Yesterday, Friday, was Day 5 of the detox. I was too busy then too tired to write even though I lay in bed thinking about getting up to make at least this one post. The leg cramps really got to me yesterday. One reason was that I had a business meeting all morning; was out of the house by 9:00 and got back around 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon.

The meeting was to scout out a new place for an event so it involved a lot of walking up and down stairs, hills, and on trails. The place is gorgeous and will make a lovely setting for a health retreat. I drank a fabulous herb tea from Africa and sipped water all morning.

I was famished on the way home but that was my fault for not thinking ahead to bring some fruit or a veggie mix to munch on until I got to really eat.

But the leg cramps set in as soon as I got home. They were so bad I was almost crying by 2:00. I did some extra research because of course, the mind starts to go crazy thinking there’s all type of diseases going on in the body at this point. What I learned was essential.

A large dose of caffeine can affect various minerals in the body. I knew about the calcium but learned that potassium and magnesium are also affected. It also has a dehydrating effect. So my legs were probably suffering from a lack of essential minerals and possibly dehydration. I did notice that although I’ve been drinking water like an empty lake I’m always thirsty.

So it’s possible my body is regulating the water needs that I never noticed before. I have a wonderful health drink called “Calm.” It’s a shot of magnesium in powder form. I put it in a cup of hot water and drank a cup of that like tea. The only bad thing is that it contained stevia, a natural sweetener but another trigger for a headache! I took two Aleve and tried to rest. That helped for a while.

So this leads to the theory that the minerals are depleted in some areas of my body as well as a problem of dehydration which causes cramping. I drank water for the rest of the day and tried to rest.

By night time, the legs cramps were back so much I had to get out of bed and took another Aleve and drink another huge glass of water. I hate admitting I took so many tablets but I never expected to hurt getting off my levels of coffee consumption. If I had to do it again, I would probably get off coffee slower instead of cold turkey. I was trying to do raw foods cleanse and cold turkey coffee in the same week. That’s a real shock to the system. My way of doing this is to just make up my mind and get something done rather than piece-mealing it. That’s why I’m doing the cold turkey thing.

My coffee habit was so severe it really is drastic to get off. Your consumption levels might not be as severe as mine so take a detox problem in a personal way. I am going to develop pa program to start assisting others with this process as it will lead to so many other health benefits too.