But I'll be honest, this whole thing bites it. Big time.
I had moments all day when I felt OK, when I was distracted by work or a phone call. Those moments quickly melted into feeling like a thousand pound weight was resting on the bridge of my nose or someone was pulling my brains out slowly through one of my ears.
Dramatic? Yes. But this is one of the side effects of caffeine leaving the body -- drama. The other is crabbiness. One more is an inability to focus on work, my mother, and small children, which is tough since those are three of the major components in my life. Oh yeah, and let's not forget looking like death.
While I was not concentrating on a conference call, I glanced over at a mirror hanging near my desk. I saw myself, eyes at half mast and mussed hair and a look of pitiful surrender on my face. If I had more caffeine in my system, I might have been startled. Instead, I was just too tired and felt too awful to care that I looked so tired and awful.
So I did what I do when the mirror mocks myvaliant efforts to be healthy and I closed up my laptop and took a nap. Please know that knocking off midday, even for lunch, is a rarity for me. So taking time to gobble a sandwich and gulp water, then fall into my bed for an hour is a big, big deal. Seriously, though, I felt that I could not go on another minute.
I woke up to my cell phone alarm feeling no better than I did when I fell asleep. Apparently, my body was that tired from the work of not consuming so dang much false fuel. Plus, my nap hair and wrinkled clothes seem to call even more attention to the bags under my eyes. If it was possible, I looked even worse than death after my supposed rest.
The good thing is, it was time for my final shot of half-caf for the day.
That got me through the last hour of work and picking up my son at preschool. I somehow scraped through dinner and his bedtime. I'd like to say I went to bed early, but I didn't. I'd like to report in that I put on extra eye cream and took a bath to ease the blegh-ness, but I didn't do those things either. Instead, I put a plea up on Facebook to all of my friends to kindly stop commenting on my decaffeinating status update about how much it sucks to give up coffee. Why do people have to do that?
Please, I begged them virtually, no more of your horror stories. Only positive vibes. Only cheers and regaling of what a cinch Day 3 is.
I got some words of encouragement back, which was just enough boost to get my awful-looking, tired feeling to bed. Only two thoughts made it through my weary brain before I fell sound asleep: I cannot wait to get that coffee pot cranking in the morning. And tomorrow, this better be a whole lot better.
And if it isn't, I hope at least I look like it is.
Now you 'fess up: Have you ever attempted to give up caffeine but quit as soon as it got tough?
Read more about my journey out of caffeine addiction:
[photo credit: Getty Images]
