Status Quo in the Caffeine War

My caffeine intake Thursday was about average: four 20oz bottles of diet soda. But I drank water with lunch, and I drank a 20oz Gatorade G2 in the afternoon. And I once again resisted the urge to have a can of diet soda in the evening.

Caffeine is still my enemy.

Setback in the Caffeine War

Wednesday was not a great day in the Battle Against Caffeine. I drank five 20oz bottles of diet soda at work - two in the morning and three in the afternoon. Ouch. I did have 20oz of water with lunch, but I also had some regular Coke with supper.

Just not a good day.

In my past attempts to kick the caffeine habit, this kind of day makes me want to give up. But this time is different.

Caffeine is the enemy.

Caffeine is the enemy.

The Caffeine Battle Begins

I've had mixed results so far in my efforts to kick caffeine.

On the way to work Monday morning I didn't have time to stop at the convenience store to look for Caffeine-Replacement Liquids (CRLs), so I ended up having a couple of 20oz bottles of diet soda in the morning. After lunch, though I bought a bottle of Gatorade G2 and a fruit-punch flavored drink whose name I forget. I ended up drinking three bottles of diet soda at work, which is less than usual.

On Tuesday, I backslid a little - I drank four 20oz bottles of diet soda. But on the plus side, I made an effort to drink more water. Considering I haven't been drinking much water at all at work, the 40oz of water I drank today was an improvement.

And Tuesday evening, I resisted the urge to have a can of diet soda. As if I don't drink enough caffeine at work.

Even if I don't regularly buy any CRLs, I can always fall back on water.

The Beginning of the End of My Caffeine Addition

At the beginning of 2008, I stopped regularly drinking regular soda, switching to diet soda (Diet Coke, Diet Dr Pepper, and Diet Mt Dew). That cut back on my sugar intake quite a bit, and that was a good thing. But I was surprised by the effect of caffeine without the sugar. I was hungry much earlier in the morning compared to when I was drinking the sugar-laced sodas, and the caffeine "highs" were much more pronounced. It was like in the past the caffeine burned up the sugar, each almost negating the other, and when I switched to diet the caffeine had free rein.

Even though I know too much caffeine makes me irritable and upsets my stomach, I still crave it. I look forward to getting to work so I can start drinking caffeine. It's gotten to the point that I almost always have a diet soda in front of me.

I've tried a couple of times to cut back on the caffeine or stop altogether, but I have not succeeded. I tried Caffeine-Free Diet Code, but that didn't last - it didn't taste right at all (I know a lot of people say that about "regular" diet, but I could tell a difference), and it made me feel even more dehydrated. I've tried low-sugar drinks like Vitamin Water and Gatorade G2, and I was able to make some progress with them, but it didn't last. The diet soda is too easily found; if I don't have time to get anything else, I can always fall back on diet soda - and I fall back on it I gladly will.

I need to make a change. I realize this will take some time, but I'm sure it will be worth it.

So I've started searching for ideas that will help. I did some searching and came across a posting on Dumb Little Man about How to Give Up Coffee and Caffeine Altogether. It says to slowly replace coffee with caffeinated tea and to slowly move to decaffeinated tea. I'm not sure how well that will work for me because coffee isn't my main problem. I've noticed that simply making sure that I have a bottle of water in front of me helps - I'm used to having something to drink in front of me. But I don't think I can simply switch to water because I need something to replace the taste as well. Maybe the tea idea won't work for me, but I should be able to find something that will work for me.

Tomorrow morning I will look for something at my normal convenience store that might eventually replace diet soda.

It's the beginning of the end for caffeine and me.