Sunday, October 27, 2013

Caffeine.............Love It, Hate It............Do I need it?



Ever have one of those little Epiphany’s?........you know the one where you are doing something and all at once a thought flashes in your brain and you say “Whoa..........Maybe I should think about this further!” and then suddenly your brain goes into high gear and you start thinking of random things that have happened and they all validate your little Epiphany!

Several weeks ago I had just such a thought..............it was actually about 11:30 and I was heating a cup of coffee in the microwave. No it wasn't because I had forgotten the coffee and it had gone cold it was because my coffee pot only stays on for two hours and then shuts off...........and since the coffee in the pot had cooled down.........it meant I had been sipping on coffee for over two hours. I looked around and saw an empty Chicken Express cup from the day before – yes I do love their ice tea.

I have always been a “drinker”, meaning I have a drink all the time.............and it hit me that no matter what the drink was that I had in hand.............it had caffeine in it!

This lead me to the thought that I had spent half the night before out of bed dancing.............not fun dancing but “dancing” trying to get rid of a leg cramp that had woke me up in the middle of the night..............and this was not a new experience, I had been having leg cramps a LOT lately. My daddy's cure for leg cramps was to drink a big glass of water, and that was what I had done to finally get to sleep.

Recently I had also read an article that said that to much caffeine actually interfered with ones ability to concentrate................and I have to be honest in saying that I have really been having some problems doing that of late, to the point it has scared me a little.



I vowed right then and there that maybe it would be a good idea to cut back on my caffeine intact during the day light hours. Notice that I did not say Give Up caffeine..........face it folks I am STILL not ready to cut Coffee, Tea, or Cokes out of my life! Although I will say that the other day I looked at a can of Coke in my fridge and it dawned on me that I had not had one in several days.............splurge time! I popped the top............... (insert frowny face)........... it just didn't taste that good............. I didn't finish it and I haven't had one since.



Now there is a down side to all of this............yeah I know, everything has a downside. Yes I have had way more headaches than normal, I have been achy, tired, and yes pretty irritable............ I so do not tolerate things very well right now – but I have high hopes that THAT will get better!

I find it ironic that many of the Symptoms or Side Affects of Caffeine "overload" are the SAME as Caffeine Withdrawal!  

During this past month I am proud to say that I have conservatively cut my caffeine intact in half............and I have inserted WATER in it's place.............course at my age that means I have also doubled or tripled my trips to the bathroom but that is another story.

This past Friday I attended the Amarillo Women's Network Professional Development Luncheon, the speaker talked about stress and how to control your stress for a better life. And Oh My! She talked about CAFFEINE! In fact she even talked about a study where scientists feed spiders caffeine and photographed their webs...............



Scary right? What is really scary is that I looked at the Caffeine web and thought “that is exactly how my mind seems to work lately!”

Before that meeting was done I vowed that what I had cut in half.............was going to be cut in half again..............and BEFORE Thanksgiving!

Hope I still have some friends left by then....................and that I can pay my water bill!

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