KairosWWT | Women Working Together

#QuitForKairos: Week 5

Boom! I’ve made it to week 6 of my 8 week sugar detox for Kairos WWT, I’m feeling good AND I’ve just realised I can now start to reintroduce a small amount of fruit back into my diet! Hurrah!   I feel like I have broken the back of this challenge and I am finding my rhythm…what a difference a week makes!

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This week I’ve not really struggled with cravings at all. Perhaps it was the hot weather, perhaps my taste buds are finally changing, perhaps I’m finally starting to master mind over matter….whatever the reason, this week it has felt amazing not to have to be resisting the constant cravings and feelings of self-doubt I previously had been.

I certainly took last week’s advice from some of Kairos WWT’s part service-users on board; I’ve kept myself busy (particularly in the evenings when bad habits normally lead me to the kitchen cupboards) and joined a support group with other people trying to change their eating habits.

This week, as the fog has lifted and my mood has elevated, I have started to appreciate the  genuine and powerful victory of conquering something that had a hold on me. My negative of thoughts of ‘what if I fail, what if I can’t do it, what if no-one supports me’ are being replaced with new self-respect, self-belief and self-care. I am starting to understand that conquering an addiction is so much more than giving up something, so much more about an absence of something and far more about gaining something, of filling the void with something far more enriching, of something the extends far beyond the edges of what ahas left behind. And I can honestly say, it feels great.

So ‘hello Week 6, it’s nice to meet you!’

I am so pleased to be joined by Kelly on my #QuitForKairos challenge, who has amazingly taken the decision to give up cigarettes. Kelly  signed up to an intuitive recovery course for a week to kick start her recovery and has described initial experiences:

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“The biggest difference is the expense, smell and habitual repertoire of ‘rolling a quick one’ Only one of these is hard to stop now and yes, it’s the learned behaviour of making a cigarette, lighting up and taking a drag. It released so many endorphins…… now I recognise that it’s a brain function, pure and simple. One I can control and modify. I am finding it difficult, I admit. Walking past that person who is having a fag is hard but my health has to be more important!’

Thank you Kelly for sharing this journey with me.

As Kelly shows, there is still plenty of time to support the #QuitForKairos challenge. Please consider doing one of the following to support me, Martin, Abi, Neenu, Kelly (who have/are all giving up something for Kairos WWT)…and all the women we reach out to at Kairos WWT:

  1. Make a donation via our Big Give page. Money raised will be used by Kairos WWT in their work to support women at risk of or subject to sexual exploitation
  2. Quit something for Kairos – just for a day, or an evening and tell your friends (and us of course) that you’re #QuitingforKairos. You might quit riding the bus for one day and walk to work instead, or quit that Friday night bottle of wine, or that afternoon cake and donate the money you would have spent to the #QuitForKairos campaign
  3. Commit to your own #QuitForKairos personal journey. If you’ve been struggling to give up something in your life that you feel has a hold over you and you want to stop, join me! Drop me an email Lucia@kairoswwt.org.uk, tell me what you’re quitting and I’ll add you to our #QuitForKairos ambassador list, complete with your own cartoon (I’m just itching to draw someone dressed as a giant cigarette…who’s in???)
  4. You can join me at any time over the next 4 weeks and believe me, you’d be helping me out if you did. There’s nothing like solidarity to get through a challenge. And this, for me, really is  a challenge.
  5. Don’t offer me chocolate.