good luck on your break

from a non-coffe/tea drinker

Having been through this myself, the best way is definitely to cut down gradually on a schedule over at least a month before cutting off your caffeine intake. This is important to avoid the worst of the withdrawal symptoms - in severe cases, those withdrawal symptoms can extend all the way to vomiting (voice of experience here).

I did this just to prove a point once - switched to tea, cut down over a month, and then went a year without coffee. No trouble with withdrawal symptoms that time around. You mention in the blog that some people recommend this, and I do too, at least for avoiding the physiological issues associated with withdrawal.

The point of switching drinks during cutting down is that for me at least, there wasn't a real addiction to overcome, but it was more one of breaking a habit.... changing your daily rituals around, all that jazz. Habits are powerful things, don't underestimate them

Rad wrote on Apr 29^th, 2008 at 4:56pm:

Yup. It's almost always easiest to do that by making a big change (even if it's only temporary) so that your wheels don't run in the old ruts at all for a little bit.

Rad wrote on Apr 29^th, 2008 at 4:56pm:

Gotta have 'em. Many of the things we do in our lives are serving a lot of functions in addition to their surface purpose too; the tea ceremony isn't just about the tea, the coffee break isn't just about the coffee but also about the break. I generally only take one meal a day, doesn't mean that I don't need lunch - just that I fill it with something other than eating, like browsing a bookstore or walking around a park.

Which of course is the complicating factor with making the big break you need to set new habits, you can't just leave a vacuum. Substitutes have their use because you still have to find a way to meet all the other needs your current behaviours were involved in satisfying.

Quote:

Sometimes I think it's a macho thing (stupidity) for me .. to see how much pain I can endure.

I am drinking a cup of tea right now. Today is day-5, I believe, and I got another headache a little while ago. Yesterday I was fine, more or less. Weird it returned today.

Quote:

Very cool, Nigel. Cool that you *do*, and cool than you *can*.

Alex v Kaam wrote on Apr 30^th, 2008 at 3:17am:

I worked 3-shift rotation while in Idaho, in the Navy. They have reactors out in the desert there, we trained on. When you're 20 years old, you can work anything.

Alex v Kaam wrote on Apr 30^th, 2008 at 3:17am:

Glad that works for you, but it seems so .. unnatural. Our ancestors, whoever they might be, didn't have alarm clocks.

Don't you think there is something to be said for following natures rhythms? (wake up with the light, sleep with the stars). Not that I do this myself, of course. My buddy, the Dog, made it a point to wake naturally, on his own, without an alarm clock. Have to go to bed early enough.

It's just that when I go camping for a few weeks, up in Yosemite, you really get into that groove, and can feel the therapeutic effect nature has on us, when we fall in line with it.

Your popping out of bed made me think of boot camp. We'd be dead asleep at 5AM, then hear a loud banging (trash can) .. then > "Drop you kocks and grab your socks! Rise and shine, your ass is mine!"

Some things we never forget.

Good point, or in this case » two.

No snooze button on *that* kitty.

I caved today and had a triple-espresso .. but plan to climb back up on the coffee wagon tomorrow.

i have nothing against the bean per se. it's just that i don't like feeling that anything has control over me .. aka addiction. so i periodically like to quit.

espresso actually has less caffeine than regular coffee cuz the beans are roasted darker which destroys more caffiene.

i went a week. =/