3 bottles 

Calories: 2217 / 2054

Protein: 124 / 121

Fiber: 25 / 24

 

A damn miracle, considering.

 

Sleep

Curfew: 2/19

 

Aikido

Shadow Aikido: 0/8

 

* opens window, throws self out *

 

I think you have an idea of how work went today. Chaos, confusion, mass hysteria with a side of war gaming. Then I went home and f'd up a pork shoulder recipe, scavenged fridge ingredients for another meal at 8:30 BLAH. Ad Hoc Scramble in 15.

[Kishi]

Damn, what a day.  Sorry to hear it went down like that.

 

Days like these, they happen. And sometimes the best thing that you can say about them is that they happened, that they're done and over and you lived through it.

 

You get xps for things like that.

 

Anyway, it kind of seems trite to try to offer up birthday gifs in light of a bad day like that. But I hope you do get a chance to celebrate and enjoy your life some. You work hard. You've earned it.

[shaar]

Bless the Garbage Scramble. Lifesavers, indeed.

 

At least it's the weekend now???

[Urgan]

1/5/2018

Duck and cover: the official "theme" of January

Food

Lunch-time: 3/18

Water: 3/18 - 2.75 bottles!!

Calories: 2223 / 2229

Protein: 136 / 149

Fiber: 19 / 12

 

Sleep

Curfew: 3/19

 

Aikido

Shadow Aikido: 0/8

 

 

Friday....wellllllllll. Feeling sub-optimal in the gym, but my energy level is normal-ish, on average improved due to staying more or less in the 2200~ calorie range. To put a finer point on that, I do not have a 2-3PM energy crater and it takes until sundown to notice the tireds. 

I stuck to my prescribed intensity numbers instead of shooting for an overkill set, because if you've seen my Insta you know it was maximal, sadly. I am not sure whether the next session will follow suit or not, we will see. I went to work with my job cut out for me and it took all day (8 hours, no lunch break) to make it happen. Got a scare that I'd have to come in over the weekend to test something another department found, but in explaining to me what the problem is, everyone agreed my tests could not have caught the issue, so. 

 

 

I stayed an extra hour on top of working through lunch to make sure nothing else was likely to pop up. I felt bad for my teammate who is having to chase all this stuff down to cater to an unreasonable asshole and wanted to be a physical insurance policy against the weekend being a fire drill. Should they have found anything I am responsible for, I would be there to retest it, yeah? But since nothing turned up, I peaced out and got groceries. You can imagine how hungry I was by then.

 

I am beginning to think I am not belt testing on February. My head is NOT there, it's been two weeks since I have connected to the dojo, it's EOY, and I'm losing weight. You've seen my numbers, they are not weight loss territory. It could be the water uptake is exaggerating this effect, but survey says

 

Note: 12/24 measurements taken on foreign scale because I was at my parents. YMMV.

 

 

Line shows you the start of 2018 for reference. There is SOME dip and variance in food intake, but it is not the fun park ride that last month's were. I'm not freaked out, I know that chronic low grade stress is to blame. With this in mind, I am placing some reservations on my lifting poundages this month and may default down to programmed weights, even repeating the last cycle in order to let the gas up a bit until well into February when I know if I will still have a job. I'm a contractor, remember? Right after that peak stress month, I could be fired just cuz. My performance wouldn't be the reason, because my embed department likes me and one person said they couldn't afford to let me go. (That doesn't mean anything, because management is, based purely on past behavior, deranged.) So yeah, this is why when people ask me if I am ready for the holidays, I tell them I am ready for February. 

 

So. 

 

It could be that I am experiencing a downswing compounded by hormonal cycle stuff. It's not supposed to do that until Shark Week, but everybody knows hormones play by their own rulebook. By that I mean I could experience an upswing next week and all this could be--not moot--reduced impact on daily life? I'm kinda hoping that does not happen, because if it's one thing I don't want popping back up as a free-spinning force for chaos, it's hormones. It may sound like a lot of complaining, but mostly I'm just brainstorming and processing all this to try to determine what the best course of action is. And I'm glad to be where I am, because as much as I have described how difficult my job is ATM, it is 50000000000000000000000000000000x worse where I was. The people in that role are just hosed, gang. In ways that I dare not go into because this is the Internet, after all. Suffice it to say that for every minute I worry about where this can all go wronger, I try to spend a minute recognizing that I am lucky to be looking at a few choice clients instead of cutting off slices of the elephant that is the rest of our clientele. 

 

As far as courses go, I am going to hold steady everywhere and try to stay at the level I am because this just so happens to be a point at which all my lifts are becoming challenging and I do not want to jeopardize my momentum by trying to plow through this particular month. I believe I did attempt that last month and it did not go so well. I don't want to do a cut of the work load unless I am just forced to, because detraining unnecessarily is worse than death. Key word being unnecessarily, you understand. 

 

Oh and thanks to the magic of 2017 me, you can see what my weight did last year!

 

 

Hilariously, I weighed more then but I had long begun my bread kick then, so. No telling what was going on in my gut. And with that thought, I think we're done here.

[Cataleya]

I like that you're slowing down and taking a moment to reflect and process. I find that I don't do that enough, or maybe I do but I feel like I should do more? In any case, it's good that your weight remained fairly stable (I don't remember you saying you wanted to lose), but I do hope you can find a strategy to help you make those gainz. It's always really fun watching your videos on Instagram. I wouldn't be surprised if stress had something to do with it, but I'm hoping that you're able to manage that in a way that it doesn't send everything else out of whack.

[Urgan]

1/6/2018 + 1/7/2018

Right on target

Food

Lunch-time: 3/18

Water: 3/18

Calories: 2343 / 2683, 2299

Protein: 132 / 148, 123

Fiber: 21 / 7, 26

 

Sleep

Curfew: 3/19

 

Self-Care

In the place of AIkido, since my goals have changed a bit to accommodate this EOY life, I am going a bit of an unorthodox route compared to my usual. It's winter and the uber-cold weather has been hitting my skin hard. I have such dryness. Like, my torso looks like I tried to use BJJ on an unhappy raccoon dryness. At the very same time, my face is sad. I don't know how you can get so dry and yet have oily skin somehow with gross blackhead nonsense all the time, but I do. Maybe a super dense moisturizer doesn't belong on my face?? IDK. So I've bought three products from Soap and Glory that I hope will address these two disparate issues. One is a thick moisturizer for all over except the face, the other is a dedicated cleanser and light moisturizer to replace current routine at least for the winter. I tried them last night for the first time and they seem to work well enough and I don't feel as greasy as I usually do by this time, so. Time to put them to the test every night after my shower and/or before bed.

 

Skin Stuff: 0/21

 

 

So far, so okay. My performance in the gym leaves a lot to be desired, but here's hoping I avoid the old crash and burn.

[Jord]

13 hours ago, Urgan said:

 

 

Self-Care

In the place of AIkido, since my goals have changed a bit to accommodate this EOY life, I am going a bit of an unorthodox route compared to my usual. It's winter and the uber-cold weather has been hitting my skin hard. I have such dryness. Like, my torso looks like I tried to use BJJ on an unhappy raccoon dryness. At the very same time, my face is sad. I don't know how you can get so dry and yet have oily skin somehow with gross blackhead nonsense all the time, but I do. Maybe a super dense moisturizer doesn't belong on my face?? IDK. So I've bought three products from Soap and Glory that I hope will address these two disparate issues. One is a thick moisturizer for all over except the face, the other is a dedicated cleanser and light moisturizer to replace current routine at least for the winter. I tried them last night for the first time and they seem to work well enough and I don't feel as greasy as I usually do by this time, so. Time to put them to the test every night after my shower and/or before bed.

 

Skin Stuff: 0/21

 

 

I feel you on the lotion stuff, it's tough to find the right products. I have a specific kind for my face that doesn't make me break out and yesterday Mr T said he wanted to go get it because he likes how it absorbs into his hands. NO SIR YOU WILL NOT, THAT IS FOR MY FACE AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF THEY SELL IT ANYMORE. lol. 

 

Lately my legs and feet have been really dry. ITCHY FEET y are u a thing? 

 

*commiserates on winter skin 

 

[Urgan]

3 hours ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

I feel you on the lotion stuff, it's tough to find the right products. I have a specific kind for my face that doesn't make me break out and yesterday Mr T said he wanted to go get it because he likes how it absorbs into his hands. NO SIR YOU WILL NOT, THAT IS FOR MY FACE AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF THEY SELL IT ANYMORE. lol. 

 

Lately my legs and feet have been really dry. ITCHY FEET y are u a thing? 

 

*commiserates on winter skin 

 

That is adorable, actually. Annoying and adorable simultaneously.

 

THIS IS SUCH A THING. THE COSMETICS CURSE. As soon as you find a product you like, they stop producing it. I swear it is on purpose and they like, change names or something.

[shaar]

16 hours ago, Urgan said:

At the very same time, my face is sad. I don't know how you can get so dry and yet have oily skin somehow with gross blackhead nonsense all the time, but I do.

 

 

Hoo boy howdy this winter.  THIS WINTER.  I feel like I'm treading water trying to keep my skin above Sandpaper Blast level.  I'm WAY past puberty here, why is my face all red and blotchy like I'm about to go to homecoming or something?!!?!  Siiiigh.

 

On 1/6/2018 at 2:27 PM, Urgan said:

 

And I'm glad to be where I am, because as much as I have described how difficult my job is ATM, it is 50000000000000000000000000000000x worse where I was. The people in that role are just hosed, gang. In ways that I dare not go into because this is the Internet, after all. Suffice it to say that for every minute I worry about where this can all go wronger, I try to spend a minute recognizing that I am lucky to be looking at a few choice clients instead of cutting off slices of the elephant that is the rest of our clientele. 

 

This is soooo hard to do when you're shrieking existentially about the stresses of EOY BS.  Good for you.  Hang in there, we will survive, we MUST survive, right???

[Urgan]

1/8/2018 + 1/9/2018

A trip through my mind: migraine edition

Food

Lunch-time: 5/18

Water: 5/18 - 2, 2 - just barely OMG

Calories: 2790 / 2545, 3033

Protein: 137 / 144, 131

Fiber: 20 / 17, 22

 

Sleep

Curfew: 5/19 - both nights fell asleep at/before 10PM, woke back up around midnight

 

Self-Care

Skin Stuff: 2/21

 

Bench

45       3

65       3

70       3

80       3

95       3x3

90       3

 

Monday began with rain. I nearly did not go to the gym because of this. 34F and rainy should be illegal. But I trudged out to the gym because the slacker-guilt became more uncomfortable than the weather (Turned out to be a good call, since we were scheduled to stay over at my parents and no way I'm benching heavy with the monster bars at the nearest gym--no way, no how). Migraine showed up. Aikido'd. Went back to my parents' place and crawled in bed and bypassed having to deal with the Championship game on tv. Skincare is harder on Aikido nights since I do not have the luxury of a time margin that allows me to do it before the dojo. So. We'll just have to make do after.

 

Tuesday morning the migraine hit me the minute I opened my eyes, but it had more to do with contact pressure on the back of my head so at least there was that. Sadly it didn't get much better from there and I had a Very Important Meeting at which I would be sorely missed, so. Did that, went home, cooked food for Wednesday/Thursday and Mike brought back dinner for that night as a way to split the labor. Tamales, specifically. OM NOM. 

 

I am grossly peeved that this appears to be hormone crap, but I am more worried if it turns out to not be/an encore performance goes down next week, which is when all things Shark Week SHOULD hit. UGH. WHY.

[shaar]

40 minutes ago, Urgan said:

I am grossly peeved that this appears to be hormone crap, but I am more worried if it turns out to not be/an encore performance goes down next week, which is when all things Shark Week SHOULD hit. UGH. WHY.

 

Isn't this just the WAY sometimes?!!?  "Oh yeah I think I might have a bead on this, oh wait, oh what, oh fuckin' no..........."  Sigh.  Glad you're surviving tho' at least, and TAMALES, T A M A L E S!!!

 

41 minutes ago, Urgan said:

34F and rainy should be illegal.

 

I will sign this petition, and then re-sign it under a pseudonym.

[Urgan]

3 minutes ago, shaar said:

Glad you're surviving tho' at least, and TAMALES, T A M A L E S!!!

 

TAMALES. I arrange it so I can budget for two meals off of them when I order them, so TAMALES PT 2 IN T-30 MINUTES. A la carte FTW.

 

4 minutes ago, shaar said:

I will sign this petition, and then re-sign it under a pseudonym.

 

I know I can always count on shaar to come through in the clutch.

[Cataleya]

34F and rainy is probably the grossest of weather. It's not awful but it's so sucky and you can't really *do* anything.

I'm sorry hormone stuff came with migraines. That sounds like ass.

[ixaera]

T A M A L E S

 

M I G R A I N E S

 

 

[Kishi]

Training through migraines? Damn. You are certainly one of the harder people I know.

[Urgan]

1/10/2018

Dear hormones, what is going on here?

Food

Lunch-time: 5/18

Water: 6/18 - 2

Calories: 2750 / 2670

Protein: 133 / 126

Fiber: 20 / 20

 

Sleep

Curfew: 6/19 

 

Self-Care

Skin Stuff: 3/21

 

I do things my own way here. By the time I was in a position to apply moisturizer after Aikido, all that needed tending to was my hands, they were dry as a hardtack biscuit buried 20ft deep in the Egyptian desert. Fixed that. No temptation to gouge holes in my own sides, so I proclaim the day a success on this front.

 

Squat

45         3

115       3

145       3

168       3

160       3x3

 

OHP

45       3

50       3

55       3

60       3

68       3

58       2x6

 

Another case of rolling out of bed late because my personal angel and demon had to have a debate on the merits of getting up before 6:30. But not too late to do two exercises this time. I chose to do OHP because 1 - I didn't do it on Monday, 2 - I did not have a lot of time to set up for deadlifts, which feeds into 3 - I was wore out from upping the intensity on squats. 

 

A word on that. I have been getting the feeling that Wednesdays aren't really working for me much, so I took a look at my program and decided there was one too many sets and not enough intensity to really do much. I fear my squats will be stalling very, very soon. So. We'll see how this spike does me.

 

Work was kinda weird. My migraine got bored and started wandering around the room, varying in intensity and generally taking a nap after lunch. This is one of the weirder episodes, I gotta say. Made going to Aikido a little less taxing. We did yonkyo, and my partner was a 15 year old Sensei who was very much of the mind that strength and technique need to be dialed to 100 every time. I wasn't a whiny little bitch about it, but I did give her feedback and head Sensei made the point that jerkily cranking on my arm to pin isn't as controllable (you can't take it back, you can't learn where the line is should you go too far and cause uke pain/broken joints) or professional as a slow, smooth descent into taps-ville. She took it well. I and another student suspect she's a teen in a room full of adults and that will give you the nerves. Especially when you are supposed to be the upper belt. 

 

My forearms are currently tender to the touch and I am reminded of it every time I open and close my hand. Dojo life. 

 

15 hours ago, Cataleya said:

34F and rainy is probably the grossest of weather. It's not awful but it's so sucky and you can't really *do* anything.

I'm sorry hormone stuff came with migraines. That sounds like ass.

 

Just bad enough that you don't want to chance it, not bad enough for Oh HELL NO.

 

2 hours ago, Kishi said:

Training through migraines? Damn. You are certainly one of the harder people I know.

 

It's the getting out of bed that is the hardest part. Lifting generally makes me feel better, because think of it this way: at least this kind of migraine is a big old muscle spasm and lifting forces the muscles to contract in an orderly fashion, so for at least a little while life is kinda good. Those first five minutes upright, on the other hand. Not so much. 

[Cataleya]

I don't know how you function with a migraine. I had a spate of them the year before last when there was Grad School Drama in the form of having to relive abuses via a Title IX investigation on a guy I had filed a complaint against several years ago, and I could not do anything. You are a boss.

[Mistr]

Catching up on your thread after holiday season madness. Belated Happy Birthday!

 

Yay for the PRs!  Boo for the migraines!

 

On 1/3/2018 at 2:42 PM, Urgan said:

Thanks, guys. I too knew a guy who had his birthday on the 3rd and he hated it because it was the day we typically went back to school from the Christmas break. So yeah.

 

I know those feels. My birthday often fell on the first day of school in the fall.

 

On 1/4/2018 at 10:28 AM, Urgan said:

Speaking of how things are going, outside our department is a cluster farkle. Those guys are not ready and it is going to be a mad, mad scramble for them to get it done in time and I doubt a good time will be had by anyone, shortly. Fortunately we are a bubble of sanity in a world that is pandemonium (and I am trying to stay in that bubble, please dear God do not pop the bubble). Of course, we rely on the people who are backed up with other EOY work to do our stuff, too. To speak nothing of other promises that need to be kept and well, doesn't look good ATM. Also, what is a programming freeze? It's the MOST. WONDERFUL. TIME. OF THE YEAR.

 

STAY IN THE BUBBLE. I'm glad you got to move to a good group that values you. Too bad that so many people at your company are idiots. Hang in there.

 

On 1/6/2018 at 1:27 PM, Urgan said:

I am beginning to think I am not belt testing on February. My head is NOT there, it's been two weeks since I have connected to the dojo, it's EOY, and I'm losing weight. You've seen my numbers, they are not weight loss territory. It could be the water uptake is exaggerating this effect, but survey says

 

Line shows you the start of 2018 for reference. There is SOME dip and variance in food intake, but it is not the fun park ride that last month's were. I'm not freaked out, I know that chronic low grade stress is to blame. With this in mind, I am placing some reservations on my lifting poundages this month and may default down to programmed weights, even repeating the last cycle in order to let the gas up a bit until well into February when I know if I will still have a job. I'm a contractor, remember? Right after that peak stress month, I could be fired just cuz. My performance wouldn't be the reason, because my embed department likes me and one person said they couldn't afford to let me go. (That doesn't mean anything, because management is, based purely on past behavior, deranged.) So yeah, this is why when people ask me if I am ready for the holidays, I tell them I am ready for February. 

 

You have plenty of stress in your life right now without adding test prep on top of it. Take your time and enjoy working on aikido. There is no prize for finishing belt tests faster than some arbitrary standard. You just keep going regardless.

 

Likewise, I think you are being smart in backing off a little on your lifting. You have been making steady progress. Next month you can adjust your program again and see if that does what you want.

 

I am always amazed at how consistent your weight is. You do a great job of monitoring your macros. I hope that the next adjustment you make will reduce your migraine frequency.

 

1 hour ago, Urgan said:

 

Work was kinda weird. My migraine got bored and started wandering around the room, varying in intensity and generally taking a nap after lunch. This is one of the weirder episodes, I gotta say. Made going to Aikido a little less taxing. We did yonkyo, and my partner was a 15 year old Sensei who was very much of the mind that strength and technique need to be dialed to 100 every time. I wasn't a whiny little bitch about it, but I did give her feedback and head Sensei made the point that jerkily cranking on my arm to pin isn't as controllable (you can't take it back, you can't learn where the line is should you go too far and cause uke pain/broken joints) or professional as a slow, smooth descent into taps-ville. She took it well. I and another student suspect she's a teen in a room full of adults and that will give you the nerves. Especially when you are supposed to be the upper belt. 

 

My forearms are currently tender to the touch and I am reminded of it every time I open and close my hand. Dojo life. 

 

Ouch. I'm glad your sensei talked to the young black belt about control. That "look, I can make this WORK!" attitude shows up often with brown belts and younger students. They don't realize yet that the next stage of yonkyo is to take uke's balance and control them without inflicting pain at all. It's all about leverage, not pain compliance.

 

My sensei makes a point of not relying on pain compliance for any techniques. In real life you might have to work with someone who is too drunk or jacked up on adrenaline to care about pain. You need to have control of their body regardless.

[Urgan]

34 minutes ago, Cataleya said:

I don't know how you function with a migraine. I had a spate of them the year before last when there was Grad School Drama in the form of having to relive abuses via a Title IX investigation on a guy I had filed a complaint against several years ago, and I could not do anything. You are a boss.

 

I think I remember that incident. Getting along with/working around people is the hardest life skill ever when you are stone cold 100% normal. 

 

Thanks, it's just like, I've had them since 2012 and at some point you live or die, right?? Some times are better than others and there are some things you just cannot do (drive, backlit screens, concentrating on a thought too deeply). Drinking enough water (still working on what that number actually is...apparently it's somewhere just north of "pee all the time"....) and supplementing a B complex and magnesium controls the amount of headacheness in general I deal with. Apparently hormonal birth control robs B vitamins from your system. Darn near EVERYTHING seems to leech the Bs. Losing bread was a major source of B-enrichment lost. Quality sleep makes you feel less like shit in general, but especially true during Migraine Time. Hard to get until you find the right way to position yourself. Point is, you find ways to cope. I guess when my birth control runs out I'll be forced to experiment without it. Joy.

[Urgan]

8 minutes ago, Mistr said:

STAY IN THE BUBBLE. I'm glad you got to move to a good group that values you. Too bad that so many people at your company are idiots. Hang in there.

 

Things heard in the office on the daily.

 

10 minutes ago, Mistr said:

You have plenty of stress in your life right now without adding test prep on top of it. Take your time and enjoy working on aikido. There is no prize for finishing belt tests faster than some arbitrary standard. You just keep going regardless.

 

Likewise, I think you are being smart in backing off a little on your lifting. You have been making steady progress. Next month you can adjust your program again and see if that does what you want.

 

I am always amazed at how consistent your weight is. You do a great job of monitoring your macros. I hope that the next adjustment you make will reduce your migraine frequency.

 

I would like to perform well, not just crawl over the finish line. I do not feel comfortable with the techniques or like my head is in the proverbial game. I am enjoying it, it's just not on my radar as job 1, you know? Just showing up and doing the thing to tread water for now.

 

Yeah, I'm just repeating a cycle because I feel like that's the best part of valor vs deloading or plowing ahead oblivious to the world around me. Things are stabilizing a bit, so I hope to proceed with increasing next time like normal.

 

12 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Ouch. I'm glad your sensei talked to the young black belt about control. That "look, I can make this WORK!" attitude shows up often with brown belts and younger students. They don't realize yet that the next stage of yonkyo is to take uke's balance and control them without inflicting pain at all. It's all about leverage, not pain compliance.

 

My sensei makes a point of not relying on pain compliance for any techniques. In real life you might have to work with someone who is too drunk or jacked up on adrenaline to care about pain. You need to have control of their body regardless.

 

We're learning the nerve pin and mechanical pin at the same time, and that may be an issue for her. Shooting straight for the extra credit, not satisfied with an A. I'm just taking uke down and if it happens to have extra ouchie in the forearm, so much the better.

 

That's what Sensei says. Sometimes it's easy to use discomfort to "encourage" the desired result on some people, but in this particular case sometimes you just can't rely on that to make the technique work if your partner just isn't feeling it.  

[Cataleya]

1 hour ago, Urgan said:

Apparently hormonal birth control robs B vitamins from your system. Darn near EVERYTHING seems to leech the Bs.

Interesting. Metformin apparently drains you of Vit B too, or at least B12. So I guess my doc wasn't crazy in telling me to take it, considering I'm on both.

[Urgan]

5 minutes ago, Cataleya said:

Interesting. Metformin apparently drains you of Vit B too, or at least B12. So I guess my doc wasn't crazy in telling me to take it, considering I'm on both.

 

I take a multi AND B Complex, spacing the two out between lunch and bedtime so there isn't one single massive spike. You dump the excess via urine and don't hold onto it, so there's no harm and it's really helped prevent the big energy crater known as 2:30PM. You might see why I have an interest in your choice of book, given I am taking a hefty supplement. I am curious about how much of our food really has any nutritional value, ESPECIALLY if it isn't even what it's advertised to be in the first place. 

 

I'm not a doctor, but I would seriously suggest looking into it, especially if you are eating well (and I believe you are) but have energy issues. And most especially if you are attempting to function with caffeine minimized or eliminated.