Day four without caffeine
If you follow my short updates on Twitter or Facebook, you will now that I have given up caffeine on Saturday, and that I've been crippled by headaches ever since.
I knew my caffeine intake was way above sanity (about 10 cups a coffee and a couple of 500ml bottles of coke zero during the day, and two or three mugs of tea in the evening) and wanted to do something about it.
Knowing myself pretty well by now, I had a very good feeling that cutting down was going to involve a lot more energy than stopping altogether. After all, I failed every single attempt to cut down smoking, but when I went cold turkey five years ago, it worked and I have not smoked since.
So I started my Saturday with a mug of peppermint tea. Incidentally, I like peppermint tea, so it's not a big effort. I had a couple more cups during the morning, then at around lunchtime the headache started.
I must add at this point that I was also trying to cleanse and detox by trying out the Master Cleanse during the weekend, so I thought the headache was due to insufficient calories, or a reaction to maple syrup (Dr B. said it gives him headache).
However, by evening the Master Cleanse was out of the window, I ate and I drank and a darn good idea it was. But the headache was still there, I went to bed with it and I woke up with it too. It followed me all day on Sunday, laughed at the painkillers I threw at it, and again on Sunday night I fell asleep with the back of my head throbbing and sending discomfort down my spine.
Yesterday and today I have been feeling better, the headache is coming and going, I cannot put my finger on what makes it worse - but I have noticed that working out makes it disappear.
I am very surprised by my body's reaction to caffeine withdrawal, it feels oddly familiar and I recoil in horror because it is very similar to the first few days of each and every one of my (near-monthly) attempts to stop smoking. Is caffeine really that addictive? Or - shudder - am I allergic to peppermint tea instead?
Tuesday 24 June 2008 at 5:08 pm
beh non potrebbe essere che so il caldo o l'aria condizionata, gli sbalzi di temperatura, o semplicemente un po' di stress?
io ho abbandonato la caffeina tempo fa, in casa mia solo decaffeinato e anche fuori. sempre.
quando bevo una tazza di tè mi sento esplodere.
non mi fa granchè bene, devo ammettere.
però la caffeina secondo me fa solo male.
sicuramente fa malissimo, se presa nelle quantità che citavi.
direi che tutto sommato puoi tenerti il mal di testa altri due giorni e guadagnarne in salute nel lungo termine. ;)
ps
invidio da morire la tua capacità di smettere di fumare.
anzi, in realtà non si tratta di capacità, ma di voglia.
voglia incontrollata, intendo dire.
perchè le uniche volte che ho smesso di fumare per più di un mese è stato quando non avevo voglia di fumare, non perchè me lo fossi imposto.
Saturday 9 August 2008 at 9:47 pm
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Sunday 12 October 2008 at 5:20 am
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