I write to you on No Caffeine June Eve in my Operation Consumption Liberation. And physically, I'm good to go for a month without coffee, tea, colas, Barq's root beer, Mountain Dew, chocolate, Excedrin, NoDoz, and any other caffeinated-energy drink/concoction. When I say "physically," I mean that I have been cutting down my caffeine level semi-steadily over the last five weeks to the point where today I went completely caffeine free. Now going without caffeine for a day does happen from time to time in my world. But going without caffeine for thirty days straight--Ha! Are you crazy? (Answer: clearly!)
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| My May 12 morning cup of coffee, fully loaded of regular |
Unlike this past month or, say, No Alcohol March, I've been actively preparing for this month of my OCL, "training" if you will, since late April. I've had caffeine-deficit migraines before. I had a few this month while cutting back. They suck. So for my morning cup of coffee, I slowly started mixing decaf coffee beans with my caffeinated beans in the coffee grinder. I gradually increased the decaf and decreased the regular. About two weeks ago, I stopped regular beans all together. I sucked down decaf and its approximately 13mg of caffeine for a week, and then for the past several days, I drank Yogi Tea's Mayan Cocoa Spice tea (5mg per cup). And today I drank Provence Vanilla Rooibos tea, which someone generously bought at The Teacup to have on hand at his place for me during No Caffeine Consumption month.
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| My May 12 morning cup of regular poses with a regular-sized cup of coffee. Sniff. |
I wasn't quite so conscious about cutting my consumption of chocolate. Dear GOD, I love chocolate. I wasn't going to include chocolate in my No Caffeine month. Then, while I was researching the various amounts of caffeine in coffee and decaf, I saw that a 1.45-oz serving of a Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Bar has 31mg of caffeine, and a regular Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar has more than my Yogi tea (mind you, I like REALLY dark chocolate best). So I decided that I better quit chocolate this month as well, to make sure I'm not secretly feeding my caffeine addiction.
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| Espresso Dark Chocolate--caffeine frenzy! |
This leads me to ask: Am I really addicted to caffeine? Answer: I don't know, I'm not a doctor! I can tell you that when I smell coffee in the morning, it makes me smile. Except for the last few days when I've had to decline, and then the smell of coffee makes me want to whine and kick things. Seriously. I can also tell you that the prospect of eating good chocolate makes me feel a little funny in the stomach; it is similar to how a gal feels upon reflection the morning after she kisses a super awesome someone with super awesome kissing powers for the very first time. I LIKE that feeling. A LOT.
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| Only hot cocoa can make me smile like that. |
So giving caffeine the boot this month may feel at times like I'm mutilating a part of my soul. I expect suffering. Please, send me Celtic sea salt caramels (these ones, please) and Fresca.
To counterbalance the withdrawal of my favorite drug, I'm adding a few things to my month. 1. More Ice Cream (without chocolate or coffee, of course). 2. 10 hops in the morning (to help wake me up, and according to my yoga teacher, to build bone density). 3. 30 minutes minimum of yoga in the mornings (to make me dewy-eyed and strong and pliable).
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