Friday, January 14, 2011

Un-Caffeinated

Mmmmmm..... soda. Pop. Coke.

Call it by any other name but it still tastes as sweet. (Although technically I am a Pepsi girl.)

My church always starts out the new year with a fast, and this year I decided to give up pop for the 21 days. Now, I need you to understand that I am completely and utterly addicted to caffeine, but I only get it through drinking soda. I have been known to put a shot of coffee in my hot chocolate if I need a jolt before lunch, but otherwise it's Coke or Pepsi all the way.

So when I decided to give it up, I wasn't sure how well it would go. My office has a fountain soda machine, so they're pretty much saying "Here, why don't you just drink Cherry Coke for 4 straight hours?" And sadly, I often did.

The first week of the fast I had the hot chocolate-coffee, I had iced tea, but because I am not a very big fan of either, I only really had enough to keep the headaches away. I am a big fan of iced chai lattes but since I'm not entirely sure how to make them and I try not to go to Argot Tea too often, I've only gotten it on a couple "oh my goodness I only got 3 hours of sleep and I will pass out of I can't get caffeine" days.

The upshot is that not only am I not drinking pop, but I'm also slowly weaning myself off of caffeine. Hooray!

And I've found a few interesting facts about how I use Coke during the day, because the first week of the fast all I did was snack. Candy here, a bagel there... I realized that I was getting pop often just because I was bored, or needed a break from work, or was particularly annoyed about something and wanted to drown my feelings in sugary, bubbly goodness.

So this week (I am almost done with week 2) I brought in snacks--healthy ones. I have a banana for the morning, a pear for the afternoon, and yogurt for right after lunch. And I've found that I don't need to make the hot chocolate-coffee in the morning. It's really amazing how eating fruit (and drinking more water, we mustn't forget that) really raised my levels of awake-ness. And without that sugar crash later.

And here's a fun added side benefit--I seem to be more flirtatious when I'm not drinking soda. Ok, I know that makes like zero sense. But I realized one day that I had flirted with like 3 guys! And not for any purpose, just because. It was so much fun! Perhaps I should take this un-caffeinated self of mine out to a bar or speed dating or something. Who knows what could come of it. :)

Now I will be honest. On the 22nd I will very likely crack open a can of Pepsi and spend a magical 5 or 10 minutes drinking it. But it is good to know I can, in fact, live without it.

7 comments:

  1. Most random comment ever, but I am totally drinking a hot chocolate with a shot of espresso right now.

    I've never been a big soda drinker, but I give you props for sticking with it. A good friend used to drink 2-3 2 litres a day and when she finally kicked the habit (thanks to her dentist for scaring her with what it was doing to her teeth) she said it was the hardest thing she's ever done.

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  2. I quit soda last year and haven't turned around! Good for you for taking the 21 day fast and realizing why you are drinking soda.

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  3. Good for you! Realizing what soda did for you is pretty smart. I say you try green tea and continue to get your FLIRT on! LOL

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  4. Congrats on being able to give up pop. I'm not sure if I could have done it.

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  5. LOL! I can quit too if I want. I just don't want to...

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  6. i love pepsi too...i can only give it up for so long then have to have it! for at least a couple days anyways.....i don't understand the whole flirting without caffeine....yes weird...should be the opposite but life is funny sometimes!:) haha

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  7. I will definitely encourage my husband to stay on the caffein if it means that he's going to flirt with other women! LOL

    Congrats on your fast - and being stronger than the caffeine! I typically use it as a comfort drink in the middle of the day - like a cheer leader saying, "You can do it" - but then that's giving caffeine more credit than it deserves!

    Are you going to stay off it?

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