Insomnia

I've had a great deal of trouble sleeping through the night for a long time. I blamed my fibromyalgia. I blamed my hypoglycemia (it makes sense that a blood sugar crash at 3 am would wake a person up, doesn't it?)

This past week, I've been sleeping like a baby. So nice. And no drugs, either. In fact, I've been liberalizing my diet somewhat and feeling healthier than ever. Who knew, but Basmati rice is only 50 or so on the GI scale, and raw honey is very close to that number as well (55). Even with rice for a bed time snack, I still slept through the night last night. So much for the hypoglycemia theory.

How could this be? Raw honey? In my diet? It actually seems to be a self liminting food. And, it is highly nutritious, and just a little bit is enough. So I know I'm not overdoing it.

So, why am I sleeping so well? How does this add up? What is different? I've been scratching my head all week, trying to figure out why I'm sleeping so well.

This morning the "what is different" hit me: Splenda. I gave up splenda. Just stopped. I've been doing some reading on the internet. Why do I believe the media every single time? Made with sugar so it tastes like sugar. What rot!

This is something that I recognized about myself during lent...this wanting, this wanting more. Wanting to literally have my cake and eat it too. It's the same as a sugar addiction only it's an ersatz sugar addiction. And I wondered if it was having more of an effect on me than just making me want more sple nda. What if?

So I stopped. The last thing I made with the last of my splenda actually went into the garbage can after the first bite. I just didn't want it any more. That was over a week ago, now. I think I'll give God credit for that one. Obviously, left to my own devices, I'm not so smart.

And I"m sleeping. And I figured I'd best just quit the diet soda habit as well, whether splenda or aspartame sweetened. Heck, I KNOW aspartame is bad for me! But I drank it anyways. How foolish, foolish, foolish I am!

So, last night on the way home from Church I had to get gas, and the habit was to always grab a caffeine free diet Pepsi in such a situation. No more. I had to force myself to avoid it. I got a Perrier instead. It's really the bubbles that I wanted. Those I can have. Perrier never tasted so good.

So, I gave up splenda, aspartame, saccharine....and I feel very very good. More balanced, physically. And I'm sleeping at night. What a change!

Splenda trivia: it was discovered accidentally by chemists looking for a new pesticide. Hmmm, isn't that how Aspartame was discovered?

It has chemically more in common with pesticide than it does with sugar, even though it is partially a sugar molecule...with chlorine added in place of some hydrogen (I think...something like that.)

Perhaps we should start guzzling DDT, too. Maybe it tastes sweet as well?