I love coffee. I mean...I really love the stuff....ever since I was a kid. I can remember the first time I was allowed to have a small cup and there was some little part of my brain that lit up and sent out the message "this is good, more, more". I was hooked!
Coffee has been my friend through most of my life. Settled the symptoms of ADHD when I was very young (or what we use to call being a normal kid). It kept me awake for classes when I was older. Alert standing watch on the freezing deck of a ship when older still. Gets me going and keeps me going at work during the week. I drink a lot of coffee...all through the day. I am not a very pleasant person before I've downed at least two cups in the morning. I have an understanding wife that gives me wide berth until I'm sufficiently caffeinated.
But all that coffee is screwing up my digestion. I walk around a good part of the day with a faint gut-ache. I'm also thinking that it may cause some headaches as well as a bit of ringing in my ears. Of course, this is part of old age as well, but I think that my intake of at least 3 pots of coffee every day (there, I said it, that's about 30 cups, jeeze) probably aggravates these symptoms.
What to do, though? I can't quit cold turkey. In the first place, I actually like the taste of coffee. I even have a tub of coffee flavored ice cream in the fridge right now. In the second place, that little part of my brain which originally lit up so many years ago is still there. Stop the supply of caffeine and it gets really nasty. It's not fooled by decaf either; it just gets even meaner, as if my brain resents having tricks played.
So....I'm tapering off a bit. Limiting my consumption in the morning at at work. Substituting tea so that I don't get quite as high a dose of caffeine. Not giving it up, though.
2 comments:
I remember hearing some research that said that we only get the caffeine hit from the very first cup of coffee of the day and then spend the rest of the day seeking that hit again but it will not happen. So... just have the one cup and rightly cut down on the rest until you only have the one.
In the past I have cut out caffeine cold turkey - and I never had that much - and believe me it is not a pleasant thing.
A very small amount is no bad thing. Green tea can be really delicious if you give it a chance and with such good anti-oxidants too.
Good luck!
My daughter cut down by drinking weaker coffee. it's something you can do gradually.
You didn't mention sleeping - if I have coffee after 6 in the evening I lie awake half the night.
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