i’m sure you heard the news: national coffee day. how did i celebrate? by kicking the stuff.
i have memories of being a kid and asking, no begging, for a cup of coffee. it just seemed so very grown up. i’d do whatever i could to sneak a sip and as i recall my dad’s and his mother’s the be the most tempting (they were the only two who took sugar.)
present day, coffee and i have a very casual relationship and i rely more on being the one who has to buy the toilet paper to make me feel like an adult. i usually pick up a starbucks or two on weekends, though lately i’ve been craving it in the evenings as well. when my naturopath asked me, i told her i average two cups a week. my attachment to coffee is solely flavour based. i’ve never found coffee to serve me as a stimulant. it doesn’t wake me up nor does it keep me so. the only effect that i really notice is dehydration.
*however* on my recent vacation i got into the habit of making myself a cup of coffee shortly after waking. after i started doing it every day, that cup began to turn into two, sometimes three and i began to notice a couple of things. one: if i drank coffee, i was more likely to skip a meal or a few. no good. two: on more than one occasion, it turned me into a basketcase. sure, maybe it was the lack of food, but i found myself hyperemotional and a wee bit irrational. on the healthier living front, neither were good news. when i reported the sensitivity issue, my naturopath suggested the blame falls on the adrenaline that results from the caffeine. sure, my (former) naturopath has been coaxing me to quit it long ago. the only thing she dislikes more than coffee is decaffeinated coffee. my experience coupled with hearing the new girl tell me the same thing gave me pause for thought.
it’s not going to be easy. even today, i contemplated convincing myself that it would be okay to have one last cup just to honour java day, but sided with the no time like the present philosophy. besides, it didn’t really gel with my 21 days to health endeavour.
speaking of…day three’s challenge is to go to bed fifteen minutes early. gotta run! but before i do…here’s a little diy something about coffee i ran across while reading up on its effects throughout the day.
i’ll take my coffee to go…um, where exactly?
that’s definitely a place further down the healthy path than i’ve ventured to date. your thoughts?
the day to follow your heart 
There’s been plenty of papers and research outlining the healthy benefits of coffee and tea consumption and, barring negative reactions that some people have (such as yours), I’m inclined to believe that consumption thereof is mostly helpful in the right quantities. Of course, for you — it sounds like you’re making a good decision if it has such negative effects.
Coffee for me is a two-fold relationship that has little to do with the above:
First, for me it DOES act as a stimulant and, because I get so little sleep these days, it’s a bolster to my lifestyle’s effectiveness. Since I have dropped all soda from my life, I need something with enough punch to keep me going. I know, I know…sleep would be better, right? It’s simply not resolvable at the moment if I want to be a good employee and a good father. So we’ll go with this for now.
Second, coffee is one of those emotional and psychological things that, when I’m experiencing a good cup in the company of friends in a relaxing setting, adds a myriad of good feelings and happiness to my life. I remember grabbing a cup of extra-strong coffee on mornings while in my senior year of college and then collapsing into an armchair alongside my friends, watching CNN on low volume while we all woke up. It made me so happy sometimes I’d almost giggle into my cup. Likewise, many-a times have been spent on a comfortable couch in a coffee shop having in-depth conversations with friends — it is still my preferred venue and fun activity, especially if the other person is intellectually engaging. (I don’t get to do this often, but wish I could. An open invite to you for this anytime, QC.)
So for these two reasons, unless my coffee input reaches the levels and harm that my soda input did, I’m not inclined to drop it just yet.
yeah, i think i’m lucky that its so ineffective on me. i never had to need it, i had the luxury of only wanting it. 🙂
i want to hear about your soda experience. perhaps over that *hot beverage* i’m traveling to iowa for.
studies are studies. there’s one out there to tell you anything you want. i guess since we have so much for access to information now, that’s becoming more and more obvious. for example, i read one yesterday that found that ten (10!) cups of coffee were found to significantly increase creativity. evidently, it’s a fact, but, given that you an i agree on the concept of moderation, not a recommendation. (i should hope!)
you’re right about the memories that coffee instills. i even opened with one, right? i certainly hope i can make do just as well with a steaming cup of tea!
10 cups significantly increase creativity? I would hope so! LOL. However, after 10 how could you possibly get anything productive done. Two make me pee every 20 minutes. I digress….
Funny I should be reading this post now. I never make coffee, other than the morning time. What did I just do? Made coffee. It sounded good. Not because I need a pick me up, but because it sounded good. I figured it beat eating something after dinner. It led me to think if I could without my 2 cups in the AM hours. I suppose I could. Years ago I think I went 6 months without drinking coffee. Not sure how, not sure why. From time to time I have wondered if kicking coffee to the curb, as a daily habit, could improve my health factor that I am aiming to reach. Potentially worth exploring, even more so now knowing how much I enjoy tea. It definitely curbs my appetite first thing when I wake up.. i enjoy it before breakfast as eating with coffee kinda grosses me out (just as I don’t know how people can eat chocolate and drink soda at the same time). What I’m getting to is that I don’t know if I use it as a pick me up, or more of an appetite suppressant. Experimentation is necessary.
As for the link you posted? Ha. Immediately when I started reading I thought to myself “um. no. thanks.” but then after reading on, I leaned a little more towards the possibility side of ‘testing the waters’. Definitely an interesting thought.
Just out of curiosity.. why does you Naturopath dislike decaf more than caf? Did I read that correctly?
you read it right. she told me that the chemical requirements to remove the caffeine from coffee are more harmful than the caffeine would be in the first place. in her words “if you really feel like you need a cup of coffee, just have the real stuff. it’ll be better for you.”