Well I never intended for this blog to be just about
vacations, house projects, or other events. This was also intended to be
commentary on my life or what I would talk about on the phone. Well, there isn’t
much I have done worth blogging about in the last few weeks but I still want to
post something. Talking on the phone yesterday, I think I found something worth
mentioning. Not something I have done, rather something I have not done in a
while.
I have stopped drinking coffee. For over a month now, I have
not been drinking coffee on a regular basis. I think that I have had two cups
since my vacation. Vacation was a good time to stop drinking coffee because I
normally drink coffee at work. I would bring a thermos of coffee from home
every morning and sip on it throughout the day.
I’ve been drinking coffee for years at all times of the day.
Doing the type of work I have done, many people drink lots of coffee because of
the irregular hours. Working nights, rotating shifts, weekends, holidays or before
sunrise, many people end up drinking coffee to stay awake or to wake up.
Eventually I was drinking coffee as more of a ritual than for anything else.
For a while in California when I was working the late shift, I would start
drinking coffee at 6:00 pm in the hottest part of the desert and finish the
shift with a full 32 oz can of Monster at 3:00 am. The Monster kept me awake
for the desolate hour-long drive home. All of that caffeine made me restless in
bed all morning long and I wasn’t getting good sleep. I eventually cut back and
was able to change positions at work so that I only needed a Monster once in a
while. Now I’m only drinking Monster on double shifts or when I get abruptly
called in to work. It is mainly so that I don’t crash my car on the drive home.
What made me want to stop drinking coffee? I had been
getting really bad headaches over the past year. I tried to change many
different variables in my life: drinking more water after working out, lowering
the brightness of computer screens, eating more after working out, and walking
around the office more instead of sitting for so long. The headaches would
normally come after a morning workout and were alleviated after taking sinus medication
and extra sleep. I thought that they came from lack of rest but I was trying
everything.
I have had some headaches since I have stopped drinking
coffee but they are less frequent and the longer I have gone without coffee,
the longer it has been since the headaches.
So now I am drinking tea to replace coffee as my work drink
ritual. I haven’t found a favorite tea yet but I know what I don’t like. I don’t
like strong flavors in tea and really don’t want anything with rose pedals. I
can’t take drinking teas that smell like potpourri. There were some
fruit-flavored teas we use for iced tea so I am trying some of those hot.
I still enjoy coffee, but I think that I will stick to
drinking coffee as a treat at breakfast in a restaurant.
