I am up early this morning, sipping a warm NON-caffeinated beverage. It is not what I want to be drinking because coffee is like soul food but for the first time in years, I think I have really quit the stuff. In the past year, I have sort of quit twice, even mentioning it on my blog before. But I usually always went straight to decaf which has a fair amount of caffeine and eventually always went back I think because I never felt like I really quit because I was still drinking this coffee like liquid everyday.

I have had a whole month with no coffee and only 3 cups of decaf and some of the results have been shocking. My concentration fares no better wtih caffeine…. And if anything my energy is more level and even throughout the day. It even has had the effect of stabilizing food and sugar cravings (by curbing insulin release). All of these things I like although I really do miss the taste like a mad woman, but the impact of caffeine on concentration is not enough to get me back to it right now.

What is harder are the mornings like now. I am still pretty out of it and stuffed up from my wonderful allergies and having a cup of joe would just perk me up instantly. I guess it gets your adrenals to release cortisol which is your fight and flight hormone so yeah, you get this little kick in the ass to “wake up because some shit is going down the houz” when really all you need to do is get online to check your email and read the news. But you are awake to do it! Now I just chill a little longer in the morning and I am ok…

It will be interesting to see how long I last on this regimen. Ultimately I quit because it caused me to sleep poorly which made me need coffee. I felt stuck in this childish catch 22 that I wanted to break. But life in grad school without coffee is not easy. The whole lifestyle here like in so many other places extends out of the black oil. And then of course when the ideas are not flowing or you are having writers block a little bit of the flight or fight hormone might seem like just the thing you need to get you over your hump…