So last friday I decided to stop drinking coffee and I thought I’d chime in with how things went:

• My withdrawal wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Frankly, it was pretty pleasant. I drank lots of water, ate a good breakfast, I even exercised some. Oh, and I stayed heavily medicated with tylenol for most of the weekend. I premedicated that is. I think you could have shot me and I wouldn’t have really felt it. It was cool though, no headache (which is really nice because I become a total girl when I get the slightest twinge of any type of head pain.) I was totally lethargic for most of the day though.
• I can tell my mood already is a lot more stable, no morning blitz, no early afternoon crash, no mid afternoon blitz no late afternoon crash, no laying awake at night wondering when I might fall asleep. It’s subtle but I never really realized what a roller coaster I was riding throughout the day. I’m hoping it’ll only get better.
• I have realized that I really like coffee. I like the smell, I like the cups, I like taste, I like everything about it. Quitting is really hard and I don’t know how well it’s going to work as a long term thing. I could see going back but it would certainly have to be decaf.
• I’m trying to give (decaffeinated) tea a chance but we’re not there yet. I know it’s complex and all that stuff and I really want to like tea but I don’t know yet. I’ll keep trying but it is just not doing it for me.
• Water is great but I don’t know if it works in every situation. Sometimes you just want something with some taste you know?

All in all, I happy with the decision I made. Anything that makes life simpler right now is a plus in my book. We’ll see how it goes.

I’ve been trying to do some new things this year that either a.) simplify my life or b.) make it better. First it was learning how to type – I don’t need to belabor it here (as I have in other posts) but it was obviously a step in the right direction as I no longer need to stare straight down at my keyboard while attempting to type even the most mundane of sentences. Granted, it may not have helped any of you as I now have the ability to crank out way more words than I could have before but still, I thought it was a good move.

Next up – I stopped drinking sodas, mainly coke and pepsi. In 2009 I have not had a single coke or pepsi whereas before, I would consume at least one or the other daily (not counting when we would go out to eat where I would probably down 5-6 refills…I’m a nervous drinker I guess. ) Overall, this wasn’t too hard because I was still drinking coffee so I didn’t have any caffeine withdrawals…which brings us to today:

I going to stop drinking coffee, like right now.

I have a pretty solid coffee regimine where I probably drink 5-9 cups of coffee a day (assuming a cup of coffee is about 6 ounces.) I carry around one of those silly stainless steel thermo-mug things (the ones that look like Robocops missing forearm) full of coffee in very much the same way my son carries around his sippee cup full of milk…except he’ll grow out of that, and I’ll still be carrying mine around. Mainly though, I found that coffee has provided me some pretty adverse side effects:

• My breath smells like coffee – which is, well, it’s pretty gross to be honest with you. Maybe some people can drink coffee and have the breath of a spring unicorn eating a bush full of Listerine bisquits but I’m certainly not one of them. I’d like to stop it with the coffee breath.
• I’m nervous it’s staining my teeth. Well, I’m actually sure it is….
• It’s expensive. I make coffee at home but it only takes one or two large coffees from just about anywhere to destroy any savings you have from making it at home.
• I need coffee. Like, if i don’t have it soon after I wake up I start having withdrawals like some common crack fiend. Now, there are some comparisons to crack fiends that could be favorable, like: “He saved that guy from a burning building like he was a crack fiend saving his crack!” but for all intensive purposes – having withdrawals on Saturday morning when I should be playing with my son is not cool.
• The energy from the caffeine is a lie. Sure, it amps me up pretty good – but honestly, it’s a muddled energy. I’m jumpy, excitable, and edgy and I find it really difficult to focus on any given task.
• Drinking all the coffee means I keep a lot of gum on hand…and now I’m developing an addiction to gum. This one isn’t that bad though because gum is freakin’ awesome.
• My sleep patterns are all messed up. I have a hard time going to sleep, and not having a good night of sleep just totally sucks.

So there you go, tomorrow I will wake up, exercise, and then take an exorbitant amount of tylenol to fend off the massive headache that will be attempting to pound my skull into bacon grease by about 11 in the morning. Hopefully, by Tuesday I should be somewhat coherent and I’ll try to update the blog to let you know the aftermath. Just the fact that I’m going to have to go through this is almost enough of a reason to stop drinking coffee…