Did not read LJ much over the past few days; started catching up this morning. I'm up to mid-Saturday on my friends-page now. May or may not attempt the "ten things you probably haven't done" meme later. Probably won't remember who referred various pages currently sitting open waiting for a link-sausage commpilation. Going to crash now in hope of being awake and alert at 3LF tonight. Still need to download tonight's television schedule and program the VCR.
I really wish I had a mild stimulant I could use the way ost other people seem to. That is, one that actually worked as a stimulant on my body and didn't make me feel completely craptastic. (Caffeine fails on the first count; in large or frequent doses it also fails on the second. Psedudoephederine fails rather spectacularly on the second count.) Going to rehearsals feeling well enough to drive but not really quite as awake as I'd like to be, trying to pay attention despite feeling wobbly, wanting that little pick-me-up to cross the mid-afternoon slump, trying to wake up a little faster when I need to go someoplace in the morning ... My only options, as far as I can tell, are to try to stubborn my way through feeling worse and worse, or to give up and go to sleep. I get the impression that many other people can use coffee, tea, or cola to get just enough chemical help to get over such hurdles (and a few wind up completely wired on caffeine). Is it as nice -- or at least as convenient -- as I imagine, to have such a tool at one's disposal?
The closest I've come to being able to do that is using sugar. And that's a pretty short-lived effect, and its effectiveness depends very much on my eating schedule and also the nature of the task I'm trying to accomplish. I can eke out an extra hour or so of long-distance driving by balancing chocolate against orange juice, but it doesn't do as much good for writing, learning new music, coding, etc.
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Anyway, I tend to use sugar for that bump. But not on a totally empty stomach, then I look like I'm on speed.
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What works for me...
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Also, any kind of drink, ice cold, seems to help.
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Not that it'll do anything for your energy problem, but I've recently started drinking linden tea (mostly because I managed to score a box of 20 teabags for 99 cents and I wanted herbal tea for drinking late in the evening -- no caffeine), and it's allegedly an antispasmodic, a mild remedy for anxiety, tension headaches, and migraine, plus it raises your core temperature slightly and boosts your immune system (apparently wonderful for when you have a cold and just want to go to bed and sweat it out). So far, I think I am slightly less stressed out than I was, which is nice. Plus it tastes good. It's all sort of jasmine-like and sweet. :) You could look into other kinds of herbal teas as well, if you were interested.
One thing I always found woke me up was to drink a cup of broth of some sort (I always had beef or chicken, but you could use vegetable), doctored up with hot sauce, mustard, and various other spices and stuff -- the hotter the better. I used to have that with my breakfast quite frequently when I was in high school, or sometimes as my breakfast. Nobody in my house drank coffee, I wasn't allowed to have tea with breakfast, and I most certainly wasn't allowed to have Coke, but 6:15AM came really early. (As you have probably guessed, I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of the Communist Party, er, no, I mean, a morning person. ;) )
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How about ginger? Or ginsing? Hot peppery broth (as above) sounds good too, for a D'G sort of palate anyhow.
Me, I still miss my Cokes. But my e-bay Mrs. Tea will be here soon, assuring a steady caffeine stream.
The linden sounds lovely, might mix well with vanilla in a black tea as well as on its own as an herbal- do you have any recomendations for links to reliable info on it? I'm on enough meds I don't want to accidently duplicate effects.