Coffee Addiction

Things have been rough at work lately,  we are down one programmer and I am training a new one.  Plus we have the standard workload so I am pulling triple duty, to stay awake and peak performance I increased my Caffeine intake dramatically.   1 redbull plus 1 12 oz travel mug of coffee a day, to this last friday when my total consumption was 2 redbulls 48 oz of coffee and 2 16 ounce monster energy drinks.   I had to travel 250 miles work 12 hours and travel the 250 miles back.   My consumption had spiraled out of control to the point that I have another can of redbull in my work vehicle, "just in case".    So this weekend I decided to test my addiction and do a reboot.  I have not had anything more than decaf or green tea for the entire weekend.    I started with all of Saturday as drinking only water or only fruit juices.  by noon I had a pounding headache and felt like I had the flu.  By that evening I felt as if my brain stopped working and I could not focus on any task.   Yup, the addiction was strong in me.

Over the course of the past 4 weeks I have significantly abused myself to take on the additional workload.   Monday this stops,  I will miss deadlines, I will drop the ball, and I will do it happily.  I am not going to kill myself just to make a deadline promise that someone else made.  In 2014 I wanted to make some changes and increase the enjoyment out of life, I just did not realize how badly I was abusing myself with Caffeine.   Record your intake in a food diary over the course of a week, I only needed to see what I consumed in a single day and how I felt at the end oft hat day.   I was  yawning and feeling tired as I pulled into my driveway at 8:30pm....  Just a year previous I would have been bouncing off the walls for the next 10 hours with how much I consumed.

Look at your Intake and try a reset.  I am not kicking it out of my life, just trying to get it back down to sane levels.  1-2 cups in the morning only.  and something as an emergency if I need to stay awake driving home late at night.

Only 14 hours before I can have another cup....   And a search to find a decaf that doesnt taste bad.
Email Post

Comments

  1. Nathan LivelyJanuary 19, 2014 at 11:58 PM

    Tim, I feel your pain. I'm so jealous of those people that seem to be unaffected by caffeine. They don't get the highs, but they also don't get the terrible lows. Have you ever met someone that isn't allergic to poison ivy? It's fucking annoying.

    My addiction is so bad that if if I under consume, I'll get a headache. Some days I'll get in fights with people and realize that I'm just grumpy from caffeine withdraws.

    What you did to reset is such a good idea. Break the cycle. Did you know that some coffees have less caffeine? There's a local roaster, Scarlet City, who's coffee tastes great, and is much smoother, in terms of caffeine. My dad has switched to (hot) chocolate in the afternoon. My girlfriend Is taking a supplement called L-Tyrosine, which she really likes. She says she no longer craves caffeine when she wakes up in the morning. For myself, I just try to drink a little at a time, espresso style.

    Does decaf taste bad?? I can't remember. Let me know what you find out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nathan LivelyJanuary 20, 2014 at 12:07 AM

    Oh and one more thing! I wrote a nutrition article last year called Stealing Athlete Nutrition Techniques. What I found out was that athletes drink caffeine, but only once a day, because you can become desensitized and then you're just getting dehydrated. Here's the link: http://www.sounddesignlive.com/stealing-athlete-nutrition-techniques/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tim GrayMarch 29, 2014 at 12:52 PM

    I actually found that a couple of the Starbucks decaf options are not bad at all. their dark roast I cant tell that it is decaf.

    Luckily reduction by only drinking half caf (1/2 regular and 1/2 decaf) on friday, reducing to 1/4 on saturday and none on sunday makes a good weekly reduction to keep things feeling better.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment