I thought the day would never come.
Maybe when I hit 70.
But I’m doing it. I’m switching to decaf. Call it a mid-year New Year’s resolution, a fresh start, a better way to live.
No more caffeine in the afternoon. (C’mon now, there’s no way I’m giving it up altogether.)
I live for coffee. This may sound overly dramatic, but I can’t deny my addiction. I find some comfort that I share this caffeine addiction with 90% of the world’s population. Whether you prefer it in coffee or tea, it matters not. You’re still an addict. Get help... or... keep drinking.
In high school it was one of the few things I looked forward to after my morning shower. That precious single cup allowed me to survive grade 12 French in the dead of winter. It didn’t help me to speak the language, but I still know a few key phrases, like j’aime café.
As a fully grown adult, I drink three to four cups in the morning – depending on how you define a “cup” – and typically one in the afternoon.
They say four cups is great for you (and don’t ask me who “they” are), so it’s not like I’m overdosing. But I may be pushing the limits in the afternoon.
Plus, it might
be contributing to poor sleep patterns. Coffee has a quarter life of
about 12 hours, meaning a quarter of the caffeine you consumed at 2 p.m.
will still be in your nervous system at 2 a.m. Caffeine, in case you didn’t know, is a
stimulant. Stimulants are great for keeping the mind alert – something
you don't want in the middle of the night, unless you work the night shift.
It’s hard to say how much of an impact it has on our sleep, but according to Michael Pollan, it’s greater than we think. At the age of 60, he took the plunge and gave up caffeine cold turkey. After a few days, he was sleeping like a teenager (or so he claimed).
Never
mind the “brain fog” he had to deal with for the first week, or the
lack of motivation to finish his chapter on, of all things, caffeine. It was a small price to pay for better sleep... or not.
It didn’t take long before he was back on the wagon, chugging down his morning java, with fantastic results (he cleaned out his house and backyard in one day).
This is how, according to Pollan, caffeine helped fuel the industrial revolution – by getting people out of their warm homes and onto the cold, dark factory floors. It was the lure of a cup of coffee. In the 18th century, factory owners soon discovered that their workers could handle an extra hour and a half of hard labour if they were given a coffee break in the morning and afternoon. These workers eventually won a court battle to have these coffee breaks paid for – a benefit that lasts to this day.
Unlike Pollan, I’ve only tried a couple times to give up caffeine completely and it hasn’t gone well. One time prior to a medical procedure (see my detailed blog post on colonoscopies), and another to try a juicing diet.
I had no idea the lack of caffeine could make juicing so miserable. My misery had nothing to do with juicing, as it turned out. Better to give up only one thing at a time because that diet only lasted until 11 a.m.
That’s about the time when the withdrawal symptoms set in: The headache. The fatigue. The lack of a will to live. It takes 24 hours for caffeine’s effects to wear off. Like most addicts, I was surprised to learn, we’re not so much addicted to the buzz anymore – we’re avoiding the effects of withdrawal.
And so I’ll take it one step at a time by cutting out my afternoon cup.... Since I’m not going to write a book about it, and a blog post won't lead to financial gain or fame.
At least it hasn’t yet.
