The Juice

I don’t like meat.  

Red meat, really.  

I’ll eat chicken and turkey sometimes, but that’s pretty much it—except for bacon.  I have a love/hate relationship with bacon.  I love it (when it’s almost burned and the fat is super crispy) and it hates me.  Bacon and eggs?  So freaking delicious…  While I’m eating it.  45 minutes later when I’m burping it up?  Not so much.  

Lately I’ve noticed I really don’t have a lot of energy.  It’s been insanely difficult to drag my butt out of bed every morning for work.  And voice lessons.  And church.  I pretty much never get to sleep in.  I was having trouble focusing at work and in class, to the point where I starting drinking a bottle of Coke every day.  I try super hard not to do that because Coke is pretty much the number one reason (maybe number two; french fries are probably number one) I gain weight.  However, I can’t handle the amount of caffeine in regular coffee or energy drinks, so Coke is my caffeine of choice.  It used to be Pepsi, but now I can just feel Pepsi eating away at my stomach.  

It’s awesome.

Anyway, lack of focus, lethargy, general ass-dragging.  

I take my vitamins every morning, so I assumed I wasn’t lacking some essential nutrient.  Except, remember how I don’t really like meat?  That means I don’t really eat meat.  I love cheese, but I haven’t been eating a lot of it, either.  

I started and stopped drinking a protein supplement last year because I need to have something solid and bread-y first thing in the morning; it helps “soak up” all the acid that builds up in my stomach while I sleep.  I know the best time to drink the protein shake is in the morning, and by afternoon I want actual food, anyway.

This week, I decided to forgo one of the slices of buttered wheat toast/toastwich* I usually eat for breakfast and try to eat one slice of dry sourdough and do the protein supplement again.

Holy.  Crap.

I started noticing a difference yesterday.  I didn’t really think much of it.  I wondered why I wasn’t feeling crazy tired, since the most sleep I’ve gotten all week is maybe seven hours and I’m an eight or nine hour girl. 

By Friday, I would typically be dragging—especially considering how little sleep I’ve been getting.  

This morning, I got up when my third alarm went off, instead of waiting for the fourth one like I usually do.  And I didn’t have a problem getting up.

It was AMAZING.

So I decided to do what I always do when I don’t know much about something and Googled “protein deficiency.”  

I found this:  http://www.ehow.com/how_2292613_spot-signs-protein-deficiency.html

Ohhh. 

Looks like I’m back on the juice.

*Toastwich is a breakfast food I created based loosely on McMuffins.  Except there is no egg.  Or Canadian bacon.  (Both of which I actually like; I just don't have time to prepare them at work.)  I toast two slices of bread, put some mustard on one side of each piece of toast, put a slice of cheddar cheese on one, and smash the other piece of toast on top.  (I'm like the fucking Hulk with bread.)  The warmth of the toast melts the cheese, thus creating a tasty breakfast sangwich.