Round 2: Day Sixteen/Seventeen/Eighteen.

I promised myself this round that I would do no combined posts like last time. Even if I was writing an update on another day, I told myself that they would be kept separate. That being said, there is just too much time to cover after three days of slacking, it's hard to remember what happened on which days. Therefore, I'll have to amend my rule just this once.

I've been feeling quite blue lately. The holiday weekend brought on a bout of homesickness that kept my moods swinging. In theory, I could blame it on the sugar withdrawal since depression and mood swings are common, but in reality, I think I was just a bit lonely.*

The good thing about feeling slightly depressed while withdrawing from sugar: lots of sleep. The narcoleptic tendencies continue with a vengeance. I believe I took an afternoon nap on all three of the above mentioned days.

It should be said that I'm actually a big advocate of afternoon naps. I really do think that a good twenty to thirty minutes of sleep after work are quite healthy and revive me for whatever evening tasks may await. However, these are not those kind of naps. We're talking two to three hour comas in which I hardly remember a thing that happens. My mother's called me on several occasions during these black out periods of sleep and, once they're over, I'm usually barely aware that I have spoken to her. I'm waiting for the day that I carry on a conversation with someone other than family during these sessions, who knows what might be said, or what friends I might alienate with my strange responses.

In all fairness, it should be noted that this extreme sleep cycle may not be completely due to the lack of sugar in my diet. Admittedly, I am staying up WAY too late working on homework and therefore, getting an average of around 5 hours of sleep every night. However, it also should be noted that often times, even after the homework is finished, I still cannot seem to fall asleep. Sugar withdrawal messed with my sleep cycle in round one so I'm sure it's not ENTIRELY innocent in round two, but I also should keep most of the blame on myself.

Thankfully, even with such pathetic amounts of sleep, my skin is still quite resilient. Just like in round one, no matter how haggard and deflated I feel with such little rest, I'm amazingly free of sallow skin and baggy eyes. This is perhaps my favorite side effect of abstaining from the sweet stuff: bright eyed and bushy tailed appearance even when I feel like death.

In closing, I'll leave you with this link to a blog posting I found while trying to find some sugar/depression facts for this posting. It's interesting [and short] enough that I'd rather just direct you to the writer's experience than try to paraphrase for my own posting.

*For those who might be concerned about my well being, I am currently feeling much less blue.