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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