The third of Andrea MacFarlane’s posts on life improvement—this time we cover the ills of caffeine!
You can check the full series out here:
- 1: Love vs. Obsession
- 2: Keeping Your Job Close and Your Happiness Closer
- 3: Caffeine’s a helluva drug!!!
- 4: eRead or Not eRead?
- 5: The Inner Child and the Outer Buffoon
–Casey E. Palmer
Are you reading this in the morning? Afternoon? After a long day at work? Did you get your fix this morning? Coffee? Coke? Tea? Are you the kind of person that would say, “Without my morning cup I just can’t start the day!” Congratulations, you’ve just become another slave to the crave!.
Caffeine is the quiet, unassuming drug of choice through no fault but our own. In the age of instant gratification caffeine has become a necessity for the production of quicker, faster, I need it right now attitudes. It’s one of the easiest ones to pick up, why not, everyone else seems fine with it.
Have you ever seen a person who is caffeine addicted try to kick the habit? Have you tried yourself? If not, I’ll let you in on my own little trip to hell.
I’ve been addicted to caffeine through Diet Coke for YEARS. It didn’t even occur to me how much I was drinking until college when I realized it was ALL I was drinking. One in the morning during class, at lunch, after class, at dinner, watching and movie. Not gonna lie, it got me through some tough exam times where I was drinking it to stay awake for days! And that’s exactly what it is, a stimulant for your brain to keep it active and alert.
I decided in January as a New Year’s Resolution to try giving up Diet Coke, it cost me almost $200 a month to keep up with how much I was drinking. For the first two days, not so bad, I thought, “Hey, this isn’t an addiction at all! See, I knew I could give it up no problem!” Then days 3 and 4 struck. I found I’d slept at least 12 hours each night and all day long I was exhausted. My hands would shake with fatigue and all I could think was, if I just had one maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. But I persevered, I dug in my heels and kept to my resolve. It took about a month for me to stop out and out craving the caffeine. I slept like someone who’d undergone insomnia testing and been cured. I was irritable, short-tempered and suffered massive mood swings. I was a bitch to put it bluntly.
Eventually my body regulated itself to normal hours, I found I didn’t overeat as much, didn’t get caffeine headaches anymore, and I was getting up willingly before 10 am. It amazed me to say the least.
Suffice to say my choice was by far a healthier one. So think about how much caffeine you intake on a daily basis. Do you really need it? Is it just habit? Can you go on without it? Moderate it a bit more perhaps? Try it. You may suprise yourself.
Say NO to drugs. ^_~
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