Stress?

A new line of thinking. I've been realizing the effects stress has had on my health, life, and outlook, and have recently made efforts to alleviate and eliminate it. Some of it is situational, and some of it psychological. The situational stuff I can't change; however, I can do something about the psychological stuff. A friend gave me a really helpful book: The Worry Cure. It's helped me see how my reactions were, in many cases, making mountains out of molehills. So before I ground my teeth into powder, alienated my family and friends, and stressed myself into an early grave, I decided to put some of the theories from the book into practice.

And guess what? This period was better. Lighter, shorter, and less painful. Granted, the lighter/shorter part could just be because last month's was so long. But I usually hurt regardless. And while I did hurt this month, it wasn't unbearable. A little stiffness, some bad moments on the first and second days. That's it.

I'm giving it a few months before I determine if this is really cause and effect. But for the most part, destressing is apparently full of win. No starvation required.

I tried the diet

For roughly 36 hours. And I felt like hell the entire time. I thought at first it was caffeine withdrawal...then I realized I was just starving. I normally eat around 1400 calories a day; with this endo diet, I was eating less than 1000. No wonder I felt like crap. The food to bring me down wasn't bread or cheese, either...it was tater tots. Made a Sonic run at 9 p.m. two days into the diet -- something I never do.

Then I realized I was doing it all wrong. Yes, I had a 12-day period this month. And a 10-day one a couple of months ago. But in between there, I had a 4-day one. The variable factor has not been my diet…it’s been stress. This diet doesn’t help that, either. (Particularly not the no-caffeine part.) What I really need to do is not revamp my diet (despite what my mother thinks, I eat pretty well already), but work on exercising more and stressing less.

I’m not abandoning the idea, though. I will try to eat more veg and fruit and less wheat and cheese. But I’m not going to starve myself, which is the direction I was heading before the tater tot run. (I didn’t eat dinner because nothing sounded good. Then tater tots sounded wonderful…more wonderful than they were, honestly.)

And if I have another 13-day period (yes, this month's period was nearly 2 weeks long), I'll go talk to the doctor again.