I’ve decided to try, again, to give up caffeine. I had a very short-lived success a couple of years ago trying to do this. Giving up caffeine is a huge undertaking for someone like me, meaning someone who loves their pop (Dr. Pepper and Pepsi) and their caffeine. But I do this for the greater good.

In the past year or so I’ve started having the restless leg syndrome symptoms at night. I get a little jittery and my legs feel like they need to stay in motion to be comfortable. It literally becomes impossible to hold my legs still. Trust me, I’ve tried…when I force myself to hold still my legs begin to ache and hurt. It’s not pleasant at all. It makes it very difficult to go to sleep at night. It’s a vicious cycle. Legs get jittery at night, have trouble falling asleep…so you are awake later into the night, and you wake up feeling exhausted….so obiviously your first step in the morning is to grab another yummy pop to help you wake up! I also have a few other reasons for giving up caffeine….but I will not go into those at this time.

I’m pretty sure that stopping caffeine will significantly help me in the long run. I know that it will make me somewhat healthier as well. I type this as I am drinking a Dr. Pepper. Irony. My goal is to decrease my caffeine intake over a period of time. I’m not a big fan of the “cold turkey” method. My goal is to avoid the withdrawal symptoms. Headache, irritability, an inability to concentrate, drowsiness, insomnia and pain in the stomach, upper body, and joints. They do not sound fun. I’ve had my one caffeinated pop already today. For the rest of the day it will be caffeine free pop, water, juice or milk. I’m sure I’ll be in bed early today.

I’m looking into alternatives to replace my pop intake. I’ve started to explore hot tea. I had my first cup of hot loose leaf tea yesterday. While it was not the flavor explosion that pop is, it was not bad. The tea is called Snow Geisha White Tea from Teavana. I’ve been told that tea can be an acquired taste. So, every day after work I am going to have a cup of hot tea and see if it becomes something of a habit. Yes, I do know that some tea has caffeine in it. I’ve done some research, which I plan to share in another post. White tea has 1% the amount of caffeine in one cup of coffee. Right now I am exploring teas and learning about the different types. Here’s a picture of the Snow Geisha White Tea leaves. It smells like cherry!

I’ve been out of action the past several days. No work, no play, just lots of couch surfing. Last week I had a minor out-patient surgery. The surgery went well, everything came back normal and happy. I didn’t really have too much pain afterwards either. I’m back at work this week, taking it easy doing most of my work through email and phone calls. As hard as it was getting up and around Monday morning for work, it has been nice getting out of the house. Five days of nothing but the couch and netflix was starting to make me a little stir crazy.

Unfortunately, I won’t get to belt test in Taekwondo this month. I really don’t want to go another cycle as a white belt, but there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about that now. I’ll be out of Taekwondo for the remainder of April. I’m planning to try to start back first week in May. I’ll still be able to go and watch Dave do the classes until next cycle, at least I’ll be there even if I am not participating.

April is turning into a rather busy month. I had my surgery last week. This weekend I have a bridal shower to attend for one of my cousins. Next weekend we’ll be in Tulsa to celebrate several family member birthdays….including my mom’s and Dave’s birthdays. And then Friday the 29th is our cousin’s wedding. Busy, busy, busy month. Not to mention all the trips out to the house to see the building progress and take pictures.  The last time I was out there they had delivered the tubs and shower and had run the plumbing lines. I’m still waiting to see brick on site.

Now that I am getting back on my feet and back into a semi-normal routine, I plan to post more often. I just wanted to let everyone know I am still alive and to stay tuned for more to come.