So one more important piece of info was gleaned from Dr Tel-Oren's pH lecture: I decided to try to go cold-turkey off ALL caffeinated drinks. And you know what? I had been harboring a cold, which happens to me about as often as I get invited to the Oscar awards, and when it struck, I just used the misery of constant congestion to sort of slip in any withdrawal symptoms, too.
So today is my tenth day without any caffeine, and so far I'm doing fine. I get my usual energy crashes around 4-5:00 p.m., but last night I had a little perk and stayed up as late as a normal grown-up! Probably in part because I had a carob-date-coconut water shake, a green salad with miso/pumpkin seed butter dressing, and flash-steamed broccoli with half a can of refried black beans -- which I did not know had jalapeno peppers in it, and it all did not combine too well. I was a bit acid-stomachy, but I had enough moxie to practice my dumbek drum!
Today has been a mixed bag so far. For the first time in weeks, I just did not feel like a smoothy first thing in the morning. I blended blueberries and an old apple, no excitement. Then I took out a batch of dehydrated green pea snacks I tried, and they are fabulous! But the "casserole" style salad I had, from avocados, an overwintered beet from my garden flash-steamed with its greens and the stalks of an old bok choy, was GROSS -- I added the last of a commercial mix of fresh seaweeds that was too salty, even when washed off, and I think it was going old to boot. I tried to pick out the juicy bok choy, but most of it went down the drain. And the freakin' avo's were perfect, too!
But I am less discouraged than I would have been by such a failure several months ago, because I am really happy overall right now with my raw level and its results. No, I'm not going to up and run the Boston Marathon without even training, but my skin is more clear, I'm back on a more decent sleep pattern, and -- maybe just because it's getting nicer outside -- I am usually not feeling as much "deprivation" anxiety around rawness.
However, I DID stop at my favorite restaurant in Seattle when I attended the World Rhythm Festival last weekend, and glutted my heart out on vegan Chinese -- no regrets!!