Making the Most of Midlife: seven days without coffee

Showing posts with label seven days without coffee. Show all posts

Friday, September 28, 2012

Challenge Me!!

I enjoyed challenging myself to the Seven Days Without Coffee and documenting the process very much. So much, that I'm already thinking ahead to the next challenge! I have a few ideas of my own; such as 7 Days Without Sugar, 30 Days of Exercise, or 7 Days Without Gluten. But I could use your help!

What should I challenge myself to next?

Please leave your reasonable challenge ideas in the comments.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Seven Days Without Coffee: Complete!!

Yah!! I did it! I went seven whole entire days without coffee! (I know!! I'm still amazed I didn't cave too!) What better way to celebrate than....

with a hot steaming cup of coffee, of course!!

I invite you all to share a cup along with me. I am having a nice dark roast with plenty of half & half, a little sweetener, and a dash of pumpkin syrup.

Oh, how I have missed you!!

Read more of "Seven Days Without Coffee" Here:

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Seven Days Without Coffee: Makes One Weak

Day Seven has finally arrived! Seven days without coffee is almost complete! I can't believe I have come to the end of this short but challenging journey.

credit: www.zazzle.com

I can almost taste the dark, rich cup of delicious caffeine now. I will probably spend the night dreaming in anticipation of returning to my one true vice. If I sleep at all. Would it defeat the entire purpose if I got up at midnight to enjoy a ~~cup~~ pot?

What was the point you may ask? Um... well...

I was a teeny tiny bit concerned about my reaction to the very thought of doing it. Seemed like a little red flag. So, this was mostly just to prove to myself that I could. That I had the will power to walk away from it.

And I did!! :0)

Tomorrow, tomorrow - I love ya tomorrow!

Read more of "Seven Days Without Coffee" Here:

Monday, September 24, 2012

Seven Days Without Coffee: Gets Some Help

Over the weekend the male offspring was congested and miserable. I thought it was allergies. Until the grand baby woke up this morning stuffy, sneezy, and coughing. He won't let his mommy out of his sight. As the day has progressed, the congestion and sneezing have moved into my head.

The bright side of this is that when I am not feeling well, I prefer tea to coffee. This makes it pretty easy to go without coffee today. A nice cup of peppermint or chamomile tea is very comforting when you don't feel well. Which makes the cold/allergy/whatever thing I have going on work in my favor when it comes to making it through the last two days of the Seven Days Without Coffee.

I'd rather have a pumpkin latte than a head full of snot. Just saying...

Read more of "Seven Days Without Coffee" Here:

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Seven Days Without Coffee: Gets Ugly

I am a little on edge. A tad testy. Easily annoyed. A tiny bit moody. A wee temperamental. I am also reaching an all time excellence in understatements.

Day five. I think I am bordering on evil. As in a "wicked witch of the west" level. Anything might set my blood boiling. Someone mentioning the chocolate bundt cake I promised to bake for dessert and had not yet started. The dirty dishes in the sink. The dog loudly licking of his personal areas. Like I said... anything.

I fear there may be a few chips in the dishes from where I was banging them around earlier because... well, because... well, I'm sure I had a good reason at the time! Or maybe not. Maybe it was just my caffeine deprived demon taking over.

I fully realize some of this internal emotional stewing could be hormonal. There's another lesson learned.

Lesson Three: Carefully consider the timing of your seven days without coffee. Make sure they do not at some point overlap with your PMS days. The two can create a very unstable combination.

I can almost feel the man of the house thinking about sitting on me and pouring coffee down my throat. And to be perfectly honest with you - I probably wouldn't protest a whole lot.

Two more days... Two more days... two more days...

Read more of "Seven Days Without Coffee" Here:

Seven Days Without Coffee: Coffee Dreaming

Day Four had me missing coffee. Thinking of coffee. Dreaming of coffee. Longing for coffee. Day Four was a tough one. But I made it. The half way mark had been accomplished!

I have to confess something. I went and took advantage of World Market's 3 hour Buy One, Get One sale on coffee. Like the squirrels stashing away the acorns for winter, I was stocking up for the day when I will once again return to the dark pleasure of coffee.

Read more of "Seven Days Without Coffee" Here:

Friday, September 21, 2012

Seven Days Without Coffee: Dazed and Confused

Day Three. And my brain is just not functioning like it should. (stop snickering! This is potentially serious stuff here!)

Today the man of the house sent me an email and mentioned that when we went to the store he wanted to get a "bball net". I'm wondering what sort of baseball net he could mean. (to my credit he is playing fall softball right now) It took about 5 emails back and forth before he clarified a "basketball net" before I realized he meant a net for the basketball goal! Yes, I felt silly.

I tried to do the very simple task of making some hair bows for Queen B's Busy Work today. I couldn't even seem to focus and manage that this afternoon.

Last night, the female offspring and I were about half way to church for The Gathering before we realized I had left the tickets on the front of the fridge. After coming back home to get them, we got all the way to church before realizing I had also left the bag of items to donate to the women's homeless shelter!

If you only knew how many times I have had to hit the backspace button in the course of writing this! (twice in that last sentence alone!) I'm not a great speller on the best of days, but today my fingers do not want to obey and are just typing letters at random.

And I think I forgot to eat breakfast this morning.

I was going to say something else, but it's slipped my mind...

Read more of "Seven Days Without Coffee" Here:

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Seven Days Without Coffee: Is Ironic

I had to chuckle at the irony. Day Two of the "Seven Days Without Coffee" challenge began with me sipping tea out of a cup clearly labelled to be used for coffee.

It was my own way to trying to mentally trick myself. I see the cup sitting there and think "Mmmm... coffee!" Pick up the cup, take a big sip. Not coffee.

Read more of "Seven Days Without Coffee" Here:

Thankful Thursday: September 20

This week I am thankful for:

The Gathering: Wednesday I had the honor of working with some lovely women to help do some prep work for the event. Today I am grateful for the opportunity to join other women in an evening of worshipping and learning about our Lord! And that the female offspring agreed to go with me!

Sleeping In: I gave myself permission to sleep in a little this morning. I slept until almost 8:00 and it was wonderful! Even if I feel a little guilty sleeping in while the Man of the House went about his morning and got the male offspring off to school.

Tea: It's the only thing keeping me sane and functioning during the Seven Days Without Coffee

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Seven Days Without Coffee: Is Off To A Rough Start

In case you were wondering, lack of coffee has not killed me (yet). And on an even more positive note: I have not yet killed anyone else either. I had a lovely pot of English Breakfast tea this morning, while the siren song of the coffee brewing for the Man of the House called out to me. As I left the house, my travel mug was full of chamomile. It wasn't bad. It also wasn't coffee.

However, I'm only this far into day one, and I have learned a couple of important lessons.
Lesson One: Never, ever... seriously I mean NEVER... start a coffee detox on the morning you have to get up extra early to go do mind-numbing volunteer work. Seriously, if there was ever a task that needed a caffeine jolt it is stuffing info/goodie bags and rolling forks into napkins before 9am.

Lesson Two: On the first day of your coffee detox, do not under any circumstances make a run into the grocery store with the Starbucks counter right at the entrance.

Right now I have a nagging thumping behind my left eyebrow. I'm starting to feel extremely run down and tired. And my shoulders are getting tight. I believe this is a signal to sit down and have another cup of tea. Something caffeinated.

Read more of "Seven Days Without Coffee" Here:

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Seven Days Without Coffee: The Challenge

After viewing The Belle of the Carnival's video blog about her week without coffee, the question kept running through my mind: Could you go a week without coffee?

Now, of course my first response was: Nope... No... No way... Not a chance!

Which made me start wondering about other things. Such as: Is it really bad that I had a strong reaction to the idea of a week without coffee? Is that actually a sign that I need to go a week without coffee to detox myself from it's rich delicious caffeiney goodness? (yes, caffeiney is a word. If it's not - well, I just invented it)

After much mental wrestling over these questions (and a few others, most of which are not related to this story), I decided to give it the ol' college try.

I checked the tea stash. (What? I'm not crazy. I have no intention of facing caffiene detox headaches without some sort of backup!) A nice collection of Earl Gray, English Breakfast, Chamomile, Peppermint, and various herbals? Check. Local sourwood honey and sugar? Check. It seemed as if all the pieces were already in place; as if the universe were saying: Go ahead. You can do this. Go for it.

So, tomorrow begins my challenge: Seven Days Without Coffee. Which yes, I fully intend to document right here for your reading pleasure.

Will I survive? Will those around me?

You can read more of the Seven Days Without Coffee Series here: