Sweet tooth and total exhaustion..
 

Day 13 here and I can't believe how much I'm craving sweets.
I have never been a huge fan of chocolate or anything sugary, but these days it's all I think about.
Anyone else?
Also, by 8:00 I am completely exhausted. Like I ran a Marathon exhausted. A friend told me it could be because my body is "healing" after years and years of abuse.
I'm going with this is all part of being clean now for a week or so...has anyone else experienced any of these?
Not worried about it, just noticing so many different changes in my body.
Happy sober day, my SR friends

Hi FL - yes, I crave all sorts of unusual things when I'm detoxing. I'm told it's perfectly normal. It takes a while for your body to adjust to the lack of alcohol levels in it, and your metabolism has to readjust. I've heard this can take months, but that depends on the person of course. When we are drinking heavily, our bodies can't properly absorb vitamins and minerals, so the amazing human body does other things to compensate.

I think it's fine to indulge within reasonable limits! I definitely did, and it does fade after a bit :-)

Yes. I don't like chocolate, jelly beans, soda (well sometimes), etc., but my body metabolizes alcohol like a sugar, so sugar emulates that insulin spike that you'd get from alcohol. I actually employ sugar in my evening snacking as a way to curb cravings in early detox. Then I cut back on it.

I get tired for a while. I remember my first stint of stopping and the quantities of coffee I was eventually drinking. It was a lot. I need to remember to back off on the caffeine too, though in early detox, I avoid it because it triggers a craving if I don't eat enough. The tiredness comes from your body trying to heal and re-calibrate.

There could also be a connection between your refined sugar intake and your exhaustion.. the sugar takes u up fast and back down below where you were which causes you to crash and feel tired..

Sugar- rush. Glucose goes up, kind of a craving fix instead of booze. I did that= - to the extent going to as many AA meetings I do- I put on weight from all the biscuits. Total bis. ban now. The exhaustion could be diet related. SUGAR LOW.
I strongly suggest you see your doctor.

Great job on 13 days!! And yes, I felt the same way- took a little longer for that sweet craving to set in but it did full force. We ingested a lot of sugar when drinking alcohol so our bodies are used to it. As for the exhaustion, ohhhh yes!! I was very sick when I quit and was completely wiped out. It was months before I felt "through that phase" and fatigue is still something I monitor carefully at 16 months.

Take care of yourself- not drinking is the only way to keep getting better and healthier.

Totally agree with the craving sugar! I'm on day 29. I guess (before) consuming 1000+ calories of drink a day (which ultimately gets absorbed as carb/sugar), so the body misses it. I've moved more onto more fruit (eating like a chimp!) now and feel a lot better. Short-term it's an OK fix, but it can tire you out too. One step at a time :)

I did the calculation, and figured I was consuming over 10,000 empty calories a week in booze and mixers.

This impacted my diet during sobriety, and I eventually started working with a registered dietitian. Sobriety affected my metabolism - the way my liver and pancreas regulate insulin - and getting that back on board has been a process like everything else. If i missed a meal/snack, had too many carbs, too much caffeine, etc., I would crash, get extremely tired, shaky.

And yes - i eat more sweets - mostly soda and ice cream. But not 10k calories a week worth.