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My Road to Decaf Coffee




For a long time, I was drinking one cup of coffee each morning when I got to work.  Something I lovingly referred to as the coffee of nastiness, as the brand of coffee served in my office was quite disgusting.  I constantly felt like I was on an energy roller coaster.  I was either full of energy or totally zoned out,  unable to recall what I did five minutes prior.  I finally reached a point where I didn’t want to be controlled by caffeine, and more as an experiment than anything else, I started drinking only decaf coffee. 

I experienced the usual withdrawal symptoms.  It took three days for me to really feel like I was normal, with the third day being the worst day.  I was exhausted all the time, had headaches, and was moodier than normal.  I have a co-worker who almost didn’t survive day three  --  He chews ice twice a day.  But after I got through the withdrawal period, I no longer felt the highs and lows of being addicted to caffeine.  Plus, it was nice to know that I wasn’t being controlled by something.  In a way, it was very liberating. 

Lately, because I’ve moved to a different office within my company, and now have access to a fancy cappuccino machine, I’ve been indulging in vanilla lattes more regularly than I wanted to.  Nothing like a caffeine and sugar kick first thing in the morning!  So, this week I decided to drink only decaf coffee.  I admit I lasted four days, and had a half-caff coffee this morning.  I had such a bad headache!  I’ll go back to decaf coffee next week.

There are pros and cons to drinking caffeinated versus decaffeinated coffee.  But, what I really took away from this experience is that I don’t want anything to control me.  I know I do things daily that I don’t think twice about, and coffee used to be one of them.  Everyone drinks at least one cup in the mornings, right!?  But, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t affecting my mood.  I made excuses for the way acted or reacted to things, because I hadn’t had my coffee yet.  And, really, not having my cup of coffee in the mornings really isn’t a viable excuse for anything. 

I’ve been on a mission to alleviate the excuses in my life.  But, when you become so pre-progammed, it’s hard to look past your routine, and see something may not be quite right.  I’m trying to be more opened minded and pay attention to what others do in certain situations.  What’s normal to me, might not be normal for most people.      

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