I accidentally just had my first sip of coffee since the beginning of March. It was good. It’s not any kind of self-torture or penance. It’s not a cleansing diet. I just want to kick the habit for a bit then I’ll go back to it.

I told myself 3 months, no coffee.

Nothing too formal, not a big deal and I have some caffeine from pop or chocolate, though I’m not having anything like a whole cup of any caffeinated anything.

It was really easy after the first week. I hoped to try to move more towards being a morning person for a bit there. I’ve always been a night-owl and envied the way some people start the day and get stuff done for hours before I’m even conscious. Not so much at night, when they crash early and I keep moving until the wee hours. So I was getting the mornings in hand until I had to go to Germany for a week or so and the mornings haven’t come back since.

The no-coffee thing was surprisingly easy most of the time. The last week or so has suddenly gotten really tough though and I’ve thought about just dropping the idea since there’s no real benefit but to say I control that little bit of myself. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I know I’ll be a coffee drinker again on June 10 (twenty days from now, not that I’m counting) or if it’s some delayed addict thing.

If you believe the caffeine addiction thing, then I’ve been hooked for about as long as I remember. I drank Coke pretty much every day from at least grade 7 or so. In grade 11 I worked as a co-op student in an engineering group at a local manufacturing plant. My boss there got me started with coffee that was mostly milk. I think it made me fit in better as one of the group although a lot of what I did amounted to photocopies and errands.

High-school for me wasn’t any different than any other geek, with copious pop and going out for coffee with the same group I played Warhammer with. And after that was University. Every accounting of the cost of tuition for engineers should include the cost of coffee. I’d drink a whole pot to stay up all night cramming before exams.

Nothing really exciting or unique here, it bothers me sometimes that I feel like I depend on caffeine to function but I don’t worry about it except when I have a coffee in the evening to keep going and it makes no difference.

Oh yeah, that’s why I decided to take some time off. So my little experiment will be over soon and I think that writing it out reminds me that sometimes it’s worth doing something just because you said you would. Candace and I are at The Coffee Exchange and I got hot chocolate for myself and a mocha for her.

I accidentally sipped hers and it was awesome. No penance, no self-torture, just said I was going to take a few months off coffee and I am. I can’t help enjoying an accident though :) .

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