I skipped my blog last week and for good reason! Early Sunday morning we got back from Hawaii and something I occasionally do when taking a red eye like that is I’ll skip coffee for the day so I can nap and then because I’m so tired from no coffee I’ll still sleep through the entire night. It’s not the most pleasant experience but it works. When I was considering my coffee skip this time, I thought maybe I would try to kick the coffee habit altogether. Kicking coffee when changing time zones is also helpful as the raging headache doesn’t set in until the afternoon (Hawaii is 6 hours behind). I had no good reason for doing this other than I have been addicted to coffee for 12 years, trying to give it up only one other time ( which lasted 4 days) and I wanted to see if I could really do it. So I went for it…

I’m not an all day coffee drinker like some, except on very rare occasions, I get all my coffee consumption in before 11AM. I’m very sensitive to caffeine, as a teenager, a cup of coffee after noon would keep me up for the entire night. But in college, like many, I succumbed to the addiction since it was an incredible study tool when you’re sleep deprived. It also doesn’t help that I LOVE coffee and over the last few months in particular my morning cup has grown and grown. I blame most of this on Lauren Palmer and the French Press.

Withdrawal from the stuff was a very unpleasant experience to put it mildly. Monday and Tuesday at work (day 2 and 3 sans caffeine) was a giant fog, I would feel pretty decent through the morning, but then the headache would set in right behind my eyes, these were probably the longest days. I would get home from work and literally go to bed or fall asleep on the couch, whichever place I lied down first. Just as the headache began to ease on Wednesday, I started getting cramps in my hamstrings. Mind you, I haven’t exercised for over a week, so there is no reason why I should be having hamstring issues. A little online research told me this was common for people going through bad caffeine withdrawal. I also started reading that doctors do not advise giving up caffeine cold turkey. I was trying to find the reason for this, but I’m guessing it’s just because it makes you feel so ill. The soreness in my legs lasted through Friday and at this point I actually turned a corner and was feeling more positive about my situation, which I was choosing to do (I had to keep reminding myself this).

Saturday I went to Masters Swim Team, which didn’t go particularly well, but this could also be because I haven’t been swimming. My biggest issue was coming home that morning. My absolute favorite thing int he world is to watch trashy tv and drink coffee on the couch while Nate is still sleeping. But this morning, it felt like there was no purpose to sitting and watching bad tv without the coffee. How depressing? I’m hoping this is still the addiction talking and I won’t feel so depressed after another week or so.

So how long is this going to last? I’m not really sure. Honestly I’m shocked I’ve made its his far.  At a minimum, I’d like to give it a few weeks and  see if there could be any benefit. Today at least I feel like I’m back to my normal coffee-addicted level, I’ll probably go another few weeks and see if things continue to improve.

So what improvements am I looking for? First is sleep quality, as I tend to wake up a lot during the night. I’m also interested in if I wake up feeling more refreshed as I usually need a gallon of coffee to remind myself that it’s morning. I’m also not so good at training in the morning and feel like it never goes that well, so possibly not being addicted to a crap load of coffee which I can’t get down before the early morning workout, is the reason or if I’m just not a morning workout person.

So there you have it, if you were wondering if I missed coffee at all, well I just devoted my entire evening to writing about it.