Note
Energy levels having gone up paradoxically by giving up chocolate products, I've realized that there must be a mental aspect to this as well as a physiological one. My theory for the physical is that stimulants in chocolate were disrupting nervous system pathways for recovery and rest. And guess what, the nervous system is tied into something called the brain.
As a corollary to the physical aspect of eating chocolate and feeling a definite buzz or rush of well-being, I noticed I was planning my day around the chocolate event i.e. 'workout, chocolate, then another workout' or 'easy workout/recovery, chocolate, then workout first thing the next day fueled by residual chocolate buzz' or even more simply 'why do I feel so @#$% tired, I can't live like this, ok, here goes choco down the hatch'! I would realize this is exactly how a junkie feels, but would justify it as some sort of medication for the aged or possibly depressed.
So the chocolate was blocking nervous system mechanisms of proper recovery, but also thought patterns conducive to independence, strength and humility. I was trying to force particular workouts to happen, and thinking too much about the next step without paying attention to the one I was taking that instant. Instead of letting things come to me, and recognizing them as they came along. I was not listening, not listening to my body, not listening, not stilling myself, in a contemplative sense, to my mind or the spirit beyond the mind. So now I realize the physiological stresses and travails of that process had a mirror-image counterpart in my mental make-up.